Puritans with long hair or long wigs.

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How long is long is probably the question. In any event, George Gillespie, whose portrait displays a bit of near shoulder-length hair, says the following in his English Popish Ceremonies (Part 3, chapter 9, [FONT=&quot]§[/FONT]5):
[FONT=&quot]As touching a man’s self, the law of nature teaches him that he should not live as a reasonless creature, but that all his actions should be such as may be congruous and beseeming for a creature endued with reason: Whereupon it follows, that he should live honestly and virtuously, that he should observe order and decency in all his actions, etc. Hence the Apostle says, that nature itself teaches that it is a shame for a man to have long hair (1 Cor. 11:14) because it is repugnant to that decency and comeliness which the law of nature requires. For, among other differences which nature has put between men and women, this is one, that it has given to women thicker and longer hair than to men, that it might be as a veil, to adorn and cover them.[FONT=&quot][1][/FONT] The reason whereof, nature has hid in the complexion of a woman, which is more humid than the complexion of a man. So that, if a man should take him to this womanish ornament, he should but against nature transform himself (in so far) into a woman.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][1][/FONT]Paraeus, Com. in illum locum. [Cf. Ad Corinthios priorem (1609) col. 699.]
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One would presume then that when men of the era had shoulder length hair it was regarded as 'short' and when women had hair down their lower back area it was regarded as 'long'. I suppose the cultural sense of long and short has been adjusted. Back then men may have looked rather strangely at men with crew cuts, I suppose it just wouldn't have been that easy to do. Also the association with the look of a convict, or someone about to go to the gallows (head totally shorn).

Maybe they'd regard my wife's just below shoulder length hair as not long enough!?
 
NaphtaliPress said:
How long is long is probably the question.
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Indeed! For instance, I look at most guys - men who by society's standards have short hair - and I look at them like they're unkempt hippies. Hair should not touch the top of the ear, the collar of your shirt, and it should have a nice tapered appearance. ;) Anything else is long.
 
SolaScriptura said:
NaphtaliPress said:
How long is long is probably the question.
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Indeed! For instance, I look at most guys - men who by society's standards have short hair - and I look at them like they're unkempt hippies. Hair should not touch the top of the ear, the collar of your shirt, and it should have a nice tapered appearance. ;) Anything else is long.
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0-3 inches max tapered for all men.
 
Every man should have a shaved head, because it has to be shaved in our culture to be shorter than women's. I love legalism.
 
Richard Tallach said:
So these guys didn't think they had long hair, because the women of the day had longer hair?
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Thats how it was explained to me. A pastor told me that short hair on men did not come into fashion till the early 1900. Might of been due to WW1 and the army starting to cut hair shorter. As I said this was how it was explained to me. I do not know if it is true or not but made sense to me.
 
A pastor told me that short hair on men did not come into fashion till the early 1900
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This is the case, but it was as much turn of the century as 1914-18, although WWI may have helped later. The beards came off around the fin-de-siecle too. It would have been seen as modern, minimalist, undecorative and unfussy, unlike the previous Victorian styles.
 
DanielandRubenZwartman.jpg


Ruben and Daniel..... Two Presbyterians whom I love.

Randy2002.jpg


The PuritanCovenanter

(1Co 11:16) But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
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Ruben is the Godly one of the bunch.
 
puritanpilgrim said:
GI Barber has the best sermon I have every heard on the subject. He recieved his PhD. in hairology. He did a detailed study on every passage in the Bible regarding hair:

http://www.sharperiron.org/downloads/Podcasts/hairology.mp3
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Ha ha ha...I thought this was going to be a serious sermon, and only "hairology" was the joke. I love how he starts off talking about things like Luther rediscovering justification by faith, Calvin awakening us to the sovereignty of God, and so on. And then he says, "in the last third of the 20th century, the fundamentalists have finally made their contribution to the broad spectrum of theology. They have rediscovered the biblical doctrine of hair and made it a test of fellowship." But my favorite quote is shortly after that where he says, "we just have to stand by the position that we fundamentalists have been taking, because, listen, fundamentalists don't make stupid mistakes. We know this is right because that's what we've been preaching." Who can argue with that flawless logic?

I also learned little known facts like, "it's not so much the length of the hair, but the location of those hairs and the direction in which those hairs are pointing. Location and direction...that's the concept you've got to master." And if your hair is combed over in a "horizontal direction," that's "spiritual," but if it touches your collar then you have "ruined your fellowship with God." :lol:
 
Of course, as I'm sure you know, I was only teasing, Randy.

BTW I've been meaning to ask you: What is the reference for the William Symington quotation in your signature? I've Googled it before, but the only hits I get are some of your posts on PB threads!
 
It comes from my Pastor Dr. Roy Blackwood's Doctoral Thesis he Did about 50 years ago. He studied Dr. Symington's life very indepth. Dr. Symington mentored John G. Paton btw.
 
NaphtaliPress said:
Alexander Henderson, a contemporary but twice the age of Gillespe, had short cropped hair. At least according to Van Dyke.
View attachment 2011
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Yes. I was just wondering - out of interest - how those with hair that we might consider long e.g. Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie, John Owen, Matthew Henry, etc. accomodated themselves to this verse. Presumably they didn't believe that the Apostle's injunction was cultural, but they considered their hair to be relatively short compared to women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in their locales.
 
You might see the wiki aritcle I linked to; it explains why some of the Puritans grew there hair out in protest to the bishops. It would be an interesting study to see if any literature at that time covers the argumentation for that action. Nazarite vows, etc.
Richard Tallach said:
NaphtaliPress said:
Alexander Henderson, a contemporary but twice the age of Gillespe, had short cropped hair. At least according to Van Dyke.
View attachment 2011
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Yes. I was just wondering - out of interest - how those with hair that we might consider long e.g. Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie, John Owen, Matthew Henry, etc. accomodated themselves to this verse. Presumably they didn't believe that the Apostle's injunction was cultural, but they considered their hair to be relatively short compared to women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in their locales.
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Solomon Stoddard on wig-wearing preachers-- they looked "as if they were more disposed to court a maid, than to bear upon their hearts the weighty concernments of God's Kingdom."
 
I'm still waiting for Marrow Man to show up. Did he have a fitting for a new wig today? Such lovely powdered tresses. :lol:

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Berean said:
I'm still waiting for Marrow Man to show up. Did he have a fitting for a new wig today? Such lovely powdered tresses. :lol:

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While visiting his church this past Lord's day, I discovered to my shock and grief that he does not wear a powdered wig in the pulpit.
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Berean said:
I'm still waiting for Marrow Man to show up. Did he have a fitting for a new wig today? Such lovely powdered tresses. :lol:

avatar2159_6.gif
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I've decided to keep low and hide my wig on this thread. :lol:

Besides, don't you all know this was done away with in Christ? After all, all the best pictures we have of Him show Him with long hair ... :rolleyes:
 
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