IX. But lastly, the grand indisposition of mind inpeople to solid, serious, and heavenly meditations, by the almost continual, as well as pleasant rumination in their minds, of those various adventures they have been entertained with, which in the more youthful can never miss to inflame and animate their boiling and airy constitutions. (Job, xxxv. 13.) And in the rest of the common recreations of balls, masques, treats, cards, dice, &c. there are the like opportunities to promote the like evils. And yet further; how many quarrels, animosities, nay, murders too, as well as expense of estate and precious time, have been the immediate consequences of the like practices! In short, these were the ways of the Gentiles that knew not God, but never the practice of them that feared Him: (Eph. iv. 17-25:) nay, the more noble among the heathens themselves, namely, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Antisthenes, Heraclitus, Zeno, Aristides, Cato, Tully, Epictetus, Seneca, &c. have left their disgust to these things upon record, as odious and destructive, not only of the honour of the immortal God, but of all good order and government; as leading into looseness, idleness, ignorance, and effeminacy, the great cankers and bane of all states and empires. And the pretended innocency of these things steals away their minds from that which is better, into the love of them; nay, it gives them confidence to plead for them, and by no means will they think the contrary. But why? because it is a liberty that feeds the flesh and gratifies the lustful eye and palate of poor mortality: wherefore they think it a laudable condition to be no better than the beast, that eats and drinks but what his nature doth require; although the number is very small of such, so very exorbitant are men and women grown in this present age: for either they do believe their actions are to be ruled by their own will; or else at best, that not to be stained with the vilest wickedness is matter of great boasting: and indeed it is so in a time when nothing istoo wicked to be done. But certainly, it is a sign of universal impiety in a land, when not to be guilty of the sins the very heathens loathe, is to be virtuous, yes, and Christian too, and that to no small degree of reputation: a dismal symptom to a country! But is it not to be greatly blinded, that those we call infidels should detest those practices as infamous which people that call themselves Christians, cannot or will not see to be such, but gild them over with the fair titles of ornaments, decency, recreation, and the like? Well, my friends, if there were no God, no heaven, no hell, no holy examples, no Jesus Christ, in cross, doctrine, and life, to be conformed unto; yet would charity to the poor, help to the needy, peace amongst neighbours, visits to the sick, care of the widow and fatherless, with the rest of those temporal good offices already repeated, be a nobler employment, and much more worthy of your expense and pains. Nor indeed is it to be conceived, that the way to glory is smoothed with such a variety of carnal pleasures; for then conviction, a wounded spirit, a broken heart, a regenerate mind; (Prov. xviii. 14; Psalm li. 17; Matt. v. 4; Luke, vi. 25; Rom. ii. 7; Psalm xl. 8; Rom. vii. 22; Heb. xi. 13-16; Rom. i. 25-30;) in a word, immortality, would prove as mere fictions as some make them, and others therefore think them: no, these practices are for ever to be extinguished and expelled all Christian society. For I affirm, that to one who internally knows God, and hath a sense of his blessed presence, all such recreations are death; yea, more dangerously evil, and more apt to steal away the mind from the heavenly exercise, than grosser impieties. For they are so big they are plainly seen; so dirty, they are easily detected: which education and common temperance, as well as constitution in many, teach them to abhor: and if they should be committed, they carry with them a proportionable conviction. But these pretended innocents, these supposed harmlesssatisfactions, (Job, i. 4,) are more surprising, more destructive: for as they easily gain an admission by the senses, so the more they pretend to innocency the more they secure the minds of people in the common use of their evil consequences, that with a mighty confidence they can plead for them.
X. But as this is plainly not to deny themselves, (1 John, ii. 15-17,) but on the contrary, to employ the vain inventions of carnal men and women, to gratify the desire of the eye, the desire of the flesh, and the pride of life, (all which exercise the mind below the divine and only true pleasure, or else, tell me what does,) so be it known to be such, that the heavenly life and Christian joys are of another kind, as hath already been expressed: yea, that the true disciples of the Lord Christ must be hereunto crucified, as to objects and employments that attract downwards, and that their affections should be raised to a more sublime and spiritual conversation, as to use this world, even in its most innocent enjoyments, as if they used it not. But if they take pleasure in anything below, it should be in such good offices as before mentioned, whereby a benefit may redound in some respect to others: in which God is honoured over all visible things, the nation relieved, the government bettered, themselves rendered exemplary of good, and thereby justly entitled to present happiness, a sweet memorial with posterity, as well as to a seat at his right hand, where there are joys and pleasures for ever: (Job, xxxvi. 7; Psalm v. 12; Prov. x. 7, 11:) than which there can be nothing more honourable, nothing more certain, world without end.
1. Luxury should not be used by Christians, because of its inconsistency with the spirit of Christianity.—2. The cup of which Christ's true disciples drank.—3. O! who will drink of this cup!—4. An objection answered of the nature of God's kingdom, and what it stands in.—5. Of the frame of the spirit of Christ's followers.
1. Luxury should not be used by Christians, because of its inconsistency with the spirit of Christianity.—2. The cup of which Christ's true disciples drank.—3. O! who will drink of this cup!—4. An objection answered of the nature of God's kingdom, and what it stands in.—5. Of the frame of the spirit of Christ's followers.
I. But the luxury opposed in this discourse should not be allowed among Christians, because both that which invents it, delights in it, and pleads so strongly for it, is inconsistent with the true spirit of Christianity; nor doth the very nature of the Christian religion admit thereof. For therefore was it, that immortality and eternal life were brought to light, that all the invented pleasures of mortal life, in which the world lives, might be denied and relinquished: and for this reason it is, that nothing less than immense rewards and eternal mansions are promised, that men and women might therefore be encouraged willingly to forsake the vanity and fleshly satisfactions of the world, and encounter with boldness the shame and sufferings they must expect to receive at the hand of, it may be, their nearest intimates and relations.
For if the Christian religion had admitted the possession of this world in any other sense than the simple and naked use of those creatures, really given of God for the necessity and convenience of the whole creation; for instance, did it allow all that pride, vanity, curiosity, pomp, exchange of apparel, honours, preferments, fashions,and the customary recreations of the world, with whatever may delight and gratify their senses; then what need of a daily cross; a self-denying life; working out salvation with fear and trembling; seeking the things that are above; having the treasure and heart in heaven; no idle talking, no vain jesting, but fearing and meditating all the day long; undergoing all reproach, scorn, hard usage, bitter mockings, and cruel deaths? What need these things? And why should they be expected in order to that glorious immortality and eternal crown, if the vanity, pride, expense, idleness, concupiscence, envy, malice, and whole manner of living among the called Christians, were allowed by the Christian religion? No certainly; but as the Lord Jesus Christ well knew in what foolish trifles and vain pleasures, as well as grosser impieties, the minds of men and women were fixed, and how much they were degenerated from the heavenly principle of life, into a lustful or unlawful seeking after the enjoyments of this perishing world, nay, inventing daily new satisfactions to gratify the carnal appetites, so did He not less foresee the difficulty that all would have to relinquish and forsake them at his call, and with what great unwillingness they would take their leave of them, and be weaned from them. Wherefore to induce them to it, He did not speak unto them in the language of the law, that they should have an earthly Canaan, great dignities, a numerous issue, a long life, and the like: no, rather the contrary, at least to take these things in their course; but He speaks to them in a higher strain; namely, He assures them of a kingdom and a crown that are immortal, that neither time, cruelty, death, grave, or hell, with all its instruments, shall ever be able to disappoint or take away from those who should believe and obey Him. Further, that they should be taken into that near alliance of loving friends, yea, the intimate divine relation of dear brethren, and co-heirs with Him ofall celestial happiness, and a glorious immortality. Wherefore, if it be recorded that those who heard not Moses were to die, much more they who refuse to hear and obey the precepts of this great and eternal Rewarder of all that diligently seek and follow Him.
II. And therefore it was that He was pleased to give us, in his own example, a taste of what his disciples must expect to drink deeply of, namely, the cup of self-denial, cruel trials, and most bitter afflictions: He came not to consecrate a way to the eternal rest, through gold, and silver, ribbons, laces, prints, perfumes, costly clothes, curious trims, exact dresses, rich jewels, pleasant recreations, plays, treats, balls, masques, revels, romances, love-songs, and the like pastimes of the world: no, no, alas! but by forsaking all such kind of entertainments, yea, and sometimes more lawful enjoyments too; and cheerfully undergoing the loss of all on the one hand, and the reproach, ignominy, and the most cruel persecution from ungodly men on the other. He needed never to have wanted such variety of worldly pleasures, had they been suitable to the nature of his kingdom: for He was tempted, as are his followers, with no less bait than all the glories of the world: but He commanded to seek another country, and to lay up treasures in the heavens that fade not away; and therefore charged them never to be much inquisitive about what they should eat, drink, or put on, "because," saith He, "after these things the Gentiles," that know not God, "do seek;" (Matt. vi. 29-33;) (and Christians that pretend to know Him too,) but "having food and raiment, therewith to be content:" (1 Tim. vi. 11:) He, I say, that enjoined this doctrine, and led that holy and heavenly example, even the Lord Jesus Christ, bade them that would be his disciples take up the same cross, and follow Him (Luke, xiv. 26, 27, 33.)
III. O who will follow Him! Who will be true Christians?We must not think to steer another course, nor to drink of another cup, than hath the Captain of our salvation done before us: (Heb. ii. 10:) no, for it is the very question He asked James and John, the sons of Zebedee of old, when they desired to sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Matt. xx. 22.) Otherwise no disciples, no Christians. Whoever they are that would come to Christ, and be right Christians, must readily abandon every delight that would steal away the affections of the mind, and exercise it from the divine principle of life, and freely write a bill of divorce for every beloved vanity; and all, under the Sun of Righteousness is so, compared with Him.
Objection 1. IV. But some are ready to object, who will not seem to want Scripture for their lusts, although it be evidently misapplied. The kingdom of God stands not in meats, or in drinks, or in apparel, &c. Answer. Right; therefore it is that we stand out of them. But surely you have the least reason of any to object this to us, who make those things so necessary to conversation, as our not conforming to them renders us obnoxious to your reproach; which how Christian, or resembling it is of the righteousness, peace, and joy in which the heavenly kingdom stands, let the just principle in your own consciences determine. Our conversation stands in temperance, and that stands in righteousness, by which we have obtained that kingdom, your latitude and excess have no share or interest in. If none, therefore, can be true disciples but they that come to bear the daily cross, but those who follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Phil. iii. 10; 1 Pet. iv. 13; Tit. ii. 11-13; John, i. 9; Rom. vi. 6; Gal. ii. 20; v. 24; vi. 4,) through his baptism, afflictions, and temptations; and that none are so baptized with Him but thosewhose minds are retired from the vanities in which the generality of the world live, and become obedient to the holy light and divine grace with which they have been enlightened from on high, and thereby are daily exercised to the crucifying of every contrary affection, and bringing of immortality to light; if none are true disciples but such, as most undoubtedly they are not, then let the people of these days a little soberly reflect upon themselves, and they will conclude that none who live and delight in these vain customs and this un-christ-like conversation can be true Christians, or disciples of the crucified JESUS: for otherwise, how would it be a cross; or the Christian life matter of difficulty and reproach? No, the offence of the cross would soon cease, which is "the power of God to them that believe;" (Gal. v. 11; 1 Cor. i. 18;) that every lust and vanity may be subdued, and the creature brought into a holy subjection of mind to the heavenly will of its Creator. For therefore has it been said, that Jesus Christ was and is manifested, that by his holy self-denying life and doctrine, and by the immortality He brought, and daily brings to light, He might stain the glory of their fading rests and pleasures; (1 Cor. i. 27-29;) that having their minds weaned from them, and being crucified thereunto, they might seek another country, and obtain an everlasting inheritance: for "the things that are seen are temporal," (2 Cor. iv. 18,) and those they were, and all true Christians are, to be redeemed from resting in: but the things that are not seen are eternal; those they were, and all are to be brought to, and have their affections chiefly fixed upon.
V. Wherefore a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is to have his mind so conversant about heavenly things, that the things of this world may be used as if they were not: that having such things as are necessary and convenient, he be therewith content, without the superfluity ofthe world; (1 Tim. vi. 8;) whereby the pleasure that in times of ignorance was taken in the customs and fashions of the world, may more abundantly be supplied in the hidden and heavenly life of Jesus: for unless there be an abiding in Christ, it will be impossible to bring forth that much fruit (John, xv. 4, 7, 8,) which He requires at the hand of his followers, and wherein his Father is glorified. But as it is clear that such as live in the vanities, pleasures, recreations, and lusts of the world, abide not in Him, neither know Him, for they that know Him depart from iniquity; so is their abiding and delighting in those bewitching follies, the very reason why they are so ignorant and insensible of Him: Him who continually stands knocking at the door of their hearts; (Rev. iii. 20;) in whom they ought to abide, and whose divine power they should know to be the cross on which every beloved lust and alluring vanity should be slain and crucified; that so they might feel the heavenly life to spring up in their hearts, and themselves to be quickened to seek the things that are above; that when Christ shall appear, they might appear with Him in glory who is over all, God blessed for ever. (Col. iii. 1; Rom. ix. 5.) Amen.
1. The customs, fashions, &c. which make up the attire and pleasure of the age, are enemies to inward retirement.—2. Their end is to gratify lust.—3. Had they been solid, Adam and Eve had not been happy, that never had them.—4. But the confidence and presumption of Christians, as they would be called, in the use of them is abominable.—5. Their authors further condemn them, who are usually loose and vain people.—6. Mostly borrowed of the Gentiles, that knew not God.—7. An objection of their usefulness considered and answered, and the objectors reproved.—8. The best heathens abhorring what pretended Christians plead for.—9. The use of these things encourages the authors and makers of them to continue in them.—10. The objection of the maintenance of families answered. None must do evil, that good should follow: but better employments may be found more serviceable to the world.—11. Another objection answered: GOD no author of their inventions, and so not excusable by his institution.—12. People pleading for these vanities show what they are. An exhortation to the weighty and considerate. A great part of the way to true discipleship, is to abandon the school and shop of Satan.
1. The customs, fashions, &c. which make up the attire and pleasure of the age, are enemies to inward retirement.—2. Their end is to gratify lust.—3. Had they been solid, Adam and Eve had not been happy, that never had them.—4. But the confidence and presumption of Christians, as they would be called, in the use of them is abominable.—5. Their authors further condemn them, who are usually loose and vain people.—6. Mostly borrowed of the Gentiles, that knew not God.—7. An objection of their usefulness considered and answered, and the objectors reproved.—8. The best heathens abhorring what pretended Christians plead for.—9. The use of these things encourages the authors and makers of them to continue in them.—10. The objection of the maintenance of families answered. None must do evil, that good should follow: but better employments may be found more serviceable to the world.—11. Another objection answered: GOD no author of their inventions, and so not excusable by his institution.—12. People pleading for these vanities show what they are. An exhortation to the weighty and considerate. A great part of the way to true discipleship, is to abandon the school and shop of Satan.
I. Next, those customs and fashions, which make up the common attire and conversation of the times, do eminently obstruct the inward retirement of people's minds, by which they may come to behold the glories of immortality: who instead of fearing their Creator in the days of their youth, and seeking the kingdom of God in the first place, (Eccl. xii. 1; Luke, xii. 31,) expecting the addition of such other things as may be necessary and convenient, according to the injunctions of God and the Lord Jesus Christ; as soon as they can do anything, they look after pride,vanity, and that conversation which is most delightful to the flesh, (Jer. xviii. 18-20,) which becomes their most delightful entertainment: all which do but evidently beget lustful conceptions, and inflame to inordinate thoughts, wanton discourses, lascivious treats, if not at last to wicked actions. To such it is tedious and offensive to speak of heaven or another life. Bid them reflect upon their actions, not grieve the Holy Spirit, consider of an eternal doom, prepare for judgment; and the best return that is usual is reproachful jests, (Eph. v. 3, 4,) profane repartees, if not direct blows. Their thoughts are otherwise employed: their mornings are too short for them to wash, to smooth, to paint, to patch, to braid, to curl, to gum, to powder, and otherwise to attire and adorn themselves; (Psalm xii. 2; Isa. v.; xii.; lix. 3, 4;) whilst their afternoons are as commonly bespoke for visits and for plays; where their usual entertainment is some stories fetched from the more approved romances; some strange adventures, some passionate amours, unkind refusals, grand impediments, importunate addresses, miserable disappointments, wonderful surprises, unexpected encounters, castles surprised, imprisoned lovers rescued, and meetings of supposed dead ones; bloody duels, languishing voices echoing from solitary groves, overheard mournful complaints, deep-fetched sighs sent from wild deserts, intrigues managed with unheard-of subtlety; and whilst all things seem at the greatest distance, then are dead people alive, enemies friends, despair turned to enjoyment, and all their impossibilities reconciled: things that never were, nor are, nor ever shall or can be, they all come to pass. And as if men and women were too slow to answer the loose suggestions of corrupt nature; or were too intent on more divine speculations and heavenly affairs, they have all that is possible for the most extravagant wits to invent; not only express lies, but utter impossibilities to very nature,on purpose to excite their minds to those idle passions, and intoxicate their giddy fancies with swelling nothings but airy fictions: which not only consume their time, effeminate their natures, debase their reason, and set them on work to reduce these things to practice, and make each adventure theirs by imitation; but if disappointed,—as who can otherwise expect from such mere phantasms?—the present remedy is latitude in the greatest vice. And yet these are some of their most innocent recreations, which are the very gins of Satan, to ensnare people; contrived most agreeable to their weakness, and in a more insensible manner mastering their affections by entertainments most taking to their senses. On such occasions it is their hearts breed vanity, and their eyes turn interpreters to their thoughts, and their looks do whisper the secret inflammations of their intemperate minds; (Prov. vii. 10-21;) wandering so long abroad, till their lascivious actings bring night home, and load their minds and reputations with lust and infamy.
II. Here is the end of all their fashions and recreations, to gratify the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life: (1 John, ii. 15, 16:) clothes that were given to cover, now want a covering for their shameful excess; and that which should remind men of lost innocency, they pride and glory in: but the hundredth part of these things cost man the loss of Paradise, that now make up the agreeable recreation, aye, the accomplishment of the times. For as it was Adam's fault to seek a satisfaction to himself, other than what God ordained; so it is the exercise, pleasure, and perfection of the age, to spend the greatest portion of their time in vanities, which are so far from the end of their creation, namely, a divine life, that they are destructive of it.
III. Were the pleasures of the age true and solid, Adam and Eve had been miserable in their innocency,who knew them not: but as it was once their happiness, not to know them in any degree; so it is theirs, that know Christ indeed, to be by his eternal power redeemed and raised to the love of immortality: which is yet a mystery to those who live and have pleasure in their curious trims, rich and changeable apparel, nicety of dress, invention and imitation of fashions, costly attire, mincing gaits, wanton looks, romances, plays, treats, balls, feasts, and the like conversation in request: for as these had never been, if man had staid at home with his Creator, and given the entire exercise of his mind to the noble ends of his creation; so certain it is, that the use of these vanities, is not only a sign that men and women are yet ignorant of their true rest and pleasure, but it greatly obstructs and hinders the retirement of their minds, and their serious inquiry after those things that are eternal. O that there should be so much noise, clutter, invention, traffic, curiosity, diligence, pains, and vast expense of time and estate, to please and gratify poor vain mortality! And that the soul, the very image of divinity itself, should have so little of their consideration. What, O what more pregnant instances and evident tokens can be given, that it is the body, the senses, the case, a little flesh and bone covered with skin, the toys, fopperies, and very vanities of this mortal life and perishing world, that please, that take, that gain them; on which they dote; and think they never have too much time, love, or money to bestow upon them!
IV. Thus are their minds employed; and so vain are they in their imaginations, and dark in their understandings, that they not only believe them innocent, but persuade themselves they are good Christians all this while; and to rebuke them is worse than heresy. (Luke, viii. 14; Prov. i. 30, x. 17, xii. 1, xv. 14; Isa. lvii. 1-10; Jer. xvi. 19-21; Mat. vi. 7.) Thus are they strangersto the hidden life; and by these things are they diverted from all serious examination of themselves: and a forced zeal of half-an-hour's talk in other men's words, which they have nothing to do with, is made sufficient; being no more their states, or at least their intention, as their works show, than it was the young man's in the Gospel, that said, he would go, and did not. But alas! why? O there are other guests! What are they? Pharamond, Cleopatra, Cassandra, Clelia; a play, a ball a spring-garden; the park, the gallant, the exchange, in a word, the world. These stay, these call, these are importunate, and these they attend, and these are their most familiar associates. Thus are their hearts captivated from the divine exercise; nay, from such external affairs, as immediately concern some benefit to themselves, or needy neighbours; pleasing themselves with the received ideas of those toys and fopperies into their loose and airy minds; and if in all things they cannot practise them, because they want the means of it, yet as much as may be, at least to dote upon them, be taken with them, and willingly suffer their thoughts to be hurried after them. All which greatly indisposes the minds, and distracts the souls of people from the divine life and principle of the holy Jesus; but, as it hath been often said, more especially the minds of the younger sort: to whom the like divertisements (Jer. ii. 5,) (where their inclinations being presented with what is very suitable to them, they become excited to more vanity than ever they thought upon before,) are incomparably dearer than all that can be said of God's fear, a retired life, eternal rewards, and joys unspeakable and full of glory: so vain, so blind, and so very insensible are men and women, of what truly makes a disciple of Christ. (Rom. xiii. 11, 12; Matt. xv. 7-14.) O! that they would ponder on these things, and watch against, and come out of all these vanities, for the coming of theLord, lest being unprepared, and taken up with other guests, they enter not into his everlasting rest.
V. That which further manifests the unlawfulness of these numerous fashions and recreations is, that they are either the inventions of vain, idle, and wanton minds, to gratify their own sensualities, and raise the like wicked curiosity in others, to imitate the same; by which nothing but lust and folly are promoted: or the contrivances of indigent and impoverished wits, who make it the next way for their maintenance: in both which respects, and upon both which considerations, they ought to be detested. For the first licenses express impiety, and the latter countenances a wretched way of livelihood, and consequently diverts from more lawful, more serviceable, and more necessary employments. That such persons are both the inventors and actors of all these follies, cannot be difficult to demonstrate: for were it possible, that any one could bring us father Adam's girdle, and mother Eve's apron, what laughing, what fleering, what mocking of their homely fashions would there be! Surely their tailor would find but little custom, although we read, it was God himself that made them coats of skins. (Gen. iii. 21.) The like may be asked of all the other vanities, concerning the holy men and women through all the generations of holy writ. How many pieces of ribbon, and what feathers, lace-bands, and the like, did Adam and Eve wear in Paradise, or out of it? What rich embroideries, silks, points, &c. had Abel, Enoch, Noah, and good old Abraham? Did Eve, Sarah, Susannah, Elizabeth, and the Virgin Mary use to curl, powder, patch, paint, wear false locks, or strange colours, rich points, trimmings, laced gowns, embroidered petticoats, shoes with slip-slaps, laced with silver or silver lace, and ruffled like pigeons' feet, with several yards, if not pieces of ribbons? How many plays did Jesus Christ and his apostles recreate themselvesat? What poets, romances, comedies, and the like did the apostles and saints make, or use to pass away their time withal? I know, they bid all redeem their time, to avoid foolish talking, vain jesting, profane babblings, and fabulous stories; (Eph. v. 1-5, 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii. 16, 22; Matt. xxv. 13; Phil. ii. 12, 13; Col. iii. 1, 2, 5;) as what tend to godliness: and rather to watch, to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, to flee foolish and youthful lusts, and to follow righteousness, peace, goodness, love, charity; and to mind the things that are above as they would have honour, glory, immortality, and eternal life.
VI. But if I were asked, Whence came they then? I could quickly answer, From the Gentiles, that knew not God; for some amongst them detested them, as will be shown; they were the pleasures of an effeminate Sardanapalus, a fantastic Miracles, a comical Aristophanes, a prodigal Charaxus, a luxurious Aristippus; and the practices of such women as the infamous Clytemnestra, the painted Jezebel, the lascivious Campaspe, the immodest Posthumia, the costly Corinthian Lais, the most impudent Flora, the wanton Egyptian Cleopatra, and most insatiable Messalina: persons whose memories have stunk through all ages, and that carry with them a perpetual rot: these, and not the holy self-denying men and women in ancient times, were devoted to the like recreations and vain delights. Nay, the more sober of the very heathens themselves, and that upon a principle of great virtue, as is by all confessed, detested the like folly and wanton practices. There is none of them to be found in Plato, or in Seneca's works: Pythagoras, Socrates, Phocion, Zeno, &c. did not accustom themselves to these entertainments. The virtuous Penelope, the chaste Lucretia, and the grave Cornelia, with many others, could find themselves employment enough among their children,servants, and neighbours; they, though nobles, next to their devotion, delighted most in spinning, weaving, gardening, needlework, and such like good housewifery, and commendable entertainment: who, though called Heathens, expressed much more Christianity in all their actions, than do the wanton, foolish people of this age, who notwithstanding will be called Christians. But above all, you playmongers, whence think you, came your so passionately beloved comedies; than which, as there is not any one diversion that is more pernicious, so not one more in esteem, and fondly frequented? Why, I will tell you; their greatgrandfather was a Heathen, and that not of the best sort: his name was Epicharmus. It is true, he is called a philosopher, or a lover of wisdom; but he was only so by name; and no more in reality than the comedians of these times are true Christians. It is reported of him by Suidas, a Greek historian, that he was the first man who invented comedies; and by the help of one Phormus, he made also fifty fables. But would you know his country, and the reason of his invention? His country was Syracuse, the chief city in Sicily, famous for the infamy of many tyrants; to please and gratify the lusts of some of whom, he set his wits to work. And do not you think this an ill original? And is it less in any one to imitate, or justify the same, since the more sober Heathens have themselves condemned them? Nay, is it not abominable, when such as call themselves Christians, do both imitate and justify the like inventions? Nor had the melancholy tragedies a better parentage, namely, one Thespis, an Athenian poet; to whom they also do ascribe the original of that impudent custom of painting faces, and the counterfeit, or representation of other persons, by change of habit, humours, &c., all which are now so much in use and reputation with the great ones of the times. To these let me add that poeticalamoroso, whom an inordinatepassion of love first transported to those poetical raptures of admiration, indeed sordid effeminacy, if not idolatry; they call him Alcman or Alcina, a Lydian: he being exceedingly in love with a young woman of his own country, is said to have been the first person that gave the world a sight of that kind of folly, namely, love stories, and verses; which have been so diligently imitated by almost all nations ever since in their romances.
Objection 2. VII. I know that some will say, But we have many comedies and tragedies, sonnets, catches, &c. that are on purpose to reprehend vice, from whence we learn many commendable things. Though this be shameful, yet many have been wont, for want of shame or understanding, or both, to return me this for answer. Now I readily shall confess, that amongst the heathens it was the next remedy against the common vices to the more grave and moral lectures of their philosophers, of which number I shall instance two: Euripides, whom Suidas calls a learned tragical poet, and Eupolis, whom the same historian calls a comical poet. The first was a man so chaste, and therefore so unlike those of our days, that he was called one that hated women, that is, wanton ones, for otherwise he was twice married; the other he characters as a most severe reprehender of faults. From which I gather, that their design was not to feed the idle lazy fancies of people, nor merely to get money; but since by the means of loose wits the people had been debauched, their work was to reclaim them, rendering vice ridiculous, and turning wit against wickedness. And this appears the rather, from the description given, as also that Euripides was supposed to have been torn in pieces by wanton women; which doubtless was for declaiming against their impudence: and the other being slain in the battle betwixt the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, was so regretted, that a law was made, that never after such poets should beallowed to bear arms: doubtless it was because in losing him they lost a reprover of vice. So that the end of the approved comedians and tragedians of those times was but to reform the people by making sin odious: and that not so much by a rational and argumentative way, usual with their philosophers; as by sharp jeers, severe reflections, and rendering their vicious actions shameful, ridiculous, and detestable; so that for reputation sake they might not longer be guilty of them: which is to me but a little softer than a whip or a bridewell. Now if you that plead for them will be contented to be accounted heathens, and those of the more dissolute and wicked sort too, that will sooner be jeered than argued out of your sins, we shall acknowledge to you that such comedies and tragedies as these may be serviceable; but then for shame abuse not the name of Jesus Christ so impudently as to call yourselves Christians, whose lusts are so strong, that you are forced to use the low shifts of heathens to repel them: to leave their evils not for the love of virtue, but out of fear, shame, or reputation. Is this your love to Jesus, your reverence to the Scriptures, that through faith are able to make the man of God perfect? Is all your prattle about ordinances, prayers, sacraments, Christianity, and the like, come to this; that at last you must betake yourselves to such instructors as were by the sober heathens permitted to reclaim the most vicious of the people that were amongst them? And such remedies too as below which there is nothing but corporal punishment?
VIII. This is so far from Christianity, that many of the nobler heathens, men and women, were better taught, and better disposed; they found out more heavenly contemplations, and subjects of an eternal nature to meditate upon. Nay, so far did they outstrip the Christians of these times, that they not only were exemplary by their grave and sober conversation; but for their public benefitthe Athenians instituted the Gynæcosmi, or twenty men, who should make it their business to observe the people's apparel and behaviour; that if any were found immodest, and to demean themselves loosely, they had full authority to punish them. But the case is altered; it is punishable to reprove such: yes, it is matter of the greatest contumely and reproach. Nay, so impudent are some grown in their impieties, that they sport themselves with such religious persons: and not only manifest a great neglect of piety, and a severe life by their own looseness, but their extreme contempt of it, by rendering it ridiculous, through comical and abusive jests on public stages. Which, how dangerous it is, and apt to make religion little worth in the people's eyes, besides the demonstration of this age, let us remember that Aristophanes had not a readier way to bring the reputation of Socrates in question with the people, who greatly reverenced him for his grave and virtuous life and doctrine, than by his abusive representations of him in a play: which made the airy, wanton, unstable crowd, rather part with Socrates in earnest, than Socrates in jest. Nor can a better reason be given why the poor Quakers are made so much the scorn of men, than because of their severe reprehensions of sin and vanity, and their self-denying conversation, amidst so great intemperance in all worldly satisfactions: yet can such libertines all this while strut and swell for Christians, and strut it out against precept and example; but we must be whimsical, conceited, morose, melancholy, or else heretics, deceivers, and what not? O blindness! Pharisaical hypocrisy! As if such were fit to be judges of religion; or that it were possible for them to have a sight and sense of true religion, or really to be religious, whilst darkened in their understandings by the god of the pleasures of this world; and their minds so wrapped up in external enjoyments, and the variety of worldly delight: no, in the nameof the everlasting God, you mock Him, and deceive your souls; for the wrath of the Almighty is against you all, whilst in that spirit and condition; in vain are all your babbles and set performances, God laughs you to scorn; his anger is kindling because of these things: wherefore be ye warned to temperance, and repent.
IX. Besides, this sort of people are not only wicked, loose, and vain, who both invent and act these things; but by your great delight in such vain inventions you encourage them therein, and hinder them from more honest and more serviceable employments. For what is the reason that most commodities are held at such excessive rates, but because labour is so very dear? And why is it so, but because so many hands are otherwise bestowed, even about the very vanity of all vanities? Nay, how common is it with these mercenary procurers to people's folly, that when their purses begin to grow low, they shall present them with a new and pretendedly more convenient fashion; and that perhaps before the former costly habits shall have done half their service; which either must be given away, or new vamped in the cutmost à-la-mode. O prodigal, yet frequent folly!
Objection 3. X. I know I am coming to encounter the most plausible objection they are used to urge when driven to a pinch, viz. But how shall those many families subsist whose livelihood depends upon such fashions and recreations as you so earnestly decry? I answer: it is a bad argument to plead for the commission of the least evil that never so great a good may come of it: if you and they have made wickedness your pleasure and your profit, be ye content that it should be your grief and punishment till the one can learn to be without such vanity, and the others have found out more honest employments. It is the vanity of the few great ones that makes so much toil for the many small: and the great excess of the one occasionsthe great labour of the other. Would men learn to be contented with few things, such as are necessary and convenient, (the ancient Christian life,) all things might be at a cheaper rate, and men might live for little. If the landlords had less lusts to satisfy, the tenants might have less rent to pay, and turn from poor to rich, whereby they might be able to find more honest and domestic employments for their children than becoming sharpers and living by their wits, which is but a better word for their sins. And if the report of the more intelligent in husbandry be credible, lands are generally improvable ten in twenty: and were there more hands about more lawful and serviceable manufactures, they would be cheaper, and greater vent might be made of them, by which a benefit would redound to the world in general; nay, the burden lies the heavier upon the laborious country, that so many hands and shoulders as have the lust-caterers of the cities, should be wanting to the plough and useful husbandry. If men never think themselves rich enough, they may never miss of trouble and employment; but those who can take the primitive state and God's creation for their model, may learn with a little to be contented; as knowing that desires after wealth do not only prevent or destroy true faith, but when got increase snares and trouble. It is no evil to repent of evil: but that cannot be, whilst men maintain what they should repent of: it is a bad argument to avoid temperance, or justify the contrary, because otherwise the actors and inventors of excess would want a livelihood; since to feed them that way is to nurse the cause instead of starving it. Let such of those vanity hucksters as have got sufficient, be contented to retreat, and spend it more honestly than they got it; and such as really are poor, be rather helped by charity to better callings: this were more prudent, nay Christian, than to consume money upon such foolish toys and fopperies. Public workhouseswould be effectual remedies to all these lazy and lustful distempers, with more profit and a better conscience. Therefore it is that we cannot, we dare not square our conversation by the world's: no, but by our plainness and moderation to testify against such extravagant vanities; and by our grave and steady life to manifest our dislike, on God's behalf, to such intemperate and wanton curiosity: yea, to deny ourselves what otherwise perhaps we lawfully could use with a just indifferency, if not satisfaction; because of that abuse that is amongst the generality.
Objection 4. XI. I know, that some are ready further to object: Hath God given us these enjoyments on purpose to condemn us, if we use them? Answer: But to such miserable, poor, silly souls, who would rather charge the most high and holy God with the invention or creation of their dirty vanities, than want a plea to justify their own practice, not knowing how, for shame, or fear, or love to throw them off; I answer, that what God made for man's use, was good, and what the blessed Lord Jesus Christ allowed or enjoined, or gave us in his most heavenly example, is to be observed, believed, and practised. (Luke, viii. 14; xii. 28-31.) But in the whole catalogue the Scriptures give of both, I never found the attires, recreations, and way of living, so much in request with the generality of the Christians of these times: no certainly, God created man a holy, wise, sober, grave, and reasonable creature, fit to govern himself and the world: but divinity was then the great object of his reason and pleasure; all external enjoyments of God's giving being for necessity, convenience, and lawful delight, with this proviso too, that the Almighty was to be seen, and sensibly enjoyed and reverenced in every one of them. But how very wide the Christians of these times are from this primitive institution is not difficult to determine, although they make such loud pretensions to that most holy Jesus,who not only gave the world a certain evidence of a happy restoration, by his own coming, but promised his assistance to all that would follow Him in the self-denial and way of his holy cross; (John, viii. 12; xv. 7, 8; xvii. 20;) and therefore hath so severely enjoined no less on all, as they would be everlastingly saved. But whether the minds of men and women are not as profoundly involved in all excess and vanity, as those who know Him not any further than by hearsay; and whether being thus banished the presence of the Lord, by their greedy seeking the things that are below, and thereby having lost the taste of divine pleasure, they have not feigned to themselves an imaginary pleasure, to quiet or smother conscience, and pass their time without that anguish and trouble which are the consequences of sin, that so they might be at ease and security while in the world, let their own consciences declare. (Rom. ii. 8, 9.) Adam's temptation is represented by the fruit of a tree, (Gen. iii. 6,) thereby intimating the great influence external objects, as they exceed in beauty, carry with them upon our senses: so that unless the mind keep upon its constant watch, so prevalent are visible things, that hard it is for one to escape being insnared in them; (Mark, xiii. 33-37;) and he shall need to be only sometimes entrapped, to cast so thick a veil of darkness over the mind, that not only it shall with pleasure continue in its fetters to lust and vanity, but proudly censure such as refuse to wear them, strongly pleading for them, as serviceable and convenient: that strange passion do perishing objects raise in those minds where way is made, and entertainment given to them. But Christ Jesus is manifested in us, and hath given unto us a taste and understanding of Him that is true; and to all such a proportion of his good spirit, as is sufficient, would they obey it, to redeem their minds from that captivity they have been in to lust and vanity, and entirely ransomthem from the dominion of all visible objects, and whatsoever may gratify the desires of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life; (1 John, ii. 15, 16;) that they might be regenerated in their minds, changed in their affections, and have their whole hearts set on things that are above, where moth nor rust can ever pass, or enter to harm or destroy.
XII. But it is a manifest sign of what mould and make the persons are who practise and plead for such shameful Egyptian rags, as pleasures. It is to be hoped that they never knew, or to be feared they have forgotten, the humble, plain, meek, holy, self-denying, and exemplary life, which the eternal Spirit sanctifies all obedient hearts into; yea, it is indubitable that either such always have been ignorant, or else they have lost sight of that good land, that heavenly country, and blessed inheritance they once had some glimmering prospect of. (Gal. v. 22-25; Eph. v. 8-11, 15, 16.) O that they would but withdraw a while, sit down, weigh and consider with themselves where they are, and whose work and will they are doing! that they would once believe the devil hath not a stratagem more pernicious to their immortal souls, than this of exercising their minds in the foolish fashions and wanton recreations of the times! Great and gross impieties beget a detestation in the opinion of sober education and reputation; and therefore since the devil rightly sees such things have no success with many; it is his next, and most fatal design, to find some other entertainments, that carry less of infection in their looks, (though more of security, because less of scandal,) and more of pleasure in their enjoyment, on purpose to busy and arrest people from a diligent search and inquiry after those matters which necessarily concern their eternal peace: (Eph. vi. 12-19:) that being ignorant of the heavenly life, they may not be induced to press after it; but being onlyformally religious, according to the traditions and precepts of others, proceed to their common pleasures, and find no check therefrom, their religion and conversation for the most part agreeing well together, whereby an improvement in the knowledge of God, going on from grace to grace, growing to the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ himself, is not known; but as it was in the beginning at seven, so it is at seventy; nay, not so innocent, unless by reason of the old saying, "Old men are twice children." (Eph. i. 16-23; iv. 12, 13.)
O! the mystery of godliness, the heavenly life, the true Christian, are another thing. Wherefore we conclude that as the design of the devil, where he cannot involve and draw into gross sin, is to busy, delight, and allure the minds of men and women by more seeming innocent entertainments, on purpose that he may more easily secure them from minding their duty and progress, and obedience to the only true God, which is eternal life; (John. xvii. 3;) and thereby take up their minds from heavenly and eternal things; so those who would be delivered from these snares should mind the holy, just, grave, and self-denying teachings of God's grace and Spirit in themselves, that they may reject, and for ever abandon the like vanity and evil; (Tit. ii. 11-15;) and by a reformed conversation condemn the world of its intemperance: so will the true discipleship be obtained: for otherwise many enormous consequences and pernicious effects will follow. It is to encourage such impious persons, to continue and proceed in the like trades of feeding the people's lusts; and thereby such make themselves partakers of their plagues, who by continual fresh desire to the like curiosities, and that way of spending time and estate, induce them to spend more time in studying how to abuse time; lest, through their pinching and small allowance, those prodigals should call their father's house to mind: for whatsoever any think,more pleasant baits, alluring objects, grateful entertainments, cunning emissaries, acceptable sermons, insinuating lectures, taking orators, the crafty devil has not ever had, by which to entice and insnare the minds of people, and totally to divert them from heavenly reflections and divine meditations, than the attire, sports, plays, and pastimes of this godless age, the school and shop of Satan, hitherto so reasonably condemned.
1. But if these customs, &c. were but indifferent, yet being abused they deserve to be rejected.—2. The abuse is acknowledged by those that use them, therefore should leave them.—3. Such as pretend to seriousness should exemplarily withdraw from such latitudes: a wise parent weans his child of what it dotes too much upon; and we should watch over ourselves and neighbours.—4. God, in the case of the brazen serpent, &c. gives us an example to put away the use of abused things.—5. If these things were sometimes convenient, yet when their use is prejudicial in example, they should be disused.—6. Such as yet proceed to love their unlawful pleasures more than Christ and his cross; the mischief they have brought to persons and estates, bodies and souls.—7. Ingenuous people know this to be true: an appeal to God's witness in the guilty: their state, that of Babylon.—8. But temperance in food, and plainness in apparel, and sober conversation conduce most to good: so the apostle teaches in his epistles.—9. Temperance enriches a land: it is a political good, as well as a religious one, in all governments.—10. When people have done their duty to God, it will be time enough to think of pleasing themselves.—11. An address to the magistrates and all people, how to convert their time and money to better purposes.
1. But if these customs, &c. were but indifferent, yet being abused they deserve to be rejected.—2. The abuse is acknowledged by those that use them, therefore should leave them.—3. Such as pretend to seriousness should exemplarily withdraw from such latitudes: a wise parent weans his child of what it dotes too much upon; and we should watch over ourselves and neighbours.—4. God, in the case of the brazen serpent, &c. gives us an example to put away the use of abused things.—5. If these things were sometimes convenient, yet when their use is prejudicial in example, they should be disused.—6. Such as yet proceed to love their unlawful pleasures more than Christ and his cross; the mischief they have brought to persons and estates, bodies and souls.—7. Ingenuous people know this to be true: an appeal to God's witness in the guilty: their state, that of Babylon.—8. But temperance in food, and plainness in apparel, and sober conversation conduce most to good: so the apostle teaches in his epistles.—9. Temperance enriches a land: it is a political good, as well as a religious one, in all governments.—10. When people have done their duty to God, it will be time enough to think of pleasing themselves.—11. An address to the magistrates and all people, how to convert their time and money to better purposes.
I. But should these things be as indifferent, as they are proved perniciously unlawful; for I never heard any advance their plea beyond the bounds of mere indifferency; yet so great is their abuse, so universal the sad effects thereof, like to an infection, that they therefore ought to be rejected of all; especially those whose sobriety hath preserved theta on this side of that excess, or whose judgments, though themselves be guilty, suggest the folly of such intemperance. For what is an indifferent thing,but that which may be done, or left undone? Granting, I say, this were the case, yet do both reason and religion teach that when they are used with such an excess of appetite as to leave them would be a cross to their desires, they have exceeded the bounds of mere indifferency, and are thereby rendered no less than necessary. Which being a violation of the very nature of the things themselves, a perfect abuse enters; and consequently they are no longer to be considered in the rank of things simply indifferent, but unlawful.
II. Now that the whole exchange of things, against which I have so earnestly contended, are generally abused by the excess of almost all ages, sexes, and qualities of people, will be confessed by many, who yet decline not to conform themselves to them; and to whom, as I have understood, it only seems lawful, because, say they, the abuse of others should be no argument why we should not use them. But to such I answer, That they have quite forgotten, or will not remember, they have acknowledged these things to be but of an indifferent nature; if so, and vanity never urged more, I say, there can be nothing more clear, than since they acknowledge their great abuse, that they are wholly to be forsaken: for since they may as well be let alone as done at any time, surely they should then of duty be let alone, when the use of them is an abetting the general excess, (Phil. iii. 17,) and a mere exciting others to continue in their abuse, because they find persons reputed sober to imitate them, or otherwise give them an example. Precepts are not half so forcible as examples.
III. Every one that pretends to seriousness ought to inspect himself, as having been too forward to help on the excess, and can never make too much haste out of those inconveniencies that by his former example he encouraged any to; that by a new one he may put a seasonable checkupon the intemperance of others. A wise parent ever withdraws those objects, however innocent in themselves, which are too prevalent upon the weak senses of his children, on purpose that they might be weaned: and it is as frequent with men to bend a crooked stick as much the contrary way, that they might make it straight at last. Those that have more sobriety than others should not forget their stewardships, but exercise that gift of God to the security of their neighbours. It was murdering Cain that rudely asked the Lord, "Was he his brother's keeper?" (Gen. iv. 9.) For every man is necessarily obliged thereto; and therefore should be so wise as to deny himself the use of such indifferent enjoyments as cannot be used by him without too manifest an encouragement to his neighbour's folly.
IV. God hath sufficiently excited men to what is said; for in the case of the brazen serpent, (2 Kings. xviii. 3, 4,) which was a heavenly institution and type of Christ, he with great displeasure enjoined it should be broken to pieces, because they were too fond and doting upon it. Yes, the very groves themselves, however pleasant for situation, beautiful for their walks and trees, must be cut down: and why? Only because they had been abused to idolatrous uses. And what is an idol but that which the mind puts an over-estimate or value upon? None can benefit themselves so much by an indifferent thing as others by not using that abused liberty.
V. If those things were convenient in themselves, which is a step nearer necessity than mere indifferency, yet when by circumstances they become prejudicial, such conveniency itself ought to be put off; much more what is but indifferent should be denied. People ought not to weigh their private satisfactions more than a public good; nor please themselves in too free a use of indifferent things, at the cost of being so really prejudicial to the public as theycertainly are, whose use of them, if no worse, becomes exemplary to others, and begets an impatience in their minds to have the like. Wherefore it is both reasonable and incumbent on all to make only such things necessary as tend to life and godliness, and to employ their freedom with most advantage to their neighbours. (2 Pet. i. 3.) So that here is a two-fold obligation; the one not to be exemplary in the use of such things, which though they may use them, yet not without giving too much countenance to the abuse and excessive vanity of their neighbours. The other obligation is, that they ought so far to condescend to such religious people, who are offended at these fashions, and that kind of conversation as to reject them. (Rom. xiv. 1, to the end.)
VI. Now those who, notwithstanding what I have urged, will yet proceed; what is it but that they have so involved themselves and their affections in them, that it is hardly possible to reform them; and that for all their many protestations against their fondness to such fopperies, they really love them more than Christ and his cross. Such cannot seek the good of others, who do so little respect their own. For, after a serious consideration, what vanity, pride, idleness, expense of time and estates have been and yet are! How many persons debauched from their first sobriety, and women from their natural sweetness and innocency to loose, airy, wanton, and many times more enormous practices! How many plentiful estates have been overrun by numerous debts, chastity ensnared by accursed lustful intrigues; youthful health overtaken by the hasty seizure of unnatural distempers, and the remaining days of such spent upon a rack of their vice's procuring, and so made slaves to the unmerciful but necessary effects of their own inordinate pleasures! in which agony they vow the greatest temperance, but are no sooner out of it, than in their vice again. (Lam. iv. 5;Job, xxi. 13, 14; Psalm lv. 23; xxxvii. 10; Eccl. viii. 12; Psalm xxxvii. 1, 2; Prov. ii. 22.)
VII. That these things are the case, and almost innumerable more, I am persuaded no ingenuous person of any experience will deny: how then, upon a serious reflection, any that pretend conscience or the fear of God Almighty, can longer continue in the garb, livery, and conversation of those whose whole life tends to little else than what I have repeated, much less join with them in their abominable excess, I leave to the just principle in themselves to judge. (Jer. xvi. 5-9.) No, surely! this is not to obey the voice of God, who in all ages did loudly cry to all, Come out of—of what?—the ways, fashions, converse, and spirit of Babylon. (Isa. iii. 13-16; Jer. l. 8; xv. 6, 7; Amos, vi. 3-7.) What is that? The great city of all these vain, foolish, wanton, superfluous, and wicked practices, against which the Scriptures denounce most dreadful judgments; ascribing all the intemperance of men and women to the cup of wickedness she hath given them to drink; whose are the things indifferent, if they must be so. And for witness, John in his revelation says in her description: How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her. And the kings of the earth, who have lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament her; and the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth her merchandise any more; the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and thyine-wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. (Rev. xviii. 7, 9, 11-13.)Behold the character and judgment of luxury: and though I know it hath a further signification than what is literal, yet there is enough to show the pomp, plenty, fulness, idleness, ease, wantonness, vanity, lust, and excess of luxury that reign in her. But at the terrible day, who will go to her exchange any more? Who to her plays? Who will follow her fashions then? And who shall traffic in her delicate inventions? Not one; for she shall be judged. No plea shall excuse or rescue her from the wrath of the Judge; for strong is the Lord, who will perform it. (Rev. xviii. 8.) If these reasonable pleas will not prevail, yet however I shall caution such in the repetition of part of Babylon's miserable doom: mind, my friends, more heavenly things, hasten to obey that righteous principle which would exercise and delight you in that which is eternal; or else with Babylon, the mother of lust and vanity, the fruits that your souls lust after shall depart from you, and all things which are dainty and goodly shall depart from you and you shall find them NO MORE: O Dives! No more. (Rev. xviii. 14.) Lay your treasures, therefore, up in heaven, O ye inhabitants of the earth, where nothing can break through to harm them; but where time shall shortly be swallowed up of eternity. (Luke, xii. 33, 34.)
VIII. But my arguments against these things end not here: for the contrary most of all conduces to good; namely, temperance in food, plainness in apparel, with a meek, shame-faced, and quiet spirit, and that conversation which doth only express the same in all godly honesty: as the apostle saith, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, but rather giving of thanks: for let no man deceive you with vain words, because of these things cometh the wrath ofGod upon the children of disobedience." (Col. iv. 5, 6; 1 Thes. iv. 11, 12; 1 Pet. iii. 1-4; Eph. iv. 2; v. 3-6; 1 Tim. iv. 12; Phil. iii. 16-20.) And if men and women were but thus adorned after this truly Christian manner, impudence would soon receive a check, and lust, pride, vanity, and wantonness find a rebuke. (1 Pet. ii. 12; Prov. xxxi. 23-31; James, ii. 2-9.) They would not be able to attack such universal chastity or encounter such godly austerity: virtue would be in credit, and vice afraid and ashamed, and excess not dare to show its face. There would be an end of gluttony and gaudiness of apparel, flattering titles, and a luxurious life; (2 Pet. iii. 11; Psal. xxvi. 6;) and then primitive innocency and plainness would come back again, and that plain-hearted, downright, harmless life would be restored, of not much caring what we should eat, drink, or put on, (Luke, xii. 22-30,) as Christ tells us the Gentiles did, and as we know this age daily does, under all its talk of religion; but as the ancients, who with moderate care for necessaries and conveniencies of life, devoted themselves to the concernments of a celestial kingdom, and more minded their improvement in righteousness than their increase in riches; for they laid their treasure up in heaven, (Matt. xxv. 21,) and endured tribulation for an inheritance that cannot be taken away.
IX. But the temperance I plead for is not only religiously but politically good: it is the interest of good government to curb and rebuke excesses: it prevents many mischiefs. Luxury brings effeminacy, laziness, poverty, and misery; (Prov. x. 4; Eccl. x. 16-18;) but temperance preserves the land. It keeps out foreign vanities, and improves our own commodities: now we are their debtors; then they would be debtors to us for our native manufactures. By this means, such persons who by their excess, not charity, have deeply engaged their estates, mayin a short space be enabled to clear them from those incumbrances which otherwise, like moths, soon eat out plentiful revenues. It helps persons of mean substance to improve their small stocks, that they may not expend their dear earnings, and hard-got wages upon superfluous apparel, foolish May-games, plays, dancings, shows, taverns, ale-houses, and the like folly and intemperance, of which this land is more infested, and by which it is rendered more ridiculous than any kingdom in the world: for none I know of is so infested with cheating mountebanks, savage morrice-dancers, pick-pockets, and profane players, and stagers, to the slight of religion, the shame of government, and the great idleness, expense, and debauchery of the people: for which the Spirit of the Lord is grieved, and the judgments of the Almighty are at the door, and the sentence ready to be pronounced, "Let him that is unjust be unjust still." (Rev. xxii. 11; Eccl. xii. 1.) Wherefore it is that we cannot but loudly call upon the generality of the times, and testify both by our life and doctrine against the like vanities and abuses, if possibly any may be weaned from their folly, and choose the good old path of temperance, wisdom, gravity, and holiness, the only way to inherit the blessings of peace and plenty here, and eternal happiness hereafter.
X. Lastly, supposing we had none of these foregoing reasons justly to reprove the practice of the land in these particulars; however, let it be sufficient for us to say, that when people have first learned to fear, worship, and obey their Creator, to pay their numerous vicious debts, to alleviate and abate their oppressed tenants; but above all outward regards, when the pale faces are more commiserated, when the famished poor, the distressed widow, and helpless orphan, God's works, and your fellow-creatures, are provided for; then, I say, if then, it will be time enough for you to plead the indifferency of your pleasures.But that the sweet and tedious labour of the husbandman, early and late, cold and hot, wet and dry, should be converted into the pleasure, ease, and pastime of a small number of men; that the cart, the plough, the flail, should be in that continual severity laid upon nineteen parts of the land, to feed the inordinate lusts and delicious appetites of the twentieth, is so far from the appointment of the great Governor of the world, and God of the spirits of all flesh, that, to imagine such horrible injustice as the effects of his determinations, and not the intemperance of men, were wretched and blasphemous. As on the other side, it would be to deserve no pity, no help, no relief from God Almighty, for people to continue that expense in vanity and pleasure, whilst the great necessities of such objects go unanswered; especially since God hath made the sons of men but stewards to each other's exigencies and relief. Yea, so strict is it enjoined, that on the omission of these things, we find this dreadful sentence partly to be grounded, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," &c. (Matt. xxv. 34-41.) As on the contrary, to visit the sick, see the imprisoned, relieve the needy, &c. are such excellent properties in Christ's account, that thereupon He will pronounce such blessed, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," &c. (Matt. xxv. 34-41.) So that the great are not, with the leviathan in the deep, to prey upon the small, much less to make a sport of the lives and labours of the lesser ones, to gratify their inordinate senses.
XI. I therefore humbly offer an address to the serious consideration of the civil magistrate, that, if the money which is expended in every parish in such vain fashions as wearing of laces, jewels, embroideries, unnecessary ribbons, trimmings, costly furniture, and attendance, together with what is commonly consumed in taverns, feasts, gaming, &c. could be collected into a public stock, orsomething in lieu of this extravagant and fruitless expense, there might be reparation to the broken tenants, workhouses for the able, and alms-houses for the aged and impotent. Then should we have no beggars in the land, the cry of the widow and the orphan would cease, and charitable relief might easily be afforded towards the redemption of poor captives, and the refreshment of such distressed Protestants as labour under the miseries of persecution in other countries: nay, the Exchequer's needs, on just emergencies, might be supplied by such a bank: this sacrifice and service would please the just and merciful God: it would be a noble example of gravity and temperance to foreign states, and an unspeakable benefit to ourselves at home.
Alas! why should men need persuasions to what their own felicity so necessarily leads them? Had thesevitiososof the times but a sense of heathen Cato's generosity, they would rather deny their carnal appetites than leave such noble enterprises unattempted. But that they should eat, drink, play, game, and sport away their health, estates, and, above all, their irrevocable precious time, which should be dedicated to the Lord, as a necessary introduction to a blessed eternity, and than which, did they but know it, no worldly solace would come in competition: I say, that they should be continually employed about these poor, low things is to have the heathens judge them in God's days, as well as Christian precepts and examples condemn them. And their final doom will prove the more astonishing, in that this vanity and excess are acted under a profession of the self-denying religion of Jesus, whose life and doctrine are a perpetual reproach to the most of Christians. For He was humble, but they are proud; He forgiving, they revengeful; He meek, they fierce; He plain, they gaudy; He abstemious, they luxurious; He chaste, they lascivious: He a pilgrim on earth, they citizens ofthe world: in fine, He was meanly born, poorly attended, and obscurely brought up; He lived despised, and died hated of the men of his own nation. O you pretended followers of this crucified Jesus! examine yourselves, try yourselves, know you not your own selves; if He dwell not, if He rule not in you, that you are reprobates? Be ye not deceived, for God will not be mocked, (at last with forced repentances,) such as you sow, such you must reap. (1 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. vi. 8.) I beseech you to hear me, and remember you were invited and entreated to the salvation of God. I say; as you sow, you reap: if you are enemies to the cross of Christ,—and you are so if you will not bear it, but do as you list, and not as you ought;—if you are uncircumcised in heart and ear, and you are so, if you will not hear, and open to Him that knocks at the door within, and if you resist and quench the Spirit in yourselves, that strives with you, to bring you to God, (and that you certainly do who rebel against its motions, reproofs, and instructions,) then you sow to the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, and of the flesh will you reap the fruits of corruption, (Rom. ii. 8,) woe, anguish, and tribulation, from God, the Judge of quick and dead, by Jesus Christ. But if you will daily bear the holy cross of Christ, and sow to the Spirit; if you will listen to the light and grace that comes by Jesus, and which He has given to all people for salvation, and square your thoughts, words, and deeds thereby, which leads and teaches the lovers of it to deny all ungodliness and the world's lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world, then may you with confidence look for the blessed hope and joyful coming, and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Tit. ii. 11-13.) Let it be so, O you Christians, and escape the wrath to come! Why will you die? Let the time past suffice: remember, that No Cross, no Crown. Redeem then the time, for thedays are evil, (Eph. v. 16,) and yours are but very few. Therefore gird up the loins of your minds, be sober, fear, watch, pray, and endure to the end; calling to mind for your encouragement and consolation, that all such as through patience and well-doing wait for immortality, (Rom. ii. 7,) shall reap glory, honour, and eternal life in the kingdom of the Father: whose is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.
END OF PART I.
NO CROSS, NO CROWN.
THESECOND PART:CONTAININGAN ACCOUNT OF THE REMARKABLE SAYINGSOFMEN EMINENT FOR THEIR GREATNESS,LEARNING, OR VIRTUE;COLLECTED IN FAVOUR OF THE TRUTH DELIVERED IN THEFIRST PART;BY WILLIAM PENN.