A Christian Directory Volume I Part 102

affectation of long garments, Mark xii. 38. When you shall wear a habit of more gravity than you have, it is hypocrisy.

And there is a pride which consisteth in a desire to seem more mortified than you are, and more holy.[609] And so to affect those discriminating vestments which signify more of these than you have, is proud hypocrisy: and thus vile clothing is often the effect of pride; and if men fall into that sort of pride, as to desire to be noted as most mortified persons, this is as suitable a badge for them, as bravery is for those that are proud of their comeliness, and grave clothing of those that are proud of their gravity.

[Sidenote: How pride of gravity and holiness appeareth about apparel.]

_Quest._ I. But may we as easily discern this sort of pride in clothing as the other? _Answ._ No, because the mean, and plain, and cheap clothing is commonly worn by persons really mortified and sober, and necessarily by the poor, and grave clothing by persons that are really grave. And therefore we are bound to judge them to be that, which they seem by their apparel to be, unless by some other evidences than their apparel, their pride and hypocrisy appear; but when we judge a person vain that weareth vain clothing, and proud of their comeliness that are inordinately careful in setting it out, we judge but according to the first and proper signification of their clothing. Hypocrisy is a thing unseen to man: it is the visible signs according to their proper signification that we must judge by; and therefore when we see persons wear vain and curious attire, we may judge thereby that they are vain and curious; and if we be mistaken, it is long of them that signified it; and when we see persons wear grave or humble clothing, we must judge by it that they are grave and humble, till the contrary appear.

_Quest._ II. But how else will pride of gravity or mortifiedness appear? _Answ._ When they boast of these themselves, and are insolent in censuring and reproaching those that differ from them; when their discourse is more against those fashions which they avoid, than against any faults of their own; when they affect to be singular in their apparel, even from the grave and humble persons of their rank; but especially when they make a noise and stir in the world with their fashions, to be taken notice of, and to become eminent, and persons talked of and admired for their mortified garb. Thus many sects amongst the popish friars go by agreement or vow, in clothes so differing from all other persons in seeming humility and gravity, which must be the badge of their order in the eye of the world, that the boast and affectation is visible and professed. And thus the quakers, that by the notoriety of their difference from other sober persons, and by their impudent bawling in the streets and churches, and railing against the holiest and humblest ministers and people that are not of their sect, and this in the face of markets and congregations, do make a plain profession or detection of their pride.

But where it is not openly revealed, we cannot judge it.

[Sidenote: May not a deformity be hid by apparel or painting.]

_Quest._ III. Is it not lawful for a person that is deformed, to hide their deformity by their clothing? And for any persons to make themselves (by clothing, or spots, or painting) to seem to others as comely and beautiful as they can? _Answ._ The person, and the matter, and the end and reasons, the principle and the probable consequents, must all be considered for the right answering of this question. It is lawful to some persons, by some means, for some good ends and reasons, when a greater evil is not like to follow it, to hide their deformities, and to adorn themselves so as to seem more comely than they are: but for other persons, by evil means, for evil ends and reasons, or when it tendeth to evil consequents, it is unlawful. 1. A person that is naturally very deformed, may do more to hide it by their ornaments, than one that hath no such deformity may do to seem more comely; because one aspireth no higher than to seem somewhat like other persons; but the other aspireth to seem excellent above others.

And a person that is under government may do more in obedience to their governors, than another may do that is at their own choice. 2.

If the matter of their ornament be but modest, decent clothing, and not immodest, insolent, luxurious, vain, or against nature, or the law of G.o.d or man, it is in that respect allowable. But so is no cover of deformity by unlawful means. 3. It may be lawful, if also it be to a lawful end, as to obey a governor, or only to cover a deformity, so as not unnecessarily to reveal it; but it is always sinful, when the end is sinful. As, (1.) If it be to seem extraordinary beautiful or comely, when you are not so; or if it be to be observed and admired by beholders. (2.) If it be to tempt the beholders' minds to l.u.s.tful or undue affections. (3.) If it be to deceive the mind of some one that you desire in marriage: for in that case, to seem by such dissembling to be what you are not, is the most injurious kind of cheat, much worse than to sell a horse that is blind or lame, for a sound one.

(4.) If it be to follow the fashions of proud gallants, that you may not be scorned by them as not neat enough; all these are unlawful ends and reasons. 4. So also the principle or mind that it cometh from, may make it sinful: as, (1.) If it come from a l.u.s.tful, wanton mind. (2.) Or if it come from an over-great regard of the opinion of spectators; which is the proper complexion of pride.[610] A person that doth it not in pride, is not very solicitous about it: nor makes no great matter of it whether men take him to be comely or uncomely; and therefore he is at no great cost or care to seem comely to them. If such persons be deformed, they know it is G.o.d's work, and not their sin; and it is sin that is the true cause of shame: and all G.o.d's works are good, and for our good if we are his children. They know that G.o.d doth it to keep them humble, and prevent that pride, and l.u.s.t, and wantonness which is the undoing of many; and therefore they will rather be careful to improve it, and get the benefit, than to hide it, and seem comelier than they are. 5. Also the consequents concur much to make the action good or bad: though that be not your end, yet if you may foresee, that greater hurt than good will follow, or is like to follow, it will be your sin. As, (1.) If it tend to the insnaring of the minds of the beholders in procacious, l.u.s.tful, wanton pa.s.sions, though you say, you intend it not, it is your sin, that you do that which probably will procure it, yea, that you did not your best to avoid it. And though it be their sin and vanity that is the cause, it is nevertheless your sin to be the unnecessary occasion: for you must consider that you live among diseased souls! And you must not lay a stumblingblock in their way, nor blow up the fire of their l.u.s.t, nor make your ornaments their snares; but you must walk among sinful persons, as you would do with a candle among straw or gunpowder; or else you may see the flame which you would not foresee, when it is too late to quench it. But a proud and procacious, l.u.s.tful mind is so very willing to be loved, and thought highly of, and admired and desired, that no fear of G.o.d, or of the sin and misery of themselves or others, will satisfy them, or take them off. (2.) Also it is sinful to adorn yourselves in such fashions, as probably will encourage pride or vanity in others, or seem to approve of it. When any fashion is the common badge of the proud and vain sort of persons of that time and place, it is sinful unnecessarily to conform yourselves to them; because you will harden them in their sin, and you join yourselves to them, as one of them by a kind of profession. As when spotted faces (a name that former ages understood not) or naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s, or such other fashions, are used ordinarily by the vain, and brain-sick, and heart-sick, proud and wanton party, it is a sin unnecessarily to use them. For, (1.) You will hinder their repentance. (2.) And you will hinder the great benefit which the world may get by their vain attire: for (though it be no thanks to them that intend it not) yet it is a very great commodity that cometh to mankind by these people's sin: that fools should go about in fools'-coats, and that empty brains, and proud and wanton hearts, should be so openly detected in the streets and churches; that sober people may avoid them; and that wise, and chaste, and civil people may not be deceived by such in marriage to their undoing. As the different clothing of the different s.e.xes is necessary to chast.i.ty and order; so it is a matter of great convenience in a commonwealth, that sots, and swaggerers, and phrenetics, and idiots, and proud, and wanton, l.u.s.tful persons should be openly distinguished from others; as in a plague-time the doors of infected houses are marked with a "Lord, have mercy on us." And the wisest magistrate knew not how to have accomplished this himself by a law, as the wretches themselves do by their voluntary choice; for if it were not voluntary, it would be no distinguishing badge of their profession. Now for any honest, civil people to join with them, and take up their livery, and the habit of their order, is to profess themselves such as they, and so to encourage and approve them, or else to confound the proud and humble, the vain and sober, the wanton and the chaste, and destroy the benefit of distinction.

By this you may see, that it is not so much the bare fashion itself that is to be regarded, as the signification and the consequents of it. The same fashion when used by sober persons, to better signification and consequents, may be lawful, which otherwise is unlawful. Therefore those fashions that can hardly ever be supposed to have a good signification and consequents, are hardly ever to be supposed lawful.

Note also, that any one of the aforesaid evils maketh a fashion evil, but it must be all the requisites concurrent that must prove your fashions good or lawful.

_Quest._ IV. Is it not sometimes lawful to follow the fashions?

_Answ._ It is always lawful to follow the sober fashions of sober people; but it is not lawful to follow the vain, immodest, ill-signifying fashions of the riotous, proud, and wanton sort: unless it be in such cases of necessity as David was in, when he behaved himself like a mad-man, or as Paul when he told them that he was a Pharisee, Acts xxiii. 6, to escape in a persecution, or from thieves or enemies. 2. Or unless for a time it prove as conducible to the good of others, as Paul's circ.u.mcising Timothy was, or his becoming all things to all men, that he might win some.[611] But to follow ill-signifying fashions, unnecessarily, or for carnal ends, to avoid the disesteem or evil speeches of carnal persons, or to seem to be as fine as they, this is undoubtedly a sin.

_Direct._ VI. Be sure to avoid excess of costliness in your apparel.

Remember that you must answer for all your estates. And one day it will prove more comfortable to find on your accounts, So much a year laid out in clothing the naked, than, So much a year in bravery or curiosity for yourselves or your children. Costly apparel devoureth that which would go far in supplying the necessities of the poor.

_Direct._ VII. Be sure you waste not your precious time in needless curiosity of dressing. I cannot easily tell you how great a sin, and horrible sign of folly and misery, it is in those gallants that spend whole hours, yea, most part of the morning, in dressing and neatifying themselves, before they appear to the sight of others; so that some of them can scarce do any thing else before dinner time, but dress themselves. The morning hours that are fittest for prayer, and reading the word of G.o.d, are thus consumed. They spend not a quarter so much time in the serious searching and adorning of their souls, nor in any holy service of G.o.d; but G.o.d, and family, and soul, and all is thus neglected.

_Direct._ VIII. Next to the usefulness of your apparel for your bodies and labours, let your rule be to imitate the common sort of the grave and sober persons of your own rank. Not here and there one that in other things are sober, who themselves follow the fashions of the proud and vain; but the ordinary fashion of grave and sober persons.

For thus you will avoid both the levity of the proud, and the needless singularity of others.

_Direct._ IX. Regard more the hurt that your fashion may do, than the offence or obloquy of any. For proud persons to say you are sordid, or not fine enough, and talk of your coa.r.s.e attire, is no great disgrace to you, nor any great hurt; but it is a greater disgrace to be esteemed proud. It signifieth an empty, childish mind, to be desirous to be thought fine: it is not only pride, but the pride of a fool, distinct from the pride of those that have but manly wit. And you ought not thus to disgrace yourselves, as to wear the badge of pride and folly, any more than an honest woman should wear the badge and attire of a wh.o.r.e. Moreover, mean apparel is no great temptation to yourselves or others to any sin; but proud and curious apparel doth signify and stir up a l.u.s.tful or proud disposition in yourselves; and it tempteth those of the same s.e.x to envy and to imitate you, and those of the other s.e.x to l.u.s.t or wantonness. You spread the devil's nets (even in the churches, and open streets, and meetings) to catch deluded, silly souls. You should rather serve Christ with your apparel, by expressing humility, self-denial, chast.i.ty, and sobriety, to draw others to imitate you in good, than to serve the devil, and pride, and l.u.s.t by it, by drawing men to imitate you in evil.

_Direct._ X. Remember what a body it is that you so carefully and curiously adorn: well is it called by the apostle a "vile body," Phil.

iii. 21. What a silly, loathsome lump of dirt is it! What a thing would the pox, or leprosy, or almost any sickness make it appear to be! What loathsome excrements within, are covered by all that bravery without! Think what it is made of, and what is within it, and what it will turn to! How long it must lie rotting in a darksome grave, more loathsome than the common dirt; and then must turn to common earth.

And is purple and silk, Luke xix. 19, and a curious dress, beseeming that body that must shortly have but a winding-sheet, and must lie thus in the grave, and it is to be feared the soul for this pride lie in h.e.l.l? Luke xvi. 23, 25. Is all this cost and curiosity comely for one that knoweth that he is returning to the dust?

_Direct._ XI. Remember that you have sinful souls that have continual cause of humiliation, and that have need of more care and adorning than your bodies. And therefore your apparel should express your humiliation; and show that you take more care for the soul. How vile should that sinner be in his own eyes, who knoweth what he hath done against G.o.d! what mercy he hath sinned against! what a G.o.d he hath offended! what a Saviour he hath slighted! what a Spirit of grace he hath resisted! and what a glory he hath undervalued and neglected! He that knoweth what he is, and what he hath done, and what he hath deserved, and in what a dangerous case his soul yet standeth, must needs have his soul habituated to a humble frame. Every penitent soul is vile in its own eyes, and doth loathe itself for its inward corruptions and actual sins; and he that loatheth himself as vile, will not be very desirous to have his sinful, corruptible body seem fine, nor by curious ornaments to attract the eyes of vain spectators.

How oft have I seen proud, vain gallants suddenly cast off their bravery and gaudy, gay attire, and clothe themselves in plainness and sobriety, as soon as G.o.d hath but opened their eyes, and humbled their souls for sin, and made them better know themselves, and brought them home by true repentance! so that the next week they have not seemed the same persons: and this was done by mere humiliation without any arguments against their fashions or proud attire.[612] As old Mr. Dod said, when one desired him to preach against long hair: "Preach them once to Christ and true repentance, and they will cut their hair without our preaching against it." As pride would be seen in proud apparel; so humility will appear in a dress like itself, though it desire not to be seen. Mark 1 Pet. iii. 3-5, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; (that is, curious dressing or adorning the body beyond plain simplicity of attire;) but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of G.o.d is of great price. For after this manner (that is, with inward holiness and outward plainness) in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in G.o.d, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands." Oh that G.o.d would print those words upon your hearts! 1 Pet. v. 5, "Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for G.o.d resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." Plainness among christians is a greater honour than fine clothing, James ii. 2-5. 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10, "In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing G.o.dliness) with good works." I entreat those that are addicted to bravery or curiosity, to read Isa. iii. from verse 16 to the end.

_Direct._ XII. Make not too great a matter of your clothing, but use it with such indifferency as a thing so indifferent should be used.

Set not your hearts upon it. For that is a worse sign than the excess in itself. "Take no thought wherewith ye shall be clothed: but remember how G.o.d clothes the lilies of the field," Matt. vi. 28. If you have "food and raiment, be therewith content," though it be never so plain, 1 Tim. vi. 8.

_Direct._ XIII. Be not too censorious of others for different fashions of apparel. Be as plain and modest yourselves as you can; but lay no greater stress on the fashions of others than there is cause. If they be grossly impudent, disown such fashions and seek to reform them: but to carp at every one that goeth finer than yourselves, or to censure them as proud, because their fashions are not like yours, may be of worse signification than the fashions you find fault with. I have oft observed more pride in such censures, than I could observe in the fashions which they censured. When you have your eye upon every fashion that is not according to your breeding, or the custom of your rank or place, and are presently branding such as proud or vain, it showeth an arrogant mind, that steppeth up in the judgment-seat, and sentenceth those that you have nothing to do with, before they are heard, or you know their reasons. Perhaps their fashion was as common among the modest sort where they have lived, as your fashion is among those that you have conversed with. Custom and common opinion do put much of the signification upon fashions of apparel.

I should next have given you special directions about the using of your estates;[613] about your dwellings; about your meat and drink; and about your honour or good name. But being loth the book should prove too tedious, I shall refer you to what is said before, against covetousness, pride, and gluttony, &c.; and what is said before and after, of works of charity and family government.

As to sacred habits, and the different garbs, laws, orders of life, diet, &c. of those called religious orders among the papists, regular and secular, whether and how far such are lawful or sinful, they are handled so largely in the controversies of protestants and papists, that I shall pa.s.s them by. Only remembering the words of the clergy of Ravenna to Carolus Junior, king of France, inter Epist. Hincmari Rhemensis, _Discernendi a plebe vel caeteris sumus, doctrina non veste, conversatione non habitu, mentis puritate non cultu. Docendi enim potius sunt populi, quam ludendi, nec imponendum est eorum oculis, sed mentibus praecepta sunt infundenda._

FOOTNOTES:

[567] See 1 Cor. ix. 6; 2 Cor. vi. 1; 1 Cor. xvi. 10; 2 Tim. ii. 15.

[568] See before, chap. vi. t.i.t. 4. of this: and in my "Treat. of Divine Life," part iii.

[569] Ezek. xlvi. 1; Deut. xvi. 15; ii. 7; Exod. x.x.xiv. 21.

[570] Socrates was mightily addicted to the exercise of his body, as necessary to the health of body and mind. Laert. Plutarch out of Plato saith, that soul and body should be equally exercised together, and driven on as two horses in a coach, and not either of them overgo the other. Prec. of Health.

[571] Omnes qui sunt, quique erunt, aut fuerunt, virtutibus aut doctrinis clari, non possunt unum ingenium accendere, nisi aliquae intus in animo scintillae sint, quae preceptoris spiritu excitatae et adjutae, generosum disciplinae fomitem arripiant. Petrarch. dial. 41. li. 2.

[572] It was one of Solon's laws: Is qui sectatur otium, omnibus accusare volentibus obnoxius esto. Ut Laert. in Sol. Num solum aquas haurio, inquit Cleanthes? nonne et fodio et rigo et omnia facio philosophisae causa? when they asked him why he would draw water.

[573] How little have some men (yea, ministers themselves) to show of all the good they might have done through all their lives! The work they have done calls them idle.

[574] 1 Thess. v. 12, 13; Prov. xviii. 9; xxi. 25; 2 Thess. iii.; Prov. xii. 24; xii. 15; Eccl. x. 18.

[575] Prov. x. 26; xviii. 9.

[576] Prov. xxvi. 16; xxiv. 30.

[577] See Psal. cxxviii. 2, "Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands."

Prov. xiv. 23; xiii. 11.

[578] Cleanthes coactum aliquando stipem in medium familiarium intulit, dicens, Cleanthes alium Cleanthem posset nutrire si vellet.

And when he was questioned in judgment, how he lived, Adeo robustus, et tam boni habits, the gardener that he worked for, and the woman that baked his meal, were the witnesses that acquit him. Hard labour and hard fare enabled him for hard study. Laert. in Cleanth.

[579] Platonem tradunt c.u.m vidisset quendam aleis ludentem increpa.s.se: et c.u.m ille; Quam me in parvis reprehendis? diceret, respondisse, At est consuetudo non parva res. Laert. in Plat.

[580] Callimachus, in Attila, reporteth that when certain players came before Attila, to show the agility of their bodies in their exercises, he was offended to see such able, active bodies no better employed, and commanded them to be exercised in shooting and other military acts: which when they could not do, he commanded that they should have no meat but what they got by hunting at a great distance, and so exercised them till they became excellent soldiers. Page 353.

[581] Ni sis bonus aleator, probus chartarius, scortator improbus, potator strenuus, profusor audax, decoctor et conflator aeris alieni, deinde scabie ornatus Gallica, vix quisquam te oredet equitem. Erasm.

Colloq. p. 483. See more of this chap. v. and read Luke xvi. and James v.

[582] Rev. iii. 15, 19.

[583] Matt. xxiii. 15.

[584] See Jam. iii.

[585] Rom. x. 2; Acts xxi. 20, 22.

[586] 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8; Ezek. ix. 4; 1 Cor. v.

[587] Matt. vii. 4; Gen. x.x.xviii. 24; 2 Sam. xii. 5.