only as a _specimen_ of _plain language_? And is it possible that you
should mistake the sample for the whole bale of cloth?
Consult the light God has given you, and you must see that _plainness
of speech_ does not lie in _a single point_, but implies an open,
undisguised sincerity, a child-like simplicity _in all we speak_.
* I do not desire you to refrain from saying _thou_ or _thee_. I would
not spend ten words about it. But I desire you whenever you speak at
all, to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. I desire your words
may always be the picture of your heart. This is truly _plain language_.
* Either do not pretend to _plain speech_ at all, or be _uniformly
plain_. Are you so? I pray, consider. Do you never _compliment_? I do
not suppose you say, “Sir, your very humble servant.” But do you say
no _civil things_? Do you never _flatter_? Do you not _commend_ any man
or woman to their face? Perhaps farther than you do behind their back.
Is this _plainness of speech_? Do you never _dissemble_? Do you speak
to all persons, high or low, rich or poor, just what you think, neither
more nor less, and in the shortest and clearest manner you can? If not,
what a mere jest is your _plain language_? You carry your condemnation
in your own breast.
6. You hold also, That “he which is led by the Spirit, will use great
_plainness of dress_, seeking no _outward adorning_, but only the
_ornament of a meek and quiet spirit_.”
And that, in particular, “he will leave _gold and costly apparel_, to
those who know not God.”
* Now I appeal to every serious, reasonable man among you, Do your
people act consistently with this principle? Do not many of your women
wear _gold_ upon their very feet? And many of your men use _ornaments
of gold_? Are you a stranger to these things? Have you not seen with
your eyes (such ♦trifles as will scarce bear the naming) their _canes_
and _snuff-boxes_ glitter, even in your solemn assembly, while ye
were waiting together upon God? Surely, they are not yet so lost to
modesty, as to pretend, that they do not use them by way of _ornament_.
If they do not, if it be only out of necessity, a _plain oaken stick_
will supply the place of the one, and a piece of _horn_ or _tin_ will
unexceptionably answer all the reasonable ends of the other.
♦ “triflings” replaced with “trifles” per Errata
* To speak freely (and do not count me your enemy for this) you cannot
but observe upon cool reflection, that you retain just so much of your
_antient_ practice, as leaves your _present_ without excuse; as makes
the inconsistency between the one and the other, glaring and undeniable.
For instance: this woman is too strict a _Quaker_, to lay out a
_shilling_ in a _necklace_. Very well; but she is not too strict to lay
out _fourscore guineas_ in a repeating _watch_. Another would not for
the world wear any _lace_, no, not an _edging_ round her cap. But she
will wear _point_; and sees no harm in it at all, though it should be
of twelve times the price. In one kind of _apron_ or _handkerchief_
she dares not lay out twenty shillings; but in another sort, lays
out twenty pounds. And what multitudes of you are very jealous, as to
the _colour_ and _form_ of your apparel, (the least important of all
the circumstances that relate to it) while in the most important, the
expence, they are without any concern at all? They will not put on a
_scarlet_ or _crimson_ stuff, but the richest _velvet_, so it be black
or grave. They will not touch a coloured _ribband_; but will cover
themselves with a _stiff silk_ from head to foot. They cannot bear
_purple_: but make no scruple at all of being cloathed in _fine linen_:
yea, to such a degree, that the _linen of the Quakers_ is grown almost
into a proverb.
Surely you cannot be ignorant, that the sinfulness of _fine apparel_,
lies chiefly in the _expensiveness_. In that it is robbing God and the
poor: it is defrauding the fatherless and widow; it is wasting the food
of the hungry, and with-holding his raiment from the naked, to consume
it on our own lusts.
7. Let it not be said, that this affects only _a few_ among you, and
those, of the _younger_ and _lighter_ sort. Yes it does; your whole
body: for why do you, who are _elder_ and _graver_, suffer such things?
Why do ye not vehemently reprove them? And if thy repent not, in spite
of all worldly considerations, expel them out of your society? In
conniving at their sin, you make it your own; _you_, especially who
are _preachers_. Do you say, “They cannot bear it; they will not hear:”
Alas, into what state then are ye fallen! But whether they will bear
it or not, what is that to thee? Thou art to _speak, whether they will
hear, or whether they will forbear_. To say the very truth, I am afraid,
you rather strengthen their hands in their wickedness. For you not only
¹do not testify against it in the congregation, but even sit at their
table and reprove them not. Why then, thou also art one of _the dumb
dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber_.
¹ You say, “You _do testify against it_ in the congregation.”
Against what? “Against gay and gaudy apparel.” I grant it.
But this is not the thing I speak of. You quite mistake
my mark. Do you testify against the _costliness_ of their
apparel, however plain and grave it may be? Against the
_price_ of the velvet, the linen, the silk, or raiment of
whatever kind? If you do this frequently and explicitly,
you are clear. If not, own and amend the fault.
It is easy to discern how your people fell into this
snare of the devil. You were at first a poor, despised,
afflicted people. Then, what some of you had to spare,
was little enough to relieve the needy members of your own
society. In a few years you increased in goods, and were
able to relieve more than your _own_ poor. But you did not
bestow all that you had to spare from them, on the poor
belonging to other societies. It remained either to lay it
up, or to expend it in superfluities. Some chose one way,
and some the other.
* Lay this deeply to heart, ye who are now a poor, despised,
afflicted people. Hitherto ye are not able to relieve
your own poor. But if ever _your_ substance increase,
see that ye be not straitened in your own bowels, that ye
fall not ♦into the same snare of the devil. Before any of
you either lay up treasures on earth, or indulge needless
expence of any kind, I pray the Lord God to scatter you
to the corners of the earth, and blot out your name from
under heaven!
♦ “in” replaced with “into” per Errata
I fix this charge upon every _preacher_, in particular, who saw a
young woman, daughter to one of the _Quakers_ in _London_, going to be
married in apparel suitable to her diamond buckle, which cost a hundred
guineas. Could you see this, and not call heaven and earth to witness
against it? Then I witness against thee, in the name of the Lord,
thou art a _blind leader of the blind_: thou _strainest a gnat and
swallowest a camel_!
Verily the sin both of teachers and hearers, is herein exceeding
great. And the little attempts toward plainness of apparel, which are
still observable among you (I mean, in the _colour_ and _form_ of your
cloaths, and the _manner of_ putting them on) only testify against you,
that you were once what you know in your hearts you are not now.
8. I come now to your main principle, “We are all to be _taught of_ God,
to be _inspired_ and _led by his Spirit_. And then we shall _worship_
him, not with dead _form_, but _in spirit and in truth_.”
These are deep and weighty words. But many hold fast the words, and
are utterly ignorant of their meaning. Is not this an exceeding common
case? Are not you conscious, abundance of your friends have done so?
With whom the being _taught of God_ and _led by his Spirit_, are mere
words of course, that mean just nothing. And their crude and indigested
accounts, of the things they did not understand, have raised that deep
prejudice against these great truths, which we find in the generality
of men.
Do some of you ask, “But dost thou acknowledge _the inward principle_?”
I do, my friends: and I would to God every one of you acknowledged it
as much. I say, all religion is either _empty shew_, or _perfection
by inspiration_; in other words, The obedient love of God, by the
supernatural knowledge of God: yea, all that which _is not of faith
is sin_; all which does not spring from this loving knowledge of God;
which knowledge cannot begin, or subsist one moment, without _immediate
inspiration_: not only all public worship, and all private prayer,
but every thought, in common life, and word and work. What think you
of this? Do you not stagger? Dare you carry _the inward principle_
so far? Do you acknowledge it to be the very truth? But alas! what is
the acknowledging it? Dost thou experience this principle in thyself:
What saith thy heart? Does God dwell therein? And doth it now eccho to
the voice of God? Hast thou the _continual inspiration_ of his Spirit,
filling thy heart with his love, as with a well of water, springing up
into everlasting life?
* 9. Art thou acquainted with the _leading of his Spirit_, not by
notion only, but by living experience? I fear very many of you talk
of this, who do not so much as know what it means. How does the Spirit
of God _lead_ his children, to this, or that particular action? Do you
imagine, it is by _blind impulse_ only? By _moving_ you to do it, you
know not why? Not so. He leads us by our _eye_, at least as much as
by the _hand_; and by _light_ as well as by _heat_. He _shews_ us the
way wherein we should go, as well as _incites_ us to walk therein. For
example. Here is a man ready to perish with hunger. How am _I led by
the Spirit_ to relieve him? First, by his _convincing_ me, it is the
will of God I should, and secondly by his filling my heart with _love_
toward him. Both this _light_ and this _heat_ are the gift of God; are
wrought in me by the same Spirit: who _leads_ me, by this _conviction_
as well as _love_, to go and feed that man. This is the plain, rational
account of the _ordinary_ leading of the Spirit. But how far from that
which some have given!
* Art _thou_ thus led by the Spirit to every good word and work? Till
God ♦hath thereby made thy faith perfect? Dost thou know what _faith_
is? It is a loving, obedient sight of a present and reconciled God. Now
where this is, there is no _dead form_; neither can be, so long as it
continues. But all that is said or done is full of God, full of Spirit
and life and power.
♦ “had” replaced with “hath” per Errata
10. But perhaps, as much as you talk of them, you do not know the
difference between _form_ and _Spirit_; or between worshipping God in
a _formal_ way, and worshipping him _in spirit and in truth_.
The Lord is that Spirit. The seeing and feeling and loving him is
spiritual _life_. And whatever is said or done in the sight or love of
God, that is full of _spirit and life_. All beside this is _form_, mere
dead _form_; whether it be in our public addresses to God, or in our
private; or in our worldly business, or in our daily conversation.
* But if so, how poor and mean and narrow have your views and
conceptions been! You was afraid of _formality_ in _public worship_.
And reason good. But was you afraid of it no where else? Did not you
consider, that _formality_ in _common life_, is also an abomination
to the Lord? And that it can have no place in any thing we say or do,
but so far as we forget God? O watch against it in every place, every
moment, that you may every moment see and love God: and consequently,
at all times and in all places, worship him _in Spirit and in truth_.
My brethren, permit me to add a few words, in tender love to your souls.
Do not you _lean_ too much on the spirit and power which you believe
rested upon your _forefathers_? Suppose it did! Will that avail _you_,
if you do not drink into the same spirit? And how evident is this! That
whatever you once were, ye are now _shorn of your strength_. Ye are
weak and become like other men. The Lord is well nigh departed from you.
Where is now the spirit, the life, the power? Be not offended with my
plain dealing, when I beseech _you_ who are able to weigh things calmly,
to open your eyes and see multitudes even in the church, pursuing, yea
and attaining the _substance_ of spiritual life, and leaving unto you
the _shadow_. Nay a still greater evil is before you: for if ye find
not some effectual means to prevent it, your rising generation will
utterly cast off the _shadow_ as well as the _substance_.
11. There is an abundantly greater difference still, according to your
own account, between us who profess ourselves members of the church
of _England_, and you who are members of the church of _Rome_. But
notwithstanding this, do you not agree with us in condemning the vices
above recited? Prophaneness, drunkenness, whoredom, adultery, theft,
disobedience to parents, and such like? And how unhappily do you agree
with us in _practising_ the very vices which you _condemn_?
And yet you acknowledge (nay and frequently contend for this with a
peculiar earnestness) that every Christian is called to be _zealous of
good works_, as well as to _deny himself and take up his cross daily_.
How then do you depart from your own principles, when you are gluttons,
drunkards or epicures? When you live at your ease, in all the elegance
and voluptuousness of a plentiful fortune! How will you reconcile
the being adorned with gold, arrayed in purple and fine linen, and
faring sumptuously every day, with the _denying yourself and taking up
your cross daily_? Surely while you indulge the desire of the flesh,
the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, the excellent rules of
self-denial that abound in your own writers, leave you of all men most
inexcusable.
12. Neither can this self-indulgence be reconciled, with the being
_zealous of good works_. For by this needless and continual expence,
you disable yourself from doing good. You bind your own hands. You
make it impossible for you to do that good which otherwise you might.
So that you injure the poor in the same proportion as you poison your
own soul. You might have cloathed the naked; but what was due to them,
was thrown away on your costly apparel. You might have fed the hungry,
entertained the stranger, relieved them that were sick or in prison.
But the superfluities of your own table swallowed up that whereby they
should have been profited. And so this wasting of thy Lord’s goods, is
an instance of complicated wickedness; since hereby thy poor brother
perisheth, for whom Christ died.
I will not recommend to you either the writings or examples of those
whom you account _hereticks_, (although some of these, if you could
view them with impartial eyes, might _provoke you to jealousy_.) But O!
that God would write in your hearts the rules of self-denial and love,
laid down by _Thomas a Kempis_! Or that you would follow both in this
and in good works, that burning and shining light of your own church,
the Marquis _de Renty_! Then would all who know and loved the Lord
rejoice to acknowledge you as the _church of the living God_: when
ye were zealous of every good word and work; and abstained from all
appearance of evil: when it was hereby shewn that you were filled
with the Holy Ghost, and delivered from all unholy tempers: when ye
were all _unblameable and unrebukable, without spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people, shewing forth_ to all Jews, infidels and hereticks,
by your active, patient, spotless love of God and man, _the praises of
him, who had called you out of darkness into his marvellous light_.
13. Men and brethren, _Children of the seed of Abraham_, suffer me to
speak a few words to you also; you who do not allow, that Messiah _the
Prince is_ already come and _cut off_. However you so far hear _Moses_
and the prophets, as to allow, 1. That _it is the inspiration of
the Holy One, which giveth man understanding_, and that all the true
children of God _are taught of God_. 2. That the substance both of the
law and the prophets, is contained in that one word, _Thou shalt love
the_ Lord _thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thyself_. ♦3. That the sure
fruit of love is obedience, _ceasing from evil, and doing good_.
♦ insert “3.” per Errata
And do _you_ walk by this rule? Have _you yourselves_ that _inspiration
of the Holy One_? Are _you_ taught of God? Hath he opened your
understanding? Have you the inward knowledge of the most High? I fear
not. Perhaps you know little more, even of the meaning of the words
than a _Mahometan_.
Let us go a little farther. Do you _love the_ Lord _your_ God _with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength? Can you
say, Whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none upon earth that
I desire besides thee?_ Do you desire God at all? Do you desire to
have any thing to do with him, till you can keep the world no longer?
Are you not content, so you enjoy the good things of earth, to let God
stand afar off? Only calling upon him now and then, when you cannot
well do without him. Why then you do not _love_ God at all, tho’ you
will sometimes condescend to _use_ him. You _love_ the world. This
possesses your _heart_. This therefore is your God. You renounce the
God of your fathers, the God of _Israel_; you are still _uncircumcised
in heart_. Your own conscience bears witness, you in this no more hear
_Moses_ and the prophets, than you do Jesus of _Nazareth_.
14. From _Moses_ and the prophets it has been shewn, that your
forefathers were _a faithless and stubborn generation; a generation
which set not their hearts aright, and whose spirit cleaved not
stedfastly unto God_. And this you acknowledge yourselves. If you
are asked, how is it that the promise is not fulfilled? Seeing _the
scepter is_ long since _departed from Judah_, why is not _Shiloh_ come?
Your usual answer is, “because of the sins of our fathers, God hath
delayed his coming.” Have _you_ then reformed from the sins of your
fathers? Are _you_ turned unto the Lord your God? Nay, do ye not tread
in the same steps? Bating that single point of outward idolatry, what
abomination did _they_ ever commit, which _you_ have not committed
also? Which the generality of you do not commit still, according to
your power? If therefore the coming of the Messiah was hindered by
the sins of your forefathers, then by the same rule, your continuance
therein will hinder his coming to the end of the world.
_Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God_ is, that he would
_gather the outcasts of Israel_. And I doubt not, but when the fulness
of the _Gentiles_ is come in, then _all Israel shall be saved_. But
mean time, is there not great cause that ye should say with _Daniel_,
_O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of
face, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and unto all Israel. O Lord,
we have sinned, we have rebelled against thee, neither have we obeyed
the voice of the Lord our God. Yet O our God, incline thine ear, and
hear; open thine eyes and behold our desolations; for we do not present
our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy
great mercies. O Lord hear! O Lord forgive! O Lord, hearken and do!
Defer not, for thine own sake; for thy city and thy people that are
called by thy name._
15. I cannot conclude without addressing myself to you also, who do
not admit either the _Jewish_ or _Christian_ revelation. But still you
desire to be happy. You own the essential difference between vice and
virtue; and acknowledge, (as did all the wiser _Greeks_ and _Romans_)
that vice cannot consist with happiness. You allow likewise that
gratitude and benevolence, self-knowledge and modesty, mildness,
temperance, patience and generosity, are justly numbered among virtues;
and that ingratitude and malice, envy and ill-nature, pride, insolence
and vanity, gluttony and luxury, covetousness and discontent, are vices
of the highest kind.
Now let us calmly enquire, how far _your_ life is consistent with your
principles.
* You seek happiness. But you find it not. You come no nearer it with
all your labours. You are not happier than you was a year ago. Nay,
I doubt you are more unhappy. Why is this, but because you look for
happiness there, where you own it cannot be found? Indeed, what is
there on earth which can long satisfy a man of understanding? His soul
is too large for the world he lives in. He wants more room.
Æstuat infelix augusto limite Mundi,
Ut brevibus clausus Gyaris, parvaque seripho.
He has already travelled through all which is called pleasure;
diversions and entertainments of every kind. But among these he can
find no enjoyment of any depth; they are empty, shallow, superficial
things: they pleased for a while, but the gloss is gone: and now they
are dull and tasteless. And what has he next? Only the same things
again; for this world affords nothing more. It can supply him with no
change. Go, feed again: but it is upon one dish still. Thus
_Occidit miseros crambe repetita._
Yet what remedy under the sun!
* 16. The sounder judgment, the stronger understanding you have, the
sooner are you sated with the world. And the more deeply convinced, all
that cometh is vanity; foolish, insipid, nauseous. You see the foibles
of men in so much clearer a light, and have the keener sense of the
emptiness of life. Here you are, a poor, unsatisfied inhabitant of an
unquiet world; turning your weary eyes on this side and on that side:
seeking rest, but finding none. You seem to be _out of your place_:
neither the persons nor things that surround you are _such as you want_.
You have a confused idea of _something_ better than all this; but you
know not where to find it. You are always gasping for _something_ which
you cannot attain, no, not if you range to the uttermost parts of the
earth.
But this is not all. You are not only _negatively_ unhappy, as finding
nothing whereon to stay the weight of your soul; but _positively_ so,
because you are unholy: you are miserable, because you are vicious. Are
you not vicious? Are you then full of gratitude to him, who giveth you
life and breath, and all things? Not so; you rather spurn his gifts,
and murmur at him that gave them. How often has your heart said, God
did not use you well? How often have you questioned either his wisdom
or goodness? Was this well done? What kind of gratitude is this? It
is the best you are master of. Then take knowledge of yourself. Black
ingratitude is rooted in your inmost frame. You can no more love God,
than you can see him; or than you can be happy without that love.
Neither (how much soever you may pique yourself upon it) are you a
lover of mankind. Can love and malice consist? Benevolence and envy?
O do not put out your own eyes. And are not these horrid tempers in
_you_? Do not you envy one man, and bear malice or ill-will to another?
I know you call these dispositions by softer names; but names change
not the nature of things. You are pained that one should enjoy what
you cannot enjoy yourself. Call this what you please, it is rank envy.
You are grieved, that a second enjoys even what you have yourself; you
rejoice in seeing a third unhappy. Do not flatter yourself: this is
malice, venomous malice, and nothing else. And how could you ever think
of being happy, with malice and envy in your heart? Just as well might
you expect to be at ease, while you held burning coals in your bosom.
17. I intreat you to reflect, whether there are not other inhabitants
in your breast, which leave no room for happiness there. May you not
discover, through a thousand disguises, pride? Too high an opinion of
yourself? Vanity, thirst of praise, even (who would believe it?) of
the applause of knaves and fools? Unevenness or sourness of temper?
Proneness to anger or revenge? Peevishness, fretfulness, or pining
discontent? Nay, perhaps even covetousness.――And did you ever think,
happiness could dwell with these? Awake out of that senseless dream.
Think not of reconciling things incompatible. All these tempers are
essential misery. So long as any of these are harboured in your breast,
you must be a stranger to inward peace. What avails it you, if there be
no other hell? Whenever these fiends are let loose upon you, you will
be constrained to own,
“Hell is where’er I am: myself am hell;”