And you tell the world by even as plainly and foolishly it. Honour must be forced by desert and worth, and not come by begging; for that is no honour that is given to the undeserving. It is but the shadow of desert, and will constantly follow it among the wise and good, but never go without it. Your bravery doth so openly shew your desire of esteem and honour, that it plainly tells all wise men that you are the less worthy of it. For the more a man desireth esteem, the less he deserves it. your attire that you desire it; as if you should say to the folks in the streets,' I pray think well of me, and take me for a handsome, comely person, and for one that is above the common sort.' Would you not laugh at one that should make such a request to you? Why, what do you less, when by your attire you beg estimation from them? And for what, I pray you, should we esteem you? Is it for your clothes? Why I can put a silver lace upon a mawkin, or a silken coat on a post, or an ass. Is it for your comely bodies? Why a wicked Absalom was beautiful, and the basest harlots have had as much of this as you a comely body, or beautiful face doth oft betray the soul, but never saveth it from hell. And your bodies are never the comlier for you dress, whatever they virtues that your may seem. Is it for would be esteemed? Why pride is the greatest enemy to virtue, and as great a deformity to the soul as the small-pox is to the body; and he that will think you ever the honester for a new suit, or a silver lace, doth as little know what honesty is as yourselves. For shame, therefore, give over begging for esteem, at least by such a means as inviteth all wise men to deny your suit; but either let honour come without begging for, or be without it. you 4. Consider also that excess of apparel doth quite contradict the end that proud persons do intend it for. I confess it doth sometimes ensnare a fool, and so accomplish the desires of the lustful; but it seldom attaineth the ends of the proud: for their desire is to be more highly esteemed, and almost all men do think the more meanly of them. Wise men have more wit, than to think the tailor can make a wise man or woman, or an honest man or woman, or a handsome man or woman: good men pity them, and lament their folly and vice, and wish them wisdom and humility. In the eyes of a wise and gracious man, a poor self-denying, humble, patient, heavenly Christian, is worth a thousand of these painted posts and peacocks. And it so falls out that the ungodly themselves frustrate the proud person's expectations. For as covetous men do not like covetousness in another, because they would get most themselves; so proud persons like not pride in others, because they would not have any to vie with them, or overtop them, and be looked upon and preferred before them. None look with such scorn and envy at your bravery, as those that are as silly and sinful as yourselves, who cannot endure that you should excel them in vanity; so that good and bad do ordinarily despise or pity you for that which you think should procure your esteem. 5. Consider also, that apparel is the fruit or consequent of sin, that laid man naked and open unto shame; and is it fit that you should be proud of that which is ordained to hide your shame ; and which should humble you, by minding you of the sin that caused the necessity of it? 6. And you should bethink you better than most gallants do, what account you mean to make to God for the money that you lay out in excess of bravery. Will it, think you, be a good and comfortable account, to say, 'Lord, I laid out so much to feed and manifest my pride and lust,' when such abundance of pious and charitable uses did call for all that you could spare? Many a lord, and knight, and gallant bestoweth more in one suit of clothes, or in one set of hangings, or in the superfluous dress of a daughter, than would keep a family of poor people for a twelvemonth, or that would maintain a poor scholar for higher service than ever they themselves will do; and many a poor boy or girl goeth without a bible, or any good books, that they may lay out all they have on their backs. 7. Lastly, I beseech you not to forget what it is that you are so carefully doing; and what those bodies are that you so adorn, and are so proud of, and set out to the sight of the world in such bravery. Do you not know yourselves? Is it not a lump of warm and thick clay, that you would have men observe and honour? When the soul that you neglect is once gone from them, they will be set out then in another garb. That little space of earth that must receive them, must be defiled with their filthiness and corrup tion; and the dearest of your friends will have no more of your company, nor one smell or sight of you more, if they can choose. There is not a carrion in the ditch that is more loathsome than that gallant painted corpse will be a little after death. And what are you in the mean time? Even bags of filth, and living graves, in which the carcases of your fellow-creatures are daily buried and corrupt. There is scarce a day with most of you, but some part of a dead carcase is buried in your bodies, in which, as in a filthy grave, they lie and corrupt, and part of them turneth into your substance, and the rest is cast out into filthy excrements. And thus you walk like painted sepulchres; your fine clothes are the adorned covers of filth, and phlegm, and dung. If you did but see what is within the proudest gallant, you would say the inside did much differ from the outside. It may be a hundred worms are crawling in the bowels of that beautiful damsel, or adorned fool, that set out themselves to be admired for their bravery. If a little of the filth within do but turn to the scab or the small-pox, you shall see what a piece it was that was wont to have all that curious trimming. your Away then with these vanities, and be not children all your days; nay, be not proud of that which children themselves can spare! Be ashamed that ever you have been guilty of so much dotage, as to think that people should honour you for a borrowed bravery, which you put off at night, and on in the morning! O poor deluded dust and worms'-meat! lay by your dotage, and know yourselves: look after that which may procure you deserved and perpetual esteem, and see that you make sure of the honour that is of God. Away with deceitful ornaments and gauds, and look after the inward real worth. Grace is not set out and honoured by fine clothes, but clouded, wronged and dishonoured by excess. It is the inward glory that is the real glory. The image of God must needs be the chiefest beauty of man let that shine forth in the holiness of lives, your and will be honourable indeed. Peter telleth you of you such a conversation of women as may win their unbelieving husbands without the word. And what is it? they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear; whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning, of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of "While apparel; but the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in old time, the holy women that trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their husbands;" Pet. iii. 1—5. CHAPTER XXVII. Ease, Quietness and worldly Peace to be Denied. 10. ANOTHER part of carnal self-interest to be denied, is, ease, quietness, and worldly peace, which the slothful and self-seekers prefer before the pleasing of God. Both the ease of the mind and of the body are here comprehended; and slothfulness in God's nearest service, and also in the works of our callings to be reprehended. The same fleshly power that draweth one man to whoredom, and drunkenness, and covetousness, doth draw another to sloth, and idleness. It is but several ways of pleasing the same flesh, and obeying the same sensuality. And because that idleness and sloth is so great and common a sin, and yet made so light of by the most, I shall briefly tell you the mischiefs of it, and the reasons that should make you hate it. 1. Slothfulness doth contradict the very end of our creation and preservation, and the frame of our nature; and so provoketh God to cut us off, and cast us as useless into the fire. Who dare so wrong the wisdom of God, as to say or think that he made us to do nothing? If a man make a house, it is to dwell in; if he make a watch, it is to tell him the hour of the day, and every thing is for its proper use. And is man made to be idle? What man, that is the noblest inferior creature, and an active creature, fitted for work, and the highest work! shall he be idle? Justly may God then hew him down as a dead and withered tree, and suffer him no more to cumber his ground. 2. Slothfulness is a sin that loseth the precious gifts of God. Our faculties and our members are his gifts and talents, which he hath committed to us to use for his service; so are our goods and all that we have: and shall we hide them in a napkin, or idly neglect to use them? O, what abundance of excellent mercies lie useless and idle, because you are idle that should use them! Every hour that you lose in idleness, what noble faculties, and large provisions are all laid by! As much as in you lieth, you make the whole creation to be, and work in vain. Why should the sun shine an hour or minute for you in vain? Why should the earth bear you an hour in vain? Why should the springs and rivers run for you an hour in vain? Why should the air refresh you an hour in vain? Why should your pulse beat one stroke in vain; or your lungs once breathe a breath in vain? Shall all be at work for you to further your work, and will you think that idleness is no sin? 3. Moreover, laziness and sloth is a sin that loseth you much precious time. All the time is lost that you are idle in. Yea, when you are at work, if you do it slothfully, you are losing much of your time. A diligent person will go further, and do more in an hour, than the lazy flesh-pleaser will do in two. When the slothful is praying, or reading, and working in his calling, he is but losing half his time, which diligence would redeem. And is our time so short and precious, and yet is idleness an excusable sin? what, loiter so near night! so near eternity, when we have but a little time to work! O, work while it is day, for the night is coming when none can work. Were it but for this, that sloth doth steal so much of our time, I must think it no better than an heinous thievery. 4. And by this means we rob ourselves. We might be getting some good all the time that we are idle; or doubly advantage ourselves, if sloth did not keep us company in our work. "The slothful is brother to him that is a great waster;" Prov. xviii. 9. Slothfulness is self-murdering; men die while they lie still and wish. It is a sin that famisheth soul and body; "The desire of the slothful killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour;" Prov. xxi. 25. It is the common cause of beggary and want; and what comfort can you have under such afflictions which you bring upon yourselves? If you want food or raiment, if your wives and children are in want, how can you think that God should take care of you and afford you relief, when you bring this on yourselves by pleasing your flesh which is his enemy? If a soldier get hurt by trucking with the enemy, he |