"When flowing garments I behold Enspir'd with purple, pearle, and gold; In them a glorious leprosie, That does infect, and make the rent More mortal in the vestiment. As flowrie vestures do descry The wearer's rich immodestie ; So plain and simple cloathes do show Where virtue walks, not those that flow." Herrick's Hesperides. "St. Paul speaking to women, who, as Hierome saith, are pilóкoσμov genus,―much affect trimness in apparel, and are glad of a holyday to be seen in their best clothes,-tells them plainly that broidered hair, and gold, and pearls, and costly array, are not so becoming a wear as good works.”— Farindon's Sermons, vol. iii..p. 310. "That religion, which commands us to visit and to tend sick strangers, and wash the feet of the poor, and dress their ulcers, and sends us upon charitable embassies into unclean prisons, and bids us lay down our lives for one another, is not pleased with a niceness and sensual curiosity."—Jer. Taylor. Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori! 1 PET. iii. 3, 4. "Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 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 is in the sight of God of great price." If people will turn to the Scripture for instruction in righteousness they will not fail to find it. There it is, and thence they may learn to be holy in all manner of conversation. Man and woman in their several stations as husband and wife, son and daughter, man-servant and maid-servant, if they will but look "into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein, being not forgetful hearers, but doers of the work ',"-each one severally may be blessed in his life. Things will then be spiritually discerned, and with a religious turn of mind; and the consequence will be, that men will not "walk after 1 James i. 25. the flesh, but after the spirit." A new light will burst in upon them, and that no false one to lead them astray, but "a burning and a shining light" to guide their feet in the paths of truth, and to prepare the way of the Lord. Whereas, when men seek not to the Bible to note what is contained in the Scripture of truth 2—— then, as it is written in the Prophet, "their course Each one, as is evil, and their force is not right "." when there was no king in Israel, "doeth that which is right in his own eyes;"—or, as we find it written of the men of Laish, they are "careless," even as though there were no magistrate in the land to put them to shame in anything, and to enforce from the Bible what appertaineth to decency, and order, and good morals, and so unto salvation. But, as I said, those that will read the Scriptures will find what leads to the one, and in due time to the other. There is manna there for every palate, and instruction for all the sons of men. Why are they then like Amnon, "lean from day to day 5 ?" Why are they not wiser unto salvation? The truth, perhaps, Christian brethren, is this, "The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the sun in winter. We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them. But the plainest are like the sun in summer. They come too near our zenith, their 2 Dan. x. 1. 4 Judges xviii. 7. 3 Jer. xxiii. 10. 5 2 Sam. xiii. 4. light and heat offend us, they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty; and therefore we use art, and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat. As we have heard of the people of Africk, that they every morning curse the sun, because the heat of it annoyeth them "." 6 And so we find in every-day life, that instead of taking the sense of the Bible simply as it is written, or, like the eunuch in the Acts, seeking for one to guide them to understanding,-each one, almost, "hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation "," like the Corinthians of old. Accordingly, "we see many interpret Scriptures, as Jonathan shot his arrows, sometimes beyond, sometimes beside, sometimes short of the sense of them & !" 8 Now thus, perhaps, it has been with the verses selected for the text. Some may have misunderstood them altogether, others may have misapplied them. This person thinks dress too mean a subject for Christian discussion,-that one sides with the son of Sirach, "A man may be known by his look, and one that hath understanding by his countenance when thou meetest him. A man's attire, and excessive laughter, and gait, shew what he is 9. Admitting then, that this variety of opinion does. exist, let us see what the advice is which the Holy See Farindon's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 600, ed. folio. 6 |