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_.