To which saying I have a mind to add one member, and render it thus: poverty wants some, luxury many, avarice all things. Somebody saith of a virtuous and wise man that having nothing, he hath all. This is just his antipode, who having all things, yet hath nothing.
And O! what man's condition can be worse Than his, whom plenty starves, and blessings curse? The beggars but a common fate deplore, The rich poor man's emphatically poor.
"I wonder how it cometh to pass, that there hath never been any law made against him: against him do I say? I mean for him. As there are public provisions made for all other madmen, it is very reasonable that the king should appoint some persons to manage his estate, during his life, for his heirs commonly need not that care, and out of it to make it their business to see that he should not want alimony befitting their condition; which he could never get out of his own cruel fingers. We relieve idle vagrants and counterfeit beggars, but have no care at all of these really poor men, who are, methinks, to be respectfully treated, in regard of their quality. I might be endless against them, but I am almost choked with the superabundance of the matter. Too much plenty impoverisheth me, as it doth them." Thus much against avarice, that moth of the soul, and canker of the mind.
CHAPTER XIV.
1. Luxury, what it is, and the mischief of it to mankind. An enemy to the cross of Christ.—2. Of luxury in diet, how unlike Christ, and contrary to Scripture.—3. The mischief it does to the bodies, as well as the minds of people.—4. Of luxury in the excess of apparel, and of recreations; that sin brought the first coat: people not to be proud of the badge of their misery.—5. The recreations of the times, enemies to virtue: they rise from degeneracy.—6. The end of clothes allowable; the abuse reprehended.—7. The chief recreation of good men of old was to serve God, and do good to mankind, and follow honest vocations, not vain sports and pastimes.—8. The Heathen knew and did better things. The sobriety of infidels above Christians.—9. Luxury condemned in the case of the rich man.—10. The doctrine of the Scripture positively against a voluptuous life.
I. I am now come to the other extreme, and that is luxury, which is an excessive indulgence of self, in ease and pleasure. This is the last great impiety struck at in this discourse of the holy cross of Christ, which indeed is much the subject of its mortifying virtue and power. A disease as epidemical, as killing: it creeps into all stations and ranks of men: the poorest often exceeding their ability to indulge their appetite; and the rich frequently wallowing in those things that please the lusts of their eye and flesh, and the pride of life: as regardless of the severe discipline of JESUS, whom they call Saviour, as if luxury, and not the cross, were the ordained way to heaven. What shall we eat, what shall we drink, and what shall we put on? once the care of luxurious heathens, is now the practice of, and which is worse, the study of pretended Christians. But let such be ashamed, and repent; remembering that Jesus did not reproach the Gentiles for those things, to indulge his followers in them. They that will have Christ to be theirs, must be sure to be his; to be like-minded, to live in temperance and moderation, as knowing the Lord is at hand. Sumptuous apparel, rich unguents, delicate washes, stately furniture, costly cookery, and such diversions as balls, masques, music-meetings, plays, romances, &c., which are the delight and entertainment of the times, belong not to the holy path that Jesus and his true disciples and followers trod to glory. No, "Through many tribulations," says none of the least of them, "must we enter the kingdom of God." (Acts, xiv. 22.) I do earnestly beseech the gay and luxurious, into whose hands this discourse shall be directed, to consider well the reasons and examples here advanced against their way of living; if happily they may come to see how remote it is from true Christianity, and how dangerous to their eternal peace. God Almighty, by his grace, soften their hearts to instruction, and shed abroad his tender love in their souls, that they may be overcome to repentance, and to the love of the holy way of the cross of Jesus, the blessed Redeemer of men. For they cannot think that He can benefit them, while they refuse to lay down their sins for the love of Him that laid down his life for the love of them. Or that He will give them a place in heaven, that refuse Him any in their hearts on earth. But let us examine luxury in all its parts.
II. Luxury has many parts; the first that is forbidden by the self-denying Jesus, is gluttony, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink?—for after these things do the Gentiles seek:" (Mat. vi. 31, 32:) as if He had said, The Heathen, such as live without the true God, whose care is to please their appetite, more than to seek God and his kingdom: you must not do so, but "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mat. vi. 33.) That which is convenient for you will follow: let everything have its time and order.
This carries a serious reprehension to the luxurious eater and drinker, who is taken up with an excessive care of his palate, what shall he eat, and what shall he drink: who being often at a loss what to have next, therefore has an officer to invent, and a cook to dress, disguise, and drown the species, that it may cheat the eye, look new and strange; and all to excite an appetite, or raise an admiration. To be sure there is great variety, and that curious and costly; the sauce, it may be, dearer than the meat; and so full is he fed, that without it he can scarce find out a stomach; which is to force a hunger, rather than to satisfy it.—And as he eats, so he drinks: rarely for thirst, but pleasure: to please his palate. For that purpose he will have divers sorts, and he must taste them all: one, however good, is dull and tiresome; variety is more delightful than the best; and therefore the whole world is little enough to fill his cellar. But were he temperate in his proportions, his variety might be imputed rather to curiosity than luxury. But what the temperate man uses as a cordial, he drinks by full draughts, till inflamed by excess, he is fitted to be an instrument of mischief, if not to other persons, yet always to himself, whom perhaps at last he knows not: for such brutality are some come to, they will sip themselves out of their own knowledge. This is the lust of the flesh, that is not of the Father, but of the world; for upon this comes in the music and dance, and mirth, and the laughter, which is madness; (Eccl. ii. 2;) that the noise of one pleasure may drown the iniquity of another, lest his own heart should deal too plainly with him. Thus the luxurious live: they forget God, they regard not the afflicted. O that the sons and daughters of men would consider their wantonness and their iniquity in these things! How ill do they requite the goodness of God in the use and abuse of the plenty He yields them! How cruel are they to his creatures, how lavish of their lives and virtue, how thankless for them: forgetting the Giver, and abusing his gifts, and despising counsel, and casting instruction behind them! They lose tenderness and forget duty, being swallowed up of voluptuousness, adding one excess to another. God rebuked this sin in the Jews, by the prophet Amos: "Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." (Amos, vi. 3-6.) These, it seems, were the vices of the degenerate Jews, under all their pretence to religion; and are they not of Christians at this day? Yea they are, and these are the great parts of luxury struck at in this discourse. Remember the rich man, with all his sumptuous fare, went to hell: and the apostle pronounces heavy woes upon those "whose god is their belly: for such glory in their shame." (Phil. iii. 19.)