My Meaning is this: No Man is oblig'd to forbear or abftain from the Practice or Ufe of any Thing merely upon this Account, that it is a Thing that the World, or, if you will, the wicked Men of the World, do practise or use.

This Propofition I lay down to obviate the Pretences of fome Enthufiaftical Men among us, a main Article of whose Religion is, to be at as wide a Distance from the World in their Way of Living as poffibly they can be; for fay they, the whole World lieth in Wickedness, and all the People of God are to come out of it; no further to comply with the Manners and Customs of it than what abfolute Neceffity doth require, for all further Compliances favour of the Wisdom of this World, which is carnal, and fenfual, and devilish: And fo far have they run this Point, that it is accounted unlawful to use the fame Language or Speech that is commonly used in the World, but every Thing is to be spoken, fo far as may be, in the Scripture Language. And as much do they declaim against the common Ways of Behaviour and Deportment that are practifed among Men. All that Expreflion of Duty to our Superiors, and of Civility and Refpect to others, which is according to the Mode of the Country, whether it be by uncovering the Head, or bowing the Knee, or by giving them their juft and ufual Titles, or by faluting them

in the common Form of Ceremony and Addrefs; all this is exploded as an unchristian Thing. And the fame War do they declare against the Habits and Garments of the World that they do against its Language and Behaviour. Whofoever gives up his Name to the Profeffion of Religion, muft mortify himself as to all Gaiety of Attire, and even Decency too; he must strip himself of every Thing that is rich or ornamental about him, and muft wear nothing that is fuperfluous, nothing by which his Rank and Quality may be distinguished from that of others.

This is the Principle which one whole Sect has efpoufed, and which a great many who have not wholly given up themselves to that Sect, are yet unfatisfied about. But to fhew the extreme Abfurdity of it, there needs nothing more to be done, than only to name these following Things: for to infift largely on them in fo plain a Cafe, would be only to mifpend Time.

(1.) First of all, if this Principle be admitted, we shall never be able to fix any -certain Boundaries or Measures of what is lawful to Chriftians, and what is finful in them; and confequently every Man will be eternally entangled in Scruples and Perplexities, and there will be no Cure for them, If a Conformity to the Modes and Cuftoms. of the World be unlawful in all Cafes, fave only where that Conformity is abfolutely necef

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neceffary to our living in the World, then we cannot be certain but that every Day we do that which is unlawful; for we are not fure but that every Day we have complied more with the Cuftoms of the World than was barely neceffary. There are a hundred Things which every Man daily doth in Compliance with the common Ufages of Mankind, which are no ways needful to be done, and may, without any Detriment to his Life and Fortunes, be as well done another way, but only that Cuftom prevails. Now, according to the aforefaid Principle, every fuch Action that a Man doth, must be a Sin. But,

(2.) This is a Principle which none of thofe who ftand up for it, no not the ftricteft of the Quakers themfelves do live up to. (Of if they did, they would be much more uncouth and ridiculous than they are.) They fay we muft not be conformable to the Mode of the World, as to Matter of Apparel, for Inftance: But if this be a true Rule, why do not they wear different fort of Cloaths from what they do? And fince they will take their Pattern from Scripture, why do not they go in Sandals instead of Shoes? why do they not wear long loofe Veftments, after the Manner of the Eaftern Nations. Both thefe are undoubtedly more agreeable to the Practice of the Saints, not only of the Old, but of the New Testament too. Again, if it be unlawful to comply

with the Times in the matter of Cloaths and Drefs, why is it not as much unlawful to use the fame Way of eating and drinking that others do? How comes it to pass that they dare use the Pofture of Sitting when they take their Meat, fince that is the Way of the World, and is quite different from that Pofture that our Saviour and the Chriftians in his Time ufed at Meals; for their Way then was to lean on Couches or Beds conveniently difpofed about the Table: but this none of our Moderns do obferve, notwithstanding their Zeal and Care to imitate the Saints. And a hundred other Things there are in which Men must reform their Manners if they will practise according to this Principle, which yet none of them who contend for it do; and indeed, they are the wifer for not doing it: But yet it is a fhrewd Argument either that they do not believe their own Doctrine, or, if they do, they think it impracticable.

(3.) But further; This Principle that we ought not to be conformable to this World in any Thing where we can avoid it, is fo contradictory to the Spirit by which our Lord Jefus and his Apoftles were acted, and according to which they practised, that nothing can be more. As for the Apostles, they converfed with all Men promifcuoufly, and after their own Way and Mode, and one of them was openly reproved by St. Paul, for Gal. 2. 14. not conforming himself to the Gentile Way

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of Conversation, when he came among the Gentiles, but fticking too closely to that stingy Principle of the Jews, who, thinking themselves more holy than the other Nations were, would not joyn with them in the innocent Freedom of a common Table. 1 Cor. 9. And the fame St. Paul declares, that he became all Things to all Men, that by this means he might gain more Souls. And it doth not appear that ever the Apoftles, or the firft Christians, made any Scruples of accommodating themselves to the Guife and Manner of the People they preached to; except only in Things which were of themselves unlawful and contrary to the Religion which they were to preach. As to our Saviour, he was a Person so far from being morofe or referved in his Carriage, or a Lover of Singularity, fo far from fetting up a Way of Converfation of his own making, diftinct from the Way he found in the World, that he was the moft free, obliging, and civil, and, if I durft ufe the Word, I would fay, the most complaisant Person that ever perhaps appeared in the World. Both his Language and way of Converse, as also his Garb and Attire, and the whole Manner of his Carriage and Behaviour, was perfectly the same with that of the Country in which he dwelt: which Thing I wish were well confidered by those we have to deal with; for if they did seriously mind it, they would from hence rather draw an Argument that we at this Day ought to comply in these