We do not, however, know, what any of these illustrious
personages wore. They were probably dressed in the habits of Judean
peasants, and not with any marked difference from those of the same rank
in life. And that they were dressed plainly, we have every reason to
believe, from the censures, which some of them passed on the
superfluities of apparel. But christianity has no where recorded these
habits as a pattern, nor has it prescribed to any man any form or colour
for his clothes.
But christianity, though it no where places religion in particular
forms, is yet not indifferent on the general subject of dress. For in
the first place it discards all ornaments, as appears by the testimonies
of St. Paul and St. Peter before quoted, and this it does evidently on
the ground of morality, lest these, by puffing up the creature, should
be made to give birth to the censurable passions of vanity and lust. In
the second place it forbids all unreasonable changes on the plea of
conformity with the fashions of the world: and it sets its face against
these also upon moral grounds; because the following of the fashions of
the world begets a worldly spirit, and because, in proportion as men
indulge this spirit, they are found to follow the loose and changeable
morality of the world, instead of the strict and steady morality of the
gospel.
Pages:
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252