God's soveraignty displayed from Job 9. 12. : Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him? &c., or, A discourse shewing, that God doth, and may take away from his creatures what hee pleaseth, as to the matter what, the place where, the time when, the means and manner how, and the reasons thereof : with an application of the whole, to the distressed citizens of London, whose houses and goods were lately consumed by the fire : an excitation of them to look to the procuring causes of this fiery tryal, the ends that God aims at in it, with directions how to behave themselves under their losses / by William Gearing ...

SECT. VII.

[ VII] A seventh sin I shall set before you, is the sin of Pride; especially pride of apparel; and to what height of pride in this kinde were people grown every where, especially in the great City of this Land, who knoweth not? it is a note of levity and vanity of minde, to be still devising and following new fangled fashions; it makes the world beleeve the Moon to be our Mistress, and predo∣minant Planet, and then it will plainly appear, we are no better than lunaticks: It is a great reproach to the English Nation, to follow all new devised fashi∣ons, and especially to bee the French∣mens Apes, who are generally haters of our Nation: therefore in Forreign parts they paint an English man naked, with a piece of cloath under his arm, and with a pair of shears in his hand, seek∣ing a Taylor to finde him out a new fashion. The use of Apparel is, 1. for necessity, to cover our nakednesse. 2. for ornament and comlinesse. 3. for distinction of age, of sexe, of quality; for great personages may, and should wear rich apparel, so it be grave, so∣ber,

and seemly: but now people of all ranks almost are grown to an excess in this kind, and the servant can hardly be distinguished by his apparel from his Master, nor Gill from a Gentlewoman. Apparel sheweth what most people are that wear it, it uncovers their hearts to the world, you may know whether people are chaste or wanton, proud or grave, sober or fantastical by the appa∣rel they wear. Is not he condemned for a very fool that takes more care to be comly, proud, and rich in apparel, than to he healthy? Is not he a fool to be laught at, that will brag of a clean Band, and hath a foul dirty face, and will not wash it? Strange it is to see the folly of men, whose special care is to adorn their bodies with costly apparel that they might appear comely and glo∣rious in the sight of men, but regard not how ugly, how deformed, how pollu∣ted and abominable their souls are in the sight of God. As God complain∣ed of the Jews, Is it time for you to dwell in your seiled houses, and this house lye waste? Hag. 1.4. So God may complain, is it time for the daugh∣tets of England, for the daughters of London to be haughty, and walk with

stretched out necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go? when the Lord is pouring out his fury, like fire upon them, and marring the pride of England, and the great pride of Lon∣don, as sometime he threatned to mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem, Jer. 13.9. Ah! how do many people spend more precious time in dressing their bodies, than in trimming their souls; and delight more to see their faces in a glass, than to view their hearts in the glass of the Word! Oh what will become of their souls, when God shall strip them of their gau∣dy cloathes, and pampered bodies! What confusion will fall on them, when their souls shall appear naked before the Lord! Then they will cry out; the joy of our heart is ceased, our daunce is turned into mourning; the crown is fal∣len from our head, wo unto us that we have sinned. Our crown of honour, our crown of pleasure, our crown of pride is fallen from our heads, wo un∣to us that we have sinned, and walked in pride. Pride is the usher of ruine; Pride goes before destruction, Prov. 16. 18. One asked an Heathen Philoso∣pher, what God was doing? hee an∣swered,

Totam ejus occupationem esse in elevatione humiliū, in dejectione super∣borum; It is Gods whole business to exalt the humble, and to abase and cast down the proud. Behold the day com∣eth, that shall burn like an tven, and all the proud, &c. shall bee as stubble. Mal. 4.1. Though now they are like iron and steel, yet then they shall bee like stubble before the fire of his de∣vouring wrath.

Notes

• Lam. 3.15 16