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I Have often wondered at the difference of our dayes from the discriptions of the for∣mer; and in nothing more than in the poynts of Frugality. To passe over those white ages, when the Wealthy Patriarches disdai∣ned not the offices of husbandmen, & of Sheepherds when great men imployed their children, yea their daughters, that soft sex, in such ser∣vices in the moderne age (that a∣bout Christs time I mean) Frugali∣ty was never accoūted a crime. Ci∣cero
in his defence of Dejotarus, King, maintaind it a vertue proper for a Prince. The Sumptuary laws, the apothegms, the patterns and presidents thereof famously known, and too many to be repea∣ted, speak sufficiently in it's be∣halfe. Christianity certainly has not cashiered it it's esteem: nay rather on many good grounds and arguments has advanc'd it (far above a semy-vertue) into the roll of vertues and duties ob∣liging the coscience it selfe; and questionlesse the best of the pri∣mitive Christians were not so neg∣lectful of the repute of the Gospel, so un-mindefull of the necessities of the Saints, as in their opinions, or practice to undervalue it. Yet by what experience I have had it, it seems to me now to be as farre banish'd from most places as is justice: nay it has not that thin gar∣ment
of words allowed it, with ho∣nesty, to keep it from being sterved. I have often wondred that such, as professe themselves disciples of Iesus, should with less straining be∣stow pounds upon the rich, upon superfluities, upon impertinent company, (when commonly the losse of time is equally considera∣ble) than far smaller summes on the poore members of Christ, or whom at least charity obligeth them to hope to be such. But I know not what limits to put to my admiration, that a Christian should be worse thought of for such acts of Charity, and such living as may maintaine them, than for direct breaches of scrip∣ture commands in apparell, in diet, in revelling banquetings and comessations; as if every Prodigall were sure to returne home to his father with him in
the Gospell, or there were no fa∣vour to be expected for such sons as have not rū that riotous course. I know a man that by generall vote was cast for a parsimonious, and a covetous fellow; yea not a few among the more serious sort thought him much too close han∣ded, and yet the same man as rea∣dy as any to spend liberally ac∣cording to his ability, where the least shadow of reason could make it seem fitting▪ & by his own con∣science so free from that crime that he ranked the contrary in his usuall confessions. Certainly, as the world goes now, a man had need have a great measure of self∣denyall to bee a good husband as well as a good Christian.
Obser. 11.