Catechisme upon the 7th Command Which fearfull stroke of divine vengeance and censure of so learned and pious a person making that her painting a most meritorious and principall cause of her so sad destiny are sufficient I think to scare the most adventurous woman from any such sinfull and accursed practise MAdam as I allow your rule the word of God which is the onely balance of the Sanctuary where sins are to be weighted so I am not ignorant of that story to which your LaP Ladyship as all others in this dispute do much referre Nor am I a stranger to that glosse or observation thence made against all painting or tincturing of the face by that most worthy Prelate with whose so quick and sharp a stroke I was at first reading that passage so startled that I had no rest till I advised with another person of great judgement and and sober piety who made it clear to me That that excellent Bishop however then he thought sit after the wonted oratory and freedome of some of the Fathers to make a a popular passe or stroke of his potent pen against what he might suspect to be then much used and abused too in the English world yet for certain he was too wise and judicious a Divine to fix that signall and heavy judgement of God onely or chiefly or indeed at all upon Jezebels painting which was an after act and as to that time or instant in the story comes at least 14. years behind that dreadful doom which was by the prophet Elisha foretold upon the score of Naboths blood unjustly shed his inheritance cruelly usurped which is 1 Kings 21. 23. So that her painting her eyes or face mentioned in the place you urge is indeed among other occasionall circumstances recorded but to a farre different end or use than either to lay the weight of the subsequent punishment or the guilt of any sin upon that act more than upon the other concomitant actions therewith recited § Among which this of her painting is indeed set down chiefly to shew That no advantages of outward Beauty naturall or artificiall though set off with the curiosity Majesty of a Queen are sufficient to make any person the object of either love or pity where foul and enormous sins have so debased and deformed their souls to God As Murther Idolatry and Oppression had done Jezebels For which sins as is expresly said that Tragedy befell her which was foretold long before she is brought in so dressed and adorned which thunderbolt of Gods vengeance she in vain sought to disarm or avoid by using any charms attractives or lenitives of outward beauty if that were her designe which truly is not very probable at her years and toward Jehu a declared enemy Nor do indeed the actions of Jezebel signifie as that gentleman told me any amorous intention whereby to allure Jehu since her words reproach him with so just and bitter a Sarcasme as that is Had Zimri peace who slew his master § So that Jezebel at this time seems rather resolved not so much to court as to scorn Jehu disdaining to deprecate her ruine or ow her life to such an enemy And therefore she puts her self into a posture of Majesty as shewing that height and greatnesse of mind which could own her self in the pomp splendor of a Princesse even then when she expected her enemy and her end That she might at least perish as she thought with the more reputation of a comely person and undanted spirit which abhorred to humble and abase it self after the manner of fearfull and squalid suppliants in sackcloth or to a bate any of those accustomed ornaments with which she used as a Queen to entertain her self in her prosperity So that my learned friend concluded in my opinion very rationally that the Lord Primates inference for which she was justly eaten-up by dogs may no more be applied to this particular of Jezebels painting her eyes or face than to her adorning or dressing of her head or her looking out of a window or her speaking such words as she did to Jehu's face all which are recorded in the same story immediately before her precipitate ruine which actions in themselvs cannot be branded for sins nor are they noted there for such further than they may be relatively considered as to the mind and end of the doer or speaker whereby to gratifie pride passion or any other wickednesse And in this respective consideration not only Jezebels painting and dressing but her very eating and drinking her sleeping and clothing her native strength and beauty her civil honor and power might be relatively sins as the Scripture tells us the plowing of the wicked is sin and his praying is abomination So his prosperity becomes a snare and his plenty a poyson to his soul when the good gifts and creatures of a good God are by evil minds perverted to be weapons of unrighteousnesse and instruments of sin to satisfie those lusts whose inordinatenesse and not their desire fights against God and the Soul So then your LaP Ladyship cannot be so blind as not to see that the bare historicall narration of Jezebels painting her eyes among other actions which you confesse to be innocent in themselves and whereof you make no scruple if it did referre to any wanton designe which is very unlikely at that time in a Queen whose proud and violent spirit might now justly be carried away with other passions and transports than those of lust yet it doth no way argue or import the use of that or other things therewith mentioned to be in themselves any sins to all that then did or after should use the like applications words or actions out of far different minds and to farre different ends which are beyond all dispute the proper grounds and rules of all morall denominations as to good or evil in those mediate actions agents and instruments whose freedome in nature falls not under any speciall restraint of Gods command forbidding them by any positive Law as he did many things in point of food clothes fafashions and other civil actions among the Jews It is a grosse mistake in Architecture to think that every small stud bears the main stresse and burthen of the building which lies indeed upon the principall timbers And it is an horrible wresting of Scripture to make every recited circumstance in any place to bear the whole weight of the story event You cannot think that Dives went to hell onely because he was a rich man clothed in purple and fine linen and faring deliciously or sumptuously every day All which things many persons of as good as great quality of no lesse virtue and piety than honor and estate daily enjoy without any blame Nor was it Lazarus his poverty and dunghill or his sores and the charitable tongues of the dogs that brought him to heaven The luxury pride and uncharitablenesse of the one the patience
verdit of things as good or evill till they have duly considered the nature of them apart from vulgar prejudices and surmises or obloquies and reproaches with whom crucifige is as obvious as Hosanna The rabble as we read gave a better report of Barrabas than of Jesus The way of Christian Religion was at first every where spoken against as a novel and pestilent heresie The Apostle Paul heard no very good report of himself from some people who cryed away with him he is not fit to live The later ages reformation of Religion in these western Churches had from the most of people no very good report at first though never so just and orderly and discreet but followed the fate of all things and persons that indeavour to rectifie or reforme vulgar errors which is to be evill spoken of when they offer the greatest good Christians and Christianity was to be martyred in their names as well as in their persons and lives Christ denounceth a woe when all men speak well of them and a blessing when all men speak evill of them falsely If evill report as from the vulgar who are very superficiall judges of things like cork alwaies swimming on the top never sinking to the bottome of things is to be much regarded for what monsters should the primitive Christians have been looked upon capable to scare all modest and sober persons from coming nigh their doctrine sacraments and manners When they were reported to kill and eat children to worship an asses head to have earely and incestuous mixtures in the dark All which were as false as they were abominable If the Eccho of Common report be so oft false in the greater matters of Religion where it concernes men to be most accurately informed what they believe or report How little heed I pray may be taken to the common speech and perswasion of people in lesser matters and in this one particular which is but a toy or mote in comparison take it in any naturall civill or morall notions onely the clamor and severe censures of some men have made it so considerable because they urge it so highly upon the consciences of women both as sin and shame That truly it now merits exacter scanning than it may be it ever had either by the vulgar or those who are their most plausible teachers and instructers And I believe Madame that upon review of the evidences of reason or religion whereupon the verdict or report of wise and conscientious Christians should be built you will find that the plebeian report and ordinary sense of all artificiall beauty differs from that of the more grave and better advised sort of the world yea and from the sense of the more serious and better educated part of the people in this Church or nation As I have been informed of those learned Divines Scholemen and casuists beyond sea so I am perswaded the ablest Churchmen in England in their most deliberate sentence dare passe no other censure upon those customes which are so frequent among persons of more elegant culture and fashion for the advance of their beauty than according to the true measures of morality and honesty which are the mind and end of the doer Nor will righteous judges passe any other report on those ingenuous artifices which are auxilary to the faces adorning more than they do upon those that adorn the head hands feet shoulders or other parts of the body according to their severall infirmities necessities or conveniences Namely that they are then good when done to good ends and evill when to evill intents According to these morall and internal principles of good or evill the censure judgement and report of things in their nature and use ought to be given without any regard in point of conscience to what the vulgar easinesse and prejudice or wontednesse either opines or declares Nor is the report and judgement of all wise and every good man alwaies to be taken as authentick by their Oratorious heats and popular transports when possibly they would deny or discountenance an abuse which is most unnecessary in those things that at best are not very necessary but onely tollerable and convenient but by their calme and sedentary determinations not as standing before the tribunals of humane opinion and applause but as appealing to Gods judgement séat which is to be set up in every ones Conscience So that the Apostles direction to attend what report or fame things have is to be understood cautiously and strictly not loosely and vulgarly People like unskilfull Apothecarys and Mountebanks oft put the titles of Antidotes on poysons and poysonous inscriptions on wholesome Antidotes Neither this nor the like places in Scripture which concern good manners are to be swallowed without chewing we must not devour Scripture kernels with the husk or letter unbroken and intire For by such a fallacy I might find hard by your place alledged against them a like place in favour of these feminine artifices because the Apostle commands Christians to follow all things that are lovely or comely Among which rank and number many esteem these helps to their complexion else certainly they would never use them But this were rather to play with Scripture than to apply it seriously and to make those holy directions rather as Tennisbals tossed too and fro in idle disputes than as nailes fastned by the masters of Assemblies BUt your LaP Ladyship endeavours to give an account why these complexioning arts justly fall under such evill report or so generall an infamy among the meaner sort of people As being esteemed a cheat and cosenage a making and acting a ly a self Idolatry a Christian personated with a Comicall face fitter for a stage than a Church That from a self shame and secret guilt it affects secrecy that as a dead fly it corrupts the greatest commendations and perfections of any woman THese are still but sparks of odium and scorn which fly from the vulgar anvils and hammers which commonly both over heat and over labour what they undertake to forge or reforme First then as to the deception which you call a cheat Truely it is not so much in this of helping the palenesse or adding a quicknesse of complexion to the face as it is in other things of lamenesse and crookednesse c. where the substance as it were and figures here the colour onely is a little altered yet these are used without any such odious clamors and imputations yea they are allowed and commended as indulgences of humane pitty and charity to cover conceal or supply any defect or deformity in the outward man Which even Mr. Perkins himself allowes who yet as to the point of complexioning which he cals painting cries it down after the wonted rode in few words and fewer arguments as against the Laws of Nature and Scripture but of which he produceth nothing but that circumstance of Jezebels story which I have answered
condemn something there eminently proposed and chiefly aimed at We read our Saviour Christ commending the providence self-preservation of the unjust steward but not his falsity and injustice which yet is there brought in as the fraudulent method of this worldly wisdome and forecast So Iacob by his mothers craft and imposture obtained the blessing from his cheated and aged father beyond any revocation yet the sinister arts there used are not to be imitated or approved however the desire of a paternall blessing which was then solemn and Sacramentall might be as commendable in him as the undervaluing of it was a profane temper in Esau If commendable ends do not justifie evil means in any no more may evil ends in some blemish the use of lawfull and permitted things in others who apply them to sober and good ends These places are very generall and loose arguments to condemn all ingenuous arts and helps of handsomnesse either to the face and other parts of the body or to the adorning of civil State and Majesty Nor do they any way amount to so much as a positive Law either Ceremoniall or Politicall such as those were against linsiwoolsie garments sowing with diverse seeds abstaining from swines flesh and other beasts birds or fishes which yet in their nature are not unclean or unlawfull How much lesse can your LaP Ladyship or any other by the Chimistry of your wits extract from these places any drop or quintessence of a morall command which shall be ever binding to the Conscience as from sin Truly I cannot but believe that the most holy God who hath not been wanting to reveal his whole will to his Church in his written Word so farre as is necessary for faith and good manners who even in very small matters gave an expresse law to the Jews in things lesse pleasing to him not in their nature but in their use or significancy among the Jews such as were the not cutting the corners of their head and beards the not seething a kid in its mothers milk the not cutting down fruit-trees in a siege the not taking the old bird with the young the not leaving their excrements uncovered c. I cannot I say but believe that this gracious God would either in the Old or New Testament have positively and expresly forbidden all such additionalls to Beauty or helps to handsomnesse both as to the face and other parts of the body if they had been in the use and nature of the things as abominable to him as Idolatry Theft Lying Murther and Adultery which some men have passionately but very impotently pretended Certainly his goodness would not in a case of sin and so high a sin as some clamour this to be have onely made such oblique and generall reflexions upon it in this and other places not as a thing any where forbidden but onely as a generall custome used by many and abused by some Not perstringing the nature of that more than other things there mentioned but onely setting forth how farre vain and vicious minds were prone to abuse those things to Gods displeasure which virtuous minds no doubt did according to the modes and civil customes of the times and places use soberly without any offence to God or man § Who doubts but Queen Esther a devout and gracious woman might lawfully use as we reade she did all those purifications appointed her That she applyed to her advantage all the attractives of sweet unguents and perfumes of costly raiment and beautifull colours of rich and accurate dressings or lovely adornings such as were usuall to the Persian delicacy softnesse and luxury hereby to win and confirm more the kings affection and sensuall love to her Her using all these was so farre from being her sin that it had been so farre a sin not to use them as she had rather tempted God than pleased him by neglecting to use those means which might most probably in ordinary providence conduce to those great and good ends which her holy chaste and charitable heart intended to Gods glory and the Churches good We reade Rebekah in the primitive plainness shepherdly simplicity of those times accepted bracelets and other ornaments to be put on her arms neck and eares without any disparagement to her Virgin modesty so Solomons chief wife and Queen Pharaohs daughter turning proselyte is brought in as a type of the Church of the Gentiles espoused to Christ and adorned with all princely riches and costly curiosities that the king might take pleasure in her beauty That good and lawfull things both in Nature and Art have been and daily are abused by evil minds to evil ends is no doubt or wonder since where ever God hath his hand the devil seeks to set his foot And in that sense or aspect both the things themselves and the abusive use of them may be branded with marks of Gods dislike But this rather justifies and approves the sober and honest use of them as the right end of Gods creation and donation for mans use Our Lord Jesus bidding us beware lest our hearts be overcharged with eating drinking And his Apostle forbidding us wine wherein is excesse Also unlawfull dalliances in chambering and wantonnesse yet they do not hereby deny the lawfull and loving sportings of Isaac with Rebekah or the rejoycings with the wife of ones youth or the moderate use of meats and drinks even to afestivall mirth and satiety of wine Which Christs presence and bounty at a wedding feast supplying by a miracle great quantities of excellent and inviting wines after men had well drunk to an holy superfluity do sufficiently vindicate as allowed to Christians notwithstanding the morose and cynicall severitie of some-spirits The Jews are indeed blamed for their unseasonable gluttony and Epicurean profanenesse under the reproaches of joy and gladnesse slaying of oxen killing of sheep eating of flesh drinking of wine and singing to the viol which iniquity saith God shall not be purged from them till they dy Yet were not these things in themselves unlawfull but therefore evil because unseasonable and used by unsanctified and impenitent hearts then when God called for fasting and mourning for sackcloth and ashes which outward forms and signes of penitence and humility there required are yet otherwhere taxed and highly blamed when they were but the masks and visards of hypocrisie as in Ahab and other Jews If we should therefore think all things unlawfull to be used because they have been or are abused which is a most pitifull piece of vulgar sophistry and superstitious fear the devils and wicked mens incroachments would wholly abridge us of all Gods bounty and Christian liberty How have the Sun Moon and Starres yea almost every creature on which are any remarkable characters of the Creatours goodnesse and glory in their beauty and usefulnesse how I say have they been ravished and abused by Idolatry or other sensuall
Religion That the Devils or wicked Mens usurpation is no prejudice to Gods dominion or donation nor to that right use and end of all things which he hath graunted to mankind throughout the whole latitude and empire of his visible works If all things are therefore vaine sinfull and unlawfull which vaine and wicked minds have or do abuse what I pray will there be left for sober and virtuous persons to use or injoy They must neither eat nor drink nor clothe nor dresse themselves to any decency sweetness costliness or delight Tamar an harlot will dress her self with a vaile of modesty as well as chast Rebekah The wanton and cunning woman whom Salomon describes so to the life decketh her self to all externe advantages applyeth with all amorous civilities perfumeth her bed and chamber pretendeth great love offereth her holy festivities and peace-offerings at last wipeth her mouth with great demurenesse and sobriety Yet may we not think all these actions are hereby made scandalous and unlawfull to sober women to chast and loving wifes We may as well forbid the use of a staffe and a signet to honest men because Judah in his blind and extravagant desires pawns them as pledges of his love to a woman whom he took and used as an harlot not common but incestuous Youth riches honor beauty strength policy and cloquence might be all arraigned and condemned before such unjust and unjudicious Judges who would cry down all use of things because of some abuses which flow not from the nature of the things abused which are good but from the malice of the persons or minds abusing that native good which God diffused to every creature Nabals churlish covetousnesse Absaloms beautifull rebellion Achitophels politick treachery Ioabs valiant cruelty Iehus zealous ambition Tertullus his eloquent malice are all carried upon the wings or wheels of Gods gifts and framing Who sees not that the corrupt hearts of men oft turn Gods streams to drive the devils mill What Truth so glorious which hath not been sometime sullied and eclipsed by the smoke of the bottomtess pit the prejudices or scandalous imputations of some black or foul mouthes On the other side what Error is so rotten and putrid which some Oratorious varnish hath not sought to colour over with shewes of Truth and Piety It is a great part of calme and sober wisdome to resolve all things into their rationall and pure principles of which this is one That what ever is in nature is good in its kind That the goodnesse of all things in nature is reducible to a good end in reason and religion That no person is abridged in a right and holy use of things by an others abuse of them That the just use of things may be restrained though the abuse cals for reformation and the excesse for moderation That since God doth not annihilate what he hath made as all good in nature because of mans abuse of things no more have we any cause to annull or deny our sober use of any thing for others petulancy and abuse What things vice or vanity are most prone to usurp as to the most sweet fair and inviting delights of life no doubt virtue and modesty may lawfully challenge and vindicate to their propriety We must not pull out our eyes because some mens and womens are as S. Peter says full of adultery not think sight and light unlawfull to be enjoyed because some imploy them onely to objects of sin and vanity But we must the more cautiously set holy bounds to all our thoughts desires and actions which may have their occasion and fewell from the ministry of the eyes but their kindling and flames are from the inward inordinacy of the Heart where sin is as our Saviour tells us first conceived and brought forth before it is nourished suckled or swadled in the gifts of God either naturall or artificiall Heal that root and fountain there is no doubt but the branches or streames flowing either from or to will soon be pure and healthfull What ever Gods indulgence offers us in art or nature ought to put us in mind to ask that grace of God the giver which may give us the right use of all his sensible gifts so as not to hinder us of his spirituall and eternall gifts Thus have I good Madam with all plainnesse freedome and integrity furthest from any thing of fallacy and sophistry answered as I could what you were pleased to urge from Scripture-instances which obviously mention painting or colouring the eyes among other customary ornaments of those times and places but with no token of Gods dislike as to that particular more then of other wonted adornings of the head face and the rest of the body whereof your La p makes no scruple as to any sin So that what ever frown may seem to be in the face of the words do fall only on the abuse of that as other things to sinfull excesses and inordinate satisfactions beyond the bounds of civility modesty and honesty But this doth not amount to the force of any positive command forbidding the use of that and other helps to handsomenesse Nor doth it import any dislike of outward comelinesse when joyned with humility and holinesse conforme to the divine mind or will which must be the onely touchstone of sin and test of Conscience wherein no great curiosity is necessary to discern Gods meaning as to things importing sin or duty § Which are I think alwayes set forth in the holy Scriptures not by dubious reflexions oblique and obscure intimations but by such clear direct precepts and autoritative sanctions in some place or other as becomes the majesty of the king of heaven and is most proportionate to the dimness and infirmity of humane understanding Who shall never be charged for that as a sin which he could not either by innate principles of morall light or by Scripture-prescripts evidently see to be such Nor is there almost any thing of grosse impiety which doth not discover to us its offensivenesse against God by that check regret and disgust which it oft gives to our selfes either before in or after the sin done which I beliefe this never did or doth to any modest and judicious users of it unlesse they be more scared and guided by the ignis fatuus of popular superstition than the clear and constant light of true religion which moves not by Fancie and Opinion as puppets do with gimmers but by Reason and divine revelation as the Body doth by its living Soule BUt Madam I have been informed by some Divines and other godly Christians that all painting the face or adding to our hand somenesse in point of Complexion is directly against the 7th Commandment which forbidding to commit adultery with others as the highest ascent or degree of sin in that kind doth also forbid all means and occasions either necessarily tending or studiously intending that evil End All leading others or exposing
our selves into Temptations of Amorous folly by adding to our comelinesse then when either God in our formation or age and infirmity have brought us as it were into the safer harbour or retreat or deformity either naturall or accidentall What folly is it to seek to rig up our crazy vessâ—ll or to expose our selves by art on new hazards by putting out again to that tempestuous and oft naufragous Sea wherein youth and handsomenesse are commonly tossed with no lesse hazard to the body and soule too then S. Pauls voyage was to the life 's of himself and his company What true hearted Israelite would have returned back to Egypt when God had brought them out into the wildernesse whose barrennesse was compensated with safety and Gods society as Egypts plenty was corrupted with Servility Luxury and Idolatry Deformities may be as great blessings to our Souls as bolts and barres are to our Houses which keep thieves not onely from rifling but from attempting those that are thus fortified with lesse inviting looks Besides if all Adultery and adulterating arts as injurious to others by the rule of equity and charity are forbidden to us how much more any such plots and practises as tend to a Self adulterating while we disguise and alter our faces not onely as to Gods and mans aspect but even as to our own so that we are not what we seem to be to our selves and being once altered by art from what is native we must look for another face before we can find or see our selves in that glasse which at once flatters upbraids and deceives us while it represents our looks other then God hath made them and us Whereas the wise Creator hath by nature impressed on every face of man and woman such Characters either of beauty or majesty or at least of distinction as he sees sufficient for his own honor our content and others sociall discerning or difference whereby to avoyd confusions or mistakes So as there shall not need any further additionals of art which put a kind of metamorphosis or fabulous change on Gods and natures work Whose wisdome and power yet purposely no doubt orders some to be lesse wellfavored that they may be as foyles to set off the beauty he bestowes on others as we see leaves are to the brighter flowers or clouds to the starres Thus he makes black night to commend the lightsome day the winters horror to double the summers welcome sweetnesse and serenity So that in that variety which God hath chosen to set forth his noblest Creatures which are after his own Image even mankind in a kind of checquer work of some handsome and others unhandsome some pallid and others ruddy every one I think ought to content themselves with that colour and complexion as well as feature which God hath given them not onely in order to their particular subsisting but as to the generall symmetry of his works In which he hath as skilfull painters do in their pictures set forth his more quick and lively colours which are in some faces by those deep and darker shadowes which are in others If the most accurate pencils were but blottings which presumed to mend Zeuxis or Apelles works who may presume to adde anything where God hath put to his last and compleating hand which is both able and wise to do what he sees best IMost willingly grant That the same pure and perfect God who hath forbidden all evill ends or sins of the ripest age and highest Stature hath also forbad all means desired by us to those ends as to the immorality and perversenesse of the agents mind and intent Whos 's first fancies and most infant conceptions of sin are sinfull if designed approved or delighted in notwithstanding he hath no power either to act nor yet any matter whereupon to work for the accomplishing or carrying on of his sin but onely from the power bounty and goodnesse of the Creator Who is good in all his works though we have evill hands or eyes Yet doth not God tempt us to evill by giving us those good things which we abuse to sin by the inordinatenesse of our minds more then the activity of our hands or outward enjoyment § It is indeed a great Truth your LaP Ladyship urges but very little to your purpose as I conceive yea it makes directly against you For if it be as it is confessed most unlawfull to abuse good things to evill ends or to gratify any desire in order to violate Gods expâ—esse Command So where the heart is upright without any sinfull warpings as to piety purity and charity it must follow that the use of any thing God hath made and given to mankind must needs be good and lawfull both in nature and in art Neither natures bounty nor the additions of modest and ingenuous art can be blamed or so much as questioned where the heart is sound and honest as in those loves or complacencies whose Chastity useth all kinds of ingenuous Elegancy If nothing can be materially evill either in nature or in art but only as related to the inordinacy of the mind will and intent of a voluntary and mor all agent it must necessarily follow that as to the use of colour and complexion to the face there can be no evill in it as against the 7th Commandment where no adulterous wanton or evill purpose is harbored in the soul of those that use it but it is as as all things ought to be kept within the bounds of piety to God purity to our selves and Charity to our neighbours Which holy limits must be precisely set as in the use of this so of all other ornaments and enjoyments afforded us by the Creators indulgence in nature which are as prone to be abused to Adulterous incentives as this yea farre more as being more inviting yet are they not forbidden to be used or enjoyed but onely confined to honest pure and holy ends not onely the last and highest of Gods glory but also those of the creatures life health delight and cheerfulnesse § That in many countreys and almost in all ages fomething which your LaP Ladyship would call painting or complexioning as washings anointings fomentations tinctures and frictions c. have been used by very sober chast and virtuous persons both maids wives and widowes I think your LaP Ladyship is not so uncharitable as not to grant Since even whole nations not onely the Jewes of old but Christians also have and do at this day by customary and civill fashions use it without any reproach scruple or scandall of sin any more then it is to wash their faces to comb their hair or to braid it to anoint their heads and faces to perfume their clothes c. which things do neither necessarily tend nor are studiously intended to any sinfull end The Greek Churches generally and most of the Latin Casuists as I have heard from Learned men and Travellers do allow even this complexionary art and
against all auxiliary beauty and helps of handsomenesse in women I observe That commonly what they want in force of arguments rationall or religious they make up in clamor and confidence As the Pope is said to have expressed in his Bull against the Knights Teutonick or Templars when he confiscated their estates Although of right and Justice we cannot yet out of our plenary power and will we do dissolve them So these many times in stead of convincing the judgements of sober persons like learned Divines and serious Christians fall to cavillings and menacings to bitter and scurrilous reprochings Imagining that what bumbast-stuffe or voluble ratling will serve to scare the superstitious and easy vulgar who have alwayes an envy and malignity against their betters will also serve to resolve more serious judicious soules of those persons who are blest with better breeding and exacter understanding § Such was that Sarcasme which your LaP Ladyship may remember was used by a witty and eloquent preacher whom we both heard at Oxford who speaking against not the absolute use but the wanton abuse of womens curiosities in dressing and adornings instanced in Jezebels being eaten up of doggs as shewing saith he that a woman so polished and painted was not fit to be mans meat Which expression had more of wit and jeast in it than of weight or earnest and might seem to represse either fondnesse or impudence abusing such ornaments but it was not valid as to the conviction of any sin in the use of them Which many boldly assert raysing strange terrors and most Tragick outcryes as if every touch of colouring added to the cheeks were a presage of hell fire every curled haire or brayded lock were an Embleme of the never dying worme Medusas head is not pictured more terrible with her snaky tresses than these men would represent every Lady never so modest and virtuous whose either haire or complexion or tiring is not natively their own Yea so angry or envious is the rusticity or simplicity of some against all that either soberly please themselves or civilly appear lesse unpleasing to others by the help of any artificiall beautifyings though with never so much discretion and modesty that when they have nothing to object against the intellectuals or moralls of women they vehemently quarrell with their artificialls their dressings clothes and fashions their looks and complexion if they list but to suspect them to have any thing adventitious to them liking them the worse because they look well and censuring them for evill hearts because they aime at having good faces as if the heart received sinfull infection by any colour or tincture put to the face more than it doth morall defilement by any thing that enters into the mouth Against which error our Saviour expressely teacheth us counting those but Pharisaic all fools and supercilious hypocrites who judge and teach men otherwise as we read Mark 7. 18. § Yet by a like magisteriall rigor do some men seek to confine all women to their pure and simple naturals As if Art and Nature were not sisters but jealous rivals and irreconcileable enemies against each other whereas indeed they are from the same wise God and indulgent Father from whom comes every good as well as every perfect gift as St James tells us Who hath given to mankinde as he did to Bezaleel Exod. 31. 3. the invention and use of many curious arts That man might know how with most discretion and advantage to dispose of and improve the great variety of Gods bounty which is first set forth in Natures either plainnesse or beauty so as to court and please every of our senses and to accommodate every of our occasions in those severall wayes and methods which mans industry likes best who although he cannot create the matter and inward essence of things but works onely upon Gods and Natures stock yet he is in some sense a superficiall Creator of severall outward forms and shapes of various use and applications of things farre beyond that rustick grossenesse primitive simplicity and confusion which either is in the first rudiments or in the effects of Nature before its materials are subdued softned and digested by Art which is as much the good gift of God and tends to his glory as Nature and which to deprive mankind of is to reduce them from the politure and improvement of after times and long experience to their first caves and cottages their primitive skins and acorns Nor may we think that the God of Art and Nature who gives us liberally without any envy or grudging all things to enjoy in a virtuous and sober way that is to good ends hath so curbed us up by religious severities as to forbid us the use and enjoyment of the fruits of his wisdome power and paternall bounty so as may best please our selves and others without displeasing him who is to be glorified even in that sensible glory of beauty feature colour and proportion which is but superficiall and must be done away when a more durable and eternall glory shall appeare of which it hath some embleme type and prefiguration as the Tabernacle had of Solomons Temple § All which superstitious rigor and precisenesse is not more contrary to Gods munificence and indulgence than to the very nature and fancy of mankind which is so set beyond all creatures that even grace and virtue themselves receive some varnish and glosse a kind of silent commendation by the cleanlinesse and comelinesse of our outsides yea we think to do an honor to Religion in its publick services by putting our selves even as to our vestures and gestures into those forms and fashions which we think are most civill reverentiall and comely As nothing is more humane than the delight in handsomenesse so it cannot be either irrationall or irreligious to hide those our deformities and defects which we think are prone to diminish us in the eyes and acceptance of those with whom we do converse either as to civill or religious society If a civility both to the living and the dead invites us to wash the bodies and faces of the dead as they did Tabithas to which custome of being baptized for dead the Apostle seems to referre 1 Cor. 15. 29. as forespeaking and hoping for an after resurrection of the body to an eternall purity and incorruption Also we close the eyes and compose the countenances of our dead friends so as may most remove them from that gastly and unpleasing aspect which is in the vale and shadow of Death What I pray hinders while we are living and among the living but that we may study to adorn our lookes so as may be most remote from a deathfulnesse and most agreeable by their livelinesse to those with whom we live § If it was piety of old to repaire the Temple of God and is still good husbandry to mend the decayes of those houses of clay in which our bodies dwell why should
and body was usuall among all nations civill and barbarous Greek and Romane Southerne and Northerne East and West Indians Insomuch that the Picts here in Britannie had their Names from their being painted not onely as a terror to their enemies in warre but as an ornament in peace Though I say this fashion be almost Epidemicall and connate or at least customary to all nations to which the Grecian and Romane Luxury added no doubt what ever wit and art could devise in order to the the setting off of their beauties and handsomenesse according as each countrey fancied yet we never read either the great Doctor of the Jews or Gentiles any where giving any dash of their Pens against these customes which were so frequent No not there where regulations are set to feminine coverings and adornings Nor do we find that in the great pomp or princely parada used by Queen Berenice and her train of women among whom no doubt all the Romane and Asiatick fashions of improved beauty did appear as S. Luke intimates we find not the blessed Apostle either at all taken or scandalized with that exquisitenesse and glory Of which he wisely takes no notice So farre is he from finding fault or expressing any dislike thinking it more becoming the Apostolick gravity to preach those great points of Christian graces and duties in righteousnesse temperance and judgement to come than by impertinent and unseasonable severity to declaim against such civill and veniall vanities as women use which are such not absolutely in the nature and use of them but in the mind and intention of the user of them Agreeable to which methods of Apostolical prudence I think the heats of some Preachers in their Sermons and writings were far better spent in urging the great things of the Law and Gospell which have morall and clear foundations in Scripture and so make both easy and potent convictions in Consciences than with a looser zeal and blinder boldnesse to inveigh most impetuously against those things of externe mode and fashion which will either cease to be doubted of and used when once they appear to a gracious heart any way evill Or else they will cease to be suspected for evil when once they are found to fall under the lawfull use and management of an heart that is truly good in its holy ends and gracious habits doing all things as in the fear of God so farre as it sees God allowes Also to the glory of God as giving him thanks for all things in Nature and Art which are afforded to our necessity or delight and ornament Securing it self in the use of all these things by those two great assertors of a Christians liberty in use of outward things The one of the Apostle Paul who assures us that nothing is of itself unclean as to any morall defilement The other of our blessed Saviour who tells us that no externe applications to our bodies defile us but the inward fedities of the heart onely whose emanations if poysonous poyson all things through which they passe but if pure they purify all things that come within their streams § As to that dash your La p gives to this quickning of complexion as if it were an infallible token of a vain mind by this vain conversation It will then be best taken off when we both understand what the Apostle means by vain conversation For either you must interpret it for flatly vicious and wicked or so impertinent and extravagant as is not to be reduced to any rules or bounds of reason and religion no not under any intentionall piety and habituall or dispositive holinesse To which a gracious heart can and will referre all things even of superfluity civility and decency which are still within the generall order and proportions of Reason and no lesse within the skirts and suburbs of Religion being then kept from the blemish or brand of any such vain conversation as is vicious when they are short of sinfull intentions and hold within the compasse of ingenuous recreations and pleasures On the other side if your LaP Ladyship opposeth vanity to meer necessity or fancy that by that expression of being redeemed from vain conversation we are forbidden all things of cost or comelinesse of bravery and elegancy of pleasure and recreation beyond what the meer necessities or rigidest conveniencies of humane nature and life requires if this be your sense truly I think under favour the Spirit of the Gospell is not so Cynicall God treats his children with more indulgence Besides your La ps own conversation makes me believe this is not the meaning of vain for then you are apparently guilty of as many forbidden vanities as you have superfluities of cost and care of dressing and lacing of curling and pleating you must abate much in your own person and your childrens in your clothes and furniture in your buildings gardens c. § But truely I think piety hath so much candor in it especially out of cels and cloisters not onely in Kings courts but in meaner persons houses as to admit of costly and gorgeous apparell of fine linen and other things at that rate and proportion as to the beauty ornament and elegancies of life Which things even of a light and lesser nature though they be not of the immediate substance of religion or solider parts of piety and virtue yet they are as the fringe accessaries to them like the feathers and colours of the Dove which adde indeed nothing to its internall innocency but something to its outward decency From which religion is so farre from being an enemy in civill conversation that the Apostle exacts order and decency even in religious duties and devotion True piety is not pleased with sordidnesse or sluttery nor is Gods Spirit grieved with modest care and sober study of outward handsomenesse in all kinds § So that it seems to me no better than a straight-laced superstition which thus pinches Gods bounty and Christians liberty which makes Christianity such a captive to unnecessary rigors and pedling severities as if it were never in a due posture and habit till its nailes be pared to the quick and its haire shaven to the skull Many things certainly are allowed to those that are godly in this life not as they are Gods children so much as they are the children of men that is in a condition of fraility a kind of infancy and minority In which God as Jacob clothes his Josephs and his spouse too not onely with garments of necessity but of beauty variegated and embroidered And this he doth as to the honor of his bounty so with no blemish to his love nor diminution to his childrens holinesse Of which outward ornaments of sordidnesse are a very false measure Though some silly soules are prone to place much piety in their mawkingly plainnesse and in their censoriousnesse of others who use more comely and costly curiosities T is true Salomons now more
severe refined and sublimated wisdome passeth his penitentiall censure upon all things under the Sun To be vanity of vanities that is apart from and in comparison of that true and eternall light life beauty riches strength love honor glory and happinesse which are onely to be enjoyed in a neerer union to and communion with God the supreme and incomparable Good Yet he was farre from diminishing or reproaching the Creators power wisdome bounty and providentiall disposure of all things who made them all very good in their formes use and ends However the sin of man hath drawn over them a black shadow of vanity and of misery upon himself untill he be redeemed by Christ from that vanity of vanities Sin which makes all to be vanity and vexation to impenitent sinners while such but not to an humble and holy Christian who sees and adores God and Christ in all things and no lesse in this which may adde to the momentary comfort and content of its lookes than in other things which are not therefore sinfull vanity because not of absolute necessity As for the last place your LaP Ladyship voucheth of Abstaining from all appearance of evill which you think as a large net must needs include in its capacious bosome all these modes of auxiliary beauty Even this as all other Scriptures must be seasoned with the salt of a right and restrained sense lest it be corrupted by a loose and false interpretation else we must call no man master or father nor take care for tomorrow nor labour for our livings c. It cannot be meant that we must abstain from all those actions or things wherein evill minds do oft appear as most studiously so most wickedly while they appear under the mask colours and pretentions of piety virtue and sanctity by most affected and rotten hypocrisies This were to forbid us all those appearances which most become us For there is no forme or fashion of holinesse so severe demure and precise but it often falls under the devils counterfeit and imitation we must not abstain from being and appearing as Angels of light because Satan transformes himself to that appearance our light must shine before men though some call their darknesse light and put the beams of light on their darknesse The Pharisees pride and hypocrisy appears in Moses chair in long prayers in fastings and almes we must not therefore wholly abstain from these The sheep must not flea off his skin because the wolfe many times puts on its fleece No our Saviour teacheth there to adde sincerity to the solemnity and the power of godlinesse to the forme § I remember in my small reading of the Ecclesiasticall stories both ancient and modern that the holy severities of watching fasting hard lodging course fare and homely clothing used by Orthodox Christians were usurped by most damnable hereticks and desperate schismaticks the better to cover over their rotten manners and pernicious doctrines They will oft give all away to the poor in order to get greater estates by rapine They will be like John of Leiden reformers of Church and State that by sacrilegious arts and rebellious crafts they may mend their own fortunes yet these fallacious appearances must not deterre good Christians from reall charities and just reformings So then those appearances of evill from which we are bidden to abstain are such wherein sin and vice do generally appear as in their genuine and proper colours A Christian must not onely avoid grosse sins with open and impudent foreheads but also keep a loofe from the very suspicion of those pregnant sins as well as from the spot as Cesar required of his wife Further the Apostles meaning may be this that we must abstain from all sin which is notoriously and confessedly such what ever fair semblances and appearances it makes where sins are so putrid and unsavory that no fair pretentions can so perfume them as to make them pleasant to Christians that have their senses awake and exercised to discern true holinesse § As to this duty then of Abstaining from all appearance of evill Christians must be first wisely and exactly informed as of the natures so of the appearances of sins That they be not gulled and deluded with the devils baits and shews nor yet scared with every scarecrow and take every boyle for a plague-sore or every scab for a leprosie which superstitious fancies are prone to mistake not grounding their fear upon judgement but guiding their judgements by their fears Not therefore abstaining because God hath forbidden but therefore imagining God hath forbidden things because they have been accustomed to abstain from them Whence ariseth not reall and true but false appearances and misprisions of evill which falls not under the Apostles caution whose aime is to deterre Christians as well from misapprehensions of good or evill as from misapplications to them Nor would he have us to abstain from other than those appearances wherein evill commonly appeares like itself in its proper colours not onely as to its malice and mischievousnesse but also as to its disorder and impudence For to avoid all those customes and manners civill or sacred in which sin and superstition may and oft do appear we must either go out of the world or not at all appear in it As all is not good which good men do or say so nor is all evill which wicked men make shew of As infinite shadowes make not up one substance so nor many appearances onely make up one sin T is not what superstitiously appears as evill to weak and simple eyes but what really is and so appears evill to serious and judicious minds which we must avoid else ignorance superstition and hypocrisie will as I said obstruct and put in a prejudice against all things under the seemingnesse or appearance of evill which are not onely allowed of God but necessary in the outward shewes expression of either civility or religion As in all other cases then so in this of Auxiliary beauty it must first be convincingly proved that all use of such helps is in its nature a sin that none can use them in any case or the least degree without either breaking an expresse command of God in right Reason or Scripture or without a secret purpose and sinister intent to sin That there must be either a sin in use of the nature of the thing absolutely prohibited or in the inevitable depravednesse of the users intention if in nature it be allowed For the nature of the thing it is in vain cried down for sin when nothing is produced against it in Reason or Scripture nor more pretended against it than may as well be urged against the use of many other things as helps to naturall defects or ornaments to civill life of which they make no doubt who must deny this of tincture and complexioning So that either they must condemne other things with this which they approve or approve this with other things
which they do not condemne or disuse As to the end and intent of the user I presume your LaP Ladyship and others too have so much charity as not to censure or condemne all those for wicked and wanton who use any help to their complexions Nor can you justly blot out or forget all the piety charity modesty and gravity of those who otherwise constant and conspicuous for those graces and virtues have yet either undiscernibly as some or suspectedly as others or declaredly as many according to the generall custome of countreys used such additaments to their faces as they thought most advanced the beauty or comelinesse of their lookes And however it be true that a tender conscience is prone to a commendable jealousie in the point of sinning against God whereof a good Christian cannot be too cautious yet it is as true that in the Church of God there is so clear a light and constant a rule to discern good and evill sin and no sin by that there is not any thing really a sin but it is easily demonstrated to be such by such pregnant and constant testimonies of mor all light or divine truth as our own consciences must needs consent unto them Nor is it easie to elude the pregnant convictions of immorality which appear in all grosse sins either as injurious to God or our neighbours or our own souls Against none of whom as farre as I can yet find this use of any relief or additament to our colours and complexions can or doth offend more than other things of which no doubt is made so long as the heart is holy and the mind pure which yet are either ingenuous reparations of Natures defects or concealments of what we think deformed § Nor can I see any cause why we should think God lesse allowes us any advantages for our looks or faces than for other parts of our bodies Since the greatest sweetnesse honour and agreeablenesse as to humane society are as waters in the Sea or light in the Sun gathered together by Nature and bestowed on the face of mankind where to appear lovely or comely is no appearance of evill in nature nor more in art which keeps the decorum and ends of God and Nature which I am sure are alwaies good Nor would God have made any faces beautifull if there had been evill in beauty which yet evill minds may abuse as other good things that are the fruits of Gods bounty and indulgence in Nature and Art Which is all I have to reply as to these cautions scruples of vanity and evill which your LaP Ladyship makes against all Artificiall beauty or helps of handsomnesse by way of colour or tincture rather I suppose from vulgar or common jealousies than your own convictions For sure if it had been so grosse and palpable a sin as some suspect and report it would not have been hard for so many learned wise and holy men and women to have proved it to be such by undeniable arguments whereas your LaP Ladyship shall easily perceive if you look neer to their discourses upon this thing that generally those who vehemently fight against Ladies faces crying down all auxiliary or artificiall beauty do it more by their Rhetorick than their Logick they rather strike them upon the cheeks with their palmes then under the eyes with their fists They make them blush but not black and blew by specious more than ponderous arguments shewing themselves in this point for the most part rather pretty Orators than profound Divines using not the sharp two-edged sword of Gods word but the blunt foyles of humane fallacies and declaymings § All which amounts to no more than a kind of verball painting or orall colouring which may be more dangerous to truth and conscience than that which they inveigh against can be to the faces or complexions of sober and modest women while they slide from the abuse of things to decry the use of them Drawing conclusions from suspicions of evill jealous of the honesty of all minds because of the pravity of some Denying all ingenuous liberties because of some persons licenciousnesse which is a vild and weak way of searching or discovering sin Especially when it is I think a most infallible Truth That what ever may be abused may also be well used what is good in nature may be so in art Since all things are in their kind they may be so in their various applications which is their end and best serve by the aptitudes which are in them for such ends and uses BUt good Madame though you may avoid other strokes made against all artificiall beauty as to the nature of the things so used yet as to the mind of the user it is not to be denyed but all adding of colour and complexion to the face comes from pride though it do not tend to wantonnesse Having its rise and temptation from that height of mind which thinks we deserve more handsomenesse than God hath thought fit to give us Glorying inordinately in that which is indeed below the greatnesse of a Christians spirit and ambition If it be allowed us to take any humble and modest complacency in those outward gifts and ornaments which God hath bestowed on our persons to which we have a good title of divine donation as natively and properly ours yet sure it cannot avoid the brand of arrogancy as well as hypocrisie to challenge and ostentate that beauty or handsomenesse of complexion as ours which indeed is none of ours by any genuine right and property but onely by an adventitious stealth a furtive simulation and a bastardly kind of adoption So that if painting be not rank poyson yet as mushroomes it seems to be of a very dubious and dangerous nature and to be sure it cannot be very savory wholsome or nutritive to a good Christian If it be not in the pit of hell it may be on the brink if it be not the house it may be the threshold of death if it be not of an intoxicating nature yet it seems to be as a bush or red latice which gives neither honour nor ornament to any beyond the degree of a Tap-house or a Taverne If nothing else could be said against it this is enough that it is an Emblem or token of Pride and Self-conceit which is barre sufficient to all grace and overdrops all true virtue T Is true nothing lesse becomes Christians than pride since they professe to follow the example of an humble Saviour who was content for our sakes to have the beauty of his face marred and to appear without forme or comelinesse to expiate the spirituall deformities which sin hath brought on our souls and bodies too Yet since Christ came to repair nature and not to destroy it since his main design is to reforme our inward decayes without any wast or reproach to our outward comlinesse since to be godly it is not necessary to be ugly nor doth deformity adde any thing
are at discord with all musick and singing with art and curiosity in sacred psalmody from which neither David nor the devoutest Jewes of old nor the holy Christians of former times did abhorre yea the highly adorned it and devoted it to Gods glory as one of his speciall and diviner gifts to mankind which the Church knowes best how to improve § How bitter have some been against all Iusory use of Lots or any play with chance So against all playing at Cards though meerly recreative as Bowles and other sports are Lastly against all Usury or profit upon interest from dry money how vehement hath the torrents of some mens judgements been which yet others reconcile of late by some distinctions with Gods Lawes and a good conscience as finding that civill commerce cannot else be well carried on Some can digest the first fruits of a simple usary upon the principall but by no means use upon use from the same hand which yet is but the same thing with the first unlesse it alter the case to put out the interest money to a new hand or continue it in the old § Such hasty and over early blossomes of precipitant censures and preposterous zeale do oft arise in very godly minds out of a principle not onely veniall but so farre commendable as it argues a cautious tendernesse of offending God Which blossomes yet do oft fall off in time upon further triall of truth as abortives to truth never bearing ripe fruits as to any thing of grace and virtue though they florish for a while in the warme opinions and devout fancies of some Ministers and others till time correct and coole them or contrary custome prevailing confute them as to those clamors they made against them for sins and a good conscience when indeed the chief thing that moved their passion and prejudice was but unwontednesse and tradition with want of due consideration § And certainly if those eminent Heroes of Religion the ancient Fathers will give us leave to stand as Pygmies on the shoulders of such Giants that we may the better take a free full and advised prospect of their private opinions much more freedome may I or any one take to examine the magisteriall censures and Anathemas which those men use who are of later edition and lesser print who bear themselves in some things as in this case of ayding the complexion by any tincture as much upon the name and authority of the Fathers the Fathers as the Jewes did upon The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord when yet they urge neither pregnant reason nor any Scripture proof from the storehouses of the Fathers but onely follow them more by a credulous easinesse of spirit than by any discerning or convincing power using their bowes and powder rather than their arrowes and bullets more repeaters of their popular Oratorious vehemencies than urgers confirmers of their argumentative strength which either they find not in those Fathers who have been vehement as to this point or else they cannot tell how to manage it § Yea I am informed by a person of learned integrity with whom I conferred oft in this case that one man of great repute namely Peter Martyr is so partiall an enemy against what he calls painting of the face in any sort or degree that writing upon the occasion of Jezebels fate against this practise in women he not onely urgeth but stretcheth to a falsity a story out of St Jerom as if it were a dreadfull hammer by which to demolish all painting when indeed S. Jerome doth not in that place so much as mention painting the face when he tels Laeta in order to her daughters education becoming an intended Nun or Recluse of a woman who having designed her daughter to be a votary virgin without her husbands consent was by the husbands command moved to alter the childs vailed dresse and over-grave habit to the wonted fashion and civility of other young Gentlewomen as to clothes hair gemms c For which deed saith S. Jerome for painting her daughters face saith Peter Martyr besides the text and story the mother was the following night terrified with dreams and visions and threatned with speedy death if she did not restore her daughter to the former mode of votall habiliments § Truly the report seems fitted to the pulse and bent of those times which were high venerators of vowed virginity But it is strange that a wife should be threatned by God with death for obeying her husband in such a thing the contrary to which ought not to have been carried so far on without or against the husbands and fathers will But for the more odium of the businesse this story is brought in by P. Martyr against all painting of the face under the name but not from the true authority of S. Jerome § Your LaP Ladyship farther instanceth in one of our later English Divines to whom I am no stranger Mr. Downam a person of primitive piety and great learning no doubt whom who so shall read in the place you cited crying down with so great fervour all painting the face for so he calls and counts all helps to complexion must needs be as I was much startled fearing lest so great Ordinances discharged with so much noyse and terror should be loaden not with powder onely to scare poor souls but also with deadly bullets to dant and destroy them Yet with the peace and favour of so good a man even my simplicity can easily discern having oft seriously perused that his vehement discourse and rough Satyr against all helps of beauty that there is more of sound and terror than of force or execution in what he there saies against them § The good man rather took it for granted and indisputable than seriously pondered the grounds of other mens and his own heavy censures which rank it in the number of absolute and utter sins of a gross nature Never so much as distinguishing between the thing done and the end or mind of those that do it as if the sober reliefe of a pallid infirmity or the modest study of outward decency were the same things with levity pride and wantonnesse At the same rate he might have inveighed against quenching ones thirst or drinking to cheerfulnesse because of the sordid consequences of drunkennesse riot and debauchery § This worthy man after S. Cyprian calls all painting or colouring the face an Invention of the devil But he proves no such thing by any due reason or authority onely he seems in this case to believe what otherwise he wholly disbelieves that old fabulous fancy which they say some of the Fathers had from the Jewes of Devils being Incubusses and that in their courtships to women they gratified them with these inventions which might help their decaying beauties and make those wanton devils still inamored of them Which frivolous and odious reflexion fitted to vulgar passions and capacities hath as no certainty so no
And indeed that worthy man seems in this as in some other cases of conscience rather to passe them over with a popular and plausible easinesse than to examine the true grounds or to state them after the proportion of that great learning and piety which were in so excellent a preacher yet should not any thing next clearing and stating the saving Fundamentals of Religion be more accurately done than this work of resolving cases of consciences many make pretty Preachers who come very short of profound casuists or exact confessors To both which works he was rarely fitted where he attended the controversie and made the Scruple his businesse not contenting himself as in this with easie and ordinary answers which have their authority from wontednesse more than truth and from men more than God All ingenuous concealings or amendings of what is originally or casually amisse or seems so in our bodies and outsides deserves not the least touch much lesse those black brands of cheating and lying when onely decency and civility are joyned to modesty and humility which in this case may as easily be done as in any without any indignity to God or injury to man yea every one is well pleased as in themselves so in their children and relations to be thus cheated and deluded by the handsomenesse of such a disguise which seems most native The blessed Apostles piety justifies that laudable civility of bestowing more abundant comelinesse by art there where nature hath bestowed least on the parts of the body Nor is it any reproach or infolence to Gods workmanship thus to say or thus to do Though properly speaking nothing in pure nature is uncomely which God hath formed even as to our vile bodies since every part hath its forme and aptitude to the good ends appointed yet since sinfull infirmities have befallen our bodies they are many waies subject to diseases defects and deformities and nothing is denyed us in piety and civility which may best rectifie remove hide or dissemble any such naturall or accidentall pravity For God hath not so confined us in religious modesty as not to give us leave to marry art to nature and to use both those portions and stocks which he hath given us to his glory and our own or others sober and chast contentment Nor is it other than rustick or Adamitick impudence to confine nature to it self and to strip our bodies of all the additaments of fair vestments or other ornaments of humane art and invention Such naked and forlorn Quakers act a part much more cunning false and histrionicall than those that least affect such pittifull simplicities § To call every thing a ly which we make shew of beyond the native propriety of things is such a grosse and ridiculous severity as deprive us of all we weare besides our native haire and skins All colours and dyes given to clothes of any sort are also lyes all pictures and statues lively representing the originals are lyes all parables metaphors and allegories in our speech must be called lyes because they are one thing in the native phrase or letter and another in their applyed sense or meaning yet are not these thefts but borrowings not delusions but allusions not impious falsities but elegant flowers of speech to which the nature and resemblances of things as well as humane fancies have an aptitude and invitingnesse Such ridiculous austerity would be a Satyricall Critique upon the very Scriptures upon the parables of Christ and Apologies of many holy men upon the raptures of Moses Job David and others which ascribe to God all humane senses and passions who yet is one simple and essentiall perfection T is not more ridiculous than insolent to deny the truth of the Scriptures in their holy tropes and hyperbolies when it saies the mountaines skipped and the sea was afraid or the vallies did sing and clap their hands c. How supercilious a piece of pedantry were it here to cry down the manner of such expressions because not native but adopted to things Nor does it in my judgement argue much more gravity and discretion I need not say piety and religion to calumniate those things for frauds cheats lyes and hypocrisies which art ingenuity and manufacture have invented whereby to adorne nature in waies consonant to the modest ends and intentions which are the holy measures and I think the onely confinements of all things both in nature and in art As to the cheat which your LaP Ladyship may fear should befall any man when he thinks he woes and weds a native beauty when it is artificiall in some degree if your LaP Ladyship thinks it not onely fit but necessary in all other additionall supplies or concealments as to the bodies defects or deformities to make such ingenuous discoveries of the truth as may afterward give least cause of such exception or complainings as Jacob used when he found Leah instead of Rachell truly I most willing advise and assent that such as use such helps to their complexion would use the same freedome in telling it to those whom it onely conceâ—â—s to know it As for others curiosities there is no injury done if they be ever kept ignorant of that which to know would do them no good nor yet any harme if they were as charitable and discreet as Christians ought to be The retirement or privacy used by sober women here in England when they apply any thing helpfull to their lookes or complexions is no argument of any sinfull shame but of modesty civility and that discretion which commands us to do many things apart from any witnesses or spectators which yet are no sins but onely sensiblenesse and reflexions upon those infirmities to which our vile bodies are subject of which having no cause to boast we rather chuse to vaile them with secrecy then to expose them to common view or knowledge and censure Few persons being of so equall and humble minds as to bear their own praises and perfections without pride or anothers diminutions or defects without scorn Evill and envious minds are prone to turn many things to our reproach if they discern them of which being ignorant they are also silent § Furthermore although in England a commendable discretion is used by women in concealing both their native defects and their artificiall additaments of beauty or complexion of which many persons are more severe censurers after the vulgar vote and road than judicious examiners yet in other countries nothing is more frequently done and freely owned In so much that the whole culture and office of womens adorning is with some expressed by this My Lady is not yet painted that is she is not compleatly dressed or ready Few women that valew themselves are willing to be seen in any discomposure or defect especially if conscious to any defect or so habited as they think lesse becomes them which affected privacy and obscuring of themselves is no stroke of vanity much lesse of sin but
is rather imputable to that prudent modesty which so much becomes every sober woman that my advise is to them never to be seen by strangers or domesticks in any way to their disadvantage by discovering either their defects or their reliefs § Nor may this be called an histrionike parada or stagely visard and hypocrisie while women seek to appear advantaged in stature or in beauty and handsomenesse so farre as modesty and virtue permit by those borrowed additaments which art lends to nature what is there in any civill order either of Church or State which doth not put on something Theatrick and pompous beyond that simplicity and plainesse which nature hath put upon the persons of men or women Both civill and religious actions study to conciliate to themselves a majesty and reverence by habits and ornaments by comely robes and costly vests which though they are not of the internall and essentiall glory which is in magistratick or Ecclesiastick power and order which are both Divine yet they are so farre not onely convenient but almost necessary as they help to keep both lawes and religion from contempt and from that vulgar insolence to which seditious and Atheisticall humors are subject Yea who is there or what is there almost in humane society which doth not in some sense adorn a theater or scene of life upon the stage of this world who is so open harted and simple but they either conceale their defects or ostentate their sufficiencies short or beyond what either of them really are who doth not as well advise for his fame and credit as for his conscience who is there if they were Anatomised and every way exposed to others censures in what they are or do or pretend but would come many degrees short of that shew they make As there is no necessity to confesse many sins to any but to God to whom onely they are known So in modesty there is no reason for us to own our infirmities to others or the helps we use for our relief when no person is injured by what we do nor at all concerned in it Lastly as to that diminution of honour and esteem which your La p saies commonly followes as a black shadow the most virtuous woman if this be added after the catalogue of her virtues and good works O but she paints she useth some art or wash to her face and complexion It is first a very partiall censure befitting vulgar and grosse minds not wise grave and impartiall persons in other cases of helping or hiding any naturall defect as by false hair a glasse eye bolstred shoulders heightning heels sweet smels and the like to charge no reproach upon any persons otherwaies sober and modest and yet to do it only in this to those who are every way of unspotted virtue and goodnesse which receive no more prejudice or abatement by what shew is made by art of ruddinesse in womens complexions than of tallnesse or straightnesse in their stature and feature when naturally short or crooked Who is so impertinently severe as to detract from any womans honor and virtue by saying O but she weares heeles or shoes a handfull high She seems indeed tall and strait but is really low and crooked c. Nor doth it set off from the score of any mans worth to alledge O but he useth a peruge or useth such sweet smels as are not naturall to his clothes or body for which occasion Isaac took his rise to blesse Esaw Or if this be childish and ridiculous upon these accounts truly they are no lesse in my judgement as to this of complexion which we now dispure Nor is this black taile of detraction lesse unjust than partiall Since no justice will allow us to abate of merit and honor due to many constant and remarkable virtues which are evident and unquestionable tokens of worth meerly upon the suspicion and jealousie for so it is for the most part vulgar censures in this point of complexioning being rarely upon any certain knowledge of doing that with all modesty and privacy which is at worst very disputable whether it have any sin at all in it or be beyond a venial and civill vanity For your LaP Ladyship sees learned men in severall ages and countreys differ as to their judgement of it And truely those seem to me most masters of reason who own the nature of the thing as all other things to be good in it self as gods creature and measure the morality or immorality of the use or abuse of it by the universall standard and rule of all humane actions which is the the mind and end of the doer either conforme or disforme to the holy revealed will of God who hath no more declared any positive law against this than against all other ornaments of our bodies and lives either naturall or artificiall As for the commonnesse or vulgarity of these censures which are you say so usuall among the meaner sort of people or those who are of their seize and last what wise man or woman doth not know that nothing is more sly touchy and boglish nothing more violent rash and various than the opinion prejudice passion and superstition of the many or common people How are they swayed even in their loves and hatreds their perswasions and pieties their esteem or disesteem most what by custome and prepossession or by adherencys and admirations of mens persons How do they love an easie and superficiall censuring rather than an industrious and strict scrutiny of things How is their ignorance an enemy to the knowledge of their betters How doth their meanesse plainesse and rusticity beare a constant antipathy to the politenesse honor and splendor of others How they are naturally of levelling humors and envy others what ever they enjoy of estates houses or ornaments of life beyond their tenuity and cottagely obscurity He or she lives neerest the confines of Reason and Religion too who is most remote from the charms and snares the sense and censures of the vulgar Into whose minds and over whose consciences many things make intrusions and usurpations which have no right or title to that power and authority they exercise over themselves and others No wonder then if those that are so subject to erre customary errors in greater matters do so in this which is so little and inconsiderable we see that wontednesse makes even Blackamores seem handsome to one another And by using to look on themselves in their glasses even hard favoured faces grow reconciled to themselves so farre as to think themselves tollerable yea and handsome too by an happy heresie So little regard is to be had in cases of conscience to the dashes of vulgar tongues and pens Since we see that when nothing of consequence was objectable to Christ the community of the Jews and supercilious Pharises find fault with his disciples gathering eares of corn on the Sabbath day as they passed through the fields of corn and were hungry