* To speak freely (and do not count me your enemy for this) you cannot but observe upon cool reflection, that you retain just so much of your _antient_ practice, as leaves your _present_ without excuse; as makes the inconsistency between the one and the other, glaring and undeniable. For instance: this woman is too strict a _Quaker_, to lay out a _shilling_ in a _necklace_. Very well; but she is not too strict to lay out _fourscore guineas_ in a repeating _watch_. Another would not for the world wear any _lace_, no, not an _edging_ round her cap. But she will wear _point_; and sees no harm in it at all, though it should be of twelve times the price. In one kind of _apron_ or _handkerchief_ she dares not lay out twenty shillings; but in another sort, lays out twenty pounds. And what multitudes of you are very jealous, as to the _colour_ and _form_ of your apparel, (the least important of all the circumstances that relate to it) while in the most important, the expence, they are without any concern at all? They will not put on a _scarlet_ or _crimson_ stuff, but the richest _velvet_, so it be black or grave. They will not touch a coloured _ribband_; but will cover themselves with a _stiff silk_ from head to foot. They cannot bear _purple_: but make no scruple at all of being cloathed in _fine linen_: yea, to such a degree, that the _linen of the Quakers_ is grown almost into a proverb. Surely you cannot be ignorant, that the sinfulness of _fine apparel_, lies chiefly in the _expensiveness_. In that it is robbing God and the poor: it is defrauding the fatherless and widow; it is wasting the food of the hungry, and with-holding his raiment from the naked, to consume it on our own lusts. 7. Let it not be said, that this affects only _a few_ among you, and those, of the _younger_ and _lighter_ sort. Yes it does; your whole body: for why do you, who are _elder_ and _graver_, suffer such things? Why do ye not vehemently reprove them? And if thy repent not, in spite of all worldly considerations, expel them out of your society? In conniving at their sin, you make it your own; _you_, especially who are _preachers_. Do you say, “They cannot bear it; they will not hear:” Alas, into what state then are ye fallen! But whether they will bear it or not, what is that to thee? Thou art to _speak, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear_. To say the very truth, I am afraid, you rather strengthen their hands in their wickedness. For you not only ¹do not testify against it in the congregation, but even sit at their table and reprove them not. Why then, thou also art one of _the dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber_.