William Penn

“ Behold the character and judgment of luxury: and though I know it hath a further signification than what is literal, yet there is enough to show the pomp, plenty, fulness, idleness, ease, wantonness, vanity, lust, and excess of luxury that reign in her. But at the terrible day, who will go to her exchange any more? Who to her plays? Who will follow her fashions then? And who shall traffic in her delicate inventions? Not one; for she shall be judged. No plea shall excuse or rescue her from the wrath of the Judge; for strong is the Lord, who will perform it. ”

“ Art thou, O man, greater than he that made thee? Canst thou approach the God of thy breath and great Judge of thy life with thou and thee, and when thou risest off thy knees, scorn a Christian for giving to thee, poor mushroom of the earth, no better language than thou hast given to God but just before? An arrogancy not to be easily equalled! But again, it has either too much or too little respect; if too much, do not reproach and be angry, but gravely and humbly refuse it; if too little, why dost thou show to God no more? O whither is man gone! ”

“ One time, discoursing of the nature, pleasure, and reward of virtue, and the people not regarding what he said, he fell a singing, at which every one pressed to hear; whereupon he cried out, in abhorrence of their stupidity, "O God, how much more is the world in love with folly than with wisdom!" Seeing a man sprinkling himself with water after having done some ill thing, "Unhappy man," saith he, "dost thou not know that the errors of life are not to be washed away with water?" To one who said, "Life is an ill thing;" he answered, "Life is not an ill thing, but an ill life is an ill thing." ”

“ Turn about then, and hearken to the still voice in thy conscience; it tells thee thy sins, and thy misery in them; it gives a lively discovery of the very vanity of the world, and opens to the soul some prospect of eternity, and the comforts of the just that are at rest. If thou adhere to this, it will divorce thee from sin and self: thou wilt soon find, that the power of its charms exceeds that of wealth, honour, and beauty of the world, and finally will give thee that tranquillity which the storms of time can never shipwreck nor disorder. ”

“ Let thy God that is in thee, to rule over thee, find by thee, that he hath to do with a man, an aged man, a sociable man, a Roman, a prince, and that hath ordered his life, as one that expecteth, as it were, nothing but the sound of the trumpet, sounding a retreat to depart out of this life with all readiness. Never esteem anything as profitable, which shall ever constrain thee, either to break thy faith, or to lose thy modesty: to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to dissemble, to lust after anything that requireth the secret of walls or veils. ”

“ This is the last great impiety struck at in this discourse of the holy cross of Christ, which indeed is much the subject of its mortifying virtue and power. A disease as epidemical, as killing: it creeps into all stations and ranks of men: the poorest often exceeding their ability to indulge their appetite; and the rich frequently wallowing in those things that please the lusts of their eye and flesh, and the pride of life: as regardless of the severe discipline of JESUS, whom they call Saviour, as if luxury, and not the cross, were the ordained way to heaven. ”

“ Thus pride and pomp come to the common end; but with this difference, less pity from the living, and more pain to the dying. The proud man's antiquity cannot secure him from death, nor his heraldry from judgment. Titles of honour vanish at this extremity; and no power or wealth, no distance or respect, can rescue or insure them. As the tree falls, it lies; and as death leaves men, judgment finds them. ”

“ There is no flying his final justice, for those that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth for protection, but in vain. His all-searching eye will penetrate their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obscurity, which shall terrify their guilty souls; and which they shall never be able to extinguish. Indeed, their accuser is with them, they can no more be rid of him than of themselves; he is in the midst of them, and will stick close to them. ”

“ Live an harmonious life to the curious make and frame of thy creation; and let the beauty of thy body teach thee to beautify thy mind with holiness, the ornament of the beloved of God. Art thou homely or deformed; magnify that goodness that did not make thee a beast; and with the grace that is given unto thee, for it has appeared unto all, learn to adorn thy soul with enduring beauty. Remember the King of heaven's daughter, the church, of which true Christians are members, is all glorious within. ”

“ O that man would consider, since there are but two spirits, one good, the other evil, which of them it is that inclines the world to these things; and whether it be Nicodemus or Mordecai in thee, that doth befriend these despised Christians, which makes thee ashamed to disown that openly in conversation with the world, which the true light hath made vanity and sin to thee in secret! Or if thou art a despiser, tell me, I pray thee, what dost thou think thy mockery, anger, or contempt dost most resemble, proud Haman, or good Mordecai? ”

“ Why should your beds, your glasses, your clothes, your tables, your loves, your plays, your parks, your treats, your recreations, poor perishing joys, have all your souls, your time, your care, your purse, and consideration? Be ye admonished, I beseech you, in the name of the living God, by one that some of you know hath had his share in these things, and consequently time to know how little the like vanities conduce to true and solid happiness. No, my Friends, God Almighty knows, and would to God, you would believe and follow me, they end in shame and sorrow. ”

“ But that which aggravates the evil is, the pride of one might comfortably supply the need of ten. Gross impiety that it is, that a nation's pride should not be spared to a nation's poor! But what is this for at last? Only to be admired, to have reverence, draw love, and command the eyes and affections of beholders. And so fantastic are they in it, as hardly to be pleased too. Nothing is good, or fine, or fashionable enough for them: the sun itself, the blessing of heaven, and comfort of the earth, must not shine upon them, lest it tan them ”

“ IX. Aristides, a wise and just Greek, of greatest honour and trust with the Athenians;—he was a great enemy to cabals in government: the reason he renders is, "Because," saith he, "I would not be obliged to authorize injustice." He so much hated covetousness, though he was thrice chosen treasurer of Athens, that he lived and died poor, and that of choice: for being therefore reproached by a rich usurer, he answered, "Thy riches hurt thee more than my poverty hurts me." ”

“ The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives; and that is to glorify God and save his own soul: this is the decree of Heaven, as old as the world. But so it is, that man mindeth nothing less than what he should most mind; and despiseth to inquire into his own being, its original duty and end; choosing rather to dedicate his days (the steps he should make to blessedness) to gratify the pride, avarice, and luxury of his heart: as if he had been born for himself, or rather given himself being, and so not subject to the reckoning and judgment of a superior power. ”

“ They taught their children to write and read, to obey the magistrates, to endure labour, and to be bold in danger: the teachers of other sciences were not so much as admitted in Lacedæmonia.—They had but one garment, and that new once a year. They rarely used baths or oil, the custom of those parts of the world.—They accustomed their youth to travel by night without light, to use them not to be afraid.—The old governed the young; and those of them who obeyed not the aged, were punished.—It was a shame not to bear reproof among the youth; and among the aged, matter of punishment not to give it. ”

“ Every man's happiness depends upon himself; but, behold! thy life is almost at an end, whilst not regarding thyself as thou oughtest, thou dost make thy happiness to consist in the souls and conceits of other men. Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering; for they are idle in their actions who toil and labour in their life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions and desires. As for life and death, honour and dishonour, labour and pleasure, riches and poverty, all these things happen unto men indeed, both good and bad equally ”

“ How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! He adds, "It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven:" that is, such a rich man, to wit, a covetous rich man, to whom it is hard to do good with what he has: it is more than a miracle: O who then would be rich and covetous! ”

“ If a man ask them, Is Christ your Lord? they will cry, God forbid else: yes, he is our Lord. Very well; but do you keep his commandments? No, how should we? How then are you his disciples? It is impossible, say they. What! would you have us keep his commandments? No man can. What! impossible to do that without which Christ hath made it impossible to be a Christian? Is Christ unreasonable? Does he reap where he has not sown? Require where he has not enabled? Thus it is, that with Judas they call him Master, but take part with the evil of the world to betray him ”

“ This is being like the true church, because old, not because good: for families to be noble by being old, and not by being virtuous. No such matter: it must be age in virtue, or else virtue before age; for otherwise a man should be noble by the means of his predecessor, and yet the predecessor less noble than he, because he was the acquirer: which is a paradox that will puzzle all their heraldry to explain. ”

“ But he adds, "Have compassion on the poor and afflicted, and God will bless thee for it: make not the hungry soul sorrowful; for if he curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of Him that made him. Now, for the world, dear child, I know it too well to persuade thee to dive into the practices of it; rather stand upon thy own guard against all those that tempt thee to it, or may practise upon thee; whether in thy conscience, thy reputation, or thy estate: resolve, that no man is wise or safe but he that is honest. ”

“ Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing, have erred concerning the faith. ”

“ And if thy soul excel, thy body will only set off the lustre of thy mind. Nothing is homely in God's sight but sin; and that man and woman that commune with their own hearts, and sin not; who, in the light of holy Jesus, watch over the movings and inclinations of their own souls, and that suppress every evil in its conception, they love the yoke and cross of Christ, and are daily by it crucified to the world, but live to God in that life which outlives the fading satisfactions of it. ”

“ But the divine glory, the beauty of holiness in the gospel house or church, made up of renewed believers, should exceed the outward glory of Solomon's temple, which in comparison of the latter days, was but flesh to spirit, fading resemblance to the eternal substance.
But for all this, Christians have meeting-places, yet not in Jewish or Heathen state, but plain, void of pomp or ceremony, suiting the simplicity of their blessed life and doctrine. For God's presence is not with the house, but with them that are in it, who are the gospel church, and not the house. ”

“ Lycurgus, willing to retire his citizens from a luxurious to a virtuous life, and show them how much good conduct and honest industry might meliorate the state of mankind, applied himself to introduce a new model of government, persuading them to believe, that though they were descended of noble and virtuous ancestors, if they were not exercised in a course of virtue, they would, like the dog in the kitchen, rather leap at the meat than run at the game. ”

“ Virtue would strike me blind if I should laugh at your wars. By music, pipes, and stripes you are excited to things contrary to all harmony. Iron, a metal more proper for ploughs and tillage, is fitted for slaughter and death; men raising armies of men, covet to kill one another, and punish them that quit the field for not staying to murder men. They honour as valiants such as are drunk with blood ”

“ XXIX. Theopompus saith, "The way to preserve a kingdom, is to embrace the counsel of one's friends, and not to suffer the meaner sort to be oppressed." One making the glory of Sparta to consist in commanding well, he answered, "No, it is in knowing how to obey well." He was of opinion, that great honours hurt a state; adding, that time would abolish great, and augment moderate honours among men; meaning, that men should have the reputation they deserve, without flattery and excess. ”

“ So strong, he said, was the notion of God on his soul, so clear the impression of Him upon the frame of the world, so unanimous the consent of mankind, so powerful the convictions of his own conscience, that he could not but taste the power of the world to come, and so live as one that must die, and so die as one that must live for ever. ”

“ Say not within yourselves, How otherwise should men live and the world subsist? The common, though frivolous objection. There is enough for all. Let some content themselves with less: a few things, plain and decent, serve a Christian life. It is lust, pride, avarice, that thrust men upon such folly: were God's kingdom more the exercise of their minds, these perishing entertainments would have but little of their time or thoughts. ”