Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	day_n	king_n	queen_n	6,655	5	6.9120	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38449	Englands vanity or The Voice of God against the monstrous sin of pride, in dress and apparel wherein naked breasts and shoulders, antick and fantastick garbs, patches, and painting, long perriwigs, towers, bulls, shades, curlings, and crispings, with an hundred more fooleries of both sexes, are condemned as notiriously unlawful. With pertinent addresses to the court, nobility, gentry, city and country, directed especially to the professors in London / by a compassionate conformist.	Compassionate conformist.	1683 (1683)	Wing E3069; ESTC R32945	62,360	146

more exceedingly decent and graceful is the present Cut of our Gentlemen answering all the parts and members of the Body to a more Civil and proportionable end Always however be excepted the incomparable Tunick and Vest so very comely in it self so very advantageous to the Drapers of the Kingdom perhaps the most grave and manlike Dress that ever England saw which had the unhappiness to be brought in too late and the hard Fate to be sent out again too soon And would have answered all the expectations of publick Commodity pretended by the Woolen Act so that had our Gentlemen pleas'd to have danc'd in them any longer the Farmers would very cheerfully have paid the Fidlers But we can never hold when it is well such an influence hath the French Pipe to make us ca●per after them in all their Follies to our own dishonour and Ruine I mind therefore in the next place to represent to the Reader the dangers of so great a Levity Neither is Scripture silent in its menaces against so prodigious a Folly We know who hath threatned such as Cloath themselves in strange Apparel But because examples are more prevalent to work upon us I have endeavoured to look into History which hath furnished me with three or four not unworthy of the Readers most serious perusal and application Don Sebastian then King of Portugal what time this humour infected his Subjects of attiring themselves after the Castillian Fashion all the Noble Persons and Gentlemen practising nothing more than to speak the Castilian Language which it seems is very elegant and expressive with the same ambition as we do the French between whom and them there was no very natural kindness neither but a very bitter Antipathy hating the persons whose Language they lov'd It pleas'd God that Sebastian dying without issue and the Crown lying at Stake as the Golden Ball for every Pretender to venture at who but King Philip of Castile run fairest for it and with an easy stretch got it set on his head to the general sorrow but little redress of the discontented subjects To whom afterwards he proved no very Favourable Prince In the year of Christ four hundred and twenty the Grecians whose habitations bordered upon the Turks took fancy to cloath themselves after the Turkish manner they which before were wont to wear Long Beards which so very well became them quoth my Author Cut off all and left the Mustachioes onely and practic'd to follow them in all their actions till anon comes an Army of Mustachioes and subdued them to a perfect Slavery to this day Although we know their Ruine was both Prophesied and certainly determined as the dreadful punishment for Crucifying the Lord of Life Yet I find too that the Jews for about thirty years before the final destruction of their City and Temple by Titus Vespasian had gotten a custom to impose no other names upon their Children but such as were Roman nor would wear any Garments but after the Roman Guise their very Arms for War and Souldiers Cassocks were in all respect like theirs striving to imitate their Fashion and Garb very intirely whom so suddenly after they so dearly suffered under Caesar in his Commentaries hath an Observation to this very purpose That Divisions and Animosities rising up among the Gaules they began to hate each other to that degree That one Party among them separated from the other by the visible distinction of their Dress betaking themselves some to the Roman Fashion some to the Almaine and left the use of their own short habits and close Breeches Which was but as it were a prediction of the Calamity that soon after fell upon them from the Arms of those Romans whom they had so apishly followed But remarkable is the Story of the Great Darius whom several Authors affirm to us to have changed the very Fashion of his Sword from the Ancient Persian into the Macedenian Fashion but the very year before Alexander invaded and ruined him Which his Diviners interpreted truly into what afterwards came to pass That those should come to be Lords of Persia into whose Fashion Darius had altered his Sword What application shall I make of all these Stories to poor England If not onely our mens Swords and Cassocks and Perriwiggs and Boots and Breeches But our very Ladies Mantoes Petticoats Points Shoes Hoods and Laces be not of the French Fashion onely but the very Productions of the Countrey if no proper handsome young men can be picked from the Sons of our Yeomen and Inferiour Gentry to make Val de Chambres to our Gallants if no hand but a French one can serve to Trim and shave our Beards No Cut but a French Taylors to shape our Cloaths No Languge but the French to serve our Tongues no Religion but the French to content our Souls I pray you what will be the end hereof There is a disease among us called of that Name too I pray God it be not too Epidemical if it be not gotten into our Bodies sure I am 't is gotten into our Heads while we set our selve to study and contrive nothing more than to please our Fancies with the Levities of the French And how little did he merit the happiness of our good Cloth and Beef of our good Laws and Religion of our Native Immunities and happy Liberties who declared he had rather be serv'd by a French Dog than by an English-man What care and prudence hath been used formerly by other Nations for the prevention of publick detriment from the extravagancies and vain excess of Apparel I have already instanc'd from the Athenians and others from the City of Venice c. To which I will onely here adjoyn a Memoire of the Law Sumptuaria which Numa Pompilius established and which prov'd so exceedingly advantageous to the prosperity of the then Roman State Vt in exequiis Epulisque c. It was provided by that Law that all their profuse expence in Funerals and all excessive use of fine Cloths at their publick meeting and Shows should be utterly laid aside by due obedience and execution of which they quickly came to find the present Commodity and benefit by extirpating those two voracious Gulphes that swallow up the prosperity of any Kingdom that is in the World delicacy of fare and sumptuousness of Attire And to shew you what inconveniences this especially of sumptuousness of Apparel hath at all times brought to poor England I shall go back to Queen Elizabeths days and give you a remarkable Survey of it drawn by a Gentleman of good Quality and Understanding Representing it to King James in his Book dedicated to him savouring of the Language of that Age wherein he thus passionately deplored it to the King Our English-men more then any Nation of the World hath been shamefully branded among Forreigners for their disguised Fashions and sumptuous Habiliments beyond the bounds of Prudence Moderation and Hability Some women after a preposterous Fashion

Nations England hath scraped together and in a Bravery put it on the Estimation whereof is little a light wavering mind matched with a vain proud Heart desireth a light vain strange proud and monstrous Apparrel to cover and clad it but Sobriety is content with that which is seemly And in his Sermon before the Parliament recommending this one evil to their prudent considerations as fit to be redress'd being so dangerous and very grievous As our principal care must be for the higher matters Sincerity and Vnity in Religion so may we not pass over other matters which need redress Gorgeous Apparel and sumptuous Diet may seem small things but they are the causes of no small evil They eat up England and are therefore to be repressed by strait Laws And elsewhere in a Sermon before the Queen he expresseth himself pathetically and it is worth your noting Ezechiel teacheth that the Sins of Sodom that Sink of Sin were Idleness fullness of Bread Pride and unmercifulness to the poor Are not these the Sins of this Land of this City of this Court at this day Half England liveth idly or worse occupied we be fed to the full and who is not puffed up with Pride And who relieveth his Neighbours wants No man is contented with his own Estate but every one striveth to climb higher and to sit aloft there is want of the true fear of God in all sorts and Estates and Ages yet we please our selves and walk on as if God either saw not our Sin or else would not punish it Surely our Sins will not suffer his Plagues to stay long from us What Plagues I dare not presume to Prophesie for God hath kept that secret to himself But I stand in fear that we are the men to whom Christ saith The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you That we are they whose Sins will bring the Scepter of this Kingdom into the hands of an Hypocrite Know Reader that this was when the Papists expected so highly the Return of their Religion at the Death of Queen Elizabeth And that made the heart of this good man so bleed in that consideration he goeth on If God in his Justice do this ●o worth us most wretched men The Loss of the Gospel is the Loss of our Souls and the Loss of our Soveraign the Loss of our Lives Truly when I fall into consideration of the wickedness of this world that all sorts of men fall to sinning with greediness that in all conditions Iniquity doth abound and Charity wax cold that the Zeal of God is utterly dried up in the Hearts of Men that God is served for Fashion sake and not in truth what should I think but that God hath gathered his Lap full of Plagues and is ready to pour them down upon us And thus you see how God hath stirred up his Faithful Prophets to drop down their testimony against this poor Sinful Land for the Pride and prophaness thereof in that Age. Let us come down to King James his time and see whether the matter be any whit amended and one might justly expect it because they lay under the obligations of a new mercy in disappointing the expectations of the Enemies of the Gospel by the coming in of a Protestant Prince who so zealously by his Learned Pen contended for the Truth But we shall find this Vanity still triumphing in its full vaunt and Glory and I shall not disparage so holy a Witness as Bishop Sands by subjoyning a mean or unworthy Person to him but will call forth the sweet spirited and excellent Bishop Hall to give us his Evidence against the Pride of that Age wherein he Lived and besides others which I omit I will shew to what height the Women were grown at that time from a Sermon of his Preached at the Spittle O God to what a world of Vanity hast thou served us to I am ashamed to think that the Gospel of Christ should be disguised with such disguised Clients are they Christians or Anticks in some Carnaval or Childrens Puppets that are thus dressed Pardon I beseech you Men Brethren and Fathers this my just and holy impatience VVho can without indignation look upon the prodegies which this mis-imagination produces in that other Sex to the shame of their Husbands and scorn of Religion and damnation of their own Souls Imagine one of our Forefathers were alive again and should see one of those his Gay Daughters walk in Cheap-side before him what do you think he would think it were Here is nothing to be seen but a Vardingale a yellow Ruff and a Perriwigg with perhaps some Feathers waving in the top three things for which he could not tell how to find a Name Sure he could not but stand amazed to think what new Creature the times had yeilded since he lived and then if he should run before her to see if by the foresight he might guess what it were when his eyes should meet with a powdred Frizzle a painted Hide shadowed with a Fan not more painted Breasts displayed and a loose Lock swing wantonly over her Shoulders betwixt a painted Cloth and Skin how would he more bless himself to think what mixture in Nature could be guilty of such a Monster Is this the Flesh and Blood thinks he is this the hair Is this the shape of a VVoman Or hath Nature repented of her work since my days and begun a new Frame It is no marvel if their Forefathers could not know them God himself that made them will never acknowledg that he never made the Hair that he never made theirs the Body that is ashamed of the Maker the Soul that thus disguises the Body Let me say therefore to these Dames as Bennet said to Totilaes Servant Lay down that you wear it is none of your own All the world knows that no man will rough-cast a Marble VVall but mud or unpolished Rags that false art instead of mending Nature mars it But if our perswasions cannot prevail hear this ye Garish Popingays of our time if you will not be ashamed to Cloath your selves in this shameless Fashion see how the Spirit of this Meek Moses raiseth into indignation against this madness that all the world knew to be so mild and tender of it self God shall Cloath you with shame and confusion hear this ye plaister-faced Jezebels God will one day wash them off with Fire and Brimstone See Reader what a Faithful Witness this holy and excellent man was for God against the Pride and Folly of that day To this famous Witness for God Let us adjoin another of his own Order as Zealous and Faithful as himself the worthy Bishop King who bears his Testimony for God against the Rage of this folly that Ruffled so proudly Throw away your Robes and costly Cap●●isons You Kings and Queens of the Earth You that are not so by the Ordinance of God but by your own Usurpation that take such honour upon you not

attired like men in Dublets and some men like women in Petticoats this excess hath so exceedingly dispersed it self in our Nation that by their exteriour new-fangled Robes the wisest of our Adversaries in Forreign Parts have past their Judgments of our giddy minds and unconstant behaviours inwardly saying That in wearing Dutch Hats with French Feathers French Dublets with Collers after the custom of Spain Turkish Coats Spanish Hose Italian Cloaks and Valentian Rapers with such like we had likewise stollen the vices and excesses of those Countries which we did imitate Natural Besides what a shame was it for us to be noted for this exorbitant excess that base Tailors and others which work as Hirelings aspiring to that abominable and indecent singularity should equal themselves in the cost and Fashion of their attire with some of the greatest Barons of this Land A Fault not to be imputed to the Laws for those are precise and strict in such comely considerations but in the dissolute and intemperate affections of people which instead of a little Liberty make a Licence at large Tyrannizing upon the Princes gentle disposition and Lenity Hence it was that the Nobility to distinguish themselves by this outward aport of their Degrees and Riches from the Rascal Rabble and base Ruffians were driven to most extream charge that they might make a difference of themselves from them equivolent in proportion Which course if the Queen her self had kept answerable to her State above some Ladies and others in the like analogy she might with ease have consumed an unspeakable Mass of Treasure Yet Reader 't is known that Queen Elizabeth did not spare for Cost in her Clothes By this means the Estates and Substance of Taylors Craftsmen and other Mechanicks was daily more encreased and the Fortunes of our Gentry utterly exhausted VVhich Leprosy did in a little so spread it self in this Nation that divers Livings of very ancient Demesne and Inheritance which had continued in succession from many Grand Fathers of one Race did hang up in Taylors Shops and were piled up in the Merchants Coffers This Emulation of excess having further prevailed grew to such outrage that when proper maintenance fayled in some to support such Riot they violently or secretly took from others turning open Robbers or secret Pilpherers to supply the same VVhich hath been the demolition and confusion of many Noble Families And persons lately great in worldly Reputation and others in private want purchased by their own intollerable profuseness have perished in their pestilent practises tending to the common ruine for satisfaction of their unsatiable Appetites This being the Testimony of a Gentleman no otherwise concern'd it seems then from the Inconveniences arising to the Commonwealth by this profuseness and Lamenting the ill Consequences of it on that account without any respect to the Sinfullness of it as a Provocation bringing Judgment upon a People where it should thus exceed I shall therefore to him add a Divine living in that very Age that you shall hear breaking out into this Complaint Is there any Nation this day upon the face of the Earth comparable to us in this Abominable Sin of Pride Mr. Teins Leprosy of Pride Our Excess in Apparrel will say no wherein both Men and Women of all Estates and degrees from the highest to the lowest from the Courtier to the Carter do monstrously Offend Servants are in their Apparel more costly then their Masters and Dames Yeomen and Yeomens Sons are herein equal to Gentlemen of good Worship Poor and mean Gentlemen compare with Lords Lords with Kings and Ladies with Queens What will become hereof at the last What is now become of that Moderation in Apparrel that formerly hath been in this Land When every one went habited according to their Orders and Degrees whereas now Gold Silver Velvet Sattin Fine Cambrick and such other costly things are worn by very mean Persons against the Laws of God and man against all Common-wealth and contrary to all good Examples of our Fore-Fathers which things rather belong to Kings and Princes and to Peers of the Land then to mean Subjects As Men and Women exceed in the Substance of Apparrel so also in the form they daily shew forth their Abominable Pride in their Inconstancy for no Colour Form nor Fashion long contenteth them One while we Imitate the Spaniard another while the French one while the Italian another while the Dutch Every Nation is a several Pattern for us Let these proud Peacocks but remember to what end Apparel was appointed by God at the first verily for a covering to hide our shame Diogenes seeing a proud young fellow struting and priding himself in his fine Clothes Sir saith he remember that the Sheep hath had your Coat on his back before you What Vanity is it for us to be so curious in our Apparel to take such Pride herein as we do we rob and spoil all Creatures almost of the world to cover our backs and to adorn our bodies withal from some we take their wool from many their Skins from diverse their Furrs from sundry their very Excrements as the silk which is nothing else but the very Excrement of the worm not content with this we come to Fishes and do beg from them their Pearles to hang about us we go down into the ground for Gold and Silver and turn up the very Sands for Precious stones And having borrowed all this of other Creatures we jett up and down provoking men to look upon us as if all this were now our own when the stone shineth upon our Finger we fancy our selves to shine with it when the Silver and Silks do glister on our very backs we look big as if all that beauty came from us It is reported of Athanasius that when he saw a woman Apparrelling her self in Proud Attire with Gorgeous Array he fell a weeping and being demanded why Because said he all this Preparation is for her own Destruction But our nice and Mincing Dames in England whose whole Life is spent for the most part in Study and Care to Deck Paint and Beautify themselves will hardly be perswaded by that holy Athanasius that they bestow all this cost upon themselves to their own Destruction Because these seem to be more private and obscure I will yet add another which you must look on as a Singular Witness for God against the Pride and Vanity of that Age. The most famous Edwin Sands who dyed Archbishop of York and who was so Faithful to the Interest of Religion as Mr. Fox tells you I do not Condemn all Apparrel that is Rich and Stately yea such as is Costly and Gorgeous may be fit for some Personages and States I do not doubt ●ut Hester and Judeth did wear Gold and were Gorgeously Deckt but if Paul and Peter did live in our days they would not spare the Vanity of our Women much less of our men The vain and Monstrous Apparrel of all other Countries and