For it is undoubtedly the belief of the Quakers, as I
had occasion to observe in a former volume, that the following of such
fashions, begets a worldly spirit, and that in proportion as men indulge
this spirit, they are found to follow the loose and changeable morality
of the world, instead of the strict and steady morality of the gospel.
That some such positions as these may be fixed upon for the farther
regulation of commercial concerns among the Quakers, is evident, when we
consider the example of many estimable persons in this society.
The Quakers, in the early times of their institution, were very
circumspect about the nature of their occupations, and particularly as
to dealing in superfluities and ornaments of the person. Gilbert Latey
was one of those who bore his public testimony against them. Though he
was only a tailor, he was known and highly respected by king James the
Second. He would not allow his servants to put any corruptive finery
upon the clothes which he had been ordered to make for others. From
Gilbert Latey I may pass to John Woolman. In examining the Journal of
the latter I find him speaking thus: "It had been my general practice to
buy and sell things really useful. Things that served chiefly to please
the vain mind in people, I was not easy to trade in; seldom did it; and
whenever I did, I found it weaken me as a Christian.
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