A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian PoliticsBaxter, Richard
Religion
A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics
Baxter, Richard
Casuistry; Christian sociology
_Direct._ V. Overvalue not the accommodation and pleasure of the
flesh, and live not in the sins of gluttony, drunkenness, pride,
gaming, or riotous courses, which may bring you into want, and so to
seek unlawful maintenance. He that is a servant to his flesh cannot
endure to displease it, nor can bear the want of any thing which it
needeth. But he that hath mastered and mortified his flesh, can endure
its labour and hunger, yea, and death too if God will have it so.
Large revenues will be too little for a fleshly-minded person; but a
little will serve him that hath brought it under the power of reason.
_Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter_, saith Seneca: a
well-nurtured, fair-conditioned belly is a great part of a man's
liberty, because an ill-taught and ill-conditioned belly is one of the
basest slaveries in the world. As a philosopher said to Diogenes, If
thou couldst flatter Dionysius, thou needest not eat herbs; but saith
Diogenes, If thou couldst eat herbs, thou needest not flatter
Dionysius: he took this for the harder task: so the thief and deceiver
will say to the poor, If you could do as we do, you need not fare so
hardly; but a contented poor man may better answer him and say, If you
could fare hardly as I do, you need not deceive or steal as you do. A
proud person, that cannot endure to dwell in a cottage, or to be seen
in poor or patched apparel, will be easily tempted to any unlawful way
of getting, to keep him from disgrace, and serve his pride. A glutton
whose heaven is in his throat, must needs fare well, however he come
by it: a tippler must needs have provision for his guggle, by right or
by wrong. But a humble man and a temperate man can spare all this,
and when he looketh on all the proud man's furniture, he can bless
himself as Socrates did in a fair, with, _Quam multa sunt quibus ipse
non egeo_! How many things be there which I have no need of! And he
can pity the sensual desires which others must needs fulfil; even as a
sound man pitieth another that hath the itch, or the thirst of a sick
man in a fever, that crieth out for drink. As Seneca saith, "It is
vice and not nature which needeth much:" nature, and necessity, and
duty are contented with a little. But he that must have the pleasure
of his sin, must have provision to maintain that pleasure. Quench the
fire of pride, sensuality, and lust, and you may spare the cost of
fuel, Rom. xiii. 13, 14; viii. 13.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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