There is a reasonable use of the world, which is as lawful as it is to eat and drink.
We may buy and sell; we may labour; we may provide for ourselves and our families; that is, so far as is needful for life and godliness. But farther we may not go.
The first step our desires take beyond things of necessity, ranks us among worldlings, and raises in our minds all those tempers, which disturb the minds of worldly men.
XXIX. You think yourself conformable to Christianity, because you are moderate in your desires. You don’t desire a large estate; you desire only a little finery, a little state, and to have things genteel about you.
Imagine now, that what you say, of moderate desires, and little fineries, had been said to our blessed Saviour when he was upon earth, calling men to renounce the world and deny themselves.
Your own conscience tells you, he would have rebuked the author of such a pretence with as much indignation as he rebuked Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God.
Now the spirit of Christianity is the same spirit that was in Christ when he was upon earth. And if we have reason to think that such a pretence would have been severely condemned by Christ, we have the same reason to be sure, it is as severely condemned by Christianity.
XXX. Had our blessed Saviour a little before he left the world, given estates to his apostles, with a permission for them to enjoy little fineries, and a moderate state in a genteel manner, he had undone all that he had said of the contempt of the world, and heavenly-mindedness. Such a permission had been a contradiction to the main doctrines which he had taught.
Had the apostles lived in a little state, and in moderate worldly delights, how could they have said, the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world?
And how blind and weak must we be, if we can think that we may live in a spirit and temper, which could not possibly be the spirit and temper of Christ and his apostles?