it, who buys and possesses as
though he possessed not, who has wife and children as though he had
them not and who builds as though not building. How is it possible to
reconcile these seeming inconsistencies? By making the Christian faith
distinct from the faith of the Jews and Turks--yes, of the Papists
even: by accepting the fact that the Christian's attitude toward this
earthly life is the attitude of the guest; that in such capacity is he
to build, to buy, to have dealings and hold intercourse with his
fellows, to join them in all temporal affairs--a guest who respects
his host's wishes, the laws of the realm and of the city and the
customs of the inn, but at the same time the Christian refrains from
attesting his satisfaction with this life as if he intended to remain
here and hoped for nothing better. Thus will the Christian pass
through every temporal event in the right way--having every possession
as though not having it, using and yet not cleaving to it; not so
occupied with the temporal as to lose the eternal, but leaving
behind--forgetting--the former while striving after the latter as the
goal set before him.

17. Therefore, they who presume to run out of the world by going into
the desert or the wilderness; who, unwilling to occupy the inn but
finding it indispensable nevertheless, must become their own
hosts--these are great and unreasonable fools. Surely they must eat
and drink and have clothing and shelter. With these things they cannot
dispense, even if they can withdraw from all society. Nor is their
action forsaking and fleeing the world, as they imagine it to be.
Whatever your station and condition, whatever your occupation in life,
of necessity you must be somewhere on earth while mortal life is
yours. Nor has God separated you from men; he has placed you in
society. Each individual is created and born for the sake of other
individuals. But observe, wherever you are and whatever your station,
you are, I say, to flee the world.

HOW TO ESCAPE THE WORLD.

18. But how are we to flee the world? Not by donning caps and creeping
into a corner or going into the wilderness. You cannot so escape the
devil and sin. Satan will as easily find you in the wilderness in a
gray cap as he will in the market in a red coat. It is the heart which
must flee, and that by keeping itself "unspotted from the world," as
James 1, 27 says. In other words, you must not cling to temporal
things, but be guided by the doctr