Temperance and moderation of the appetite
Perkins did not shy away from addressing issues touching on economics. The virtue of temperance in Perkins’s understanding touched on four issues; use of riches, use of food and beverage, use of clothing, and use of pleasure.[1] In addressing possessions Perkins provides two categories for consideration, necessary goods and those that are an abundance. Perkins in doing so is clear not to establish a rigid standard of what is necessary. Perkins states, “We must not make one measure of sufficiency of good necessary for all persons, for it varies according to the divers conditions of persons according to time and place.”[2] At the heart of Perkins’s teaching regarding possessions was the idea of contentment. Perkins in advising on having a good conscience concerning wealth states, “We must use special moderation of mind in possessing and using of riches, and be content without our estate, so as we set not the affection of our hearts upon riches.”[3] Perkins understood that the pursuit of wealth was not an end in itself and that one had a responsibility to use their abundance to meet the needs of the poor, the church, and the commonwealth.[4]
Perkins’s treatment of the issue of recreation contradicts a long-held stereotype regarding the Puritan tradition. That stereotype is seen in the following definition, “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”[5] Concerning rest and recreation Perkins states, “First, rest from labor, with the refreshing of body and mind, is necessary because man’s nature is like a bow, which being always bent and used, is soon broken in pieces.”[6] Perkins adds to this that Christians have the liberty to use God’s creations “for meet and convenient delight.”[7] Perkins, rather than discouraging fun and recreation, encourages the proper use of them. It is in addressing the proper use of recreation that Perkins does condemn animal cruelty as a form of recreation. Perkins states:
Again, the baiting of the bear, and cock fights, are not meet recreations. The baiting of the bull has its use, and therefore it is commanded by the civil authorities. The [others] have not this. And the antipathy and cruelty which one beast shows to another, is the fruit of our rebellion against God, and should move use to mourn rather than to rejoice.[8]
Perkins in addressing recreation is clear that what he seeks to condemn is immoral forms of recreation and entertainment, not recreation and entertainment in general. In conjunction with his condemnation of animal cruelty as entertainment Perkins provides further instruction as to what types of games are legitimate forms of entertainment. Perkins divides games into three categories; games of skill, games of risk, and games that are a mixture of skill and risk.[9] Perkins commends the use of games of skill stating that games, “wherein the industry of the mind and body has the chiefest stroke, are very commendable, and not the be disliked.”[10] Regarding games of risk Perkins thoroughly condemns them.[11] Perkins gives an equivocating answer concerning games that mix skill and risk stating, “as they are not to be commended, so they are not to be simply condemned, and if they are used, they must be used very sparingly.”[12]
[1] Perkins, Works, 8:386.
[2] Perkins, Works, 8:387.
[3] Perkins, Works, 8:390.
[4] Perkins, Works, 8:388-389.
[5] Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritan as They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 1.
[6]Perkins, Works, 8:416.
[7] Perkins, Works, 8:416.
[8] Perkins, Works, 8:418-419.
[9] Perkins, Works, 8:419.
[10] Perkins, Works, 8:419.
[11] Perkins, Works, 8:419.
[12] Perkins, Works, 8:419.
Puritans & Pastoring 