Milton wrote that genuine liberty is obtained through self-discipline rather than the self-indulgence that inevitably leads to tyranny from within. We rarely see it practiced today. George Herbert linked this idea to Lent.
He welcomes Lent as a time for self-discipline:
Welcome dear feast of Lent: who loves not thee,
He loves not Temperance, or Authority,
But is composed of passion*.
The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church says, now:
Give to your Mother**, what you would allow
To every Corporation.
It's true, we cannot reach Christ's fortieth day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Savior's purity;
Yet are bid, Be holy ev'n as he.
In both let 's do our best.
Yet, Lord, instruct us to improve our fast
By starving sin and taking such repast
As may our faults control:
That ev'ry man may revel at his door,
Not in his parlor; banqueting the poor,
And among those his soul.
*emotion
**God
(excerpt from The Temple, 1633)
- William Wright
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