Three Practical Essays, Essay 2 · Chapter 12
CHAP. XII. Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins, to which we are most in danger to be tempted.
1. FIfthly, Be particularly careful to resist and avoid those Sins, to which either your Constitution, Company, or Employment, make you most in danger to be tempted. This is the great Trial of every Man's Sincerity, and of his Growth in Virtue. He that for the Love of God and the Hopes of Heaven can mortifie and deny his most darling Lusts, can quell and keep under his most natural Passions, can resist and constantly overcome those Temptations by which he is most in danger to be seduced into Sin; such a one has an infallible Assurance of his own Sincerity, and is very near to the Perfection of Virtue. But if there be any one Instance, wherein a Man habitually falls short of his Duty, or indulges a Lust, a Passion, a sinful Desire; 'tis certain, whatever other Virtues he may be indued with, that he either acts upon wrong Principles and is not sincere; or that his Resolutions are hitherto too weak and ineffectual, to intitle him to the Comfort of Religion here, or to the Assurance of Happiness hereafter.
2. There is no Man whom either the Constitution of his Body or the Temper of his Mind, the Nature of his Employment or the Humour of his Company, does not make obnoxious to some particular sort of Temptations more than to any other: And in this thing it is, that those who have something of Sincerity, and will not with others run into all excess of Riot, do yet make shift to deceive and impose upon themselves. They think they are indued with many good and virtuous Qualities; they hate Profaneness and professed enormous Impiety; they know themselves innocent of many great Sins, which they see others continually commit: But something, to which they are particularly tempted, they indulge themselves in; and the fatal Mischief is, that those Sins which they see others commit, and to which themselves are not violently tempted, seem most absurd and unreasonable, and easie to be avoided; but that to which they are themselves addicted, they think to be either so small as not to be of any very evil Consequence, or so difficult to be resisted as to be allowed for among the unavoidable Infirmities of Nature. Thus to many who have little or no Dealings in the World, the Sins of Fraud, Injustice, Deceit, Over reaching, and the like, seem very heinous, base and unreasonable; while at the same time they allow themselves in habitual Intemperances and Impurities, as either harmless Vices or almost insuperable Weaknesses. On the other hand there is no less a Number of those, who applaud themselves in their own Minds, that they are not as other Men, Intemperate, Debauched, Drunkards, Revellers, and the like; while at the same time they look upon Fraud and Deceit, Tricking and Over-reaching, as the necessary Art and Mystery of Business.
3. But this is a very great and a very fatal Cheat. No Man can have any true and solid Peace in himself; no Man can have any just Confidence in his Addresses to God; no Man can have any Title to the Promises and Comforts of Religion here; much less to the Glory and Reward of it hereafter; before his Obedience be, if not Perfect, yet at least Universal. God will not share with any Impiety; nor ever accept of any Man's Obedience, so long as 'tis mixed with the accursed thing. If there be any Sin, that we can hardly part with; if there be any Lust, that is like a right Hand or a right Eye; this is the thing that God hath proposed to us to Conquer; this is the good *foreign. Epicte….Fight which we must fight through Faith; this is the Victory to which Heaven is proposed. For this we must gather together all the Forces of Reason and Religion; for this we must strengthen our selves by Prayer and Consideration: In this Warfare we must resolve strongly, persevere obstinately, and though we be conquered, yet resolve to overcome; always remembring, that this is the Stake for Life or Death, Happiness or Misery, Heaven or Hell.
4. Here therefore let every Man consider with himself; and let him well observe his own Temptations, and his own Strength. Let him consider, not how many Sins he can easily avoid, but by what Temptations he may most easily be seduced; and let him make it his Business to guard himself there. Let those who are young, and not yet entred into the hurry and business of the World, not value themselves upon their being innocent from the Sins of Fraud and Injustice, of Covetousness and Extortion, or the like; (for that perhaps they may be, without any Pains, and without overcoming any powerful Temptation;) but let them try themselves, whether they be firm against the Temptations of Vanity and Lightness, of Heat and Passion, of Intemperance and Impurity; and let them judge of themselves by their behaviour in these Instances, wherein they are most obnoxious: Let them consider, that their peculiar Task, is to overcome the wicked one, 1 John 2. 13. to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit; to conquer and get above †Nam qui voluptatibus indulgent, qui libidini obsequuntur, ii animam suam corpori mancipant, morteque condemnant, quia se corpori addixerunt, in quo habet mors potestatem. Lactant. lib. 6. c. 23:those Pleasures, which sensualize the Soul, and inslave the Mind to the Body, and thereby bring it under the Power of Death and Destruction: And in fine, to strive continually to cleanse themselves from all Impurity, †Mens est enim profecto quae peccat, quae immoderatae libidinis fructum cogitatione complectitur; in hâc crimen est, in hâc omne delictum; nam etsi corpus nullâ sit labe maculatum, non constat tamen pudicitiae ratio, si animas mcestus est. Id. Ibid.not only of Body, but even of Mind and Spirit, perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God: Let them consider, that they are by Baptism dedicated to the Service of God; that they are by Confirmation assured of the Assistance of the Holy Spirit; and that their Bodies are *foreign. Clem. ad Cor. 2.the Temples of the Holy Ghost; which if they keep here in Temperance and Purity, in Sanctification and Honour, they shall hereafter appear with them in Glory; but †Atque etiam vide ne quando persuadeatur tibi interire corpus hoc, & abutaris eo in libidine aliquâ. Si enim corpus tuum maculaveris, maculabis etiam eodem tempore & Spiritum Sanctum; & si maculaveris Spiritum Sanctum, non vives. Hermas 3. 5.if they abuse them by any Intimperance, or defile them with any Lust, they drive away the Spirit whereby they are sealed unto the Day of Redemption, and shall forfeit their Life. Again on the other hand, Those whose Age, or Temper, or Company, or Business, places them beyond the Follies and Extravagancies of Youth, and out of the way of those Temptations with which others are hurried away continually; must not esteem of themselves by their not running into those excesses of Riot, to which perhaps they have little or no Temptation; but must examine whether they be exactly Just in the Business they are employ'd in, whether they be truly Useful and Charitable according to their Ability, and whether they be sincerely Careful to resist those Temptations, to which their particular Circumstances, whatever they be, do more especially expose them. This is the true Trial of every Man's Sincerity, and the most certain Rule by which every one may judge of his own State.