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| Of the Miseries of This Life Which Attach Peculiarly to the Toil of Good Men, Irrespective of Those Which are Common to the Good and Bad.
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Chapter 23.—Of the Miseries of
This Life Which Attach Peculiarly to the Toil of Good Men,
Irrespective of Those Which are Common to the Good and
Bad.
But, irrespective of the miseries
which in this life are common to the good and bad, the righteous
undergo labors peculiar to themselves, in so far as they make war
upon their vices, and are involved in the temptations and perils of
such a contest. For though sometimes more violent and at other
times slacker, yet without intermission does the flesh lust against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do
the things we would,1654
and extirpate all lust, but can
only refuse consent to it, as God gives us ability, and so keep it
under, vigilantly keeping watch lest a semblance of truth deceive
us, lest a subtle discourse blind us, lest error involve us in
darkness, lest we should take good for evil or evil for good, lest
fear should hinder us from doing what we ought, or desire
precipitate us into doing what we ought not, lest the sun go down
upon our wrath, lest hatred provoke us to render evil for evil,
lest unseemly or immoderate grief consume us, lest an ungrateful
disposition make us slow to recognize benefits received, lest
calumnies fret our conscience, lest rash suspicion on our part
deceive us regarding a friend, or false suspicion of us on the part
of others give us too much uneasiness, lest sin reign in our mortal
body to obey its desires, lest our members be used as the
instruments of unrighteousness, lest the eye follow lust, lest
thirst for revenge carry us away, lest sight or thought dwell too
long on some evil thing which gives us pleasure, lest wicked or
indecent language be willingly listened to, lest we do what is
pleasant but unlawful, and lest in this warfare, filled so
abundantly with toil and peril, we either hope to secure victory by
our own strength, or attribute it when secured to our own strength,
and not to His grace of whom the apostle says, “Thanks be unto
God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;”1655
and in
another place he says, “In all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us.”1656
But yet we are to know this,
that however valorously we resist our vices, and however successful
we are in overcoming them, yet as long as we are in this body we
have always reason to say to God, Forgive us our debts.”1657
But in
that kingdom where we shall dwell for ever, clothed in immortal
bodies, we shall no longer have either conflicts or debts,—as
indeed we should not have had at any time or in any condition, had
our nature continued upright as it was created. Consequently even
this our conflict, in which we are exposed to peril, and from which
we hope to be delivered by a final victory, belongs to the ills of
this life, which is proved by the witness of so many grave evils to
be a life under condemnation.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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