I
will call your attention to a number of particulars, in which a
somewhat comprehensive, and yet summary view, shall be given of the
subject of temptation, which is one of great practical importance.
1.
We are always to avoid temptation as much as we can, without
neglecting, refusing, or deserting our duty. Whoever rushes
carelessly, or unnecessarily into temptation, has no reason to expect
that he will escape without injury; far less can he reasonably hope
to avoid even gross sin, if, as it has sometimes been expressed, "he tempts the devil to tempt him;" that is, seeks for scenes or
objects of temptation, to gratify an unhallowed curiosity, or rather,
(as I suspect in such a case is always the fact) is prompted by the
desire of indulging, mentally at least, in the sin to which he knows
he will be allured. In a word, we are never voluntarily, and of
choice, to expose ourselves to any temptation, but on the contrary,
to avoid it by all proper precautions. Hence we ought not to think it
an extreme, if admonished carefully to consider our constitutional
make, to know what are the transgressions to which we are most prone,
that we may with peculiar vigilance guard against provocatives to
easily besetting sins. This is a consideration that should have
influence on youth, in choosing a trade or profession, and even on
those who are thinking of offering themselves as missionaries, when
they examine into their qualifications for the under taking they
contemplate. The inquiry should be, will not the course of life on
which I think of entering, expose me to temptations, to a compliance
with which I am, from constitutional make, or some other cause,
peculiarly prone. But on the other hand, when ever in the providence
of God, without our seeking, and contrary to our choice, "we
fall into temptation," and plain and important duty requires us
to meet it, we ought to look to God for special aid, and go for ward
with determined resolution.
2.
It ought to be habitually impressed on our minds, that we are not
sufficient of ourselves to resist any temptation. It has been justly
observed, that the foul transgressions of eminent saints, of which we
read in sacred story, took place by the commission of sins to which
we should suppose they, of all men, were the least exposed — as
Moses, the meekest of men, sinned by intemperate anger; Abraham, the
father of the faithful, by a distrust of the providence of God; and
so of several others. The truth is, that as through Christ
strengthening them, his people can do all things, so without him they
can do nothing. Hence they are taught, in all things to distrust
themselves; and to be sensible of their insufficiency, without divine
aid, for any good work, or for the avoidance even of enormous sins;
and to look constantly to him to uphold and guard them — thus
showing, that "when they are weak, then they are strong" —
strong, not in themselves but in the grace which is in Christ
Jesus.
3.
In connexion with what has just been said, it is proper to notice
what has been called tempting God. "Men tempt God, when they
unseasonably and irreverently require proofs of his presence, power,
and goodness; when they expose themselves to danger from which they
cannot escape, without the miraculous interposition of his
providence; and when they sin with such boldness as if they wanted
to try whether God could, or would, know and punish them." (Brown's Dictionary, under the word tempt.) Good
men may commit this sin by expecting extraordinary interpositions in
their favour, beyond what God in his word has authorized them to
expect. But none except the most impious and abandoned, can do that
which is last mentioned by the author I have quoted.
4.
It is of importance to remember, that when a temptation solicits or
assaults, if we would have any rational prospect of withstanding it
ultimately, it must be resisted at once, and with the most decisive
resolution and effort. Indeed, all dallying with temptation, as I
have elsewhere shown, is sinful in itself ; and it may provoke God to
withhold, or withdraw that gracious influence, without which we are
sure to fall. Let a temptation, whether it be alluring or terrifying, get possession of the fancy and the feelings, and its full
prevalence is all but certain. On this point, let me recommend to
your review and careful attention, what I have said in my fifteenth
lecture, on the temptation by which our first mother was fatally seduced.
5.
The sources of temptation are the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The world proves a source of temptation both from the good and the
evil which we may meet with, in our progress through it. The profits,
pleasures, and emoluments of the world, often prove a snare and the
occasion of sin. Hence we should pray with the Psalmist, that God
would " incline our hearts unto his testimonies, and not unto
covetousness,". and that he would dispose and enable us,
agreeably to the apostolical injunction, " to set our affections
on things above, and not on things on the earth." The dismaying
evils of the world which may prove temptations, are the outward
troubles and afflictions which we meet with in it — poverty, persecution, the death of friends and relatives, loss of reputation, and
sometimes of life itself. " In the world," said our
Saviour, "ye shall have tribulation." When we are exercised
with temptations of this description, we should think much of what
Christ our Saviour endured for us, and how little, in the comparison,
we are called to suffer for our fidelity to him; and we should pray
that our outward afflictions may be "for our profit, that we may
be partakers of his holiness," and that we may neither "despise
the chastening of tha Lord, nor faint when we are rebuked of him."
Ashbel
Green, Lecture 76, Lectures on the Westminster Shorter Catechism,
Volume 2
