LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP / THINK BEFORE YOU ACT

According to the Book of Ecclesiasticus:

‘We do well to believe less than we are told, and to keep a wary eye on our own impulses; whatever it is, we should think the matter over slowly and carefully, referring it to God.’

Unfortunately our weakness is such that we are much more inclined to believe and speak evil of others than good.
Yet good men do not lightly believe everyone who chatters to them, since they know that human nature is weak and inclined to evil, and very easily betrayed into slips of the tongue.

It is wise neither to be impetuous, nor to hold obstinately to your own opinions. This means firstly that you should not believe any chance thing that is said to you, nor should you immediately pour into another’s ears, something you have overheard or have been told.

Whenever a man feels an undisciplined desire for something, his spirit at once becomes restless.
The proud and the covetous are never at rest, but the poor and humble in spirit pass their lives in abundance of peace.

The man who is not yet perfectly dead to self is easily tempted; small and petty things defeat him.
If a man is spiritually weak and to some extent still subject to his flesh and inclined to tangible things, it is difficult for him to free himself altogether from worldly desire; he is often miserable if he tries to give them up.

He also easily takes offence if anyone does not fall in with his wishes.
If on the other hand he gets what he longs for, his guilty conscience weighs him down at once because he has given way to his natural impulses, which are no help at all towards the peace he sought.
So it is by resisting the desires that true peace of heart is found, not by yielding to them.

That is why there is no peace in the heart of a man who is ruled by his natural desires and prisoner to externals; but there is peace in the man who is spiritually alive and ruled by spiritual standards.