Thomas Manton · 30 of 60

And lead us not into temptation. · Part 1

And lead us not into temptation.

WE are now come to the sixth petition, which is doubly expressed:—

1. Negatively, Lead us not into temptation.

2. Affirmatively, But deliver us from evil.

The first part doth more concern preventing grace, that we may not fall into evil; and the second, recovering grace, that if we fall into evil we may not be overcome of it, nor overwhelmed by it, but may find deliverance from the Lord. Here we pray: (1.) that we may not be tempted; or, (2.) if the Lord see it fit we should be tempted, that we may not yield; or, (3.) if we yield, that we may not totally be overcome. As the former petition concerned the guilt of sin, so this concerns the reign and power of it.

In this first part, take notice:—

First, Of the evil deprecated, or that which we pray against, and that is, temptation.

Secondly, The manner of deprecation, Lead us not.

In which there is something implied, and something formally asked.

1. Something implied; and that is:—

[1.] God’s providence. When we say to God, ‘Lead us not,’ we do acknowledge he hath the disposal of temptation.

[2.] God’s justice, and our desert; that for former sins, God may surfer this evil to befall us. We have so often provoked the Lord, that in a judicial manner he may suffer us to be tempted.

[3.] Our weakness; that we are unable to stand under such a condition by our own strength, therefore we go to God.

2. Something formally asked; that is, either that God would prevent the temptation, or, if he should use such a dispensation towards us, give us grace to overcome it.

Of these things I shall speak in their order.

First, Of the evil deprecated; and from thence observe:—

Doct. 1. That temptations are a usual evil, wherewith we encounter in the present world.

Here I shall:—

I. Open the nature of temptations.

II. I shall give you some observations concerning them.

III. The reasons of it.

I. For the nature of temptations.

Temptation is a proving or making trial of a thing or person; what he is, and what he will do. And thus sometimes we are said to tempt God, and at other times God is said to tempt us.

1. We are said to tempt God when we put it to the proof whether he will be as good as his word, either in the comminatory or promissory part thereof: Ps. xcv. 9, ‘When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works;’ they tempted God, as they put him often upon the trial. To note that, by the way, there is a twofold tempting or proving of God, either in a way of duty or sin. (1.) In a way of duty, when we wait to see his promise fulfilled; and so, Mal. iii. 10, ‘Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing.’ Come pay your tithes and offerings: he would have the portion which belonged to himself: ‘and prove me now herewith,’ &c. God submits to a trial from experience, when we wait for the good promised. Thus we try God, and try his word: Ps. xviii. 30, ‘The word of the Lord is a tried word; he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.’ All those which build upon it, that wait to see what God will do, they will find it, upon experience, to be accomplished to a tittle; never did any build upon it, or wait for the accomplishment of it, in vain. (2.) In a way of sin. Many ways we are said to tempt God. When we set God a task, in satisfying our conceits and carnal affections: Ps. lxxviii. 18, ‘They tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their lusts;’ and when we will not believe in him, but upon conditions of our own making; or when we confine him to our means, or time, or manner of working; or would have some extraordinary proof of his being, and power, and goodness; or see whether God will punish us though we sin against him. All these ways we are said to tempt God in a way of sin. But that is not my business now. Therefore,

2. As man tempts God, so is man himself tempted. Now man is either tempted:—

First, By God.

Secondly, By Satan.

Thirdly, By his own heart.

First, Man is tempted by God: Gen. xxii. 1, ‘And it came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.’ How is God said to tempt man? When he trieth what is in us: Deut. viii. 2, ‘To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart;’ either what of grace, or what of sin, is in our heart.

[1.] What of grace. Thus the Lord tries us by afflictions, by delays of promises, and other means becoming his holy nature. By afflictions, for they are called a trial: 1 Pet. i. 6, ‘Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ The afflictions of the gospel are called temptations. And so by delay of promises: God trieth us sometimes by delaying the accomplishment of his promise; as in Ps. cv. 19, ‘Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him;’ that is, until the promise was fulfilled and accomplished. A man is put to trial of all the grace that is in his heart.

[2]. God tries what corruption there is in us. He trieth this either by offering occasions, or withdrawing his grace, or by permitting Satan to tempt us.

(1.) By offering occasions in the course of his providence: God puts us upon trial there; sometimes by want, sometimes by fulness. By want: John vi. 5, 6, ‘Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ saith Christ to Philip. ‘And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do.’ Christ will have the weakness of his followers tried, as well as their strength. And he trieth his people often by this kind of trial, when there are many mouths and no meat, and a man cannot see which way his visible supplies shall come in: this he doth to prove them, to see whether they will look only to out ward likelihood and probabilities, or rest themselves upon God’s promise and all-sufficiency; or else, by fulness and outward prosperity, to see if they will forget him. I confess I do not remember where this is called a trial in scripture, unless there be somewhat in that place, Deut. viii. 16, ‘He fed thee with manna in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end.’ Possibly the trial there might lie in this: because they had but from hand to mouth, or because it was not that meat which their lusts craved, but that which God saw fit for them. But, however, though prosperity be not called so, yet certainly it is in itself a trial: Prov. xxx. 9, ‘Give me not riches, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?’ Lust in us makes it to be a temptation, and the godly have been often foiled by it; and they need learn ‘how to abound, as well as how to be abased,’ Phil. iv. 12. They need learn how to avoid the snares of a prosperous condition. David, it was a trial to him; while he was wandering in the wilderness, he had such tenderness, that his heart smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul’s garment, while he was chased like a partridge upon the mountains, wandering up and down, from forest to forest. But when he was walking at ease upon the terrace of his palace in Jerusalem, then he falls into blood and uncleanness; and therefore his estate was a trial, and he lieth in it, notwithstanding all his former tenderness of heart, until he was roused up by Nathan the prophet. And certainly, as to the wicked, it is a very great temptation, judicially inflicted, disposed of to them by God’s judgment: they are plagued by worldly felicity; and it is part of their curse that they ‘shall be written in the earth,’ Jer. xvii. 13; and suitable to this purpose, God saith, Jer. vi. 21 , ‘Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them.’ How doth God lay stumbling-blocks? If men will find the sin, God may with justice enough find the occasion; he will give them some outward condition that is a snare to them. As we may try a servant whom we have just cause to suspect, by laying something in the way, that his filching humour may be discovered, without any breach of justice; so the wicked, that harden their hearts against God, God may give them their hearts’ desire, and worldly happiness, and so it may cause them to stumble.

(2.) God trieth us also by withdrawing his grace, as in 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, ‘God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.’ It is needful sometimes that we should see our weakness as well as our strength, and how unable we are to stand without grace, that we may be sensible whence we stand, and which without temptation could not so well be.

(3.) God tries us, by permitting the temptations of Satan and his instruments; for surely these things do not befall us without a providence. Job xii. 16, ‘The deceived and the deceiver are his,’ his creatures; and nothing can be done or suffered in this kind without God’s providence. See it in Christ’s instance, Mat. iv. 1, it is said, ‘He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil;’ that is, led by the good and Holy Spirit to be tempted by the evil spirit. So, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, compared with 1 Chron. xxi. 1: God moved David, and Satan provoked David, to number the people; that is, God did let loose Satan upon David, to accomplish the righteous ends of his providence. And many of those arrows which are shot at us, though they come immediately from Satan’s bow, yet they are taken out of God’s quiver. God, as a just judge, may give us up to Satan as his minister and executioner. Well, then, this is one way of God’s tempting, permitting of Satan to tempt. And as Satan, so his instruments, God tries us by them. Deut. xiii. 1-3, ‘If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, thou shalt not hearken unto him.’ Why?’ For the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.’ God proveth. When there are delusions abroad and errors broached, it is ‘that the approved may be made manifest.’ 1 Cor. xi. 19. God letteth loose these winds of error and delusion that the solid grain may be distinguished from the light chaff, and that he may discover his own people, and whether we have received truths upon evidence, or taken them up only upon hearsay. All these ways may God be said to tempt.

Now concerning this, take these rules:—

(1.) God’s tempting is not to inform himself, but to discover his creatures to themselves and others. Not to inform himself, for ‘he knows our thoughts afar off.’ Ps. cxxxix. 2; that is, he knows not only the conclusion and event, and management of things near, but he knows the very remote preparation aforehand; he knows what kind of thoughts we will have, and workings of spirit. As a man that is up in the air may see a river in its rise, and fountain, and course, and fall of it—seeth it all at once; whereas another which stands by the banks can only see the water as it passeth by. God seeth all things in their fountain and cause, as well as in their issue and event—he seeth all things together; therefore it is not for his own information. But the meaning is, therefore doth God try us, that what is known to him, and yet unknown to ourselves, that that which lodgeth and lieth hid in our heart may be discovered to us. That we may not be conceited of more than we have, and that the evil which before lay hid and was unseen may be cured when it is discovered. And, on the other hand, that grace may not lie sleeping in a dead and inactive habit, but be drawn out into act and view, for his glory and praise.

(2.) God’s tempting is always good, and for good; his tempting is either in mercy or in judgment. In mercy: and so when he trieth the graces of his people; or when he means more especially to discover the failings of his people, it is all good. When he tries the graces of his people, there is no doubt of that. When God hath furnished a man with grace, that he may, without any impeachment of his goodness, put him upon trial, and use creatures for that end for which he hath fitted them; as a man which hath made and bought a thing may prove it and try the strength of it. Or when the intent of the dispensation is to try their weakness, that is good also, and for good; as when a man tries a leaky vessel, with an intent to make it stanch. So when God tempts us by sharp afflictions, or any other course, it is for good: Heb. xii. 10, ‘He, verily, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.’ A man that hath a disease upon him, it may be by walking or stirring the humours the disease may appear, it is for good; it is better it should be discovered, that he may in time look after a remedy, than lurk and lie hid in the body to his utter undoing; so it is for good our corruptions and weaknesses should be discovered, that they may be made sound. Ay, .but when God brings it in judgment, yet that is for good; that is, for his own glory and his church’s good, though not for the good of the party. For the church’s good, that naughtiness where it is might in time be discovered: Prov. xxvi. 26, ‘Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation,’ lest men get a name that they might do religion a mischief. And it is for the glory of God that men may appear what they are. Here is no stain upon God’s justice for all this. He that pierceth a vessel, if it run dreggy with musty or poisonous liquor, the fault is not in him that pierceth it, but in the liquor itself: he that pierceth or broacheth it doth only discover what is within, that if it be unsavoury he may cast it into the kennel. So, it is not the fault of God which pierceth, discovereth, and letteth out our corruption; the fault is in ourselves: we have those things within which are discovered as soon as God puts us upon a trial.

(3.) God tempts no man, as temptation is taken properly for a solicitation to sin: James i. 13, ‘Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.’ Mark, the apostle proves it, that in this sense God cannot tempt, because of the unchangeable holiness of his nature. In temptation we must distinguish between the mere trial, and the solicitation to sin; the mere trial, that is from God; but the solicitation to sin, that is from Satan and ourselves. God solicits no man to sin. It is true, God may try us, trouble us, toss us, exercise our faith, hope, and patience. God is the author of our trouble; but the devil is the author of our sin, who sinneth himself, and soliciteth others to sin.

(4.) When we say, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ we do not beg a total exemption from God’s trials, but only a removal of the judgment of them. Not a total exemption, for then we must go out of the world, for while we are here every condition is a trial to us, and every enjoyment. Afflictions and trouble more or less put to trial, and therefore temptation in this sense is a necessary part of that warfare we must encounter and grapple withal while we are in the world. Prosperity tries us, to see if we be then mindful of God when all things succeed well; and adversity tries us, to see if we can patiently depend upon God. But it is the judgment of trials that we deprecate, that they may not come upon us as a judgment, or that our trial may be so moderate that we may stand our ground. When doth a trial come as a judgment? When it is immoderate and beyond our strength, either in a way of prosperity or adversity, but chiefly in a way of adversity; for that is most commonly set out in a way of trial in scripture. When it is immoderate and beyond our strength, 1 Cor. x. 13, God hath promised to his people that ‘they shall not be tempted above that they are able to bear; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it.’ God’s conduct is very gentle. As Jacob drove on as the little ones were able to bear, so doth God proportion his dispensations to his people’s strength, not to their deservings, but he considers what they are able to bear. Either God keeps off greater trials, or gives in greater strength; a sweeter sense of his love, or a greater measure of gracious support. A child would sink under that load that a strong back bears without any grudging. Now, this is that we ask of God, according to his promise, that our temptation may be not immoderate and too hard for us. Or else it is a judgment when it proves a provocation to sin; and so God’s temptation, which was meant for our good, we may abuse it, and take occasion thence to sin; as when we murmur under the cross, or turn our worldly comforts into an occasion to the flesh. Now, to prevent the judgment which may be in these temptations; in all the trials which befall us, we should fear more the offence against God than our own smart, or the power of the devil, or any inconvenience that may accrue to us in natural evils which we feel. When we are under afflictions, we should be more solicitous that we do not offend God, that he would keep us from murmuring and dishonouring his name, then we should be about our ease and safety; for this is to prevent the judgment of the temptation. This was Paul’s comfort when he was drawing to the conclusion of his life: 2 Tim. iv. 18, ‘The Lord hath delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, and he shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom.’ And so, in good things that we enjoy, we should fear more offending God with them than the losing of them; for the loss of his favour is more than the loss of our comforts. A man that loseth his worldly portion, this loss may be recompensed; but he that loseth the favour of God, that breach cannot be made up by any worldly comforts whatsoever.

(5.) In passive evils, which are the usual trials of God’s people, we are not to seek them, but to submit to them when they come upon us. We are not to seek them: Mat. xvi. 24, ‘If any man will be my disciple, let him take up his cross.’ When clearly it is our cross, that is, when it lies in our way, and we cannot decline it, then take it up and fit his back to it. So James i. 2, ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.’ He doth not say when ye run into them, but fall into them. We are not to draw them upon ourselves. Afflictions are not to be sought and desired, but improved. Christians, we never know when it is well with us: sometimes we question God’s love, because we have no afflictions and trials; anon we are questioning his love, because we have nothing but afflictions. In all these things we should refer ourselves to God; not desire troubles, but bear them patiently and quietly when he lays them upon our backs.

(6.) Again, for those trials which come from God. When God tempts us, or trieth his people in mercy, he hath a great deal of care of them under their trials. As a goldsmith, when he casts his metal into the furnace, he doth not lose it there, and look after it no more; but sits, and pries, and looks to see if it be not too hot, that nothing be spilt, nothing lost. So it is said, Mal. iii. 3, ‘And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.’ The Lord will observe his people when they are under trial, how to moderate affliction, how to refresh them with seasonable comfort, that all this might better them, and bring them to good.

(7.) Though in our trials we manifest weakness as well as grace, yet that weakness is to be done away. You must remember weakness is manifested that it may be removed, and grace manifested that it may be strengthened. When gold and silver is tried in the furnace, there is not only pure metal discovered, but also the drossy part mingled with it; but it is so discovered that it may be severed from the gold. Such is our trial; it may discover a great deal of dross and sin in us. But this is our comfort, that as it doth discover sin, so it conduceth to mortify sin. Therefore saith Job, chap. xxiii. 10, ‘When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold;’ that is, purified and refined, and having the drossy part eaten out.

(8.) God permits us to be tempted of Satan and his instruments for his glory and our good. For his glory; that his power may be discovered in our preservation, in upholding that grace he hath put into us: 2 Cor. xii. 10, ‘Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.’ We should be glad that God be glorified, though with our great inconvenience. And it is for our good; to correct our pride and vainglory. When Peter presumed of his strength, then God left him to be tempted of the damsel, Mat. xxvi. 33, 70.

(9.) When God permitteth Satan to exercise us, though he suspends the victory, yet if he give us grace to fight and to maintain the combat, it is a great mercy. For so he dealt with Paul when he had to do with the messenger of Satan—(Satan was in that trouble, be it what it will)—he had only this answer, 2 Cor. xii. 9, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Three times he had been with God, and then he gets his answer, and it was only this, ‘My grace,’ &c. Jesus Christ in his conflict and combat was answered as to support, and so was heard in the things he feared. So if God give strength to the soul, it is an answer, though he do not take off the trial.

Secondly, There are temptations from Satan, as well as from God, who is called the tempter: Mat. iv. 3. Now the devil’s temptations they are evil, and for evil. How doth the devil tempt?

[1.] By propounding objects; as Luke iv. 5, ‘He showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.’ He had nothing to work upon within, therefore he propounds outward objects. So still the devil tempts us with a curious eye to take in the object, that it may be a bait and snare to the soul. Achan takes notice of it himself: Josh. vii. 21, ‘When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and a wedge of gold, then I coveted them, and took them.’ I saw, I coveted, and I took: the eye awakens desire, and desire that inclines to practise. So Prov. xxiii. 31, ‘Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.’ Unless we shut the windows of the soul, this pestilent plague gets in by the senses. The heart is corrupted by objects that we take in by the senses, as it corrupted Eve, dealt with her first by the sense; the forbidden fruit was full in her way, then the devil sets upon her.

[2.] He tempts by the persuasion of instruments, who are the devil’s spokesmen: thus was Joseph tempted by the enticements and blandishments of his mistress, Gen. xxxix. 7. And many times the devil sets nearest friends and relations to weaken their zeal, and withdraw their hearts from God: Mat. xvi. 23. Saith Christ to Peter, ‘Get thee be hind me, Satan.’ It was Peter said it, yet Christ rebuked Satan, for the devil had a hand in it; he makes one of Christ’s disciples his instrument.

[3.] He doth it by internal suggestion: 1 Chron. xxi. 1, ‘And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel;’ that is, by internal suggestion. John xiii. 2, ‘The devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray him.’ He haunts and pesters the hearts of men by vain thoughts and carnal imaginations. So ‘the god of this world’ is said to ‘blind their minds,’ 2 Cor. iv. 4.

[4.] By stirring up the humours of our body. When he seeth men inclined to wrath, and angry motions, or lust, the devil, joins, and makes the tempest the more violent. He knows what use to make of an angry look, a wanton glance; he knows how to tempt, by awakening the humours of our own body against us.

Take some observations here.

(1.) In all sins Satan joineth; he is not idle, but makes use of every inclination of ours; as he sees the tree leaning, he joins issue. But some sins are purely of his suggestion; horrid sins, and such as are so very evil, that they could come from no other but from the devil: such sins as could not be acted by man in an ordinary course of sinning. As Judas his treason: though he were devil enough to plot such a thing, yet it is said, Satan put it into his heart. And such singular diabolical suggestions may be darted into the bosom of believers some times; thoughts of atheism, blasphemy, unnatural sins, self-murder, suspicion of the gospel; these things the devil throws in. Therefore, Eph. vi. 16, believers are warned to quench these fiery darts, that the devil hurls into the souls of men.

(2.) Every man is haunted with special temptations, from temper, sex, age, custom, calling, company, course of affairs; these things are often spoken of in scripture. From temper: God makes use of temper; for though he plants all grace in the hearts of the regenerate, yet there are certain graces wherein they are eminent; as Timothy for temperance, Moses for meekness, &c. Thus Paul speaks of the law in his members: Rom. vii. 23. The devil may find forces from the temper of the body to destroy the soul. So also from sex; as he ‘beguiled Eve,’ 2 Cor. xi. 3. And from age: we read of ‘youthful lusts,’ 2 Tim. ii. 22. And how strong the devil is about young ones: 1 John ii. 13, ‘I have written unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.’ They are most assaulted with pride, with youthful lusts suitable to their age. So from custom and education: Ps. xviii. 23, ‘I kept myself from mine iniquity.’ Every man hath his iniquity; that is, such as his education and custom hath wrought upon him, which makes the sin prevail over other sins. A child of God hath a predominant sin, not over grace, for that is inconsistent with sincerity; but some master-sin which prevails over the rest; according as the channel is cut, so corrupt nature runs, but some in this channel, and some in that: every man hath his special sin, and accordingly the devil plies him. Then our calling is a special temptation: 1 Tim. iii. 6, the apostle speaks that a bishop should ‘not be a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil;’ —pride, and ostentation of gifts, and vainglory in such public service. Many other sins follow every calling: therefore if you would be skilled in Satan’s enterprises, you must mind temper, age, calling. So company: as a man’s company is, his soul is insensibly tainted. As a man that walks in the sun is tanned before he is aware, so are the souls of men sullied and defiled by carnal company before they be aware. A man would think, of all sins, passion is so uncomely that it should not tempt another man: yet it is said, Prov. xxii. 24, 25, ‘Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul:’ for the more accustomed to them, the less odious they seem; so by little and little, our spirits are shaped and fitted for such a sin. There are certain sins that are more special temptations. Look, as every disease hath a diet which suits with it, so all sins in the soul. Satan knows what baits we will catch at. It may be, a man that is addicted to the pleasures of the flesh may despise profit, and therefore the devil will not ply him that way. So a man that is addicted to gain despiseth pleasure. The devil suits him with a bait that suits the disease of his soul. It is an opinion the devils have their several wards and quarters; some for such a sort of sinners, others for another sort. Look, as the heathens had several gods (which were indeed devils), as Bacchus, the god of riot, or patron of good-fellowship; and Venus, of wantonness and love; and Mars, the devil of revengeful and angry spirits: and we read of Mammon for wealth: Mat. vi. 24. I know it is fictio personae, to make the matter more sensible; there is a person feigned. But there may be something of this truth in it, that the devils have several quarters, some to humour the covetous, others enticing the wanton, others lie leigers in taverns and drinking-houses, to draw men to beastly excess; and others about the revengeful, to awaken their rage. But all this, however it be (it is the opinion of some), should make us watchful over our own desires and inclinations, for that is it the devil makes use of to Bet upon us.