Thomas Manton · 31 of 60

And lead us not into temptation. · Part 2

(3.) The sin of the devil tempting must be distinguished from our sin in consenting. If the devil tempt, and we consent not, it is his sin. The envious man may throw weeds over the garden wall; but if we do not suffer them to root there, it is not the gardener’s fault, but the fault of the envious man: so the devil may fling in temptations, fiery darts, atheistical or blasphemous thoughts; yet if we throw them out with indignation, and give no harbour and entertainment to them there, it is our misery, but the devil’s sin; and therefore, if our hearts abhor them at the very first rising, though they be man’s cross, they will be put upon Satan’s account.

(4.) Satan, if he cannot prevail by the first temptation to draw us to sin, he will seek to prevail by a second or subsequent temptation, to draw us to trouble and discomfort. If he cannot weaken grace, he may molest and disturb our comfort by flinging in a blasphemous thought, which is abhorred by a Christian. If he cannot draw you to deny God, then he will seek to cloud things, that you may suspect your own estate; and thus our way is made wearisome to us. Look, as a candle which sticks to a stone wall, though it cannot burn the wall, yet it smutcheth and defileth it; so the children of God, when the devil seeks to make their temptations stick, though he doth not burn their hearts with these fiery darts of blasphemy and atheism—they catch not there—yet they weaken our comfort; and then his second temptation is to bring us to doubt of God’s love, to doubt of our own faith, and to draw us to impatiency and murmuring at God’s hand. Therefore it should be our care, not only to withstand the devil’s first temptation, but his second also.

(5.) Certainly they cannot stand long that seem to give up themselves to Satan’s snares. How may this be done? Any carnal affection unmortified layeth us open to the devil: 1 Tim. vi. 9, ‘They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.’ If a man cherish his worldliness, and do not mortify it, he lieth ready to be seized upon as a ready prey for Satan. Judas, he had the bag, and he lay open to the devil; his worldliness increased upon him, so the devil entereth into him. Again, when we ride into the devil’s quarters and will parley with temptation, when we freely open the windows of the senses unto alluring objects, and can dally with the snare and play about the temptation, then we do but tempt God to leave us, and tempt the devil to surprise us. And therefore ‘be sober, be watchful, for your adversary, the devil, walketh about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.’ 1 Pet. v. 8. ‘Be sober;’ what is sobriety? A holy moderation in the use of worldly things. Be sure not to leave any carnal affection unmortified. And then be watchful; take heed not to play about the temptation, nor put yourselves upon occasions of sin, for then we lie open to the devil, and give him an advantage against us. Thus much for the second sort of temptations, such as come from Satan.

The third sort of temptations are those which .arise from our own hearts; so we call these urgings and solicitations to sin which we feel in our bosoms. Concerning this also I shall give some observations.

[1.] If there were no devil to tempt us, yet the heart of man is fruitful enough of all that is evil: Mat. xv. 19, ‘Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies.’ There is a black catalogue, and all comes out of the heart of man. And among the rest, observe, there is murder, which strikes at the life of man; and blasphemy, which strikes at the honour and being of God. Though the devil should stand by and say nothing to us, we have enough within us to put us upon all kind of evil: Jer. xvii. 9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?’ As to actual sins, there is a difference; but as to original sin, it is the same in all. All the sins that ever have been or shall be committed in the world, they are virtually in our natures, they are but original sin acted and drawn out this way and that way, as all numbers are but one multiplied: Cain’s murder, Judas’s treason, Julian’s apostasy and enmity to Christ, the seed and root of all is in our nature; and if we were but left to ourselves, and had the same temptations and occasions, we should be as bad as others; such as we would not imagine that ever we should commit is in our heart: 2 Kings viii. 13, ‘Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?’ when he had been told of those horrid cruelties he should act upon the women and children of Israel. No man knows the depth of his own wickedness, if loosened of his chain and the restraints are taken off. At first nature abhors them in the conceit of them; but when God permits us to lie under the temptation, and fair occasion, man is not to be trusted. We see, in this respect, what need there is to pray that God would not leave us under the power of temptation, because the heart of man is prone, naturally inclinable, to all evil. There are new actual sins, but there is no new original sin, that is but one and the same in all persons and at all times; the root of all the mischief which hath been in the world is within us.

[2.] That without the flesh, the world and the devil can have no . power over us. A man cannot be compelled to sin against his own consent; he may be compelled to suffer temptation, but he is a sinner by his own choice. The world would not hurt us were it not for lust in the heart: 2 Pet. i. 4, ‘Escaping the corruption of the world through lust.’ I say, it is not the beauty or sweetness of the creature, but lust, which is our ruin and undoing, and that makes the world so dangerous unto us. A spider sucketh poison from the same flower from which a bee would suck honey; the fault is not in the flower, but in the spider: the devil can do nothing unless we give him leave. The fire is kindled in our own bosoms, Satan only doth blow it up into a flame. Saith Nazianzen, we have the coals in our own hearts, the devil doth but come and blow them up: suggestion doth nothing without consent. In vain doth one knock at the door, and none with in to look out and make answer; so, all other temptations would be in vain, if there were not somewhat within that would close with what is suggested from Satan: James i. 14, ‘Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed,’ by his own concupiscence. If your hearts did not yield, if you did resist, the devil and the world could not force you. When Satan came to Christ, he might molest him, but he ‘found nothing in him,’ John xiv. 30; as a glass of pure water may be shaken, but there is no filth, no mud there discovered. But now, the best of men, they have somewhat within them, naughtiness and corruption enough in their own hearts, upon which Satan may work and inflame them with his fiery darts. In short, we may commit sin without Satan, but Satan cannot betray us to sin without ourselves; cannot have his desire upon us without us.

[3.] The flesh doth not only make us flexible and yielding to temptations, but is active and stirring in our hearts, to force and impel us thereunto. There is ‘a law in our members,’ Rom. vii. 23, a powerful active principle within us, that is always urging us to sin. We think and speak too gently of our own corrupt hearts when we think the corruption is sleepy, and works not until it be irritated by outward objects and Satan’s suggestions. No, there is an active, stirring principle within us, that poureth out sin as a fountain doth waters, though nobody comes to drink of them; as Gen. vi. 5, ‘Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.’ There is a mint in man’s heart that is always at work coining evil thoughts, evil desires, evil motions; and ‘the flesh lusteth against the spirit.’ Gal. v. 17: And ‘Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.’ Rom. vii. 8. Though there were no other occasion to irritate, but God’s law and the motions of his Spirit, yet there is a continual fermentation wrought by these corrupt humours in our hearts. Natural concupiscence doth not lie idle in them, but is active and warring; and the objects that are in the world, and the solicitations of the devil make it more violent.

[4.] The temptations of the flesh and the world go in conjunction, and do mutually help one another. And therefore it is said, 1 John ii. 16, ‘For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,’ &c. Mark, whatever is in the world, he doth not mention the object, but the lusts, because these are complicated and folded up together in the temptation. The bait is the world, but the appetite and desire we have from the flesh. And this is intimated in that passage, James i. 14, ‘Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.’ There are two words there, drawn away, and enticed: the drawing away notes the vehemency of desire or inclination of our own hearts; and the enticement, that is from the object. Both ways doth corruption work, by force and flattery. The great bait is pleasure, the contentment that we take in outward enjoyments. And we are carried out to it by the vehement propension of corrupt nature.

[5.] This vehement propension of corrupt nature to outward things is set at work by a hope of gaining them, or a fear to lose them; and so we are assaulted on every hand, by right-hand and left-hand temptations. By right-hand temptations, from the flatteries and comforts of the world, which are the more dangerous because of their easy insinuation into, and strong operation upon our hearts, and so our comforts prove a snare to us, and ‘an occasion to the flesh,’ as the apostle saith, Gal. v. 13. And then there are left-hand temptations, which arise from shame or fear of worldly evils, as the other did arise from a desire or hope of good. So the apostle: Gal. vi. 12, ‘As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.’ That was their temporising then to comply with the Jews, who had some national privileges under the Roman government, and had better security to their worldly interests than possibly thorough Christians could have. Now, to avoid both these, the apostle, when he presseth Christians to all those graces which are necessary, he presseth them to temperance and patience: 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, ‘Add to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience.’ Both these are armour of proof against worldly temptations; temperance against the delights, and patience against the evils and troubles of the world. It was never yet so well with the world but that Christians (those that are so in good earnest, that mean to go to heaven and keep a good conscience) will be assaulted on both sides.

[6.] That there is no avoiding either of these snares and temptations as long as any carnal affection remaineth unmortified. For until a man be dead to worldly comforts, and hardened against worldly sorrows, he doth but lie naked and open to Satan: 1 Tim. vi. 9, ‘He that will be rich, falls into temptation and a snare.’ And what is said of riches, the same is true of pleasure: he that is vehemently addicted that way will soon come to put God out of the throne, and make his belly and his pleasure his God: 2 Tim. iii. 4, ‘Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.’ Any lust that is cherished and indulged will betray us. As for honour: John v. 44, ‘How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?’ True faith cannot be planted in that heart that is not purified, until there be a prevailing interest established for Christ over all carnal affections. Grace bears no sway in us, and hath no power over us. The ambition and love of respect from men will necessarily make us unsound in the profession of godliness. Well, then, it stands us upon to allow and cherish no secret sin, but to observe what are the tender parts of our hearts, or which way our corruptions lie, where subjection to God is most apt to stick with us: Ps. cxix. 133, ‘Order my steps in thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.’ Though we seem to have a zeal in other things, yet if one lust be indulged, we shall soon swerve from our duty. True obedience to God is inconsistent with the dominion of any one lust or corrupt affection. I say, though a man, out of some slender and insufficient touch of religion upon his heart, may go right for a while, and do many things gladly, yet that corruption which is indulged, and under the power of which a man lieth, will at length draw him off from God; and therefore no one sin should have dominion over us. When doth sin reign or have dominion over us? When we do not endeavour to mortify it, and to cut off the provisions that may feed that lust. Chrysostom’s observation is: The apostle doth not say, Let it not tyrannise over you. but, Let it not reign over you; that is, when you suffer it to have a quiet reign in your hearts.

[7.] The more we sin upon the mere impulsion of the flesh, and without an external temptation, the more heinous is our offence, for then the heart is carried of its own accord to sin: Ezek. xvi. 33, 34, ‘They give gifts to all whores; but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee for thy whoredoms. And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in. that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.’ These are expressions to set forth their idolatry. But that which is intended there is this: that they were not desired or solicited, but merely carried to sin by their own proper motion, which exceedingly aggravateth sin. Why? For then it is a sign the heart is carried of its own accord by its own weight, as a heavy body is moved downward, not by the impression of outward force, but by its own natural propension.

Now, when do men thus merely sin upon the impulsions of the flesh? I will instance in three cases:—

(1.) When the temptation is so small and inconsiderable that it should not sway with any reasonable man. It is said in Amos ii. 6, ‘They sold the poor for a pair of shoes.’ And ‘for a piece of bread will that man transgress,’ Prov. xxviii. 21. When pleasure and profit is so inconsiderable as that it could not rationally make up a temptation, then men sin merely upon the corruptions of their own flesh. When the devil hath to do with great souls, such as Christ was, he propounds the glory of all the world: Mat. iv. Oh! but a lesser price will serve the turn with those that are deeply engaged already, that are biased with their own propension. For instance, a little ease and carnal satisfaction, a slothful humour, is enough to take them off from the sweetness of communion with God, and the pleasure and contentment that they might enjoy with him in holy exercises. Look, as in general, it is a great aggravation of all sin that for such paltry trifles we turn the back upon God and his grace. All sinners do so; they part with all their hopes by Christ for a mess of pottage, for a little present pleasure; that is profaneness indeed: Heb. xii. 1-6. So in particular things, when the smallest temptation seems to be strong enough to draw off our hearts from our duty, to bring us to a sin of omission, when it is needful to go and converse with God in secret; a little ease and sloth hangs upon us, and we cannot shake it off: or when we are drawn to a sin of commission by an inconsiderable matter, by the smallest worldly interest as can be mentioned, for a piece of bread, and a pair of shoes.

(2.) When men tempt themselves, or provoke Satan to tempt them. As those which ‘make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,’ Rom. xiii. 14; that cater for their lusts, and contrive how to feed them, and how to cherish those inordinate affections in their hearts; that run into the devil’s quarters, that bespeak a temptation; or, as it is, James v. 5, that ‘nourish their hearts, as in a day of slaughter.’ To nourish our hearts, is to feed our lusts, to put strength into the enemy’s hand. When a commander sent to his prince to know how he should keep such a rebellious town in order, he sent him this answer: That he should starve the dog, and strengthen the clog; that he should weaken the city, and strengthen the garrison, that was his meaning. Truly, what was his advice in that outward case,, that is the duty of a Christian; to weaken his lusts, and still to be strengthening grace. He should be increasing the better part, and putting the spirit in heart by godly exercises; by treasuring up promises, getting arguments and fresh encouragements against sin; and by weakening the flesh, starving and cutting off provisions for the flesh. But, on the contrary, when men cater for the flesh, provide for it, indulge carnal distempers, and feed them with that diet which they affect, these tempt themselves, and seem willing to lie under their bondage, and to be glad of it.

(3.) When a man is a sinner to his loss, and hath reasons of nature to dissuade him, as well as reasons of grace, not only religion, but his civil interests, would counsel him to do otherwise; as he that brings a blot upon his name or ruin upon his estate by evil courses; when men ‘draw on iniquity with a cart rope,’ as the expression is, Isa. v. 18; that is, when it is not pleasure, but a very toil and burden and temporal inconvenience to them to be sinful; that industriously make it their business; those that are ‘holden with the cords of their own sins,’ Prov. v. 22. He speaks of such as did bring temporal inconveniences upon themselves, as did consume their flesh and their own bodies; these certainly are those that have cause to complain of their own hearts, not to put it on Satan, but themselves.

II. Having opened the nature of temptations, I come now to give the reasons why this is so usual an evil we encounter with in the world—temptation.

1. God permits it for his own glory, to discover the power, the freeness and riches of his grace, that men may be driven the more earnestly to sue out their peace in the name of Jesus Christ. Luther propounds this reason: Though man be prone to sin of himself of his own accord, yet God suffers the tempter to be in the world, because man is backward to seek mercy and grace by Christ; and therefore God urgeth him with sore temptations. Certainly this reason was given by him not amiss. You know, when Paul felt those paroxysms and sad counter-buffs in his own spirit, this makes him bless God for Jesus Christ: Rom. vii. 25. ‘But thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ It makes him reflect upon the grace of God in Christ. We keep off from the throne of grace till temptations drive us thither. As when the sheep wander, the shepherd lets loose his dog upon them; not to worry them, but to bring them back to the fold again: so God lets loose Satan to drive us to himself.

2. For the trial of that grace which he hath wrought in us. Grace doth better appear in temptation than out of it. The greatness of the woman of Canaan’s faith would never have been discovered, had it not been for Christ’s answer and denial: Mat. xv. 25-28; then, ‘woman, great is thy faith.’ The glory of that grace which God hath wrought in his people would not be discovered so much, were it not for the great trials he puts them upon: Heb . xi. 17, ‘By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.’ Before we go to heaven we shall have our trials, and shall be tried in our dearest comforts, and choicest worldly contentments; and all to see what faith we have, and what loyalty to God in the midst of these trials. A great tempest discovereth the goodness of a ship and skill of the pilot; and so these great trials they discover the soundness of our hearts, and the fruit of that grace which God hath wrought in us. Gold is most tried in the fire, and discovered to be pure and perfect. Stars that lie hid in the day shine in the night. We have but dry notions of the comforts of Christianity, and make them matter of talk, until we are put upon great trials, then is our belief and sense of them proved. A gilded potsherd may shine until it comes to scouring, but then the varnish and paint is worn off. The valour and worth of a soldier is not known in times of peace and when he is out of action. When we are put to some difficulty and straits, then is faith seen. Now this is a very pleasing spectacle to God, to see them approve their faith and loyalty to his majesty.

3. Temptations, as they serve to prove, so also to humble us, that we may never be proud of what we have, or conceited of what we have not. As Paul, that he might not be exalted above measure, he was buffeted with a messenger of Satan: 2 Cor. xii. 7. Poor bladders we are, soon blown up and swollen into vanity and vain conceits of ourselves, therefore had need be pricked, that we may let out those swelling winds. A ship that is laden with precious ware, needs to be ballasted with wood, stones, or contemptible stuff. But why will God humble us by temptations, and such kind of temptations as are solicitations to evil? Answer, Spiritual evils need a spiritual cure. Out ward afflictions they humble, but not so much as temptations do; they are not so conducible to humble a gracious heart as temptations to sin. Why? For then the breach is made upon our souls, and the assault is given to that which a gracious man counts to be dear, and therefore these are suffered to come upon us. If anything will humble a child of God, this will do it. It may be he may bear up under losses tolerably, but when his peace comes to be assaulted, and his grace, this will humble him to purpose. Worldly men, they value their estate by their outward interest, but a child of God by his peace of conscience, and his thriving in grace. Oh, this wounds him to the heart, when in either of these he suffers loss; this sets him a-praying and groaning to God, as Paul groans bitterly when he felt those gripes of sin, and those reluctances in his heart: ‘O wretched man!’ &c. Afflictions, they conduce to ‘humble and prove’ us, Deut. viii. 16. And besides, too, the Lord loves to make the cause of our mischief to be the means of our cure. This giveth us the sight of some corruption we saw not before.

4. God permits this exercise to his people to conform us to Christ. We must pledge him in his own cup, it must go round; he himself was tempted: Heb. ii. 7. Christ hath felt the weight, burden, and trouble of temptations, and knows the danger of them. Now the disciple is not above his lord, nor the scholar above his master. The devil, that did set upon Christ, will not be afraid of us.

5. By temptations to sin God mortifieth sin; not only that sin to which we are tempted, but others, that we may not be so heedless. When we have smarted under temptation, we are not so indulgent to corruption as before; we do not let our senses nor affections run loose. As David speaks, that he got this by his fall: Ps. li. 6, ‘In the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.’ Oh, I shall be wiser and more circumspect for this all my life. When men have smarted they grow more cautious; and so, by the overruling and good hand of God, our sins do us service in our passage to heaven, as well as our graces; and God’s children may say, they had sinned more if they had sinned less: they are more acquainted with the wiles and depths of Satan and naughtiness of their own hearts, and so are more solicitous.

6. To make us more meek to others: Gal. vi. 1, ‘If any man be fallen, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.’ We are very apt to be severe and fierce upon the failings of others; but now, when we are tempted ourselves, we learn more pity and compassion towards them. Severe censurers are left to some great temptation, that they may be acquainted with their own frailties; they are tempted to some sins, to which their hearts were not so inclinable before. Well, then, that we may pity others, mourn over them, and have a fellow-feeling of their condition, God will make us know the heart of a tempted man, that we may have more compassion over poor tempted souls. Possibly that may be a part of the apostle’s sense: 2 Cor. i. 6, ‘Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.’ Persons in office in the church, they are afflicted and tempted; and, it may be, have a greater measure of afflictions and temptations, that they may show more pity to other souls. Therefore Luther was wont to say, three things made a minister, viz., prayer, meditation, and temptation. When he is much in communion with God, much in the study of the word, and hath been exercised in temptation, then he will be of a tender and compassionate heart over others; and that he may help them out of the snares of the devil, he is more fitted to his work by temptation.

7. It occasions much experience of the care and providence of God, and the comforts of his promises. A man doth not know what the comforts of faith mean till he be exercised by temptation. And spiritual experiences will countervail all other troubles. This is an hour of temptation: Rev. iii. 10. What should we do in this hour of temptation? Be not over-confident, nor over-diffident, in an hour when God casts us upon trying times. Not over-confident, in casting your selves upon needless troubles without cause: Mat. xiv. 28. Peter said, ‘Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.’ Peter thought he could do anything in the strength of Christ’s word; Peter seeks a call before it be given him. Nor yet be over-backward and diffident to own God, and the truths of God. As Paul taxed Peter for dissembling: Gal. ii. 12. When those false brethren were likely to bring great trouble, Peter dissembled, and runs with them, and separates himself from the purer sort of Christians, he is taxed there for it. We should not run into them without cause, nor yet be ashamed to own the ways of God, those which are most agreeable to his holy word. Not be solicitous so much about events as duties; for God is far more concerned than we, and hath a greater interest than we can have. What is our interest, and the interest of our families and our children, to the great interest of God, the safety of his children, the safety of his glory, and cause of his church? Be not troubled about events, for all our business is to understand our duty, that we may not sin, but keep blameless in the hour of temptation.