Thomas Manton · 33 of 60

And lead us not into temptation. · Part 4

Now, when our wills are crossed, dangers attend us on every side, and we know not how far evil will break out to the overturning of all. What are the sins incident to such a time of trouble? and how do the wiles of Satan come upon us?

(1.) Impatience: Gen. xxx. 1, when the will of Rachel was crossed, she said unto Jacob, ‘Give me children, or else I die.’ When we impatiently fret against the Lord: Ps. xxxvii. 1, ‘Fret not thyself because of evil-doers; neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.’

(2.) Murmuring and repining against the Lord, that is another snare: Jonah iv. 9, ‘I do well to be angry, even unto death;’ when he was crossed. Discontent at God’s providence gratifieth Satan exceedingly; when we will justify ourselves, and think it a kind of zeal to be angry, and pet against providence.

(3.) A spirit of revenge against instruments, when we do not sweetly calm the heart with the remembrance of God’s hand: 2 Sam. xvi. 9, ‘Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.’ Thus when wicked men disturb order, the heart is apt to rise in revenge, therefore we are to cairn our hearts.

(4.) There is fainting in duty; when we begin to give over prayer, and are discouraged, and are loth to wrestle with God in an ordinance: Heb. xii. 12, ‘Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.’ When a man’s hands begin to wax feeble, and he is discouraged in the ways of the Lord: ‘My foot had well-nigh slipped,’ saith David, Ps. lxxiii. 2.

(5.) There is closing with sinful means, and running to them for an escape; as Saul, when he was crossed: 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, ‘Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.’ When we go to carnal shifts, and unworthy means, these are very natural to us.

(6.) Despair and distrustful thoughts of God, though we have had much experience of his goodness. David, 1 Sam. xxvii. 1, ‘I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul,’ after all his experience.

(7.) Questioning our interest in God, by reason of crosses, or the doubtful posture of our affairs: Judges vi. 13, ‘If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?’

These are the wiles of Satan. Ride out the storm upon gospel encouragements. This will bear us up, it is but a moment to eternity. It is but ‘a light affliction, and will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ 2 Cor. iv. 17.

The second point is this:—

Doct. 2. That if we would not be overcome by the evil of temptations, we should earnestly deal with God about them.

For so doth our Lord direct us here (‘Lead us not into temptation’) to come to God himself.

There are two reasons I shall consider of in this discourse:—

First, We cannot be tempted without the will of God.

Secondly, Nor resist without the power of God.

Therefore we should deal with God earnestly in all our temptations.

First, We cannot be tempted without the will of God. That God hath a providence in and about temptations, is clear from the scripture: Mat. iv. 1, ‘Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.’ The Holy Spirit had a hand in it, as well as the evil spirit. So, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, ‘God moved David to number Israel and Judah;’ but in 1 Chron. xxi. 1, it is said, ‘And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.’ Satan, he cannot tempt without leave from God. As a lion cannot stir out of his cage, until the keeper brings him out, so the devil, this roaring lion, is held by the irresistible chains of God’s providence, and cannot stir until God brings him out.

Consider two things:—

[1.] To be led into temptation is more than simply to be tempted. God’s permitting us to be tempted is not so much as God’s leading us into temptation, for these are two distinct phrases. God may permit or suffer us to be tempted, as a lord or sovereign, which hath power over his own creature, for the trial and exercise of grace, and can absolutely dispose of it according to his own will; but he leads us into temptation as a judge. And therefore this is one of the comforts which Job propounds to himself, when Satan had a liberty to molest him: Job ix. 12, ‘He taketh away, who can hinder him? who shall say unto him, What doest thou?’ The general of an army may, according to. his discretion, lead which band he pleaseth, and set them in the forlorn hope, in a place of the greatest danger, and appoint for reserves which part of the army he pleaseth. So God may single out his champions to combat for his glory, and may leave others in a more quiet posture, according as he pleaseth. Thus, as a sovereign agent, God may suffer to be tempted. But now, to lead into temptation, that is another thing, and implieth something of punishment, or as it is expressed, Mat. xxvi. 41, ‘Pray that ye enter not into temptation.’ We enter into it by our own voluntary motion, as having forfeited his protection. But then God leads us in as a judge, puts the male factor into the executioner’s or officer’s hands: so doth God lead us into temptation; it is a judicial act, especially when left to perish under the weight of a temptation.

[2.] Consider God as a judge; he may lead us into temptation two ways: either he may act in way of correction, to manifest his fatherly indignation; or by way of strict punishment. And so, in respect of his fatherly correction, God may give us up to a vexing, or to an ensnaring temptation. He may lead the godly into temptation, that they may be molested and troubled; and may lead the wicked into temptation, that they may be seduced and led away for their eternal ruin. There is a vexing temptation God useth for the correction of his own children; and thus Paul was buffeted by Satan, lest he should be exalted above measure: 2 Cor. xii. 7. The shepherd sets his dog upon the strayed sheep, not to worry him, but to lodge him, and bring him back again into the fold: so doth God suffer his children to be buffeted and exercised by Satan, to their great trouble, but for their good in the issue; for he knoweth how to turn all these things for good. Then there is an ensnaring temptation, by which the wicked are entangled in a way of sin; and so Satan, as God’s executioner, is said sometimes to blind the eyes of wicked men, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them, 2 Cor. iv. 4; and sometimes to harden their hearts, John xii. 40, ‘lest they should be converted and healed.’ For the punishment of former sins, God may give up the wicked to be blinded and hardened by Satan to their own destruction, which is one of the most dreadful acts of God, as a Judge, on this side hell.

Certainly then, when we are tempted, we have great cause to deal with God about the temptation, for he hath a hand: either he may suffer us to be tempted, as lord and sovereign; or may lead us into temptation, either in a way of fatherly correction, or as a mere punishment, that we may more ruin and destroy ourselves.

I come now to the second reason.

Secondly, God alone can give strength to resist and overcome the temptation; and therefore we should deal with him very earnestly about it: Rom. xvi. 20, ‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’ It is God that treads down Satan, but under your feet. We fight it out, but the author of the victory is the God of peace. We are interested in it (for we trample upon Satan with our own feet), but God’s is the grace. Our faculties are not only exercised, but our graces.

Briefly, two ways doth God concur with the saints in resisting temptations.

First, God plants all those graces in their hearts that are necessary to the conflict To speak of those three essential graces, faith, fear, and love; these are all necessary for the resistance of a temptation. That faith is necessary, 1 Pet. v. 9, ‘Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.’ And fear and love, that they also are necessary, I shall prove thus: Satan’s weapons against us, and his way of assaulting, are either subtile wiles or fiery darts: ‘That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, and quench all the fiery darts of ‘the wicked,’ Eph. vi. 11, 16. As he assaults us by fiery darts, by raging and boisterous temptations, take the shield of faith, cover all with the righteousness of Christ, and with a sense of your privileges by Christ, and that is it which maintains the heart, and keeps it against the fiery darts of the devil. But as he assaults us by his wiles, there fear and the love of God comes in, and is necessary for us. For there are two sorts of wiles that Satan useth for the destroying of our souls: one is, to convey the temptation by such means as are most taking with the person tempted; and the other is, disguising and turning himself into an angel of light, colouring the temptation.

For the first, namely, as he suiteth every distemper of our souls with a proper diet or food, or tempts us by such means as are likely to prevail, as if a man were tempted by sensual delight; there the love of God is necessary. Why? For nothing but the love of God will make us deny that which is so near and pleasing to us, or that affection which grows upon the apprehension of his grace in Christ; therefore the grace of God is said to teach us to ‘deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts:’ Titus ii. 12.

[2.] For the other wile. As Satan doth transform himself into an angel of light, and cover his base designs with plausible pretences; for instance, revenge shall be accounted zeal; he will disguise it so as that the very apostles shall count it zeal for the glory of God when they called for ‘fire from heaven to consume them, even as Elias did:’ Luke ix. 54. And carnal counsel shall be counted pity and natural affection: Mat. xvi. 22, ‘Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.’ He shall be the devil’s agent to tempt Christ, and his carnal counsel shall be looked upon as pity to his Master. And licentiousness shall be Christian liberty, and our liberty by Christ shall be used as an occasion to the flesh: Gal. v. 13. And an immoderate use of carnal pleasure shall be Christian rejoicing or Christian cheerfulness. Therefore, as there needs love to withstand the potency of temptation, by the suitableness of the bait to our own affections, so there needs the fear of God: Prov. xiv. 27, ‘The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.’ When the devil, by his wiles, is laying snares for us, snares of death, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. A man that is afraid to offend God, and to abuse his liberty, or run into any excess, under colour of grace, is very cautious and watchful, and thereby is not so soon surprised. Thus, when the soul is inflamed by the vehement heat of boiling lusts, or raging despair, faith is necessary: Luke xxii. 31, 32, ‘Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.’ Faith laying hold upon Christ’s righteousness, and waiting for his grace, teaches us to over come in such conflicts.

But why should I instance in these three graces only, when we are bidden to ‘put on the whole armour of God’? Eph. vi. 11, 13. If we would come off with honour in this conflict, we must be completely armed; no power of the soul or sense of the body must be left naked and without a guard, therefore not one saving grace can be wanting.

A Christian is set forth as armed from head to foot. There is for the head a helmet of salvation, which is hope; a breastplate of righteousness; the girdle of truth; for shoes, the gospel of peace; the shield of faith; the sword of the Spirit. These are the graces necessary to resist temptation, and these we have from God. A Christian hath not only weapons offensive, but defensive; not only a sword, but also a shield. Satan hath only weapons offensive, as darts; he hath darts to wound the soul. Again, observe, there is no piece of armour for the back. Why? Because there is no flight in this spiritual warfare; we must stand to it: James iv. 7, ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’

But let us see what are the pieces of the spiritual armour. The apostle begins with ‘the girdle of truth,’ by which is meant, not truth of doctrine (for that is the sword of the Spirit), but sincerity, or an honest intention; when a man endeavoureth to be both to God and man what he seems to be. Now, it is the Lord that must renew the right spirit within us. Satan he assaults us with wiles, but our armour of proof against him is the girdle of truth. We stand against the wiles of Satan, but we must not fight against him with his own weapons, and put off wiles with wiles; sincerity and honest intention, that is our strength; this is the girdle to the loins, it gives strength and courage to the soul. And then there is ‘the breastplate of righteousness,’ or that grace which puts us upon a holy conversation, suitable to God’s will revealed in his word, whereby we endeavour to give God and man their due; it secures the breast and vital parts, the seed of inherent grace in the heart; an honest fixed purpose to obey God in all things. The next thing, the feet must be shod; we shall meet with rough ways in our passage to heaven, and what is that which is armour of proof for our feet?’ The preparation of the gospel of peace/ a sense of our peace and friendship made up between God and us through Christ. Without this we shall never follow God in the way of duty when we meet with difficulties and hardships, But ‘above all, take the shield of faith.’ A shield covers the body, but that which gives defence to all is faith: without this a man is naked. Destitute of Christ’s imputed righteousness, he wants his covenant-strength; it applieth Christ’s righteousness, and engageth the power of God on our behalf. Then there is ‘the helmet of salvation,’ which is hope: I Thes. v. 8. A well-grounded hope of salvation, it makes us hold up the head in the midst of all waves and sore assaults; that is, it is our great motive and encouragement in the work of sanctification. Then there is ‘the sword of the Spirit,’ which is both offensive and defensive; it wardeth off Satan’s blows, and makes him fly back from us as one wounded and ashamed. These are the graces. Now God gives them to us, and therefore he is called ‘The God of all grace.’ 1 Pet. v. 10. Why? because he requires it only? No, but because he giveth it also. And it is called ‘The armour of God,’ ver. 11. God is the author, God is the maker, God is the inventor of this armour, and he doth freely bestow it upon us. The apostle bids us ‘take the whole armour of God,’ ver. 13, that is, take it out of God’s hand. This armour is not of our making and procuring, but made to our hands by God himself.

Secondly, He actuates these graces by putting good motions into our hearts, or sweet and gracious thoughts, whereby all the forementioned graces are drawn out. When we are conflicting with sin in an hour of temptation, faith is set a-work: ‘That God may fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power,’ 2 Thes. i. 11; that is, by a divine power and influence quickening it into acts. Joseph, when he was assaulted by a grievous temptation, he had a gracious motion and thought put into his mind: ‘How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God?’ Gen. xxxix. 9. Still there is a seasonable remembrance of things by the Spirit, whose office it is to bring all things to remembrance: John xiv. 26. The Spirit doth not only teach us all things, but brings things to our remembrance, when we have need of any truth to be set home upon the heart; either such a truth as forbids the evil to which we are tempted, or that speaketh comfort and encouragement to us under such a cross; or pressing such a duty as we hang off from. The seasonable remembrance of truths is the great actual help which we have from God. Jesus Christ himself, by seasonable urging the scriptures, defeated the temptation wherewith he was assaulted: Mat. iv. 10, 11. The word quickeneth in affliction: Ps. cxix. 50. Some proper comfort is borne in upon the soul by the power of God. It is not the bare remembrance of truth, but the secret power of God which enliveneth it, and makes it effectual in its season to defeat the temptation.

Use. It directs you what to do in temptations, to go to God for help and strength against them. Briefly, when you treat with God, it should be under a threefold notion:—

1. As the author and giver of grace.

2. As the sovereign giver and disposer of it, according to his own will.

3. As a judge, by temptation correcting some foregoing sin by the present temptation.

1. Treat with God as the author and giver of grace: James i. 17, ‘He is the father of lights, from whom every good and perfect gift cometh down.’ And so—

[1.] We ought to come to him as renouncing our strength, and waiting for his grace as able to help us. That address Jehoshaphat made in a temporal case is good also in a spiritual: 2 Chron. xx. 12, ‘Lord, we have no might; our eyes are unto thee.’ There is a renouncing of their own strength, and a dependence upon God. There must be a renouncing of all self-dependence, for God ‘gives grace to the humble.’ James iv. 6. The word humble is to be understood not morally, to those that are of a lowly carriage towards men, of a meek spirit; but it is understood spiritually, of those that, in the brokenness of their hearts, acknowledge their own nothingness and weakness: to these he gives grace. God withholdeth and withdraweth his influences when we do not acknowledge the daily and hourly necessity of grace—when we do not desire it with such vehemency as we were wont, nor receive it with such thankfulness and rejoicing. In these three last petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Give us this day our daily bread;’ then, ‘Forgive us our trespasses;’ then, ‘Lead us not into temptation:’ we beg daily bread, daily pardon, daily strength. We can neither live without the one nor the other: we cannot live without daily bread, nor live comfortably without daily pardon, nor live holily without daily grace. And therefore you are to ‘wait upon God all the day,’ Ps. xxv. 5; and Ps. xvi. 8, ‘I have set the Lord always before me.’ Now, we may be said to set the Lord before us, either in point of reverence, when we are sensible of his eye and presence, or in point of dependence, when we are still waiting for his strength; and that is the meaning there, ‘He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’ Look, as a glass without a foot falls to the ground, and is broken as soon as it is set out of hand, such a sensible Christian apprehends himself to be if he be out of the hands of God; he is broken, and falls to pieces. Therefore, in this sense, he goes to God, and desires him to keep him from temptation. Dependence begets observance. If the creature could once but live of himself, though it were but for a while, God would seldom hear from him. This is that which is the bridle upon the new creature, to keep up his constant commerce with God.

[2.] We must go to him with confidence, in an actual dependence upon the all-sufficiency of his grace. It is not enough to apprehend our weakness, but we must also go forth in the strength of God; that is, hold up our hearts with a sense of this, that God is able to bear us up, and defeat all our spiritual enemies. God would not take off the temptation from Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 9, but saith, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’ He can either weaken temptation, or give in further supply of strength; therefore encourage yourselves in the power of the Lord. The devil cannot tempt us one jot further than the Lord will permit him; his malice is limited and restrained: if you be in Satan’s hands, Satan is in God’s hands, and can do nothing without his leave and permission; he begs leave to enter into the herd of swine, much less can he enter into the sheep of his pasture.

2. Look upon God, not only as the giver of grace, but as the sovereign giver and disposer of it according to his own will: Phil. ii. 13, ‘It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ His giving of grace is altogether free, as what measure of assistance we shall have, and by what means it shall be supplied. God may enlarge or abate the degree of his influence, according to his own will. Now, thus we must come to him, with submission to his good pleasure, either for taking off the temptation, or continuing it for your exercise, or the measure of your supply. When you murmur and fret, it is a sign you have too good thoughts of your selves; when we prescribe to God, it argues some ascribing to ourselves. You are to endeavour, indeed, to pray, and use all good means to come out of temptation; but submit, if the Lord be pleased to continue his exercise upon you. Nay, though God should continue the temptation, and for the present not give out those measures of grace necessary for you, yet you must not murmur, but lie at his feet; for God is Lord of his own grace.

3. You are to look upon God as a judge, correcting some foregoing sin by your present temptation. And therefore—

[1.] You must humble yourselves under his mighty hand, when you are exercised with great and sore temptations, and accept the punishment of your iniquity without murmuring; that is the only way to get it off, when you own it as the fruit of sin: Lev. xxvi. 41, ‘If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;’ and Micah vii. 9, ‘I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.’ Acknowledge the justice of his providence in this trouble that is brought upon you. A Christian must not only look to the malice of Satan in his temptations, but to the justice of God. Look, as in outward afflictions, we are not to reflect upon instruments:—Job did not say, ‘The Chaldean and Sabean hath taken,’ but ‘The Lord hath taken,’ chap. i. 23—so in these spiritual afflictions, take the temptation out of God’s hand, as a judge. Though Satan pursue you with fiery darts, with temptations horrible and terrible, yet look upon it as the fruit of some foregoing sin. If he should tempt you by injection of despairing fears or blasphemous thoughts, these are not your sins, but they may be a punishment for your sins; so you ought to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. When you are vexed with such temptations as pierce and prick you in your veins, as David speaks; when the devil bears in blasphemous thoughts upon the heart, they are his sins, but your corrections, justly ordered by God. It may be it is for the correction of your sin that you have provoked God to afflict you thus; and this rod, if it smart, it was dipped in your own guilt, and it is a fruit of God’s fatherly indignation for your folly and vanity; for God may thus manifest it, by giving thee up to this severe discipline, to be tempted and vexed by Satan. Now, it is your duty to be sensible of your sin, and say, as Sion in her troubles, Lam. i. 18, ‘The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment.’

[2.] Find out and remove the cause of sin, when God lets loose Satan upon us. Paul discerned it presently—as usually God’s rod brings light along with it—when he was buffeted with a messenger of Satan; it was that he might not be ‘exalted above measure,’ 2 Cor. xii. 7. Now that which hath provoked God to exercise us with this discipline, that may be known sometimes by the time when this temptation surpriseth us: if it tread upon the heels of some immediate and foregoing provocation that is the sin you should humble your selves for; or by that ill frame and posture of spirit wherein the temptation found you, as Paul’s heart was likely puffed up and exalted with his spiritual enjoyments; therefore God lets loose Satan. Sometimes by the nature of the temptation itself, for God suits punishments to sins, and apt and proper remedies to every disease; or else the sin will be cast up by workings of conscience in a way of remorse, as in a tempest that which is at bottom comes on top; or God will discover it by his Spirit, when you go and seek to him. When temptation is grievous and sore, go to God and say, Lord, why is it thus with me? Job xxxiv. 31, 32, ‘Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.’ Pray for a discovery of your secret sin, and what is the mind of God in the dispensation. Now, when you have found out the cause of the sin, this is the direction, to remove the cause; for until we let the sin go, God will continue the punishment; though we strive, pray, and ask counsel, our burden will still be continued upon us, until sin be mortified in us, though in some measure it be removed out of our hearts.