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 afilictions, by delays of promises, and other means becoming his holy nature. By afilictions, 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
Mat. VI. 13.] the lords prayer. 201
promises : God trieth us soractiraes by delaying the accomplish- ment of his promise ; as in Ps. cv. 19, ' tJntil 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 otfering 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 pro- mise 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 : Pro v. 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 certainlj-, 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;
202 AN EXPOSITION OF [Mat. VI. 13.
so tlie wicked, that harden their hearts against God, God may give them their hearts' desire, and worldly happiness, and so it may canse 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 thfit we should see our weak- ness as well as our strength, and how unable we are to stand witliout grace, that we may be sensible whence we stand, and which without temptation could not so well be.