(3.) God tries us, by permitting the temptations of Satan and his instruments ; for surely these things do not befall us without a pro- vidence. 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. Dent, 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 whetlier j^e 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 wliat 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 informa- tion. 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
Mat. VI. 13.] the lord's prayer. 203
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 liis people, it is all good. AVhen 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 good- ness, 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 afHictions, 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 Avalking 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.