208 AN EXPOSITION OF [Mat. VI. 13.
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 set upon us.
(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 win- dows 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 watch- ful, 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 ])lay about the temptation, nor put yourselves upon occasions of sin, for then we lie open to the devil, and give hirn an advantage against us. Thus much for the second sort of temptations, such as come from Satan.
Mat. VI. 13.] the lord's prayer. 209
The third sort of temptations are those which arise from our own hearts ; so we call these ui-gings and solicitations to sin which we feel in our bosoms. Concerning this also I shall give some obser- vations.
[1.] If there were no devil to tempt us, yet the heart of man is fruit- ful 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, w^hich 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 ; w'ho can know it ?' As to actual sins, there is a difierence ; 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.