Secondly, God alone can give strength to resist and overcome the temptation ; and therefore we should deal with him very earnestly about it : Eom. 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.
Mat. VI. 13.] the lord's prayer. 227
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 bois- terous 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 ])erson 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 l)revail, 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 w'hich 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 artection : 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 occa- sion to the flesh : Gal. v. 13. And an immoderate use of carnal pleasure shall be Christian rejoicing or Christian cheerfulness. There- fore, 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 laging desjDair, faith is necessary : Luke xxii. 31 , 32, ' Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I have jirayed 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
228 AN EXPOSITION OF [Mat. YI. 13.
bidden to 'put on the whole armour of God' ? Eph. vi. 11, 13. If \\e 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 neces- sary 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.'