[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 ex- alted with his spiritual enjoyments ; therefore God lets loose Satan. Sometimes by the nature of the temptation itself, for God suits punish- ments 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
232 AN EXPOSITION OF [Mat. VI. 13.
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.
But deliver us from evil.
We come to the close. The words airo roD irovrjpov may be rendered, either ' from the evil one,' or ' from the evil thing.'
First, From the evil one: Mat. xiii. 19, ' Then cometh, o irovrjpov, the evil one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart ; ' and 1 John ii. 13, ' I will write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome, rov irovripov, the ivicked one ; ' and 1 John v. 18, ' He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and, o irovripov, that loicked one, toucheth him not ; ' Eph. vi. 16, ' Take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the ivicked,' tov 7rov7]pov, of that wicked one. In all these places the devil is so called, because his great business is to draw, and drive others to sin ; and therefore, as God is ' the holy one,' so Satan is called ' the wicked one.'
Secondly, It may be rendered that evil thing : Mat. v. 37, ' Whatsoever is more than these cometh, e'/c tov irovqpov, of evil ; ' Mat. v. 39, ' But I say unto you, /i^ dvTcarfjvai, rat irovrjpw, resist not evil.' AVe are commanded to resist the devil, and therefore in that place clearly it is put for the evil thing; and so in many other places. Now which of these senses shall we prefer ?
First, If it be meant of the evil one, or Satan, the words will bear a good sense, thus: If God, for our trial and further humiliation, shall suffer us to be tempted by the devil, yet we desire that he may not have his will upon us, that we be not kept under his power.
To make good this interpretation, know the devil may fitly be called ' the evil one,' for he is the oldest sinner ; he sins from the beginning : 1 John iii. 8. And he is the greatest sinner, therefore he is called, Eph. vi, 12, ' spiritual wickedness ; ' his sins are in the high- est degree sinful, every sin of his is a sin against the Holy Ghost, against full light, and with malice and spite against God and the saints. And he is the father of sin, John viii. 44. As Jubal was ' the father of all such as handle the harp and organ,' Gen. iv. 21 ; that is, he was the first that taught the use of that instrument : so all the sins in the world are by his furtherance, both actual and original ; therefore he may be fitly called the evil one.
Again, he hath a great stroke in temptation, that he is the artificer, the designer, the improver of them ; therefore he is called, 6 Treipd^Mv, ' the tempter,' Mat. iv. 3. Well, then, ' Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
Secondly, we may render it indefinitely, as we do, ' Deliver us from
Mat, YI. 13.] the lord's prayer. 233
evil,' that is, from sin. And fitly is this so called, because it is the greatest evil, above poverty, sickness, and worldly loss. Everything which doth harm us, that may be called evil. Now sin doth most hurt; nothing so much as sin. Why ? Because it doth endamage our in- ward man, and endanger our everlasting hopes.