Mat. VI. 13.] the lord's prayer. 235
ignorant : 2 Pet. iii. 5. The more willing-ly we commit sin, still the more we are under the power of the devil. Well, then, if any have need to say, ' Deliver us from evil,' certainly unrenewed carnal men have need to go to God, and say, ' Lord, pluck us out of evil ;' as the same expression is used, Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,' "O? eppva-aro, who hath delivered us with a strong hand. Oh, go to God, in the name of Christ ; there is no way of escape until God pluck you out by main force. And mark, this power by which we are delivered, God conveyeth by the preaching of the word, which was appointed to turn us from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, Acts xxvi. 18 ; and therefore hearken to God's counsel before your condition grow incurable, and wait upon the ordinances ; for the more you neglect and contemn the means of 3'our recovery, your misery increaseth upon j^ou ; for every day you are still more given up to Satan by the just judgment of God, and to be captivated and taken by him at his will and pleasure by the snares he sets for you.
(2.) Good men, or God's own children, though they are delivered from the power of Satan, and brought into the kingdom of Christ, yet they are not wholly free in this world, but are sometimes caught by Satan's wiles, Eph. vi. 11, sometimes wounded by his fiery darts, ver. 16. Their lusts and their consciences are sometimes set a-raging ; though he hath no allowed authority over their hearts, yet he exer^- ciseth a tyrannical power ; though he cannot rule them, yet he ceaseth not to assault them, if it were but to vex and trouble them. Briefly, the children of God have cause to pray. Deliver us from evil, in regard of Satan, because Satan hath a hand in their persecutions, and like- wise a hand in their temptations to sin. It is he that instigateth their enemies to persecute them, and it is he that infiameth their lusts.
(1st.) In stirring up their enemies to persecute them. All the troubles of the children of God, they come originally from the devil : Luke xxii. 53, * This is your hour, and the power of darkness.' We do not read that Satan did immediately vex Christ ; and how was that hour then said to be the power of darkness ? Why, by setting his instruments a-work to crucify him. And as he dealt with the head, so with the members: Eev. xii. 12, ' The devil hath great wrath, for he knoweth he hath but a short time.' When his kingdom begins to totter and shake, then he stirs up all his wrath, and inflames his in- struments, as dying beasts bite hardest. So, Kev. xvi. 14, we read of the spirits of devils that go forth unto the kings of the earth, to stir them up against the saints. If you could behold, with your bodily eyes, this evil spirit hanging upon the ears of great men, and buzzing into them, and stirring them up, and the common people, and ani- mating them against the children of God, you would more admire at the wonders of God's providence that you do subsist. Oh, how they are acted by this wrd-thful spirit !
(2d.) By inflaming our lusts and corruptions. So, 1 Cor. vii. 5, lest Satan tempt you by your incontinency, sets lusts a-boiling, either to vex the saints or to ensnare them. It is possible he may sometimes prevail with God's own children to draw them to some particular act of gross sin, as 2 Sam. xi. 4, as when David defiled himself with lust,
236 AN EXPOSITION OP [Mat. VI. 13.
that thereby he may dishonour God ; for by this means the name of God was blasphemed, 2 Sam. xii. 14. Or that thereby he may dis- turb their peace, for this made David lie roaring, Ps. xxxii. 3, 4 ; his radical moisture was even wasted and exhausted. Or else to spiritual sins, as murmuring, repining against God, distrust of providence when under crosses. Or when they are in their comforts, to drive them to carnal complacency and neglect of holy things, disuse of communion with God. Or to inordinate passions or spiritual wickedness, such as is not conversant about carnal passions or fleshly lusts, but spiritual pride, error, and unbelief. Certainly those that have anything of experience of the spiritual life cannot be ignorant of Satan's enterprises.
Well, then, we had need go to God to deliver us from evil : for outward evils, for the protection of his providence ; for these God hath undertaken : Ps. 1. 15, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee.' Satan is in God's chains ; he could not enter into the herd of swine without leave ; therefore certainly he cannot get among the sheep of Christ's fold. It is the saying of Tertullian, If the bristles of swine be numbered, the hairs of our head are numbered ; therefore you had need go to God (' Deliver us from evil '), that persecution may not rage over you, that he may hedge you in by his provi- dence. Job i. 10, and that he would be as a wall of fire round about you.