2. Sometimes he permits us to be tempted by Satan or evil men. By Satan ; thus we i)ray. ' Lead us not into temptation;' that is, give us not up to the devil's tempting. And Christ tells Peter, Luke xxii. 32, ' I have prayed that thy faith fail not.' He doth not say, I have prayed that temptation come not, but that thy faith fail not. When
Vers. 17-19.] hERMOXs upon hebrkws xi. 3(>1
the Lord sufters Satan to toss and winnow his children, it is but to try tliem, that so their graces may be discovered, and they may be acquainted with themselves. Sometimes by evil men ; so Deut. xiii. 3, ' The Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul' When doth the Lord prove them ? — when a dreamer of dreams, when lying and seducing spirits are gone abroad, that is a time when God tries his people. He suffers those winds to blow, that so solid grajn may be distinguished from the chafF. We are then tried what we are, when seducing spirits go abroad, and plausible errors are broached and vented in the world.
3. Sometimes doth the Lord try us by the course of his providence ; and there both by afflictions and mercies. By afflictions : Deut. viii. 2, ' And tliou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee tliese forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.' This was the end of that tedious and long- walk in the wilderness. Why did the Lord keep them forty years in a howling wilderness, walking about, forward and backward, when they might have reached Canaan in forty days ? — to humble, and prove, and try them. So the Lord sufters affliction to seize upon you ; he takes away your nearest and dearest comforts, and relations, to see what you will discover ; whether murmuring or supplication, rebellion or trust. Afflictions broach the vessel, and according to the liquor that is in it so it runs ; yet the broaching of the vessel doth not cause it to run musty, or dreggy ; that is from within. By affliction, God discovers >vhether grace or corruption will be discovered. And sometimes by the violence of evil men, he suffers rough winds to discover the solid grain from the chaff : Luke ii. 37, ' A sword shall pass through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.' It is spoken of the Virgin Mary, when she saw Christ upon the cross, it was as if a sword passed through her heart. And as the Lord tries his people by affliction, so by the blessings of his providence, God gives a full condition to try you. Our trial doth not lie in miseries only, but in abundance ; to see whether we will love him when he gives us abun- dance of all things ; whether we will forget him, or cleave close to him, and own him the more. As you try a servant by leaving loose money about the house ; so God tries his people by the comforts of this world, therefore doth the Lord give Israel dainties ; tliat is, a great propor- tion, a certain rate every day, that he might prove them whether they will suffer their hearts to be carried out after the world, or whether they will love bim t Exod. xvi. 4, ' Behold I will rain bread from lieaven for you, and the people shall go out, and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no.'
4. God hath a great hand in correcting, limiting, and ordering the temptation. God sets bounds to the tempter, and orders the kind of the temptation. When Satan moved the Lord against Job, God gives him leave — Go, touch his substance, but not his person by any means. And when his commission is enlarged to inflict botches upon his skin, yet take heed of his life. Thus far shall the trial go, and no farther, even as the Lord will. When we are in Satan's hands, Satan is in God's hand. It was said of the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, all
362 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. LIL
that was noble in it belonged to Brutus, but all tlie malice and cruelty in the design was imputecl to Cassius ; so all that is good and tends to good, that is ficm the Lord, as the moderation and sanctification of temptation, the gracious use his people make of it ; all this is from God, but the evil and malignity comes from the devil. It is said in Mat. 4. 1, ' The Si)irlt led him into the wikh-rness to be tempted of the devil.' The devil had not only a hand in Christ's temptations, but the Spirit.
Use. Well then, acknowledge God in all your afflictions ; he hath a great hand in them. We suffer a spaniel to hunt a duck, not to devour or destroy it ; so the Lord suffers the devil to toss us and try us, but he hath a hand over him that he shall not devour and tear us in pieces ; therefore acknowledge God in all. Chi-ist hath directed our address to him — ' Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ; ' where- in we desire, first that God would keep the temptation off', if he see fit; for who would desire poison to try the strength of an antidote ? There- fore we first desire that the Lord would keep ofi'the trial; if not, then we beg of him that he would moderate temptation, that he would give us stiength, that we may not be foiled by it. We have deserved to be led into temptation, and left there to be foiled and overwhelmed ; and therefore we deprecate this judgment.