Thomas Watson · 31 of 36

The Sixth Petition in the Lord's Prayer · Part 3

23rd subtlety. Satan tempts to sin by the hope of returning out of it by speedy repentance. It is easy for the bird to fly into the snare, but it is not so easy to get out of it. Is it so easy a thing to repent? Are there no pangs in the new birth? Is it easy to leap out of Delilah’s lap into Abraham’s bosom? How many has Satan flattered into hell by the policy, that if they sin, they may recover themselves by repentance! Alas! is repentance in our power? A springlock can shut of itself, but it cannot open without a key; so we can shut ourselves out from God, but we cannot open to him by repentance, till he opens our heart who has the key of David in his hand.

24th subtlety. Satan puts us upon doing that which is good, unseasonably.

To mourn for sin is a duty; the sacrifices of God are a broken heart. But there is a time when it may not be so seasonable. Psa 51: 17. After some eminent deliverance, which calls for rejoicing, to have the spirit dyed of a sad colour, and to sit weeping, is not seasonable. There was a special time at the feast of tabernacles, when God called his people to cheerfulness. ‘Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt surely rejoice.’ Deut 16: 15. Now, if at this time the Israelites had hung their harps upon the willows, and been disconsolate, it had been very unseasonable, like mourning at a wedding. When God, by his providence, calls us to thanksgiving, and we sit drooping, and, with Rachel, refuse to be comforted, it is very evil, and savours of ingratitude. It is Satan’s temptation; the hand of Joab is in this.

To rejoice is a duty. ‘Praise is comely for the upright.’ Psa 33: 1. But when God, by his judgements, calls us to weeping, joy and mirth is unseasonable. ‘In that day did the Lord call to weeping, and behold joy and gladness.’ Isa 22: 12, 13. Oecolampadius, and other learned writers, think it was in the time of King Ahaz, when the signs of God’s anger, like a blazing star, appeared. To be given to mirth at that time, was very unseasonable.

To read the word is a duty, but Satan sometimes puts men upon it when it is unseasonable. To read it at home when God’s word is being preached, or the sacrament administered, is unseasonable, yea, sinful; as Hushai said, ‘The counsel is not good at this time.’ 2 Samuel 17: 7. There was a set time enjoined for the Passover, when the Jews were to bring their offering to the Lord. Numb 9: 2. Had the people been reading the law at home in the time of the Passover, it had not been in season, and God would have punished it for a contempt. It is the devil’s subtle temptation either to keep us from duty, or to put us upon it when it is least in season. Duties of religion, not well timed, and done in season, are dangerous. Snow and hail are good for the ground when they come in their season; but in the harvest, when the corn is ripe, a storm of hail would do hurt.

25th subtlety. Satan persuades men to delay repenting and turning to God. He says (as Hag 1: 2), ‘The time is not come.’ Now youth is budding, or you are but in the flower of your age, it is too soon to repent: ‘The time is not come.’ This temptation is the devil’s draw-net by which he draws millions to hell; it is a dangerous temptation. Sin is dulce venenum (a sweet poison). Bernard. The longer poison lies in the body, the more mortal; so, by delay of repentance, sin strengthens, and the heart hardens. The longer ice freezes, the harder it is to be broken; so the longer a man freezes in impenitency, the more difficult it will be to have his heart broken. When sin has gotten a haunt, it is not easily driven away. Besides, the danger of delaying repentance appears in this, that life is hazardous, and may on a sudden expire. What security have you that you shall live another day? Life is made up of a few flying minutes; it is a taper soon blown out. ‘What is your life? It is even a vapour.’ James 4: 14. The body is like a vessel, tunned with a little breath; sickness broaches it, death draws it out. How dangerous therefore is it to procrastinate and put off turning to God by repentance! Many now in hell purposed to repent, but death surprised them.

26th subtlety. Satan, in tempting, assaults and weakens the saints’ peace. If he cannot destroy their grace, he will disturb their peace. He envies the Christian his good day; and if he cannot keep him from a heaven hereafter, he will keep him from a heaven upon earth. There is nothing, next to holiness, a Christian prizes more than peace and tranquillity of mind. It is the cream of life, a bunch of grapes by the way. Now, Satan’s great policy is to shake a Christian’s peace; that, if he will go to heaven, he shall go thither through frights, and plenty of tears. He throws in his fire-balls of temptation, to set the saints’ peace on fire. Of such great concern is spiritual peace, that no wonder if Satan would, by his intricate subtleties, rob us of that jewel. Spiritual peace is a token of God’s favour. As Joseph had a special testimony of his father’s kindness in the party-coloured coat, so have the saints a special token of God’s good will to them, when he gives them the party-coloured coat of inward peace. No wonder then, if Satan rages so much against the saints’ peace, and would tear off this comfortable robe from them. The devil troubles the waters of the saints’ peace because hereby he hopes to have the more advantage of them.

(1) By perplexing their spirits, he takes off their chariot wheels; unfits them for the service of God; and puts body and mind out of temper, as an instrument out of tune. Sadness of spirit prevailing, a Christian can think of nothing but his troubles; his mind is full of doubts, fears, surmises, so that he is like a person distracted, and is scarcely himself; either he neglects the duties of religion, or his mind is taken off from them while he is doing them. There is one duty especially that melancholy and sadness of spirit unfits for, and that is thankfulness. Thankfulness is a tribute or quit-rent due to God. ‘Let the saints be joyful, let the high praises of God be in their mouth.’ Psa 149: 5, 6. But when Satan has disturbed a Christian’s spirit and filled his mind full of black, and almost despairing thoughts, how can he be thankful? It rejoices Satan to see how his plot takes. By making God’s children unquiet, he makes them unthankful.

(2) By troubling the saints’ peace, Satan lays a stumbling block in the way of others. By this he gets occasion to render the ways of God unlovely to those who are looking heavenward. He sets before new beginners the perplexing thoughts, the tears, the groans of those who are wounded in spirit, to scare them from all seriousness in religion. He will object to new beginners: Do you not see how these sad souls torture themselves with melancholy thoughts, and will you change the comforts and pleasures of this life to sit always in the house of mourning? Will you espouse that religion which makes you a terror to yourselves, and a burden to others? Can you he in dove with a religion that is ready to fright you out of your wits? Thus the devil, by troubling the saints’ peace, would discourage others who are looking towards heaven; he would beat them off from prayer, and hearing all soul-awakening sermons, by the fear lest they should fall into this black humour of melancholy, and end their days in despair.

(3) By this subtle policy of Satan, in disturbing the saints’ peace, and making them believe God does not love them, he sometimes so far prevails as to make them begin to entertain hard thoughts of God. Through the black spectacles of melancholy, God’s dealings look sad and ghastly. Satan tempts the godly to have strange thoughts of God; to think he has cast off all pity, and has forgotten to he gracious, and to make sad conclusions. Psa 78: 7, 8, 9. ‘I reckoned, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night, wilt thou make an end of me.’ Isa 38: 13. The devil, by melancholy, causes a sad eclipse in the soul, so that it begins to think God has shut up the springs of mercy, and there is no hope. Hereupon Satan gets further advantage of a troubled spirit. Sometimes he puts it upon sinful wishes and execrations against itself; as Job, who in distemper of mind, cursed his birthday. Job 3: 3. Though he did not curse his God, yet he cursed his birthday. Thus you see what advantages the devil gets by raising storms and troubling the saints’ peace. If the devil is capable of any delight, it is to see the saints’ disquiets: their groans are his music. It is a sport to him to see them torture themselves upon the rack of melancholy, and almost drown themselves in tears. When the godly have unjust surmises of God, question his love, deny the work of grace, and fall to wishing they had never been born, Satan is ready to clap his hands, and shout for a victory.

By what arts and methods does Satan, in tempting, disturb the saints’ peace?

He slily conveys evil thoughts, and makes a Christian believe they come from his own heart. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, but it was of Joseph’s putting there; so a child of God often finds atheistical and blasphemous thoughts in his mind, but Satan has put them there. As some lay their children at another’s door, so Satan lays his temptations at our door, and fathers them upon us. We then trouble ourselves about them, and nurse them, as if they were our own.

Satan disturbs the saints’ peace by drawing forth their sins in the black colours to affright them, and make them ready to give up the ghost. He is called the accuser of the brethren; not only because he accuses them to God, but accuses them to themselves. He tells them they are guilty of certain sins and they are hypocrites; whereas the sins of a believer only show that grace is not perfect, not that he has no grace. When Satan comes with this temptation, show him that Scripture, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ 1 John 1: 7.

27th subtlety. Satan, by plausible arguments, tempts men to commit felo de se, to make away with themselves. This temptation not only crosses the current of Scripture, but it is abhorrent to nature to be one’s own executioner. Yet such are the cunning artifices of Satan, that he persuades many to lay violent hands upon themselves, as the bills of mortality witness. He tempts some to do this in terror of conscience, telling them, All the hell they shall have is in their conscience, and death will give them present ease. He tempts others to make away with themselves that they may live no longer to sin against God. Others he tempts to make away with themselves, that they may presently arrive at happiness. He tells them, the best of the saints desire heaven, and the sooner they are there the better.

Augustine speaks of Cleombrotus, who hearing Plato read a lecture on the immortality of the soul, and the joys of the other world, se in praecipitium dejecit, threw himself down a steep precipice, or rock, and killed himself. This is Satan’s plot; but we must not break prison by laying violent hands upon ourselves, but stay till God sends and opens the door. Let us pray ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ Still bear in mind that Scripture, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Exod 20: 13. Clamitat in caelum vox sanguinis [The voice of blood cries to heaven]. If we may not kill another, much less ourselves; and take heed of discontent, which often opens the door to self-murder.

Thus I have shown you twenty-seven subtleties of Satan in tempting, that you may the better know them, and avoid them. There is a story of a Jew who would have poisoned Luther, but a friend sent to Luther the picture of the Jew, warning him to take heed of such a man when he saw him; by which means he knew the murderer, and escaped his hands. I have told you the subtle devices of Satan in tempting; I have shown you the picture of him that would murder you. Being forewarned, I beseech you take heed of the murderer.

From the subtlety of Satan in tempting, let me draw three inferences.

(1) It may administer matter of wonder to us how any are saved. How amazing that Satan, this Abaddon, or angel of the bottomless pit (Rev 9: 11) this Apollyon, this soul-devourer, does not win all mankind! What a wonder that some are preserved, that neither Satan’s hidden snares prevail nor his fiery darts: that neither the head of the serpent, nor the paw of the lion destroys them! Surely it will be matter of admiration to the saints, when they come to heaven, to think how strangely they came thither; that notwithstanding all the force and fraud, the power and policy of hell, they should arrive safe at the heavenly port! This is owing to the safe conduct of Christ, the Captain of our salvation. Michael is too hard for the dragon.

(2) Is Satan subtle? See what need we have to pray to God for wisdom to discern the snares of Satan, and strength to resist them. We cannot of ourselves stand against temptation; if we could, the prayer were needless, ‘Lead us not,’ &c. Let us not think we can be too cunning for the devil, or escape his wiles and darts. If David and Peter, who were pillars in God’s temple fell by temptation, how soon should such weak reeds as we are be blown down, if God should leave us! Take Christ’s advice, ‘Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.’ Matt 26: 41.

(3) See how the end of all Satan’s subtleties in tempting is, that he may be an accuser. He lays the plot, entices men to sin, and then brings in the indictment; as if one should make another drunk, and then complain of him to the magistrate for being drunk. The devil is first a tempter, and then an informer: first a liar and then a murderer.

Having shown the subtleties of Satan in tempting, I shall answer two questions:

Why does God suffer his saints to be buffeted by Satan’s temptations?

He does it for many wise and holy ends.

(1) He lets them be tempted to try them. The Hebrew word signifies both to tempt and to try. Temptation is a touchstone to try what is in the heart. The devil tempts that he may deceive, but God lets us be tempted to try us. Qui non tentatur, non probatur [He who is not tempted is not tested]. Augustine.

Hereby God tries our sincerity. Job’s sincerity was tried by temptation; the devil told God that Job was a hypocrite, and served him only for a livery; but, said he, ‘Touch all that he has (that is, let me tempt him) and he will curse thee to thy face!’ Job 1: 11. Well, God did let the devil touch him by temptation, and yet Job remained holy, he worshipped God, and blessed God; ver 20, 21. Here Job’s sincerity was proved; he had fiery temptations, but he came out of the fire a golden Christian. Temptation is a touchstone of sincerity.

By temptation God tries our love. The wife of Tigranes never showed her chastity and love to her husband, as when she was tempted by Cyrus, but did not yield; so, our love to God is seen when we can look a temptation in the face, and turn our back upon it. Though the devil come as a serpent subtly, and offers a golden apple, yet he will not touch the forbidden fruit. When the devil showed Christ all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, such was Christ’s love to his Father, that he abhorred the temptation. True love will not be bribed. When the devil’s darts are most fiery, a saint’s love to God is most fervent.

By temptation God tries our courage. ‘Ephraim is a silly dove without heart.’ Hos 7: 11. So it may be said of many, they are excordes, without a heart; they have no heart to resist a temptation; no sooner does Satan come with his solicitations, but they yield; like a coward, who as soon as the thief approaches, delivers his purse. He is a valorous Christian that brandishes the sword of the Spirit against Satan, and will rather die than yield. The courage of the Romans was never more seen than when they were assaulted by the Carthaginians; so the heroic spirit of a saint is never more seen than in a battle-field, when he is fighting with the red dragon, and by the power of faith puts the devil to flight. Fidei robur potest esse concussum, non excussum [The strength of faith can be shaken, not destroyed]. Tertullian. One reason why God lets his people be tempted is, that their metal may be tried, their sincerity, love, and magnanimity. When grace is proved, the gospel is honoured.

(2) God suffers his children to be tempted, that they may be kept from pride. Quos non gula superavit [Those whom greed has not overcome]. Cyprian. Pride crept once into the angels, and into the apostles, when they disputed which of them should be greatest; and in Peter, when he said, ‘Though all men forsake thee, yet I will not,’ as if he had had more grace than all the apostles. Pride keeps grace low, that it cannot thrive; as the spleen swells, so the other parts of the body consume; as pride grows, so grace consumes. God resists pride; and, that he may keep his children humble, he suffers them sometimes to fall into temptation. ‘Lest I should be exalted, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.’ 2 Cor 12: 7. When Paul was lifted up by revelations, he was in danger of being lifted up with pride; then came the messenger of Satan to buffet him: that was some sore temptation to humble him. The thorn in the flesh was to prick the bladder of pride. Better is the temptation that humbles me than the duty that makes me proud. Rather than a Christian should be proud, God lets him fall into the devil’s hands awhile, that he may be cured of his swelling.

(3) God lets his people be tempted that they may be fitter to comfort others who are in the same distress, and speak a word in due season to such as are weary. Paul was trained up in the fencing-school of temptation, and was able to acquaint others with Satan’s wiles and stratagems, 2 Cor 2: 11. A man that has ridden over a place where there are quicksands, is the fittest to guide others through that dangerous way; so he who has been buffeted by Satan, and has felt the claws of the roaring lion, is the fittest man to deal with one that is tempted.

(4) God lets his children be tempted to make them long more for heaven, where they shall be out of gunshot, and freed from the hissing of the old serpent. Satan is not yet fully cast into prison, but like a prisoner who is under bail, he vexes and molests the saints; he lays his snares, throws his fireballs, but it only makes the people of God long to be gone from hence, and pray that they had the wings of a dove, to fly away and be at rest. God suffered Israel to be vexed with the Egyptians, that they might long the more to be in Canaan. Heaven is the centrum, a place of rest, centrum quietativum: no bullets of temptation fly there. The eagle that soars aloft in the air, and sits perching upon the tops of high trees, is not troubled with the stinging of serpents; so, when believers have got into the heaven above, they shall not be stung with the old serpent. The devil is cast out of the heavenly paradise. Heaven is compared to an exceeding high mountain. Rev 21: 10. It is so high, that Satan’s fiery darts cannot reach up to it. Nullus ibi hostium metes, nullae insidiae daemonum [There is no fear of enemies there, no snares of devils]. Bernard.

The temptations here are to make the saints long till death sound a retreat, and call them off the field where the bullets of temptation fly so thick, that they may receive a victorious crown.

What rocks of support are there, or what comfort for tempted souls?

(1) That it is not our case alone, but has been the case of God’s most eminent saints. ‘There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man,’ yea, to the best men. 1 Cor 10: 13. Christ’s lambs, which have had the mark of election upon them, have been set upon by the world. Elijah, that could shut heaven by prayer, could not shut his heart from temptation. 1 Kings 19: 4. Job was tempted to curse God, Peter to deny Christ; and hardly ever any saint has got to heaven but has met with a lion by the way. Sortem quam omnes sancti patiuntur nemo recusat [No one escapes the lot which all the saints suffer]. Nay, Jesus Christ himself, though free from sin, yet was not free from temptation. We read of his baptism; then he was ‘led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.’ Matt 4: 1. No sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism, but he was in the fire of temptation; and if the devil would set upon Christ, no wonder if he set upon us. There was no sin in Christ, no powder for the devil’s fire. Temptation to him was like a burr on a crystal glass, which glides off; or like a spark of fire on a marble pillar, which will not stick: and yet Satan was bold to tempt him. It is some comfort that such as have been our betters have wrestled with temptations.

(2) Another rock of support that may comfort a tempted soul, is, that temptations (where they are burdens) evidence grace. Satan does not tempt God’s children because they have sin in them, but because they have grace in them. Had they no grace he would not disturb them, for where he keeps possession all is in peace. Luke 11: 21. His temptations are to rob the saints of their grace. A thief will not assault an empty house, but where he thinks there is treasure; a pirate will not set upon an empty ship, but one that is full of spices and jewels; so the devil assaults most the people of God, because he thinks they have a rich treasure of grace in their hearts, and he would rob them of it. Why are so many cudgels thrown at a tree, but because there is much fruit upon it? The devil throws his temptations at you, because he sees you have much fruit of grace growing upon you. Though to be tempted is a trouble, yet to think why you are tempted is a comfort.

(3) Another rock of support or comfort is, that Jesus Christ is near at hand, and stands by us in all our temptations. Here take notice of two things:

[1] Christ’s sympathy in our temptations. Nobis compatitur Christus [Christ suffers with us]. ‘We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.’ Heb 4: 15. Jesus Christ sympathises with us; he is so sensible of our temptations as if he himself lay under them, and did feel them in his own soul. As in music, when one string is touched, all the rest sound, so when we suffer Christ’s bowels sound; we cannot be tempted but he is touched. If you saw a wolf worry your child, would you not pity it? You cannot pity it as Christ does tempted ones. He had a fellow feeling when upon earth, much more now in glory.

But how can it consist with Christ’s glory now in heaven, to have a fellow feeling with our sufferings?

This fellow feeling in Christ arises not from an infirmity or passion, but from the mystic union between him and his members. ‘He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye.’ Zech 2: 8. Every injury done to a saint he takes as done to him in heaven. Every temptation strikes at him, and he is touched with the feeling of them.

[2] Christ’s succour in temptation. As the good Samaritan first had compassion on the wounded man, there was sympathy; then he poured in wine and oil, there was succour (Luke 10: 34); so when we are wounded by the red dragon, Christ is first touched with compassion, and then pours in wine and oil. ‘In that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.’ Heb 2: 18. The Greek word for succour (boethesia) signifies to run speedily to one’s help; so fierce is Satan, so frail is man, that Christ, who is God-man, runs speedily to his help. When Peter was ready to sink, and said, ‘Lord, save me,’ Christ presently stretched forth his hand, and caught him; so when a poor soul is tempted, and cries to heaven for help, ‘Lord, save me,’ Christ comes in with his auxiliary forces. Noscit Christus, our Lord Jesus knows what it is to be tempted, therefore he is ready to succour such as are tempted. It has been observed that child-bearing women are more pitiful to others in their travails than such as are barren; so the Lord Jesus having been in travail by temptations and sufferings, is more ready to pity and succour such as are tempted.

Concerning Christ’s succouring the tempted, consider two things: his ability, and his agility to succour. ‘He is able to succour them that are tempted.’ Heb 2: 18. He is called Michael, which signifies, ‘Who is like God.’ Rev 12: 7. Though the tempted soul is weak, yet he fights under a good Captain, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. When a tempted soul fights, Christ comes into the field as his second. Michael will be too hard for the dragon. When the devil lays the siege of a temptation, Christ can raise it when he pleases; he can beat through the enemy’s quarters, and so rout Satan that he shall never be able to rally his forces any more. Jesus Christ is on the saint’s side, and who would desire a better lifeguard than omnipotence? As Christ is able to succour the tempted, so he will certainly succour them. His power enables him, his love inclines him, his faithfulness engages him to succour tempted souls. It is a great comfort to a soul in temptation to have a succouring Saviour. God succoured Israel in the wilderness among fiery serpents. The rock sending forth water, the manna, the pillar of cloud, the brazen serpent, what were these but types of God’s succouring poor souls in the wilderness of temptation, stung by the devil, that fiery serpent? Alexander being asked how he could sleep so securely, when his enemies were about him, said, ‘Antipater is awake, who is always vigilant.’ So when our tempting enemy is near us, Jesus Christ is awake, who is a wall of fire around us. There is a great deal of succour to the tempted in the names given to Christ. As Satan’s names may terrify, so Christ’s may succour. The devil is called Apollyon, the devourer. Rev 9: 11. Christ is called a Saviour. The devil is called the ’strong man.’ Matt 12: 29. Christ is called El Gibbor, the mighty God. Isa 9: 6. The devil is called the accuser. Rev 12: 10. Christ is called the Advocate. 1 John 2: 1. The devil is called the tempter. Matt 4: 3. Christ is called the Comforter. Luke 2: 25. The devil is called the prince of darkness. Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness. The devil is called the old serpent. Christ is called the Brazen Serpent that heals. John 3: 14. Thus the very names of Christ have some succour in them for tempted souls.

How and in what manner does Christ succour them that are tempted?

He succours them by sending his Spirit, whose work it is to bring those promises to their mind which are fortifying. ‘He shall bring all things to your remembrance.’ John 14: 26. The Spirit furnishes us with promises as so many weapons to fight against the old serpent. ‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’ Rom 16: 20. ‘God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.’ 1 Cor 10: 13. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. Gen 3: 15. We are often in times of temptation, as a man that has his house beset, and cannot find his weapons, his sword and gun, in which case Christ sends his Spirit, and brings things to our remembrance that help us in our combat. The Spirit of Christ does for the tempted what Aaron and Hur did for Moses, when they put a stone under him and held up his hands, and then Israel prevailed. The Spirit puts the promises under the hand of faith, and then the Christian overcomes the devil, that spiritual Amalek. The promise is to the soul, as the anchor to the ship, which keeps it steady in a storm.