Anne Dutton's
Letters on Spiritual Subjects
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil." Matthew 6:13
I. As to the matter of this petition
, "Lead us
not into temptation," we may consider, what the word temptation means; and
what kind of temptation may be here intended.
1. The word temptation, taken in a large sense, signifies
any kind of proof or trial that is made of any person or thing.
2. As to what kind of temptation is here intended, it may
respect temptations from God, from Satan, from men, and from our own hearts,
and may extend both to affliction and sin, both of which we deprecate when
we pray, "Lead us not into temptation."
II. As to the Person to which this petition is addressed
,
which is God our heavenly Father, "Our Father who is in heaven—lead us not,"
we are hereby taught to look up in faith unto that God, who is the sovereign
Lord of heaven and earth, for preservation from all temptation, and unto Him
as our Father—as our Father who is in heaven—who loves and pities us in all
as a father does his children, and who is high above all, and overrules all
as He pleases.
III. As to what is implied herein—that God may
righteously lead us into temptation
—by "Lead us not," it is
implied that He may lead us, and that righteously, into temptation. We have
sinned against Him in our first father Adam, and thence have derived a
sinful nature from him, which is enmity against God. And our personal
transgressions in heart, lip and life, in thought, word and deed, even since
we knew the Lord, or rather were known of Him, are innumerable; by which we
are such a provocation of His anger that He may justly give us up in a way
of rebuke unto a variety of temptations both as to afflictions and sins—and
sin to a child of God is indeed the greatest affliction. I say, "give us
up," but I intend it in a limited sense, that is, in part and for a
time, not totally nor finally; not but that our sins deserve both—but having
forgiven all our iniquities, and put us among the children of His love
through faith in His dear Son, He does and will deal with us according to
grace—"the exceeding riches of His grace"—and never, never leave us nor
forsake us in any state or case, but overrule all things, even our very
temptations, for the furtherance of our salvation.
Those righteous rebukes as to afflictions on account of
the sin of our nature which flow more eminently from God's sovereign will,
though they carry the face of divine displeasure in them, do yet originally
spring from His paternal love, and are designed and managed by Him for the
purging out of corruptions and for the exercise of our graces, and in both
for the furtherance of our salvation. And even those sorer rebukes, when He
leads us into temptations to sin on account of our actual transgressions and
repeated provocations, when He "gives us up to our own heart's lust," lets
us alone when we cleave to idols, and allows our "own wickedness to correct
us, and our backslidings to reprove us,"—though they carry a more severe
displeasure in the face of them, yet flowing but from Fatherly anger, and
not from vindictive wrath, as they spring from, so they end in, the great
designs of infinite love—to purge out our corruption and further our
salvation; while the Lord righteously leaves us to fall by temptation into
sin, and thereby overrules the greatest evil for our good, in giving us to
see in the bitter fruit what an evil and a bitter thing it is, "that we have
forsaken the Lord our God, and that His fear has not been (the prevailing
principle) in us;" by which through His forgiving and restoring grace, He
sets our hearts more against sin than ever, and draws out our souls afresh
to cleave to Him in a way of duty, and thus to have our fruit unto holiness,
the end whereof will be everlasting life.
But perhaps you will say, "I know that the Lord is
righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works, but how can a
righteous, holy God, be said to lead us into temptation?" I answer—Of
God's leading His people into temptation, with regard to affliction, I
suppose you have no doubt, or that God righteously may, and often does, lay
that upon us and require that of us which is very afflicting to nature, in
order to the trial and exercise of our graces, for His own glory and our
joy; as, when He required Abraham to offer up his son—his only son—for a
burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which He would show him—even his
Isaac, whom he loved, and in whom all the promises were to be fulfilled, by
the Messiah's springing from his loins—concerning which it is said, "that
God did tempt Abraham" (Gen. 22:1).
And as in tribulations and persecutions for the gospel's
sake, the followers of Christ are required "to deny themselves," to "take up
their cross," to hate even their own lives, to love them not unto death, to
"be faithful unto death," and to "resist, even unto blood (if called to it),
striving against sin," etc.; in which kind of temptations, with all others
that are of a like nature, though not to that degree, which Abraham's
children are at any time called to endure, they are bid to rejoice, yes, to
count it all joy when they fall into diverse of them (James 1:2).
Of God's leading His people into temptation in these
respects, I think, my dear sister, you have no doubt; but how this holy,
righteous God, can be said to lead us into temptation to sin, in a
way consistent with His holiness and righteousness?—this, I suppose, is your
scruple. And as to this, I have already hinted that God righteously may,
even thus, lead us into temptation as a sharp rebuke for our sins, in a way
of Fatherly anger, which is entirely consistent with His paternal kindness,
in turning us from all iniquity, and working us up more fully into the image
of His purity. And I further add, that whenever God leads us into temptation
to sin, as a just rebuke for our former sin, His righteousness and holiness
therein is further manifest, in that He never does in the least thereby
entice us, stir us up, or excite us to sin. No! His infinite purity, His
flaming holiness, does absolutely, necessarily, and constantly forbid
everything of this nature, for He is of purer eyes than to behold evil; He
cannot (with the least approbation) look on iniquity (Hab. 1:13). It is
impossible that an infinitely holy, righteous God, who is immutably and
eternally glorious in holiness, should in any way, or at any time, excite
any person unto any evil. No! "Let no man say (in this respect), when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God—for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempts He any man" (James 1:13), that is, by impulsive temptation to evil.
Such active temptations to sin are to be ascribed to
their proper authors—to Satan, the grand adversary, whose constant work it
is to stir men up to sin against God, on which account he is called the
tempter (1 Thess. 3:5); to wicked men who, as his instruments, excite one
another to sin—whence it is said, "My son, if
sinners entice you, consent not" (Prov. 1:10); and to our own wicked
hearts, as (James 1:14)—"But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of
his own lust and enticed.
But, nevertheless, the holy, righteous God, as a holy,
righteous chastisement for sin, may and does at times lead us into
temptation to sin; and when he does do so, far is God therein from being the
author of sin or any active cause thereof, in that He does not in the least
thereby actively tempt us to evil, but only passively leaves us to those
temptations which He justly may and does allow to fall in our way; and
as God righteously may lead us into temptation, so with propriety He may be
said thus to do:
1. When He allows SATAN
to tempt us, as He permitted Satan to tempt Peter (Luke 22:31, 32), "And the
Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not; and when you
are converted, strengthen your brethren." Satan, from his malice against the
Lord and against this His zealous servant, desired to have Him, or he
desired leave to tempt him (as the devils desired permission to enter the
swine), that he might sift out all his graces and leave nothing in him but
his corruptions. But Christ, from his love to Peter, and as a rebuke for his
self-confidence, to show him the weakness of inherent grace and the strength
of corruption if led into temptation, was pleased to give him up, as it
were, in part and for a time unto Satan's will to tempt him, or allowed
Satan to try him by his hellish policy and power, the sad effect of which
was the denial of his dear Lord and Master. "But I have prayed for you that
your faith fail not;" as if our Lord should say, "Though I have allowed the
enemy to assault you, and he will greatly prevail against you, yet I have
limited the temptation, and through my intercession for you he shall not be
able to sift the principles of faith out of you. And though in the shaking
time your acts of faith and zeal, in and for Me, will fail you, yet, through
my forgiving and renewing grace, you shall be again recovered and
strengthened, and, when you are converted, strengthen your brethren."
2. Again, God may be said to lead us into temptation:
When He allows MEN to tempt us, as he
allowed the old prophets to tempt the man of God that cried against the
altar at Bethel (1 Kings 13:18).
3. And God may be said to lead us into temptation: When
He allows the CORRUPTIONS OF OUR OWN HEARTS
to tempt us, as (Psalm 81:11, 12), "But my people would not hearken to my
voice; and Israel would none of Me. So I gave them up unto their own heart's
lust, and they walked in their own counsels."
4. Once more, God may be said to lead us into temptation:
WHEN HE WITHHOLDS THE INFLUENCE OF HIS GRACE FROM
US, which alone can keep us from yielding to temptation, as He
left Hezekiah to try him that he might know all that was in his heart (2
Chron. 32:31). And as God righteously may allow Satan, men, and sin to tempt
us, and withhold the influence of His grace from us when we grieve and vex
his Holy Spirit, so, when we are thus led into temptation, the sad
consequence thereof, through the strength of our soul-enemies, and our
weakness, will be a wretched compliance with temptation to sin, to God's
dishonor and our soul's wounding. And therefore, a hint or two:
IV. As to our duty and privilege daily to pray.
If God justly may lead us into temptation with respect to affliction, which,
through the weakness of our nature, will expose us to great danger of
sinning against Him, and if He righteously may lead us into temptation, even
unto sin itself, in both which, if He leaves us, we shall certainly fall
into evil, to His dishonor and our wounding, oh, how much does it concern us
daily to pray, "lead us not into temptation;" how great is our duty thus to
supplicate the divine throne, and how great is our privilege that we may
thus address our Father who is in heaven, who is infinite in wisdom,
and has many ways to prevent our being led into temptation; who is infinite
in grace, and is always ready to hear the prayers of His dear
children; and who is almighty in power, and well able to protect us
from all dangers, and to defend us from all our spiritual enemies. It is an
honor due to our heavenly Father, that we thus pray to Him daily, "lead us
not into temptation," and a privilege unspeakable hereby is cast upon us His
children, in the enjoined duty.
I shall close with a few hints from the latter part of
this petition, by showing—What evil we deprecate; and what salvation we
implore, when we pray, "but deliver us from evil."
1. We hereby pray against the evil of sin, that if God at
any time, or in any measure, should lead us into temptation, we may be
delivered from the hurt of it, that we may be seasonably supported in, and
graciously delivered out of, temptation. We likewise hereby pray that we may
be delivered from evil men and from the evil one, Satan, who is the
principle author of all evil.
2. The salvation we implore when we pray, "but deliver us
from evil," consists in this, the forgiveness of all our sins so far as by
temptation we have fallen, or may be left to fall into sin; the subduing of
all our iniquities, and the utter destruction of all sin, with all the
effects of it, both as to soul and body, unto the complete and everlasting
salvation of our whole persons through God's free grace by Jesus Christ, to
the eternal praise of His glory, and to our eternal joy.
And thus the conclusion of this excellent directory for
prayer, which glances upon all its foregoing parts, fitly comes in upon the
close of the sixth petition—"for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory forever. Amen." By which we give unto God as our Father in Christ
the glory due unto His name, and acknowledge Him to be the true and living
God, and an everlasting King; that He has a right to rule over all things
for his own glory; that He has prepared His own throne in the heavens, and
that His kingdom rules over all; that He works all things in providence,
according to the good pleasure of His eternal will; that His kingdom of
right should come, and that by His power and for His glory it shall come, to
the complete salvation of His people, and the utter destruction of all His
and their enemies; and that we approve of and choose Him for our King, that
we give up ourselves to Him to be His subjects, that we rejoice in His
government, and long for the spreading of the glories of His kingdom over
all, in testimony whereof, and in confidence of our prayers being heard, we
say, Amen.