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before us, I would wish you to recall | tempted of God: for God cannot be what was advanced on the last occa- tempted with evil, neither tempteth he sion, and especially that part which any man." But God assuredly does relates to the nature of temptation. lead into temptation: the minutest We then showed the importance of events of Providence are under his di-, keeping the idea of temptation quite rection and control: there is no such distinct from the idea of sin. We thing as chance, or accident; but all perhaps have been in the habit of in- the events that occur are under his separably connecting the two, on ac- guidance; and it is upon their accounts count of the proneness which there is that occasions to sin occasionally arise. in the fallen creature to sin: so that But when led into temptation, it is the probably-I think I might say cer- desire within us that tempts and sotainly temptation is never presented licits to sin. to our minds without simultaneously generating sin. But it was shown, by a reference to the case of our first parents, and also to the case of our Lord himself, that this is not owing to the constitution of our nature, but owing only to the fallen condition into which we have come; by which all those desires and affections which were originally good, and the indulgence of which within prescribed bounds was innocent, have become inordinate. So that, the desire itself is not sin; but the desire unlawfully indulged is sin. This was illustrated by a reference to that striking passage in the first chapter of the epistle of James: Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust" or rather, "desire"-this word having an indefinite meaning, not necessarily implying an evil desire. "And when lust" or desire" has conceived"—that is, when the longing for any object transgresses the prescribed bounds then, and not till then, "desire bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

On this we founded an important distinction, tending to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the clause preceding the text, and that passage which says, "God does not tempt any man:" for the power that any trial has to produce sin, does not proceed from any thing in God; it is not any direct solicitation on his part to lead us into sin; but arises from desires implanted in us, originally good, which render us susceptible of trial or temptation when presented to us. Hence there is a broad distinction between tempting and leading into temptation: the former must never be attributed to the blessed God. "Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am

Here, then, we are prepared to enter into the force of the clause before us, and its striking connection with the preceding one" Lead us not into temptation:"-that is, so order the events of thy Providence, so regulate the whole course of our lives, so guide us in every circumstance which occurs to us, as to preserve the desires and affections which are within us from external solicitations to sin. And more than this we would ask for, since we are fallen creatures, shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin, every desire of our hearts has now become inordinate, and naturally craving for unlawful indulgencies: therefore we pray, "Deliver us from evil." The former petition implies weakness; this implies sinfulness. The former petition may be the prayer of an innocent being, conscious of his liability to fall: this must be the prayer of a sinful being, conscious that he has already fallen. The former might be the prayer of angels, or of Adam and Eve in Paradise, knowing that they derived all their goodness from God, and all their strength from his sustaining hand. It may still be the prayer of angels, witnessing the power of temptation in drawing aside their own companions who kept not their first estate, and in bringing death and misery on man though formed in the image of God himself. The latter must be the prayer of one with whom temptation has already succeeded. This, then, is the connection between the two: here lies the force of this particle "but." "Lead us not into temptation, but”—do the very opposite of this; for, alas, we are already involved in the consequences of temptation-" deliver us from evil.”

Let us now, then, endeavour to enter into the meaning of the Prayer itself.

First, it implies WE ARE LIVING IN

A WORLD IN WHICH IS THE PRESENCE

him. The minutest insect that floats in the air shows, according to its measure, that God is life: it lives by him. Death, then, is a form of evil. Whereever we see death, though it be only in the most insignificant insect, though it be but in the worm upon which we tread, we so far see a contradiction of what God has revealed of himself. Again—God is the fountain of happiness: wherever we see the existence of any enjoyment, although it be but in the prattling of an infant, or the gamboling of a lamb, there we see something that speaks of God; it is a stream that tells the nature of the fountain from which it flows. All misery, all suffering is a contradiction of this: it says, so far as it can, God is not blessed; and hence, all suf

OF EVIL. Let us clearly ascertain what we mean by this term evil. It is not a creature, but it is a state or condition of the creature. This is an important distinction. Persons puzzle themselves by enquiring who is the author of evil. Strictly speaking, it has no author for it is not a distinct and separate existence of itself; but it is a state into which the creature has come by a necessary imperfection. For whatever is liable to change from that which God made it, is, in that sense, imperfect; because any change from that state in which God has created any thing, must be evil; and, if the creature had not had this imperfection, it would have been in itself unchangeable. But un-fering is evil. Again-God is light, changeableness is the attribute of God alone; for to suppose any thing unchangeable, except by derivation from him, is to suppose it, of course, independent of him: that is to confound between creature and Creator, and to suppose that God had created himself. Now, God being the only good, and comprehending within himself whatever is good, it is manifest, that whatever he created, and wrought, and formed, must have exhibited some of his perfections. All his works speak of him:"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." Nay, all that is in existence, from the highest angel to the minutest atom, must, as it came forth from God, make something of him known-must exhibit something of his charactermust manifest some of his attributes. Any change which should pass upon these works, except indeed in their higher advancement according to the purpose and intention of God, which properly is only progress-must, of course, tend to make them less perfect. Any change would be so far a defilement of his image: it would so far injure the reflecting power of these things to manifest God. Hence we may get a correct definition of evil: it is whatever contradicts the revealed character and attributes of God. For instance-God is the fountain of life; whatever lives, lives by derivation from

the fountain of holiness: wherever we see any thing true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, or of good report-there we see an emanation from God. The work of angels speaks but this language, that God is holy it proclaims that there is a God, and that God is light. Sin is a contradiction of this; it says, as far as it is able, God is not holy. In a word, all creation, all redemption, all the varied works of God, seem but to proclaim that God is a God of love, and light, and joy: and from the creature, left to itself, there seems to be but one voice of perpetual, eternal contradiction. It speaks of misery, darkness, and rebellion; which is a step to the fearful conclusion that there is no God. Hence, the use of this prayer implies a humbling consciousness of the presence of evil, that evil arising from the creature as a contradiction to the Creator. It bespeaks the wreck of that beautiful vessel launched forth on the day of creation with such high promise, with a freight so rich, and a gale so prosperous, and all bidding fair for a successful voyage: and now, where can we look around us without seeing the wrecks and frag| ments on the surface of the waves? Where can we look around us without shame and affliction? Who can look into his own heart without trembling for himself, and without abhoring himself as a contradiction to the very end for which God made him. Who can look on the face of the world, or on the face of the church, without feeling the need of this petition? What good

creature of God is there which we have not abused, if we do not daily abuse? How prone to idolize his gift, to rest in them, instead of making them channels to lead us up to him! How is every thing around us, and within us, made a provocation to sin!

Further, the petition implies that

THOSE WHO USE IT ARE ALSO UNDER

A SENSE OF BEING IN BONDAGE TO EVIL—“ Deliver us from evil.” The word is exceedingly emphatical in the original. It implies a rescue from some dreadful bondage. Some have considered that "evil" here should be rendered "the evil one;" and that it means, emphatically, "Satan." This is, certainly, the most literal translation; it is the common appellative of sin-the evil one, or the wicked one. Thre are not wanting, however, instances of the same term being used indefinitely: as, for instance, in the fifth chapter of Matthew-" I say unto you, That he resist not evil." It is the very same form of expression: and that, certainly, cannot mean Satan personally. I should rather, therefore, prefer adopting the more general sense of this term, considering it applying to all evil; though Satan, the prince of evil, may be specially intended. It seems, indeed, impossible strictly to separate between evil and the mighty agent of evil. We are accustomed to class the forms of bondage, under which the natural man is held, under three heads—the world, the flesh, and the devil. Yet, if we consider this point more clearly, evil, as it respects its operation on us, is rather a combination of these three forms. Satan tempts to sin-the world is his instrument by which he tempts-the flesh is the platform on which he works. We know not but that, possibly, without Satan to instigate, the world might be harmless, the flesh might be without power. Certain it is, that we are told these three enemies shall cease to be at once. It is, you will observe, at the binding of Satan, and casting him into the bottomless pit, that there is a resurrection of the flesh: that enemy ceases at the same moment that the curse is removed from the earth. However this may be, it is certain that Satan has obtained extensive, mysterious, though limited power, over the world and the flesh. It is

his to make present to the senses the object which strikes them and leads them to sin. It is his to interpose in the hour of reflection, and to lead the mind, even against our better knowledge, into unholy and polluted channels. It is his to weaken, or to overcharge, the memory-to fill the heart with evil purposes-to suggest, and, by frequency of suggestion, to render tolerable, the evil that should be hated-to mix circumstances together, which by themselves are, perhaps, harmless, but which, under such combination, generate evil. So, also, is he the God of this world, possessing a mysterious power over the operations of nature and the actions of evil men. Thus it comes to pass, that, as children of Adam, evil reigns over us, and has brought us into bondage: under one form or other, it reigns uncontrolled over the natural man.

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Now, as soon as a man becomes spiritual, as soon as he is born of God, he feels this to be a bondage: it is a clog and a hindrance to all the actings and aspirations of the new man. Paul felt this, when he so earnestly and pathetically exclaimed, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Here are, manifestly, the actings of two men—the carnal man, and the spiritual man. Here is the cry of the latter to be delivered from the clog and hindrance of the former. "Deliver us from evil." The bondage is still felt, though it is not, and cannot be submitted to. Born again of God, dead with Christ, and risen with Christ, "sin no longer reigns in our mortal bodies, that we should fulfil it in the lusts

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thereof." To reign is to exercise supremacy to dictate to the subject in the relation of governor to the governed. This is different from an occasional or incidental interference it implies a habit of servitude. Now, in the believer there is no longer a habit of servitude: his whole life is a crucifixion of the flesh with the affections and lusts. But there is still a sense of bondage: there is still, as far as we are members of the first Adam, an intolerable weight upon us, a conflict, a mighty struggle within us. It is, therefore, by the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, continually quelling the rebel flesh, which is ever rising up, and creating unceasing conflict, and war most deadly—it is this which prompts the prayer in the text, "Deliver us from evil."

Further, this petition implies that

NOTHING LESS THAN THE OMNIPOTENT

ARM OF GOD CAN DELIVER US FROM THIS EVIL. It is the cry of constant dependance upon his Almighty power; and nothing less can effect this work. For consider what it is. It is to set a man against himself: it is to make him strive against the very bent and inclination of his soul: it is to induce him to lay violent hands, as it were, on his own temper, on his whole course of conduct: it is to put life into that which was dead. And what is to stop the sinner in rushing down the precipice?-what is to awaken him from this sleep of death, but the arm of God? And, when weakened, what is still to sustain him in the conflict which he has to endure? It is not the most influential system of motives that will do this. We suppose, indeed, the petition before us to be offered by one who is under such an influence one who has obtained free forgiveness through the work of Christ-one who has offered in faith this prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." But we have still need to look for the grace of God to use these motives as his instruments; otherwise, powerful as they seem, they are altogether inefficacious to this work. It is only by the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, that the natural man can be brought into subjection to the spiritual man. Every thing else is too weak to cope with the bent of the evil heart. It is God that worketh

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in us to will and to do, even to the very end: as it is said by Bishop Hopkins-" It is not what we have already received only, but what we are continually receiving from God, that makes us to differ from the vilest and most profligate sinners in the world." Therefore, he continues, let not the strong man glory in his strength; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord; for he is our strength. And what have we that we have not received?"

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Further, the petition implies that

NOTHING CAN BE SATISFYING TO THE

CHRISTIAN BUT THE ENTIRE EXPULSION OF EVIL FROM THE WORLD. There is no limit in the prayer, "Deliver us from evil." To a mind rightly constituted, the very existence of sin must in itself be misery. Oh, if we felt aright, what a burden would the sin be which we feel within us, and see around us to witness the heart of the simple one drawn aside into the haunts of vice and profligacy, and to become the victim of disease and misery-daily to hear the name of God blasphemed, and to see the blood of our Saviour trampled under foot, and accounted an unholy thing. If we felt aright, what burden should we feel in the existence of sinhow should we be able to enter into that language of the apostle, "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" Brethren, in proportion as the work of the Spirit proceeds in our souls-in proportion as we feel the prison of the flesh, and the misery, and the sin, and the wickedness of the world-in that measure we shall be able to join in this language of the apostle. Then the kingdom of Christ will not be a speculation with any of you. We shall not be thought to advance fables in discoursing of the coming glory of the Lord, and the blessedness it is to bring in; but it shall be the great object of our desires, a very instinct of the renewed man.

Oh, that men would be brought to the conviction that sin is in itself, ex

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clusive of its consequences, the worst | cession. This will stimulate your of misery-that they could be brought souls, this will clothe your energies to sympathize with him who wept with power. It is your Saviour's will over the sins of men-that they could that you should be delivered from evil:be brought to feel for the foul blot this is the will of God, even your sancwhich it stamps on the creation of God tification. It is the prayer, too, re-that they could be brought to sym- member, of Him who vanquished Satan pathize with him who could say, I your oppressor. It is the prayer of beheld the transgressors, and was Him who has said, "In the world ye grieved, because they kept not thy shall have tribulation; but be of good law." "Rivers of water run down my cheer, I have overcome the world." It eyes, because men keep not thy is the prayer of Him of whom it was law." Then should we enter into the said, "he came into the world that he force of this petition. Then the coming might destroy sin in the flesh." It is of our Lord, the rising of the Sun of the prayer, then, of Him who is the Righteousness, would be no specula- vanquisher of the devil, the world, and tive, no uninteresting topic of dis- the flesh. course; but it would be the object of Learn, therefore, to look upon vic. intense desire. Then would the flesh tory as certain learn to look upon and the heart be crying out for the your deliverance as sure. Yet, reliving God-O Lord, holy and true, member, it is a victory to be won only" how long dost thou not deliver me by dependance upon another: it is a from this body of sin and death? How deliverance to be wrought only by long dost thou not destroy these the power of another. Feel your own powers by which the world is held in weakness; feel the power of God in captivity, by which beloved friends Christ Jesus; and you shall be made around me are held in the gall of bit- more than conquerors through him terness, and in the bond of iniquity? that hath loved you. Hold on in your How long dost thou not make mani- course, remembering his words, "To fest the captivity of all captivities, the him that overcometh I will give to sit spoliation of principalities and powers down on my throne, even as I also which hold sway over this dark and overcame, and am set down with my ruined world; and enable us to adopt, | Father in his throne." Soon shall as accomplished, that theme of pro- you be able to say with the triumphetic song, "O thou enemy, destruc-phant apostle-" I have fought a good tions are come to a perpetual end." fight, I have finished my course, I "The last enemy that is destroyed is have kept the faith: henceforth there death:"and" death is swallowed up is laid up for me a crown of righteousin victory. O death, where is thy ness, which the Lord, the righteous sting? O grave, where is thy victory? judge, shall give me at that day: and The sting of death is sin; and the not to me only, but unto all them also strength of sin is the law. But thanks that love his appearing." Let not be to God, which giveth us the victory your hearts be bowed down with the through our Lord Jesus Christ." prevalence of evil within you, and the Finally, let this petition be present-prevalence of evil around you. Reed in fervent and stedfast faith of an answer. Expect the deliverance it implores-believe in the Omnipotence of God-remember it is among the petitions in the Lord's intercessory prayer:-" I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil"-the very expression of the text. Let this prayer, then, the most difficult, perhaps, of all in this short compendium of our Lord-the most difficult to offer with intelligence and with earnestness-let it be offered in remembrance of the Saviour's inter

member that the same trials have been accomplished in your brethren. For your comfort, call to mind that, to the question in the apocalyptic vision,

Who are these that are arrayed in white robes, and whence come they?" the answer is-and let it animate you in all your trials-" These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

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