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The Six and Fourtieth SERMON. PART. VI. (Book 46)
MATTH. VI. 13. —But deliver us from evil.
AS we pray not to be led into tentation, so we further pray to be delivered from evil. For Tentations, as they are tentations, and no more, are not evil to those who are tempted, but they are evils inherent and proper to the tempter himself. Till they pre∣vail, they are the matter and occasion of virtue as well as of vice, and alwayes work for the best to those who are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Non laetatur Daemon cùm affligimur, sed cùm succu••••imus; The Enemy takes no delight to see us beat upon by Af∣flictions, or woo'd by Pleasures, or conversing in the World: for here he stands as one doubtful of the victory, in a possibility to receive a ••••il as well as to give one. Then he triumphs, when Afflictions have driven us from our hold; when Pleasures have detain'd us in the way which we walk, and are become so gracious unto us as to command our will and affections; when we love the world and the things of the world: Then he rejoyceth as a conqueror doth when the day is won. And this may be the reason why this particle and clause is added, not as another Petition different from the for∣mer, but as an illustration and explication of it. For to be delivered from evil takes off all fear, and secures us from the force and violence of Tentations. Indeed Evil is that which we all naturally shun, and to be de∣livered from it is a part of every mans Litany. In the first of Jonah, when the storm was high, the mariners cryed every man unto his God, and awaked Jonah to call upon his. The very Heathen sacrificed Diis depellentibus, to those Gods whom they thought to have power to drive away the evil which they feared, and to free them from danger. They had their Goddess Pel∣lonia, and their Deos Averruncos, therefore so called for turning away evils from them. Evil hath but a sad aspect, and at the first shew and appearance makes us look about us for succour. It is terrible afar off, in the very story and picture and representation, and moves our affections when it no∣thing concerns us. Augustine tells us that he wept at the very reading of the story of Dido in Virgil. And it is common unto us so to be affected with those evils which others have long since undergone, as if they were now