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“And lead us not into temptation.” — Matthew
vi. 13
The instruction which our Lord gives us in these words is of supreme
importance; it touches our vital and eternal interests. In some form and
in some degree every one is tempted, and no one can be regenerated
without passing through its fires, enduring its torments, resisting its
allurements, and subduing the enemies who cause it. It is a subject
about which little has been known or can be known without some true
knowledge of the sources of our life, the spiritual forces which are
continually operating upon us, and the spiritual beings who are
intimately associated with us on the spiritual side of our nature, and
who, consequently, touch the secret springs of thought and affection,
and exercise a controlling influence in the formation of a wicked or a
heavenly character.
The New Church has truths to teach upon this subject which throw much
light upon it. They place us in a central point of view above the
illusion of appearances, where we can see effects in their causes; where
we can learn the origin and understand the nature of temptations, and
see the foes who assault us. They put weapons into our hands which the
tempters cannot resist, teach us how to wield them, and where to find
wisdom to foil their most cunning strategy, and strength to resist their
most powerful attacks. I ask your devout and earnest attention to what
our doctrines teach upon this subject. We cannot offer this petition
with our hearts and understandings without a clear and true knowledge of
what temptation is. The first point for our consideration must,
therefore, be, What is temptation?
The doctrines of the New Church give a clear and specific answer to this
question, an answer founded in the nature of the human mind, of man's
relations to the spiritual beings with whom he is associated, and the
teachings of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures. Temptations are the
conflicts of the internal man with the external, or of the spiritual man
with the natural. Some knowledge of the organization of the human mind
is essential to a clear understanding of this definition. The human mind
is composed of three planes or degrees entirely distinct from each
other, as distinct as the bones, flesh, and nerves in the material body.
They were made to act together as one, as all the degrees of organic
forms in the material body act together as one. But still they are so
distinct that they can act separately; they can even act in opposition
to one another. Each degree is so full and variously organized that it
is a man in itself, and is capable of performing all the functions of a
man. It has a will and understanding, affections, desires, thoughts, and
acts appropriate to that degree of life. These degrees or planes are
called the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial man respectively.
The natural man is not the material body which constitutes no essential
part of our nature, but the lowest degree of the human mind. The
complete man is, therefore, a threefold or trinal being.
These three degrees of the mind exist in potency in every human being,
but the natural degree is first in the order of creation. This is
necessarily so, because it forms the basis for the higher degrees of the
mind, and through its instrumentality the means are provided for their
creation, as the material body is the instrument by which the natural
man lives in this world and can use material things for the formation of
natural ideas and affections. The natural man was intended to be the
servant of the spiritual man, and the spiritual man of the celestial,
and in a true order of life these three planes of the human mind act in
perfect harmony with each other, and all with the Lord. But the natural
man has become wholly evil. The organic forms of his nature have become
wholly deranged and inverted. This degree of man’s nature he derives
from his parents, and it is full of hereditary evils. This is the part
of man’s nature which has fallen. The spiritual and celestial degrees
have never become false and evil; they have never lost their purity and
heavenly perfection, because they remain as a mere possibility in
everyone so long as he continues in sin, like the germ of a seed which
never grows. This is the new man who is born from above. This degree of
man’s nature is organized according to all the substances and forces and
order of heaven, as the natural man and the material body are organized
with relation to the substances and forces and order of the material
world. They are entirely distinct in their capacities, they dwell in
distinct worlds. They are as distinct as the eye and the ear. The eye
dwells in the world of light, the ear in the atmospheric world, and
neither of them can perform any of the other’s functions, or know
anything of the other’s joys.
As the natural plane of the mind, which, as I have said, was created to
be the servant of the spiritual mind and to act in subordination to it,
has become evil and false, full of the love of self and of the world,
and seeks its own gratification in all its desires and activities, it is
hostile to the spiritual mind. It is directly opposed to it in all its
ends, methods, and desires. The natural man hates what the spiritual man
loves. All their principles, ideas, and activities are diametrically
opposite. Consequently, as soon as the spiritual man begins to manifest
any life, and to take possession of the natural man and use him as his
servant, bring him into obedience, and direct his affections, thoughts,
and actions, there arises a combat, and this combat is temptation. It is
a conflict between evil spirits and angels for the possession of man’s
soul. Man’s own nature is the battle-field, and the weapons the
combatants wield are the evils and falsities, on the one hand, and the
good affections and truths on the other, which they can find in his own
mind.
All our life comes from a spiritual origin. We are so intimately
connected with spirits and angels that all power of thought and
affection is due to their influence. Man has no more self-derived power
to will, think, and act than a statue of marble. If his connection with
the spiritual world and its inhabitants was entirely severed, he would
have no more power to perform any mental or natural act than the
material body has when the spirit has left it. This combat is waged,
therefore, by the spiritual beings who are in the most intimate
connection with him, who touch by their influence the most secret
springs of his nature. It is not a conflict of words, an argument for
and against certain dogmas or courses of action, but of influence over
man. The evil spirits act upon his lusts and false principles; endeavor
to excite them into activity and lead man to act wickedly. They breathe
into his love of self and try to kindle it into a consuming flame. They
flow into his love of the world and awaken an intense desire for wealth
and power. They excite his natural passions and appetites, and stimulate
his ambition, his vanity and pride, and by the most cunning art blind
him to the truth; make the false appear as the true, and the true as the
false. They labor to fix his attention upon some natural or sensual
delight, and then they magnify it and glorify it to make it appear to be
essential to happiness. They offer a present delight, and hold it so
closely before the mind’s eye that it conceals the inevitable and
terrible consequences. They solicit with almost superhuman skill, and
weave enchantments around the soul with surpassing cunning. They quiet
fears, they kindle hopes, they promise the kingdoms of this world with
their power and glory, they offer bread for stones, and protection from
every harm. They are constantly present, and unremitting in their
efforts to destroy us body and soul, under the guise of ministering to
our happiness and making us as gods. It is not great crimes alone which
are due to their influence. They awaken pride, they foster vanities,
they inflame hatreds, they excite revenges, they taint the innocent
souls of boys and girls with impurities, and urge them along in the
currents of their natural desires. Could young men and women see them as
they are in all their horrid deformities; could they know that the power
which excites their love of self and the world was the hot and rank
breath of infernal beings who, under the guise of friends leading them
to happiness, are poisoning their souls and planting in their affections
the seeds of ruin, sorrow, and despair; could they see this they would
stop their ears against their siren voices, they would cry out to them,
“Get thee behind me Satan;” they would flee from them as they would flee
from pestilence and eternal death.
The angels, on the other hand, seek to awaken every good affection, and
to place before the attention every genuine truth. Some act directly
upon the affections, the secret springs of life. They seek to bring into
consciousness the innocent affections implanted in the mind in infancy
and childhood. Many a young man and woman has been saved from spiritual
death by the memory of a mother’s love and unselfish devotion. In some
critical moment, when the decision hung in even balance, the scale has
been turned in favor of heaven and eternal life by the recollection of
some tender ministry of a mother’s quenchless love, or some truth gained
from a father’s instruction. Do you suppose that influence came of
itself? Did that recollection leap from the memory where it had been
buried for years under the dust and decaying forms of false principles
and evil deeds? No. Some angel came in the guise of the mother’s patient
loveliness, and spoke in the tones of her remembered voice, brought into
vivid light some Divine truth learned from the Bible or taught in the
Sunday-school, or lisped at the mother’s knee, called into activity all
the innocent affections associated with it, and the tempter was foiled
and the soul was saved.
It is the office of other angels whose genius fits them for the special
service, to act upon the intellectual faculties. With bright and keen
intelligence they run through the mind and discover every idea of truth
existing there, and by heavenly skill bring it out from the dark
recesses of the memory, and place it in bright and clear distinctness
before the attention that it may gain recognition, and that the mind,
darkened by error, may see as in a mirror some glimpses of the order and
beauty and substantial good of heaven. They are diligent and faithful in
their office, for they delight in it. They love us with an unselfish and
an unchanging love, and it is the joy of their hearts to render us any
service.
Their influence and service does not, however, come to the attention
with the distinctness and gross power of the evil spirits, because they
operate upon the more interior and unconscious parts of our nature; but
their influence is none the less powerful. The reluctance which is at
first generally felt against the commission of sin, the drawing back of
the thoughts and the affections as by some attraction, the fears which
are excited, the shame which follows detection, the resolutions to shun
the evil, and the manifold influences which operate upon the mind to
awaken and develop heavenly affections, to fill the understanding with
the light of heavenly truths, as the sun quickens to life every seed by
its warmth and reveals the beauty of material objects by its light, is
due to the influence of the angels. When we are striving to suppress the
love of self and the world, when we feel ashamed of our vanities, our
unkindness, our indifference to the wants and unhappiness of others;
when we feel kindly towards others, and seek to render them a service,
when we try to elevate our thoughts and affections to the Lord, and
desires are awakened to do His will, we may know that the angels are
present with us with as much certainty as though we could see their
faces glowing with heavenly love, and hear their voices sweet and
winning, with heavenly melodies.
O, my friends, we are girt about by awful mysteries. Every human being
is beleaguered by hosts of spiritual beings who are contending for his
possession. The evil spirits would blast every hope and destroy every
capacity for heaven, drag us down to hell, and make miserable slaves of
us forever. The angels seek to develop every germ of goodness, and
unfold every faculty in the order and beauty of heaven. They seek to
restore the lost image and likeness of our Heavenly Father, and make us
His children and heirs of His infinite wealth of goodness and truth.
Such being our position, the questions naturally arise: Are we then the
passive objects of these contending hosts? Are we simply a neutral
territory with no agency in the conflict? By no means. We decide the
battle. Neither devil nor angel can take possession of us without our
consent. The Lord constantly gives us this power. When evil spirits
inflame the lusts and passions of the natural mind and incite us to
evil, we can refuse to follow their counsels. We can refuse to cherish
the evil affections, to indulge in the impure and false thoughts, and
especially to do the wicked deeds they incite us to commit. When we
resist these enemies they leave us for a season until they can find some
new avenue of approach. As they recede the angels draw nearer and take a
firmer and more secure possession of our natures, and imbue them with
the love and wisdom, the purity and harmony of a heavenly life. If, on
the other hand, we consent to the wiles and allurements of our spiritual
enemies, they grasp us with a more relentless power, they darken our
understandings and weave around our affections a web of influences which
seem soft as silk at first, but which in the end harden into fetters of
iron. They benumb our spiritual faculties and close their doors against
influx from the angels, and through them from the Lord. Every time we
resist the efforts of our spiritual enemies to gain possession of our
affections which constitute the citadel of life, we weaken the force of
their hold upon us; every time we yield to their solicitations we come
more fully into their power. We stand between these two contending hosts
as Moses stood upon the hill during the battle between Israel and Amalek.
When we hold up our hand, that is when we use the power the Lord has
given us, and lift up the standard of Divine truth, our enemies are
discomfited; when we let down our hand, Amalek, which is only another
name for our most subtle enemies, wins the victory. Our hands often grow
weary in this conflict, and we should utterly fail if we were not
supported by the Divine truth, represented by the stone upon which Moses
sat, and “Aaron and Hur who stayed up his hands, the one on the one side
and the other on the other side.”
Such, in general, is the nature of temptation. It is not merely
allurement to evil; that is only one side of it. It is not merely a
conflict between the abstract qualities of good and evil, truth and
falsity. There is no power in external objects, in themselves, to excite
the lusts of selfish and worldly affections; they are only the
instruments which intelligent beings use to accomplish their purposes of
good or evil. Abstract qualities have no existence separate and distinct
from their subjects. Good and evil, truth and falsity, have no existence
except in personal and intelligent beings. I present this subject,
therefore, as it is, as a conflict between human beings for the
possession of a distinct object. The conflict of two nations for a
boundary-line, or a piece of territory, or dominion over the other, is
not more personal, distinct, and real than the hostile hosts who are
contending for the dominion of every human soul. It is a real conflict
waged by substantial human beings on the spiritual plane of life, with
art and skill and strategy, and weapons of keener edge than Damascus
blades, and it is a conflict that is waged to decisive victory. It is a
conflict for dominion over a larger and more precious kingdom than the
whole world. Yes, my friends, we are the objects aimed at in this war.
One party desires to make every one of us, our sons and daughters,
miserable slaves and consign us to hopeless bondage. The other, to free
us from every burden, and hindrance, and sorrow, and bring us into
perfect freedom, and endow us with the beauty, the order, the riches,
the joy of heaven, and the companionship of the angels.
Temptation is of various degrees; its special quality is determined by
the plane of the mind on which the battle is fought. There can be no
real temptation until the distinctly spiritual degree of the mind begins
to come into actual existence. Natural allurements are not properly
temptations. “Misfortunes, sorrows, and anxieties which arise from
natural and corporeal causes and bodily pains and diseases” are not
temptations, though they serve in some degree to subdue and break the
life of man's pleasures and cupidities, and determine and elevate his
thoughts to interior and pious subjects. But there is no internal
conflict between good and evil, truth and falsity, for there are no
grounds for it. If there is any conflict it is between the natural
gratification and natural fears of punishment, or loss of reputation, or
favor, or some natural good.
Spiritual temptation takes place in the understanding, and is a conflict
between truth and falsity, or between those evil spirits who act
specifically upon man’s intellectual faculties, and the angels in the
corresponding plane of the mind. The evil spirits bring forth all man’s
falsities, and erroneous opinions and dogmas, and endeavor to persuade
him that they are truths. They change truths into falses, and by the
most alert and cunning legerdemain defend error, and make the true
appear to be false and the false to be true. Herein lies the great
difficulty in gaining a reception for a new truth. It cannot be done
until the old error is removed. But our opinions and doctrines are
entrenched in habits of thought, and entwined with associations from
which it is difficult to break away. This temptation is often very
severe, and the conflict continues for many years. Many of you,
doubtless, have passed through this warfare and know by experience what
it is. You were educated in a different faith from the one you now
accept, and the transition has been more or less painful. First arose
doubts about the truth of the old faith. It did not seem rational; it
did not answer your questions, or satisfy the wants of your heart. So
you doubted and feared, clung to the old faith and tried to make it
appear to be true; turned here and there; fled for refuge to some new
phase of thought, to find it untenable, and it may be, after many
fruitless efforts, settled down in a state of despair of ever finding
the light. But it came, as it always will come to every earnest and
sincere seeker for it. All these varied experiences did not spring up
spontaneously in the mind. They were the effects of spiritual conflicts
between the angels of truth and error for the possession of the
understanding.
The third and most severe temptation takes place in the will and the
affections. The evil spirits excite man’s appetites, desires, and carnal
lusts; they inflame and intensify the love of self and the world, and so
involve his whole consciousness in them that he cannot see any other
good than their gratification. On the other hand, the angels defend and
protect him by calling into activity the good and innocent affections
that were awakened in infancy and childhood, and the truths which had
been stored up in the memory. They turn the light of these truths
directly upon the evil and false principles excited by wicked spirits,
and in every possible way seek to disclose their impurities,
deformities, and the terrible consequences which must result from their
indulgence. This temptation is often attended with the most exquisite
suffering, for it touches the most sensitive part of our nature. It is
described in the Word by the most intense physical pain and the
surrender of the most precious possessions. It is selling all we have
and giving to the poor; it is leaving father, mother, houses, and lands,
and following the Lord. It is cutting off the right hand, plucking out
the right eye, taking up the cross, and laying down the life. With every
regenerate soul it continues until he comes into states of despair, and
the prayer is wrung from the tortured spirit, “If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me,” or the more despairing cry, “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?”
Such being the nature of temptations, it is evident that no one can be
regenerated without undergoing them. The distinctly spiritual plane of
our being can be brought into substantial existence and conscious
activity only as the loves of self and the world are subdued, and the
natural mind, with its thoughts, affections, and cupidities, submits to
be guided by the spiritual and heavenly. This conquest can only be
effected “little by little,” as the native inhabitants who represent our
evils and falsities were driven out of the Land of Canaan, and after
many severe and terrible conflicts. Temptations, which are not merely
allurements to sin, but actual conflicts with those who inflame our evil
passions, are an essential means of regeneration. By temptations the
diseased, inflamed, and perverted forms of the natural or external man
are separated from the internal man, as the hard and coarse shell of a
nut is separated from the internal and essential part of it by the power
of frost. Temptations tend to give the good in us dominion over the
evil, and the true over the false. They give us a clearer apprehension
of truths, and lead us to practice them, while at the same time they
subdue our evil affections and disperse the false principles derived
from them. The spiritual man gains strength by the conflict. The organic
vessels which compose the spiritual degree of the mind are developed and
opened for the reception of larger currents of power from the angels and
the Lord. The hardness and obduracy of the natural mind is softened in
the fires of the conflict, and the loves of self and the world are
subdued. The evil desires and cupidities become quiescent, and when the
conquest is fully completed the heavenly man reigns supreme in the plane
of natural life. Love to the Lord and man become the dominating motives
in all natural pursuits; the Lord’s will begins to be done on the earth
of the natural mind as it is in the heaven of the spiritual mind.
But while it is true that we cannot be regenerated with out temptations,
the Lord never tempts us or leads us into them. He is in the constant
effort to lead us out of them, and to deliver us from evil. He never
assaults the wicked, nor do the angels who are His agents and ministers
in leading men to heaven. They protect and defend man from the assaults
of his enemies; but they never commence the attack. When evil spirits
assault us and try to rob us of our priceless treasures, those who
defend us do not lead into the conflict and are not responsible for it.
Our Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, but
the temptation was caused by the devil. Every action must be judged by
the motives of the actor.
But it may be asked, “If the Lord never leads us into temptation, why
did He teach us to ask Him not to do that which He never does?” This is
a question which there have been many unsatisfactory attempts to answer.
The answer doubtless is that this is spoken according to the appearance
to us from a natural point of view, and is of the same character as a
multitude of other passages in the Word in which qualities of character
and changes are attributed to the Lord which take place in men. The
fiercest passions which rage in the human heart are attributed to the
Lord. He is represented as jealous, angry, revengeful, furious, as
hating, tormenting, sending famine, pestilence, and war, and punishing
with eternal death. He is also said to perform human and finite actions.
He comes and goes, hides and manifests Himself; sends messengers to
inquire as though He were ignorant, resolves and repents, and performs
many other actions which would be wholly inconsistent with an
omnipresent, omniscient, and infinitely wise Being. In all these cases
the Lord is represented as He appears to man, and not as He is in
Himself. The changes and actions which take place in us are attributed
to the Lord, because it so seems to us. The Scriptures are written from
a human as well as a Divine point of view. If they had not been, man
could not have understood them in any sense, and they would not have
been a revelation to him. The genuine truth is that the Lord does not
lead man into temptation. He is in the constant effort to lead us into
the peace and rest of heaven. But this cannot be done without
temptation. The obstacles which lie in the way must be removed, the
enemies must be overcome. From a natural point of view the trial, the
conflict, the self-denial are all we can see. He says we must forsake
father, and mother, and earthly possessions, and take up our cross and
lay down our life. It seems to the natural mind that He is leading us
into these privations and trials, and we can see no light, no peace, no
good beyond them. They are the limits of our vision. It is natural that
we should shrink from the sacrifice and conflict. Our Lord Himself did,
and prayed that if possible He might be spared from drinking the bitter
cup. The Lord has accommodated His Word to our limited apprehension. But
in other places He has revealed the genuine truth, by which we can
correct the natural appearance as science corrects the illusions of the
senses.
From our point of view, and according to our limited vision, the form of
the petition is the true one; it is adapted to our state, it is the form
which the Divine love and mercy must take in coming down to our
apprehension; it is the negative side of the positive truth, expressed
in the next clause, “but deliver us from evil.” That is what the Lord is
in the constant effort to do. He does not lead us into temptation, but
He leads us while we are in it, He protects and supports us while we are
undergoing it, and though He seems to have forsaken us and left us to
struggle alone, yet He is really nearer to us than at any other time.
He sympathizes with us, for “He was tempted in all points as we are.” He
has passed through every possible form of temptation, He has been where
we are, and He knows how to succor and lead us. We cannot be delivered
from evil until we overcome the enemies who cause it. The Lord is on our
side in this conflict, and He is fighting against our enemies. We cannot
find peace until the evils which disturb our repose are removed. The
Lord is constantly saying to us, “My peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you,” and He employs every possible agency to bestow it upon
us in the fullest and richest form.
How, then, shall we offer this prayer? By avoiding every allurement
which leads to evil, by rejecting from our thoughts every suggestion of
evil. When such thoughts arise in our minds we must attribute them to
the presence of some evil spirit. Our thoughts are the words of the
spiritual beings who are present within, and we must give them a prompt
and indignant rejection. We must arm ourselves with weapons from the
Word, and use them as our Lord did. A “thou shalt not” from the Lord is
a sufficient reason for rejecting every evil suggestion. We must ask the
Lord to deliver us from the evils or wicked beings who tempt us. In the
degree we do this, we shall pray to our Father in secret, and He will
reward us openly. |