LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
CONSIDER first, that after begging of our Lord, in the foregoing petition, the forgiveness of the sins we have already committed, we here beg of him to preserve us from relapsing into any of our former offences, or being ever any more guilty of wilful sin. The true penitent abhors the monster of sin, beyond all other evils whatsoever; and therefore he is not content with seeking the remission of all his offences, but is ever solicitous to avoid the like evils, for the time to come; and there fore he flies the occasions of them, seeks to keep out of all dangerous temptations, and being sensible of his own weakness, he is earnest in prayer to beg of God to stand by him, and to help him to overcome all the enemies of his soul, and rather to let him die a thousand deaths, than to commit one wilful sin. And this is the principal meaning of this petition, " Lead us not into temptation," which ought to be recited by all Christians, with these dispositions of a great horror of sin, and a most earnest desire to be ever preserved from it.
