The Depths of Satan

Matthew iv. 1 — 11.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him. All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him. Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

We are here upon one of those memorable battle fields, where glory was gotten, that still to this day smiles upon ourselves; where triumphs were achieved, which assure victory to us in Christ Jesus before we fight, and make us more than conquerors even in death. Never was a combat more wonderful in its nature, or more beneficial in its consequences, than that of which the inspired historian thus informs us. It was one which intimately concerns every human being, and has the closest relation to our most sacred interests. Therefore it well merits our devout attention.

I. The leading into the wilderness.

Our Saviour had dedicated himself in the baptism of Jordan, and had been visibly anointed by the fiery baptism of “the Spirit without measure,” to the Mediatorship of the new covenant. There had descended upon him from heaven an audible Divine testimony, that he was the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased. Thus consecrated and Divinely furnished for his mediatorial and priestly ofiice, he is led, by a powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, into the depths of the wilderness.

II. The fasting.

Was this fasting a part of the special plan of Him who led him into the wilderness? It was; and a means to an end. Do you ask on what account it was expedient that Jesus should fast, and especially in such a dreary solitude, and so severely, or for such a length of time? Know this first, that our Messiah’s fasting had reference to a purpose very different from that of the fasting of Moses on Mount Sinai, and of other holy persons. While it was to serve as an exercise of devotion and of preparation for his priestly office, it was also, according to the opinion of some, the commencement of his priestly sacrifice for the sin of man. So that to open the meaning not only of his temptation in the wilderness, but also of his fasting there, we must look for the key behind the barred gates of paradise lost — thus was his fasting the amends for Adam’s forbidden fruition, the payment for his guilt in the garden; it was a suffering that contributed to make satisfaction. Did the first father of our race sin while dwelling in the delightful paradise of Eden? Therefore we find the Second Adam in a waste and dreary wilderness. Was the first man, who is of the earth, earthy, embowered by the lovely trees of the garden, and nurtured by its delicious fruits? Therefore must the Second Man, who is the Lord from heaven, be imprisoned in a wilderness of hunger, surrounded by nothing but stones and rugged rocks, where grew not a single plant that could relieve the cravings of nature. Did our first father, before he had sinned, enjoy the most dehghtful fellowship with God, and with his holy angels, and with one who was such a true help meet for him, that her unspotted innocence was most meek to mingle with his own high and divine enjoyments? Lo, He who was born the Second Adam and Father of the everlasting age, was banished into the most gloomy solitude, to “dwell with the wild beasts,” Mark i. 13, and amidst the circumventions of that old serpent, the devil and Satan. Dreadful contrast! But such is the righteous judgment of God. Our great Surety and Representative, in that forlorn and inhospitable desert, fasting and hungering in the sinner’s stead, atones for the otherwise unpardonable presumption with which Adam, in despite of the express warning of God, had stretched out his hand to take the forbidden fruit. Verily, my brethren, Jesus has thus made full amends in behalf of all his people. Nothing more of the kind is required of ourselves; the atonement is made, once for all and for ever. But as for any of you who think lightly of this satisfaction of the Lamb of God, you may regard the situation of Jesus in the wilderness as a faithful counterpart of your own future condition. For thus will ye have to take up your abode in the gloomy desert of eternity; where ye shall hunger, but find stones instead of bread; where ye shall thirst, but have fire, storm, and tempest for your portion to drink instead of water; where ye shall dwell with such fallen spirits as are called ravening wolves, Matt. vii. 15, Acts xx. 29; unclean dogs, Phil. iii. 2; Rev. xxii. 15; roaring lions, Zeph. iii. 3; and hissing serpents,

Deut. vii. 15; Isa. xilr. 29; Mai. i. 3. Thus shall ye be solitary and forsaken amidst whole hosts of the condemned, Isa. xiv. 9, 19; Matt, xiii. 37 — 43. For in hell there is neither converse nor friendship, nor affectionate intercourse: there nothing but hatred and selfishness prevail; and each reprobate spirit is too much occupied with his own torment and wretchedness to concern himself about his companions in woe. And the duration of this punishment is “everlasting!” Matt. XXV. 46. Will not the very sound of such awful truth one day rend the rocks and make the mountains tremble? Let not then our own hearts be harder than the rock, Jer. v. 3.

Fastings there are even still in the kingdom of God upon earth; bodily and spiritual fasts of all kinds; painful and cheerful fasts. Those which are most cheerful are kept in that vernal season of the soul, when in the genial warmth of the risen Sun of Righteousness, it first begins to bring forth fruits meet for repentance; for it now feels the kindness and love of God our Saviour, which hath appeared unto all men, and it is affianced to the heavenly Bridegroom. The soul now no longer needs self denial and forbearance to be commanded and enjoined; for it renounces self of its own accord. It flies, as by a new instinct, from scenes of temptation and danger, like a bird from the deadly weapon of the fowler. How can the once lost son, now happily recovered, content himself any longer with the husks! for he has tasted the fruit of the vine that flourished in “the pleasant land,” and of the refreshments of its milk and honey. How can the renewed man still take delight in the trimbrel and the dance, or rejoice at the sound of the tabret and pipe, after he has once learnt to raise his holy songs of joy on the harp of David! In opposition to the vanities and follies of this world, he sets the certainties which his faith now beholds in the opening glories of heaven; and with the couch of ease and luxury he contrasts the cross whereon He whom his soul loveth was suspended, bleeding and crowned with thorns. Away then at once with every wretched and shadowy joy, and every glittering vanity; trouble us not, vain world, with these, for we are keeping a fast to the Lord. How often do we hear it controverted and questioned whether one pleasure or anotherbe compatible with real piety! Only let men become really in earnest about their own salvation, and they will cease from such flimsy casuistry; and will perceive at once what agrees or disagrees with the spirit of true religion; or how far permission and ability to pursue any pleasure may belong to children of God and heirs of the kingdom.

Other fastings are incident to a state of grace, which are not joyous, but grievous. These happen when the soul is led away, not from the wild luxuries of the world into the pastures of the good Shepherd, but from these refreshing and invigorating pastures into a seeming wilderness. Oh! it is a bitter change, and we have felt it the more from having enjoyed such unspeakable happiness while leaning on Jesus’ bosom. We then cry out, Where is the blessedness I knew? Where are now those lively and sweet emotions, those congenial delights and Uvely enjoyments which we realized in the Lord’s nearness to our souls? We were so happy that we could gladly have departed from this present life at once, and have passed beyond our present precincts of paradise into the unseen world. The south wind breathed upon our garden, so that the spices thereof flowed out, Sol. Song iv. 16; the clusters of Canaan were gathered abundantly, and a heart-gladdening sense of love was like the fresh morning dew diffused upon our spirits; it made us feel ourselves at the King’s table, recreated and comforted, and caused us to forget all sorrow. But unexpectedly a change takes place; the streams of milk and honey are dried up; the soul is deprived of its pleasant food; it sits down, in leanness and indigence, on the ground; its harp is hung upon the willow, and with our utmost eiforts we can do no more than sigh for one dewdrop of heavenly blessing. This is fasting indeed to the children of God in the wilderness. Happy he whose place of security is the munitions of rocks; who rests upon Christ and his word, and not in his own frames and feelings! “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure,” Isa. xxxiii.

16. Such an one, even when he is “as having nothing,” in the way ofpositiverehsh and enjoyment, yet is “possessing all things” by simple and implicit faith; and, though exulting feelings may have left him, the peace of God is still with him. He casts anchor beneath the immovable and sheltering rocks of the Divine promises, and comforts himself with the assurance that they stand fast for ever. He knows that though the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, the kindness of God shall never depart, neither the covenant of his peace be broken. Even such a fasting in the wilderness, when God appoints it, is good and wholesome. What can we better wish for, than to be always under the guidance of Divine grace? Therefore let it conduct us according to its good pleasure.

ni. The TEMPTATIONS.

Jesus went into the wilderness to fast. But more than this was designed by the purpose of God. For what saith the Scripture? “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness tohe tempted of the devils How terrific and extraordinary a portion of our Saviour’s history is this! that the Son of God should be led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil! Yet comfort yourselves, ye tried and tempted heirs of the kingdom, with this very thing, for it is recorded in Scripture expressly for your consolation. Neither imagine that the roaring lion goeth about in Israel unchained and free; or that he has full liberty to fall upon whomsoever he will, or that he can throw his fiery darts at pleasure, and lay his snares so unperceived as to escape your Saviour’s notice. Our Prince and Protector has him always in his eye, and curbs him with a firm hand by the power of his word. Thus the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Powerful as our adversary may be, he can have no power whatever ao:ainst those concernino: whom he is commanded,” Touch not mine anointed.” In this single injunction of our Saviour there is a wall of fire surrounding us, beyond which no fiery dart of the wicked can fly. Every actual assault upon us is by the express permission of our Lord himself, and consequently intended to be overruled for the soul’s health and salvation. Hitherto shall it go, and no further. “Howbeit “in all this the wicked one” meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so;” but he is, in fact, “drawn out and made a show of openly;’’ and our King is “triumphing over him in it.” The enemy is but one of those principalities and powers, whether they be in heaven, or earth, or under the earth, with whom the Lord doeth whatsoever he will. He employs him as he did Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and others, for the benefit of the holy seed. He makes use of him as a staff in his hand, as a rod, as a driver, as a chastener; and when he has done with him, he breaks the staff of Israel’s shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, and flings it from him: he shuts up the dragon in the abyss. Rejoice, therefore, ye sheep of his flock; for the powers of darkness, though as lions and wolves in their own nature, are subject to your Good Shepherd. Whenever Satan’s fiery darts are hurled about you, think that the Lord by his Spirit is only conducting you into the wilderness, and setting you in the conflict; and that he is himself with you in the field.

As no temptations or trials can befall the children of God without the Divine permission, so they have all one and the same object. They are intended to show what is in man; to bring to light and make manifest what is in us as men, and as children of God. It frequently happens that the Lord himself desires to prove us, for he taketh pleasure in his works, Psa. civ. 31. Thus he proved Abraham; but at the critical moment he called out of heaven, saying, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me,” Gen. xxii. 12. He knew this before: but he would have that fear of God, which he had wrought in his servant’s heart, developed, that the Lord might rejoice in his perfected work. So, at the present day, many a beloved child of grace is conducted into severe trial and conflict, that he may learn to pray, supplicate, persevere, and walk by faith upon the waves, with his hand, as it were, in the hand of Jesus. It is true that we are often sore troubled at such a season, and unable to believe those who testify that the Lord is now delighting in us. For real Christians can see nothing in themselves for the Lord to delight in. But the Lord nevertheless can see something of the kind; and he loill see it, because such is his good pleasure.

Furthermore, he often suffers his dear children to be tempted and sorely tried in a variety of ways, that what is hidden in their hearts may be manifested, not so much to himself, as rather to their Christian brethren and sisters. Thus he shows us an Abraham’s faith; a Job’s patience; a Moses’ love and meekness; an Elijah’s zeal; a Canaanitish woman’s humility and fervency; and a Paul’s exultation in sufferings; that we may learn to glory in that strength of his which is perfected in weakness. Do we in faint-heartedness imagine that such eminent saints may well get to heaven, but that with respect to ourselves, every thing must certainly come to nought? Then he tells us of David, Simon Peter, and a cluster of others, from whom the winepress of God expressed not only wine, but also bitter waters of sorrow for sin; and thus he revives our spirit, and imparts fresh courage; especially when he reminds us, that David and Peter still retained the glory once put upon them, when the latter was designated “a rock,” and the former “a man after God’s own heart,” Acts xiii. 22. It has often happened that persons who have shone with remarkable lustre of holiness, and enjoyed extraordinary respect from the world, have, at length, become disposed to resist, like the oak, in their own strength, the gusts of trial. But these gusts have left them stripped of their honours, disfigured and blasted; and thus have they become monuments of our fallen nature’s weakness and helplessness. All the lustre of their holiness, influence, and efficiency, has like a brook been lost in the sand, and has so entirely disappeared, that they who had heretofore been rivers of blessing wherever they found their way, can now hardly be recognized as the same persons. Now, such things the Lord has suffered to come to pass, that the idolatry with which we are too ready to extol human nature may be prevented; that grace may be preserved in its pure lustre, and all honour and glory redound to Him whose right alone it is to receive it. The more particular intent of our trials and temptations generally is, that we may the better learn what is in us; that we may ever be kept lying low as in the dust. For we, as children of fallen Adam, have naturally such superficial notions of true piety, that we would fain think ourselves possessed of it at once, by a cheap and easy method; but Jesus would have us learn that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh;” that he has to deal with us as persons radically ungodly; and that every soul is of this character whom he undertakes to save. Therefore he suffers the arrows of the adversary again and again to wound us, that we may be the more wakefully conscious of sin dwelling in us, and that the hideousness and ill-savour of its hitherto unperceived brood of evils may offend as it were our very senses. Hence he permits the wicked one occasionally to set in motion the unholy dispositions or blasphemous inventiveness that lay slumbering in the inner chambers of the soul, that we may perceive how many abominations still remain to be purged out of the human temple of God, and may learn quite to give up and renounce our natural pride and self-esteem. Job xxxiii. 17. For the same purpose he permits the adversary sometimes to come upon us by surprise, and to sound a blast of alarm over our slumbering lusts. Then, how are we amazed to find old deformities still about us! Alas! we thought that by our pious exercises we had long ago dislodged and swept them away, and that the whole house was already garnished with holiness; but now we find it far otherwise. The beloved bride then learns that she is “black” as well as “comely;” “like the tents of Kedar” as well as “like the curtains of Solomon;” and that she has no inherent

excellence of her own. Thus she learns more thoroughly to repent, and remember, and do her first works. The Bridegroom of the church will have it so. Therefore, many a saint, beginning to indulge in self-complacency concerning his own supposed eminence in holiness, finds the loftiest step of this eminence break under him, and himself prostrated upon the earth, or even plunged in the mire. He is now more vile in his own eyes than he had ever before imagined. Like a bird of paradise that has lost its plumage, he is now in his own eyes naked and bare, and is impelled by conscious shame to hide himself as in a cleft of the rock, where he learns by experience what it is to rejoice with all the heart, that the true bridal dress is of the Lord’s oion choosing and bestowing; that a cross once stood upon Golgotha, from which a righteousness has ascended to a throne; ana that fallen men can add to it no supposed excellence of theirs, but must simply and solely ascribe “grace, grace unto it.”

IV. The OBJECT of Christ’s temptations.

We have already seen why, in general, God permits the adversary to tempt his children. We are next to consider, on what account he suffered the Lord Jesus himself to be tempted. And here first we must solemnly protest against that horribly heretical notion, that Jesus was led into the furnace of temptation, that by conflict and contest, wrestling and prayer, he might overcome, mortify, and kill sin in his own flesh! We dare not for a moment allow such a thought respecting our most holy and blessed Saviour. That God sent to us his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, we know and acknowledge; but it was in the likeness onli/, and 7iot in the sinful flesh itself. He was in all things made like unto his brethren, Heb. ii. 17, with the exception of one point, and that one point was si7i. God be thanked, that the word of God is as clear upon this subject, as is the light of noon day. With the perfect sinlessness of our great Mediator, the whole fabric of evangelical hope must stand or fall. Were the white raiment of his innocence soiled with the least stain of an unholy attribute, were it possible for heaven, earth, or hell, to point out “any such thing” in his nature, then we should have nothing to do but to shut up our churches, burn our Bibles, cast away our confidence, and yield ourselves up to despair. For then could Jesus be no Saviour of men, neither could the payment he has made for us have any value whatever.

We have already remarked, that the temptations which came upon him were undergone entirely for our sakes, inasmuch as they were part of his vicarious and sacrificial sufferings. We have seen our first parents tempted by the serpent; and their presumption impelling them at once into the whirlwind of the abyss. The Second Adam, having undertaken to retrieve our loss, was exposed to still greater temptation, which nevertheless he triumphantly resisted; the lances of our great adversary were broken, his stratagems and machinations completely defeated, and an all-perfect obedience yielded to the Father of creation and providence. The first Adam, by his disobedience, made himself and us the enemy’s captives; but the Second Adam, foregoing the throne of the majesty on high, and descending into this lower world amidst evil spirits, swallowed up this death in victory. Oh, unexampled humiliation! that the Son of God should have been touched by the murderous hands of the devil! that the Heir of all things should have suffered the old serpent to lurk in his path! that He, the Holy One, should have been encompassed by the powers of darkness! that the Lord of the blessed angels should have suffered his human person to be seized, carried off, and borne away by the prince of the accursed, to hear his thrice-repeated temptation unto deeds most ungodly! But while it was so admirable on the one hand, it was inconceivably fearful on the other. The children of God are of too narrow capacity, and too nearly allied to sin, to comprehend the infinite recoil of Christ’s holy soul from unholiness; and as for the ungodly and profane, they, being children of the wicked one, are too congenially related to him, to dream of the intensity of our Saviour’s sufferings by temptation. Yet to such sufferings it behoved the Lord’s Anointed to submit: it behoved his holy human nature to shudder at the floods of Belial, that there he might begin to remove our mountains of guilt. And all these assaults he had to encounter alone; without the least aid was he to persevere through conflict and warfare in doing the will of God, that by an illustrious and perfect obedience entirely his own, he might cover from the eyes of Divine justice, the disobedience of Adam and his posterity.

Another object of Christ’s temptations was, that having suffered being tempted, he might be able to succour them that are tempted, Heb. ii. 18. Able he certainly could have been, without tasting of our trials, or being personally assaulted with our temptations; but by his actually undergoing them, the weakest among us may be strengthened to believe in his ability, so as to have “more freedom in pouring out their hearts before him and in showing him their trouble. If two persons can meet and converse together respecting the same necessities, distresses, and buffetings of Satan which each has undergone, how much does this conduce to their open-heartedness with one another, to their confidential communicativeness, and to their mutual sympathy! They disclose to each other their every inmost suffering; soul melts into soul; and while they enjoy such refreshment and delight, they count no time. With those who are strangers to the experience of our peculiar trials, we are not so readily communicative about them, because we expect no corresponding sym.pathy. And doubtless we should have a far less intimate communion with our heavely Friend, had he not been our companion in tribulation, and a partakerof our every suffering. But now, how refreshing do we find it to know, that he himself was in all points tempted like as we are; that he was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; that he well knows by personal experience the severest anguish of our souls; so that though no fellow-mortal should be able to understand us, we have a Friend always at hand, of whom we are assured that he enters into every feeling of our condition! Psa. lvi. 8. His experience reaches down into our inmost darkness, into the profoundest depths of our spiritual temptation. Under no juniper of the desert can we sit solitary, but he has there sat down before us; no thorn of the wilderness can wound us, but it has already wounded him; no fiery dart can assault us, but it has already assaulted him. Verily, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities: believe it only, dear Christian brethren, that when the Refiner sits at his furnace, during the whole process of your trial and purification, his own holy and almighty heart, more than that of the most affectionate mother, feels sympathy for you in heaven. Therefore it was out of mere mercy and love towards a world of sinners, that God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the furnace of trial.

It appears also, that herein he had an object with reference to the tempter himself; on account of the distinguished situation which the chief of the apostate angels occupies in the kingdom of spirits. If we put together the scattered notices of that fallen morning star, which are found in various parts of Scripture, we can hardly suppress our wonder and awe, at beholding something of the natural character of this degenerate prince of hell.

Satan, in the surprising ruins of his former unspeakable glory — for where among men can we find intelligence, prudence, perseverance, energy, and power like his? and, what is more astonishing, these are only the relics of his original glory; — Satan, I say, still appears, according to the Bible, with a kind of majesty; not only in his being called a prince, and a mighty one, but even “the god of this world;” and we cannot but observe in Scripture, that occasionally a kind of respect appears to be paid to his ruined dignity. The apostle Jude, in a passage where he is producing a contrast to those who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities or magistrates, says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these filthy dreamers speak evil of those things which they know not,” Jude 9, 10. In the book of Job, we behold the sons of God presenting themselves before Jehovah, and it is added, “Satan came also among them, to present himself before the Lord,” Jobi. and ii. And the Lord condescended to converse with him, and to ask him if he had considered his servant Job. And’in reply to the subtle question of the false accuser, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” the Lord gave him power over all that belonged to that holy man; he permitted Satan to visit and to try him, that hell itself might learn that Divine strength can be perfected in human weakness. What a wonderful transaction! Surely it constrains us to say, that “the Almighty” considered it of some importance, that even the prince of darkness should acknowledge Deity, and give the Lord the glory due unto his name. And this is really the case; for at his name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Hence likewise, it appears, that Satan was even permitted to look into the deep foundation of the work of redemption, especially by tempting the Lamb of God, to try if he could find any fault with his unblemished purity; that he might know Messiah’s qualifications as a Surety to atone for human transgression; that he might know, that “Zion” is “redeemed with righteousness,” Isa. i. 27, and not with arbitrariness; and that he might never be able, with any show of justice, to protest against the salvation of God’s elect, Rom. viii. 33. When the wisest and most subtle of all rebellious spirits is compelled to astonishment at the wisdom of God, to admire his doings, to wonder in mute silence at the depth of his counsels, to commend, asainst his will and inclination, the equity of Divine proceedings, and to give honour to God unto his own confusion, this surely tends not a little to the glory of the Divine name. One of the most solemn and sublime moments in the great day of full manifestation will be, when Satan himself shall be compelled to yield acknowledgment that the Lamb is worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power. Rev. v. 13; and shall feel constrained to bow at the name of another who is greater than he. This will amount to a consummation of praise second only to the hallelujahs of angels.

V. The tempter.

Forty days and nights of fasting had been spent by our Saviour in the lonely wilderness, and “he was afterward an hungered.” Then the tempter came unto him, visibly, but in disguise, probably as “an angel of light,” 2 Cor. xi. 14. He appears to have had a twofold object in this attempt. First, Satan desired to ascertain whether Jesus was really the Son of God; and secondly, in. case he were, he meditated to raise up a rock in his course, upon which the precious work of redemption should be wrecked for ever.

It is very probable, as others have thought likewise, that the tempter was yet in doubt whether this was the Messiah. Jesus, who was called “the carpenter’s son,” had lived on earth thirtyyears in great obscurity, probably working at the trade of his reputed father; thus “in the sweat of his face,” earning his daily bread; during all which time, we are not told that he did or said any thing beyond what other children of men might have done or said; except what is recorded of him with respect to his visit to the temple, when he was twelve years old. “His” general “kinsfolk and acquaintance,” probably, had long begun to think of him as no more than an amiable man; and it is possible that even Mary and Joseph had considerably lowered their expectations concerning him, as all the miraculous circumstances of his life had long: so ceased; and the voices from heaven been discontinued. God veiled the peculiar glory of his Son in such a manner, that even the keen eyes of Satan might be unable to discern it in the plain “carpenter, the son of Mary,” Mark vi. 3. This great adversary, however, did not entirely overlook him. And though, among men, no one appeared any longer to im.agine that the humble labourer at Joseph’s business could be God’s Messiah, yet Satan himself was wise enough not to lay too much stress upon a poor and humble exterior. He could think it possible, that this “carpenter” in all his obscurity might nevertheless be the Lord of glory. He would see nothing inconsistent or absurd in the Redeemer’s having to commence his great work in such poverty and lowliness; and many a strange event and circumstance, which he had observed in his history from its commencement, would intimate to him too plainly that Jesus of Nazareth could be no other than the Son of God. Still, however, he only conjectured this verity; he had not yet that clear conviction of it, which a fallen archangel would require; therefore he desired to obtain full certainty, that he might take his measures accordingly. Had he at present actually discerned him as the Messiah, much of his subsequent conduct toward him, would, as we shall hereafter see, be inexplicable. His first and immediate object, therefore, was to ascertain this. Very prudently did the crafty spirit so preconcert his temptations, that if Jesus was really the Messiah, his work of redemption might meet, at the outset, with a shock by which it should be for ever frustrated. The ultimate object of the prince of darkness was by an adroit manoeuvre to divert the Saviour from his mediatorial career, and thus to confirm his own infernal dominion over mankind. He therefore presents himself to Jesus, as a well-wishing and kind-hearted friend. He would have it appear that he desired nothing so much as to see the great work of redemption prospered and achieved; only he professes to suggest a shorter method of accomplishing the glorious design; and he plans all with the very craft and subtlety that might be expected from a being, who with the strongest natural power of intellect, had sunk into the deepest abysses of wickedness and malignity.

VI. Liability to temptation.

The tempter came to Jesus with the most refined cunning and artifice. Trusting that the forlornness of the solitude, and the barrenness of the thirsty desert, would be helpful to the triumph he meditated, he seizes the opportunity for his first attack, from the hunger spoken of in the text. In like manner does this murderer of souls know how to turn his weapons against ourselves, in the most convenient place, at the most critical moment, and in circumstances the most favourable to his purpose. When we are apart from all company, and no human eye can be upon us, when no dear brother is near to put us on our guard, nor any experienced fellow Christain at hand to confirm or animate us; when our thoughts are permitted to wander at pleasure, then does this “strong one armed” come up to the attack, stretches his arrow upon the bow, and exerts his utmost skill to inject poison into our very hearts. When we are all hungered or athirst; when want pinches us, and we feel a craving either for money or sustenance; when real need of rest, or imaginary want of repose, leisure, honour, convenience, or enjoyment, stirs within us an uneasy longing for the thing denied; when any particular wish, though in itself not blameable, takes possession of our hearts; — then is the tempter immediately at hand, addressing the passions in a friendly and winning manner, suggesting to us one good reason after another, and discovering to us means in abundance for the gratification of our desires. And, however adverse the thing may be to the will of our Father in heaven, Satan knows so well how to garnish and colour it, that we are easily brought even to imagine peace and prosperity are with us, when it is nothing less than “Satan himself transformed into an angel of light.”

The mystery of his iniquity, craft, and guile, which, humanly speaking, is unsearchable, had never been so disclosed as it now was, in those temptations with which he endeavoured to circumvent our blessed Lord. But it may be asked. Could the Christ of God be tempted in reality? The Scripture informs us, that he was not merely tempted, but in all things* tempted like as we are, only without sin, Heb. iv. 15. Our bless= ed Saviour, the Scripture saith, was manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh j that is, in human nature weakened by the fall. He inherited every injury which sin had done it, only no disposition

* Luther, from holy reverence, appears to have stood in awe ofrenderhig Ka-a iravra by so strong an expression as “f/i all things?’’ His rendering is, allenthalben,” in all places,’’^ “every wherCf” or “on every hand.”

to sin itself; no capacity, no capability of sinning. Hence we read, that he was tempted without sin. But if there be any sinless instincts and infirmities of our common nature, these undoubtedly he inherited. He was susceptible of hunger and thirst; he could be weary and overtaken with sleep; he could weep and rejoice; he could feel the need of bodily rest and refreshment. Now, such infirmities and sensibilities, which in themselves are sinless, the tempter hoped to take advantage of, in order to seduce our all holy and blessed Saviour from the way of God marked out before him. He therefore propounded to him such ways and means of satisfying those wants, as were altogether incongruous with God’s way. Had the Redeemer acceded to them, or been ever so remotely inclined to them, Satan’s monstrous wickedness would have succeeded; the Lamb would not have been without spot, nor the High-Priest without sin; his sacrifice would have been invalid, the whole scheme of redemption would have been for ever annulled, and we ourselves exposed to perish, and that without remedy. How much then depended on the result of this temptation of Jesus in the wilderness! What an immeasurably important trial was it to be, of our Redeemer’s qualifications! And what interest ought we to feel in attending to the further developement and issue of that extraordinary and eventful transaction!

TIL The first assault.

The tempter had watched the most favourable opportunity for making his first attack. He perceived that Jesus was an “hungered;” therefore he came to him, and said, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Here was the first of those assaults by which the tempter meant to ascertain whether this was the very person of the promised Messiah; and then (in case he were really the Lord from heaven) to annihilate at one blow his work of sacrificial atonement. The devil’s aim was to begin with polluting, had it been possible, the pure human soul of the Redeemer with the sin of distrusting his heavenly Father’s provision. As he commenced his assaults in paradise with the question, “Yea, hath God said?” to seduce our first parents into error respecting the Divine prohibition; so his words, “If thou be the Son of God,“’ were meant to be equivalent to that question. His first object was to create a doubt respecting the import of that testimony which had recently descended on our Saviour at his baptism, ‘• This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well- pleased.” And now, only observe the wondrous craft of the tempter. In that single sentence, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread,” he lays a thousand snares in our Saviour’s path at once. He would first insinuate how impossible it must be that God should leave his own Son in the wilderness, among rocks and stones and thorns, to pine away with hunger; and could our Saviour have given the least entertainment to this suggestion, his soul would have been defiled with unbelief. Further, he would induce him to work such a miracle in proof of his being the Son of God, as should serve also his relief from hunger and suffering; and this he knew would be acting against the counsel of God, according to which the Messiah was to be poor, suffering, and emptied of his glory to compensate for Adam’s guilt. But the devil might further think, that should he not succeed in persuading our blessed Lord to forsake the way of poverty, to step aside from the path of lowliness, and disclose his real dignity, yet perhaps the pressure of hunger might prevail on him to comply with the suggestion of working a miracle for his own relief; that it would seem an excusable thing to save himself from starvation by the power committed to him; and that by thus helping himself he would put away from him that cup of bitterness, the drinking up of which to the very dregs was essential to his making reconciliation for iniquity. Such were apparently the thoughts of Satan; he hoped that Jesus, if he overcame the first snare, would be taken in the second or the third. With more subtlety the plan could not have been laid. Had there been the smallest blemish of sin in the Lamb of God, it would not have been discovered. But not a sunbeam mote settles upon the white raiment of his perfect innocence. He stood alone in the field of conflict; and saw that there was no man to help, none to uphold. Nevertheless he broke the “power of the enemy:” the devil was disappointed, and Jesus triumphed.

The temptation to command stones to be made bread, will, if spiritually considered, be found a most common one every day. All the experienced children of God have known something of it. There are brethren amongst us, and they are brethren in the Lord, to whom, nevertheless, a fast is proclaimed at tho present season. They are out of regular employment, and can earn little or next to nothing; some are masters in business, but their business does not prosper. They have to be concerned how to obtain their daily bread. Brethren, ye sit in the wilderness among the stones and thorns, and ye are “an hungered.” Now, would it not be a wonder if the tempter did not insinuate his way to you, and suggest, Canst thou be a child of God, who thus suffers thee to starve? This suggestion is soon followed up by another, “Command that these stones be made bread.” It would be a wonder indeed if he did not ply you with every unbelieving suggestion, such as either that you ought to make less scruple about principle, for the sake of employment, or of standing upon good terms with patrons and friends; or that it is not necessary to be so strict to truth, where your interest is at Stake, or the maintenance of your family is concerned; that you may very pardonably put your hand to some unlawful business, to save yourselves from starvation; or that it is good policy to join some worldly and unchristian party, that may help to keep you from going down in the world; or that you ought to “try your fortune,” as it is called, in the lottery of some questionable speculation. Now, this is the same as if Satan persuaded you in so many words to command these stones that they be made bread. But, my dear brethren in Christ, let the stones be stones; suffer them to remain as they are; but look for your bread and support from your heavenly Father alone who hath promised you far greater and better things than this. By Him “the hairs of your head are all numbered,” and he willeth not that “one of his little ones should perish.”

But if things come to what is termed the worsts is it not much better to starve in God’s name, than to see good days in the name of his enemy and yours 1 The days of fasting will soon be over — as soon as they have produced that maturity of your spiritual life for which they are appointed. Take courage, then, and “be of good cheer;” for though you are abiding at present in the wilderness, it is that you may see the faithfulness and glory of the Lord; and generally, these have better been discovered in the great and terrible wilderness, than in the land flowing with milk and honey.

There are others amongst us who at present are requited for their very piety with scorn and derision, and have little joy or refreshment in their own souls. Would it not be a wonder if Satan did not interpose, and suggest to such that in Christianity there is little or nothing after all, that he may thus beguile them into the world’s spirit and pursuits, in quest of that joy which they find not in God? Brethren, all such counsel is from Satan, and in giving it he virtually advises us to change stones of suffering, and spiritual barrenness, into bread of our own choosing, bread which has no savour of the bread of life. Far rather let us prefer spending our few remaining days with Christ, not only in a wilderness, if it must be so, but in the furnace itself, rather than have recourse to any relief proposed by the adversary.

“The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.” Let this be our watchword in the field of conflict, whenever we perceive the enemy approaching. God be thanked, that whereas the true Michael hath encountered him, and overcome him, his positive dominion over us is annihilated. It is true he can still buffet us, and make such a push at us as to occasion giddiness, sickness, and a fall; but destroy us he cannot. Though he may lurk as a lion about our tabernacle, the Lord hath put “a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips.” The prince of Judah, the Captain of our salvation, has both him and all his agents under absolute control, and appoints them their bounds, which they cannot pass. Only let us abide in our strong-hold, in the atonement of Christ’s blood, and we are safe.

VIII. The CHIEF WEAPON.

The weapon with which Jesus triumphed, was the word of God. The Bible is a spiritual armoury, hung with swords and lances, blazoned shields, bright breast-plates and helmets. No good soldier of Christ ever gained a victory, but he first furnished himself from this armoury. The mere sling-stones obtained from thence, have felled many a Goliath to the earth. Whoever makes a proper use of his free access to it, fails not to withstand the tempter, who is overawed by God’s word. Hence, from the beginning, it has been his endeavour either to weaken its force, or to exclude it from us entirely. What false reasoning has the arch-sophist left untried! What fine argument has he brought into credit with the world, to make the word of God suspected, to render it dubious, or to deprive it of its paramount authority! What impious falsehoods has he, by his agents, circulated abroad, against the genuineness and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures! Not a single book of the Old or New Testament has that wicked one left unattacked; not a single miracle recorded therein has he been ashamed to treat as fabulous; not a single Divine promise therein registered has he not endeavowred to make of “none eifect.” And still to this day is he busy, by his instruments and ministers, by false prophets, learned professors, and others, as well as personally, by immediate whispers and suggestions of his own, to unsettle men’s minds respecting the infallibility of the written word; for this word has often proved his overthrow. But “resist the devil, and he will flee from you;” turn a deaf ear to his insinuations and reasonings. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it,” John viii. 44. But some may wish to know, in what manner the word of God is of such eminent service in temptations. Let us then observe, that whenever Saan would entangle and seduce us, his first endeavour is to confound our notions of truth and falsehood. What is wrong he represents as right, what is merely human as Divine, what is unholy and bad as holy and good. He would turn the truth of God into a lie, and the lie of man into the truth of God; and in proportion as he thus dazzles and deceives us, in the same proportion we do his will, and even think perhaps that we are “doing God service.” But in this “deceivableness of unrighteousness” he can never succeed, if we implicitly believe in God’s written word: for this will ever teach us in the plainest terms, how to distinguish right from wrong, and truth from falsehood. It will show us in every case what we ought to do, think, or say, agreeably to the Divine will.

Take the case of a Christain minister. The adversary would sap away all efficacy from our preaching, and he sets about it in a very insidious manner. He suggests to us, that surely we may preach a little more charitably not making the way to heaven quite so narrow nor the gate quite so strait: that thus our congregations will be far better disposed to hear us; that many whose prejudices we now only strengthen against the truth, may thus be gained; and whatever other agreeable arguments to that effect can be suggested, the wily deceiver well knows how to time and to apply. If now “the man of God” parley with such suggestions, leaning to his own understanding, and having no better guard than his own opinion, he is ensnared at once, and the proposal will appear quite reasonable and good, for Satan is far wiser than we are. But if the minister of God depend only the more wakeful ly on God’s word itself, if his faith being thus in vigorous exercise, he can reply to every such Satanic proposal, It is written, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life;” and again, “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed,” Gal. i. 8, 9, then the adversary can do nothing. Such bold affiance in the word of God with the believing reply, “It is written,” will compel the enemy to retreat.

Take another instance. The tempter would bring you to doubt whether Christianity be the exchisive means of a sinner’s everlasting happiness. Therefore he carries you suddenly to some lofty height of thought, and shows you millions of souls in the church as well as in the heathen world, who are yet without Christ; and then he begins solemnly to address you, and to ask whether you really believe that such countless multitudes of your fellow-men are all in the way of perdition; and whether your understanding or your heart can assent to this. “Yet all those persons,” saith he, “believe not in Jesus; at least not as you do and others like you. Can then Christ be absolutely the only way to heaven 1 Must that which you call the new birth be so essential to salvation? Or rather, is it not that your own sentiments are far too narrow, illiberal, and uncharitable upon this matter V Such are his suggestions; and if you have no better armour against them than your natural reason, you will imagine that the deceiver has given you the proper view of the subject, and he will triumph in having made your footing to slip from under you. But if you can lay your hand upon God’s word, and meet the tempter with one saying of it, replying, It is written, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;” It is written,” I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me;” It is written, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;” “Many are called, but few are chosen;” — if you can believingly hold fast by such Divine declarations as these, then is the adversary defeated, his snare is broken, and he will cease from attempting to persuade you that Christ is not the sole foundation of our peace with God; unless he attempt to render suspected the written word itself wherein you trust.

Take another example. He wishes, we will suppose, to bring you back into the world; and how would he do it? He gently insinuates, that true religion does not require you to stand aloof from your former companions, or to be so shy of the society of those whose opinions may a little differ from your own: that Christian charity teaches quite another lesson; that it is your duty now and then to go into the world, that you may let your light shine before men, to prevent religion from being slandered as belonging exclusively to monks and misanthropists, and to show that piety is sociable and cheerful, than which nothing is more necessary for gaining the hearts of others to its cause. Yea, that even for your own exercise and confirmation in holiness, it is your duty not to withdraw from the world; for what is there in being holy, where there are no temptations or allurements to the contrary? whereas, to meet evil in the face, and to be able to resist it wherever we see it, is to play the man and the Christian. Such are the reasonings of our great adversary; and they are very congenial with the disposition of our fallen nature. Now, if you attempt to dispute such a matter with him with your own wisdom, you will certainly be perplexed and overcome; for no shrewd sophist is so subtle in reasoning as he is. He knows how to make the most foolish thing appear most plausible and rational. But if you have faith in the word of God, and trusting in it you can reply, It is written, “Be not conformed to this world,” he is then defeated, for you have struck the dagger out of his hand. Thus the word of God, when grasped with a firm hold of faith, is found to be a strong “sword of the Spirit,” wherewith we “wound the dragon.” Even the ten commandments, when written in the heart, and uttered against him, are sufficient to repel the enemy. Against this roaring lion they are like ten weapons such as Samson’s, or ten swords such as Michael’s.

For observe how the blessed Saviour overcame him. The counsel of the tempter was, that Jesus should form stones into bread, and thus, by self-assistance, obtain relief from the pain of hunger. With this insidious and ensnaring counsel there was much, humanly speaking, to induce our Saviour to comply: and could he have done so the work of redemption had been nullified at U once. But he listened to no such counsel. He let the stones remain stones, and suffered his own hunger to continue. What then was it which he so regarded, that he couid not follow the crafty advice of this pretended friend 1 It was the word of God. His inward eye was directed to what is written in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy: he grasps it with steadfast faith, and opposes it to the tempter: “It is written, Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” In this Divine saying, he finds motive enough to suffer another hunger of forty days and nights, or longer, if necessary, rather than forego his Father’s help through any distrustful frowardness. It is as if he had said, “My heavenly Father, who conducted me into this wilderness, can sustain me in it without bread; it is in Him that I trust.” Thus was he armed as with an impervious breast-plate. The enemy was obliged to try another temptation; for the present attempt was utterly unavailing. Any seduction of our Saviour to self assistance for throwing off what, as our Surety, he must needs endure on account of Adam’s transgression, was found hopeless. His faith fed upon the word of God, and he experienced that his heavenly Father could sustain him in the extremest want of nature’s supplies, by a single word which had proceeded out of his mouth. And if we, by the like precious faith, hold fast the word of life, the enemy can gain no advantage over us.

The word of Scripture, with which Jesus baffled the tempter, was uttered by Moses, when, by Divine commission, he reminded the children of Israel at the borders of the promised land, how faithfully and graciously the Lord had conducted them forty years in the wilderness. “He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunoer, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah.” So true is it that the Lord, though he generally employs human means, can sustain his children without them. He has rained bread from the clouds rather than suffered them to famish: and he can send abundant supplies in the night to “his beloved,” even while they sleep, Psa. cxxvii. 2. This he did at the brook Cherith for Elijah, and something like it at Zarephath for the widow’s household; and thus has he done in many other places besides. He has so wrought as to evince that it is not merely his outward staff of bodily bread which supports us; that this is not the thing whereon our life depends; but that it is his word, his will, his blessing, his secret power, accompanying the outward means, that really nurtures, strengthens, and sustains. If the bread we eat become sustenance to us, it is because He hath willed it to be so; and when that is no longer his good pleasure, though we knead and prepare ourselves bread as we please, it nurtures us not, but we pine in the midst of superfluities. From the sustaining power being not in the bread, but only in God’s word and will, we can account for Elijah’s going in the strength of one meal forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God, 1 Kings xix. 7, 8: and for his daily supplying, supporting, and satisfying many a poor family, who for long seasons together have nothing morning or evening except a morsel of dry bread or a few vegetables, and a draught of water. Neither let us imagine that the Lord has need even of these for the support of his people. His simple word, “They shall live,” is sufficient, if it so pleases him. As he sustained Moses on Mount Sinai, and Jesus in the wilderness, without bread, so can he sustain us at present. He has only to speak the word, and the air we breathe could be converted into wine or milk or the most delicious sustenance, and could yield us power and strength in the midst of outward famine and helplessness. Most literally does “man live not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” There have been times of persecution, when thousands of his children have experienced to the very letter the truth of this Divine declaration; his poor believing people are daily experiencing the truth of it at present; and true indeed it is, as the Lord liveth.

Therefore, let every needy soul amongst us lay hold of God’s word as a preservative from fear and faint-heartedness, and as a shield and buckler against all the assaults and temptations of the wicked one. It has seemed good to the blessed God, that many of his dear children amongst us should meet with great temporal embarrassments. They are beginning to want every outward comfort, bread and fuel, work and business; every prospect of credit and success threatens to fail them. They are as in a wilderness, among rocks and stones, and their tears have been their meat day and night. Steal or defraud they cannot; for by Divine grace they are preserved from every thing of the kind. But Satan would gain an advantage against them at once, if the thought could be lodged within them that God had forsaken them, and that they must get out of their difficulties by their own devices; or, were they to admit distrust and anxiety about what they shall eat, what they shall drink, or wherewithal they shall be clothed; or, were they to conclude that God’s providence is intimating through their poverty and distress, that they are at liberty to help themselves by any improper means. Oh put not such a triumph as this into the power of your great adversary, my distressed and perplexed brethren, but stand to your arms, the same which your Master bore against him, and which have hereby received a peculiar sacredness and power. Reply to him in faith, “It 15 written, Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;” for it is a faithful saying, it is truth itself. Hold fiist by it, build upon it every hope: wait, only wait “a little while” in the wilderness, and verily you will find that God has never left you nor forsaken you. There still live some amongst us who have been in greater difficulties than yours. They believed that word without distrust; and in this belief they resolutely withstood the adversary, whenever he approached with his pernicious counsel. They went on hoping in the Lord; and what was the result? Their mouth is now filled with laughter, and their tongue with singing, Psa. cxxvi. 2. They can tell you at this moment that for mountains of gold and silver they would not have been without the experiences they enjoyed during their deprivations in the wilderness; for there they saw the glory of the Lord, and became living witnesses of the truth, that man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. As your Saviour preferred to let the proof of his Sonship rest with his heavenly Father, so may you, my Christian brethren, quietly upon all occasions leave the proof of your adoption to be evinced by the Lord himself He will take care to testify in due time, with respect to those that are his, not perhaps by appointing you an abundance of this world’s good, but by certainly supporting you in whatever destitution you may be. Then shall ye call to the waste places, to the rocks and stones to sing together with yourselves, because He hath prepared you a table in the wilderness, and withotit bread hath sustained you, by the word of grace which proceedeth out of his mouth.

IX. The second assault.

The foregoing: temptation had been frustrated. Satan was probably not yet certain that Jesus was the Son of God, neither had he succeeded to divert him a hair’s-breadth out of his mediatorial course. Therefore a second attack is now resolved on. He “taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple:” not in vision, as some have supposed, but corporeally, as the simple language of the sacred historian plainly intimates. By supernatural means he conveyed him through the air to Jerusalem, and set him upon the flat roof of a lofty wing of the temple.

Jesus stood upon the wing of the temple, and Satan stood beside him. It was a dizzy height. Deep beneath lay the city, and still deeper in the vale beyond, was the brook E^edron, like a silvery streak, hardly perceptible. The adversary continues to wear the appearance of a. cordial friend, professing readiness to make common cause with him; and if he were really the Messiah, the Son of God, as then desiring nothing more earnestly than to see him expedite his work of redemption to an issue. Pointing, therefore, from the fearful height to the thronged courts of the temple and the crowded city below, he addresses him, saying, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down:” as if he had said, “I desire no more than to be assured that thou art the promised Messiah, that I may instantly bow the knee to thee as one of thy ministering angels. I am not the only one that eagerly waits for this disclosure of thy personal dignity. Thou wilt be King and Ruler over a great people, as soon as it shall please thee to manifest thy princely glory. Behold now an opportunity for this. Descend by thy miraculous power visibly at once into the midst of the people; and let such a convincing miracle command from them universal submission to thy majesty and honour. Then wilt thou be as God; and wilt have the requisite assurance that thou art the promised Messiah; and that God hath not forsaken thee, as he seemed to have done in the wilderness.” Such might be the purport of Satan’s present address; and for the better securing of his object he adduces that glorious promise in the 91st Psalm, which unquestionably refers particularly to Christ: “He shall give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Deep was the plot, and the temptation strong; for the deceiver having the appearance of a friendly angelic minister, his purpose seemed pious, good, and suitable. Behold, brethren, your Saviour on the tempting elevation; and Satan inviting him to move but one step forwards, and he shall be “the Lord in the air,” the angels shall bear him softly down below, the people shall shout their hosannas, and Christ become the general object of adoring admiration and attachment. But had such a proposal been complied with, the work of reconciliation had been at once and for ever destroyed; for our Surety would thus have turned aside from the mediatorial way of poverty and emptiness, in opposition to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; and thus the “Lamb” would not have been “without spot,” but blemished with the sin of tempting God; and consequently unmeet for a paschal sacrifice of atonement. How critical then was such a moment of trial! But, praise ye the Lord! Jesus could read the word of God throuoh that veil which Satan had hungr before him. He knew that the angels would bear him up. Was then the Son of God to depart from those ways into others of private choosing, and was he still to look for the Divine power and faithfulness to defend his human person? Far from it; this could never be. His holy soul shrank back with a shudder at the Satanic proposal. One word of Scripture was intended by Satan to confound and ensnare him, but another becomes his shield and defence. He replies, “Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God:” and once more does the enemy meet with a signal discomfiture.

X. Spiritual heights.

In the holy city, in our spiritual Jerusalem, Satan still practises his most cunning crafts and seductive devices; here also he too frequently gains his most signal triumphs. These, of however short duration, he is continually endeavouring to renew, and especially in the holy city. Hence there still abound in it temptations, which resemble those he devised against our Lord himself. The deceits of the adversary are never more active than in alluring us to spiritual heights, which may be compared to the tremendous transportation of Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. The best and happiest condition of the soul on earth is to abide humbly at the feet of Jesus, to be poor in spirit, willing to spend every day with Lazarus at the rich man’s gate or, like the woman of Canaan, to be thankful for the very crumbs which fall from the Master’s table. Then is it well with us; then are we rich; then are we safe. But the wicked one too well knows that this state of mind would defeat his purpose; therefore it is no marvel that he aims at nothing so diligently as to entice the children of God out of their spiritual poverty and lowliness. He has a variety of methods for this purpose; let us here notice some of them.

He comes to you transformed as an angel of light, and takes you up into the holy city, when spreading before the eyes of your mind the gifts and graces, rights and privileges, you partake of as joint-heirs of the kingdom, he brings you easily to imagine yourself more than ordinarily elevated into communion with God and with his holy angels. He then selects for your special notice one of such gifts in particular, and begins to show you what a multitude you possess in this one: how a single gift of the Spirit sanctifies you, enlightens you, leads you into all truth, searches the deep things of God, moves you, conducts you, speaks in you, testifies in and by you: all which may be perfectly true. But he does not stop here; for next he endeavours to persuade you, that the Spirit must surely be able to reveal to you something more, which is but partially or not at all disclosed in the Bible. And now, going farther still, he would have you to regard your own thoughts as suggestions of Divine inspiration. He carries you yet higher, and would persuade you to consider yourself as inspired by God. as one who no longer needs the outward light of the letter, because you possess the inward light of the Spirit. And then, oh the peril! before you are aware, you may be borne up as by enchantment to the pinnacle of the temple. You may feel yourself raised above God’s external word and testimony, above church ordinances, and every thing of the kind.

You may regard all such things, nay, the whole Jerusalem itself of other believers, as far beneath you; and it is only a miracle of omnipotent grace, that you do not turn giddy on such a towering height, and come to some fearful end, perhaps to positive madness. Into delusions of this sort were some of our brethren at N — beguiled not very long ago. They have now quite forsaken all external communion with their brethren; they recognize no church discipline; neither will they be directed by the written word of God, but they appeal to the Spirit within them as testifying other and higher things. There may be true children of God among them, who, as such, will one day see their error and be set right again; but the error itself can never be other than a most mournful and awful one. God preserve us from all such seductions of Satan! Keep a firm hold of the word, my brethren. It is written, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received,” (by the holy Scriptures,) ‘’ let him be accursed;” and again it is written, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.” If we stand to what is “written,” and testify it in faith, this will put the adversary to flight.

But if Satan cannot succeed with us in one way, he will attempt it in another. Christians of every character may be raised by him to the dizzy pinnacle of the temple. Innumerable are the methods by which they are enchanted up.

They may be carried thither by the sweetly soothing notion, that God has revealed to them all mysteries, that he has enlightened them beyond the common lot of teachers and instructors; so that they imagine themselves to have the key of David at command. They may be seduced by their self-imagined treasure of knowledge, and be taken captive by a diabolical interpretation of these words, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things,” 1 John ii. 20. This is no uncommon way in which Satan interprets Scripture, and applies it; so that a man may even come to think himself the man who smites the earth with the sword of his mouth, who rules over minds with the sceptre of his word, and after whom no one dares to speak. To many a Christain his teaching and preaching gifts have, through the devil’s craft, become a snare. Others have grown high-minded by the notion that their state with respect to God was privileged with something extraordinary, that in the kingdom of Christ they must have been placed at least a few degrees higher than other poor sinners. Perhaps their experience of remarkable answers to prayer was made use of by Satan in preparing for them this sweet poison. Others have settled down in the notion that the church cannot well do without them. They have “seemed to be pillars” in it, as apostles and prophets of their day. The blessing with which

God has attended their ministrations in public Or private, has been converted by the devil’s art into a snare by which they have been caught. The adversary has deluded others with the imagination that their own dreams and fancies were Divine visions and disclosures; hence they have ventured to give utterances of their own as if they were oracles of God. Before the mind of others the adversary holds up an enchanted mirror, in which they view themselves as saints encircled with a glory; or the devil sends to them friends who commend, admire, and idolize them as eminent for meekness, patience, faith, and love. Thus they become gradually deluded into the notion, that surely God must have ordained them to be held up as patterns of holiness to the world.

Such are some of the spiritual elevations of which the pinnacle of the temple may remind us. And though persons thus infatuated may think to go no further than to regard themselves as apostles, eminent saints, and prophets, yet if they once suffer themselves to be set upon heights of this sort, they are not unfrequently carried higher still. Neither do all return down again by the regular steps, gently and without injury; but alas! many, after reeling on dizzy heights, plunge at length into the most pernicious depths of heresy. In every age there have been such unhappy persons, who in their own notions have been raised almost to the place of God, so as even to usurp the office of Christ and his Holy Spirit; and all this has been peculiarly experienced in the holy city. Brethren, abide in your Rock, and there remain humble before God. 1 would say this especially to those who are rich in gifts, or “apt to teach;” who are had in reputation among the brethren; who take the lead in Christian societies or communion, or whose light shines with more than common brightness in Zion: for with such persons the dragon easily finds an ear, whereby to seize and carry them off into the heights. Gird on you as a breastplate that word of the Divine oracle, “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Bear it about as an helmet or a diadem, that “whosoever receiveth not the kingdom of God as a little child, he can in no wise enter therein.” Hold fast as a sword in your hand, the word by which you are taught that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” And ever remember that the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys will neither bloom nor even live upon heights and eminences, but far below them. And whenever the devil would urge you to any extravagant or perplexing speculations on mysterious subjects inscrutable to man, or allure you to vain and unprofitable subtleties, — whether to comprehend the dis ^mciion of the Three Persons in the Godhead, or to comprehend the nature of eternity, or the two-fold nature of Christ as God and man, before you will heartily believe such things, — or whether he would allure you to any other lofty heights of divine mysteries, then recollect yourselves, and meet the adversary with that scriptural reply, It is written, “Now we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” Testify to him in the name of Jesus, that you desire not to know more than is necessary to salvation, and good for your own spiritual health: thus will you resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

XL “If thou be a child of God cast thyself DOWN.”

That the enemy readily avails himself of our adoption to put us off our guard against his beguiling us into all kinds of presumptuous and ungodly living, is well known. For instance, he has discovered that you retain some besetting sin in your members, which you have not learned to subdue. He therefore draws you into company or circumstances, whereby no sooner is the lust stirred afresh, than opportunity is given for its gratification: and thus you are on the brink of a precipice. “Cast thyself down,” whispers the devil; but you are disposed to flee from it. “Stay, stay,” is the suggestion; “it is so pleasant in the vale below.” You strive against it. “Cast thyself down!” is forced upon you louder than before; and though you tremble at the danger, you have not the self-denial to turn away from it at once: but you feel as if detained by enchantment. “Cast thyself down!” continues the adversary; “you are a child of God, and may safely reckon upon pardon and recovery.” Such are his suggestions; and if God prevent not, your plunge is certain. Take another instance: you are naturally irritable, and something of a provoking kind said or done by those about you, puts your feelings in a tumult. You are disposed to resent it, but you are in doubt whether you may venture to do so; and now you are at the precipice. “Cast thyself down!” cries the devil; “you are God’s child, and children of God are not to compromise with such low and carnal people; evince like a man, your zeal for what is right and becoming.” Such a thought is no sooner suggested than you may be instantly urged by violent displeasure to use harsh and unbecoming language, and add sin to sin.

As the adversary proposed that the Messiah’s Divine Sonship should be proved in a way contrary to the Divine will, by an arbitrary descent from the pinnacle of the temple, so he often endeavours to insinuate proposals of a similar kind into the minds of true believers. Thus he whispers, “There are certain persons of your Christian acquaintance who regard you as at best but a babe in Christ; certainly they account you no experienced Christiaiij if a Christian at all. Give them proof that their suspicions are groundless. Let them clearly see what you are.” Then it is high time to take the sword of the Spirit against the tempter, and to meet him with the word, “The Lord knoweth them that are his;” and here to let the matter rest. But too often on such occasions precious souls are beguiled into a wrong track; one uttering shameful untruths, by boasting of spiritual experiences which have never been his own; another improperly assuming an elevated spiritual devotion, to which the Lord alone can raise the heart; another unwarrantably professing to have an unction from the Holy One, though it has never been bestowed upon him for the occasion; another committing fatal excesses, by doing, from his own spirit, things which he would have others regard as done by the teaching and direction of the Holy Ghost. What can be greater abominations in the sight of God than these? And how scornfully may the adversary triumph, when he has succeeded in precipitating sincere Christians into such mire and impurity!

“Cast thyself down,” said the devil to our blessed Lord; and perhaps gave as a reason for it, that Christ might thereby speed the accomplishment of the Divine purposes. Satan’s purpose would have been answered, could he have excited in the soul of the Lord Jesus, a momentary feeling of impatience at the slow advancement of his great work of redemption. And oh! how sedulous is he to provoke true believers to such impatience; how eagerly would he stimulate them to perfect their holiness in a hurry, by exercises of voluntary humility and will-worship; and to aim, by rapid strides, at high and eminent degrees of sanctity! How prompt is he in this respect to cry unto them, “Cast yourselves down, and take the shortest way!” For the crafty adversary knows full well, that to advance in such a way is only to retrograde, it being a departure from the throne of grace, and from the blood of the Lamb; and that in any way of our own choosing, no angels bear us up in their hands: that our feet must inevitably be dashed against a stone, and that we can settle down in nothing but falsehood, gloominess, pride, and self-complacency. Are the persons he would assault, ministers and witnesses of the truth? How vigilant is he to observe, whether they account the time tedious, till God crowns their labours with success; and how diligently does he foment this impatience in their hearts, and cry out unto them, “Cast thyself down!” What a gratification to him is it when they follow this advice; as, when with passionate heat and false fire of their own, they set about forcing the conversion of souls committed to their chargfe: when, with mere carnal raving, they would drive their flocks as by the force of a tempest, into the covert of the kingdom of God, and invent a girdle, an unctionj and a rod of God for themselves, because he has not bestowed such things upon them. All this is quite a triumph to the adversary, for he knows that now they have no chance of success; because the Holy Spirit will not acknowledge such blind zeal of our own. Those whom he is pleased to make use of as his instruments are as broken vessels in their own esteem, and abide patiently in the Lord their God; suffering themselves to be led, incited, carried, managed, and governed, as to Him shall seem good. These will speed far better. ‘’He that believeth shall not make haste,” Isa. xxviii. 16. No violence of man can be of any service here.

XII. God’s word as Satan’s -weapon.

The devil, in desiring Jesus to cast himself down, asked “a hard thing.” And yet the children of God have been enabled to do greater things than this. Peter courageously stepped out of the boat, and walked upon the troubled waters to go to Jesus; and the three worthies mentioned in the book of Daniel, walked boldly in the midst of Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace: nor did either of the parties suffer loss or harm. The promises which God hath given us are exceeding broad, so that any thing and every thing may be ventured upon them; and that Divine assurance which Satan adduced with a show of piety, to move Jesus to compliance, is far from being one of the strongest to be met with in the sacred records. Doubtless the angels are commissioned to bear us in their hands. They are given as an escort and body guard, on whose constant attendance and protection we are allowed cheerfully to reckon “in all our ways,” provided they are the ways of God’s appointing. Jesus therefore could have safely cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple by virtue of the promise referred to; but he did it not; and why not? Why did he prefer descending in the natural way, by the staircase of the building? Because the other way was not Divinely pointed out to him. Satan’s proposal was no sooner uttered than the Divine commandment was present to show, that the promise was never given for ways of our own choosing. Therefore, if Satan could say. It is written, “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee,” Jesus could turn upon him with an equivalent weapon, and infinitely more to the purpose could reply, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

What is it to tempt Him? It is to run of our own will into danger, that God may deliver us from it. To such vain and frivolous steps is the devil ever ready to seduce us, and for this purpose he has by rote the most powerful promises of Scripture, wherewith to din the mind, if possible, into compliance. Therefore, my brethren, whenever a Divine promise is suggested to us, as an encouragement to any adventurous undertaking, let us be careful to inquire whether such promise was ever intended to meet a case like ours, and whether the circumstances we are in, give us any right to be encouraged by it. We shall thus perceive who it is that suggests it to us, and Satan will not so easily beguile us through his subtlety. Should it be suggested to you to venture out to sea in storm and danger, because you descry some person in great peril of a watery grave; and should you feel encouraged at such a moment by that Divine promise, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;” or if, when you see a house on fire, it is suggested to you to ascend it amidst smoke and flame, because there is a child still left in it, who must otherwise quickly perish; and God’s promise, “Fear not, I am with thee;” “when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned,” occurs to your mind; or if there is a cry in your heart, ‘• Give to that poor starving person the last farthing you possess,” for it is written, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me;” then, brother, venture in God’s name, to go and do thus! It is a good angel that talketh with thee, and thou mayest be confident of God’s ‘’ very present help.” But if another invite thee saying, Come with me, friend, and let us have no scruple about joining a merry party; for you know the Bible says, The Lord keepeth the feet of his saints;” or if you have it suggested to you “to forbear working” in the path of duty, at whatever requires your diligence and perseverance; if you are thus invited to keep a holiday, because it is written, “The Lord giveth to his beloved sleeping;” then know that it is the crafty and old serpent that is now interposing. Answer him, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God 1”

There are many devices of Satan, which are formed in this way of wresting and misapplying the word of God: and a very pernicious one is that whereby he would instigate us to try if some special promise of Scripture may not be fulfilled to our sensible experience; which is to put to the test or torture, the faithfulness and truth of God. A horrible piece of folly of the kind is said to have been committed by some professed Christians, who met together to test by their own arbitrary notions, the truth of our bless, ed Saviour’s promise in Matt, xviii. 20, ‘• Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” This promise the adversary held up before them, and indorsed it with another, aUke wrested from the Scriptures of truth: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven,” Matt, xviii. 19. His suggestion then was, Can it be even so?” Therefore those persons thought they would try to ascertain it, and they appointed an hour for meeting together to pray that the Lord would personally appear to them. They met, and cried, “O Lord, hear us. O liOrd, hear us! manifest thyself, and appear in the midst of us!” But the Lord appeared 7io! The adversary however triumphed, and the mischief sped. Afterward the Lord may be said to have appeared indeed but in a different way from what those persons had expected: for he suffered leanness to come upon their souls; his special blessing seemed withdrawn; neither light nor joy nor peace in believing did they enjoy during the rest of their days; but they evinced such spiritual declension, and then such a decided falling away, as none of their fellow-Christians could prevent. May God by his grace preserve us from ever attempting thus to try his faithfulness and truth. Let the least thought of the kind be regarded as a certain sign that all is not right within us; and let us cry against it, and against its infernal prompter, as earnestly as possible, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

One of the most common deceits of Satan is to make use of some part of the word of God itself, to beget in us a distrust of the rest. Strange things have God’s children to encounter in this way. Thus “in a moment of time” will Satan bring before us a number of biblical, but comparatively insignificant circumstances; as that of Paul writing to Timothy to bring with him the cloak that he left at Troas; and, holding up this, and similar passages to our notice, he will ask maliciously, “Can such be the words of inspiration? If not, surely the whole volume of Scripture is not inspired.” He now inquires more boldly, “Which passages are inspired, and which are not?” in order to hurry us to his own conclusion, that “the Bible is loose ground to build upon.” And indeed, by juggling of this sort, he is sometimes but too successful for a while, in pulling down the whole fabric of Scripture testimony about us, and burying us in confusion and uncertainty, till we can recollect ourselves. Not seldom will he bring suddenly to our remembrance some Divine declaration or promise, just at the moment of any occurrence that seems to confront and contradict such a part of the. Divine word. For instance, are you in some great affliction, or perplexing trial, and ready to despair because no relief nor help arrives? The Divine saying, of which he will then remind you, is such as this, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;” and then with a scornful smile will he suggest, ‘’ Where is now that Father? And his pity to his children, where is it in your own case?” And nothing will gratify him so much as to see your soul hereby defiled with despondency, unbelief, and impatience. When you have long supplicated and wrestled in prayer, whether it be for bread for your starvino family, or for direction in some great perplexity, or for a little relief and repose from bodily pain, or for one drop of consolation in anguish of mind, and you are still obliged to wait, the adversary will be at hand with his suggestion,” It is written, hatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you :*’ and he will inquire, What benefit in your present affliction have you, with all your pious prayers, derived from that promise? Here then, except the Lord keep the citadel of your faith, some fiery dart of the wicked is likely to wound you.

The most dancrerous manner in which Satan can employ the word of God as a weapon against us, is as follows: Having forced a saying of Scripture away from the context, he will interpret it so apart from its connexion and true application, that you may be led by it into presumption. Here, if any where, it is necessary to meet him with plain Scripture, and to use it as the sword of the Spirit. If he allege, It is written, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” Rom. v. 20, therefore give the rein to your lusts; we must reply to him, It is also written, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. vi. 1, 2. Does he suggest, It is written, Rom. vii. 17, “Now then it is no more 1 that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;” therefore be easy, and not so concerned about your faults; let him be answered with, It is written again, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. vii. 24. When the children of God groan with their burdens of indwelling sin, then also is Satan ready with his citation of Scripture, saying, “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,” Rom. ix. 16; therefore go more into the world, or go on in it, and wait till God effectually calls you off from it. Our answer to such perversions of Scripture must be, It is also writtten, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,” Phil. ii. 12, 13. Does the subtle adversary suggest, that it is written, “Known unto God are all his works, from the beginning of the world,” Acts xv. 18; therefore you may leave oiF praying and supplicating, for your fixed condition is allotted you; and what you are to receive, you will certainly receive, whether you pray or not? Then reply. It is written again, “Ask. and it shall be given you — for every one that asketh receiveth,” Luke xi. 9, 10. Does the old serpent, perverting those words of our Lord, “This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day,’’ insinuate, that consequently you may live on as you please, and enjoy whatsoever your soul lusteth after; that let the law of Moses remonstrate as it will, you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation? Cry out, my brethren, in reply to every insinuation of the kind, Again it is written, “My sheep hear my voice, and 1 know them, and they follow me,” John x. 27. Thus will you disarm the adversary; thus, in the strength of our God, you will triumph over him, and make a show of him openly, Col. ii. 15.

XIII. The ENCHANTING VISION.

The scene of action is now changed. The Son of God, by the power granted to Satan over his human person, is suddenly transferred from the pinnacle of the temple to the top of “an exceeding high mountain.” By the same power, Satan here presents to Christ’s human soul, the vision of unbounded scenery over the face of the globe; for this seems to be implied in the words, “he showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.” As quickly as we can turn round, were all the kingdoms of this world shown to him in the field of vision, with every particular of their glory, pomp, pleasure, and decoration: and herein whatever scene was most alluring to human nature passed before him. The restrictions of what we call time and space, were done away: objects however remote, or concealed, were thus in effect near, unveiled, and disclosed, “in a moment of time.” This was an amazing sleight of Satan, and shows what he is capable of doing, if the Lord permit him. The fairest regions of the earth became opened to the view, and presented an enchanting panorama of the finest countries and most splendid palaces. Here, was stately Rome, the mistress of the world, the lady of kingdoms; there, the spicy hills of the east, with Persia’s lovely gardens; Ophir, with its mines of gold, and stores of diamonds; and India, that wonderful land, glowing in the coloured adornings of perpetual spring, and flowing with milk and honey. But not only whole empires and cities, innumerable other objects of every kind are now presented also; not only the kingdoms of this world, but the glory of them. Whatever earth affords to invite and attract, whatever, as delightful and captivating to the senses, the children of this world regard as their paradise, is exhibited in full view. Villags listening in elysian pleasure grounds; state, pomp and equipage, with every variety of courtly circumstance; galleries of art and schools of wisdom: laurels of fame and monuments of renown; sumptuous banquets in imperial saloons; festal crowds listening to magic symphony and enrapturing chorus; all that makes the heart of worldlings leap, that fires every nerve, and enraptures every eye, was exhibited in the liveliest manner before the human soul of Jesus; and God only knoweth what that pure human soul must have had to witness. No spectacle of pleasure, no senseintoxicating scene, would Satan left undisclosed to the view of our blessed and most holy Lord.

Not unlike this is the experience sometimes of many Christian brethren. Those who are of a fervid temperament and lively imagination, can tell of similar fascinations. The adversary is the readier to practise them upon persons of this description, because their natural love of excitement and the vividness of their sensations seem to promise him a surer triumph; indeed, he is often far too successful in bearing their spirits up to his enchanting heights. For this purpose he commonly employs some outward means. These he will gather, for instance, from the fine arts, as they are every where abused to worldliness and the pleasures of sin. Thus at one time it is a beautiful picture, at another the witcheries of poetry, at another, the sweetness of melody, or the sublimity of musical composition, whereby he dissolves their spiritual firmness. Sometimes, if only some sweet mazy melody softly undulating from a distance, be listened to, as one sits musing in the soUtary chamber, his sorcery may prove successful. For now, as if created by his mighty fiat, will a new paradise of entrancing felicity suddenly arise in the imagination, and the soul is transported into an earthly heaven, as through a veil suddenly rent in twain. Youthful delights, and some of them not the most innocent, to which we had long ago bidden a final farewell, re-appear in all their strength and freshness; and forbidden gratifications, to which perhaps we had been for years crucified and dead, re-invite in their most attractive form, in their most captivating power of allurement. Here, hang wreaths of that glory, which fadeth away, but how honourable and desirable do they again seem to our imagination! There, the merry faces of old worldly friends, around the loaded board of their hospitalities and luxuries, seem so to have revived, that we even hear again the loud laugh pealing at the raillery or ambiguous witticism of their remarks; and perhaps in our very solitude we are excited to join the loud laugh once more. Are not unholy sympathies on such occasions rekindled within us, and often indulged, so as to supersede for awhile all relish of spiritual things? In such a state of mind, perhaps, are unfolded to our imagination the scenes of mirth and song, where the harp resounds to the dance, and all is animation and mirth; or our thoughts may flit over the enchanted meads and rosy bowers of lovely poesy, and in either manner be equally carried away. In a word, whatever of this world is beautiful or valuable, may in a moment captivate the fancy, enchain the thoughts, and seduce the heart. Trifling as such things may at first appear, a train of sin may commence from them; the soul may hereby become untuned for converse with God and things divine, and the most lamentable consequences may ensue. Here are conditions of mind that may easily befall you; and when they doj you may consider it as the devil showing you the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, in a moment of time. For this very reason are the musical entertainments of the present day so dangerous a snare, because they are so available to the adversary for seducing us to declivities of sensual delusion. The symphonies and melodies, the concerts and operas, which are the charm of the world, serve, with him at least, as a powerful spell for transforming the perishable and worthless glories of this earth into an imaginary bliss, that supersedes all real delight in the present, and prospective glory of God’s kingdom. Even real Christians of considerable experience have confessed, that music, apostatized music, severed as it is from the service of God and inspired only by the spirit of the world, has at times so irresistibly fascinated them, that like persons infatuated, they have been half ready to

regret having been brought out of Egypt, and have almost envied the children of this world — if not their “drunkenness, revellings, and such like,” yet at least their more refined and reputable enjoyments. Music frequently is one of the wings with which the adversary fledges the imagination of human souls, that they may be carried off to those mountains of enchantment where the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, appear invested with fascinations and splendours that dissipate every thing like spirituality, generate false security, amuse with dreams of sublunary bliss, foster sensuality and all manner of excess, and, if almighty grace prevent not, decide the soul’s course to irretrievable perdition.

XIV. Satan’s demand and promise.

At the moment when, by the working of Satan, the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, were presented to our Saviour’s eye, the adversary, in spite of himself, and of his aflectation of majesty and dignity, begins to betray his real character. For as if he had now forgotten his long-accustomed art of dissimulation, he addresses him, saying, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine,” Luke iv. 6, 7. Here, then, the devil claimed as his own, the power and glory of the world. How dreadful, and yet alas, how true, that the whole world lieth in the wicked one! Thus the father of lies himself spake truth for once; for by the righteous sentence of God, the whole world is actually in the hands of Satan. Satan still remains at present “the prince of this world,” John xii. 31; xiv. 30; xvi. 11; yea, “the god of this world,” 2 Cor. iv. 4; for the vast majority of souls upon earth still remain willing slaves to his yoke. The greatest number of countries pay him tribute, and his dark banners wave on the ramparts of most cities. Who can number the hundreds of millions whose souls he secures in his manifold chains, in the bands of sin and ignorance, in countless spiritual prisons and cells, under Mohammedan imposture, or in pagan idolatry; in the strong delusions of the Talmud, or under the dogmas of the seven hills; in Heavendefying rationalism, pantheism, or atheism. Surely without any arrogant claim Satan might say, “All this is mine!” For the little which is not his, the “lodge in the garden of cucumbers,” the “worm Jacob,” the despised handful of Israel, is, as compared to the giant domains of this prince of fallen angels, but as a drop to the ocean. What is there in the whole world that the devil has not usurped for the extension and establishment of his kingdom, and made subservient, especially in the present age, to his infernal plans? Are not most of our pulpits and professional chairs still his? May not the same be said of the greater part of our public journals and newspapers? Are not our assemblies, associations, and clubs, chiefly devoted to his service? And which of the sciences or of the fine arts is exempt from perversion to his interests? Almost every thing in the world has he contrived to draw by little and little into subservience to his cause. Who deals out poetry in that deluge of romance and comedy which inundates the world with millions of infidel falsehoods, and unholy ideas? Who is the invisible manager and conductor of those sensual operas, elysian concerts, and other entertainments, whereby music, that gift bestowed to praise withal the perfections of Jehovah, stands prominent as the destroyer of souls, because it is now made to breathe subtle poison into human hearts? Who is it that has stationed his camp behind the ramparts of modern philosophy and aims from thence to inflict the most wicked and deadly blows on the gospel of peace? Who is it that has schemed and palmed upon Christendom that fashionable modern religion sweetened with effeminate taste, and spiced with lax and godless morality, which lulls people into a deep spiritual slumber, from which but too late the thunder of judgment will awaken them? From whom does all this originally proceed but from the father of lies, the old serpent, the dragon of the bottomless pit? Nor let us be surprised that he even speaks of “giving” what is certainly within the compass of his power: “All these things will i give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” There are gifts Satanical as well as gifts Divine; and the world has always abounded with persons who have owed their enjoyments, treasures,

honours, titles, and rank, to Satanical ministration or superintendence. For our great adversary has always his pay and his prize-money in readiness for any who will follow his banner, and he has various methods of handsomely renumerating their zeal in his service. Nor is it uncommon for God to permit his putting into the possession of worldly and abandoned persons such an abundance of the enjoyments and glory of this world, such large and fat pastures of fleshly delight, that at length almost the last trace of what is human becomes effaced in these vessels of wrath, and they go on their way to destruction, as the ox ffoeth to the slaughter, Phil. iii. 19. “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” What a proposal! that the Son of the living God should be solicited to bow the knee of adoration to “the old serpent!” The blasphemous demand, audacious as it was, we hardly know how to reconcile with the craft and subtlety of the devil, till we have considered the desperate and infatuated state to which he had arrived. He felt his assumed veil of angelic light gliding from off him, and he presaged with a painful certainty who the Person was with whom he had undertaken to contend. The decided triumphs which the Lord had already obtained over his most refined and subtle artifices, permitted him no longer to doubt that the Holy Person he tempted was the very Messiah, the Only Begotten of the Father. The prospect, therefore, of dangers now threatening the dominion he had so long maintained, put him to no little embarrassment. Thus, impetuous hate dictating his last decisive stroke, his recollection is impeded by passion, and his usual wise self-possession is lost in the waves of despair raging horribly within him. Indeed it was not till he was assured respecting the person of his antagonist, that he became conscious of the whole importance and eventfulness of the conflict, and that one or the other must fall. Yet this his last assault, great as is the art and power displayed in it, was the worst conducted. It was like the impetuosity of a combatant giving up all for lost, who blindly rushes upon the point of his enemy’s sword. Satan here appears to have hoped for nothing more than to outrage the Messiah’s dignity, by the most insulting refusal to acknowledge it. In this desperation he displays the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, saying, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

From the circumstance of Christ’s refusing to exhibit those miraculous proofs of his Messiahship which Satan had required, it is possible that the devil had imagined him to be, not the God-man, but only some great and holy person merely human, upon whom, therefore, he could still make some further demand, and whom he could approach in a more undisguised and unreserved manner. But the explanation already given appears far the more probable. As, therefore, the present demand of Satan was an act of desperation, so it was probably rather a sudden ebullition of blasphemous rage and diabolical scorn than a plotted temptation. Christ’s faithful followers have in every age been assaulted in much the same manner. Their souls have had to recoil at the most horrible and impious requirements, and to shrink at many a thought so blasphemous and dreadful, that they shudder even to remember it. But be of good courage, my tried and tempted brethren. Consider, that though the devil may rage against you with these buffeting and onsets, it is because of his vexation and chagrin, at knowing that he never shall be able finally to prevail or have dominion over you. Regard, therefore, such temptations as nothing more than the impotent resentments of a disabled adversary, who, because he is no match for you with sword or stratagem, would fain pelt you with stones and mire to display his insolence and give vent to his rage.

XV. The issue of the conflict.

The blasphemous demand, grounded on the glory and pleasure which Satan had the effrontery to offer, had now very evidently betrayed the character of its agent. Were these the good things which Satan had to bestow, and did he even require homage and adoration for them? Jesus knew him. The holy soul of our unblemished High-Priest turns away with disdain and abhorrence from the imagery of vanity and lust which Satan had presented to him. The majesty of the Only Begotten, to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, breaks forth like the sun from behind a cloud, and utters, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou Shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only Shalt thou serve.” The devil was silenced; the conflict ended for a season; and the Lamb of God came forth triumphantly, pure and without spot. By his own obedience of faith in the written word, he vanquished the tempter.

Similar temptations are still not uncommon. Even the holiest persons have had to acknowledge that there are seasons when manifold pleasures, possessions, and relative circumstances, to which they had considered themselves, through the grace of God, long ago dead, have suddenly revived in the most attractive form to their imagination, and that the senses and worldly lusts of our fallen nature have thus again been stirred to a very dangerous degree. For at such seasons the devil leaves no means untried for making the soul his victim once more. He suddenly and surprisingly suggests, before we have time to recollect ourselves, what is much the same as if he said, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” It is only some little difficulty that we have to surmount, or some little compliance that we have to make, in order to become possessed of glories and golden mountains, honours, riches, and pleasures. It is only a little deviation from rectitude, which no human being perhaps may know of, only some slight and momentary act of homage to be paid to the wicked one, and then all is ours. O my beloved brethren, the foils of David and of Solomon are not the only instances in which God’s children have yielded such obeisance to the devil for the sake of a single draught from the intoxicating cup of sin. Now, in whatever manner this may have been done, we pity our brethren who have submitted to the degradation; we despise them not. Our own heart tells us very plainly what we are in ourselves, how attractive to us the things of the world can be made to appear, and with what beguiling charms the adversary can disguise its vanities and lusts. We know it, and therefore we pray every hour, “Lord, lead us not into temptation!”

And who can doubt that it is a temptation from the wicked one, whe!i we are plied with such enchanting visions and shameless demands? The very nature of those possessions and enjoyments so plausibly offered to us, and especially the ways and means proposed to us for their attainment, betray their author. jHere he cannot be said to come to us as an angel of light; therefore in so far is our conflict the less difficult. And yet we do not quit the field without receiving some wound. Werarely, if ever, turn away from the world’s fascinations without some stir of unholy desire: nay, it is well if we do not depart from the conflict naked and wounded; and why? because the weapon with which Jesus so easily repelled the tempter is not employed by ourselves on every similar occasion. We do not insist enough that it is written, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” This word embraced as the word of God, and used in faith, will make the strongest darts as stubble; and the enemy beholdmg the lightning of this armour flashing from ourbosoms,^oses all hope of persuading us to the smallest compliance, or the least act of homage.

“Then the devil leaveth him; and, behold, ano-els came and ministered unto him.” Such wa’s the final issue of that great and eventful conflict with Satan, who never went away m more confusion, discomfiture and chagrm, than now from the most dreaded enemy of his kmgdom. To be so totally defeated, was as intolerable to him as it was unusual. Like a dark thunder-cloud of night driven away by tempestuous winds, so did he depart in wrath and despair, ready to call on the mountains to fall on him, and the hills to cover him, and hide from him the heavens above, and the abyss beneath, that he might no longer hear the halleluiahs of heaven, nor the murmurs of hell, at his ignominious overthrow.

As for our blessed Lord, it was well with him: oh how well, after forty days of dreadful destitution in a wilderness, amidst the powers of darkness, (for during the whole forty days, as St. Luke informs us, was he tempted,) to find himself restored at once to his own element, amidst the affectionate and reverend ministrations of holy angels of God! Now, indeed, was fulfilled what Jacob had prophetically uttered on his death-bed, “Judah is a young lion; thou hast become exalted, my son, by great victory. He kneeled down, and he reposed as a lion, yea, as a lioness; who shall rise against him?” Gen. xlix. 9. But this “repose “was not the grand termination of the conflict; it was only a brief suspension.” Satan,” as St. Luke relates,” departed from him for a season,’’^ Luke iv. 13. It was not long before he exerted his utmost against him, continuing to persecute him by stratagem and war, till at length the mighty Captain of our salvation, by his death upon the cross, wrested the dominion for ever from his hands. No sooner had the blood of the Lamb of God been shed upon the accursed tree, than the head of the old serpent was bruised for ever.

Our own Christian life, too, my brethren, can throughout be no other than a conflict. We shall have in this our wilderness some days of respite and even of jubilee; but the complete uninterrupted sabbath can only be beyond. While sojourning in these frail tabernacles, we must ever be exposed to the assaults of the adversary. Though his power is efiectually broken, still he will not cease in this world to make us feel his “great wrath,” and hatred, in various ways. But “fear none of these things,” my brethren. Rejoice rather with thankfulness unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus

Christ. All the triumphs obtained by our Surety become our own by faith. In Him we already anticipate the final triumph. We triumph in Christ in the midst of the conflict, and in the arms of death. At our latter end, if not before, we are found more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Oh the blessedness of this truth, and the blessedness of that faith which receives it! Wherever such a faith lives, courage will not be wanting to stand in the evil day; for though in the heat of trial we may droop for a moment, yet will the feeble knees be quickly reinvigorated by such a faith as this. Happy then art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, a people SAVED by THE LoRD, who is the shield of thine help, and the sword of thy victorious excellency? Thine enemies shall fail in their assaults on thee; but thou shalt walk at liberty upon their high places! Deut. xxxiii. 29. Amen.