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The Temptation of Christ.
I SEE no more Thy Cross, O holy Slain!
I hear no more the horror and the coil
Of the great world's turmoil.
Feeling Thy countenance too still,-nor yell
Of demons sweeping past it to their prison.
The skies that turn'd to darkness with Thy pain
Make now a summer's day;
And on my changed ear that Sabbath bell
Records how CHRIST IS RISEN.'
Mrs. E. B. Browning (The Seraphim.
Oн, whence has it come, and what can it be,
That so strangely and dimly troubles mc?
I yearn so much to-night to rest
My weak heart on some loving breast:
Something has stolen my man's heart away,
And given me a little child's again;
And so softly and strangely it droops and aches,
I know not if it be pleasure or pain:
But I long for some heart as troubled and weak,
To sweeten the pleasure or soothe the pain.'
William Fulford, M.A. (Longings).
'THAT men would be better than they are if they always chose good in-
stead of evil, is evident. But that they would be better, or indeed, could
have a rational existence, if they had not the power of choosing evil instead
of good, is the most foolish and presumptuous of fancies.'
John Sterling (Thoughts and Images).
THE PRINCE OF LIGHT
AND
THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS
In Conflict
OR
THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
Newly Translated, Explained, Illustrated, and Applied,
BY THE
REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART
FIRST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, KINROSS;
AUTHOR OF 'JESUS, MIGHTY TO SAVE, OR CHRIST FOR ALL THE WORLD, AND ALL
THE WORLD FOR CHRIST,' 'SMALL SINS,' ETC., EDITOR OF THE
WORKS, WITH MEMOIR, OF RICHARD SIBBES, D.D.
· If's Gotteswerk, so wird's beſtehen,
If's Menschenwerk, wird's untergehen.›
4
Is it God's work, 'twill always stay,
Is it man's work, 'twill pass away.'
Inscription on the Statue of Luther at Wittenberg.
LONDON
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21, BERNERS STREET.
1864.
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE,
PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
AUTHOR OF
ΤΟ
MY DEAR FRIENDS
THE REV. CHARLES STANFORD,
CAMBERWELL, LONDON,
POWER IN WEAKNESS: MEMORIALS OF THE REV. W. RHODES ;
C CENTRAL TRUTHS;' ETC. ETC.
AND
THE REV. JAMES CULROSS, M. A.,
<
STIRLING,
AUTHOR OF LAZARUS REVIVED,' ETC.
BELOVED FOR THEIR OWN AND FOR THEIR BOOKS' SAKE
THIS VOLUME
IS
WITH TRUE AFFECTION
DEDICATED:
The God of ALL grace, Who hath called us unto His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make
you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.'-1 PETER V. 1O.
A. B. G.
'SAY as a holy man did, who sat and wept, and said when he was told that
one of his brethren had fallen into mortal sin, “Ille hodie, ego cras;” “Alas!
he was strongly tempted before he thus fell,-as he fell to-day, so," quoth
he, "I may to-morrow."
The Ancren Bewle, p. 227.
'Fools are stubborn in their way,
As coin are harden'd by the alloy;
And obstinacy's ne'er so stiff,
As when 'tis wrong in a belief.'
Hudibras, in. ii. 680.
Libri
Feb.13, 1925EM
Galloway + Porter
1-20-25
11215
PREFACE.
Now they that like it may: the rest may chuse.'-
GEORGE WITHER,
THE present volume is a portion-related, yet in-
dependent, and so separable-of a Book to which, if
God spare me, I should wish to give some of my
best years and most deliberate thought, and then
offer it as a contribution to the Theological Litera-
ture of my Church and Country.
Ever since I could observe and exchange my obser-
vations with others, it has seemed to me that the
prevalent notions of the Being who is variously desig-
nated in our English Bible, the Devil, the Tempter,
Satan, Beelzebub, the Prince of the power of the air,
and the like, are of the most bewildered and con-
tradictory kind, taking their 'form and pressure' in
part—perhaps in the larger and innermost part-from
heathenistic tradition, and in part from the splendid
nonsense of Paradise Lost.
I have used the word 'contradictory' as best ex-
pressing a phenomenon with which all who have
taken heed to the matter must have been struck, viz.,
that in the vulgar conceptions of the EVIL ONE, there
is a combination of the grand with the ludicrous, an
viii
Preface.
awful reverence or fright with the grotesquest humour,
which, if not overlooked, has been left unexplained,
alike in Theology and Philosophy.
I can remember very well that among the puzzles
of my earliest thinking was this very thing: how to
account for the levity of speech about the Devil of
those around me, side by side with their professed
belief of the Bible revelations, so awsome, solemn,
and real. And surely it is an inquiry worth-while,
Whence the two sets of ideas? Whence the inevit-
ably ludicrous associations with the names 'Devil'
and 'Satan,' etc.? The transmutation of tremendous
and sacred words after this sort, is, as I take it, pro-
foundly suggestive.
6
I am not aware that in our own, or in any other
language, there exists anything like a worthy, that is
adequate, out-thinking of this subject AS A WHOLE;
by whole' meaning all belonging to it, outside as
well as inside of Revelation, early and present, heathen
and Christian and anti-Christian, in Religions, semi-
Religions, Mythologies, Traditions, Legends, Super-
stitions, Philosophies, Language, Literature, and Art.
I have set it before myself to try to write such
a Book, and if I at all approximate to my ideal, I
indulge the hope that not only will many portions of
the Word of God be therein rescued from the unholy,
and not less illogical and reasonless, scorn of 'science,
falsely so called,' and made 'profitable,' but likewise
light shed upon departments of the philosophy of the
Preface.
ix
human mind, and processes of thought and belief, of
the last interest and momentousness.
It is my purpose, too, to bring together all of value
which others have written, wherever I can find it :
from the earliest Classics of Paganism on to the
Christian Fathers and Schoolmen, and through the
Divines, Church and Puritan, orthodox and heretic,
-Philosophers and Poets and Scholars.
I need hardly say that throughout it will be my
aim to be thorough and at same time reverent. I
intend no mere light-literature or sensation-book.
For the present-because of an anticipated interval
of a good number of years, if they be given me—I
print this bit of my intended Book. Originally pre-
pared while I was a student of divinity, as what we
in Scotland call a 'lecture,' and used by me when I
was what again we call a 'probationer,' and subse-
quently delivered to my own congregation and else-
where it has grown upon me tenfold, and has again
and again been urgently asked for the press. Indeed,
ancient John Udall's reasons for publishing his 'Com-
bate,' as well as his method in preparing what he had
preached for the press, are very much mine. Says
he to Henry, Earl of Huntingdon : 'For so much as
an experience both of the subtiltie of our enemie in
our afflictions, and also of the meanes how to beate
him backe, is to be seene in those Temptations of our
Sauiour Christ in the wildernesse, because I hauing in
my ordinary course preached uppon the same, and
X
Preface.
diuers who receiued present comfort thereby (beying
desirous to have the continuall use of the doctrine
delivered out of them) desiring me to pen the same ;
I condiscended unto their desire, and (as neare as I
could remember) haue set them downe as they were
spoken: sauyng onely that in some particular applica-
tions [and explications] I have had regarde in writtyng
unto those to whose handes they may come, as in speak-
ing I respect myne auditorie.'¹
For the reasons assigned in my 'Prefatory Note
to a former volume- Small Sins'-I retain the origi-
nal form of a spoken address; and while I have intro-
duced throughout, new lines of thought and fresh
illustrations and applications, until my Lecture is
now a Treatise,-I have endeavoured to retain also its
popular and practical character.
It may be as well to state that various points
that will fall to be thoroughly discussed in my larger
Book, e.g., the temptableness of our Lord, the Person-
ality and Bible-names of the Tempter, together with
his attributes and agency, the modus or method of
the successive Temptations, the scenes and sites of
them, the apparent discrepancies in the narratives as
severally contained in St. Matthew, St. Mark, and
St. Luke, and other things cognate,-are necessarily
but lightly and slightly touched upon in the present
volume.2
1 The Combate betwixt Christ and the Deuill. By John Udall. Epistle
Dedicatorie. [1596.]
2 With regard to discrepancies, real or apparent, here or elsewhere in
Preface.
xi
There will be found in the footnotes and appendix-
notes and illustrations-the latter being referred to,
as in my other volumes, in the body of the book by
the letters (a) (b) etc.— such critical remarks addressed
to other than merely English-reading readers as I
could not conveniently postpone, but which they may
pass over; or perhaps they will get their pastor or
other friend to explain them. These Notes and
Illustrations include likewise not a few wise, true, and
precious words from the elder as well as more recent
writers who have in full, or incidentally, treated of the
Temptation of the Lord.
I had designed to add to my Exposition of the
Temptation several Sermons which, in their measure,
complete the inquiry; as (1.) On the Darkness around
the Cross; (2). from 1 John iii. 8: For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the Devil;' (3.) from Rev. xix. 21: 'I
'
Holy Scripture, it is well to take the counsel of an old Scottish divine,-John
Weemse, who says :- When Moses saw an Egyptian and an Israelite striv-
ing together, he killed the Egyptian and saved the Israelite (Ex. ii. 12).
But when he saw two Israelites striving together he laboured to reconcile
them, saying, “Ye are brethren, why do ye strive ?" So when we read or
see the Apocryphal books or heathen story or Popish traditions contradict-
ing the Scriptures; as, for instance, Jacob cursed Simeon and Levi for mur-
dering the Sichemites (Gen. xlix. 7); and Judith blessed God for killing of
them (Judith 9). Here, and in such like places, let us kill the Egyptian but
save the Israelite; set a value on the Scriptures, but slight the Apocrypha.
But when we meet with any appearance of seeming contradiction in the
canon of Scriptures, as where it is said God tempted Abraham (Gen. xxii. 1),
and "God tempteth no man (James i. 13). Here now, and in many other
places, we must be reconcilers, and distinguish betwixt a temptation of trial
which is from God, and a temptation of seducement which is by the Devil;
and these two seeming-different friends will appear to be brethren and agree
well.'-Exercitations concerning the Right Understanding of the Scrip-
tures. 4to, 1632.
31
xii
Preface.
and on His head MANY CROWNS.' But I
discovered, on writing out this of the Temptation,
that to give them would far exceed the limits set to
the present work, even though I have enlarged the
size of the volume, so as to throw it out of the Series ;¹
and I consequently concluded to reserve them for the
ampler Treatise announced, or otherwhere.
In sending forth to the general public The Prince of
Light and the Prince of Darkness in Conflict, without
intervening a 'private' edition, as in my lesser volumes,
—Small Sins, and Jesus Mighty to Save, or Christ for
all the World, and all the World for Christ,-I gratefully
respond to the very generous welcome accorded to
its two predecessors, a welcome which I never could
have anticipated. So far as I know my own heart, I
think I can say that I rejoice in their success not so
much because the little books are mine, as for the
'words of eternal life' given me to utter in them.
It were foolish to expect that there will be agree-
ment with everything contained in my Exposition of,
confessedly, a dark and difficult portion of Holy
Scripture. Yet, as I have myself well-weighed every
word, 'I ask every word to be well weighed, ere I, and
not my reader, be pronounced wrong."
•
saw
D
1 See announcements in fly-leaves.
2 Correct not my writings out of your own opinion, or out of contention :
but from the reading of the Divine Word, or by unshaken argument. Should
you lay hold of anything in them that is true, in being so, it is not mine;
but by the understanding and the love of it, let it be both yours and mine.
Should you, however, detect anything that is false, in the error it may have
been mine; but henceforth, by guarding against it, let it be neither mine nor
yours.'-Augustine.
Preface.
xiii
It were worse than foolish to claim entire originality.
Too many master-minds have gone before me for that.
But while I believe I have made myself familiar with
the extant Literature of The Temptation, I have
thought-out every 'jot and tittle' for myself. It were
petty and paltry pretence, therefore, not to avouch
that I cherish the expectation of my readers finding
that I have somewhat fathomed the Temptation, and
consequently some new insight into the mind of
the Spirit,' and some applications not stale, to 'men's
businesse and bosomes.' 2 I must be permitted, in
these days of 'talkee, talkee,' and slim book-making,
to state, that I print the thing not because I wished
to say something about the Temptation, but because
I had something to say ; and so in reference to all I
s
1 Originality. The Rev. J. C. M. Bellew has excellently put this, as
well as my own design in the present volume and its companions :-‘It
would indeed be presumptuous to imagine that many of the thoughts and
feelings contained herein have never been expressed by others. The
catholic truths of Christianity, presented in every variety of form and aspect,
to our consideration by the most learned and inquiring minds of eighteen
centuries, must inevitably entail upon any man in the present day (unless
he be one of those rare exceptions upon whom nature from time to time
lavishes her gifts) a deep conviction that, while he has desired to devote all
the freshness of his own thoughts to their illustration, what he imagines he has
best said will frequently be but a very inferior reproduction of what others
have said before. Feeling this deeply, the author distrusts himself, both as
to the matter and manner of these sermons; but, at the same time, he
cherishes the hope that they will not be altogether valueless, on account of
the object towards which they are directed. While declaring the scheme
of Christian salvation with perfect simplicity, he has always wished to teach
the Christian religion as preparing us for life hereafter, by giving an earnest
feeling, a holy aim, and an indwelling sense of personal responsibility to all
our engagements here. Religion, not the mere formal occupation of the
Sabbath but the gospel of Christ entering into, elevating, and purifying
every occupation of life.'-Sermons, 1856, Preface, pp. v. vi,
2 Bacon, Epistle dedicatory of the Essays.
SAs, it is owned, the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood,
xiv
Preface.
have published and may publish. However weak,
poor, rude, rough, and infinitely beneath their themes,
my books, I hope, will be found to have a character
of their own, and to be fitted, with His blessing, to
be not unuseful to some tried and striving fellow-
believers. In respect to this of the Temptation, with
Isaac Colfe, I have very sincerely to say, 'My labour,
I willingly confesse, is not such as the worke deserveth
to have yet I assure thee, Christian Reader, it is
such as the worker is able to give.' ¹
1
May it be granted the Author and his readers.
equally, to lay to heart the warning counsels of the
great Apostle: 'We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places' (Eph. vi. 12).
'And happy he that can in time beware
By others' harms, and turn it to his good :
But wo to him, that fearing not t' offend,
Doth serve his lust, and will not see his end.'”
What are thy pleasures, my reader? Of 'the world,
so, if it ever comes to be understood before the restitution of all things, and
without miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural
knowledge is come at-by the continuance and progress of learning and
liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing and pursuing,
intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded
by the generality of the world. For this is the way in which all improve-
ments are made-by thoughtful men's tracing on obscure hints, as it were,
dropped us by nature accidentally, or which seem to come into our minds by
chance. Nor is it at all incredible, that a book, which has been so long in the
possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet undiscovered.'—
Butler's Analogy, Pt. II. c. iii.
1 Comfortable Treatise of Christ, His Temptation. To the Reader, 1654.
2 Gorboduc, act iv. chorus.
Preface.
XV
the flesh, the devil'? or of Jesus Christ? Remember
the kindly-quaint words of good Bishop Hall: 'There
cannot be a better glass wherein to discern the face
of our hearts than our pleasures; such as they are, are
we, whether vain or holy.'1 The good Lord give us
grace to 'resist the Devil,' to 'stand fast,' to 'let NONE
take our crown.' To all tried and tempted souls the
Temptations, and perchance my faulty words about
them, will prove living realities.
:
،
Finally Brother! Sister! Wherever you be,
know that I love you and yearn to get to your hearth
and heart by my books. For are you not my 'fellow'
(Matt. xviii. 33) and, Are you not contemporane-
ously living out the same mystery of life with me?
And then the grand old words are not out of date :
'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:' nor THE
MASTER'S commentary: (Luke x. 27, et seq.)
C
Let us all seek heavenly help to help one another,
specially to turn our Christianhood such as God
may have given us-into benignant, patient, self-
denying WORK. With clean hands and pure hearts'
let us resist the DEVIL;' let us do stout battle for
Christ and Christ's; let us be 'righteous,' not merely
talking about 'righteousness,' His or ours; let us
speak out what we've got to say, not feminizing our
utterance into whimpering and whining and snuffle,
and 'ahs' and 'ohs' and 'dears,' and 'miserable
1 Contemplations. John Baptist beheaded,' vol. ii. p. 406 (edition by
Peter Hall, 12 vols. 8vo, 1837).
xvi
Preface.
sinners,' but quitting ourselves as MEN; let us study
integrity, chastity of 'flesh and spirit' and speech, in
leal allegiance to 'THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE
LIFE,' and to ourselves; let us rise above the sony
idea of Christianity as a thing of pleasure and pain
to DUTY and growing spiritual-mindedness and sanc-
tity, in love to Christ and love to man; let us make
our heart-change 'profitable,' blessed, beyond our own
salvation-if it be only singing a 'Song of Zion' or
hymn to some unvisited widow, or leaving, with a
kind word and look, a few violets with a sick girl.
How is the world to be Christianized if Christians don't
do it? What's the use of our Christianhood if it don't,
by God's prayer-sought blessing, Christianize others?
I am not saved by works, but I am saved to work.
C
Such practical Christianity and embodied grace, as
I summon to, involve the wilderness' and tempta-
tion and hard contending and conflicting. Well!
So be it :
<
If from Thy ordeal's heated bars
Our feet are seamed with crimson scars,
Thy will be done!
(WHITTIER, In War Time.)
May I be used to lead a 'tempted,' restless, rest-
seeking brother! sister! a little onward-to turn wet
eyes upward (not white-of-eyes up only)-reliantly :
and to Him shall be the 'praise' and thanks.
And so, dismissing my readers to my book, I close
my Preface with these lines from Robert Herrick-
A g
Preface.
xvii
which I place as a sprig of mignonette between my
leaves-and bid one and all heartily farewell.
'For every sentence, clause, and word,
That's not inlaid with Thee, my Lord;
Forgive me, God, and blot each line
Out of my book that is not thine!
But if 'mongst all, Thou find'st here one
Worthy Thy benediction,
That one of all the rest shall be
1
The glory of my work and me!'¹
FIRST MANSE, KINROSS,
December 25, 1863.
b
A. B. G.
** I must add here a personal explanation, which
I hope will be accepted once for all. I find my
Critics-sweet-blooded and kind all of them to me—
speak of me as quaint' and 'archaic.' I have to
say that I have not sought to be so.
Yet it is pos-
sible that, as Dr. John Brown, author of Rab and his
Friends, has genially and generously told the public
of me, I am by nature quaint.' So be it: but it is
natural. The words 'wise Bacon and brave Raleigh
spoke' come to me as the blood to my heart, uncon-
sciously. Let this spare me any critic-charge of 'affec-
tation for it is an offence to me. There is the word
improvement' for example once and again (pp. 25,
59, etc.) Welcome, 'an' it please thee' to peck at
it, reader: but I love it and fetch it from a great era.
So with other words that instinctively clothe my
thoughts. I've got too much to do, and too little
time to do it in, to be a rhetorician.
,
1 Noble Numbers.
'ONE caveat, good Reader, and then God speed thee! Do not open it
at adventures, and by reading the broken pieces of two or three lines, judge
it, but read it through, and then I beg no pardon if thou dislikest it.
Farewell I'
Thomas Adams.
'Is'r you, Sir, that know things?
Soothsayer. In nature's infinite book of secresy,
A little I can read.'
Anthony and Cleopatra, 1. 2.
'WE deceive ourselves if we fancy that we have done our duty when we
have given our people a sermon [or even two] one day in seven; we must
try all ways to gain a soul.'
Bishop Wilson (Sacra Privata).
'TAKE this in good part, whatsoever thou be,
And wish me no worse than I wish unto thee.'
Tusser.
'EAT in peace the bread of Scripture, without troubling thyself about the
particles of sand which may have been mixed with it by the mill-stone.'
J. A. Bengel.
1
'TO-DAY is still the same as yesterday,
To-morrow also even as one of them;
And there is nothing new under the sun :
Until the ancient race of Time be run,
The old thorns shall grow out of the old stem,
And morning shall be cold and twilight grey.'
Christina Rossetti
(Goblin Market and other Poems'.
ANALYTICAL CONTENTS.
<
PRELIMINARIES.
TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF THE TEMPTATION-Matt.
iv. 1-11; Mark i. 12, 13; Luke iv. 1-13,
C
<
C
<
ὁ
<
[Note (a) in Notes and Illustrations:-Exegetical and Critical Remarks:
(1.) Jesus, ò'Inσoûs, or 'Inσoûs-The article preferred-its significance
-¿ Пéтрos no objection-the English article. (2.) ‘Led up,' àvýx¤n—
Bishop Andrewes - Renderings by Wickliffe, Tyndale, Cranmer, etc.
etc.-Campbell-Shadwell—Cureton-Alford-Webster and Wilkin-
son. (3.) Within,' eis and ev. (4) Under, vñò. (5.) 'The
Spirit,' vñò TOû ПIveúμaros-Wickliffe-common misapprehension-
Cureton. (6.) In order to be tempted,' ñeɩpao@va-Versions—Al-
ford, criticisms upon. (7.) Under,' vñò—cf. 4. (8.) The Devil,
τοῦ διαβόλου = the Calumniator, or Slanderer, or Variance-Causer-
τοῦ Σατανᾶ = the Adversary-Wickliffe and Tyndale-Dr. Campbell's
Dissertation upon Διαβολος, Δαίμων, and Δαιμονιον. (9.) ‘Days
forty and nights forty-The order of Original-Syriac. (10.) 'He
was hungry,' Éπeívaσe-pine—Wickliffe-Tyndale-Shadwell. (11.)
'The Tempter, & пeɩрáŠшv~1 Thess. iii. 5-The Fall in Eden. (12.) 'Iƒ,
ei-Euthymius, from Alford-Shadwell on Matt. vi. 2. (13.) The
God,' TOû coû-Article, omission of, before viòs-Webster and
Wilkinson-Bishop Middleton's reply to Campbell and Wakefield-
Sharpe and Maurice-Wickliffe. (14.) 'Speak,' einè-antithesis 'speak,'
spake'-Wickliffe and Tyndale. (15.) ‘Loaves,' ǎproi-Webster and
Wilkinson-Wickliffe and Tyndale. (16.) 'Spake-cf. 14. (17.) The
man,' d aveрwños-Bishop Middleton, criticism upon. (18.) Every
word proceeding through the mouth of God'-Original-Syriac of
Cureton, and note-remarks upon-word,' thing'-Shadwell, Tisch-
endorf. (19.) Took Him with him,' rapadaµßávei-cf. ¶ 44-
Webster and Wilkinson-Wickliffe-Tyndale-Cranmer, etc.—Shad-
· well-Doddridge Campbell-Jerome-Lange. (20.) 'The wing,
τὸ πτερύγιον-Bishop Middleton. (21.) 'Beneath'-Wickliffe and
Tyndale-kárw. (22.) 'Upon’-Thrupp-Shadwell-Brameld. (23.)
'Lest_ever,' µÝTоTE-Campbell, criticism upon-Robinson-Wick-
liffe-Tyndale-Cranmer. (24) Thy foot.' (25.) ‘Again,' ñáλw
-Campbell. (26.) ' Jehovah,' Kúpios-Shadwell. (27.) 'Unto,'
C
<
C
PAGE
C
<
Ι
XX
Analytical Contents.
<
<
Leaves.'
<
= forward to. (28.) Very elevated.' (29.) 'Splendour-Kóσμos-
remarks-Shadwell-Wickliffe and Tyndale. (30.) 'Deliver,' Swow.
(31.) 'Do homage'-Syriac of Dr. Cureton. (32.) 'Go, Satan'-
Lange-Tischendorf - Thomas Fuller. (33) Worship.' (34)
(35) Are waiting.' (36.) Impelleth'-cf. ¶ 6.
(37.) 'Days forty' — cf. 9. (38.) 'The Adversary' — cf. 8. (39.)
'Wild beasts.' (40.) 'Of the Holy Spirit.' (41.) 'Turned back.'
(42.) In the Spirit,' ev-Monod, criticism upon. (43) Under
the Devil'-cf. 7, 8. (44.) 'Took not food.' (45) Afterwards'
ÜσTEρv-Shadwell. (46.) 'This stone'-Note (s). (47.) 'A loaf'
-cf. 15. (48.) Word of God'—cf. 18. (49.) 'Conducted'—cf. 2.
(50.) 'Lofty mountain.' (51.) 'The habitable earth'-See ¶ 47-
remark. (52.) 'Deliver'-cf. 30. (53) Given up-cf. 30, ¶ 66.
(54) 'Before me'-cf. 3. (55) 'Of thee.' (56.) This place.'
(57.) 'Prescribed.' (58.) A Temptation, meipaσμòv. (59) A
fitting opportunity'-Syriac of Dr. Cureton-Dr. David Brown-
Fuller. ** Books quoted or referred to in Note (a), .
INTRODUCTION-Facts as well as doctrines inadequately attended to-
accounted for-The Temptation one of these-the Cloud that dark-
ened the rising of the Sun of Righteousness turned into a New Testa-
ment Cloud of Glory—a Rainbow on 'the horror of darkness'—the
subject approached reverently, but inquiringly and expectantly—
[Anthony Farindon, footnote]-Arthur H. Clough,
<
¿
279
r
<
*
C
C
p
PAGE
¶ 1. THE TEMPTATION ACCEPTED AS A FACT, AND THE ECONOMY
IT REVEALS,
The literal truth and reality of the Temptation-Scholars-Infidelity-
the authority and sanction of the larger include the lesser-promises
based upon the Temptation-true because it is 'written'-'written' be-
cause it is true-[Note (b) in Notes and Illustrations-The Temptation
peculiarly a thing of revelation-Faith-John Sterling-William
Blake, 292]—the Fact of the Temptation reveals the economy under
which we live-no Fate, Law, Machinery, Impersonality merely,
but a LIVING FRIEND and a LIVING FOE-the Earth not the lonely
place it seems-Heaven-Hell-Above-Beneath-very awful, but
true-[Note (c)-Quotations from Dr. Henry E. Manning and
Daniel Dyke, 293].
2. How SHOULD THE TEMPTER EVER HAVE THOUGHT OF TEMPT-
ING, WITH ANY HOPE OF OVERCOMING, THE SON OF God?
The difficulty the greater in proportion to the certainty of the fact-[Dr.
F. W. Krummacher, footnote]- two answers-
1. The Devil was, in the Bible sense, a Fool.
•
Sin has the same blinding, stupifying effects on Satan as on bad men-
Thomas Aird-the cunning and cleverness, not 'wisdom' of the Devil
-[Statue of Satan at Strasburg-Jonathan Edwards and Ebrard on
his 'folly,' footnotes]-Pride, its working-retrospect of the effect of
ambition upon himself.
3
5
9
Analytical Contents.
xxi
PAGE
11. The Devil had grounds to expect success; and motives of a
commanding kind.
C
The first prophecy and promise-'I will put enmity between thee and
the woman; and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise His heel' (Gen. iii. 15)-the WARRANT of
the Temptation-opened out clause by clause-Enmity 'put' into
man-Disappointment yet a 'threat' only-the announced antagon-
ists-'woman'-Hope-his 'Hosts-solitary before-Past success-
lorn Expectation of final relief-the Blow welcomed-not unavenged
-the Temptation no mere mad impossibility and monstrosity-[John
Gumbleden, B. D., quotation from, footnote].
3. THE TIME CHOSEN FOR THE TEMPTATION,
THEN Jesus was led up within the wilderness under the Spirit in order
to be tempted under the Devil.'
(
'Then' after the Baptism-after the announcement 'This is my beloved
Son in Whom I am well-pleased the Crisis-Correspondence be-
tween the time chosen for the temptation of the 'first Adam' and of
the 'second Adam,' and of Job-when full of the Holy Ghost'-a
remarkable prophecy fulfilled-dawn of the day of vengeance'--
[Christ's first text, footnote]-malignity of the Tempter-would keep
back the Physician-stole our birthright and now sought to take away
our redemption-the priestly age 'thirty years'-profoundest weak-
ness in human strength.
दा 4. 'IMPROVEMENT' OF THE TIME CHOSEN FOR THE TEMPTATION, 25
[What is intended by 'Improvement'-much so called, condemned,
footnote.]
1. It was in the prospect of His Temptation that the Lord Jesus
Was FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
As a man He needed the Spirit in Temptation; much more do we—
Our need of the Spirit too little felt.
2. It was in the prospect of His Temptation that the Lord Jesus
RECEIVED this fulness of the Spirit.
The very crisis of need the moment of bestowment-sanctified prefer-
able to removed trials-Bible texts endeared through experience-
'God never suffers His castles to be besieged till they be victualled'
-the Believer to be not only ready but willing to endure temptation
-Grace given to be exercised.
3. It was upon the Lord Jesus being thus filled with the Holy
Spirit that HE WAS TEMPTED.
20
The comfort of this-a tool-maker 'proves' his instrument-seems to be
about to break it-Temptation when full of the Holy Ghost to be ex-
pected-Leighton-Brooks-Thomas Taylor-Young communicants
'As he was yet a-coming-Dr. Everard-Cheer not Despondency-
[Earl of Rochester, footnote].
xxii
Analytical Contents.
4. The Temptation of the Lord having followed His Baptism tells
us not TO TRUST TO IT FOR ESCAPE FROM TEMPTATION.
Outward things often relied upon-' Holy' water-Thomas Taylor-
Sonship.
[Note (d) in Notes and Illustrations:-The Time chosen for the Tempta-
tion and attending circumstances-Illustrated from the old
Divines,
• 294
1. Trouble accompanyeth every good action-John Udall.
2. Satan attacks those specially rich in grace-John Boys, D.D.
<
((
PAGE
3. Tempted when 'an-hungered'—Ibid.
4. Special times of favour are times of special temptation-John
Trapp, M.A.
5. Discovery of intended good leads to temptation-John Gumble-
den, B.D.
I
6. The more God graceth, the more Satan seeks to disgrace-
Thomas Taylor, D.D.
7. Praise of the Saints occasion of temptation-Bishop Hacket.
8. Failure after eminent service not uncommon-Thomas Manton,
D.D.
9. Greatest help in greatest need-Isaac Colfe.
10. Temptation itself no sin, but vigilance needed-Henry Hibbert.
11. Temptation inevitable-Thos. Fuller, D.D.
12. The anointment of Christ-Matthew Brooks, D.D.]
15. THE SPECIAL NAME OF THE LORD EMPLOYED IN THE NAR-
RATIVES OF THE TEMPTATION,
Then was JESUS led up.'
The dearest of all names to the Believer-not an accident-[Note (e)
<
Temptation the occasion of the "first Adam's" first sin, and the
second Adam's" first work '-Isaac Colfe, 303].
C
A
¶ 6. Jesus WAS IMPELLED OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TEMPTATION, 35
Then was Jesus LED UP.'
Divine discrimination of wording-the Lord's prayer for us, 'Lead us
not into Temptation,' explained-[èxßáλλw, footnote].
¶ 7. IMPROVEMENT OF THE IMPULSION OF JESUS by the Spirit,
Warning and sanction-modern efforts for 'the lost-commendation,
and yet caution-self-sought, dangerous-Examples-Peter 'among
them'-Sons of Sceva-Counsel of the wise man'-Bishop Hacket
-'fall into temptation'-'led up'-Literally and throughout there
was a going' up'-Humiliation.
(
3. The leadings of the Spirit to be followed-Isaac Colfe.
4. There is no danger in following God's Spirit-Ibid.
[Note (ƒ) in Notes and Illustrations :-Illustrative quotations upon 'led
up,' with a few critical notes,
· 303
1. How the Spirit is said to lead in temptation-John Boys, D.D.
2. As Christ, so Christ's are led—Ibid.
34
37
Analytical Contents.
xxiii
PAGE
5. Satan cannot tempt unless we are committed into his hands by
God-Ibid.
L
6. Three notable effects from assurance of the Spirit's guidance-
Thomas Taylor, D.D.
7. Sons of God are they who are led of the Spirit-Ibid.
8. Over-boldness without leading—Ibid.
9. We must not thrust ourselves into trials but expect the leading
of the Spirit-Ibid.
10. Take heed when led into dangerous places—Ibid.
II. Never invite temptation-Anthony Farindon, B.D.
12. Never tempt the Devil-Thos. Fuller, D.D.
13. We must take heed whither we are led-John Udall.
14. How to return from spiritual ordinances-Daniel Dyke.
Critical Notes on 'led up,'
15. Christopher Blackwood.
16. Bishop Hacket.
17. Webster and Wilkinson.]
·
¶ II. THE WILD Beasts of the WILDERNESS,
Mark i. 13: And He was [there] within the wilderness,
was together with THE WILD BEASTS.'
P
¶ 8. THE LEADER OF THE LORD TO BE TEMPTED,
'Then Jesus was led up. . . under THE SPIRIT.'
The Third Person of the Trinity-Richard Gilpin—[Note (g)—Quotation
from Stier, 311).
། 9. THE SCENE OF THE OPENING OF THE TEMPTATION,
Then Jesus was led up WITHIN THE WILDERNESS.'
The precise locality undetermined-the 'dry places,' where the devils
wander seeking rest-Eden turned into a wilderness-the wilderness
turned into Eden-fitting place for the 'living water' out-bursting.
·
•
310
10. IMPROVEMENT OF THE SCENE OF THE TEMPTATION,
Noticeable that Jesus should have been led away from the crowds-
retirement-conflict-the young believer-deliberation with which
solemn work ought to be undertaken-previous examples-Moses-
Paul—' Tarry' at Jerusalem-the wilderness or retirement rendered
a blessing-Divine presence-Solitude per se not the thing it is
deemed― Leave the world'-W. C. Bennet-[Note ()-Moses in
Midian-Charles Kingsley, 312).
C
and He
Not a mere graphic delineation of loneliness-Psalm viii. 6, 7—Hebrews
ii. 8, 9-Hosea ii. 18-explained-Dr. Beaumont's 'Pysche.'
[Note (i) in Notes and Illustrations:-The Wilderness of the Temptation
and the 'Wild Beasts'-illustrated,
312
1. Where was it? References-Remarks on Benson-Authorities,
2. Shadows of the Temptation in the Wilderness of Arabia Petrea-
Thomas Taylor, D.D.
42
43
44
50
xxiv
Analytical Contents.
3. Contrast of Eden with the Wilderness-F. W. Krummacher, D.D.
4. Different persons different actors in the same scene-John Gumble-
den, B.D.
PAGE
5. False reasons for assigning the Wilderness of Arabia Petrea as the
scene-Thomas White, B. L.
6. Retirement sought by good men, even the Heathen-Anthony
Farindon, B.D.
7. The wild beasts-Thomas White, B. L.
8. The awe of the wild beasts toward Jesus-Joseph Beaumont, D.D.]
12. THE DIVINE ORDINATION IN THE OUT-LEADING OF THE
LORD INTO THE WILDERNESS,
'Then Jesus was led up within the wilderness under the Spirit, IN
ORDER TO BE TEMPTED of the Devil.'
The key of the Temptation-correspondent with the surrender of Job --
no accusation against the Lord-the general principle of no power
except of God.
1
¶ 13. THE TEMPTABLENESS OF THE LORD, .
To be approached from the side of the Incarnation-the angels who
'kept not their estate, and our first parents sinless yet fell-the
Temptation a reality and a conflict to Jesus-'He suffered being
tempted' the Messianic Psalms-Questions of the Schools-Surren-
der of Himself-['Flesh' not peccable-Irving-Without and within,
footnote].
14 IMPROVEMENT OF THe Surrender of Christ in ORDER TO
BE TEMPTED,
The same 'trial' continues to Christ's people-Satan still in God's hands
-Enforcement.
1. Ministers of the Gospel, and all who have to deal with souls, need
temptation. — Knowledge and experience-Manton-Leighton-
sympathy.
2. When temptation cometh of God, we are all the better of it.-
James: Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations'-fore-
most worthies benefited by it-Augustine-Ward-Shakspere-
James D. Burns-'Not always, Lord, in pastures green.'
3. Deliverance from temptation equally with the temptation itself,
to be a blessing, must be from the Lord.-' Led out' as well as 'led
up'-any deliverance, if only it be deliverance, grasped at-' The
fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him'-in not from-out of
not from.
[Note () in Notes and Illustrations :- To be tempted' illustrated, 317
1. Strange that Jesus should have been tempted-Thos. Taylor, D.D.
2. Why was Christ tempted?-Thomas White, B. L.
3. Look to be tempted-Isaac Colfe.
4. Temptation separates not from God-Ibid.
5. The grand occasion and motive of the Devil's temptation—Ibid.
<
54
56
59
Analytical Contents.
XXV
6. Temptation no evidence of the disfavour of God-John Udall.
7. Temptations preservative-Bishop Hacket from St. Ambrose.
8. Temptation evil, whether lesser or larger-Dr. Pusey.
9. Deliverance from temptation not always immediate-Ibid.
ro. More than deliverance from temptation to be sought-Ibid.]
15. THE OPPONENT OF THE LORD,
'Then Jesus was led up within the wilderness under the Spirit, in order
to be tempted under THE DEVIL.'
The Personality of the Tempter-Demarest-Maurice-Foote.
16. THE FASTING OF THE LORD, AND ITS APPLICATION TO US,
'And having fasted days forty and nights forty, afterwards He was
hungry.'
3. Fasting is necessary to not a few of God's people.
The Fasting of Jesus :-
Fasting too much regarded as a thing of the Law only-Matt. ix 15.
Observations :-
1. Fasting leads to uninterrupted communion with God.
[Note (k)-We must be solitary when we are tempted-James
Martineau, 321.]
2. Fasting breaks in upon our matter-of-course reception of every-day
mercies.
1.) It was supernatural.
(2.) It was preparative.
(3.) It was antitypical.
(4) It was for our learning.
PAGE
m) Rabbinical explanation of the forty days and forty nights'
fasting,
[Notes (4), (m), (n) in Notes and Illustrations :-
(7) Was Christ tempted throughout the forty days and nights?-
Gumbleden-Whedon,
17. THE CONDITION OF THE LORD AFTER HIS FASTING,
'Afterwards HE WAS HUNGRY.'
323
4. The uses and advantages of fasting-Dr. Henry E. Manning.
(1.) The Lord fasted for our imitation.
(2.) Fasting a reality with Christ.
(3) Fasting a personal benefit to the believer.
(4) Fasting a help to higher spiritual attainment.
(5.) No ostentation of fasting.
<
5. Dr. Arnold on Christian Fasting.']
324
325
() Fasting,
1. Erroneous reasons for the Fasting-Bishop Hacket.
2. The Fasting of the Second Adam had reference to the eating of
the First Adam-John Gumbleden, B.D.
3. Fasting a most necessary duty, and profitable-Thomas Tay-
lor, D.D.
68
71
79
xxvi
Analytical Contents.
Hunger of Christ recorded, while it is not of Moses or Elijah—the
Lord's Prayer, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' a reminiscence-
submission and watchfulness-sympathy due to the poor in their
privations-waste-the Lord assailed in His weakness-dastardliness
of the Tempter.
[Note (o) in Notes and Illustrations :-Hunger illustrated,
1. Why the hunger of Jesus is recorded-John Gumbleden, B.D.
2. Base advantage-taking of Satan in assailing the Lord an-hungered
-Richard Gilpin.
3. Temptation through hunger-Dr. Henry E. Manning.
4 Hunger not the excuse of many-Daniel Dyke.
5. Hunger not to be given way to—Ibid.]
18. THE COMING OF THE TEMPTER,
And BEING COME to Him, the Tempter said.'
Was this a visible coming? Answered in the negative-Heb. iv. 14, 15,
in all points tempted like-as we are' -[Tempter's instruments and
agents visible-Dr. Payne and the Homilist, footnote]-Eph. ii. 2, ἐν
-2 Thess. ii. 11, évéрyeιav λás-Visibility not necessary to the
Lord -'Come' not necessarily a visible coming [Alford criticised,
footnote-the grand crisis-Prince of Light and Prince of Darkness
confronted-[Note (p)—Quotation from Dr. Thomas Taylor, and re-
marks, 334]
T19. PREPARATIONS OF THE TEMPTER: FROM THE 'PYsche' of
JOSEPH BEAUMONT, D.D.,
•
PAGE
•
►
333
THE FIRST TEMPTATION.
I. THE TEMPTATION OF THE LORD JESUS AS A MAN ‘an-hungered,' 91
20. A DOUBT INSINUATED,
'IF'
No doubt in Satan's mind now any more than when in Eden he asked
"Yea, hath God said?'-—a taunting sneer.
•
•
¶ 21. A FEW WORDS OF CONSOLATION AND OF WARNING TO
TEMPTED ONES FROM THE IF,'
?
▼
*
1. Consolation-The Lord tempted to doubt of his Sonship-there-
fore we may expect to be so tried-different use of 'if' by Christ
and Satan.
2. Warning-Faith the grand object of attack-the shattered spear
of Satan lifted up.
22. 'HUNGER' ADDRESSED BY 'BREAD,'
If Son Thou be of the God, speak ['command'] in order that these,
the stones, MAY BECOME LOAVES.'
84
Skill-nicety-adaptation-sleight spoiled to have only spoken of hun-
ger-to have himself furnished 'bread' would have defeated his object
-stones like loaves-[Note (q)—Loaf-like Stones, 336].
87
92
93
97
Analytical Contents.
xxvii
23. THE TEMPTER HAS NO WISH TO MAKE MEN MERELY MISER-
ABLE,
Not misery but sin his aim-the perplexity of Asaph-prosperity of the
wicked-sinful peace.
•
26. THE SNARE UNCOVERED: 'IT IS WRITTEN' PLEADED,
24 THE HOOK BENEATH THE BAIT,
The fisher uses his bait not to relieve the hunger of the fish, but to get
his hook in throat or gill-so the Tempter his snare.
T25. WHEREIN LAY THE TEMPTATION? WHAT WAS THE SIN OF
THE SNARE?
. IOI
Jesus was there not to COMMAND, but to OBEY-[William Blake, footnote].
The graciousness of the Lord's answer.
27. THE SELF-DENIAL OF THE LORD,
Matt. xxvi. 53-[Footnote on 'twelve' legions].
PAGE
<
¿
<
T28. AN EXAMPLE FOR US: OUTWARDLY IN HUNGER;' IN-
WARDLY IN OBEYING,
-
-
•
K
1. Outwardly-The Temptation of 'hunger' and privation-'Trust
in the Lord and do good '-'Thou wilt show me the path of life'
-Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16.
2. Inwardly-the temptation of obedience' and serving-the
army-Lord Clyde-genuine faith simply listens, believes, obeys.
T30. DETAILS OF THE LORD'S ANSWER TO THE FIRST Tempta-
TION,
But He answering spake, It is written, Not upon bread alone shall
live the man, but upon every word proceeding through the mouth
of God.'
1. Man, the man.
2. Verbal changes in the quotation by the Lord- the Old Testament
expounded and interpreted by the Lord.
3. The analogy between the circumstances of ancient Israel and
those of Christ, and the resembling snare.
4 The tempting element in the circumstances, and the practical
lesson for us.
98
Circumstances must never modify duty-Consequences to be left with
God-the Lord's first great sermon asserts the principle.
29 SPECIALTY IN THE WORDING OF THE FIRST TEMPTATION;
ITS SIGNIFICANCE,
. 108
Speak,' command'-recognition of the Lord's Divinity-the Creator
of the world—an illustration.
5. The teaching of the Lord no warrant to fanaticism-[Dr.
Thomas Playfere on ordinary and extraordinary circumstances,
footnote].
100
103
I04
105
IIO
xxviii
Analytical Contents.
6. Appeal to believers not to shrink from 'the Wilderness.'
7. Ordinarily the path of duty is the path of safety.
31. THE LORD'S ANSWER AS A WHOLE, VIEWED, (1.) IN RELA-
TION TO HIMSELF, AND (2.) IN PRACTICAL APPLICATION TO
Us,
1. In relation to Himself—
(1.) Christ never wrought a miracle in the way the Tempter
sought Him to do.
(2.) Christ afterwards asserted, exemplified, and actualized the
principle that 'Man liveth not by bread alone, but,' etc.-
[óñμa, footnote].
(3.) Christ suffered being tempted thus to depart from obedience.
Heb. v. 7, 8, 'Jesus who in the days of His
flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplica-
tions, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that
was able to save Him from death, and was heard in
that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered.'-
Elucidation and new application of these words.
4.) Christ shows us how to answer the worst and basest.
•
C
(r) If Son Thou be of the God,'
[Notes (r) (s) (t) in Notes and Illustrations :-
·
2. In practical application to Us.
1.) The principle, 'Man liveth not by bread alone, but,' etc.-re-
moves the curse of uncertainty from our daily bread and
everything else-Bishop of Oxford.
(2.) Be more anxious to have God's blessing with the lowliest and
poorest fare than the richest without it-Dr. Thomas
Playfere.
(3.) Are none of us trying to turn stones into bread?
(4.) Is there not a great amount of living by bread alone?
If = since
PAGE
·
1. Bishop Middleton-verbal exegetes.
2. No doubt in Satan though he uses 'if'-Bishop Hall.
3.
'If' a trick of rhetoric-Bishop Andrewes.
4.
since William Hales, D.D.
5. Faith the grand object of attack-Isaac Colfe.
All
6 Because Satan most oppugneth our faith, we must fortify it-
Thomas Taylor, D.D.
·
*
7. The inference contained in Satan's 'if'--John Gumbleden, B.D.
8. Misreasoning of the 'if'-Bishop Hacket.
9. Sonship not to be vaunted-Thomas Taylor, D.D.
10. The 'if' to be carefully observed-Daniel Dyke.
E
(s) The First Temptation as a whole, and its details unfolded-
Thomas Taylor, D.D.,
(t) Answer of the Lord to the First Temptation, illustrated,
1. Christ did answer but did not obey--Thomas White, B. L.
336
•
341
342
123
Analytical Contents.
xxix
2. Man, the man-Bishop Middleton.
3. Man liveth not by BREAD alone-See Note (a), 15.
4 God's blessing needed-Thomas Playfere, D.D.
5. God's blessing to be sought with thanks-Bishop Hacket.
6. The needed blessing of God too often not sought-John
Udall.
7. Reference to Taylor and Manning.
THE SECOND TEMPTATION.
THE TEMPTATION OF THE LORD JESUS AS A DEVOUT MAN WHO
HAS TURNED TO THE BIBLE,
· 135
32. THE Order of the TEMPTATIONS,
· 136
33. THE DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP AS BETWEEN VERSE I AND
VERSE 5,
•
PAGE
W
The Spirit-the Devil-the surrender to Satan not so dark a problem as
the surrender to fallen man-Isa. liii. 8, and Luke xxii. 54-
•
¶ 34 THE CHANGE OF SCENE FROM THE FIRST TEMPTATION:
PRACTICAL LESSONS,
Balaam and Balak-The Temple - Watchfulness everywhere-the hill-
side spring the wild beasts' haunt.
35. THE DEVIL'S COUNTER IT IS WRITTEN: THE MANIFESTED
CHARACTER OF CHRIST ADDRESSED,
K
T37.
The roll of Scripture being read by the Lord-skill-subtlety-adapta-
tion-[Fitting quotations from Shakspere, footnote.]
+
¶ 36. THE WARNING WRAPPED UP IN THE PROCEDURE OF THE
TEMPTER IN HIS SECOND TEMPTATION,
Observations:-
1. The Tempter comes a second time with an 'If'-John Gumbleden
-Thomas White.
▼
2. The Tempter goes from extreme to extreme.
3. The Tempter is very successful in tempting professing Christians
with his 'If' since.
4. The Tempter seeks first to lead into sin, and then to justify the sin
by Scripture.
5. The Tempter can only persuade, not compel-Dr. Joseph Beau-
mont-[Note (z-Compulsion and Resistance, 345]-Jerome.
6. The Tempter has imitators in his 'Cast thyself down'-SENSATION
PREACHING.
WHEREIN LAY THE TEMPTATION? WHAT WAS THE SIN OF
THE SNARE? ANSWERED FIRST FROM THE SCENE,
The Messenger of the Lord was to come to the Temple'-The Lord
had been welcomed as Elias, and rejected as the Messiah-The
C
•
138
140
143
145
155
XXX
Analytical Contents.
elements of temptation herein-Thomas Taylor, D.D.-[Note (v)-
The Scene of the Second Temptation itself a snare-Richard
Gilpin, 346.]
T38. THE FULFILMENT OF A REMARKABLE PROPHECY IN THE
REPLY OF THE LORD TO THE SECOND TEMPTATION,
Isaiah xi. 1-3, 'He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither
reprove after the hearing of His ears.'
►
·
40. THE PROmise Sundered FROM THE COMMANDMENT,
John Udall-applicable here.
T
¶ 39.
'IT IS WRITTEN,' SAYS THE Tempter. IS IT SO?
164
Misquotation and misapplication—(1.) 'In all thy ways.' (2.) 'At any
time.'
I. 'In all thy ways'-a Bible principle explained, illustrated, and
applied-Rev. J. C. Ryle and Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander
refuted.
2. 'At any time-without the other false-removed from its basis.
[Note (w)- Stairs'-John Lightfoot, D.D. and Daniel Dyke, 347.]
•
PAGE
41. WHAT IS IT TO TEMPT God? .
'Jesus affirmed to him again, It is written, Not TEMPT shalt thou
Jehovah the God of thee.'
·
. 174
The word 'tempt' explained and unfolded-the quotation as found in
Deuteronomy vi. 16-the analogy-the elements of temptation.
5. Obedience must be kept abidingly in mind-Jean Ingelow.
6. We must never sunder Means from the End.
7. Let the Tempted be peculiarly comforted by our Lord's Second
Temptation.
8. Let the Tempted realize the great protecting Hands - Bishop
Hacket.
•
42. How SPECIFICALLY CASTING HIMSELF BENEATH FROM THE
TEMPLE WING WOULD HAVE BEEN A TEMPTING OF GOD,
Frederick Denison Maurice David — Plague Gibeon - Bishop
Hacket-Our every-day experiences-Missionary-Despiser of the
appointed way-Ways' of God.
43. CONCLUDING IMPROVEMENT OF DETAILS IN THE SECOND
TEMPTATION AND THE LORD'S ANSWER,
1. It is a favourite device of the Tempter to take men to pinnacles,
ay, Christian men-But a caveat against leaving 'pinnacles.'
2. It is to tempt God to do anything wrong on the plea of imagined
or intended good to others-Maurice.
3. Too many make the same use of the Bible that the Devil did.
4. The believer must appropriate to himself the Bible Promises and
Commandments.
·
•
160
176
179
183
Analytical Contents.
xxxi
[Notes (x) (y) in Notes and Illustrations :-
(x) The Second Temptation illustrated,
5. The pinnacle-references.
6. The second 'If'-Bishop Hacket.
Satan exalteth first: God humbleth first—John Udall.
7.
8. Extremes-Isaac Colfe.
1. 'Again'-Temptation not abandoned-John Udall-Bishop
Andrewes.
2. The scene of it-Isaac Colfe and John Udall.
3. Took Him up--how ?-Dr. Thomas Taylor.
4. The mode of changing the scene-Dr. Joseph Beaumont-and
references.
9. In all thy ways'-Richard Gilpin.
10. The Devil persuades, not compels-Theophylact.
II. Christ was invisible on the Temple-Bishop Hacket.
•
1. Means to be used-John Udall.
2. 'Tempt' the Lord-Dr. Manton.
3. 'It is written'-John Gumbleden, B.D.
(y) The Answer of the Lord to the Second Temptation illus-
trated,
352
348
THE THIRD TEMPTATION.
III. THE TEMPTATION OF THE LORD JESUS AS THE ACKNOWLEDGED
MESSIAH [Classification of the Temptations, footnote),
[Note (2) The Tempter at the Side,'
PAGE
•
353]
44 Again the Devil takes Him with him.' WHAT KIND OF
TAKING WAS THIS?.
Taρaλaußári explained and illustrated-[Bagot criticised,
footnote].
T45. To a mountain very elevated.' WHY TO A MOUNTAIN VERY
ELEVATED, OR TO A MOUNTAIN AT ALL?
•
149. WHEREIN LAY THE TEMPTATION?
The Kingdom without Atonement.
T46. And shows to Him the whole of the kingdoms of the earth.'
WAS THIS A NATURAL OR A PRETERNATURAL SHOWING?
The Poets-James D. Burns-' showed,' explained and illustrated-the
Apocalypse.
¶ 47.
'Shows to Him all the kingdoms of the earth,' What is
meant by ALL the kingdoms of the earth?
The Original explained-Peshito.
·
48. THE THIRD TEMPTATION FALLS IN WITH THE DESIGN of
THE MESSIAH IN COMING TO THE WORLD,
• 201
•
195
*
197
199
204
208
210
xxxii
Analytical Contents.
$
PAGE
T 50. WHAT WAS THERE IN CHRIST TO GIVE THE TEMPTER A
HOPE OF PREVAILING BY THIS TEMPTATION? .
1. Christ was a man, and whatever, not of sin, is in man, could be
appealed to in Him.
2. The Tempter knew there must be consciousness of power to so
reign.
3. The same strategy as before is employed-the Tempter 'shows'
the kingdoms.
51. WHAT WAS THERE IN THE TEMPTATION TO MAKE THE
LORD'S OVERCOMING A THING OF SUFFERING?
·
Again He was a Man-Shame and suffering could not be otherwise than
grievous to Him.
•
-
!
52. THIS VERY TEMPTATION RENEWED THROUGH PEter and
AT THE CRUCIFIXION,
Matthew xvi. 22; xxvii. 40, 42.
· 215
¶ 53. THE ANswer of the Lord to the THIRD TEMPTATION,
'Then Jesus says to him, Go-Satan; for It is written, To Jehovah the
God of thee thou shalt do homage; and to Him alone render worship.'
Not 'Diaboli gratia rex' but 'gratia Dei.'
·
¶ 54. THE ANSWER OF THE LORD TAKEN FROM DEUTERONOMY
VI. 13; VERBAL CHANGES,
John Gumbleden-Isaac Colfe.
1. The third was the last-Bishop Hacket.
2. The Third Temptation divided-Bishop Andrewes.
*
3. Taketh Him up '-Thomas Manton, D.D.
4. A mountain, very elevated-Dr. Joseph Beaumont.
C
5. Showed Him'-John Udall-Dean Alford.
¶ 55. DR. THOMAS MANTON AND DR. THOMAS TAYLOR UPON
THE ANSWER OF THE LORD, 'Worship' AND 'SERVE,'
¶ 56. COMPLETENESS OF THE ANSWER OF The Lord,
[Notes (aa) (bb) in Notes and Illustrations:-
(aa) The Third Temptation,
•
354
6. The mode of showing-Beaumont.
7. The glory of them-John Udall-Manning.
8. The Devil offers and prevails with much smaller bribes-
Bishop Andrewes.
9. Satan-derived honours-Daniel Dyke.
(bb) The Answer of the Lord to the Third Temptation,
I. On the whole-John Udall.
2.
'Fear' and 'serve '-John Gumbleden, B.D.-Thomas Man-
ton, D.D.]
212
357
214
216
218
220
224
Analytical Contents.
xxxiii
[57.
<
No' If Son Thou be.'
A VERY REMARKABLE OMISSION IN THE THIRD TEMPTA-
TION,
man.
T58. THE ARTIFICE OF THE THIRD TEMPTATION,
Distance lends enchantment to the view'-bit of broken glass-Clouds
-Alps.
¶ 59. THE CONCEALMENTS OF THE THIRD TEMPTATION,
James D. Burns-Thomas Aird-Dr. Thomas Manton-Bishop Hall-
Bishop Hacket-Napoleon.
TEMPTATION,
¶ 63. THE NEW 'IF' OF THE THIRD TEMPTAtion,
John Udall.
PAGE
M
60. SPLENDID SHOWS THAT ARE STILL USED TO TEMPT WITH,
War-Fashionable 'Balls '-Warning to the Young-'Gay' world-
Licentiousness-Prov. v. 3-14 elucidated and enforced-Walt Whit-
•
•
› 225
64. THE Seeming GracIOUSNESS OF THE THIRD TEMPTATION-
'I will GIVE,'
Richard Clerke.
•
¶ 61. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE THIRD TEMPTATION,
Earth only-Richard Clerke.
¶ 62. THE TRANSITORINESS OF THE SPLENDOUR OF THE THIRD
C
•
·
·
¶ 65. THE LIGHT STATEMENT OF THE SIN OF THE THIRD
TEMPTATION,
Practical enforcement.
· 235
·
•
226
•
227
•
231
66. THE UNQUESTIONED POWER ASSERTED IN THE THIRD
TEMPTATION BY THE DEVIL,
Satanic power a reality-Text, 1 John iv. 4.
¶ 67. THE NAME 'JESUS' STILL,
250
¶ 68. THE INSTANT REJECTION OF THE OFFER of the TEMPTER, 251
¶ 69. AT NO TIME WOULD THE LORD ACCEPT ANYTHING FROM
THE DEVIL,
[Peter, footnote.]
T70. THE RENEWED ASSERTION OF OBEDIENCE,
¶ 71. EXPOSURE of the Snare,
236
236
238
244
247
252
253
- 254
xxxiv
Analytical Contents.
CONCLUSION.
•
¶ 72. THE TEmpter is at ONCE UNDER AUTHORITY,'
73. THE TEMPTER LEFT, ONLY WHEN HIS TEMPTATION WAS
ENDED,
•
[Note (cc) in Notes and Illustrations :-End of the Temptation,
All' the Temptation-Webster and Wilkinson.]
74. ANGELS CAME WHEN THE TEMPTER LEFT,
[Angels, footnote.]
.
>
•
PAGE
257
→
357
¶ 75. IMPROVEMENT OF THE ending of tHE TEMPTATION-Dr.
Henry Edward Manning,
[Notes (dd) (ee) (ff), in Notes and Illustrations :-
(dd) 'Angels'-John Gumbleden, B.D.,
'Guardian Angels'-Rathbone.
Sp
358
(ee) The Devil's gifts-Dr. Richard Clerke,
(f) The meekness of Jesus throughout-Dr. Thos. Taylor], 359
T76. THE TEMPTATION ACTUALIZES TO THE BELIEVER WHAT
HE MAY EXPECT AS A SON Of God,
•
· 259
•
358
•
77. THE TEMPTATION SHOWS THE TEMPTED BELIEVER HOW
TO RESIST, AND ENDEARS The Bible,
[Deuteronomy, footnote]. [Note (gg), The Bible, 359.]
•
¶ 78. THE TEMPTATION EXALTS AND YET HUMANIZES CHRIST
TO THE BELIEVER,
The Solitary Victor upon the Mountain-top,'
·
258
261
263
267
271
276
Preliminaries.
I PRAY you, Reader, as one fellow-Christian may another, in the name
of our great Master, to give all the force you can, by EXAMPLE, to His
divine precepts; neither to give your affections to wealth nor rank, but to
that which cometh of the Father and returneth to Him. And excuse not
yourself by saying, "What can one man do?" Does the rain-drop which
refreshes the flower ask itself, What can I do, a single rain-drop? No. It
does its heavenly Master's will, and refreshes at least one flower; and its
fellows do the like, and thus all are quickened. Let each think only of
doing what is right, and if each does but this, the whole is well cared for.'
Henry Ellison,
[Preface to 'Mad Moments,' p. 17.
The
most matterful of modern overlooked
poetry. 2 vols. 12mo, 1833 (Malta).]
'A KING lived long ago,
In the morning of the world,
When earth was nigher heaven than now:
And the king's locks curled,
Disparting o'er a forehead full
As the milk-white space 'twixt horn and horn
Of some sacrificial bull-
Only calm as a babe new born.'
Robert Browning,
Pippa Passes.')
THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.
MATTHEW IV, I-II. (a)
2
8
I. 'Then Jesus¹ was led up within the wilderness under¹
5
The Spirit, in order to be tempted under the Devil.s
2. ‘And having fasted days forty and nights forty,' afterwards
He was hungry, 10
3. And being come to Him, the Tempter said, If 12 Son
Thou be of The God, 13 speak,¹ in order that these, the
stones, may become loaves.15
4.
'But He answering spake, 16 It is written, Not upon bread
alone shall live the man," but upon every word proceed-
ing through the mouth of God.18
C
5. Then the Devil took Him with him 19 unto the Holy City,
and sets Him upon the wing of the Temple,
20
6. And says to Him, If Son Thou be of The God, cast Thyself
beneath, for it is written that to the angels of Him will
He command concerning Thee, and upon [their] hands
they shall bear Thee up, lest ever Thou mayest strike
against a stone Thy foot.
にん
​11
7. 'Jesus said to him again,25 It is written, Not tempt shalt
thou Jehovah,26 the God of thee.
Again the Devil takes Him with him unto 27 a mountain
8.
* I have translated the three narratives of the Temptation more closely
to the words and order of the Original than in our Authorized Version, in
order to bring out the points of my exposition. I yield to none in admira-
tion of, or reverence for our noble English Bible; but for exegetical and
critical ends more verbal exactitude is found necessary. In Note (a) I give
other renderings, and also various critical and exegetical Notes. The small
figures 1 2 3, etc., refer to these.
A
2
The Temptation of Christ.
very elevated, 28 and shows to Him the whole of the king-
doms of the earth and the splendour of them, 29
32
9. 'And says to Him, These all to Thee will I deliver, if
bowing down Thou mayest do homage to me.
10. 'Then Jesus says to him, Go [at the back of me], Satan,
for it is written, To Jehovah, the God of thee, thou shalt
do homage, and to Him alone render worship.
II. Then the Devil leaves Him, and, lo! angels came and
were waiting upon Him.'35
MARK I. 12, 13.
'And forthwith The Spirit impelleth [constraineth 36] Him
into the wilderness ;
13. And He was [there] within the wilderness days forty,"
being tempted under the Adversary, and He was toge-
ther with the wild-beasts, and the angels waited upon
Him.'
12.
-
LUKE IV. I-13.
1. 'Jesus, of The Holy Spirit full, turned back" [= returned]
away from the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit into
the wilderness,
2. Being tempted days forty under the Devil, 43 And He did
eat nothing whatever within these days; and these being
finished, afterwards He was hungry.
3. And the Devil said to Him, If Son Thou be of The God,
speak to this stone in order that it may become a loaf.*
'And Jesus answered unto him, saying, It is written that
not upon bread alone the man shall live, but upon every
word of God. 48
4.
5.
into a lofty
'And the Devil having conducted Him 19 up
mountain,50 shows to Him the whole kingdoms of the
habitable earth,51 within an instant of time.
C
6. And the Devil said to Him, To Thee I will deliver the
whole of this authority and the splendour of these, be-
cause to me it is given up,53 and to whom I may choose
I give it to him.
51
7. Thou, therefore, if Thou wilt do homage before me, all
shall be of Thee. 55
8. And Jesus answering, said to him, It is written, Thou shalt
The Temptation of Christ.
3
W
do homage to Jehovah, the God of thee, and to Him
alone render worship [service].
9. And he conducted Him unto Jerusalem, and set Him
upon the wing of the Temple, and said to Him, If Son
Thou be of The God, cast Thyself from this place be-
neath.
56
10. For it is written that to the angels of Him will He com-
mand concerning Thee, to guard Thee,
II.
11. And that upon [their] hands they shall bear Thee up, lest
12.
ever Thou strike against a stone Thy foot.
And Jesus answering, said to him, It is prescribed, Thou
shalt not tempt Jehovah, the God of thee.
13. And the Devil, having ended all a temptation, withdrew
until a fitting opportunity.'" (a)
THERE are FACTS as well as doctrines presented to
us in the Word of God that, while of pre-eminent,
nay awful interest, receive but little, or at least inade-
quate attention, even from those whose daily prayer
is, with the Psalmist, 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I
may behold wondrous things out of Thy law' (Ps.
cxix. 18). This arises, perhaps, from the very gran-
deur of such facts. Brought face to face with them,
man 'believes' yet 'trembles,' and, like Israel under
the cliffs of Sinai, is prone to exclaim in involuntary
awe, 'Let not the Lord speak with us' thus, 'lest
we die' (Ex. xx. 19).
There are many such facts in the human life of
the Lord Jesus. I know none surrounded with a
profounder interest than that to which your attention
is now to be invited--THE TEMPTATION, that por-
tentous, lightning-charged cloud which darkened the
rising of the Sun of Righteousness, only to be trans-
4
The Temptation of Christ.
J
figured into a New Testament Cloud of the Glory;"
or, to change the figure, to become the ground, by its
very 'horror of darkness,' of that 'Bow in the cloud' 2
that ever since has gleamed before His tempted ones.
I suspect that this fact in the life of our blessed
Lord is of the number which I have indicated as in
awe avoided. I suspect that by very many it is
wondered over with a vague wonder, rather than
pondered so as to be understood. Hence I appre-
hend 'exceeding great and precious' truths in it are
lost, and guidance missed in the deepest experiences.
of the believer. With that reverence becoming a
theme so solemn and extraordinary, but at the same
time availing ourselves of our liberty to 'Search the
Scriptures;' accepting gratefully what has been writ-
ten by others, yet bringing our own insight to it; let
us approach its consideration and elucidation. Nor
need we have any fear that in so doing we are about
3
'To finger idly some old Gordian knot,
Unskilled to sunder, and too weak to cleave. '4
1
If there be watching unto prayer by speaker and
hearers, He will not withhold His help from an en-
deavour to know His own Word, and then there must
be profit.
1 Ex. xvi. 10: The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Cf. also
among other passages, Ex. xxiv. 15, 16; xxxiv. 5; xl. 34; Lev. xvi. 2 ;
Numb. x. 34; and 1 Kings viii. 10.
2 Gen. ix. 13: I do set my bow in the cloud;' and vers. 14, 16.
3 Anthony Farindon has well counselled, Timeamus nobis de reverentià
ista,' which he thus translates, 'Let us be very wary that we offend not
Christ out of too much reverence.' (Works, iv. 98, by Nichols.)
4 Poems, by Arthur H. Clough, p. 68.
C
The Temptation of Christ.
5
1. The Temptation accepted as a Fact, and the
Economy it reveals.
In the outset, I wish you to understand that I accept
without the slightest hesitation or reservation the literal
truth, and in the truth, the reality of THE TEMPTA-
TION, and that neither more nor less. I enter into
no controversy, much less compromise, with either
tampering scholars on the one hand, or with avowed
Infidels on the other. I ACCEPT now, and here, THE
TEMPTATION of Jesus as a FACT exactly as it lies be-
fore us in the narratives of the Gospels. At present
it must suffice to remind you, that as the larger in-
cludes the lesser, so the sanction that gives authority
and consecration to the three Gospels as a whole,
gives authority and consecration to these narratives ;
while some of the tenderest and most sustaining
'promises' of the Epistles have The Temptation for
their basis. For take it away, and what becomes of
those words of cheer and strength that animate the
wrestling, sorely tried, often failing, even greatly
sinning child of God? What is to become of me,
a poor, weak, weary, miserable, utterly lorn and
tempted sinner-only in piteous mercy pardoned-
asks the believer, if that and this be not true: In
that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is
able to succour them that are tempted' (Heb. ii. 18);
'Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an
High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feel-
•
6
The Temptation of Christ.
ing of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin'? (Heb. iv. 14, 15.)
Tear out the leaf that tells me of the temptation of
Christ, and these and many other priceless words go
with it. But it is written,' and I believe. I hesi-
tate not to say, that I believe it to be true, simply
because it is written, but I believe it to be written
because it is true.¹ (b)
At this point I would observe that there is a great
practical truth which this fact-as a bare fact—of the
Temptation seems to proclaim, and which deserves
enforcement. Whether we look at it from the side of
the Tempter, or from the side of the Tempted, either
or both, I think you must agree with me, that the
Temptation lets us know in what sort of a world we
are. Here is no fate, law, machinery, impersonality
merely, but a LIVING FRIEND and a LIVING FOE seek-
ing our souls. I apprehend it should impart a more
intense reality to our lives did we habitually grasp
this verity of our ever-living Advocate,' and ever-
living Accuser-both, not one merely.
C
1 Elsewhere, as stated in my Preface, I hope honestly and thoroughly to
grapple with all objections and difficulties. But meantime, in, as above,
accepting The Temptation as a fact, I observe that it were preposterous to
demand a vindication of the wider question of the inspiration and authority
of Holy Scripture every time a single point therein comes up for discussion.
That were as though one were to insist that I shall establish the basis upon
which the axioms of mathematics rest, ere ever I shall be permitted to de-
monstrate or illustrate a proposition of Euclid or Newton. It is a necessity
of progress that certain already ascertained and argued out results be
assumed; and no results may be thus assumed as irrefragable if the inspira-
tion and authority of what is written' in the Word of God may not be so
assumed.
The Temptation of Christ.
7
Sailing over the great oceans of our earth, the
voyager sometimes sees on the far-off horizon a thin
mist-cloud or streak, which to the telescope leaps up
a green island. I think, my friends, such an island,
cut off from the mainland by a broad belt of waters,
too broad to look across, and whose indwellers have
no means of passage, well represents our world re-
garded apart from revelation. You stand on the
highest hill in the island, and you see nothing but the
girdling sea. The people of the island dwell alone.'
There are traditions, it may be, of white-sailed
ships, and of visitors from lands across the ocean;
but these traditions belong to the far vanished Past.
The little sea-girt island sits in the sea, alone, and is
sundered from all intercourse, other than chance or
shipwreck bring from the mainland. Now, as I have
said, may I not thus symbolize our earth apart from
the Bible? To sense and unaided reason, we too
seem to occupy just such an ocean-girt island, divided
and sundered from the spirit-realms. But it is not
really so. THIS EARTH OF OURS IS NOT THE LONELY
PLACE IT SEEMS. Far up above its din and tumult
and dust,
C
'Beyond the glittering starry skies,'
*
is a pure and blessed world,--sinless, sorrowless,-
where the High and Lofty One' unveils His glory to
the blessed dwellers; and with this high and holy and
radiant world we are connected. Do you ask me
how? My answer is, by the mediation of Christ, our
8
The Temptation of Christ.
High-Priest-by the thousand thousand ties of prayer
--by the magnanimous abiding of the Holy Spirit-
by heaven peopled from earth-by the ministration
of angelic visits-by the well-nigh infinite outgoings
of grace. In like manner there is a dark world with
which we stand connected,—
'Below the bottom of the great abyss,
There, where one centre reconciles all things,
The world's profound heart pants; there placed is
MISCHIEF'S OLD MASTER.'¹
There for the Saviour, there is the Destroyer; for
the Prince of Light upon His throne of light, there is
the Prince of Darkness upon his throne of darkness;
for prayer, there is relentless prompting to evil; for
angelic ministration, the deadly ministration of the
'seed of the devil;' for earth-peopled heaven, there
is earth-peopled hell; and for the thousand thousand
ties of grace, there are the ten thousand thousand ties
of 'the flesh' and of the 'evil heart of unbelief.' 'We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin-
cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in
high places' (Eph. vi. 12). HELL HAS GOT MORE THAN
A FOOTHOLD IN OUR EARTH.
I regard the Temptation of the Lord as proclaiming
and actualizing to us this economy of light and dark-
ness, as asserting the reality of our relations to the
spiritual world, ABOVE AND BENEATH. It is very awful.
1 Richard Crashaw. Sospetto d'Herode (Works by Turnbull, p. 43).
The Temptation of Christ.
9
But it is true, or the Bible is untrue. For that is
what the Bible says, and is what it tells me and all
ministers of the Gospel to say. Suffer me then, my
brethren, to ask you to weigh this twofold truth
actualized to us in the Temptation.
I want you
to mark the stress, the intensity of assertion in the
Word of God, in its forth-setting of our living Friend
and living foe. Do master it ; and let none reave you
of either the holy joy or the holy fear inspired by the
revelation (c).
Having thus asked you to take heed' to the eco-
nomy revealed by the Temptation as a fact which
actually has transpired on our earth, I have to notice.
another aspect of it, which, I have reason to believe,
comes up as an objection more and more distractingly
and painfully the more the Temptation, as a fact, is
affirmed and established, viz. :—
(
¶ 2. How should the Tempter ever have thought of
tempting' with any hope of overcoming, the Son
of God? 1
There seem to me to be two answers to this diffi-
culty; and I would put both before you. First of
1 Dr. F. W. Krummacher in his Christ and his People has very well pre-
sented this:- How could he [Satan] entertain a hope, that with his infernal
suggestions he could find any response in or gain any entrance into, the
Holy One of Israel? and how is it conceivable, that he really, by these
temptations, engaged in conflict with the Lord, and that the whole affair did
not terminate in a mere mask-fight?' Before, he had said, 'The history of
the Temptation stands like a sphinx at the threshold of the New Testament,
and gives us a difficult problem for solution. But to him who solves it, the
IO
The Temptation of Christ.
all I may reply, The Devil was-in the Bible sense-
a 'Fool.' Next I may reply, he had grounds to ex-
pect SUCCESS, and motives of a commanding kind.
I may reply
1. The Devil was—in the Bible sense-a ‘Fool. I
use the word 'Fool'-a Bible word-in its deepest
and most awful meaning.¹ It seems to me that it is
not sufficiently kept in mind that SIN had and has
the same blinding, stupifying effects on Satan that
we see it have on bad men. Let a man persist in
ungodliness, and see how his very eyes are put out,
and how foolish' he becomes. What must have
been the effects of sin upon our great Adversary after
working in his spacious but dark spirit through un-
told ages of sinning!
'Sin had dulled his native strength and spoilt the holy
law
Of impulse whence the archangel forms their earnest being
draw.
3
gates to the sanctuary of divine peace unfold themselves, as his reward.
[Translation by Samuel Jackson, p. 65.] The excellent Doctor promises to
find the correct answers' to all these questions and difficulties; but most will
think that the promise is only slenderly redeemed by the performance. The
section on the Temptation is very meagre and commonplace. Dr. W. H.
Mill of Cambridge, in his Five Sermons on the Temptation of Christ our
Lord in the Wilderness (8vo, 1844), thus meets the difficulty:—'Though
believing and trembling, as we know of demons in general, with respect to
all the divine facts revealed, it is probable, as some of the ancients have
thought, that Satan was taken by surprise by that great mystery [of the
incarnation], which, if fully understood, wOULD HAVE MADE HIS PRESENT
ENTERPRISE UTTERLY HOPELESS' (p. 63). I know not how far Dr. Mill in-
tended to qualify or modify 'understood' by 'fully' but in the sequel it will
be seen I hold Satan to have perfectly apprehended from the outset with
whom he pitted himself.
1 Viz., the terrible ↳pp (Ps. xlix. 11; Prov. i. 32; xv. 20) and äppwv
(Luke xi. 40; xii. 20).
The Temptation of Christ.
II
And sin had drunk his brightness since his heavenly days
went by:
Shadows of care and sorrow dwelt in his proud immortal
eye.' 1
I should grant the Devil's craft and cleverness, but
not his common sense, much less wisdom; and he
cannot see afar off.'? This darkening of his 'foolish
heart' covers, as I take it, any folly, however wildly
reckless and daring, just as it covers and explains
man's so mad and hopeless mating of himself against
God, vividly delineated by Eliphaz: He stretcheth
out his hand AGAINST GOD, and strengtheneth him-
self against the Almighty. He runneth upon Him,
even on His neck, upon the thick bosses of His buck-
ler' (Job xv. 25, 26).
I would observe here more specifically, that this
1 Thomas Aird, 'The Devil's Dream on Mount Aksbeck' (Poetical
Works, p. 31, ed. 1856).
2 Jonathan Edwards of America has characterized Satan thus :-'Though
the devil be exceedingly cunning and subtile, yet he is one of the greatest
fools and blockheads in the world, as the subtilest of wicked men are. Sin
is of such a nature, that it exceedingly infatuates and stultifies the mind;
men deliberately choose eternal torment, rather than miss of the pleasure of
a few days. Sin has the same effect on the devils, to make them act like
fools; and so much the more, as it is greatest [= more of it?] in them than in
others.'-Works, vol. ii, p. 612, royal 8vo. ed. Ebrard has answered with
acumen Schleiermacher's objection of the 'superlative insight' of Satan.
He says, 'He
may be superior to man in cleverness and cunning. But
there is an immense leap from refined cleverness, which is perfectly com-
patible with wickedness, to insight into the truth. The fact that Satan
possesses only the former, is the reason why he is so constantly thwarted in
his attacks upon the kingdom of God.'—The Gospel History, p. 206. Con-
sult also the Rev. Walter Scott's Existence of Evil Spir.ts Proved, etc.
(3d ed. 1853; The Congregational Lecture.)
Elsewhere-in my larger books-I shall discuss the various conceptions.
of Satan in words and in art. For the moment I may state here that the
statue of the Tempter at the side of one of the great doors of Strasburg
Cathedral is in my opinion one of the most wonderful products of genius.
į
I 2
The Temptation of Christ.
،
saying of Eliphaz suggests that beneath the working
of sin in general there was PRIDE in particular, to give
the Tempter a very lofty estimate of his own capacity.
He saw that the Lord was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh' (Rom. viii. 3); saw him in veriest human
weakness; and it is conceivable that blind to all save
what was in truth a necessity to him (for there was
a necessity for instant action), he looked at what was
outward and seeming only, and so stood proudly pre-
pared to mate himself against his divine antagonist.
History and biography are full of examples of the in-
toxicating working of pride to such issues. We find
defiance, taunt, assault from those utterly, almost
ludicrously disproportioned in force and resources to
their opponents; and the discovery of how ancestral
pride and traditional success had flung a bewildering
mirage of exaggeration over their own resources, and
conversely slight upon those of their opponent-made
only when the foot of the conqueror has been placed
on their neck. More nearly and narrowly if we at-
tend to our own experience of the over-estimate of
ourselves and under-estimate of others through our
pride or vanity,' it will be made plain to us how with
C
Those thin, worn, wasted, sharpened features, the so palpable contraction
of a once noble face, the compressed ascetic lips, the strange checked smile,
the clutching hand seemingly going through the mantle, whose quivering
folds thrill in their revelation of the dumb misery within, the twining snakes
semi-shown, the uneasy-resting feet, no one who has looked at earnestly
will soon forget. Copies are found elsewhere, e.g., in Basle, and indeed all
over the museums of the Continent, but they do not approach the profoundly
conceived original. The tempter holds the plucked 'apple,' surely in itself
a stroke of intellect.
The Eve is
The Eve is very inferior.
The Temptation of Christ.
13
but an imperfect apprehension of the immeasurable
difference between himself and his Adversary, Satan
thus 'compassed about with pride as a chain' adven-
tured to 'tempt' the Lord. Of him, equally with
man, may it be said, 'PRIDE goeth before destruction,
and an haughty spirit before a fall' (Prov. xvi. 18),
and 'By PRIDE cometh contention' (Prov. xiii. 10).
So that to the Tempter in his self-deluding egotism
the burden of Edom might have been addressed :
'Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the PRIDE
OF THINE HEART, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of
the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though
thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I
WILL BRING THEE DOWN from thence, saith the Lord'
(Jer. xlix. 16; f. Obadiah 3).
There is another double thought. The Tempter
knew the effect which the lofty prize of sovereignty
for which he had struck had upon his mind, and with
his own self-estimate welded impenetrably by pride,
he may have reasoned from himself to Christ in the
prospect of that immense bribe of empire with which
he was to 'tempt:' while again, in retrospect, there
was the great and very mournful fact, that not one
"in the likeness of sinful flesh' assaulted by him, had
stood immaculate, i.c., without yielding less or more.
The Incarnation, by the very broadness of Him who
was to be tempted,' presented many sides upon
which hope of partial success might hang. The Evil
One could not sound the ineffable mystery of God
C
14 The Temptation of Christ.
manifest in the flesh, or tell the influence of the
human upon the Divine, or of the Divine upon the
human.
Had nothing more definite been written,' I should
have regarded this general answer, that the Devil
was, in the Bible sense, a ' Fool,' and specifically, self-
blinded by his PRIDE and human success, as ample
in reply to the difficulty of his 'tempting' God in
Christ with any expectation of overcoming. But I
apprehend something definite has been 'written,' and
therefore I reply
II. The Devil had grounds to expect success, and
motives of a commanding kind.
Here I ask you to look at The Temptation side by
side with the first prophecy and promise, uttered by
Divine lips while sin's earliest shadows were falling
upon our world. Listen: 'I WILL PUT ENMITY BE-
TWEEN THEE [Satan] AND THE WOMAN, AND BETWEEN
THY SEED AND HER SEED IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD,
AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL' (Gen. iii. 15).
I find in that curse the WARRANT, if I may so
speak, of The Temptation of the Lord Jesus. Let
us pause a little over it, for it opens up to us the
mingled expectation, the colossal hopes and fears of
the Evil One, and gives MOTIVE as he advanced to
the encounter.
Mark the successive words: 'I-God—will put en-
mity.' Here was a blow in a word, to the gigantic
The Temptation of Christ.
15
success of the Adversary. He doubtless weened that
he had made man by the Fall his companion in woe
for ever, his fellow-hater of that God who had hurled
him from his high estate,' when-
Up he went, from native might or holy sufferance given,
As if to strike the starry boss of the high and vaulted heaven."¹
Had he not based his temptation of the primal mother
upon the announcement received from Him and its
awful sanction, that 'in the clay' of the eating of the
forbidden fruit, 'dying she (and all) should die?' So
that he must have felt sure that an eternal, irrevo-
cable sentence of death had been passed and incurred.
There could not therefore be he must have reasoned
-any hope on the part of fallen man, from 'enmity'
to him; and conversely a deeper, darker, deadlier,
'enmity' to God, as the issue. I need hardly say,
that had man been left to himself, there never would
have been the enmity' here announced. Man by
nature has no enmity to sin, and hence none to Satan.
But what never should have come there, God declares
he will 'put' into man's heart: 'I will put enmity
between thee and the woman.' Thus the Evil One
was to have an adversary in man. Thus, in the
moment of his triumph, he was perplexed with pro-
phetic words of interference and neutralizing force and
grace. Still, I can conceive, that as age after age rolled
away without any abounding evidences of the threat-
1 Thomas Aird, 'The Devil's Dream on Mount Aksbeck' (Poetical
Works, p. 29, ed. 1856).
16
The Temptation of Christ.
ened 'enmity,' he came to regard it as but a threat.
True! altars smoked, and victims bled, and a few
held fast a grand hope. True! patriarch and pro-
phet arose and uttered far-onward-looking promises.
True faithful ones went out on the last great jour-
ney, expecting beyond to find home. Nevertheless,
'enlarged' hell, crowded, crammed by the hosts who
did violence to God's witness within them, in their
false and foul idolatries and disbelief, witnessed to
unbroken allegiance and very awful triumph, which
were as the blowing wind to his fiery scars.' He
had not unchallenged nor unbroken power over
individuals. God kept a light burning, and Satan
could not quench it. There were men and women
who belonged to God, 'holy ones,' from Abel and
Enoch onward, who clave to the Lord, and wistful
watchers who not only sighed but looked for deliver-
ance. Cries ascended against the enemy and the
avenger; and the great whispering-gallery of 'The
Throne' caught them up, and the heart of hope was
kept alive by the promise of redemption. Never was
God without witnesses.' Nevertheless, it holds un-
utterably true, that the Evil One was the 'prince' of
the world.
But looking a little closer at the words of the curse,
I find other elements of hope, other motives to 'tempt.'
Keep in mind the ANNOUNCED ANTAGONISTS: 'I will
put enmity between thee and THE WOMAN.' The
woman! And was she, the fair, the gentle, the easily-
The Temptation of Christ.
17
beguiled Eve to be his antagonist? So be it,' I can
imagine him exclaiming; 'I overcame her un-fallen,
and where the difficulty of overcoming her now that
she is fallen? I conquered within Eden, why not
outside? Conquered once, why not again?'
Then still further encouragement may have been
drawn from what comes immediately after this. Mark,
• Between THY SEED and her seed.' Ha! Was he to
have the embattled ranks of hell with him? Was he
to be free to marshal his mighty 'hosts' against his
opponent, 'seed' of spirit against 'seed' of woman?
Again, 'So be it,' I can imagine him avouching; I
overcame her all alone, much more surely at the head
of all my legions!'
Nor is this all. If we realize who the great adver-
sary was, and what, and where, it is not difficult to
understand that a wild hope may have flashed into his
burdened eyes as he caught up the added threatening,
'IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD.' With a dark eternity
behind him, and a darker eternity stretching in dread
perspective before him for high
'O'er all was ever heard
The mustering stores of wrath that fast their coming
forms prepared :'¹
1
is it too much to suppose that he may have leaped in
welcome to such a blow? 'Bruise my head!' Me-
thinks I hear him cry with still more dolorous cry
than that of Esau over his bartered birthright: A
thousand and a thousand times welcome to a blow
1 Thomas Aird, as before, pp. 32, 34-
B
18 The Temptation of Christ.
¡
that shall rid me of my burning throne and my in-
expiable anguish!" 'The number of years is hidden
to the oppressor' (Job xv. 20).
Then, what mysterious added words are these ?—
'THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL.' He was not there-
fore to be bruised' unavenged; if he was to be
crushed he was in turn to crush and wound; and a
hope of vaster success may have towered before him.
You perceive, my friends, that not as advancing to
an utterly impossible and desperate thing, not without
ground and motive, not without mingling of hate with
fear, of expected triumph in defeat, did the Prince of
Darkness confront the Prince of Light, and enter into
CONFLICT with him.
I have hesitated to unfold even thus far the words
of the Curse in their relation to the Temptation, from
no doubt of the rightness of such unfolding, but
because my exposition rests upon my conception of
the nature and attributes of Satan, which I hope one
day fully to set forth. For the moment, it may be
enough to observe that I utterly repudiate the semi-
divine character assigned to the Evil One. I refuse
to recognise him as a kind of god in wickedness,
almost co-equal with God over all.' I apprehend
that he is no more than a lofty spirit, and as a spirit
partaking of the spirit-nature of man. As such he
shares man's ignorance as he shares his sinfulness,
and is girded by his limitations, if not in degree, cer-
tainly in kind. I thus feel warranted in explaining
<
The Temptation of Christ.
19
the primal words of curse and threatening according
to the law of effect of such words upon the human
spirit. Consequently, I cannot regard the temptation
of Jesus by Satan as that hopeless, mad impossibility
and monstrosity that many do. Indeed, there seem
to me greater elements of mystery and wonder in
man's tempting' the Son of God, than in the devil's
so doing,—a thing man did. For what is the record?
I turn to Matt. xvi. 1: The Pharisees also, with the
Sadducees, came, and TEMPTING, desired him that he
would show them a sign from heaven.' And so else-
where. Hence my observation and reply to the
alleged difficulty: THE TEMPTER HAD GROUNDS TO
EXPECT SUCCESS, AND MOTIVES OF A COMMANDING
KIND.1
C
Having made these preliminary remarks, by which
I indulge a hope that the REALITY of the Temptation
will be carried along with you in listening to my ex-
position of it, let us now turn to the narrative itself;
and I would proceed from verse to verse.
1 Long subsequent to my working-out of above parallelism of the Curse with
the Temptation, I found the general idea in the 'exposition' of John Gumble-
den, B.D, as follows, and I am glad to have so thoughtful and remarkable
a thinker to adduce in support of my interpretation: But perhaps,' he
says, 'at the first hearing this may seem strange unto you, that the Saviour
of the world should be tempted by the destroyer of the world; yet, if we
rightly consider the first promise made by God to man, of a Redeemer to
save men, strange it is not; and the promise in sense is this: the seed of
the woman shall bruise the serpent's head: giving power, notwithstanding,
even by the same promise, to the same serpent, to bruise the heel of the
woman's seed.'—(Christ_Tempted: the Devil Conquered; or a short and
plain Exposition on a part of the Fourth Chapter [of} St. Matthew's
Gospel, etc. By John Gumbleden, B.D., and Chaplain to the Right Hon-
ourable the Earl of Leicester. London, 4to, 1657, p. 2.)
C
20
The Temptation of Christ.
बा
3. The Time chosen for the Temptation.
Ver. 1. 'THEN Jesus was led up within the wilder-
ness under the Spirit, in order to be tempted under
the Devil.'
:
We have here, in almost every separate word,
matter for thought and personal application. I
notice first of all the TIME as designated by 'Then.'
'Then; that is, immediately after the Lord had been
publicly baptized by John the Baptist, as we read in
the context, 'THEN cometh Jesus from Galilee to
Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. . . . . And
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway
out of the water.
THEN Was Jesus led up of
the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the
Devil.' St. Mark is even more specific. He says,
'IMMEDIATELY the Spirit driveth Him into the
wilderness' (i. 12).
But further, the TIME gathers to itself new interest
and significance when we recall the announcement
made upon the baptism of the Lord. It was immedi-
ately after Jesus had been declared to be the beloved
Son of God.' We read, 'Lo! the heavens were
opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God de-
scending like a dove, and lighting upon Him and
lo! a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased. THEN
Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be
tempted of the Devil.'
was
•
·
•
:
The Temptation of Christ.
2 I
I connect the two, the Baptism and the Announce-
ment, visible and audible, because they mutually
interpret each other. The baptism alone had not
sufficed. For many a holy and venerable saint who
was waiting' for 'the hope of Israel,' had stooped
beneath the dripping hand of the Baptist, and yet in
no extraordinary or special way been tempted of the
great Adversary. But these words, and that mystic
'sign,' were unmistakable. Now the Seed of the
woman' was 'manifested.' Now the conflict must
begin. Now therefore must be the moment of
Temptation. The Captain of our salvation was in-
augurating His great redemption-work, going forth
'conquering and to conquer' through obedience.
The Evil One heard the announcement; and half
in fear and half in hope, with dread, mingled with
welcome, as I have shown you, he accepts the chal-
lenge. Now, if ever, the world's jubilee-trumpet
must be made to give an uncertain sound.' Now,
if ever, the unsealed fountain must be led to lose its
life-giving stream in the parched sands instead of
flowing out wide as the heavens and grand as the sea.
Now, if ever, the light, for whose rising the world
from earliest dawn had wistfully watched, must be
clouded and dimmed, and, if possible, quenched.
Now, if ever, the foundation-stone' upon which a
temple for redeemed man is to be upreared, must be
shivered and shattered. It was a miserable delusion
which only the deadly working of sin to deceive and
C
C
22
The Temptation of Christ.
blind, adequately explains. But so doubtless the
tempter planned. For 'Then,' specifically 'Then,' did
he stand prepared to 'tempt.' Then,' at the begin-
ning, as he always opposes BEGINNINGS, except of sin.
Thus far let the correspondence between the time
chosen in the first Temptation and in that of the
Lord be observed. Of old it followed immediately
after God saw everything that He had made, that all
was 'very good.' Now the Temptation follows im-
mediately after God had declared, as we have seen,
6 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'
The Divine complacency was struck at in both.
Similarly it is to be recalled and remembered that
the so sore and fierce Temptation of Job followed
immediately upon that great question by God con-
cerning him—the most wondrous testimony ever paid
to one of the human race, 'The Man' alone excepted
—‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that THERE
IS NONE LIKE HIM IN THE EARTH, a perfect and an
upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth
evil? THEN Satan answered the Lord,' and the
temptation proceeded (Job i. 8, et seq.)
But still further as to the Time, turn to Luke
iv. 1 'And Jesus, BEING FULL OF THE HOLY
GHOST, returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness.' This is very noteworthy.
'Then' when 'without measure' the Spirit was 'given'
unto Him; 'then' emphatically he was 'led up' to
be 'tempted.'
The Temptation of Christ.
23
This abundant anointing of the Lord was foreseen
by the prince-prophet Daniel. For in his vision of
the then far-off Future, in which the scenes are
localized lingeringly and lovingly in the 'holy city,'
amongst the many things that were to be done dur-
ing the seventy' determined 'weeks,' was the an-
ointment of the Most Holy, even Messiah the
Prince (Dan. ix. 24, 25). And thus this very out-
pouring of the Spirit, this very anointment of the
Lord, may have been that which definitely pointed.
out Jesus to the Tempter as the woman's seed,'
as it was what definitely pointed Him out to John
the Baptist. The Adversary well knew what was to
follow that anointing. For the son of Amoz, well
nigh a thousand years before, had lifted up his voice
with these jubilant words: 'The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me [Christ]; because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek :
He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and-THE DAY OF VEN-
GEANCE' (Isa. lxi. 1, 2).¹ I say, well did Satan know
that that 'acceptable year' was also to be the dawn
of the day of vengeance.' Therefore, then,' with
C
<
'
It surely is very striking, that in what appears to have been our Lord's
first Sermon, delivered when the Temptation was ended,' He selected this
passage as His text. C Luke iv. 14-21. Very noticeable too is it that the
Lord stopped short with the 'good news,' and omitted the words of ven-
geance.
24
The Temptation of Christ.
1
a full grasp of the significance of the crisis, with an
intense apprehension of the momentousness of the
issues, with burning hate, and, unless I err, a lorn.
hope of deliverance through the not unavenged
'bruising,' he met his Adversary. Oh! it was malig-
nity of the darkest sort! In the beginning' he had
wounded man, and through the wounds smitten him
with a mortal disease; and now he would keep back
the Physician and the medicine. We may say of
him as Esau said of Jacob, Is he not rightly called
Jacob, a 'supplanter'? He first stole away our
birthright at the creation, and now he seeks to take.
away our blessing in Christ, the Redeemer, and
check sweet Mercy's law.'¹
I would notice another element of adaptation to the
time in the Temptation. You remember that in the
Gospel of Luke it is stated that at his baptism 'Jesus
himself began to be about thirty years of age' (see iii.
23). I find herein profound subtlety of calculation
in the Tempter. For, observe, the Lord had grown
up through a sinless infancy and boyhood and early
manhood. He had the experience of thirty sinless.
years behind Him, and is in the first strong prime of
all the powers of manhood. He is tempted 'then.'
The Devil knows-though he did not understand
Jesus how there is profoundest weakness in our
human strength.
1 I enrich myself above from Manton and from Gilpin. Cf. Christ's
Temptations (1685) by the former (page 16), and Demonologia Sacra
(1677) of the latter (Part iii. c. 12, Obs. 15).
The Temptation of Christ.
25
From what has come before us in this matter of
the time chosen for the Temptation, there are certain
practical truths that I apprehend demand statement
as being fitted, with the Divine blessing, to be useful
to believers. I propose, in going along, to put before
you such improvement' of the successive points as
is spontaneous, and not a mere dilution into veriest
wash, unfitted to drink, and equally unfitted to cleanse,
of the ‘pure milk of the word.'¹
¶ 4. Improvement' of the time chosen for the Temp-
tation.
There appear to me, then, to be certain specific
applications of the circumstances attending the time
of the Temptation. These in order.
1. It was in the prospect of the Temptation that the
Lord Jesus was FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.-
As the 'Man' Christ Jesus He needed the Spirit in
temptation; and if He did so, much more must we.
1 'Improvement. -I may here state, once for all, that while I like the
good old Puritan word 'improvement,' I disrelish exceedingly very much
of what passes for the thing in these days. I disrelish it, primarily,
because the custom of fastening upon every action of the Lord a studied-out
contribution to the evidences of His divinity, or a 'moral,' or a 'lesson,
seems to me to turn the beautifully natural life of Christ into mere acting.
The works and words of the Lord came from Him because He was Divine.
He was not studying 'proofs' and 'lessons.' I disrelish it also because I
regard truth as the most practical thing possible; and its clear statement
as the best application. Consequently, I cannot consent for the mere sake
of preachment, to be perpetually 'improving' this, that, and the other thing,
that carries its lesson on the very face of it. I may myself fall into the pre-
valent folly, but my wish is to apply only what comes naturally out of the
facts. For a very effective statement of my first reason, consult Lazarus
Revived, by the Rev. James Culross, M. A. (Nisbet & Co., Introd. p. ix.),
than which I know few books so full of beautiful things beautifully put.
26
The Temptation of Christ.
And yet how faint and fitful is our sense of our un-
utterable need of a higher strength than our own for
conquest in the so dread warfare that is perpetually
being waged against us! How lightly, frivolously,
heedlessly, prayerlessly, carnally, do even professing
believers adventure into scenes of temptation! How,
without the Spirit,' do even such let the 'world, the
flesh, and the devil,' lead them into perilous places!
Let this lesson, my friends, be laid to heart. It
springs, like a flower, out of the record, that not until
the Lord was full of the Holy Ghost,' was He 'led
up to be tempted.'
2. It was in the prospect of His Temptation that the
Lord Jesus RECEIVED THIS FULNESS OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT. This presents a new aspect of the bestow-
ment of the Spirit. He was not only filled with the
Holy Ghost, but it was in the very crisis of need He
was so anointed. My fellow-believers, it will be even
so with us also, if only we 'wait' upon the Lord.
If there lie in the (to us) veiled future any great trial,
or burden, or sorrow, or loss, the child of God abiding
under 'the shadow of the Almighty,' will receive the
Spirit to uphold him under it. The back will be
strengthened for the load, the heart nerved for the
blow. I fear we all deplorably fail to realize this,
and so impoverish ourselves of the Spirit. I fear we
are all too prone to pray rather for the removal than
for the sanctification of our trials, our 'temptations.'
It is a grand mistake. A removed trial, ere 'patience
The Temptation of Christ.
27
has had her perfect work,' is no blessing in comparison
with one unremoved that is sanctified. The man who
has had some sore burden laid upon him, and who
in his anguish has cast himself upon some Christ-ful
promise, or upon Christ Himself through His pro-
mise, and found himself stayed up; oh, he has been
'taught' of the Spirit in such sort as that the greatest
trial is outweighed. How dear this and that Bible text
becomes which has been thus 'put to proof!' How
it lays up mightier than spear and shield against the
day of conflict! My dear friends, the believer who
has known no spiritual trials, who never has been ‘led
up' and led out into a very wilderness of temptation,
never has walked in the gigantic-shadowed world of
doubts and fears and agonizing desertion, and by the
Spirit wrestled through them, is weak, unblessed, beside
him who for the trial received the Spirit, and by the
Spirit has been upholden. It needeth not that the
stone which is to be built into wall or shaft or adorn-
ment of an 'earthly house,' be put into the fire. Were
it put into the fire, it never would come out again ex-
cept calcined to dross. But if the believer is to be of
the 'pure gold' of the 'heavenly Jerusalem,' he must
be molten, and endure the furnace-pains and the fur-
nace-trial. Oh, be more anxious, therefore, to have
the dross removed than the 'purifying,' the sin than
the sorrow, the disease than the pain. Being a
believer, the very putting you into the furnace is proof
that you are to be brought forth again, is evidence that
28
The Temptation of Christ.
you are put there to be tempted,' 'tried.' My bre-
thren, watch the Lord's dealings with you, and under
any fuller outpouring of the Spirit, expect the wilder
ness, and it may be very terrible temptation; regard
the Spirit in you as your Father's preparing of you for
the coming trial. For in the quaint words of Dr.
Manton, 'God never suffers His castles to be besieged
till they be victualled.'¹
،
(
But further here, I observe that not only must we
expect temptation with the fuller bestowment of the
Spirit, but we ought to be ready, yea willing to endure it.
Why does our Captain give us armour if it be not to
fight? Methinks our Christianity were a stronger
thing if there were more putting of it 'to proof,' and
earnestlier use of the 'gifts of the Spirit' bestowed.
upon us.
Is it not true that, whether as looking at
the assaults of the Adversary upon the city of God'
or upon us individually, we cower and skulk and
shrink, as if not altogether sure of the might of our
weapons, as though hesitant of the assurance that
they are 'mighty' against all attacks, be they from
earth or hell? Is it not true that while God 'lays
liberally' to our hands, we are reluctant to draw out
the gleaming blade from the scabbard; reluctant to go
out, and whether in wilderness or on temple-pinnacle,
do battle for Christ and for our own souls? More of
this in the sequel; but meantime never expect that
you will receive 'graces,' or 'gifts,' or 'talents' to lie
1 Manton's Christ's Temptations, p. 8.
The Temptation of Christ.
29
by, as you put past your jewels or other pretty things.
No, no God gives the Spirit in this work-a-day
world to be used for Him; and better up yonder
return to Him a 'sword' blood-stained, dinted, it may
be split and all the glitter taken out, than a stainless,
beautiful, toy-like thing, carefully wrapped up and pro-
tected for him, as your holiday-soldier lays past his
gilded epaulettes and staring uniform for a gala-day.
3. It was upon the Lord Jesus being thus filled with
the Holy Spirit THAT HE WAS TEMPTED.-' Comfort
ye, comfort ye,' my fellow-believers, from that. It is
when a child of God is fullest of grace; when he has
been declared to be a 'son,' even a 'beloved son' of
God; when he has made a public profession of
Christianity, that he is most of all exposed to temp-
tation. It seemeth strange at first thought that
should be so; but a little reflection dissipates the
strangeness. Let me try to illustrate this. A tool-
maker I suppose has finished an instrument; but it
not yet sent forth. Why? Because he has not
'tested' it. Well! Enter we his workshop. You
look in and observe the process. Your first impres-
sion is he is going to break it. But it is not so.
Testing is not an injury. The perfect weapon comes
out the stronger and receives the stamp that will carry
it over the world. Even so the testing and trying of
the Christian is not an injury. He who has formed
the believer for Himself is not going to break or
destroy the work, the beautiful work of His own
30
The Temptation of Christ.
hands. He is purifying, fitting, fashioning, polishing.
Carry this along with you, my dear friends, and you
will understand how it comes about that at the very
moment of your being 'full' of the Holy Ghost, at
the very moment of your announced sonship, you
are most violently assailed.
(
But further here: Ihat would you expect but to be
thus tempted, thus harassed, when fullest of the Holy
Ghost? Hear some quaint, wise words from the
old divines :—Says Archbishop Leighton, following
Thomas Brooks: The arch-pirate lets the empty
ships pass, but lays wait for them when they return
richest laden.' Again, says Dr. Thomas Taylor:
'Where we are most tempted, know that there is
some special grace to be kept or lost. A thief will
not hanker after an empty chest; but if he know
where jewels or treasure is, he will haunt there.'
Even so; and my brethren, are any of you sorely
tempted? Are very many 'fiery darts' aimed at you ?
Are you pressed hard? Especially are any of you,
my dear young brothers and sisters who have re-
Lectures on the First Nine Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, iv. 1 ;
and f Thomas Brooks' Precious Remelics against Satan's Devices
(the Epistle Dedicatory, 3d Reason, p. 7, 1652), and his Unsearchable
Riches of Christ (p. 268, 1657. I suspect that both were indebted to Chry-
sostom (cf. Homil. xxxi. in Genesis). See also Farindon as before iv.
p. 154) for a graphic enlargement of the thought. Bishop Andrewes has it
in another form, 'Our Saviour had great gifts, and the devil is like a thief,
that will venture most for the greatest booty' (Sermons on the Temptation,
Anglo-Catholic Library ed., p. 502).
2 An Exposition of Christ's Temptations, or Christ's Combate and Con-
quest being the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah vanquishing the roaring Lyon,
assaulting Him in three most fierce and hellish Temptations. By Thomas
Taylor, D.D., Preacher of God's Word at Aldermanbury, London. London,
folio, 1659, p. 126.
The Temptation of Christ.
31
cently declared yourselves to be on the Lord's side
by sitting down at His Table, finding yourselves
well-nigh overmastered? It is well.
It is well. The great Ad-
versary knows that in each of you he has another
opponent; and how can he but assail you? He feels
you are escaping as the 'prey' from him, and how can
he but roar against you? Were the grace of God not
within you he never would so strive. Were you already
his he would not disturb you.¹ Here I would remind
you, as illustrative of all I have just said, of a striking
incident recorded in Luke ix. 37-42. We read, 'And
it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were
come down from the hill, much people met him.
And, behold, a man of the company cried out, say-
ing, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son ; for
he is mine only child and, lo, a spirit taketh him,
and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that
he foameth again; and, bruising him, hardly departeth
from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him
out; and they could not. And Jesus, answering, said,
O faithless and perverse generation! how long shall
I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither.
And AS HE WAS YET A COMING, the devil threw him
down, and tare him.' You mark it was when he was
'a coming' to Jesus, when he was nearest deliverance,
that he was most of all torn and bruised.
1 The venerable mother of Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, wrote of him: I
take comfort that the devil rages against my son; it shows his power over
him is subdued in him, and that he has no share in him' (Letters to Lady
St. John, in Macknight's recent Life of Bolingbroke, p. 12).
32
The Temptation of Christ.
Here I ask you to 'take heed' to very solemn, and
at the same time very consolatory words from the
Golden Treasury of Dr. John Everard: 'Be sure,' he
says, 'those unclean spirits are in every one of us na-
turally, and they depart not without tearing, as this
"unclean spirit” did this poor man. . . . And I say 'tis
to be expected that when-as these unclean spirits go
out without "renting" they intend a second return;
and contrarily when Satan departs with "renting" he
hath no hope of repossession. For where he spoils
and tears his lodging at his departure he finds that 'tis
He that is "stronger than himself" hath cast him out,
and that such a soul is weary of such a troublesome
guest, and turbulent intruding inmate. Whom he
rents, he leaves; and whom he tears, God repairs;
whom he rents, God renews and heals. Oh! how I
desire to have all our hearts "rent ;" for then and not
till then will God regard them. "Rend your hearts
and not your garments," saith Joel (ii. 12), and "
broken heart," a soul that is "contrite" and rent, "O
Lord! Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. li. 17). And,
therefore, O sweet Saviour, rebuke Thou all our
"unclean spirits" with power and command.'1.
a
'Before the curing of a strong disease
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest. Evils that take leave,
On their departure most of all show evil! 2
1 'True and Divine Exorcism, or the Devil Conquered by Jesus Christ,
being one of the sermons in Part ii. of The Golden Treasury', PP. 442, 443,
2d ed. 1679.
2 King John III. 4.
The Temptation of Christ.
33
Take cheer then, my stricken, smitten, 'tempted'
fellow-believers. 'Resist steadfastly.' You will over-
come. Remember that Satan sought not Judas to
'sift as wheat' but Peter, and him after his grand
confession of Christ as supreme God. Above all,
remember that it was while the Lord was 'full of the
Holy Ghost;' when the voice had proclaimed, 'This
is my BELOVED Son; when God the Father was in-
finitely 'well pleased,' that the Temptation came upon
Him.
4. The Temptation of the Lord having followed
His Baptism, tells us not TO TRUST TO BAPTISM FOR
ESCAPE FROM TEMPTATION.-How many trust to their
Baptism ! How many make a Saviour out of it!
How many deem themselves safe because of the mere
outward rite! But the Baptism of the Lord shielded
not even Him from the Tempter. Well, therefore,
may one of the Puritans say, 'This doctrine confutes
the Romish delusion of driving away the Devil, and
exorcising him with holy water of baptism. For the
holiest water that ever was, was that which washed
the holiest Son of God, and yet the Devil was never
a whit afraid of that, but immediately Christ must go
forth to be tempted.'¹ What applies to Baptism
applies to its antitype and realization, sonship. Let
us all, therefore, beware of ceasing to 'watch' against
the Tempter from any reliance on any outward rite
or privilege or even spiritual blessing.
1 Dr. Thomas Taylor, Christ's Temptation, p. 7.
с
34
The Temptation of Christ.
We have thus considered the 'Then' or Time
chosen for the Temptation; and, my friends, I beg of
you that you will take home all the elements of this
'Then' to yourselves, as I seek grace to do to myself.
Be it ours to realize that we are adventuring as the
Lord never did, when we go into temptation without
the Spirit. Be it ours to realize that our heavenly
Father as He measures out so He oversees our temp-
tations, and anticipates them by a fuller indwelling of
His Spirit. Be it ours to realize that thus dowered
for temptation, it is woe to us if we shrink from it.
Be it ours to realize that the most probable moment
of temptation is exactly that in which we are most
unmistakably manifested to be son or daughter of
the Lord. Be it ours to realize that in such timed
assaults of the Tempter there is consolation, not
terror. Be it ours, finally, to realize that there
must be no resting in outward rite or spiritual grace
or privilege.¹ (d)
I pass on in my Exposition :-
T5. The special name of the Lord employed in the
Narratives of the Temptation.
Ver. 1. 'Then was JESUS led up.'
I have to make a remark in passing upon the name
of the Lord employed throughout by the whole of the
1 In Note (d) I place a Catena of extracts from old writers further illustra-
tive of the time chosen for the Temptation and attending circumstances.
The Temptation of Christ.
35
Evangelists, viz., JESUS. I do not think this is an
accident. I think it is preciously significant. What
saith the Word about this name? She shall bring
forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for
He shall save His people from their sins' (Matt. i. 21).
It was then, observe, not as Lord, not as Jehovah,
not 'by might nor by power,' but as the Man, the
'Second Adam' (1 Cor. xv. 47), the sinner's Saviour,
He was tempted. As such, how fitting it was that
He should take up man's first sin, in temptation!
how fitting that as JESUS-the dearest of all His
names to a poor sinner,-He should save' His
people from that old Eden-sin !¹ (e)
1
I ask your attention next to a peculiarity in regard
to the going forth of the Lord to the Temptation, as
expressed by 'led up.'
¶ 6. Jesus was 'impelled' of the Spirit to the Temptation.
Ver. 1. 'Then was Jesus LED UP.'
In the Gospel of St. Mark i. 12, it runs, 'Imme-
diately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness.'*
1 See quotation from Colfe in Note (e).
2 The verb is ekẞaλλw, which is usually expressive of force. But may
it not be here employed as in Matt. ix. 38, where 'send forth,' as in our
English Bible, really translates the idea, though as the Spirit is the agent
in so sending forth, His impulsion underlies the sending? I cannot agree
with Adolphe Monod's view of exẞaλλw in Mark i. 12. 'Cast,' 'thrown,'
are much too strong, read in the light of my present reference to Matt. ix. 38.
(Cf. Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness. Three Discourses. By Adolphe
Monod (1854), p. 24). Dr. Whedon, in his Commentary on the Gospels
of Matthew and Mark (New York, 1860), under Mark i. 12, says, 'The
36
The Temptation of Christ.
I recognise a Divine discrimination of wording here.
For would it not have flung mystery and perplexity
and darkness over that petition of the Lord's own
prayer,—which was not the least priceless legacy to
His people,' Lead us not into temptation, but de-
liver us from evil' (Matt. vi. 13), had He of His own
free choice gone out into the wilderness to be Him-
self tempted? One would not have known what to
make of the contradiction in His first public act of
what He afterwards left as a daily petition for His
children. But all is clear, read in the light of 'led
up' and 'driven,' especially the latter, which indeed
expounds the former. The Lord Jesus went as exe-
cuting His servant-work; went, shrinking back at
every step in the innermost depths of His sinless
nature. Not voluntarily, not as self-choosing 'to be
tempted,' but in holy obedience and subjection, dis-
charging His appointed work, He was 'led up.' Does
it not add a pathetic graciousness to the petition of
which I have spoken, to remember this circumstance,
and to see in it a reminiscence of His own 'suffering'
when 'led up,' 'driven' to be tempted? He knew
the awfulness of such a conflict, and He would spare
His followers. And if they could not be spared
temptation any more than Himself, He seeks for
them at any rate deliverance like unto His own. For
I apprehend such is the meaning of His words, 'Lead
Spirit impelled Him to go where inclination would not have induced Him.
Matthew says, the Spirit "led" Him. He was impelled by the Divine
impulse; He was led by the Divine guidance.' See Note (a).
The Temptation of Christ.
37
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'
That is, Lead us not into temptation,' if it please
Thee, O Father, to spare us; but if otherwise, if
like our Lord we must be 'tempted,' grant us deliver-
ance out of it-' deliver us from the Evil One.'¹
(
¶ 7. Improvement' of the impulsion' of Jesus by the
Spirit.
There is thus at once Divine warning and Divine
sanction in the specialty of wording, 'led up' and
k 'driven.' He would have us go to no scene of
temptation uncalled; would have us keep ourselves
out of the way of temptation; would have us walk in
His footsteps; and whether in wilderness - solitude
or in the tumult of the crowded city, never be other
than 'led up,' even 'driven' whither there is tempta-
tion. In ordinary cases, therefore, the prayer must
always be, 'Lead us not into temptation; but in ex-
traordinary cases, only 'DELIVER US from the Evil
One,' and a glad, acquiescing Holy Spirit, lead
Thou us.'
(
In these days of multiplied endeavours to fetch in
the LOST of the lowest strata of society, the faithful
servants of Christ may cast themselves reliantly upon
the blessed assurance, 'Lo, I am with you ALWAY.'
It were to do despite to the Holy Spirit, who still
'leads up' the Lord's own workers, to let any plea
1 The Original is ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. So John xvii. 15: ἐρωτῶ ἵνα
τηρήσῃς αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ. Cf. also r John iii. S.
38
The Temptation of Christ.
1
of possible danger to good name or one's own moral
nature, withdraw a solitary visitant from the vilest.
But go thither in your own strength, or rather weak-
ness, my brother, my sister, and you run an awful
risk. On the other hand, go as 'led' of the Spirit,
and you go as the silver light goes that shines on
the nastiest ordure and takes no stain. All honour
to the brave hearts who have adventured to prove
the 'omnipotence of loving-kindness !' All blessing
on the resolute servants of Him who came 'not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance,' who
have not shrunk from contact with the haunts and
haunters of the midnight street, the degraded out-
casts of the slum and the brothel ! May the number
of such be increased! May many a fair lily lift up
its snowy chalice from the worse than Nile-slime !
May 'sons of God' truly 'LED by the Spirit' be
abundantly 'sent forth!"
But while I thus give from my very heart a 'God
speed' to all who, 'led' by the Spirit, are thus doing
battle with Evil and the Evil One, I must iterate and
reiterate my warning, that to go unsent, unled of Him
is to risk at the least, our spiritual-mindedness, and
all but incite the Adversary to tempt.
I would look at this as actualized to us in two New
Testament incidents. We have Peter going unsent,
unled, into the 'palace' of the rulers. We have him go-
ing in thither, and 'sitting down among them.' Among
1 See The Omnipotence of Loving-kindness. Nisbet & Co., 1862.
The Temptation of Christ.
39
whom?
The hard-hearted smiters and mockers of
his Lord. And the issue was disastrous backsliding,'
to uttermost denial of Christ. What more plain than
that Peter was not the man to go there? John seems
to have gone and met no harm. Why? Because
who can doubt he was 'led' by the Spirit? We have
another example even more pat, in the sons of
Sceva. You know the vivid narrative in the Acts of
the Apostles (xix. 13-16), which we may now read:
Then [that is, after Paul's preaching of the Gospel
and working of miracles] certain of the vagabond
Jews, exorcists, TOOK UPON THEM [mark the expres-
sive self-taking!] to call over them which had evil
spirits in name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We ad-
jure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. And there
were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the
priests, which did so. And the evil spirits answered
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who
are ye
? [Now observe the dreadful issue of working
uncalled, unled.] And the man in whom the evil
spirit was, leaped on them, and overcame them, and
prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that
house naked and wounded.' Even so; had they been
'led' of the Spirit to the mighty service of 'casting
out' these 'evil spirits,' out they had come.
it was, having no warrant, no commission, being
without 'The Spirit,' they themselves suffered.
But as
As the teaching of this remarkable wording, 'led up'
and 'driven,' therefore, I would press upon all the duty
40
The Temptation of Christ.
of seeing a very clear call indeed before adventuring
into scenes of Temptation. For vital, as ever, is the
counsel of the wise man: Enter not into the path of
the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away'
(Prov. iv. 14, 15). It is no wonder that in harmony.
with this the Fathers and Schoolmen say: 'It is
easier to avoid ten sins that compass us about, and
have not taken hold of us, than to recover ourselves
sound from any sin that we have committed.'¹ We
have no business in any scene of Temptation wherein
we cannot with a safe conscience say, The Lord 'led'
me hither. Oh! young man, young woman before
me, be entreated to make this your rule! For, go into
scenes of temptation; go into evil company, evil
places, and you challenge at once God to leave you
to yourselves, and Satan to assail you! The only
temptations that carry no sting with them are those
like Christ's, that come without your seeking; and
these never come but for our good. Of them it is
the Apostle speaks in those deep words: 'Count it
all joy when ye FALL into divers temptations'
(James i. 2). Mark! When ye fall into them,'
not when ye seek them. 'When ye fall into them'
as the traveller from Jerusalem to Jericho, in the
parable of the Good Samaritan, fell among' rob-
bers. Seek them, or even let them come upon us
because of our having failed to watch and pray
1 Bishop Hacket, p. 209.
(
The Temptation of Christ.
4I
against them, and we may suffer, and it may be escape
only as by fire.'
(
I use the word 'seek,' seek temptation in contrast
with 'led up,' advisedly. For it is an all too com-
mon sin to repeat the sin of the man in the iron
cage in Bunyan's peerless allegory, who said, 'I have
tempted the devil, and he is come to me;' or, as
dear old Thomas Fuller puts it, 'to holla in the ear
of a sleeping temptation.' O my brethren beloved,
may I and you be saved from that! May we be
'led' ever by the Spirit.¹ (ƒ)
I have only one additional remark to make upon
the expression 'led up.' Is it to play upon words to
notice that there was literally and throughout a going
up-to the wilderness-to the Temple-pinnacle,
higher still, and to the Mountain, highest of all?
And so in human life, are not Satan's most powerful
temptations experienced in a kind of ascending scale?
Do they not intensify as we go up? A high place, a
place of honour; is it not the higher the more ex-
posed? Let us seek rather the Valley of Humiliation,
and sing the shepherd-boy's song in the Pilgrim's
Progress :--
'He that is down need fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride:
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.'
1 See Note ) for Catena from old writers on 'led up;' also certain
critical explanations.
42
The Temptation of Christ.
I have to notice next :-
(
¶ 8. The Leader of the Lord to be tempted.
Ver. 1. Then was Jesus led up of THE SPIRIT.'
It needeth not that now, or here, I adduce proof
that by 'The Spirit' is designated the Third Person of
the undivided Trinity; context and the phraseology
throughout determine that. The Lord being 'full' of
the Holy Ghost was impelled by Him to the scene of
conflict with the Prince of Darkness. And here, I
know not that I can do better than substitute for my
own words others from Richard Gilpin, a remarkable
analyst of the human heart. Thus finely does he draw
'consolation' from this fact, that THE SPIRIT 'led up'
the Lord 'to be tempted.' Let this, he says, comfort us
under temptations. It might have been Paul's great
discouragement that, in his answer before Nero, no
man stood with him (2 Tim. iv. 16).
his support, that God “ was with him.”
The like en-
couragement we have under all assaults of Satan, that
we are not left to ourselves, but the Spirit of God is
with us; and that He concerns Himself on a design
to oversee and overrule his work, and to put a check
upon him when there is need, so that he cannot tempt
as he will, nor when he will, nor in what he would,
nor as long as he would; but that in all cases we may
rely upon the great Master-contriver for relief, help,
mitigation, or deliverance as there is need.'¹ (g)
But this was
1 Gilpin, Demonologia Sacra, Part iii. c. ii. Applic. 2 in Obs. 2.
The Temptation of Christ.
43
(
There now demands attention-
ག 9. The Scene of the Opening of the Temptation.
Ver. 1. 'Then Jesus was led up within THE WILDER-
NESS under the Spirit.'
It were a waste of pains to spend any time in
debating and seeking to determine the precise
locality intended by the wilderness.' The article
the,' 'THE Wilderness,' seems to denote that it
was a region well known by that name, without any
fuller particularization: and hence was, in all proba-
bility, that great wilderness of Arabia, within which
that other son of God, Israel (Hos. xi. 1) 'wandered.'
It is however of very slight moment precisely to
fix it. Suffice it to know, that it was 'the wilder-
ness,' the dry places' where the devils wander,
seeking rest.'
6
How instantly are we reminded of the difference
between the scene of the temptation of the 'first
Adam' as compared with that of the 'second Adam!'
The one was in Eden, a place of delights,' where all
was fair and satisfying. The other in the 'wilder-
ness,' where all was waste and lonely, and wild beast
haunted. The first Adam turned Paradise into a wil-
derness; the second Adam turned the wilderness into
a paradise. Fitting, was it not, that it should be so;
fitting that He, who was the antitypical Rock, should
be struck even as was the type, that 'streams' of
deeper healing, and to quench a deeper thirst, should
44
The Temptation of Christ.
flow out in the desert, as the prophets had spoken?
Here, in Christ, are not only streams, but the very
Fountain of living water,' welling up in the 'wilder-
ness' (Isa. xxxv. 6).
¶ 10. 'Improvement' of the Scene of the Temptation.
We are not told the reason for the wilderness'
having been selected by 'the Spirit' as the place of
conflict between the Prince of Light and the Prince
of Darkness. There are none of those formulas
which are usually employed to mark out the ful-
filment of type or prophecy. It were useless there-
fore to speculate upon, and profane to impose rea-
sons. But surely it is very noticeable and very
instructive that the Lord should thus have been
led away from the crowds that were in eager ex-
pectation of His 'coming,'-having been stirred to
enthusiasm by the mighty preaching' of John the
Baptist,--and kept in 'the wilderness' in retirement
and conflict. Is there no lesson here for us? I trow
there is, especially for the believer just beginning the
Divine life, just buoyant and joyous in the new-found
consciousness of being a 'son of God.' Beware, my
brother, my sister, of PREMATURE forth-going to the
world with your Christianity. Beware of rashly put-
ting-to-proof your early graces. Better far seek soli-
tary, still communion with your Saviour a-while.
Better first gather heart-felt experiences of the terrible
conflict of flesh and spirit.' 'I speak that I do
The Temptation of Christ.
45
know, and testify that which I have seen,' when I
warn those who have only lately found their Saviour,
from rushing before their fellow-men, and attempting
to fill those posts in the service of Christ which
demand a deeper experience and a more tried and
tested Christianhood. The Lord's retirement to the
wilderness after He had been baptized' and an-
nounced as the Messiah, after He was in a peculiar
manner 'full of the Holy Ghost,' gives to all of us
not less humbling than profitable guidance as to the
DELIBERATION with which solemn work ought to be
undertaken.
Thus 'set apart,' and 'without measure' endowed,
and publicly announced-with the Judean hills yet
vocal with prophecies of His coming-we would have
expected an immediate advent to expectant Israel.
But it was not so. C
Forty days and nights' were to
be spent alone. Not up to Jerusalem, but away to
the wilderness; not out to the multitude, but back
to the solitude; not forth to the world to conquer,
but away from it, 'impelled' by the Spirit, to be
tempted. Nor does this stand solitary in the history
of the Church. You remember that strange half-
involuntary forty years' of Moses in the wilderness'
of Midian, when he had fled from Egypt.¹ () You
remember, too, the almost equally strange years of
retirement in Arabia,' by Paul, when, if ever,
humanly speaking, instant action was needed. And
1 See Note (1) for a fine quotation from Kingsley.
6
C
46
The Temptation of Christ.
C
pre-eminently you remember the amazing charge of
the ascending Lord to the disciples, Tarry at Jeru-
salem.' Speaking after the manner of men, one could
not have wondered if out-spoken Peter, or fervid James,
had said: 'Tarry, Lord! How long?' 'Tarry, Lord!
is there not a-perishing world, groaning for the
"good news?" Tarry! did we hear Thee aright,
Lord? Was the word not Haste?' Nay; 'Being
assembled together with them, He COMMANDED them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but WAIT
'for the promise of the Father' (Acts i. 4). Behold!
I send you the promise of my Father upon you;
but TARRY ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
be endued with power from on high' (Luke xxiv.
49). Surely we have here a principle that ought to
chasten and regulate our impulses and hastes and
impatiences.
Let the believer, then, sequester himself after the
pattern of his Lord—a pattern in His after-life often
repeated,—and he will in outward loneliness find him-
self 'not alone,' will find himself in that lofty plain-
region of which the poet sings-
'From whence th' Inlightned spirit sees
That shady City of Palm-trees.' 1
For if the child of God be thus 'led' of the Spirit
into retirement, whether physical or spiritual, he may
be in a wilderness, but it is a wilderness
1 Henry Vaughan. Silex Scintillans: The Retreate' (by Lyte, ed.
1847, p. 34).
(
The Temptation of Christ.
47
C Where
Angels descend, and rule the sphere ;
Where Heaven lies leaguer, and The Dove
Duely as dew comes from above.' 1
6
Many a crushed, weary, conflicting believer thus by
the Spirit 'led' into uttermost loneliness—‘led' into
dreariest wildernesses of very Atheism, in the after
desperate struggle with the Tempter, has blessed God
for it ultimately. He gainsays not that it was very
hard for flesh and blood;' that it flung an eclipse-
shadow over faith and hope alike; that he 'SUFFERED
being tempted.' The believer 'hungered,' and yet
had to fast; 'hungered,' and yet had no visible
tokens of a present Father; 'hungered,' 'thirsted'
'for the courts of God's house,' but was kept in the
wilderness still. While it lasted, it was unspeakably
dreadful. But when His end was wrought,' how
soon was the wilderness transformed into a garden!
So that the believer could say, A wilderness
"'Tis true,
Most true; and yet like those strange smiles
By fervent hope or tender thought
From distant happy regions brought,
Which upon some sick-bed are seen
To glorify a pale worn face
With sudden beauty. so at whiles
Lights have descended, hues have been,
To clothe with half-celestial grace
The bareness of the desert place.'
Canaan comes after 'the wilderness.' David's pre-
1 Henry Vaughan. Thalia Rediviva: 'Retirement,' p. 209.
2 Poems, by Arthur H. Clough, p. 11.
•
2
48
The Temptation of Christ.
ciousest Psalms drew their inspiration thence their
touches of tenderest pathos, their tones of winningest
melancholy, their grandest pæans of a felt-delivering
God. It is well, not ill, my brother, my sister, to be
'led' out into the wilderness.¹
All this holds only when the believer is really thus
'led' of the Spirit into the wilderness. Self-sought soli-
tude, self-banishment to the wilderness, is a perilous
thing for the soul. Solitude is not, when thus gained,
the good your dreamy or cynical or despondent man
fancies. It is possible to be 'alone' with God, glo-
riously possible, as we have seen. But is it impossible
to be alone with the Evil One? God says, 'I will
allure her and bring her into the wilderness, and there
will I speak to her heart' (Hosea ii. 14). But some-
times another speaks:-
'Oh! leave the world!
So said the haunting whisper, and each word
Upon my thought stole with a murmurous tone,
In whose low sounds was lulling sweetness heard
That lapped the soul in music all its own,
And ever-evermore was its low speech alone,
Oh! leave the world!
Oh! leave the world!
And with the lulling murmur of its sound,
Hunger of dreamy rest upon me stole,
And slumbrous longings 'gan to gird me round,
Till of all stirring impulse, slept the whole,
And echoed back my thought,-my hardly striving soul,
Oh! leave the world!'
1 I would specially note here these Wilderness-Psalms-Ps. xviii., Ivi.,
lvii., lx., and lxiii.
The Temptation of Christ.
49
Brethren, has such a haunting whisper,' not of
the Spirit, reached you? If so, what answer did you
return, or wish to return? Compliance? Rather
such as this, I hope :-
'Oh! leave the world!
But woke again my soul with sudden start,
And touching thought to life, did counsel take,
And in its native strength itself did heart
From the soft syren's charmèd wiles to break,
And loud her answering back, with cold clear reason spake,
Why leave the world?
Why leave the world?
Though, as thou sayest, it were passing sweet
Afar from high-strung action to recline,
Though with soft ease 'twere luxury to retreat,
And man's appointed task of work resign;
Doth sensuous pleasure mount the height of life's design?
Why leave the world?
Why leave the world?
Not for this grew in thee the might of mind,
The power to will and act thy wish and thought ;
In the delights of sense if thou wouldst find
All pleasure, life shall set thy aims at nought,
Till evil thou shalt own, for good thou aye hast sought.
Why leave the world?
Why leave the world?
Not for delight alone was being given;
Else life, as thou assertest, were a dream,
And but for seemings all high souls have striven;
But seize the key of this thy mystery; deem
Duty above delight and life most real shall seem?
Why leave the world?
Why leave the world?
Go forth in the resistless strength of love;
Forth, conquering, and to conquer, victor, go;
D
50
The Temptation of Christ.
Warrer for right, be thy crest high above
The thick of fight against all wrongs below;
Falling or victor wreathed, thou near'st God's glory so;
So leave the world?¹
¶ 11. The Wild Beasts' of the Wilderness.
We have in the Gospel of St. Mark a supplement-
ary thing about 'the wilderness' which I apprehend
is not without its own significance. I would there-
fore 'turn aside' from St. Matthew to it, and see
what it means.
St. Mark i. 18.—'And He [Jesus] was there within
the wilderness . . . and was with the wild beasts.'
2
I am aware that some see no more in this addition
to the narrative of the Temptation than a more graphic
delineation of the loneliness and privations of the
Lord. But I altogether differ from such, and in the
language of another, in another connexion, regard
them as most unjustifiably pressing down the every-
where profound word of Scripture to the narrow limits.
of our ordinary human speech.'*
Let us look at the record in the light of other por-
tions of Holy Scripture. We have very remarkable
words in Psalm viii. 6, 7 'Thou madest Him to
have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou
hast put all things under His feet; all sheep and
1 I select these stanzas from the 'Ernst ist das Leben' of William C.
Bennet. For the whole poem see his collected Poems (Routledge, 1862),
PP. 440-444. No one will regret adding this choice volume to his library.
2 So Webster and Wilkinson in loco in their Greek New Testament; and
earlier Taylor and White as before. Barnes likewise.
3 Stier, Words of the Word, vol. i. p. 35 (ed. by Pope).
The Temptation of Christ.
51
oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field. Hold up to the
Psalm of David these interpretive words of St. Paul,
Hebrews ii. 8, 9: 'But now we see not yet all things
put under Him: but we see Jesus . crowned
with glory and honour.'
•
Now, my friends, observe, the Psalm adduces the
subjection of the creatures as exegetical of the crown-
ing of the redeemed man with 'glory and honour.'
Hence the crowning of The Son of Man with glory
and honour, while it goes infinitely beyond that, yet
includes it. I cannot but think, therefore, that this
notice and He was with the wild beasts,'-unharmed
as was Daniel in the den of lions,—lays hold of the
doctrine of the subjection of the creatures, 'wild
beasts' and all, to Him.
:
Further, I turn to Hosea ii. 18: 'In that day I
will make a covenant for them WITH THE BEASTS OF
THE FIELD, and with the fowls of heaven, and with
the creeping things of the ground and I will break
the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the
earth, and I will make them to lie down SAFELY.'
These seem to me very precious as well as very strik-
ing words. I must pause upon them so as to bring
out my present thought. 'I will make a covenant
for them. How gracious! A friend says, when you
tell him of some agreement you have made, 'If you
had committed the matter into my hands, I could
have made a much better agreement for you than
you have for yourself.' Even so God says, 'I
52
The Temptation of Christ.
will make a covenant for them,'-acts in their behalf.
But again, I will make a covenant for them with the
beasts of the field.' When God made man, He gave
him dominion; he was the crowned king, under God,
of the earth. Sin came and man lost his dominion.
What then? Instead of peace between the 'beasts
of the field' and man, there ensued, and has continued,
constant war. They have broken down his hedges,
destroyed his corn, devoured his summer fruits, torn
his flocks, and risen up against his own life. And so
in self-protection,-though not without much wanton
cruelty and wrong,-man has waged a war of extermi-
nation with these creatures. But in the blessed future
of 'redeemed man,' and in a 'redeemed earth,' there
shall be peace and harmony between God's creatures
and man,—the primal harmony restored. For it were
idle to maintain that Hosea has been already fulfilled;
and unbelieving to doubt that he will. Is there not a
glimpse of this in Jesus being 'with the wild beasts' ?
For what was the promise? 'They shall lie down safely.'
They could lie down fearlessly before now safely.
Still further And I will break the bow, and the
sword, and the battle out of the EARTH.' How in-
stantly does all this lead us to Him who is the Prince
of Peace, and over whose manger-cradle was sung
Peace on earth!' It shall be so in His own 'set time.'
God shall destroy slaughter-weapons. As in Isaiah,
'They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks' (ii. 4). Sword and
:
The Temptation of Christ.
53
spear shall not be useless, but turned to peaceful use.
And so may we not say the genius, courage, en-
durance that made great captains, and thrilled with
electric words in battle epics and odes shall not be
lost but pour their 'glorious rage' in channels dug by
'the river of the water of life,' and celebrate the loftier
achievements and victories of the 'better time.'
I confess that the expression 'with the wild beasts
always calls up to me this vision of a peaceful earth,
in which all God's creatures shall again be bound
together in Jesus. Nor is it a mere coincidence that
St. Mark designates them 'the beasts of the field,'
the wild, not pasture beasts, even as in the old pro-
phecies.
And now I read the quaint catalogue of the
wild beasts, by the many-gifted poet who sings of
'Pysche,'--
E
'Great was the congregation; for there
The princely lion lay, the angry dog,
The mountainous elephant, the shaggy bear,
C
The hasty wolf, the foaming boar, the hog
His grumbling wife, the roaring, foaming bull,
The porcupine of ammunition full.
The spotted panther, stiff rhinocerot,
Swift-footed tiger; and a thousand more,
Whom wilder thirst had thither forced, in hot
And panting throngs beleaguered the shore,
Crowding as stoutly water now to get,
As Noah's frighted troops to scape from it.'¹ (¿)
Turn we next to
>
1 Beaumont, canto ix. st. 113-114. See Note (2) for further quotations and
illustrations.
54
The Temptation of Christ.
¶ 12. The Divine Ordination in the out-leading of the
Lord into the Wilderness.
Ver. 1. 'Then Jesus was
ness under the Spirit, in
in
UNDER THE DEVIL.'
led up within the wilder-
order to
order TO BE TEMPTED
I regard these words, 'to be tempted,' or as the
Original may be more exactly rendered, in order to
be tempted under the Devil,'¹ as not only, in common
with the whole fact, very remarkable, but as giving
a key, strangely overlooked hitherto, to the actings
of The Tempter, and to the nature of the several
temptations, especially the last. I connect this phrase
' in order to be tempted under the Devil,' with another
at the close of the narrative in the Gospel of St.
Luke, which runs as follows: And the Devil, having
ended all a temptation, withdrew from Him until a
fitting opportunity' (iv. 13). I lay stress upon this,
and understand by it that the three snares which were
placed before Christ were not random but specific
temptations, which it was permitted him to use against
the Lord, and which, when all employed, brought to
a close such permitted and definite temptation, em-
phatically called 'a temptation,' i.e. one of various,
perhaps many, to which the Lord was destined.
What therefore I am anxious you should carry
(
1 The preposition is πó, both in relation to The Spirit and to Satan.
Cf. Note (a); also Harrison on vò with the genitive (as supra), in his
Treatise on The Greek Prepositions (Philadelphia, 1858, 8vo), and Dr.
Clyde's inestimable little volume.
The Temptation of Christ.
55
along with you to this our Exposition of the Tempta-
tion is, that in it, as a whole, and in its details, we
have a fact precisely correspondent in kind, though
deeper in degree, with the temptation of Job by Satan.
If these words, that Jesus was 'led up under The
Spirit in order to be tempted under the Devil,' and
the after-announcement of the ending of what is speci-
fically designated 'a temptation,' are not to be emptied
of their meaning, we have here again a temptation in
response to the DEMAND of the great Adversary, and
with the same permissions and limitations as with the
patriarch. The Son of God is placed 'under' the
power of His implacable foe, for the given end and
for a given time. 'Behold! He is in thine hand;
but save His life' (Job ii. 6). Such was the surrender
before, and it self-evidencingly was repeated now.
Very noteworthy is it too that we should have no such
preluding accusations against the Son of God as were
launched against Job on the demand to be suffered to
'tempt' him. That holy life of thirty years had no blot
upon which the Accuser might place his finger. The
demand to 'tempt' the Holy One, therefore, is only to
be explained by its having been based upon the old
Curse, by which, if his head was to be bruised, Satan
was yet to bruise his Adversary's heel: and thus, as
in all else, the very demand of Satan carried out to
fulfilment what His counsel determined before to be
done' (Acts iv. 28). Apart from the above special-
ties of wording, we have the great general principle,
<
56
The Temptation of Christ.
as afterwards affirmed by the Lord, that none had
power to do anything against Him except as
received from His Father, Jehovah. I recall the
mighty words which, if true of Satan's instruments,
must have been equally true of himself. 'Thou
(Pilate) couldest have no power at all against Me,
except it were given thee from Above' (John
xix. II).
The Temptation of the Lord, then, was no acci-
dental or even incidental thing; but the out-come of
a Divine permission conceded to the Tempter to
do his worst and utmost against man's manifested
Saviour. 'Jesus was led up under The Spirit IN
ORDER TO BE TEMPTED UNDER THE DEVIL.' Unless
I mistake egregiously, the keeping a hold of this
truth will go far to 'make plain' after-incidents and
elements of The Temptation.
¶ 13. The TEMPTABLENESS of the Lord.
I accept the fact which I have thus set forth; and
accepting it, I do not feel that I am called upon to
discuss at any length the question of the temptableness
of the Lord. At least, I must leave its discussion to
its own place in that book which, as I have told you,
I hope sooner or later to write. For the present, I
observe that we must adjust our ideas of 'God mani-
fest in the flesh' to what is written,' and not con-
versely adjust what 'is written' to our ideas. Further,
we must approach the Temptation not from the side.
The Temptation of Christ.
57
of the Lord's supreme Divinity, but from the side of
the Incarnation. I believe the Incarnation consti-
tuted the Eternal Son of God as really a man as I
myself am a man. I believe that being so constituted
a man, He was in all respects 'temptable,' and that
He was actually 'tempted' according to the manner
of human temptations. Those who wonder to very
bewilderment over this fact forget that, in the fall of
the angels who 'kept not their estate,' and in the
fall of Adam and Eve, we have examples of SINLESS
creatures being successfully tempted. There must there-
fore have been media whereby sin could and did
penetrate those sinless spirits. And while as matter
of fact the Lord Jesus stood, while as matter of fact
the Lord Jesus gave no response to sin, while as
matter of fact there was awful shadow but no stain,
yet equally as matter of fact is it told us that the
Temptation was no slight thing, no unreal or mask-
conflict, but an awful reality, as real as Gethsemane
and Calvary, and that emphatically He SUFFERED
being tempted' (Heb. ii. 18), having overcome 'with-
out sin,' but not without agonizing conflict with sin.
I cannot give any meaning to the Messianic Psalms,
and to the facts of the life of our Lord which fulfilled
those Psalms; I reduce that beautifullest of all lives
into a mere scenic representation of life, if I do not
understand that sin in the Temptation as throughout
came so near to the sinless soul of Jesus-passed
within and pressed upon His pure soul so actually
58
The Temptation of Christ.
so on.
and certainly-as to have demanded for successful
resistance the whole powers of His nature, the whole
might and mastery of the fulness of the Spirit within
Him. It is very awful, but again, as earlier I stated,
it is true, or the Bible is untrue; for it says so. To
speculate about it is to reduce the immense mystery
to a level with such questions of the Schools as 'What
would have been the result suppose Adam, not being
deceived, had refused to eat of the forbidden fruit,
when Eve having herself eaten tempted him?' or,
'What if Pilate had acceded to the dream-message
of his wife, and refused to deliver up the Lord?' and
Even thus an over-bold speculation may ask,
'What if Jesus had given way to any one of the
temptations of the Devil?" It is too horrible an
impossibility to be dwelt upon. It leads up beyond
revelation to dizzy altitudes that will only be bared,
if ever, in eternity. Our part is to take what is
written,' and 'it is written' He was tempted,' and
'suffered being tempted:' therefore was TEMPTABLE.
I can go no farther, but I find foothold here. I find
more than foothold; I find matter of adoring thank-
fulness and wonder. I find in the Temptation one
of manifold proofs of my Saviour's love; a love that
made Him go forth to face uttermost agony in this
beginning of conflict with the Prince of Darkness,
as part of that exposure and surrender' of Him-
self for His Church, which the great Apostle mag-
nifies in these joyous words (Eph. v. 25), Christ
(
،
The Temptation of Christ. 59
loved the Church, and EXPOSED, SURRENDERED Him-
self for it.'1
14. Improvement' of the Surrender of Christin
order to be tempted.
Having thus considered the Temptation as a thing
specifically permitted of God: as a thing to which
Jesus was SURRENDERED, before passing on I would
observe that I believe this economy to be vital still.
I believe, that precisely as with His own Divine Son,
our heavenly Father permits us to be tempted' after
the same sort. Be it our comfort, that in every such
case the Spirit is with us to uphold. Be it our com-
fort also, that the Tempter cannot go beyond his per-
mission, and that we are assured our 'faithful God'
1 The Original is, καὶ ἑαυτὸν παρέδωκεν.
Temptableness.-As intimated above, I reserve a full discussion for my
larger book; but in addition to what I have stated in the text, I may here
add a few sentences. There are two sets of considerations in looking at the
temptableness of Christ. There is the addressing of sin within by sin with-
out, and conversely the response to sin without by sin within. There is sin
without injected into a sinless nature. I need hardly say that I hold abso-
lutely that, neither in flesh nor soul, nor in His combined constitution, was
there sin within the Lord. I utterly repudiate the teaching of that noble
but bewildered soul, Edward Irving, concerning the peccability of the 'flesh'
of Christ. I hold it to be shallow as it was (all unconsciously) blasphemous.
But I am not prepared to affirm that this inner and utter sinlessness arrested
the tempting' elements of sin from without. I can understand that it took
out the pleasure of the sin (the wretched pleasure which the gratification of
the flesh gives to fallen man), but not its power to grip and grasp the soul,
and cause intensest suffering, when injected. I do not see the bearing of
the common illustrations, eg, that in fallen man sin injected is as fire to
gunpowder. There is and must be explosion. But that in the absence of
sin within it is as fire to water, I am not at all sure of this. Fire ordinarily
cannot explode in water, but sin, as we have seen above, can explode in a
sinless being. Ergo, resistance, strong and thorough, must have been de-
manded from the Lord. Equally also is it plain that the 'suffering' caused
60
The Temptation of Christ.
will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are
able, but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that we may be able to bear it' (1 Cor.
x. 13). Well, therefore, has the old Puritan coun-
selled, 'If tempted, when we are in Satan's hands,
remember Satan is in God's hands.'1
My dear friends, we all need the discipline of
Temptation, and when it cometh of God we are all
the better of it. Suffer me then to enforce and apply
what I have now put before you. I remark
1. That ministers of the Gospel, and all who have to
deal with souls, need temptation.—I speak of this first
of all, partly because it was as 'fitting' Jesus with
that experience that entenders the heart, He was
'tempted,' and partly that I would address myself.
might be (and as matter of fact was) very great. Is it not the case that the
holier the nature the more is the pain of sin, and the lighter the pain by the
measure of the within-corruption? In a word, I believe sin was not the
mere external or outside thing to Christ which is popularly taught. I believe
it got within, and that its 'fiery darts' were not quenched except by the
whole aroused sinless manhood and Spirit-power of Christ.
Look at it in another way. I pass an orchard, say the Devil's Garden of
the Pilgrim's Progress. I see the laden tree 'coming over the wall;' and
I see a gap whereby I might enter. It so happens that I do not care (let it be
supposed) for fruit. It is no temptation to me as it was to Bunyan's 'Matthew.'
But I am 'hungry,' starving (again be it supposed). Yet I resist. How? Not
by putting down the 'temptation' of the fruit (for in it there is none), but by
bringing to bear upon the sinless infirmity of 'hunger' the higher considera-
tions of honesty, right, and faith in God. Now observe I have overcome;
but the pain, the 'suffering' of the hunger, and of that hunger addressed by
the laden orchard-trees, remains. Perhaps I have succeeded in analogically
explaining the media of 'tempting' the Lord, albeit one feels the difficulty.
But there is no difficulty in rejecting any affirmation of the delраσтоs
kakŵy concerning Jesus, though agreeing with Bishop Andrewes' quaint
saying, 'To us the Devil needs bring but a pair of bellows, for he shall find
fire within us; but to Christ he was fain to bring fire too' (as before, p. 508).
1 Manton, as before, page 4.
The Temptation of Christ.
61
1
Dr. Manton here has finely said, 'When He [Christ]
sets a-foot His healing cure, it was fit and congruous
that He should experimentally feel the power of the
Tempter, and in what manner he doth assault and
endanger souls. Christ also would show us that
ministers should not only be men of science [know-
ledge], but of experience.' With equal force, and
with characteristic concinnity, the seraphic Leighton
says, 'Oh! heart-feeling is a main thing in this. It
is going to the wrong hand for a troubled or
tempted Christian to go to an untroubled, un-
tempted minister, who never knew what that meant.
Their errand takes not: they find little ease in com-
plaining of that grief to him that never felt such a
thing.' 2
How pre-eminently was Jesus an experimental mini-
ster! I like the old Puritan word. How richly did
His experience qualify Him to be the very Saviour
we need! No feet are so light in the sickroom as
those of one who, having lain on a sickbed, has felt
the pain of well-nigh the faintest jarring of sound;
no hand so soft in binding up a wound as a hand
that has itself bled. To some we say, as they seek to
comfort us, and as they condole very fruitlessly and
emptily with us, 'Oh! you don't know anything about
it,' and our longing is to get away. The man born
to ancestral wealth has difficulty in sympathizing truly
with the working classes; the man who has never
2 As before, on ch. iv. 1.
1 Manton, as before, page 9.
62
The Temptation of Christ.
C
passed through doubt with the doubter is ill able to
extend a brother's hand. But how different is Jesus!
In that He Himself has suffered being tempted.'
Ah! how that endears Him to the believer's heart!
He 'suffered' life for us, as the great Pascal says—
suffered pain of body and mind-suffered death.
And, my brethren, don't forget He suffered tempta-
tion. How would any decent man of us like to spend
forty days and forty nights with a foul and coarse
ruffian? yet was the Lord more awfully shut up in
His temptation. Let not therefore any minister of
the Gospel expect other than 'to be tempted.' 'The
disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above
his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be
as his Master, and the servant as his Lord' (Matt.
X. 24, 25). Alas! alas! I fear too many of us are
content with 'science,' and shrink from 'experience,'
shrink from the winnowing ordeal of temptation.
I remark-
2. That when Temptation cometh of God, we are all
the better of it. This is a hard lesson to learn, but it
is hard only to 'flesh and blood,' not to grace. It is
again and again asserted in the Word of God. It is
because it is true that the apostle James so fervidly
says, 'Count it all joy when ye fall into divers tempta-
tions,' and pronounces 'blessed,' not the man who
never is tempted, but him who endureth temptation,'
who undergoes it, but does not go-under it, does not
yield to it. 'Blessed' is such an one. Why? For
6
1
The Temptation of Christ.
63
'when he is tried,' when the Temptation is ended and
the end gained, 'he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love
Him.'1 I find all the foremost worthies of the Word
tempted, from Abraham on to John, and I find them
all the better of it. Nor is it difficult to see how this
should be the case. Besides our need of it, as we
must have experience as well as knowledge, if we are
to sympathize with others, there is the indubitable and
humbling truth, that the best of us at the best, and
much more at the worst, are the better of receiving
within ourselves proofs that it is not by anything in
us, but wholly of His grace we stand, or in anywise
differ from our fellow-men. The believer is far too
little under the influence of the powers of the world
to come,' and is the better of being reminded that
this is not his abiding-place. Very profoundly does
Augustine put this: 'Behold! the world troubleth us,
and it is loved: what would we do if it were quiet?
how wouldst thou cleave to the fair who so embracest
the foul! How wouldst thou gather the flowers
thereof who pluckest not thy hand from the thorns !'
Thus we are the better of all divinely-sent trials
and difficulties; and I go all the length of quaint
Richard Ward, when, in answer to the question
'What shall we think of them that are not tempted?'
he replies, 'I answer, we may safely think that neither
God cares for them because He doth not exercise
2
1 James i. 2, et seq.
2 Com. on Psalms.
64
The Temptation of Christ.
them, neither the Devil fears them because he meddles
not with them.' 1 Or let me put the former thus,
'We may safely think that they care not for God.'
But, indeed, we may ask with the all-prevailing
Poet
'Where's that palace, whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in sessions sit
With meditations lawful?'2
Be it ours, then, to follow whither The Spirit leads,
however plain it be that He leads into trial and
temptation. Let us ever say with Banquo---
'In the GREAT HAND OF GOD I stand,' 73
and we shall be the better of all He sends.¹
'Not always, Lord, in pastures green, the sheep at noon Thou
feedest,
When in the shade they lie within Thy watchful eye;
Not always under skies serene the white-fleeced flock Thou
leadest.
1 His extraordinary folio (1640) expository of the Gospel of Matthew.
2 Othello III. 3.
Macbeth II. 3.
Thomas Fuller, in his 'Sermons' on The Temptation, has characteristically
put the difference between self-sought and Divinely-sent temptations. To
join Matthew and Mark together, He was "led-driven" by a mixed motion ;
"led," there is willingness; "driven," a kind of violence: "led," there is free-
dom;
"driven," there is force. The sum is this, an efficacious impression
from the Spirit met in Christ with a voluntary condescension thereunto and
susception thereof. The doctrine is this: Such as do not rashly run them-
selves into a temptation, but are "led" into it by Divine Providence, may
with Christ confidently expect a comfortable issue out of it. . . . A man in
his calling is twice as strong to resist the temptation as one out of it. A
fish is twice as strong in the water as on the shore, but a four-footed beast is
twice as strong on the land as in the water. The reason is, because the water
is the proper element of the one, and earth of the other. Thy calling is thy
element, wherein thou art most able to resist temptation' (p. 6, 7; 1652).
The Temptation of Christ.
65
'On rugged ways, with bleeding feet, they leave their painful
traces;
Through deserts drear they go, where wounding briars
grow,
And through dark valleys, where they meet no quiet resting-
places.
'Not always by the waters still, or lonely wells palm-hidden,
Do they find happy rest, and, in Thy presence blest,
Delight themselves, and drink their fill of pleasures unfor-
bidden.
Their track is wom on Sorrow's shore, where windy storms
beat ever,-
Their troubled course they keep, where deep calls unto
deep;
So going till they hear the roar of the dark-flowing river.
'But wheresoe'er their steps may be, so Thou their path be
guiding,
O be their portion mine!-Show me the secret sign,
That I may trace their way to Thee, in Thee find rest abiding.”¹
1
I remark-
3. That deliverance from temptation equally with the
temptation itself, to be a blessing, must be from the Lord.
-It was not until the Devil had ended the Temp-
tation, all the Temptation, that he departed. But
when he had ended it, he did depart. Now mark
what immediately followed, viz., that as the Lord had
been 'led up' of The Spirit 'to be tempted,' so He
was 'led out' from the Temptation. I read Luke
iv. 14 And Jesus returned in the power of The
Spirit into Galilee.' My friends, there is instruction
،
James D. Burns, Vision of Prophecy, and Other Poems, 2d edit.
(Edmonston and Douglas), pp. 238, 239.
E
66
The Temptation of Christ.
for us here. We must abide' under our trial without
impatience, without murmuring, without making
haste,' if we would be 'led out' as well as 'led up.'
It is a memorable tribute that paid to the martyrs in
the Epistle to the Hebrews (xi. 35): 'Others were
tortured, not accepting deliverance.' May we not accuse
ourselves that we are too apt to accept deliverance,
any kind of deliverance, and from any quarter, if only
it be deliverance. Infinitely better, my brother, my sister,
cry for grace to 'endure unto the end.' For, oh! a self-
wrought deliverance from a God-sent trial or difficulty
is a costly thing to the soul. What in His hands was
as a small scourge of small cords, becomes afterwards
a ' scourge of serpents,' with a sting in every tail. I
grant it is not easy to do that. I grant it is impos-
sible so to bear without higher help. But it's worth
bearing; it's worth waiting until He who 'led up'
also comes to 'lead out.' Depend upon it, One ‘like
unto the Son of Man,' ay, the Son of Man Himself,
oversees and watches with eye of love; and trust
Him, confide in Him, cast yourself on Him, realize
that it is He who has 'led' you into the trial or
temptation that is come upon you, and by and by
you will get a deliverance that He will sanctify. Take
a self-devised deliverance, grow weary, and escape by
your own contrivance; and while for the moment
you may be delivered, for the moment may get from
beneath your fears and darkness and sorrow, yet all
will come back very awfully. Listen to just such a
The Temptation of Christ.
67
case, as portrayed by the wise man, Prov. x. 24:
'The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him. Think
of that! To the believer who 'endures,' all his
'fears' in his sore anguish and trial prove shadows.
They never, never come upon him. He comes to look
back upon them as things--
'The roar of whose descent has died
To a still sound, as thunder into rain.'¹
Not so with the man who devises deliverance, a god-
less deliverance. All his fears,' as a dread reality,
will come upon him. I think even some believers know
the agony of such a state. I plead, my brethren, that
you will aim at this, to abide under trial, the very
sorest, as ever saying to the end, 'Not my will, but
Thine.' The Loving One may not spare you the trial
you fain would be spared. He may see it fit to send
it, and give it tarrying. It is, mark, with the temp-
tation,' not before it, that He gives a 'way of escape."
It is in the time of need' that He bestows sufficing
grace to stand. It is out of,' not from, temptation,
'the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly.' And,
blessed be God, there is an 'out.' The chaff goes into
the furnace to come out no more, but the ore is cast
in to come 'out' the purer the more it is tried. (j)
'Lo! all these things worketh God oftentimes with man,
to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlight-
ened with the light of the living' (Job xxxiii. 29, 30).
I have now to glance a moment at—
4
1 Mrs. E. B. Browning, Poems, vol. i. p. 96. The Seraphim- 5th edit.
3 vols. 1862).
68
The Temptation of Christ.
T
15. The Opponent of the Lord.
Ver. 1. 'Then was Jesus led up under The Spirit
within the wilderness, in order to be tempted under
THE DEVIL.'
E
I do not deem it needful now to vindicate the
Bible-teaching concerning the PERSONALITY of the
Tempter. Elsewhere I shall do so. But in this place
I must be brief. The terse rebuke of Demarest,
administered to those who seek to explain away
the existence of the great Slanderer and Accuser,
is worth hearing. Expounding 1 Pet. v. S, he says:
'We may remark here, that a number of foreign
divines, with others nearer home (anxious, it seems,
to be seen in company with such celebrated charac-
ters), appear to be alarmed somewhat at the personal
existence of the Devil and his angels, and hence deny
his existence altogether, supposing the Devil to be a
personification for the evil principle, or sin. Rare,
learned, and honest interpreters, indeed! By going on
in the same way, they will land in the bogs of perfect
absurdity; for thus, it can be proved that Paul had
no personal existence, that word only meaning bene-
volent perseverance; and that Peter was but a figure
of speech when he delivered the sermon on the day of
Pentecost, his name being only a personification for
fiery zeal. Nay, that the great and dreadful name of
Jehovah Himself-means nothing. And into this
black Atheism some have already rushed. But the
The Temptation of Christ.
69
"fool" only has said in his heart, "God-nothing."-
Ps. xiv. 1.1
I would add to this some vivid and eloquent words,
embodying a weighty thought, from Frederick Deni-
son Maurice. He is asserting the Personality of the
Tempter as the common enemy of all,' and thus
presses the bearing of a denial of it: If there be no
such spirit of Evil as he whom we hear of in these days
of Lent, then each man must be left to fight as he can
with his own sin; no man can give any help to his
fellow-man. Then we are alike in our faces and forms,
in our hunger and thirst, in our feelings of heat and
cold; but we are alike in nothing else; all that is most
sacred and terrible in us our neighbour has nothing
to do with; we cannot condemn the same things, or
even know that we mean the same thing when we use
the same words. Then the man who lies in the next
bed to you has one set of evil things to tempt him, you
have another, and though you may perhaps pray a
confused desperate prayer for yourself now and then,
your cries will not help him in the least. But if it be
as the Church and the Bible says that it is, then your
battle and his are the same. The same Spirit of selfish-
ness and falsehood is striving to separate you from
the same God of love and truth; the same prayers
which you send up for yourself are prayers for him.
Then we are not a set of solitary divided creatures.'"
¹ Exposition of First Epistle of the Apostle Peter. By John T. Demarest,
New York, Svo, 1851.
• Christmas Day, and other Sermons (1843), pp. 152, 153.
70
The Temptation of Christ.
Hence the pertinency also of Foote's observation :
'If there had not been a real person to tempt our
Lord, it is impossible that He could have been
tempted at all. From whence do temptations arise?
Either from without or from within. Men are tempted
to sin, either when they are beset by other sinful
creatures, or when they are drawn away of their own
lusts and enticed. Whence, then, was Jesus Christ
tempted? Certainly not from within, for He had no
evil inclinations, no sin. "The prince of this world
cometh," said He on another occasion, "and hath
nothing in Me." Christ's temptation was solely from
without. But how was he tempted from without?
Not surely by sin in the abstract, which is a mere
nonentity, but by a sinful, living, personal agent.
There is no possibility of the Temptation having
really taken place otherwise.'¹
We have thus considered the TIME of the Tempta-
tion expressed by 'Then,' viz., when Jesus had been
baptized, and when the Holy Spirit descended upon
Him in 'fulness,' and when God the Father had pro-
claimed Him to be His Son, His 'beloved Son, in
whom He was well pleased.' Next the CONDUCT of
the Temptation, He was 'led up' of the Spirit. Next
the SCENE of the opening of the Temptation, 'The
1 Lectures on the Gospel according to St. Luke. By the Rev. James
Foote, A.M., Aberdeen. 2 vols. 8vo, 3d ed. 1858 (Ogle and Murray,
vol. i. p. 170.
The denial of personality to the Tempter, and the making
all internal vitiates the splendid eloquence of W. J. Fox in his Lectures on
the Temptation' in his Christ and Christianity (2 vols. 1831).
The Temptation of Christ.
71
Wilderness.'
Next the Divine ORDINATION of the
Temptation, Jesus was 'led up of The Spirit, in order
to be tempted under the Devil. These, with the prac
tical truths springing out of them, have brought us to
the end of verse 1.
I proceed in order to Ver. 2 :—
¶ 16. The Fasting of the Lord, and its application
to us.
C
Ver. 2. And having fasted days forty, and nights
forty, afterwards He famished.'
Elsewhere I hope to discuss the whole question of
Fasting under the Gospel. I suspect that it is too
much regarded by all of us as a thing of the Law, and
now to be 'let slip.' I believe, that as a consequence
of this God's people rob themselves of Divine grace
and comfort, strength and peace, that otherwise they
might receive. I believe, that were we more spiritu-
ally-minded we would enter deeper into the meaning
of Paul's phrase and act of 'keeping under our body,"
would stand in awe, and fear to so falsify the words
of the Lord concerning, if not the obligation, certainly
the privilege of fasting. You remember (or rather do
you not forget?) His onward-looking saying: Can
the CHILDREN of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as
the BRIDEGROOM is with them? but the days will come,
when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and
THEN they SHALL FAST' (Matt. ix. 15). There are
other overlooked, and, as I take it, very remarkable
72
The Temptation of Christ.
words in the Gospel, which to my mind present Fast-
ing as actualized to us by the Lord, and enforced
therein as a channel of peculiar blessing. All this,
however, I must reserve very much to another time
and medium than the present. Just now, I would
look at fasting under three aspects, and then put
several things before you elucidatory of the fasting
of Jesus, without meantime entering upon the deeper
question of the need of fasting by Him the Sinless
One, body and soul.
I observe-
1. Fasting leads to uninterrupted communion with
God. I believe that herein lies the great secret of
the often-recurring retirement of our Lord, and of
many of His holiest followers. It is a good thing'
to spend a whole day or days alone with God. It tests
a man's spirituality. It often gives very humbling
discoveries. How hard a thing, my brethren, do we
not find it to enjoy even a few unbroken hours with
the great God! Alas! alas! that it should be so.
It is startling when we reckon up how very small the
proportion of our time spent with God is. (k)
I observe-
(
2. Fasting breaks in upon our matter-of-course recep-
tion of every-day mercies.'—I do not think that any
one who really knows himself will deny that it is the
tendency to say no more-of our constant getting
Map
1 See Note (k) for a deeply solemn and exquisitely worded illustrative
quotation from James Martineau.
The Temptation of Christ.
73
،
of our daily wants' amply supplied to beget a hard,
selfish, easily-fretted disposition. What a to-do even
professing Christians will make sometimes about a
dinner a little cold, or a dish a little out of season,
or even some trifle not provided! To such it were
surely well to know the pinch of 'hunger' by fasting,
to break in upon the monotony of constant supply,
to bring nearer, those who have to toil hard and
fare poorly after it all.
I observe-
Mode
3. Fasting is literally necessary to not a few of God's
people.-Perhaps this somewhat overlaps what I have
just stated. Still I think it has an element of distinct-
ness worth separate enforcement. Observe, there are
Christians whose 'flesh,' whether by its quantity or
natural temperament, renders them sluggish, slothful,
wavering, and physically by far too fond of the 'good
things' of the table and the wine-cellar. I don't like
your rosy-faced, jowled, mobile-lipped connoisseurs of
'cooking' and vintage. That sort of Christian press-
ingly needs fasting, ay, thorough fasting. Brave
large-fleshed Martin Luther nobly confessed his need
and nobly acted it out, not without strife and lust-
ing.'¹ Of fasting as a whole and as applying to all,
it may be said that while it has been perverted into a
pestilent superstition, yet in the words of good Bishop
Andrewes,' There is more fear of a pottingerful of
gluttony than of a spoonful of superstition.''
1 'Large composition' is Shakspere's expressive delineation; King John
2 As before, p. 507.
II. 2.
74
The Temptation of Christ.
But now turning from fasting in itself to the fasting
of the Lord, I ask your attention to six things in it :-
1. The Fasting was watched. Elsewhere I give
my reasons for restricting the Temptation proper to
the three assaults that followed the Lord's 'hunger.'
But all through the days forty and nights forty' the
Tempter's eye was upon Jesus. And is not that watch-
ing the picture from the Psalms of the strong and
cruel one lying in ambush, lurking in secret places,
crouching and humbling himself, glaring out of his
congenial darkness, and watching a moment to leap
forth and do his mischief? My brethren, we too are
'watched,' and there is need of the warning watch-
word, 'Beware!'
2. The Fasting was supernatural.-This lies on the
surface of the record. For it was not merely a spare
diet but an absolute abstinence from food. Luke is
express as to this: 'Being forty days tempted of the
Devil. And in these days He did eat nothing whatever'
(iv. 2). How then was Jesus able to fast so long?
The answer is, He was 'tried in all things AS WE ARE;'
and it is found on turning to what 'is written' that
the Lord in thus fasting was fulfilling, filling full, what
Moses and Elijah had done before Him (Ex. xxxiv.
28 and 1 Kings xix. 8). Their 'forty days' were
passed in communion with God, and therefore the
wants of the body were not felt. And so was it with
the Man Christ Jesus. They that wait upon
Jehovah shall RENEW their strength' (Isa. xl. 31).
(
The Temptation of Christ.
75
Thus was it here. The Lord was waiting' upon
Jehovah, and His strength was renewed accordingly.
For as afterwards He proclaimed, 'Man liveth not by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God.' Thus was He, even as Moses
on Sinai and Elijah in the wilderness, supernaturally
strengthened.
3. The Fasting was preparative. You remember
that the Spirit'led up' the Lord 'immediately' (Mark
i. 12). The threefold temptation came not until the
'forty days' were ended. 'When they were ended'
is the special record of Luke; and I think it is a mis-
interpretation to suppose that throughout the 'forty
days and nights' He was tempted. (7) The triple
assault thus not coming until the end, why these
preceding 'forty days and nights' of fasting? Clearly
that He might be PREPARED for what awaited Him.
Temptation was coming, and by the Spirit and by
meditation on the written' Word He was prepared
for it. Herein lies a radical distinction between the
design of the fasting of our blessed Lord, and that of
what we know as fasting. Men, whether monks or
nuns or the despondent, have cloistered and seques-
tered themselves in wilderness or otherwhere; have
macerated with wanton self-cruelty their body, and
gratuitously saddened their spirit, not in order to
meet and have sanctified to them, but contrariwise to
escape and shun, Temptation. Their language has
been 'Retire from the world, separate yourselves from
(
Man
76
The Temptation of Christ.
life, turn your garments into a shroud, and forgetting
the sins and snares and evils of men, be delivered from
all such temptation.' Miserable writing-backward of
the story of the Tempted One! False and feeble
shrinking from the divinely-appointed preparative for
all strong work for the Lord! I apprehend that here
we have an explanation of the mournful failure as a
spiritual preparation for robust service for Christ, of
fasting and its accompaniment, prayers and meditation
on the Word. Methinks, if in view of difficult duty,
expected trial, evidently-coming demand for valiant
witness-bearing, we had recourse, Christ-like, to a
Spirit-led preparation, rather than a weak yammering
to get away from trial or temptation-the testing that
tries equally manhood and Christianhood,--we should
find ourselves receiving from the Lord all His own
PREPARATION, quickness to discern, meekness to
meet, and power to overcome our Adversary. For
hath not He said: To him that overcometh, even
as I also overcame, will I grant to sit with Me on My
throne as I am set down with My Father on His
throne' (Rev. iii. 21).
(
4. The Fasting was antitypical.-The most cur-
sory reader of Scripture must be struck with the re-
currence of certain numbers. I cannot now tarry to
dwell upon this. But with reference to 'forty,' it
surely is noticeable that 'forty' days was the Old
Testament period allotted for-Repentance. Thus
was it with the coming of the flood: 'The flood was
The Temptation of Christ.
77
6
forty days upon the earth' (Gen. vii. 17). I cannot.
doubt many turned unto Jehovah during that respite
though being without the ark they escaped not alive.'
Thus was it with doomed Nineveh. The warning
cry of Jonah was: 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown' (Jonah iii. 4). We know that this
pitiful interval was laid hold of to a saving repent-
ance. Thus was it with Ezekiel. The second com-
mand of the Lord to him was: Lie again on thy
right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the
house of Judah forty days; I have appointed thee
each day for a year' (Ezek. iv. 6). On the principle
of a day for a year likewise, we cannot forget how
Israel, that other Son of God (Hosea xi. 1) was 'led'
in the wilderness for 'forty years.' It seems, there-
fore, impossible to doubt that this fasting of the Lord
was antitypical. It succeeded John the Baptist's
clarion-call to repentance, and it preceded our Lord's
own summons. 'From that time,' is the emphatic
record, 'Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent;
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matt. iv. 17).
I confess that I do not precisely see the nexus of these
olden repentance times of 'forty days' with the 'forty
days' of our Lord's fasting. But not the less am I
sure that such a specific placing of the circumstance
in the narrative has a purpose¹ (m), and all the more
that His resurrection-life consisted also of 'forty days,'
as is placed on record (Acts i. 3).
,
1 See Note (1) for a beautiful Rabbinical illustration.
78
The Temptation of Christ.
(
5. The Fasting was for our learning.-Here I will
let another first speak. Yes, even in our penitential
exercises,' says Newman, when we could least have.
hoped to find a pattern in Him, Christ has gone be-
fore us to sanctify them to us. He has blessed fasting
as a means of grace in that He has fasted, and fasting
is only acceptable when it is done for His sake.
Penitence is mere formality, or mere remorse, unless
done in love. If we fast without uniting ourselves in
heart to Christ, imitating Him, and praying that He
would make our fasting His own, would associate it
with His own, and communicate to it the virtue of
His own, so that we may be in Him, and He in us;
we fast as Jews, not as Christians. Well, then, do we
place the thought of Him before us, whose grace
must be within us, lest in our chastisements we beat
the air and humble ourselves in vain."
There cannot be a doubt that He left us an ex-
ample' in all that man may imitate. Nor is it to be
questioned that from Paul onwards the holiest men
have sought to profit by fasting as a means of grace.
Paul, in recounting the incidents of his many-serviced
life, forgets not this, 'Even unto this present hour we
both hunger and thirst' (1 Cor. iv. 11); and again,
I have been 'in perils in the wilderness, ... in weari-
ness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, IN FASTINGS OFTEN' (2 Cor. xi. 26, 27). (2)
1 Parochial Sermons for the Spring Quarter, vol. vi. 2d edition, 1845,
PP. 3, 4-
The Temptation of Christ.
79
6. The Fasting of the 'nights' suggests imitation in
measure.—It is noticeable how much of night, even
midnight prayer and praise, with fasting,' there is in
the Psalms and by Jesus. How little with us! How
perfunctory too often our 'night' approaches to the
Throne! Thus quaintly and racily does John Dow-
name speak, in his Guide to Godliness, of the benefit
of devotion at bed-time: Ovens that have been
baked in over night are easily heated the next
morning. The cask that was well-seasoned in the
evening, will swell the next day. The fire that was
well raked up when we went to bed, will be the sooner
kindled when we rise. Thus, if in the evening we
spend ourselves in the examination of our hearts, how
we have spent the time past, and commit ourselves
unto the good guidance of God for the time to come,
we shall soon find the spiritual warmth thereof making
us able and active for all good duties in the morning;
and by adding some new fuel to this holy fire, we
shall with much facility and comfort cause it to burn
and blaze in all Christian and religious duties.'¹
We have to consider now—
¶ 17. The condition of the Lord after His Fasting.
Ver. 2. . . . afterwards He FAMISHED, or WAS
AN-HUNGERED.'
".
Looking at this fact of 'hunger' apart from its re
1 Quoted in Spencer's KAINA KAI ПAAAIA, p. 958, folio, 1658.
80
The Temptation of Christ.
lation to the Temptation, the first thing that strikes
one on reading it, is that it is mentioned as a conse-
quent of the Lord's prolonged fasting, while it is not
mentioned of either Moses or Elijah. Surely the Old
Testament silence and the New Testament mention
bring before us one of the many incidental memora-
bilia that give a stamp of Divinity to the every move-
ment of Christ. Of the great lawgiver and the equally
great prophet such a thing had not need to be and
is not mentioned; for, given a forty days and forty
nights' fasting, and 'hunger' was inevitable to them.
Yet is it recorded of Jesus as something to be remem-
bered, as something indicative of a higher nature
being quiescent. Therefore is it specifically 'written'
that 'He was an-hungered.'
Again, this fact of 'hunger' preceding His Temp-
tation, and indeed introducing it, reminds us of the
Lord's gracious keeping it in mind when He left us
His model-prayer. I see in that petition, 'Give us
this day our daily bread,' bound up as it is with the
other, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from the Evil One,' a reminiscence of His own
Temptation, and a gentle seeking to spare His chil-
dren. Accept the pathetic lesson, my brethren.
Be assured that still, hunger and temptation are inex-
tricably interwoven. In your straits and difficulties,
in your threatened or actual 'hunger,' be watchful.
Beware of suggested by-ways and indirect courses.
Let the Christ-trusting cry ascend, 'Give us this day
The Temptation of Christ.
81
our daily bread;' and if pressed to well-nigh and even
utter starving, put your whole soul into the other,
'Lead us not into temptation. Be your words:
'Lord, if it please Thee, spare me the trial of
"hunger" for myself and mine; but if not, Lord,
give strength to bear, and faith to wait, and hope to
look to Thy relieving-time.'
We shall see how in His hunger our blessed Lord
'waited' upon Jehovah. We shall also see how the
Tempter used His hunger as a snare. Here then in
the fact of Jesus' hunger we have, on the one hand, a
lesson of submission, and on the other of watchful-
ness. Of submission: for if so it was with the Master,
shall the servant rebel or fret? Of watchfulness: for
if the Adversary sought to make the Lord's hunger a
snare, we may be sure he will do so with us also. Be
it ours to learn the double lesson; and may the good
Lord spare us the terrible trial of hunger.
I greatly fear that we who have our 'daily bread'
even to fulness and luxury-we who never need to
'take thought' almost, of 'how we shall eat and
how we shall drink'-all too little sympathize with
our fellow-believers who, in times, for example,
such as these, have to go half-fed or unfed, and be
honest, with wife and little ones starving about them.
Who that knows himself at all would not fear to
pass such an ordeal? Who, so knowing himself,
can have harsh words against a fellow-man who
stumbles and falls before it? Oh, my brethren,
F
82
The Temptation of Christ.
we keep ourselves too far aloof from our lowlier
fellow-Christians who are doing battle-ay, and by
His grace overcoming-with such temptation! It
is a stern and poignant reality that many of Christ's
children are often and often in 'hunger.' And alas !
alas that still the 'crumbs' that fall from rich men's
tables should so often go 'to the dogs,' rather than
to the Lazaruses without. I say, with a humiliating
consciousness personally of how hard a thing I should
myself find it to walk erect, if I and mine were starv-
ing,—God spare me that! And I further say, God
give me Christian consideration to 'search out' my
fellow-men left in 'hunger,' and a forgiving heart to
'pass by' any shortcoming through sore temptation
of my brother or sister. Above all, God save me
from the so common thoughtlessness and waste that
can spend 'silver and gold' on self, and dole out
paltry pence and call it 'charity!'
There is another thought. It was when He was
'famished' or 'an-hungered' the Lord was assailed.
That is, when He was in weakness. Oh, the dastard
Tempter! He watches the moment of weakness,
and, when a man is down and driven to the wall,
presses hardest and sorest. And yet this weakness
has another and very glorious side. The Lord over-
came in His weakness, not by His
and thereby are not we encouraged?
with the martyred faithful, it still holds, that 'out of
weakness' the Lord's children are 'made strong'
Divine power;
Even as of old
The Temptation of Christ.
83
(Heb. xi. 34). And who that really has fought and
fought out the great contest, has not been led ador-
ingly with Paul to hear the Lord saying, 'My strength
is made perfect in weakness' (2 Cor. xii. 9). Oh!
it is a beautiful picture! The great strong God
stooping and gentlying His strength to carry His
weak, sick child through. Never is strength so noble
and perfect a thing as when seen bearing with and
bearing up helpless weakness, that it might crush. In
proportion conversely, it is a mean and miserable
thing to see strength seeking advantage over weak-
ness, as in Satan's coming when Jesus was 'an-hun-
gered.' (o) It was all the more base in the Tempter
thus taking advantage, in that he himself was then in
all his power.
For, as Edward Philips, in those
'Sermons,' so lovingly reported by Sibbes' friend, Sir
Henry Yelverton, says, 'To the end that Satan might
have the greater power and fuller blow at Him, He
was led into a solitary and desert place, where the
Devil might be in his ruff.' And there and then
and thus he took his time and opportunity; for,
observes James Forrester, Satan knew that occasion
was bald behind.'"
1
(
I have now to ask your attention to-
1 Certain Godly and Learned Sermons: Preached by that worthy servant
of Christ, M. Ed. Philips, as they were delivered by him in St. Saviour's, in
Southwark. And were taken by the pen of H. Yelverton, of Grayes Inn,
gentleman. 1605. Page 160.
2 The Marrow and Juice of Two Hundred and Sixty Scriptures, etc
1611. Page 86.
84
The Temptation of Christ.
18. The Coming of the Tempter.
Ver. 3.
Was it visible?
'And BEING COME to Him, The Tempter
said.'
I would answer the question which these words at
once start, 'Was this a visible coming?' for the pre-
sent very briefly. I reply in the negative. I think
that neither now nor subsequently did the Evil One
appear. I rest this answer upon an already cited pas-
sage, Heb. iv. 14, 15, 'We have a great High-Priest that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. . . .
We have not an high-priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but [One who] was
IN ALL POINTS tempted like as we are, yet without sin.'
Hereafter, I hope fully to expound this and kindred
texts in their wider relations. But this statement in
Hebrews, just as it lies before us, appears to me de-
cisive. We know that we are never' tempted' by the
Evil One visibly. Of all the Bible words none suggest
that. Well! It is affirmed that the Lord was tempted
like-as we are, or more literally according to (our)
similitude,' and the argument involves and necessitates
that if we men are tempted as (= in the manner)
Christ was, equally was Christ tempted as we are,
viz. invisibly, spiritually.¹
1 I have reference here to the Tempter himself in this point of his visi-
bility. He has visible, personal instruments, but that does not touch the
Lord's Temptation, as he himself was the Tempter, not any of his instru-
ments. Apart from the specific Temptation of the Lord, and from the ques-
tion of visibility and personality of our Adversary, it will be well that we
remember the broad principle enunciated by Christ, 'Inasmuch as ye did
The Temptation of Christ.
85
(
Again, this is the teaching doctrinally of Holy
Scripture. For how is the Evil Spirit described as
'working' Is he not styled The spirit that now
worketh IN the children of disobedience?' (Toû vôv
ἐνεργοῦντος ΕΝ τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας, Eph. ii. 2).
And similarly when God threatens 'strong delusion'
against the followers of Satan, how does he describe
it ? As 'deceit working within them'. (évépyeiav
λárs, 2 Thess. ii. 11).
Besides these explicit words of the apostle, and
others that might be adduced if need were, it is
plain that He who pre-eminently discerned spirits'
needed no visible, personal, out-coming to make Him
aware of who it was who suggested to His holy soul
the successive Temptations, and by His Father's per-
mission 'took' Him hither and thither.
Scholars of no mean repute, differ from the view I
venture to take, but where reasons are given they seem
to me to rest on a misunderstanding as well of the
present verse as of the entire facts of the Temptation.
it unto one of the least of these, ye did it to me' (Matt. xxv. 40). The Lord
has representatives on earth, and so has the Devil visible representatives
who do his bidding, having his spirit. I deem it altogether superfluous here
to combat the moon-struck nonsense of Lange, and other of the German
Commentators, about the Tempter having been not the Devil but one of the
Jewish Sanhedrim !!! I have read with much interest two papers in The
Homilist (vol. ii. pp. 54-66, 130-132), on the Temptation of Christ, or the
'Typal Battle of the Good.' Dr. Payne's reasoning seems to me very im-
potent; but there are some very quickening and powerful things in the
after-elucidation of the Temptation by the Editor. With reference to Far
mer's plausible theory of the Temptation having been a 'vision' of the trials
that awaited the Lord, I must speak elsewhere. Meantime, Rev. W. M.
Taylor, in his Life Truths, has pithily summed it up in the phrase that it
furnished Christ 'with a kind of intensified specimen of the difficulties that
lay before Him.'
86
The Temptation of Christ.
They hold that the verb 'came' ('being come'), as
a word, expresses and involves a visible coming. But
this is surely a mistake. For we have the same verb
expressing the same act in Mark iv. 15, 'Then cometh
Satan, and taketh away the seed.' No one, I ima-
gine, will maintain the Lord intended a 'visible
and audible' coming. So elsewhere.¹
This may
suffice. (p)
By the Tempter 'being come,' then, I understand
that he did really 'come' near unto the Lord, but
that he delivered his suggestions-how, we are not told
and cannot know except in the measure of our know-
ledge of our own temptations-behind that veil which
curtains the world of spirits from mortal vision. The
Tempter came; emphatically he himself, but in-
visibly. The old old war reaching backward into an
undisclosed eternity, and extending over all the ages.
of time, had reached a crisis. There had been battle
Wycliffe renders
1 The verb is epxoμal here as in innumerable cases.
'came-nigh;' Brameld 'approaching.'
K
2 I may as well state here, that Dean Alford is one of those who explains
the Devil's coming' to Him (Matt. iv. 3), as necessarily expressing his
'becoming visible and audible,' and this with above reference before him,
and in its place accurately expounded. We have in this as in multitudes of
places in his Greek Testament for Theological Students and Ministers,' a
betrayal of that want of deliberation and thoroughness of scholarship in
those niceties that mark the genuine from the second-hand scholar and exe-
gete, which crowd his pages with the most haphazard and not less illiterate
and shallow than self-contradictory interpretations. As a young man I
should hesitate to so characterize a work that has met with wide accept-
ance; but having in the prosecution of my own studies habitually used Al-
ford, and found him perpetually most disappointing and inexact, I will not
shrink from saying, that I know no modern Expositor of Holy Scripture who
more needs his own dogmatic 'Beware,' whether as concerns insight into
the mind of the Spirit' or scholarship.
C
The Temptation of Christ.
87
upon battle and untruced strife; God on the one side,
and the Evil One on the other. At length the two
Leaders confront one another, the Prince of Light
and the Prince of Darkness. The whole interest and
interests of the war are gathered up and concentrated
in the encounter. All time, all eternity, all destinies
for weal and woe, must take colour and character
from the issue. How all heaven must have gazed,
and all hell!
Here I would remark, that as the Lord entered not
upon the Conflict without preparation and special
endowments, so neither would the Tempter. It is no
mere fancy of the poet that he studied out his part,
and came full-charged with his deepest devices.'
Let us pause a moment over the quaint and quaintly
put
¿
¶ 19. Preparations of the Tempter: from the Pysche'
of Joseph Beaumont, D.D.
Now his cue was come, and to Hell he stepp'd
And oped a box which by his couch's side,
He as the dearest of his treasures kep'd;
Ten thousand quaint delusions there were ty'd
In one another's gentle snarles so strait
That Craft herself from hence might learn deceit.
There lay smooth, burnish'd words, and quick mutations,
Sleight-handed tricks, importunate courtesies,
Sweet looks, delicious shapes, and dainty fashions,
False loves, envenom'd fawnings, holy lies,
Those gorgeous frauds by which he lured Eve
For one poor apple, Heav'n and God to leave.
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The Temptation of Christ.
And those by which the holy Aaron, made
More silly than the calf his fear erected;
Those which unconquer'd Samson's strength betray'd,
Those which the fort of chastity dejected
In David's heart; and those whose witchery
Charmed his wise son to fond idolatry.
This also was the cursed nest of those
More wily wiles he forgèd to entice
The brave inhabitants of Heav'n to close
With his conspiracy, when in the skies
He drew his army up, and ventured on
Against the thunder's mouth and God's own Son.
All which he takes, and squeezing into one
Conflux of more than quintessential guiles;
With which insidious extraction
His thirst he quenches, and his bosom fills;
And so returns into this Desert, well
Stuff'd with the best, because the worst, of Hell.'1
1 As before, c. ix. st. 169-173-
The First Temptation.
Miriam concerning Guido's 'Archangel and Satan.'
'With what half-scornful delicacy he sets his delicately-sandalled foot on the
head of his prostrate foe! BUT IS IT THUS THAT VIRTUE LOOKS, THE MOMENT
AFTER ITS DEATH-STRUGGLE WITH EVIL? No. No. I could have told Guido
better. A full third of the Archangel's feathers should have been torn from
his wings; the rest all ruffled, till they looked like Satan's own. His sword
should be streaming with blood, and perhaps broken half-way to the hilt; his
armour crushed, his robes rent, his breast gory; a bleeding gash on his brow,
cutting right across the stern scowl of battle! He should press his foot hard
down upon the Old Serpent, as if his very soul depended upon it, feeling him
squirm mightily, and doubting whether the fight were half over yet, and
how the victory might turn. And into this fierceness, this grimness, this un-
utterable horror, there should still be something high, tender, and holy in
Michael's eyes, and around his mouth. BUT THE BATTLE NEVER WAS SUCH
CHILDISH PLAY AS GUIDO'S DAPPER ARCHANGEL SEEMS TO HAVE FOUND IT.’
Transformation.' By Nathanael Hawthorne.
We have thus reached the Temptations themselves.
Being verily a Man, 'bone of our bone, and flesh of
our flesh,' the Lord after His so long-protracted fast-
ing was famished,' 'an-hungered.' And now, as I
apprehend, the Tempter began his Temptations.
May the Teacher aright teach me how to unfold
and make useful the deep things' of the wondrous
narrative.
?
Ver. 3. And being come to Him, the Tempter
said, "If Son Thou be of the God, speak, in order
that these, the stones, may become loaves."
This opening of the Temptation I would describe
as
}) }
The Temptation of the Lord Jesus as a man
'an-hungered.'
It is, I take it, the human side, the human weak-
ness made visible to the Tempter, that is addressed.
Through that he seeks to 'bruise the heel' of 'the
woman's seed' as a first thing.
As before, and as throughout, we must take clause
92
The Temptation of Christ.
by clause, and I might say word by word, so inex-
pressibly matterful is the narrative.
बा
T 20. A Doubt insinuated.
Ver. 3. If.
I do not at all conceive any doubt to have been in
the Tempter's own mind, any more than in Eden he
doubted whether Jehovah had said what Eve told
him, notwithstanding his 'Yea, HATH God said?'
(Gen. iii. 1.) There was not a shadow of doubt in
either case.
But he sought in both to insinuate a
doubt into the mind of the tempted. I have already
explained that I regard the Temptation of Jesus as
precisely parallel with that of Job. He too was sur-
rendered to Satan 'to be tempted.' How then could
he have any doubt as to who was before him? Very
shallow and stupid is much of the sermonizing of
many upon the Tempter's supposed ignorance of who
Christ was. The ignorance is theirs, not his. This
knowledge of who Christ was, is a perfectly distinct.
and very different thing from understanding Him.
That he did not do; and hence the possibility of the
Temptation.
Besides the general consideration, which holds or
the successive Temptations, the 'If' I apprehend loses
all its force as a temptation when it is explained to
be expressive of doubt; while, regarded as I regard
it, it reveals profound craft. Literally, and as I think
more deeply than in our translation, it runs,
The Temptation of Christ.
93
'If Son Thou be of the God.'1
You observe that there was in the 'If' a taunting
yet uneasy sneer. 'If Son Thou be of the God!'
That is, he makes a covert allusion to the 'voice
from heaven' which had declared Him to be the
Son of God, but leaves out so as to conceal his
knowledge, the definite testimony beloved,' and
'well-pleased.'"
2
Here, my friends, before passing on-I would wish
to offer-
¶ 21. A few words of Consolation and of Warning
to Tempted Ones from the 'I'
1. Consolation. Are you, my brother, my sister,
tempted to doubt of your sonship, .., of your per-
sonal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ? Spite of
your really having given yourself to Him, spite of the
•
1 The Original is εἰ υἱὸς εἶ τοῦ Θεοῦ . . See Note (a). It sheds light
upon the closing verse of the narrative of the Temptation in Luke iv, 13:
' And the Devil having ended all a Temptation withdrew from Him until a
fitting opportunity,' to remember that this identical taunt, in the very iden-
tical words, was again flung up to the Saviour as He hung upon the cross.
Cf. Matt. xxvii. 40, where as here the more exact as well as more vivid ren-
dering is, "If Son Thou be of the God, come down from the cross.' Cf.
also ver. 43; Mark i. 1.; John x. 36: where as elsewhere the article is
omitted before viòs. For further elucidation of the Calvary taunt above,
see onward.
2 Thomas Fuller, in his own quaint way says, 'In such things he speaks
warily with an "if;" not that he is conscientious not to tell a lie, but cunning,
not to be caught with a lie' (as before, p. 41). And again, 'It is Satan's
masterpiece to make God's children first doubt of and then deny their son-
ship' (as before, p. 41). Once more, 'Know his sophistry can graft a lie
suddenly on the stock of truth' (as before, p. 46).
94
The Temptation of Christ.
'peace' within you from the peace-speaking blood,
does the Tempter assail and harass you with insinu-
ations and 'ifs,' that as 'fiery darts' stick fast, and
trouble you very awfully, even to positive dread? Be
not dismayed. Your Lord was so tempted; and it is
from his knowledge of your resting in Christ, from his
knowledge of your turning from him, the Tempter is
impelled to 'tempt' and trouble you. Had he the
conviction you were no son or daughter of the Lord,
there would be no 'if' tossed at you. He would not
risk that. He would let you—alone. As it is, though
he knows that no son or daughter of the Heavenly
Father can ever by any possibility fall again perma-
nently into his hands, he yet seeks to hinder and vex
and spoil and despoil the beauty and fruitfulness of
grace. Since he cannot destroy, he will at least
annoy; and as nothing is so dishonouring to God as
unbelief, his doubting 'if' is a grand resort.
6
There is another thought, which Bagot has well
put :- How different is the use which Jesus makes
of this word "if" in those lessons of Divine instruction
and heavenly consolation which He so frequently
delivered to His disciples when He was on earth!
He always employed it to inspire confidence; never
to excite distrust. Take a single instance of this :—
CC
If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, will He not
much more clothe you, O ye of little faith!" (Matt.
vi. 30.) What a contrast between this Divine remon-
The Temptation of Christ.
95
strance and the malicious insinuations of the great
enemy of God and man !'1
2. Warning.—When an enemy concentrates all his
energy of attack upon a given point, he were a heed-
less commander who did not discover that his assail-
ant regarded it as either a probably weak or from
its strength a vital place. Similarly it must be very
plain, that when the Tempter insinuates his 'if' of
doubt, his attack is directed to the very citadel of
Christianhood, viz., Faith. Accordingly the Epistles
of Paul and Peter abound with warnings to guard it.
Thus the great Apostle of the Gentiles writes to the
Thessalonians: For this cause, when I could no
longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by
some means the Tempter have tempted you, and our
labour be in vain' (iii. 5). Again, Peter writes of the
Evil One Be sober, be vigilant; because your Ad-
versary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast
in the faith' (1 Pet. v. 9). No doubt the impassioned
counsel of the apostle drew part of its intensity from
his remembrance of the Lord's words, the hour before
his fall, 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not." Be it ours, therefore, my fellow-believers, to
เ
1 Exposition of St. Matthew. By Rev. Daniel Bagot, B.D. 2 vols.
8vo, vol. i. page 103.
I have not seen his subsequent volume upon the
Temptation itself.
2 Luke xxii. 32. The verb is ÈKλeiπw; and cf. Luke xvi. 9, where 'fail'
is =
die. Therefore the Lord's prayer was die out. Peter's faith cer-
<
tainly failed,' but afterwards was recovered, and so did not 'die out' or
wither up utterly. Cf. Schleich's De precib. Chr. pro fide Petri ne defic.
fus. 1746.
96
The Temptation of Christ.
(
watch against the Tempter's 'if.' He aims at the
very 'apple of the eye' in that. Alas! many a true
child of God he succeeds in rendering blind to his
dying day. Let us dread so dire a calamity. Let us
obey the apostolic counsel, We stand by faith'
(Rom. xi. 29); and again, Above [= over] all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked [One]'
(Eph. vi. 16).¹ Yes, poor, wrestling, harassed soul,
these are your God's own assuring words. 'YE SHALL
BE ABLE,' and mark, able to quench,' not one or
another only, but ALL the fiery darts.' Nor is this
assurance less consolatory in its wider application to
the controversies of the present day, in which a
Bishop has turned Diaboli advocatus, and does his
feeble worst to lodge his 'if' in the very Book of the
Word, which the Lord has for ever consecrated by
using as His weapon of defence in this His Tempta-
tion. Out of all these doubting 'ifs' there will be
deliverance. Not a ،
fiery dart' but shall be
'quenched.' But, oh! 'the pity of it, the pity of it,'
that any should be found to take up the shattered
spears of the Tempter!
(
•
I proceed in our Exposition
1 For excellent critical observations on the Greek of 'wicked' vel 'the
Wicked One,' cf. a little-known but acute tractate by Michael Lort, D.D.,
entitled 'A Short Commentary on the Lord's Prayer, in which an Allusion
to the Principal Circumstances of our Lord's Temptation is attempted to be
shown.' 1790.
Dr. Lort misses some of the most pathetic reminiscences of
the Temptation, e.g., as I have explained, His being 'led' out, and His
'hunger' as a temptation; but he suggests others.
The Temptation of Christ.
97
22. HUNGER' addressed by ‘BREAD.'
Ver. 3. 'If Son Thou be of the God, COMMAND that
these, the stones, be made LOAVES.'
You mark the skill, you mark the subtlety, you
mark the adaptation of this opening of the Tempta-
tion. It coincided with the necessity of Him who
was 'tempted.' For the Tempter knew the weakness
of Christ, as he knows the weakness and the bad side
of human nature. The Lord was 'an-hungered.'
The Tempter lays hold of that, and seeks to exa-
cerbate His hunger by speaking to Him of 'bread,'
and yet seems to take the sting out of equally the
temptation and the exacerbation, by such speaking
of 'bread.' 'If Son Thou be of The God,' the Ad-
versary puts it, 'your hunger, your evident starving,
is surely gratuitous folly! Therefore, COMMAND that
these stones be made LOAVES.'
It had been to spoil his sleight and craft to have
merely spoken of the hunger, and it would have
defeated his object to have himself furnished 'bread.'
To have merely spoken of hunger had only been
cruelty. To have merely furnished 'bread' had been
—for him-blundering. He combines the two. He
seeks to give a colour of sympathy and reasonable-
ness to the providing of 'bread,' and yet a keener
edge to the hunger.
Here I must explain, that whether we read as in
Matthew the stones,' or with Luke 'this stone,' it is
G
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The Temptation of Christ.
noteworthy that travellers inform us that the' stones'
of the wilderness both of Judea and of Sinai bear a
striking resemblance in their shape and colour, as
they lie weather-stained over the sands, to 'loaves.'
There was thus not only the naming of 'bread,' but
also the likeness of bread to prompt desire.¹ (g)
23. The Tempter has no wish to make men merely
miserable.
At this point I would observe, my friends, that the
Tempter never, as a rule, aims at making men miser-
able per se.
For given ends, and in given conditions,
he fills the overburdened heart with such intolerable
wretchedness as made a Judas take the suicide's wild
leap in the dark. But other things being equal, the
aim of our Adversary is not to make men wretched,
but to make them sin. Thus, in the present instance,
he had no desire that the Lord should continue 'an-
hungered,' had every wish that He should be delivered
from that, even instantly. But there was one condi-
tion: His hunger must be satisfied in a way that
should cause Him to incur guilt.
I would enforce this truth. My fellow-men, it has
been an old perplexity, from Asaph onward, how the
wicked are so happy, how all goes so enjoyingly and
1 See nearly all Travels' in Palestine. I think this peculiarity sheds
light upon Matthew vii. 9. A little boy is walking with his father and grows
very hungry. He sees one of these loaf-like stones, and asks it from his
father. But he would only break his teeth against it. So the father with-
holds. If he ask,' if his hunger ask, 'bread, will he give him (what is not
bread but a stone?'
4
The Temptation of Christ.
99
:
pleasantly with them. But if the principle I have
enunciated be kept in mind, the explanation is simple
and very awful. The Evil One leaves those He holds,
'possesses' (the solemn Bible word), in peace. Wretch-
edness, distress, misery, want-as in the case of the
Prodigal away from his father's house, and 'fain' to
eat the swine-husks,-have sent many a poor sinner
to the sinner's Saviour happiness, pleasure, uninter-
rupted enjoyment, every worldly satisfaction, fulness,
few or none; while they have withdrawn many many.
You know the sin of Sodom was 'pride, and fulness
of bread and abundance of idleness' (Ezek. xvi. 49).
The Tempter therefore gladly, to the utmost limit of
his power, adds wealth to riches, pleasure to happi-
ness, advancement to honour, gaiety to joy. He
seeks not to spoil or despoil his followers-now or
here. That might make them turn from so dis-
appointing a world as this to another, might show
them their 'primrose way,' led to the everlasting
bonfire.'¹ Hence the infinite love of Him who 'chas-
tises' to very agony His children rather than suffer sin
in them. Oh! my unconverted, unconcerned, 'at
ease,' rich and prosperous fellow-men, yours is a
tremendous quiet :
'The torrent's smoothness ERE it dash below.” 2
And you who are 'tempted' and 'chastised' as with
right hand and left hand, count it all joy.' His
'rod,' as well as His 'staff,' leads you.
1 Macbeth II. 3.
2 Campbell.
<
100
The Temptation of Christ.
5
24. The Hook beneath the Bait.
You will observe that it is as carrying out the eco-
nomy described, the Tempter proceeds with Jesus.
Seeing Him an-hungered,' he would appear to have
a wish to deliver Him from His wretchedness; but it
was after a sinful sort. Ah! it is with this dark fisher
of souls as it is with fisher in lake or sea. It is not to
relieve the hunger of the fish that the bait is flung out,
but to fix the hook in gill or throat. And so now it
is to mistake the worm for the hook, or to see the
worm and forget the hook, to think otherwise than
that the Tempter, while professing to relieve the
Lord's manifested hunger, had for his one aim to
fasten the sin that lay within his way of relief in the
heart of the Lord. Hence the snare-the outward
bait and inward barb, poisoned besides-the professed
sympathy with need, and the guilty suggestion of
relief: 'If Son Thou be of The God, coMMAND that
these, the stones, be made LOAVES,' which might
almost be regarded as a reminiscence of his old suc-
cess in Eden, when he said 'Eat.'
There was a fearful depth of contumely in this
opening of the Temptation. It was as though he had
said, 'What! Son of God, and left in this howling
wilderness? Son of God, and abandoned to starva-
tion ? Son of God, and after your weary fasting
uncared for? Feel you not, "It is vain to serve
God and what profit is it that YOU HAVE KEPT HIS
ORDINANCE, and that you have walked mournfully
The Temptation of Christ.
IOI
before the Lord of Hosts ?" (Mal. iii. 14.) Is this the
reward of your obedience : Yea, hath God said that
you are His Son?' All that I take to be wrapped
up in the Tempter's words.
¶25. Wherein lay the Temptation? What was
the sin of the Snare?
វ
But wherein lay the Temptation? We have seen
how deftly the 'Hunger' of the Lord was addressed
by the Bread. That however was the mere external
snare. Looking deeper, what was the element that
would have made the Lord a sinner had He done
that which He was exhorted to do? How would it
have been wrong, even in His extremity, to have re-
lieved His hunger by turning the 'stones' of the wil-
derness, that looked like loaves, into actual loaves?
It is of the last importance, I apprehend, to get at
the element of temptation, so as to see how real and
actual the CONFLICT was. I confess, that as I have
found the several temptations explained, that has been
missed, and the whole travestied, perhaps uncon-
sciously, into a kind of phantasm or show.
Without entangling ourselves with the varying ex-
planations of others, I ask you to look steadfastly at
the word COMMAND, ver. 3: If Son Thou be of The
God, COMMAND.' . . . Here, as I take it, lies the pith of
the temptation. The getting of 'bread' was, as I have
already remarked, the mere worm-bait or tinted fly to
conceal this barbed and poisoned hook. Of old the
102
The Temptation of Christ.
،
wise man had warned of such eating: Eat thou not
the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire
thou his dainty meats; for as he thinketh in his heart,
so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his
heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast
eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words'
(Prov. xxiii. 6-8).¹ Well! Penetrating beneath the
outward addressing of the Lord's Hunger by Bread-
taking that into account, yet not stopping short with
it-What was the sin of the snare?
Realize the circumstances :-The Lord Jesus was
not there to 'command,' but to obey; was not there
to 'command,' but to serve; was not there to 'com-
mand,' but in order to be tempted. Recall the record
and anew grasp its weight and significance: 'Then
was Jesus LED UP under the Spirit within the wilder-
ness, IN ORDER TO BE TEMPTED under the Devil.' As
servant therefore, not as The Lord; as there' surren-
dered' to another, and to do what was 'written,' not to
'command,' was Jesus in the wilderness. Hence His
instant answer, 'It is written.' The Temptation was,
to take things into His own hands, and command
instead of waiting, which had shown unbelief and a
resiling from His self-surrender, as when a father
carries his child across a stream on his shoulders, and
in mid-stream the child begins to scream and struggle
to help himself.
1 Blake has said tersely, if with a touch of misanthropy, 'When a base
man means to be your enemy, he always begins with being your friend.'-
'Public Address' in Life, vol. ii. p. 156.
The Temptation of Christ.
103
¶ 26. The Snare uncovered: 'It is written' pleaded.
In vain did the Tempter seek to turn Him aside.
He puts His divine finger upon the snare; strips off
the worm-bait, the skilful shapen and adorned fly, and
shows the treacherous barb; and over against 'com-
mand' says 'It is written.' I read the Lord's answer,
ver. 4:· But He answered and said, Ir is WRITTEN,
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'
C
Very gracious was it in our tempted Lord so to
answer. He might have said at once, 'Get thee hence,
Satan ;' or He might have replied in the words of the
grand old Psalm: 'If I WERE HUNGRY, I would not
tell thee; for the world is Mine and the fulness
thereof' (xxiv. 1). But it was needful that for our
sakes He should fulfil all righteousness. Therefore
though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience
by the things which He suffered' (Heb. v. 8). He
was 'led up' of the Spirit to be tempted' and He
bore all. He was 'an-hungered;' but there was a
word 'out of the mouth of God:''Put Thou thy
trust in the Lord, and be doing good; DWELL IN THE
LAND [wilderness?], and verily Thou SHALT BE FED' (Ps.
xxxvii. 3). He threw Himself upon these and kindred
Bible words; turned to His Bible, ay, His as truly
as it is ours; and so spurned the Temptation to be
the Master instead of the Servant; to 'speak' instead
of hearing and hearkening to what was 'written ;' to
104
The Temptation of Christ.
{"
'IT IS
relieve instead of bearing even to the end.
WRITTEN,' was His reply, ' Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.'
Even so, and He was a man. Therefore will He
trust the 'word' of God to deliver Him; He will
OBEY at whatever cost of suffering; He will 'wait.' ¹
¶ 27. The Self-denial of the Lord.
We have a noble example of SELF-DENIAL in this
falling back upon what was 'written,' by the Lord.
He was God, 'God manifest in the flesh,' but, yea
because of and as the purpose of His incarnation,
came to walk along a path ever in shadow and
sprinkled with tears and blood, and along that ap-
pointed path,' the path of life,'-a 'Man of Sorrows,'
He went, submitting to dishonour and privation,
weariness and injury, contumely and friendlessness,
rather than for one instant transgress the way which
He had in plenteous mercy, even in His great love,
marked out to Himself. You remember His memor-
able words to Peter: Thinkest thou that I could not
pray to my Father, and He should presently send me
twelve legions of angels? BUT HOW THEN SHOULD
THE SCRIPTURE BE FULFILLED THAT THUS IT MUST BE?'
(Matt. xxvi. 53.)³ So that while possessing within
1 See Note (a) and ¶ 29.
2 May I suggest that the number 'twelve' legions probably had reference
to or was suggested by the 'twelve' disciples' prospective forsaking of the
Lord? For them His Father could give 'twelve' legions of angels: a legion
for each defaulter.
The Temptation of Christ.
105
(
Himself the power, at any moment, to free Himself,
the Lord yet meekly and resolutely set His face to
accomplish the work given Him to do.' And so
now He thrusts from Him the temptation to ‘com-
mand.' Calmly He replies, 'It is WRITTEN, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'
6
¶ 28. An Example' for us: Outwardly in Hunger;'
inwardly in 'Obeying.'
In all this-need I say?—the Lord left us an
'example' that we should follow in His steps; an
example that reaches down to our every temptation,
and specifically to that which now pressed upon Him.
Look at it a moment outwardly and inwardly.
1. Outwardly.—A man is 'hungry,' 'starving' and
can't buy. He is 'tempted' to supply himself in a
wrong way; to steal a loaf, or a turnip from a field,
or to pick a pocket, or to borrow frauduently. My
brother! my sister!-don't. 'Trust in the Lord, and
do good' not bad [these two things and in this order]
'so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou
shalt be fed.' Oh for a deeper, truer trust and good-
doing! For depend upon it, not Satan but the Lord
shows the path of life.' THOU wilt show Me the
path of life,' says the Saviour (Ps. xvi. 11). In the
wilderness, with no bread, the Lord clave to that, and
so flang from Him the Devil's snare, 'I will show
Thee the path.' There it is. Command that these
(
106
The Temptation of Christ.
stones be made bread.' How sad that so many listen
rather to the Tempter's 'I,' than to the Psalm's
'Thou' ! How mournful that even professing Chris-
tians derive so little comfort and only half-confidence
from the great words of Isaiah: 'He that walketh
righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that DESPISETH
the gain of oppression [Such gain is indeed a despic-
able thing; for it is mean advantage over the weak
and helpless, and often and often mere might against
right], that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes
[as Paul 'shook off' the asp in Melita], that stoppeth
his ears from hearing of blood [blood-money?], and
shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on
high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of
rocks; bread shall be given him, his waters shall be
sure' (Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16).
Such was our blessed Lord's first meeting of the
first temptation regarded outwardly. He will suffer
'Hunger,' and 'wait' upon His God for deliverance.
But look at it--
2. Inwardly.-The Tempter's object was, as we
have seen, through His Hunger, to divert the Lord
from the course of obedience, as the Servant sent of
the Father to do His will. Piercing to that, His re-
sistance to it was to place Himself in the very centre
of His true position on earth; and so not to answer
as from Himself, nor in words of His own, but-as
the ensample of His people in their serving-to take
'the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,'
The Temptation of Christ.
107
and with it resist. Here (as before, outwardly in
Hunger),
My dear friends, it were a 'profitable' thing if we
more resolutely followed in the footsteps of our Divine
Master in this thing of the temptation to 'com-
mand' where we ought to serve; to self-assertion
where our own will ought to be subordinated, or at
least regulated by, what 'is written.' I throw out
this thought, because, in largest proportion, you are
so circumstanced as to have service imposed upon
you where, in not a few cases, there is the temptation
to transgress that, and contrariwise 'command.' My
brethren, it is the truest proof of true greatness and
nobility of soul, to obey wherever obedience is our
duty; to serve, even when he who 'commands'
might, by measure of capacity, change places. For
example, Who doubts that the master-brain in the war
of the Crimea was that grand old man whose 'grey
head' was lately laid down, with a nation's tears, in
the nation's proudest resting-place? And yet, 'for
the time,' he served,'-filled but an inferior part,-
obeyed' your Simpsons and Codringtons, and, I
must out with it, Raglans (for it is Lord Clyde's
glory that he was an abler than even able men); and
not until the cry of India reached Old England, and the
nation, as with the heart of one man demanded—as in
like crisis it had demanded a greater still, Sir Charles
J. Napier that Sir Colin Campbell should have the
supreme command, did he reach his rightful place.
{
108
The Temptation of Christ.
There may be over-much of the mere machine, over-
much of unquestioning submission in our army and
navy, but it were well if officers and troops in the
great sacramental army of the Lord of Hosts were
endued with more of the grand 'serving' according
to what 'is written' of the other army. I leave the
thought, again, with you.
It is a fruitful one. It
admits of infinite application. It speaks to loyal
'serving' in obscurity; unfaltering obedience under
unreason and wrong; faithful waiting for other path-
ways in His time; contented willinghood to abide'
whither He has stationed us, in howsoever remote an
outpost, and howsoever small men vault high and
higher. Be it ours to lay to heart the lesson, and to
discharge present duty in present sphere, and if called
upon to serve,' to 'obey,' not untempted to 'com-
mand,' let us thrust from us the snare, and recall the
Lord's own reply, 'It is written.' Yes; 'It is written.'
For genuine Faith simply LISTENS; and hearing, be-
lieves; and believing, OBEYS.
t
29. Specialty in the wording of the First Tempta-
tion; its Significance.
Before passing on, I would notice one specialty
in the wording of the first temptation of the Lord.
I refer to the word rendered 'command.' It is very
properly so rendered; for 'command' under-lies it.
But literally, and more vividly, it is 'speak,' or 'say.'
Have we not in this special word a far-back remini-
The Temptation of Christ.
109
vest.
scence of the far-back age when 'the sons of God'
shouted for joy over the new-created universe? The
Tempter, it seems to me, recognises in Christ, Him
who 'made the world,' who 'SPAKE and it was done,
COMMANDED and it stood fast.' What visions must
have flashed before the capacious mind of Satan as
he thus put before the Lord the humanly impossible
task of turning stones into bread! I see in it an
involuntary confession of His Divinity, a semi-uncon-
scious admission of who it was who stood before him.
Vain for man to 'command' sunlight, or rain, or
wind, or season, to fructify the sown seed into a har-
Vainer still to 'speak' to 'the stones.' Yet
this was what the Tempter looked for from Jesus.
Nor, my friends, must we miss the lesson that this
recognition of the Lord's Divinity by the Tempter
carries in it for us, in another direction. As the
Tempter deemed such commanding' as the rightful
act of the Lord, so let us in like manner take heed'
to the admirable keeping between Christ's words in
miracle and in nature. They are done in the same
fashion. When I place them together, I instinctively
recognise the same 'finger of God.' Thus I hear
wonderful music, a marvellous voice one day, but I
do not see the musician. Elsewhere, and long after,
I hear the same thing, recognise the voice, and so
on. I am introduced to the musician this time. I now
know who sang long ago. So from Christ's miracles
I know who made the world.¹
(
1 See Note (a) in loco.
¿
IIO
The Temptation of Christ.
¶ 30. Details of the Lord's Answer to the First
Temptation.
But now, let us look at the Lord's answer to the
first Temptation a little more closely.
Ver. 4. But He answering spake, It is written,
Not upon bread alone shall live the man, but upon
every word proceeding through the mouth of God.'
Very many things claim consideration in these
words. I will take them in their order :
1. 'Man.'-Emphasis, first of all, is to be placed
upon the word 'man.' Our Lord does not say 'I do not
live by bread alone,' or, as on a subsequent occasion
to one of His own disciples, 'I have meat to eat that
thou knowest not of,' nor even, 'My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me, and to finish HIS WORK
(John iv. 32, 34); but identifying Himself with us, it is,
‹ Man shall not live by bread alone,' or literally, and
surely much deeper, 'The man,' i.c. the God-fearing,
God-trusting man.¹ And then, be it remembered, as
we shall see by and by, that this answer is taken from
a narrative that relates not merely to man, but to
erring and sinful man. In short, the Lord Jesus,
knowing that while His followers had not His power,
they yet had His Scriptures, He turns to them, and
resists not by His Divinity, but out of what was
'written.' He thus doubly identifies Himself with
man, as in the amazing earlier 'us' of Matt. iii. 15,
'Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us.'
1 The Original is ò äv0pwтos. See Note (a) in loco.
The Temptation of Christ.
III
Let us now read the passage cited, as it is found in
Deut. viii. 3: 'And he humbled thee, and suffered thee
to hunger, 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 the Lord doth man live.'
2. Verbal changes in the quotation by the Lord.—
This is not the place, I would observe, to enter
into any examination of verbal differences, whether
in this or other of the citations of the Old Testa-
ment. Elsewhere I hope to do that with thorough-
ness, and grappling with the question of the authority
of the Septuagint as between it and the original
Hebrew. Suffice it to say at present and generally,
that I must ever hold that whatever rendering or
interpretation of Old Testament words we have
from the Lord, or from the inspired writers of the
New Testament, must be accepted as the true and
absolute meaning thereof. There may be seeming
difference and discrepancy, but beyond all dispute
the New Testament renderings represent 'the mind
of the Spirit.' So that verbal departures are not to be
regarded as contradictions, but as a deeper opening
out to us of the real and actual signification of the
given passages. I cannot, therefore, consent to adapt
my interpretation of the New Testament to text or
context of the Old Testament, but conversely, I must
ever read the Old Testament words under the clearer
light of the New Testament.
112
The Temptation of Christ.
With this caveat I proceed in our exposition of the
details of the Lord's answer. Observe then-
A
3. The analogy between the circumstances of ancient
Israel and those of Christ, and the resembling snare.-
The analogy is perfect and striking. They were in the
wilderness just as He was. They were 'an-hungered'
just as He was. They were without visible provision
for their wants just as he was. They equally with
Him were where they were as 'led up' of Jehovah.
But while in these and other respects the analogy
is perfect, how wide the difference of the bearing
of that 'Son' (Hosea xi. 1), and this! Israel longed
for the 'flesh-pots' of Egypt; longed for a return to
their olden fare. Spite of their deliverance from a
thraldom that was crushing the very life out of them
and breaking their hearts; spite of having been 'led'
out into the wilderness by the 'Strong Hand' of their
covenant-God, they would fain return. I pause not
now over their base ingratitude and stupid folly. Look
rather at the one thing that touches the Lord's case.
In their hunger' God supplied them, but not in the
sort they lusted' after. He gave them, in pitiful
mercy, 'bread,' but it was miraculous food, so differ-
ent from their ordinary sustenance, that when it fell
among them they had no other name for it than ‘mana,'
that is, 'Ma na, What's this?' And the Lord God
so dealt with His people, our Divine Redeemer re-
minds us,—in order to teach them the true source of
their living; that it was not by anything inherent in
'bread,' or in general in what we know as food, that
The Temptation of Christ.
113
our bodies are sustained, but by the upholding power
of God, and His blessing upon the use of means.
When God's hand lights upon us we very soon make
the discovery that all 'bread,' all food goes for
nothing, if He interrupt the ordinary course. How
often do we see all the delicacies that wealth and affec-
tion can supply go untasted, or if tasted, found use-
less to relieve or preserve! O bless our God, . .
which holdeth our soul in life' (Ps. lxvi. 8, 9).
If you read the account in which the Lord's cita
tion is embedded, you will see that when their hun-
ger came upon Israel they looked no higher than a
supply of food. Let them have but that, and all
should be well. Let them not have that, and forth-
with they must return again to Egypt, and to Egypt's
bondage and to Egypt's idolatries.
The analogy, in another direction, is even more
striking when read in the light of Psalm cvi. 13, 14:
They soon forgat His works; they WAITED NOT for
His counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
and tempted God in the desert.' The Original ex-
presses that they made haste,' and plained and com-
plained because they were not at once brought into
the abundance that was promised. (Numb. xx. 5)
'Wherefore have ye made us to come out of Egypt,
to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of
seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither
is there any water to drink.' Thus they made haste,'
were fretful, impatient, and would not wait' God's
Η
(
I 14
The Temptation of Christ.
It was
own time of giving them their inheritance.
that very thing-to 'make haste,'—to which the Evil
One tempted the Lord.
Here I would let you have the benefit of good old
Isaac Colfe's opening-out of the patness of the analogy.
Says he 'Most fitly doth He use the same to this
purpose whether we respect the place, being all one,
the wilderness, or their estates, they being hungry and
having nothing to sustain nature, as appeareth, Ex.
xvi. 2.
As if He had said, I confess that the ordi-
nary means for the nourishing of man is bread; but
God is not necessarily tied to this means. The people
of Israel were in the wilderness almost pined with
famine, the place was barren; there was no bread to
be provided for the feeding of them; yet the Lord,
even without this ordinary means, by raining down
bread from heaven, there sustained them, so that not
one perished with hunger: how much more then can
the Lord even here in this barren wilderness where-
unto I am led by the Spirit, relieve my present want
and satisfy my hungry stomach? They were many,
and I am but one, yet were they relieved; they were
thus fed forty years long, I stand but this one time
thus to be sustained. The arm of the Lord is not
shortened, neither His power weakened; His care
over those that be his children is not diminished.
Therefore there is no necessity that at thy persuasion
I use this unlawful means for my relief, of these
stones to command that there be made bread.'¹
1 As before, p. 86.
The Temptation of Christ.
115
4. The tempting' element in the circumstances, and
the practical lesson for us.-Now, my dear friends,
mark the bearing of all this upon the temptation put
before the Lord, when the Tempter said, 'If Son
Thou be of the God, speak that these, the stones, be
made loaves.' The Lord repels the SNARE that the
Evil One is ever placing before men still,-that cir-
cumstance is to regulate duty, and not duty circum-
stance. The Lord affirms, that back of all stress and
distress there remained the living God; and that He
was to be trusted, and duty done. There it was
'written,' 'Man liveth not by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God.' Therefore He waited that 'word,' and abode
whither he had been 'led.' Even as of old, the
'word' had come to the deliverance of Israel, would
it come to His deliverance. Nor did the promise
fail. For turning to the close we read, Then the
Devil leaves Him, and lo! angels came and were
waiting upon Him.' Even so, present duty was to
be done, and consequences left with the Lord. Let
us do that, and ours will be the like experience of
Jesus, and—to come nearer ourselves—of good Eli-
ezer, who so faithfully went where he was 'led,'-
to whom it was given to say, 'I being in the way,
the Lord led me' (Gen. xxiv. 27).
C
From all this, I apprehend, we have an all-import-
ant and with emphasis, a practical truth and principle
for every-day use, as professed followers of Christ.
My friends, it is a rule with no exception, that duty
(
116 The Temptation of Christ.
is never to be regulated by or subordinated to con-
siderations of safety or of danger. Let us be well
satisfied that a given line of action is that of duty to
God and to our own conscience, and we must, as we
would be true, go right onward, without swerving a
hair's-breadth. The path may go out and away into a
very wilderness, blank, purged, sultry; may lead us as
it led Paul from congenial society and successful ser-
vice to barbarism darker than was Macedonia to him
as gazed at from Corinth. It may be that we shall
have no certainty or security of getting our 'bread.'
But unless we would prove recreant, unless we would
sin against the right and against conscience, and
against the leadings of Divine Providence, out to the
wilderness we must, and abide there in parched, un-
shaded sands, and it may be without so much as the
one palm-tree well, and instead a Marah' that
must be drunk of. Let us do that, let us carry out
Christian duty, carry out what is written,' and leave
it to the great Father to provide. He has given us
our bodies: He has dowered us with the mystery
'life,' and he can with infinite ease preserve it, and
open out ways and means.
Here it is noticeable that in the first great Sermon
which the Lord delivered after His Temptation, He
pointedly taught this doctrine. I remind you of His
remarkable words, as recorded in Matt. vi. 25: 'Take
no thought for your LIFE, what ye shall eat, or what
ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall
put on.
Is not the life MORE than meat, and the body
The Temptation of Christ.
117
than raiment?' The Lord, you perceive, reasons from
the greater to the lesser. As 'life' itself is a larger
thing than 'meat' that ordinarily sustains life, and the
'body' a greater thing than the raiments which cover
it, so, much more will God provide for life's preserva-
tion, if He shut up His children to absolute reliance
on His Divine interference.
(
5. The teaching' of the Lord no warrant to fana-
ticism.-Need I say this gives no warrant to and con-
trarily excludes all fanaticism? Under all ordinary
circumstances, man,-Christian as well as un-Chris-
tian,—is to use ordinary means, is to turn to account
every faculty of head and hand, of present energy and
of forecast. But in extraordinary circumstances, when
these are unsought of the believer, when he is 'led'
into them of the Lord, he plays false to Christian
principle, false to Christian duty, if he suffer any
personal considerations to cause him to shun en-
trance on those difficult and soul-proving paths that
go out into the world's wilderness. It is written'
must be the Christian's watchword. Conscience may
tremble like the trembling needle, but it is the hin-
1
ܕ
1 Dr. Thomas Playfere has admirably stated this matter as between ordi-
nary and extraordinary circumstances. Says he, in his Fuller-like sermon,
'God's Blessing is Enough: 'I need not encroach upon unlawful means,
but depending still upon His Providence I shall never want. For God can
work great matters with small means, strong matters with weak means,
many matters with no means, and some matters with contrary means. So
that "Man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God." And yet this is no doctrine of idleness and security
neither. As we must not by diffidence or distrust in God use unlawful
means, so we must not by presuming upon God neglect lawful means. That
we be not too distrustful we are sent to the lily, and yet that we be not too
negligent we are sent to the ant.—The Whole Sermons, 1623, p. 26.
▼
118
The Temptation of Christ.
drances that cause the tremblings, not the pole-star
toward which it points. It points true. Once point
due north, and the tremor ceases and there is
tranquil rest. So that, my friends, out in the face of
all obstacles, of all darkness and dread, of all far-
stretching wildernesses, the believer, if a genuine man,
will go. Ay, should he anticipate laying his bones
to bleach in desert sands. Better far that, in leal
allegiance to duty and to the 'leading' of Provi-
dence, than to live with outward prosperity, and
when dead-sweetened with embalmer's skill-be
laid in a marble tomb.
6
(
6. Appeal to Believers not to shrink from the Wil-
derness.'—Oh ! far from us be any falling back from
duty because of the wilderness,' or the temptations
of the wilderness. Methinks our Christianhood were
a stronger not a weaker thing did we seek less to make
life a summer holiday, a thing of personal comfort,
cockering pleasure, ease; did we more brace ourselves.
to heroic service with heroic conflicting and contend-
ing, and as coveting above all-sanctity. Must we
not all place our hands upon our mouths?' Is it
not true that we shrink and slink from any duty-paths
that lead out into the wilderness,' even when God's
own hand points thither? Is it not true that we
have a sneaking and contemptible dread of the tustle
and the soiling, even griming and the pain, of temp-
tation abiding us there? Is it not true that 'the lion
in the way' bulks larger to our fears than does the
C
The Temptation of Christ.
119
C
(
'Strong One' who has pledged that He shall enable
us to put lion and adder' beneath our foot, albeit
bleeding and sore? Is it not true that there is paltry
fretting, querulous plaining and complaining instead
of effort; resolve passing off in the merely wetting
rain of tears instead of the sunlight of sympathy with
the good, or the lightning of 'holy indignation' against
wrong? Is it not true that there is passion and ‘un-
advised words' over-not 'hunger' incurred in the
discharge of duty, Christ-like, but merely-a dinner a
little delayed and a-cold? Is it not true that in our
selfish serenity we seek to turn our Christianity into a
thing that will render duty the smoothest thing on
earth,' and turn the Christian race into a stroll upon
a mossy lawn ?'1
Is it not true that we are content
to have pleasant thoughts about our heart-condition
rather than to know the stern truth? Is it not true
that to very many professing Christians Paul's mighty
words, that paint Christianity as a wrestle involving
falls and sweat; a fight, involving fence and defence
and blood-drawing to swooning; a race, involving
effort, straint and constraint and hardness,' are
mere theoretical things, mere vehement rhetoric?
My brother! my sister! your Christianhood must
not be of that dainty, superfine, untempted, unagon-
izing sort that so speaks or thinks; and pronounces
a holy fervour to be enthusiasm, and devoted zeal to
be insanity, and the wilderness' to be a place only
'
(
1 James Martineau, as before, i. 126.
I 20 The Temptation of Christ.
for 'wild beasts,' and such shocking, shocking, hor-
rible creatures! Nay, verily. Certainly the believer
is not to self-choose 'the wilderness' and temptation;
but if 'led,' pointed thither, it is at the peril of his
soul that he refuse to go, let the way be miry, sloppy,
damp, rough, disagreeable as it may. Oh that men
were as careful of their souls as of their soles!
It was all very well for the Spouse in the Song lazily
and guiltily to excuse herself to Him who, out under
the falling rains and dew, knocked for a shelter in vain :
all very well for her lightly to excuse herself in this
frivolous, feminine way: 'I have put off my coat; how
shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I
defile them?' (v. 3.)¹ But she found her mistake after-
wards, and smitten and wounded and robbed of her veil,
discovered that it had been better for her far had she
'put on' her 'coat' again, and her 'shoes,' and even
at the risk of defiling' her delicate, most delicate
feet or catching cold, 'opened' to Him who was colder
still. And so with us. We shall find it anything but
saving, anything but advantage, to shun 'the wilder-
ness,' to shun the difficult, hard, trying paths of
Christianhood, whither the Spirit leads.' Therefore,
my brother, my sister-
·
C
'Shield thee
In the faith that life was given
Not to work thy senses' bidding,
But through good to TOIL to heaven.' 2
1 These questions will be included in my announced volume of Prayer-
Meeting Addresses, on Selected Questions and Prayers of the Bible.
2 Bennet, as before, p. 456.
The Temptation of Christ.
121
Ah! there is nothing like 'the wilderness,' nothing
like enforced solitariness with God for smiting through
the conventionalisms of church-going and Sabbath-
keeping and ecclesiastical 'order' that have gotten
themselves to be reckoned CHRISTIANITY. Very
lovely and very noble here are the words of noble and
lovely James Martineau—and I hesitate not to so
speak of him though his creed and mine be far
sundered :-'That is the most finished character,' he
says, 'which begins in beauty and ends in power;
which wins its way to loftiness through a host of
angelic humanities that would sometimes hold it back;
that leans on the love of kindred while it may, and
when it may not, can stand erect in the love of God;
that shelters itself amid the domesticities of life while
duty wills, and when it forbids, can go forth under
the expanse of immortality, and face any storm that
beats, and traverse any wilderness that lies beneath
that canopy.
1
¹ Endeavours, as before, i. 227. I select another gem from his inestimable
sermons on the 'The Kingdom of God within us':-'Once let a man insult
the majesty of duty, by waiting till its commands shall become easy, and he
must be disowned as an outlaw from her realm. If he calculate on some
happy influences that are to shape him into something nobler; if he once
regard his moral nature, not as an authoritative power invested within its
sphere with a divine omnipotence that speaks and it is done, but as passive
material to be worked by the ingenuity of circumstances into somewhat
that is good,-it is all over with him; the ascendency of conscience is
gone; collapse and ruin have begun. The mind has fallen into contentment
with the mere conception,-the feeble and far-off imagination of excellence ;
confounds the look of duty which is indeed a fair vision, with the strife and
effort, the weary tension of resolve, the doubt, the prayers, the tears, which
may bring our Christian manhood to exhaustion. Pleasant is it to entertain
the picture of ourselves in some future scene, planning wisely, feeling nobly,
and executing with the holy triumph of the will; but 'tis a different thing,—
122
The Temptation of Christ.
Leaving this, I would further observe that—
7. Ordinarily the path of duty is the path of safety.
-The Lord 'remembers we are dust,' and lays not
upon His own more than they can bear.
He may
and does exercise their faith, their trust, their patience,
and 'perseverance unto the end,' by opening out seeming
moonless-and-starless-dark-and-dolorous ways, even
gashing their life-path with a sheer chasm, precipitous,
smooth, dizzying,
'Too wide for leaping, and too steeply faced
For climbers to essay.' ¹
And when He has a higher end than 'living' can fur-
nish, He brings them to gibbets or fiery stakes and
'shirt of flame.' But ordinarily when duty is made
plain, equally plain is the assurance of divine protec-
tion and support and deliverance. A 'word' from
the mouth of the Lord turns the wilderness into a
manna-field, and causes the rock to gush with water.
Thus has it been. A 'word' from the Lord clave the
many-billowed sea, and secured a highway for His
people that was even as a crystal gallery with a blood-
red gate. A 'word' from the Lord tempered the fierce
fires into goldening sunlight for Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. A 'word' from the Lord shut the
lions' mouths upon Daniel, and made the wild beasts'
lair a place of prayer and witness. Nor is this a
not in the green avenues of the future but in the hot dust of the present
moment, not in the dramatic positions of the fancy but in the plain prosaic
now, to do the duty that waits and wants us, and put forth an instant and
reverential hand to the noonday or evening task.'-Ibid. pp. 130, 131.
1 Poems by Jean Ingelow, p. 18 (Longman, 1863).
B
The Temptation of Christ.
123
<
thing of the past only. Many a child of God-and
not a few now hearing me-can still testify that in
faithfully following where the Lord led,' even
when the guidance was behind a pillar-cloud that
scarcely ever ruddied into fire, safety and blessing
have come; and disappointment and failure only
in mitigated proportion to distrust and departure.
Therefore, brothers! sisters! on, right on! Be not
with the path at strife,' but with yourselves.
(
Such, my friends, is the first Temptation and the
answer of the Lord. The temptation was to com-
mand' as Son of God. This He resisted as Son of
Man. Tempted to 'speak' as from and for Himself,
He pleaded 'It is written.' He tacitly admitted the
'hunger,' but looked higher than 'bread' or suggested
miracle, even to His Father who in His own time
would relieve Him. The strategy of this first temp-
tation we have found to lie in the 'hunger' of Christ
addressed by the proposal to provide bread. The
bait was 'bread.' The snare of it lay in the sugges-
tion to 'command' as a thing becoming the Son of
God.' The barbed hook lurked THERE.
(
"
बा
¶ 31. The Lord's Answer as a whole, viewed, (1.) In
relation to Himself, and (2.) In practical
application to Us.
Having thus explained the first Temptation and
enforced its more general as well as specific teaching
124
The Temptation of Christ.
based upon, severally, the underlying principle and
the successive details, let me now, as briefly as may
be, return upon the Lord's answer AS A WHOLE, and
gather up what of additional significance and practical
application remain, in, as announced, relation to the
Lord Himself and to ourselves.
I observe-
1. Christ never wrought a miracle in the way the
Tempter sought Him to do.-He turned not stones'
into 'bread,'--never did anything grotesque or con-
trary to the Divine laws of organization and being,—
but bread into bread' and more bread; or water
into wine, which is the same as he does in nature,
the vine being the water-pot, whence the same Power
turns water into wine such as God would have men
drink. Further, Christ never wrought a miracle to
spare Himself. He was tenderly compassionate and
spared others,-His disciples, and the multitude in
the wilderness,' and many others,--but nowhere do
we read of a forth-putting of His Divine power to
lighten His own labours, or trials, or duty. What a
world of self-abnegation have we here!
I observe-
2. Christ afterwards asserted, exemplified and actu-
alized the principle that Man liveth not by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.'—It was by His 'word,' by 'speaking,'
by commanding,' that He did all His wondrous.
works. Turning to the miracles that approach nearest
The Temptation of Christ.
125
that to which the Tempter urged Him,—those of the
multiplying of the 'loaves,' and the turning of water
into wine,-you will find that in each case His bare
word wrought the issue; and so throughout. How
could Jesus have more specifically claimed co-equal
Divinity with Jehovah who spake,' and it was; com-
manded, and it stood fast? (Ps. xxxiii. 9.)¹
(
I observe-
3. Christ suffered' being tempted' thus to depart
from obedience.-I have already said with reference to
the whole Temptation, that it was a stern and terrible
reality, a sore and hard-pressing Conflict. But I re-
peat the observation with specific application to this
opening of the Struggle. And here, unless I greatly
err, we have a remarkable after-revelation to Paul
about it, in those so amazing, overwhelming, and
stupendous words in Heb. v. 7, 8: Jesus, who in the
days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers
and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto
Him that was able to save Him from death, and was
heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet
learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.
'
I do not exclude after-occurrences, such as the
(
1 It will be seen that I accept the pñua of Deut. viii. 3, as supplied by
the Septuagint, and adopted by Christ. There is no equivalent in the He-
brew, but it is implied by the usual Hebraism, and our Lord having accepted
the Septuagint supplement, it is stamped as the mind of the Spirit.' It is
deplorable to find Alford here and elsewhere, in common with kindred ver-
bal-scholars, treating any such interpretations and supplementary word or
words of the Lord in quoting from the Old Testament as unauthoritative.
What he says under Matt. iv. 4, is sheer trifling, however true per se be
what he states. pîua is exactly to the Hebrew dabar.
126
The Temptation of Christ.
agony in Gethsemane,-though this the common view
and application is apparently impossible, seeing that
then He was 'not saved from death. But passing other
experiences which may be involved in these words,
surely their whole structure and burden point to the
untold anguish of this opening temptation, and of
those that succeeded? He was 'an-hungered' after
those 'forty days and forty nights'' fasting; and be
it kept in mind it was while thus in weakness, with-
out any relief, the onset began. As a man thus 'an-
hungered,' and in the parched, foodless desert, what
more likely than that the great shadow of Death fell
across His human soul? and so is explained one 'strong
cry' for Life, in which He was heard, and 'saved from
death.' Again, mark why He was heard. 'In that
He feared, that is, 'worshipped.' Now look onward
to His last reply to the Tempter: 'Thou shalt wor-
ship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve,' which is a noble out-come of His 'fear' of
Jehovah. Hence the apostle's 'In that He feared.'
Further, Though He were a Son.' Surely there is
here a definite allusion to the Tempter's ' If Son Thou
be of God,' and a setting the taunt and insinuation
aside: Though He was' in very deed 'Son of God'
yet- Once more, 'Yet learned He obedience. The
whole answers of the Lord sprang from 'It is written,'
and His whole acting was, as we have seen, obeying,
not commanding. Finally, there is the express de-
claration, 'He suffered. One is bowed in awful
(
(
The Temptation of Christ.
127
wonder before such a revelation of 'prayer and sup-
plication, with strong crying and tears.' It tells us
how unutterably real was the Conflict.
Sin is too mysterious and dreadful a thing, too
complex and vital, to be gauged in its action and
issues by us. But of this I am certain,—unless I am
to make the Temptation a mere mask and show of
reality, thereby making His whole life un-real-and
unless I am to empty out, as I said before, the
Messianic psalms, and now these words in Hebrews
of their deepest meanings,-when Sin in the form of
these several Temptations came upon the Man Christ
Jesus, it did press upon His soul, did pain to utter-
most agony, did over-burden to 'fainting of heart,'
and did in some inscrutable way 'try' His every
faculty of resistance to overcome.
More I cannot
say, for more is not 'revealed.' Such words fling
shadows across our souls full of mystery.
Then further, here, all this being so, I think that
this word OBEDIENCE lying in the centre of this won-
drous after-revelation, puts into our hands the sting
of the Tempter's object from first to last, that which
gives organization and purpose to the ever-deepening
temptations. From the first, 'If Son Thou be of the
God, command' to the last, 'All these will I give
up to you IF-I see one never-forgotten aim to
turn Christ aside from His work, His world-saving
work, in short, His OBEDIENCE. Each temptation
has its own underlying snare, but it is for one com-
128
The Temptation of Christ.
mon purpose.
Each temptation approached the
Lord differently in outward guise or disguise, but
they are alike within. Let this word Obedience there-
fore go along with you throughout our Exposition.
I observe-
4. Christ shows us how to answer the worst and
basest. Here are no hard, harsh, controversial words,
no flaming up and rendering 'evil for evil.' I know
no finer exemplification of the wise man's apophthegm,
'Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on
the Lord, and He shall save thee' (Prov. xx. 22).
Alas! that there should be so much of 'recompens-
ing evil,' so much miserable railing and wrangling, so
much answering of the person rather than the thing.
Oh for the magnanimous calm, the unruffled meek-
ness of the Prince of Light in conflicting with the
Prince of Darkness, and a profounder trust in what
'is written,' rather than in our own angry and vehe-
ment words and flouting !
I would now look at the Lord's answer as a whole,
in what of it remains to be considered, in the second
relation, namely, to ourselves, in further practical
application.
I observe-
1. Our acceptance of the principle re-asserted by Christ
--that Man [the man, God-fearing, God-trusting]
liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God'-removes the
The Temptation of Christ.
129
6
(
curse of uncertainty from our daily bread' and every
thing else.-Here I will enrich myself with some of
the many priceless and beautiful words of a son of
Wilberforce. Against,' says the Bishop of Oxford,
' every degree of this evil, there is a special preserva-
tive for the faithful man, in his daily custom of re-
ceiving all from Christ. . . . . It does remove from
worldly things this curse of uncertainty, if we receive
them from His hands. There comes a life and an
organizing spirit into them. They are part of a plan
which He is carrying out who is all love and all
power. We dare to rejoice in them, because they
did not come by chance, and by chance they cannot
pass away. The sense of their uncertainty, of their
liability to change, is continually met by the convic-
tion of His certainty, of His unchanging love, of His
present power. They have passed through His hands
to us; and even though we should "hunger again,"
yet He has fed us, and we dare to trust in Him that
He will feed us still. And so there grows up in the
trusting heart a sense of quiet security. Though the
world-stream still sweeps by him as madly as before,
a rock is under him, and he rejoices in its strength.
This is no delusion: it is a reality: we ourselves
may find it so, if we will.' 1
I observe-
2. Be more anxious to have God's blessing with the
lowliest and poorest fare than the richest without it.
1 Sermons (1844). Ser. II.: 'The Barrenness of all things unless received
from Christ' (Mark viii. 4, pp. 30-32.
I
130
The Temptation of Christ.
Once more I will speak to you through another,-
finely-witted Dr. Thomas Playfere. Says he 'The
Prophet telleth, "Ye eat, but ye have not enough
(Isa. ix. 20). Many there are which want for no
eating, but like that rich glutton, fare deliciously
every day, yet it is smally seen by them.
But as
those seven lean kine having devoured the seven fat
were never a whit the fuller; so these (Gen. xli. 21).
Whereas holy Daniel, having nothing to eat but poor
pulse, nothing to drink but cold water, looked more
cheerfully and beautifully than any of the children
which did eat of the portion of the king's meat. And
that the eunuch saw well enough, and confessed at
the ten days' end (Dan. i. 15). Therefore a little
thing which the righteous enjoyeth is better than
great riches of the wicked (Ps. xxxvii. 16).
"Better
is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure,
and trouble therewith" (Prov. xv. 16). "Better is a
dry morsel if peace be with it, than a house of sacri-
fices with strife" (Prov. xvii. 1). "Better is a dinner
of green herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and
hatred therewith" (Prov. xv. 17). In conclusion,
then, man hath not enough by eating only, but by
the peace and love of God.'¹
There is a subsidiary thought here. If it is God's
blessing upon what we eat and drink,' not the
'abundance' we have or the 'little' we have, that
sustaineth life, what shall we say of those who 'eat
1 As before, pp. 13, 14,
K
>>
The Temptation of Christ.
131
and drink' without looking upward and asking His
blessing? Oh, brethren! that hastily-muttered, semi-
mumbled 'grace,'-as you phrase it,-is a hollow
thing, and no channel of 'blessing.' Better no words
at all than such words, that are a travesty of prayer
and blessing-asking! Better bluntly avouch that it
is the art and skill of the 'cooking' and the plenty,
not at all the blessing' of God, than in form
acknowledge and in act deny the great Bible prin-
ciple. Racily and wisely has good Edward Philips
put the whole matter: 'If,' says he, 'we would think
that God would take away the strength from bread,
we would feed more religiously. Let us know that He
may rot the grain in the clods, or blast it in the ear :
He may restrain the latter rain that it may not yield;
in the barn, vermin may consume it; if it pass the
flail, the mill, the oven, yet in thy mouth it may be
rat's-bane and turn to poison, or in thy stomach it
may become the gall of asps. For why shouldst thou
feed on God's creatures, not considering whence they
come? Set before thee the example registered in the
Scripture (Numb. xi. 33): quails came loathsomely
out of their nostrils, and they died with meat in their
mouths, having fat bodies and lean souls. And as
God can turn stones into bread, so can He also turn
bread into stones.'¹
C
Again-
3. With reference to the temptation to turn stones
1 As before, p. 183.
132
The Temptation of Christ.
C
into bread, let me ask if none of you have been tempted
by this very snare ?-Beware! my brother, my sister!
For what says the Wise Man (Prov. xx. 17)? 'Bread
of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth.
will be filled with gravel.' Ah! that Divine after-
wards!' It is even so! All bread' that is gotten
by 'deceit,' by fraud-all 'bread' obtained by turn-
ing aside from the path of duty-may be very sweet
for the moment, but there comes a time when it will
be as 'gravel' stones in the mouth. 'An inheritance
may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end
thereof shall not be blessed' (Prov. xx. 21). 'Be
not desirous of his dainties; for they are deceitful
meat' (Prov. xxiii. 3).
Then-
:
4. Is there not a great amount of this living by
bread alone?'-Are not provision for the wants of the
body, and gathering, scraping together of the things
of the present life, the all in all with many? So be
it but don't think, my fellow-man, that is to 'live.'
So be it: but better far starve body-though that is not
called for-than soul, better far neglect the breath of
your nostrils than the Divine breath of the Spirit.¹ To
live as the brute lives, with beyond, a man's responsi-
bilities and a man's destiny, is very mournful.² (r) (s) (t)
6
1 From Cyprian onwards the need of a higher than a merely food-sustained
life has been inculcated from our text.
2 See Note (2) for quotations, etc., upon ‘If Son Thou be of the God;
Note (s), for an unfolding of the First Temptation as a whole, and in its
details, by Dr. Thomas Taylor; and Note (t), for quotations upon the
answer of the Lord to the First Temptation.
The Second Temptation.
4
TIGER, Tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye framed thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies burned that fire within thine eyes?
On what wings dared he aspire? What the hand dared seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art, could twist the sinews of thy heart?
When thy heart began to beat, what dread hand formed thy dread feet?
What the hammer, what the chain, knit thy strength and forged thy brain,
What the anvil? What dread grasp dared thy deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears, and water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee?'
William Blake,
(Songs of Experience.)
'Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau,
Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain ;
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every grain becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking cye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.'
William Blake,
(Poems Hitherto Unpublished in Life by Gilchrist,
2 vols. 8vo; Macmillan, 1863-)
い
​We have now reached the Second Temptation,
which I would describe as
The Temptation of the Lord Jesus as a devout
man who has turned to the Bible.
Vers. 5, 6. Then the Devil takes Him with him
unto the Holy City, and sets Him upon the wing
of the Temple, and says to Him, "If Son Thou
be of the God," cast Thyself beneath, for it is written
that to the angels of Him will He command concern-
ing Thee, and upon [their] hands they shall bear
Thee, lest ever Thou strike against a stone Thy
foot.'
It is I apprehend His trust in the 'words' of Jeho-
vah made manifest to the Tempter by the Lord's
reply to his first Temptation, that is now addressed.
Through that trust he seeks again to turn the Lord
from His path of obedience. Before, He met ' hunger'
with a suggestion to make 'bread.' Now, He meets
Bible words of trust with Bible words---
'He wisely ponder'd that the arms whereby
Jesus had him repulsed, the mightiest were ;
136
The Temptation of Christ.
And therefore cunningly resolved to try
If he could Scripture bow to serve his war.
O wit of deepest hell, which makes a sword
Of God's own Word to fight with God The Word.'1
We must take, as before, clause by clause, and
almost word by word in prosecuting our Exposition.
Ver. 5. THEN the DEVIL TAKES HIM WITH HIM
into the HOLY CITY.'
There are here certain preliminaries which call for
notice :-
बा 32. The Order of the Temptations. [TÓTE...
πάλιν .
καὶ.]
'THEN (TÓTE) the Devil takes Him.' This is the
same particle with that similarly rendered in ver. 1,
and is a particle of time.
It indicates to us, therefore, I apprehend, the suc-
cession of the Temptations, and so enables us to
explain the apparent discrepancy as between Matthew
and Luke. Luke never uses in his narrative of the
Temptation the time-particles 'then' (TÓTE) or 'again'
(máλiv), but simply 'and' (kal), showing that in the
details he did not intend to be chronological. The
•
•
2
1 Beaumont, as before, p. 136, canto ix. st. 217.
2 Chronological.—I do not forget that Luke announces his purpose 'to
set forth in order (ἀνατάξασθαι διήγησιν) a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us' (Luke i. 1); nor do I disagree
with Forshall in his remark, with ample proof, that 'the events are recorded
in the strict order of time, and much nicety observable in so arranging them.'
But without entering into the question how far the context (e.g. ver. 2) inter-
prets the intended 'order' of ver. 3, I observe (1.) The Temptation as one
event in the life of the Lord has its regular place as a whole in the Gospel of
Luke, following immediately, as it does, the account of the Baptism. (2.)
That it seems to me impossible to give any deeper emphasis to the elev
The Temptation of Christ.
137
point has been very well put and answered by good
old Thomas White in his Πανθεολογια. ‘But you
may say,' he observes, 'Doth not Luke mistake, and
can it be true what he writes, and yet true what
Matthew writes ? For the same temptation cannot
possibly be the second and the third, except our
Saviour was twice tempted with the same temptation?
I answer, that he that saith that God created man
and beasts, and the light and the sun, saith as true as
he that saith that God created the sun and light,
and beasts and man, though he doth not relate
God's works in the same order as they were made.
So St. Luke, when he saith that, "And the Devil
took Him into an high mountain," and also “took
Him and set Him upon a pinnacle of the Temple,"
saith as true as if he had related them in the same
order that they were done.'¹
Observe also the collocation in Matthew, 'Then,'
and another then,' and after that and in relation to
it 'again' (máλır). Why again' if there was not a
previous 'up'-going? But the Second Temptation
in Matthew was an 'up'-going, viz., to the pinnacle
C
•
of Luke, ver. 12, than to the previous yeурanтα. Surely so devout a man
as Mr. Forshall cannot exalt what was 'said' over what was 'written?' and
indeed what the Lord adduces as 'said 'is just what was written' as before.
(3.) That our observation (1.) renders Greswell's excepting the Temptation
from the 'order-narration' unnecessary. Cf. Forshall's arranged Luke
(1 vol. 12m0, 1860) in Preface, page ix., and as very valuable, pp. xv.-xxviii. ;
also Greswell's Dissertations, in loco. I regret that I must regard Da Costa
in The Four Witnesses as a mere special pleader for Luke's order of the
Temptations. Cf. p. 48 et seq. (by Scott, 1851).
1 As before, p. 12.
138
The Temptation of Christ.
of the Temple. Hence when a second up'-going,
viz., to the high mountain, is described, it is naturally
designated by 'again.' The verb is the same in each
case : (λάμβανω with παρὰ) Elsewhere I hope to
elucidate the differing principle in Luke's arrange-
ment, but at present this must suffice.ª
1
33. The different Leadership as between verse I
and verse 5.
Of the Temptation as a whole, it is said The Spirit
'led up' Jesus in order to be tempted. Of the sepa-
rate temptations, and specifically of the second and
third, the statement is, that the devil regulated the
movements of Christ.
At first blush it seems a very extraordinary thing
this, so extraordinary as almost to compel incredulity.
But a little reflection modifies the surprise, and if I
err not, leaves usno other conclusion than that, for
the time as I formerly explained-our blessed Lord
was as really delivered over, SURRENDERED to the
assaults of His and our great Adversary, as was Job.
I cannot give a lesser meaning to the definite state-
ments, out of the mouths of two witnesses'
Matthew and Luke,-that the Lord was 'led up' of
the Spirit in order to be tempted, and that in so 'tempt-
ing,' the Evil One 'took Him' hither and thither.
Grounding then upon the explicit words of the
narrative—without now or here seeking to get at the
2 Cf. Stier, Words of the Word, vol. i. p. 45.
6
β
1 See Note (a).
WĄ
The Temptation of Christ.
139
,
modus of the 'taking' of the Lord from the wilderness
to the two after-scenes, though under the third
temptation I shall consider the word 'take'-I must
express my conviction, that were it not for our over-
familiarity with kindred humiliations endured by the
Lord from men, we should wonder less at this ‘sur-
render' to the Tempter.
I hesitate not to avouch, that of the two mysteries,
the darker to me in degree, if not in kind, is that of
which Isaiah through his tears caught a vision, and
which is recorded in its fulfilment in the Gospels.
Let us turn to the earlier and later words. First
to Isa. liii. 7, 8: 'HE was oppressed, and He was
afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth: He is
BROUGHT as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His
mouth. He was TAKEN from prison and from judg-
ment; and who shall declare His generation?' Next,
Luke xxii. 54: Then TOOK they Him, and LED Him,
and BROUGHT Him into the high-priest's house.'
Now, my brethren, I refer not at present to re-
markable verbal resemblances in these passages,
—although I ask you to mark how curiously and sug-
gestively Luke multiplies his verbs to seeming super-
erogation, as if to bring all together in one burning
verse. But consider who they were who so 'took'
and 'led' and 'brought' the Lord; consider who
they were who so 'oppressed' and trampled upon
God's Son. By the measure of distance in lofty
140
The Temptation of Christ.
faculty between the fallen spirit called Satan, and
fallen man, I cannot but regard the later humilia-
tion as the more amazing. The whole narrative of
the Temptation reveals, as in Job, control and limita-
tion; whereas, if we except that look and those words
that smote the Roman soldiers to the ground, the
awful story of the Betrayal and Forsaking, of the
Trial and Condemnation, of the walks along the
streets of Jerusalem, of the contumely and spitting.
and smiting, of the Crucifixion and Desertion, have
scarce a gleam. They did unto Him whatsoever
they listed' (Matt. xvii. 12).
I say not that I have no wonder over the 'taking' of
the Lord hither and thither by the Tempter, but I can
accept, and in a sort understand it, in the light, or
rather in the darkness of FALLEN MAN'S power over
Him.¹
¶ 34. The change of scene from the First Temptation :
practical lessons.
I will have more to say of the change from the
wilderness to Jerusalem in the sequel; for in the
SCENE, I apprehend, lies one profound element of
*
L
1 I wish my readers to look steadily at this-Man spitting' in the face
of the Son of God, striking' Him, as over-against the Tempter's 'tempt-
ing' of Him, and leading Him from the wilderness to Jerusalem, and from
Jerusalem to a high mountain.' Surely, as I say above, there is out-weigh-
ing dreadfulness and out-weighing mystery in the former. Super-added is
the fact that the 'spitters' and 'strikers' were of the race for whom the
meek Sufferer died. Who can read with dry eyes the Lord's magnanimously
gentle reply to His assailants, John xviii. 23?
·
The Temptation of Christ.
141
temptation in the Second Temptation. But at pre-
sent I wish merely to indicate two things of practical
use for ourselves.
This changing of the scene and circumstances of
his temptation is an old device of our Adversary, a
device of which we would do well not to be ignorant.'
You remember that just such change was resorted
to by Balaam as the tool of Balak. He began with
the 'high places' of Baal (Numb. xxii. 41), then passed
to the field of Zophim (xxiii. 14), and then ascended
to the top of Peor (xxiii. 28). Peradventure,' said
Balak, ‘it will please God that thou mayest curse
them from THIS PLACE.' Even so, my friends, we are
not to dream, that because we leave a particular place,
or get out of particular surroundings, we shall be de-
livered from the Tempter. Often it is our duty to
leave, and to leave off particular places, persons,
things, but as temptation is inner and spiritual, hav-
ing for its arena the soul, change of place and cir-
cumstance may change the character, or more accu-
rately the outcomes of character, but does not secure
absence of temptation.
But again notice whither the Tempter 'takes' the
Lord. It is very striking to mark the wording, ver.
5: Then the Devil taketh Him up into the holy
city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.'
I have emphasized the adjective 'holy,' and the spe-
cific place, 'the temple.' By 'holy city,' Jerusalem is
designated, as appears by the parallel passage in Luke
142
The Temptation of Christ.
A
iv. 9 And he brought Him to Jerusalem.' Perhaps
we will not err if we understand that Matthew em-
ployed the particular name, 'Holy City,' advisedly, in
order to connect the narrative with the experiences
of the Lord's own people. That is to say, we are
hereby taught that no place, however venerable,
sacred, hallowed, will secure us from the assaults of
him who, even in heaven itself, 'MADE WAR.'
To the 'holy city,' to the holiest place in the holy
city, the temple, is the Lord Jesus 'taken' by the Temp-
ter, and there afresh tempted. Whither then will not
the Tempter enter? What 'light-flaming battlement'
will he not over-leap? My dear friends, we must be
'vigilant' everywhere; at all times, and in all places;
in the house of God; at the family altar; within our
closets; beside our opened Bible.
I would even say
that most of all must we 'watch unto prayer' in these
holy scenes and seasons. For it is with the 'roaring
lion,' who ever 'goes about seeking whom he may
devour,' as with the beasts of prey in the forest.
'
I remember once, when camped on the shores of
one of the great lakes of America, that in the stillness
of the pine-forest, within whose shadows our camp-fire
was lit, it was a sight to see the wild beasts stealthily
stealing to their watering-places. It so chanced that
in the tangled jungle opposite us, there was one of
their lurking-places; and as the moonlight streamed
its wan radiance over it, I could see the fierce crea-
tures couched behind a shattered pine. Why there ?
The Temptation of Christ.
143
Because from beneath its roots, gushing from out
the ferns, was a spring of water. Thither the
'flocks and herds' came, and just as they lapped
their refreshing draught, out sprang at a bound the
wehr-wolf or other terrible beast.
It is precisely so with us. While the believer is
quenching his soul's longings and thirstings at the
well of salvation, the Adversary crouches to make his
fatal spring. Alas, alas! that so many of the flock'
are borne away.
I proceed now to the Second Temptation itself:-
Vers. 5, 6. Then the Devil takes Him with him.
unto the Holy City, and sets Him upon the wing of
the Temple, and says to Him, "If Son Thou be of
the God," cast Thyself beneath, for it is written that
to the angels of Him will He command concerning
Thee, and upon [their] hands they shall bear Thee,
lest ever Thou strike against a stone Thy foot.'
¶ 35. The Devil's counter' It is written the mani-
fested character of Christ addressed.
It will not be doubted that, as I have already
indicated, the Tempter thus addresses the Lord in
tacit allusion to the Lord's appeal to Scripture.
Against His 'It is written,' the Adversary says also,
'It is written.' He was not to be driven from his
fell mischief by a mere 'It is written.' That sort of
thing he had met with long before-and overcome.
144
The Temptation of Christ.
For God hath said,' he had replied, 'Yea, hath God
said?' Even so now. He has heard, and I believe,
felt like a sharp arrow, the Lord's 'It is written.' But
he takes it up, takes it out, whence it sticks, and
appeals to the Lord upon His own ground. It is as
though he had said,—may I be permitted to fill up?
-'You refuse to command; you plead that you are
here to obey, to serve. You refuse to "speak;" you
proclaim that your part is to do what "is written."
You thrust aside my poor suggestion, by which I
would have relieved your "hunger." You fling into
my teeth that you trust your Father,―trust every
word that proceedeth out of His mouth." Distrust
me, eh? Well! here are Bible words; here is a Bible
promise; here is a thing which, if you do, you will
"obey ;" you will do what "is written;" you will put
to glorious proof words "from the mouth of Jehovah."
Let us see how far you go in your OBEDIENCE ;
whether you will trust your Father to the uttermost?
"Cast Thyself down, for It is written.""
(C
As I take it, all that lurks behind this Second
Temptation of the Lord. It was an appeal to Him
not, as before, as a man 'an-hungered' merely, but
emphatically as a DEVOUT MAN. He points, as it were,
to the roll of Scripture in the hands of Christ : he points
to Psalm xci. 11, 12, and quotes, 'He shall give His
angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands
they will bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash
Thy foot against a stone.' He looks at the words,
C
The Temptation of Christ.
145
'There is a Bible
and from the words to The Word.
promise, is it not? There is a promise of your Father,
'If Sọn Thou be of the God." You confide in
Him! You rely on His "every word!" You appeal
from my compassionate words to His! So be it:
"Cast Thyself down, for, It is written."
'When devils will their blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows.' ¹
Yea, more-
K
)
'The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart,
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!'"
You mark, once more, my friends, the skill, you
mark the subtlety, you mark the adaptation of this
deepening of the Temptation; you mark how it is a
nearer parallel to the overthrow of His OBEDIENCE,
under the guise of obedience; you mark how it fell
in with what lay in Christ's heart. The Lord Jesus
in His 'hunger' was relying on the 'words' of Jeho-
1 Othello II. 3.
2 Merchant of Venice 1. 3. I cannot help adding here how much I owe
to William Shakspere. I daresay I read his works oftener, and return to
them more frequently, than any merely human writings; and I don't know
that I ever read a page without personal enjoyment and personal profit. His
many-sidedness, his insight so wide and yet so minute, so subtle and yet so
modest, so strong and yet so tender, so awful and yet so humanly pitiful, so
reverent, so believing, is something not less wonderful than blessed. Let
me beg of my cleric brethren that they will cast aside their Simeons and
Jays, and fusionless 'Plans' and 'Skeletons of sermons, and turn to the
creations-the breathing thoughts in burning words—of wise, gigantic, yet
child-like-gentle, William Shakspere. To anathematize him betrays sheer
ignorance.
K
146
The Temptation of Christ.
vah; was, as I understand the narrative, as a pious
Jew, occupied in reading His Bible, specially the
Book of Deuteronomy; and at the moment of this
Second Temptation, probably was staying Himself
up in His extremity and loneliness among the 'wild
beasts' on this very ninety-first Psalm, and very likely
on ver. 13: 'Thou shalt tread upon the lion and
adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou
trample under foot.' AND the Tempter lays hold of
this, and so-to-speak honours Him for His trust of
'every word' of His God, and out of that, constructs
his temptation. Oh! it was like unto taking the
'finest of the wheat,' and by a base alembic turning
it into the poison-draught of 'strong drink ;' like unto
the 'taker up' of the 'evil report,' who transmutes
words of concern and sorrow, of pity and loving pur-
pose, into accusation and slander.
G
At this point I would enforce-
¶ 36. The Warning wrapped up in the procedure of the
Tempter in his Second Temptation.
I observe-
1. The Tempter comes a second time with an 'If.'-
Doubt is too potent a thing to be lightly or readily
abandoned. I have no idea that the Evil One, from
first to last, had the shadow of a doubt himself of
Who it was he 'tempted.' But he clings to the hope
of insinuating doubt into the mind of the Lord. In
The Temptation of Christ.
147
other cases, in his past experience, the Tempter could
look back upon triumphs through doubt sown in the
congenial soil of present distress and darkness, as of
food-lessness and no prospect of 'bread.' Equally
could he recall overcoming, through doubt insinuated
by some Bible promise being accepted according to
his application and interpretation. Therefore he will
yet use his dinted weapon, and assail again with an
'If Son Thou be of the God.'
Here I must allow two ancient worthies to speak
of this 'If.' Says John Gumbleden, of its recurrence :
'Lo! thus the Devil began his first, and thus also he
begins his second temptation, even with the very
same words: nothing at all changed in respect of the
syllables, nor no more altered in respect of the sense,
"If Thou be the Son of God." What shall I say
?
Surely Satan is no good grammarian that knoweth
not how to vary his phrase, nor no good rhetorician
neither that cannot tell how to change his proem ; but
a great favourer he always was, and still is, of tauto-
logy, of vain and empty repetitions: "If Thou be the
Son of God." "If"! See he dares not positively deny
it, neither will he absolutely confess it. Anceps sermo
est, saith St. Hilary [in locum, Canon 3]. 'Tis a doubtful
speech, and full of much fallacy; and indeed proper
for none but for an Arian, or an Ebionite, or an
Eunomian, or a Turk, or a devil : whereas none can
truly, none should wilfully doubt of, or any-ways
impugn the Deity of our Saviour, it being no better
148
The Temptation of Christ.
((
1
than a fragment of the Devil's doctrine, and no better
than an atheistical derision of Him who, God and
man, in one person, as the sacred oracle testifies—
'laughs His scorners to scorn," even though they
jointly band themselves together against Him, with
the Devil, who in all ages hath taught others to deny
what he himself here seemingly did but doubt of."¹ More
deeply Thomas White observes: The whole ninety-
first Psalm seems to be meant of the Son of God,
and therefore it was convenient to say If, etc., that
the place of Scripture might more fitly so agree with
the occasion, and to be meant especially, if not only
of Him.2
C
I observe-
C
2. The Tempter goes from extreme to extreme.—This
seems to be a favourite device of the Evil One. When
the mind recoils from one thing he will 'tempt' to
the very opposite. It was so with the Lord. 'Com-
mand,' 'Speak,' he had said. That is, do not trust,
do not wait longer. When that failed, here was the
contrary, Leap down,' and trust Him with your life.
It is of very pressing moment that we be 'not
ignorant' of this craft of the Tempter. My dear
fellow-believers, I would warn you to beware. For
so he will try to deal with you. He will now tempt
a desponding, weeping child of God by insinuating
that he is no son, she no daughter. He will try to
perplex and mislead as to
assurance of sonship; try
1 As before, pp. 33, 34
2 As before, p. 14.
The Temptation of Christ.
149
to quench the silver-shining star of hope. He will
breathe
'A ripple on the inner sea, which shakes
Those images that on its breast reposed.'¹
1
He will seize the 'banner' given to be displayed for
the truth' and manipulate with it as with
'A fold upon a wind-swayed flag, that breaks
The motto it disclosed.'1
Or failing that, he will rush to the opposite side, and
insist that, as a child of God, the believer may venture
on anything.
Ah! It is a deep-rooted tendency of our fallen
nature that the Tempter thus addresses.
You re-
member how it was exemplified in ancient Israel.
On the borders of Canaan they were dismayed and
would not 'go up; but brought to see their sinful-
ness in that, they would have gone to the very oppo-
site extreme. Conviction of their sin made them
think it was duty to 'fight' though God had ex-
pressly forbidden it (Deut. i. 41).
I observe-
3. The Tempter is very successful in tempting profess-
ing Christians with his 'If [= since] son thou be of
God, cast thyself beneath.'-Everyday observation will
satisfy that there are two classes who fall before this
snare.
There is first of all the man who has newly
proved the power of the 'gift' of 'faith' to produce
1 Ingelow, as before, p. 22.
150
The Temptation of Christ.
absolute trust. Strong in that trust, there is the
danger of thinking of and relying more upon the gift
than the Giver; and of acting upon the grace in pos-
session as semi-independent, instead of looking to
Him who holds all grace in His own hands. Pre-
sumption inevitably comes out of that; self-con-
fidence, rashness, 'high thoughts,' and all under the
guise of an unquestioning faith. My dear friends,
search and see if you are not liable to presume upon
your Christian character, and to run risks such as you
should else shrink from.
But another and more perilous out-come of the
conceded sonship, is that of your merely moral man
who professes profound respect for the Bible and the
Church and proprieties, while really without the
grand heart-change. He has been admitted to
Church-membership and other privileges,-it may
even be, office. He is accepted as a-Christian.
Now to such it is a very very pleasant thing to be
persuaded, over-persuaded that all is well.' Very
pleasant! ay, but unutterably perilous! For once let
a man assume that he is a son of God' while he is
not, awfully not, and he is drowsed into a false peace
of which the Tempter is swift to take vantage and
advantage. Oh, sirs! Be willing to know the very
truth about yourselves. Unconverted man! Un-
converted woman! Look at the Bible words that go
to strengthen you in your self-pleasing delusion that
you are a Christian, a 'son of God,' and I answer for
6
The Temptation of Christ.
151
it
you will discover that there is some fatal mutilation
or embasing misapplication. I warn you that any
whispered 'If [since] you are a son of God' is a
whisper of the Tempter. I warn you that any pre-
sumption upon that is a 'snare' that will benet your
soul. I warn you that any unconverted man or
woman who finds peace, hope, it may be joy, from
Bible words that are the possession of the heart-
changed, the spiritually-minded alone-is running a
terrible risk of finding the adamantine gates SHUT at
the end of life's journey, and 'Too late, too late!' as
an answer to the cry through the dark, Lord! Lord!
open to us.' Oh! let us all fear that guising and dis-
guising temptation to presume upon real or alleged
sonship,Since son thou be of God, cast thyself
beneath.'
'Oftentimes to win us to our harm
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.'¹
I observe-
4.
The Tempter secks first to lead into sin, and then
to justify the sin by Scripture.-You will notice that.
he does not put his temptation in this order: 'It is
written, therefore cast thyself beneath,' but conversely,
'Cast thyself beneath, for It is written.' I do not
think this accidental. I recognise a permanent rule
of his tempting herein. For in the words of Dr.
Thomas Taylor: 'Whereas God's Spirit first suggests
1 Macbeth I. 3.
152
The Temptation of Christ.
the word, and then frames the heart to obedience of
it-for the property of the sheep of Christ is first to
"hear the voice" and then "to follow" (John x. 27)—
Satan first will have men to conceive opinions or at-
tempt practices pleasing to him and themselves, and
then afterwards seek out some Scripture to justify them.
Thus Johanan and the captains were resolved to go
into Egypt, but sent for Jeremiah to see if they might
have the word of God to go with them (Jer. xlii. 3
compared with ver. 20).'¹
I observe-
5. The Tempter can only persuade, never compel.—
Very finely has the same delightful 'old man eloquent'
just quoted, put this. Says he : 'Satan can tempt and
persuade us, but he cannot force us to sin, or he can-
not cast thee down unless thou "cast thyself down."
He setteth Christ on the pinnacle; he cannot throw
Him down, but persuade Him to throw down Him-
self. He crammed not Eve with the apple, nor gave
it into her hand, but persuaded her to reach and eat
it. He did not kill Saul himself, but persuaded him
to cast himself down upon his own sword. He did not
put the halter about Judas his neck, nor was his hang-
man, but was of his counsel, and made his own hands
his own executioners. Therefore it is said (Acts i. 18,
πpovǹs yevóμevos: factus præceps), he threw down him-
self from an high place, not only of his office, but
from the tree whereon he hanged himself.'²
It was
1 As before, p. 147.
2 As before, pp. 137, 281.
The Temptation of Christ.
153
even so; the Tempter might 'take up,' but he durst
not 'cast' the Lord 'beneath.'
'He knew his compass, having often fought
In vain against his chain's eternal law.
True to its duty is his trusty tether,
Nor can his strength persuade it to reach hither.
Thus when the greedy mastiff leapeth from
His nasty kennel, spurr'd by hungry wrath;
His sullen chain, which will not go from home,
Checks his adventure and cuts off his path;
At which the wretched cur lets fall his ears,
And tail, and spirit, and whines and grins and leers.
For upon every wild and restless fiend
Sure sits the curse, that they can not forbear
To whet their hunger, and their tusks to grind,
And in keen fury for the fight prepare
So soon as they have any prey descry'd,
1
Although, mad fools, they know their feet are ty'd.'¹
In all this surely there is exceeding comfort, my
' tempted,' harassed, pressed fellow-believer. See the
weakness of our Adversary by God's grace.
For as
good Bishop Hacket has it: 'He doth much betray
his own weakness, as St. Hierom [Jerome] shows, to
command the execution of this tentation to Christ
Himself, and not take it into his own hands. He
can persuade, he cannot precipitate a man whether
he will or not. Nemini potest nocere nisi ipse se de-
orsum miserit. It is not in his power to throw you
down if you will save yourself.' (u) And finally
here, from golden-mouthed Chrysostom: 'He forced
Him not; he touched Him not; he only said, “Cast
2
1 Beaumont (slightly adapted) as before, p. 126, canto IX. st. 43.
2 As before, p. 306.
154
The Temptation of Christ.
thyself down," that we may know that whosoever
obeyeth the Devil casteth himself down; for the Devil
may suggest, compel he cannot.' 1 2
I observe-
6. The Devil has imitators in taking up Christ to the
'Pinnacle' of the Temple, and saying, Cast thyself
down.'-Far be it from me to turn accuser of the
brethren.' But really what is a deal of the prevalent
sensation preaching,-which, like a Romagna-miasma-
mist, is creeping upward from the 'Novel' to the 'Ser-
mon,'—but just a 'taking up' of Christ to the pin-
nacle of the Temple,' and making him 'leap down'?
I would lift up a solemn protest against this popu-
larity-hunting by men, who, having failed to 'feed'
the souls committed to them, in their preposterous
attempts at turning hard bare 'stones' into 'bread,'
must forsooth get up on 'pinnacles' and take Christ
with them, and make a theatric spectacle of the
Holy One in 'great swelling words.' Out upon such
miserable clap-trap and veriest spiritual quackery!
Shame on 'the Public' who gape and stare and won-
der at the dishonouring acting! Preacher so-called
of this sort,—a word to you. Don motley and cap-o'-
1 Homil. in loco.
2 Compulsion and Resistance.-On the whole matter of man's capability
of resisting the Tempter, consult the following somewhat rare Sermon: 'A
Discourse to prove that the strongest Temptations are conquerable by
Christians; or a Sober Defence of Nature and Grace against the Cavils and
Excuses of loose inconsiderate Men. In a Sermon preached before the
Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London and Court of Aldermen, the
14th of January 1676. By George Hickes, B.D., Chaplain to His Grace the
Lord Duke of Lauderdale. London, 4to, 1677.' Text, 1 Cor. xi. 13.
The Temptation of Christ.
155
bells, and 'cast thyself down'! Judas-like, that will
be the most effective service you can render to the
world, ridding it of thee. I ask to be forgiven the
sarcasm. Surely there is such a thing as righteous
contempt for the contemptible, and holy indignation? ¹
1
Having thus brought before you the Second Temp-
tation as addressed to the Lord in His manifested
character of a DEVOUT MAN, the question as for-
merly is-
¶ 37. Wherein lay the Temptation? What was
the sin of the Snare?
Answered first from THE SCENE.
Here, my friends, I must repeat that it is of the last
importance to get at the elements of temptation in
the several Temptations, so as to discern throughout
how real and actual the CONFLICT was between the
Prince of Light and the Prince of Darkness. For I
must hold, with intensest and innermost conviction,
that in this, as in the former and in each and all, Jesus
'suffered, being tempted ;' that this temptation was an
actual closing, as in mortal grapple, of man's ever-
living Friend and ever-living Foe.
1 I deem this a very grave matter. No motive whatever can excuse an-
nouncements such as I have read lately in England and America, e.g. 'Rags !
Rags! Rags!' 'Cock-crowing.' 'Red! White! and Blue!' 'Who's that
knocking at the door?' 'Does your Mother know you're out?' etc. etc
These are actual placard announcements; and it is something frightful to
think of Isaiah Ixiv. 6; Peter's Recovery (Luke xxii. 60-62); and above all,
Mary seeking her Divine Son (Luke ii. 44, seq.) being the texts of such
' devices.' It were to stoop, to deign to stigmatize them. They revolt every
reverent soul.
156
The Temptation of Christ.
Setting aside once more the varying interpretations
of others, I ask you first of all to look steadfastly at
the SCENE of this Second Temptation- the Temple.'
Let not that 'slip,' for, as I take it, herein lay the BAIT,
though, as before, and to the end, the turning of the
Lord from His OBEDIENCE in His appointed pathway
was the barb, venomed as a serpent's fang, beneath it.
I ask you here to regard what I am now going to
say, as a first answer to the questions put concerning
the tempting' elements of the Second Temptation,
and as looking at it, in a manner, from the OUTSIDE.
6
Suppose the Lord had 'cast' Himself 'down,’—
whether over the yawning chasm of the valley, upon
whose sheer precipices the Temple rose, or into the
great court wherein the people' assembled,—what
would the probable result have been? What might
the Tempter have relied upon as the issue of the
Lord thus suddenly and so surprisingly appearing in
the midst of the gathered and 'sign'-expectant Jews?
What interpretation or misinterpretation might have
been looked for of such a coming in the clouds'?
I would answer this not from myself or from human
authority, but from the same Word of God to which
the Lord Himself turned. I ask you to read with me
Malachi iii. 1: 'Behold, I will send my messenger, and
he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight
in behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.'
The Temptation of Christ.
157
Now, I am very well aware that there are various
and varying interpretations of these remarkable
words; but I do not know that any evangelical
writers differ as to the double reference being to
John the Baptist, the 'messenger before the Lord,'
and to the Lord Himself. This being so, how plain
is it that had the Devil's stratagem prevailed-the
Jews, who laboured under gross and glaring misappre-
hensions, through their vain additions and traditions,
as to the re-coming of Elias-an expectation which,
you will remember, sent up a wild cry of taunt into
the ear of the dying Jesus-would have leaped to
the conclusion that HERE HE WAS.
True it is not said in Malachi that the preluding
messenger,' who was to 'prepare the way before the
Lord,' was to come 'suddenly,' or to come at all, to
the Temple. But neither is it said that he would not
so come, while there was probability he might. More-
over, all objections would have been borne down by the
appearance in the sort sought by the Tempter. There-
fore thus expecting Elias to come from heaven
in pitiful compassion, for lorn and trampled Judea,
consenting to exile himself for a season-'the multi-
tude' should inevitably have been confirmed in their
false opinion if they had seen a man flying from the
Temple; and so John the Baptist, the true 'messen-
ger,' the true Elias, would have been forsaken, even
spurned, and Jesus Himself, in being honoured as
Elias the Prophet, rejected in His lowliness as the
158 The Temptation of Christ.
Messiah, and the nation still looked yearningly for
ANOTHER. And thus the plan of redemption should
have miscarried in the very outset.¹ (v)
What of temptation was there in this? I ask and
re-ask the question; for, my brethren, if I am not
to disbelieve my Bible, I must hold that there were
elements of temptation that could and did press upon
the human soul of the Son of God. It is, I appre-
hend, to travesty the deepest words into thinnest and
weakest allegory, to set down this and its kindred
temptations as things that never touched, never
moved, never 'tempted' Him, never put Him 'to
proof.' But I believe in the reality and intensity of
temptation in every one of these snares; and there-
fore it is I seek to get at the elements thereof.
،
To the question then, 'What of temptation was there
in this second Temptation?' I reply, As a man, I be-
lieve that Jesus, upon that dizzying 'pinnacle,' feared
and looked with strong crying' to be saved from
FALLING, and from death.' Then more innerly, I
believe, that as a man, yea, may I not say out of the
very lovingness of his heart? it is not to be deemed
impossible or improbable that these thoughts may have
been injected, Might I not thus "suddenly come to
my Temple?" Might I not place Myself as a rallying
6
C
1 I venture to commend this view of the design of the scene of the Second
Temptation, to the thoughtful consideration of all before whom it may come ;
and I may state, that while, as throughout, I reached it in my own out-
thinking of the words, I have subsequently found it confirmed by one en-
titled to speak. See Note (v).
The Temptation of Christ. 159
centre for my poor country's broken-hearted sons?
Might I not a little ante-date my assertion of My
Messiahship, if indeed it were to ante-date, seeing I
have been announced?' I cannot empty out the
Temptation by refusing to entertain the possibility of
such thoughts and aspirations being flung into the mind
and heart of 'THE MAN Christ Jesus.' Acted upon,
they had been sin; but in themselves, as thoughts and
aspirations, and as coming from without, they were only
'fiery darts' of the Adversary; while in themselves also,
they had much to attract and win consent, as indeed
almost all not merely gross 'temptations' have.
Look, then, here at the Temptation a moment,
in its relation at once to the scene and the Bible
words of promised protection. It was as if the
Tempter had said, 'Thou shalt have great honour, and
every man will believe if Thou by this miracle show
Thyself the Son of God. To this purpose I have fitted
the place where is greatest resort, and where the Son
of God ought especially to make Himself known.
For where should the Son be made known if not at
His Father's House?'1
C
There could not but be temptation' in that to
the Lord; ay, such temptation as was not easily
cast out;' such temptation as nothing but a profound
discernment of issues, together with a Spirit-power
to act upon that discernment, explains. 'Jesus
affirmed to him again, It is written, Not tempt shalt
1 Taylor, as before, p. 126.
160
The Temptation of Christ.
thou Jehovah, the God of thee.'
coming,' but not easy even to Him!
I would call attention at this point to-
Blessed ' over-
¶ 38. The fulfilment of a remarkable prophecy in the
reply of the Lord to the Second Temptation.
I refer to the prophetic portraiture of the Messiah
contained in Isaiah xi. 1-3: 'There shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall
REST upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understand-
ing, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall
make Him of QUICK UNDERSTANDING in the fear of the
Lord; AND HE SHALL NOT JUDGE AFTER THE SIGHT
OF HIS EYES, NEITHER REPROVE AFTER THE HEARING
OF HIS EARS.'
C
I wish you, my friends, to notice how, first of all,
these words impress the significance of the opening
declaration of our narrative of the Temptation, that
He came to be tempted,' 'FULL OF THE HOLY
GHOST.' But more specifically see how definitely
this altogether peculiar and definite prophecy was
realized, in the present instance, and indeed through-
out the Temptation. The Lord was not to 'judge
according to the sight of His eyes.' How true of
Jesus! He judged not by the sight of His eyes'
when the Tempter stood before His spirit-penetrating
gaze, transformed into an 'angel of light,' and ap-
!
The Temptation of Christ.
161
parently reverencing the Word of the Most High!
Neither 'reproved' He according to the hearing of
His 'ears.' Had He done so, the 'promise' quoted
by the Adversary might-so speciously presented-
have ensnared Him. But no! The Lord rises
above the words, above the 'sight of His eyes,' above
'the hearing of His ears,' and calmly replies again,
'It is written.' He herein pierces to the very core of
the temptation. In so doing He does not, either in
this or in the other temptations, in so many words
express His knowledge of the strategy employed.
For He was not to do that, was not to reprove after the
'hearing of His ears.' He does not, for example, now
answer, 'Thou Tempter, thou seekest to remove My
Father's promise from its very foundation;' nor even,
'So to cast Myself down from this pinnacle, and thus
suddenly appear in the Temple, were to mislead My
people.' No. He refuses to meet the Evil One on
any other footing than that He has assumed,-Son
of Man; a devout man who has turned to his Bible.
Hence He replies to the temptation precisely as a
pious man must; asserts the principle that would be
violated by any such 'casting down' of Himself; and
thereby places His detecting finger upon the snare of
the-as we shall find-misquoted passage.¹ I say
C
1 Thomas White (as before, page 17) has a good illustrative anecdote here.
'Doubtless,' he says, this was the subtlest temptation that the Devil could
invent, yet our Saviour answered him. There is a story of a limner, that to
show his art, drew a white line so small that it could hardly be discerned ;
another, to show that he could excel him, drew a black line through the
middle of it. It required an acute sight to detect either. But our Saviour
L
162 The Temptation of Christ.
misquoted; and that is what falls next to be consid-
ered in proceeding to look at the Second Temptation,
not from the outside and in its scene, but now within
and in itself.
:
But before passing onward, let us listen to Edward
Philips, on the fact that the Tempter did quote the
Bible It detracteth nothing,' excellently observes
he, 'from the glory of the Scriptures to come forth of
Satan's mouth, nay, nothing graceth it so much as
this the reason whereof is, that Satan knew what
bait Christ and all the faithful would best and soonest
bite at, and in his subtlety if any stratagem could have
prevailed more than another, he would have used it.
But he knew Christ relied upon nothing so much as
the voice of His Father, and therefore he useth the
greatest weapon against the greatest enemy, that he
might shew in pretence, to have as much truth on his
side as Christ.' Not less pointedly nor appositely
does he continue on the counter 'It is written' of the
Lord: But what shall we do? Shall we make them
[the Scriptures] like wax, flexible to every impression,
or like bells, tuneable to the ears of the hearer?
What resolution is there for the conscience? The
text cannot speak. "It is written," saith Christ: "It
is written," saith the Devil. If they be written, they
are both true, and must needs be contrary, being cited
by enemies. We answer, It is true the letter printed
at first view immediately discerned the black line of temptation to run
through the plausible advice that Satan gave Him.'
The Temptation of Christ.
163
cannot speak, and they that wrote it are in heaven,
but there are means to get at the sense.' Therefore,
again he says, 'It is no disgrace nor disparagement to
the Scriptures to proceed from Satan, nor any occasion
to make us leave our hold: for Christ answereth again,
and striketh with the same weapon wherewith he was
stricken, showing us that it is lawful to use a text well,
against them that do abuse a text: and if Christ's
example be our precedent, then we may allege Scrip-
ture against depraved Scripture. For the bee may
gather honey on the same stalk that the spider doth
poison. And though a swashbuckler kill a man with
his weapon, yet a soldier may lawfully knit a sword to
his side; and though there be many piracies com-
mitted on the sea, yet may the merchants traffic; or
though some surfeit by gluttony, yet may others use
their temperate diet. And if the Devil change him-
self into an angel of light, shall therefore the angels
lose their light? Or shall Paul therefore deny himself
to be a preacher of salvation because the Pythonite
spake it? (Acts xvi. 17.) Or because Caiaphas by the
spirit of the Devil (John xi. 50), said one should die
for the sins of the people, must we not therefore
believe it? And though (Numb. xxii.) an enchanter
wished that his soul might die the death of the right-
eous, yet is it a prayer fit to be used of all Christians,
though he sold his soul for gold. For, saith he
(Numb. xxiv. 17), "a star shall come out of Judah :"
a true speech of a fallen prophet. And here the
164
The Temptation of Christ.
Devil's own mouth protesteth that God's providence
reacheth over His children, which we may believe
with comfort, though it proceed from his lying lips.'¹
(
¶ 39. It is written,' says the Tempter. Is it so?
The reference is to Psalm xci. 11, 12: 'For He
shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee
in all Thy ways. They shall bear Thee up in their
hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.'
This is something very different, even as mere words,
from what the Tempter said was 'written.' For hear
his quotation 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.' What
has become of 'IN ALL THY WAYS?' and Where did
Satan get this 'AT ANY TIME,' after so leaving out
In all Thy ways?'
I would consider each of these--
:
C
t
I. In all Thy ways.'--The promise of protection
is only 'in all Thy ways,' not 'in all Thy wanderings;'
in all Thy ways,' not 'in all Thy departures;' 'in all
Thy ways,' not 'in all Thy by-ways.' Now the 'way'
from the Temple pinnacle was down the long-winding
stairs, or in the 'way' He had been 'taken' thither;
for that was 'the way' ordered of God. So long, as
that 'way,' or 'the way' appointed was accessible, so
1 As before, pp. 187-193. The means are specified: Prayer, the Original,
etc. etc.
The Temptation of Christ.
165
long as there was a 'way,' it was the only lawful
means of descent. The temptation lay, in one of its
elements, here. 'Well! you are hungry, and need
no bread. Surely then, requiring to descend, you
need no stairs.'¹ (w)
I believe that the Bible promise in question turns
upon these omitted words, 'In all thy ways.' It was
a dark, deceiving, scheming omission. For God is
only with us while we walk in the 'ways' He appoints.
Let us walk therein, then we shall walk in our way
safely, and our feet shall not stumble (Prov. iii. 23).
Or if we fall we shall rise again,' nor shall 'the stone'
in the way bruise' us. The wings of angels are over
us, the hands of angels underneath us, the great Hand
itself. How again and again is this the experience of
the believer! How rarely or never does the child of
God'dash his foot' against a stone' while ‘in the
way.' But, on the other hand, let us choose, self-
choose, our own ways, let us thrust ourselves into
dangers, let us seek out the precipices of life uncalled,
and God withdraws His hand, and leaves us to the
'wounding' that is inevitable from all self-sought
temptations. If we so seek pinnacles,' we place
ourselves beyond the Divine guardianship. In the
ways' all is safe. Out of the ways all is perilous. A
(
1 On the 'Stairs' see Lightfoot in Note (w).
2 Ford, in his Gospel of St. Luke Illustrated, in loco says excellently: 'It
is observable here that Satan not only mutilated the Word of God, .. but
that he shifted the word "stone" from its figurative meaning as it stands in
the Psalms, and quoted it in a literal sense, so as to make it applicable to
his own infernal purpose.'
•
4
J
166
The Temptation of Christ.
promise like that to which the Tempter turned is as
' munitions of rocks' around the believer so long as he
keeps within it. For example, to apply it to the Lord.
Christ was led up' of the Spirit to be tempted.'
That up-going to the 'pinnacle of the Temple' was
part of the appointed temptation. He was there
' in the way.' But, as already indicated, He had
been preternaturally 'taken' there, and so preternatu-
rally or as 'led' must descend: 'taken up,' He must
equally be 'taken down.' Or-for I leave it now an
open question whether the 'taking up' were preter-
natural-there was the ordinary way' by the stairs.
To have 'cast' Himself 'down' therefore, would have
been rashly to depart from the way,' to challenge
Divine protection in gratuitously incurred danger.
I know no principle that is more insisted upon in
Holy Scripture than this. I shall show immediately
how it pervades the chapter of Deuteronomy whence.
the Lord draws His answer. But for the moment,
look at words like these, so beautiful in the poetry of
them, and so tender in their gentleness (Prov. xxvii.
8): As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a
man that wandereth from his place.' The allusion
here is evidently to the old law of Moses. God made
a law-oh, the wonder of that all-including love !--
that no one should harm a bird upon its nest. Let
us turn to the pitiful words which are found in the
same book of Deuteronomy (xxii. 6, 7): If a bird's
nest chance to be before thee, in the way, in any tree
1
C
The Temptation of Christ.
167
or on the ground, whether they be young ones or
eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the
eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young:
But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take
the young to thee: that it may be well with thee,
and that thou mayest prolong thy days.' How exqui-
site in its pathos is that 'in any wise!' It is a plea
for the 'young' also to be spared to the mother-bird,
but at least it - Passing, however, the 'precious
things' of this law, you observe that the principle
underlying it is this, that none must suffer from being
in the way of duty. The poor bird stretching out and
folding over its wings to warm its 'eggs' or callow
'young' was filling its post of obedience to the great
law impressed within it. It had a right to be there,
it was in its place, in 'the way.' To harm it was to
harm it through its being there. Exactly so keep
'thy place,' my brother! my sister! Walk in thy
ways' and the covenant-promise is sure. But as a
bird that wandereth from her nest [not that is out in
the air for food, or away in sylvan or grassy haunt,
or by gleaming mere, that it may 'gather' for its
young ones, but wandered' away, a deserter, aban-
doner of its nest], 'so is a man that WANDERETH
from his place'-leaves it, turns from it, and goes
unled of God elsewhither and away from his place.'¹
¿
1 It is a very wonderful thing to find this law-trivial as we would say
enforced with a sanction so high and solemn as this, 'that it may be well
with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.' William Blake caught
the very inspiration of it when, in his winsome Auguries of Innocence," he
168
The Temptation of Christ.
I must hold, then, that as the promise of protection
is only 'in all our ways,' not when we self-choose and
depart therefrom, the Tempter misquoted and muti-
lated when he left out the pregnant clause, 'in all
thy ways.'
I am aware that this has been called a 'gratuitous
refinement.' Even a man like my excellent, and in-
deed inestimable friend, the Rev. J. C. Ryle-whose
name is as 'ointment poured forth' in all the churches
-says From the earliest ages the comment has been
6
pleads for the 'lower animals.' I cull a few of the strung pearls of its tender
humanities:-
'A Robin-red-breast-in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state;
A game-cock clipped and armed for fight.
Doth the rising sun affright;
A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain doth tear;
A sky-lark wounded on the wing
Doth make a cherub cease to sing.
He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men;
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.
The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.
The lamb misused breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgment draweth nigh.'
The Temptation of Christ.
169
made on these words, that Satan omitted the impor-
tant quotation which follows them, "in all thy ways,”
and that the omission was intentional in order to
favour his misapplication of the text. Perhaps more
has been made of the omission than is quite warrant-
able. The quotations from the Old Testament in the
New, even when made by holy and good men, are
not always so full as we should have expected. At
any rate, it is a striking fact that our Lord does not
notice the misquotation, but simply quotes in reply
another text.' Again: Dr. Joseph Addison Alex-
ander observes: That the mere omission of the
phrase "in all thy ways" was a part of the tempta-
tion seems to be a gratuitous refinement, as our Lord
Himself makes no such charge; as the first words of
the sentence would of course suggest the rest, and as
'ways,' in the usage of the Psalms, does not mean
ways of duty,' but the ways in which a man is led
by Providence. Neither the Tempter's argument nor
our Lord's reply to it would be at all affected by the
introduction of the words suppressed.' *
2
All this I must reckon very deplorable as well as
very preposterous. See where the argument leads,
that because our Lord 'does not notice the misquota-
tion,' as Mr. Ryle puts it, and because our Lord
Himself makes no such charge,' as Dr. Alexander.
The Devil said, 'If Thou be the Son of God.' God
(
1 Expository Thoughts on St. Luke in loco.
2 The Psalms Translated and Explained, in loco (3 vols. New York,
1853).
170
The Temptation of Christ.
had said, 'Thou art My beloved Son.' But because
Christ takes no notice of it, forsooth, the 'if' is not
to be pressed against Satan! Then again,-passing
from others to the narrative itself,-when on the cross
the dying Saviour in His agony cried, 'Eli, Eli, lama
sabachthani,' the emissaries of the Evil One made it
'the man calleth for Elias.' The 'Lord took no
notice of it,' the 'Lord made no charge of misquota-
tion' of His words of uttermost anguish, therefore it
is 'gratuitous refinement' to attend to the perver-
sion.¹ One's respect, nay love for the men, alone
restrains indignation with such hap-hazard and stupid
statements. As to the quite warrantable,' I retort
it. No one who reverences 'the Word' ought to
pronounce a vigilant watchfulness over such a gross
and glaring misquotation unwarrantable.' For in
the vehement words of John Sterling: As the true
utterance of all the truth is the work and consum-
mation of man's life, so the false utterance of the
true, or the true utterance of the false, is in one
form or other the whole of what is ruinous, chaotic,
execrable.'
1 2
C
And again, as to 'the first words of the sentence,'
suggesting of course, the rest,' and 'ways in the
usage of the Psalms,' not meaning 'ways of duty, but
the way's in which a man is led by Providence,' the
former is self-answered; for who in his own experience
1 I am sorry to find Dr. David Brown making the same superficial remark
in his Commentary, in loco.
2 As before, p. 147.
The Temptation of Christ.
171
(
has not found that 'the first words' do not of course
suggest the rest?' and who has not marked that
omitted words readily escape attention? As to the
latter, it is pure nonsense; for the attempted distinc-
tion between the 'ways of Providence' into which a
man is 'led' and the
ways of duty' is a distinction
without a difference-Surely the 'ways of Providence'
are the 'ways of duty?'
C
Beyond all question, then, the omission was part
of the snare, and Bernard is right when over-against.
the words he writes: In viis nunquid in præcipitiis
non est via hæc sed ruina, et si via, tua est non illius,'
which Richard Gilpin has very well rendered, ‘God
promiseth to keep him in His ways but not in self-
created dangers: for that was not his way but his
ruin; or if a way it was Satan's way, but not His.'
'Wait on the Lord, and keep His way' (Ps. xxxvii.
34).
1
2. At any time? What I have said on the
omission of 'In all thy ways' has prepared you, I
hope, to see how that omission struck from beneath
the feet of him who trusted the mutilated promise, the
present very precious portion of it, 'At any time.'
This is not an insertion by the Tempter but having
taken away 'In all thy ways,' he left no basis for
At any time; and in truth by retaining it while re-
moving the former, he in a double way taught a
deadly and deceiving error.
1 On Psalm xiv.
As before, Part 111. c. xvii. near beginning.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
172
The Temptation of Christ.
It is nowhere said that God will protect us at ANY
time.' That were to bind God to absolute protection
under all circumstances and however we be occupied.
That were to cancel the awful threats of a holy God
to withdraw His hand' and leave sinners to the issue
of their sins. But we have no such absolute, God-
necessitating promise. As there is '
As there is a time when the
Lord may be found' (Ps. xxxii. 6), so is there a time
when He will not. There is a time for every pur-
pose' (Ecc. iii. 1); let it pass, and it goes unexecuted.
There is an acceptable time' (Ps. lxix. 13). Woe to
those who embrace it not! There is a time of visi-
tation' (Jer. xlvi. 21). Alas! for such as refuse to
meet Him. Very solemn are these words of the
Lord: 'Watch and pray; for ye know not when the
time is' (Mark xiii. 33). Oh, it is a delusion of the
Devil by which he rocks myriads asleep, and gets
them to delay and delay until they find themselves
face to face with death, that at any time' they may
look to have God's saving hand about them! that
'at any time' they may change, repent and live!
'At any time.' Blessed be the Lord, in a deep and
precious sense it is true! Come at third hour-come
at ninth hour-come at, sometimes, the darkening
twelfth hour-come young, come old-come after a
spent life of sin, or come, dedicated, from a heart-
change in the very outset-and there is welcome.
But let the years roll on-let opportunities escape—
let privileges result in nothing-let appeals fall as
¿
The Temptation of Christ.
173
idle tales-let the warning cry of mother or pastor be
pronounced enthusiasm-let the present be mortgaged
to a future that is never never to come, except bear-
ing the awful stamp of eternity-let the soul drug
itself with 'Time enough yet,' 'At a more convenient
season'—let the 'great salvation' be neglected, and
there will be no 'Coming,' except Despair's tremen-
dous, impossible coming,' to the great barred door
for ever and for ever-shut. 'At any time.' Oh no!
my fellow-man. Now is the accepted time. Now
is the day of salvation.' 'To-day if ye will hear,
harden not your heart.'
C
C
I regard the omission therefore of 'In all thy ways'
as a 'tempting' removal of the promise from its basis;
and on purpose to give a false and perilous reading
of the other, 'At any time.' The time for protection
was not 'any time,' but so long as the man abode
under the over-shadowing wings of the Almighty
(vers. 1, 9, 15).
So long and no longer as there is such abiding is
there promise: (albeit our faithful Father compassion-
ates His 'backsliding' ones even when they turn from
Him. Who among us has not to praise His mercy
for that?) Let us all beware, therefore, of this insidi-
ous thrusting in of 'at any time' into a Bible promise.
Be assured the doing that is an ensnaring patching-up
of something better taken away; as here, 'In all thy
ways' is removed for 'at any time.' It may seem a
small matter, and even good men, as we have found,
174
The Temptation of Christ.
may make it out to be really a small matter. But
sirs it isn't so. The dragon 'may push' with 'the
horns' of ‘a lamb' only; but lo! his foul serpent
body drags large and mailed behind (Rev. xiii. 11).
¶ 40. The Promise sundered from the Commandment.
From these observations, my friends, you per-
ceive that the Tempter's snare was to sunder the
promise from the commandment; or the end from its
appointed means. Wisely and faithfully has dear old
John Udall reasoned and warned of this: 'It is true
that God hath given unto us those laws which-by
reason of our natural corruption-we are not able to
fulfil; and therefore the author of our salvation is only
His mercy in His Son Jesus Christ.
Yet are we to
know that the Law of God is not thereby annihilated
but established (Rom. iii. 31), for the continual course
and direction of man's whole life; and therefore, if
we shall at any time reason to ourselves thus, "I am
saved by the mercy of God, therefore why should I
be so strict and precise in my life?" let us take heed,
for in so doing we "turn the grace of God into wan-
tonness" (Jude 4). And if at any time this motion
shall come into our mind, "I may do such a thing,
and I trust God will forgive me;" or to be thus
and thus obedient to God's Word and Law, is a weari-
some thing; God, who knoweth that we are flesh and
blood, will bear with us :" let us know that it is the very
temptation of Satan that separateth the Promise from
((
The Temptation of Christ.
175
the Commandment; and would have us fall into sin.
Then let us set this lesson before our eyes, that our
Saviour joined them both together, the one to show
us the law of God, and to give us matter of true con-
fidence in Him; the other to keep us in order by
continual obedience to His laws, to the adorning of
our profession by a godly life and conversation.'1 Not
less appositely has Thomas Fuller illustrated from
Scripture the same truth: 'Did Paul,' he asks, 'pre-
sently vault from the wall, and cast himself desperately
into the embraces of a miracle? Oh no! the bre-
thren's brains being at a loss, beat about, and (accord-
ing to the promise, Matt. x. 19) discover an expedient,
and let him down through a window in a basket.'²
The counsel admirably suits what is before us. There
was the commandment: dwell in the secret place of
the Most High; then the promise, and thou shalt
abide under the shadow of the Almighty' (ver. 1).
Violate the one, 'dwell' not,—and there will be no
' abiding.' And so to seek to abide under the shadow
of the Almighty,' without 'dwell-ing in the secret
place,' is to 'tempt the Lord,' even as to have 'cast'
Himself 'down' from the 'pinnacle' of the Temple,
when there was a 'way' down, would have been to
'tempt' Him.³
C
Thus the snare and peril of the Second Temptation
1 As before, § 17 [no pagination].
2 As before, p. 121.
3 Rev. W. M. Taylor (as before, p. 155) has not less truly than tersely
said, 'Avoid the Devil's short cuts.'
176
The Temptation of Christ.
our blessed Lord detects and strikes in His answer,
which now falls to be looked at in itself, and more
especially as answering the question—
बा
¶ 41. What is it to Tempt God?
Ver. 7. Jesus said to him again, It is written, Not
TEMPT shalt thou Jehovah the God of thee.'¹
Look steadfastly, my friends, at that word 'tempt.'
In it lies the emphasis and completeness of the reply.
To 'tempt,' in the Hebrew, and in its Greek equi-
valent, means to 'make trial' in the sense of testing;
and as applied to moral agents, denotes a 'testing' to
know whether a given character or a given promise be
real. Apply that (without meanwhile going wider) to
what the Tempter suggested to Christ. Here is a pro-
mise adduced and produced. There it is! Put it to
proof! Claim it! Act it out!' The Evil One gave no
expression of such an intention. He wished to per-
suade that what he sought was simply an embracing
of a genuine promise in its genuine application. But
the Lord penetrated to the underlying snare, and
wrote 'TEMPT' as with the finger of 'The Hand' that
came forth on the olden palace wall-and so resisted.
Keep a grasp of the word 'tempt,' and the thing, and
you will see how dishonouring to God, how false to
Christ Himself, and how altogether in transgression of
OBEDIENCE such a 'casting-down' would have been.
1 Prof. Godwin renders Thou shalt not seek to prove. See List of
Books at end of Note (a).
<
The Temptation of Christ.
177
But in order fully to understand the present
temptation, we must attend to the History in which
the words are embedded. They occur in Deut.
vi. 16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God,
as ye tempted Him in Massah.' The Fact is also
recorded in Exodus and in Numbers, and referred
to in the Psalms.¹
Now, the correspondence between the sin of
Israel at Massah and that of the Lord, had He
given way to the temptation to 'cast Himself down
from the pinnacle of the Temple, would have been
exact, the principle identical.
The words, 'Ye shall not tempt the Lord your
God, as ye tempted Him at Massah,' take us back to
Exodus xvii., where we read that the people 'mur-
mured' against Moses and against God, because
there was no water for them to drink. And when,
by God's command, water had been miraculously
brought to them out of the rock, we find that the
former name was cancelled, and the place called
Massah, which means 'temptation,' and Meribah,
which means 'chiding.' The record is very strik-
ing: 'He called the name of the place Massah
and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children
of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, say-
ing, Is the Lord among us or not?' Their sin was
putting God to trial, whether his covenant-word were
1 Cf. Ex. xvii. 1-3, et seq.; Numb. xx. 1-5, et seq.; and Psalm xcv. 9;
cvi. 14.
M
178
The Temptation of Christ.
(
true, that having 'led' them up,' He should lead
them forth and through,-instead of going on ‘in
the way' into which unquestionably He had 'led'
them, trusting in His powers of protection and pro-
vision.
You perceive therefore, that, as I have said, in
principle, this was the very thing the Tempter put
before the Lord. He too had been 'led up' of
the Spirit; had been 'led up' for a specific end—
' in order to be tempted;' and as part of the means
to that end, He now stood on the 'pinnacle of
the Temple.' He who by the Tempter had brought
that about was pledged, as the true and faithful
One, to guard Him there, was 'with' Him, yea,
by the Spirit in Him. Hence it is plain it had
been a virtual denial of such presence and covenant-
care, a virtual saying with erring Israel, 'Is Jehovah
with Me,' to have anticipated the appointed descent
by casting Himself from the top of the Temple. It
would have been putting God to 'trial;' whereas He
was Himself to be tried, 'to be tempted,' being, as
we have seen, 'led up' to that end. How He was
to descend and when, were in 'The Temptation' to
which He was 'surrendered,' and it would have been
'commanding,' not obeying,'' speaking,' not doing
what was 'written,'-magnifying Himself as Son of
God, instead of 'enduring' all as Son of Man, to have
done what he was urged to do. For observe, in
standing upon the giddy 'pinnacle,' there had been
:
The Temptation of Christ.
179
:
danger had Jesus gone thither untaken, un-led of the
Spirit. But being 'taken' in the fulfilment of His
work, there was absolute safety. There had been
none, and contrariwise danger even to destruction, in
the
casting of Himself down,' with no call whatever
so to do.
Let me here gather up the elements of temptation.
There was first of all,—as I think I must have satisfied
you, the probability that by casting Himself down
He would cause the people to pronounce Him to be
'the messenger' of the Lord, not the Lord Himself.
That was the design of the Tempter very palpably by
the Second Temptation's SCENE, Beneath that there
was a deepening of the effort to ensnare Him toward
departing from His OBEDIENCE and Servant-work,—to
turn Him aside from what was given Him to do.'
And then, through all these, was the virtual asking,
'Is Jehovah with Me?' Besides, there was the utter
misapplication of a promise in given circumstances, to
self-chosen and different circumstances, together with
a mutilation of the Bible words, and consequent false
emphasis upon what were left, specially of at any
time.' All that, the Lord by His reply designated a
'tempting of God,' a putting Him 'to proof;' and as
such it was spurned. He doubted neither the power
nor the promise of Jehovah, therefore needed not to
'prove' Him.
180
The Temptation of Christ.
T 42. How specifically 'casting' Himself 'beneath'
from the Temple 'wing' would have been
a' tempting' of God.
More specifically, it is not at all difficult to see
how such a 'casting' of Himself from the Temple
'wing,' on the base of a promise that had no re-
ference to such an act, would have been a 'tempt-
ing' of God. This appears, whether we place the
proposed act alongside the promise-words of the
Psalm, or alongside our own every-day experience.
Place it alongside the Psalm, and what were the
circumstances? A plague was raging at a certain
time in Judea' (and here I quote the words of a
lovely soul, a true man, though in many things I
mourn his teaching or no-teaching,-Frederick Deni-
son Maurice). The Psalmist declares his confidence
that God will preserve him in it. He has been set
in the midst of this plague, and he doubts not
that He who set him in the midst of it will give
his angels charge over him to keep him, so that no
real mischief should come to him from it. Here is
the case of a man whose ways were appointed for him.
But the Spirit of Evil says, Distrust God's wisdom
in fixing thy position, and then trust Him to reward
thy unbelief.'¹
This abiding' of David in the plague-stricken.
Jerusalem, just because he was where God had placed
1 Christmas-Day and other Sermons (1843), p. 178.
The Temptation of Christ.
181
him, is the more striking when we recall like circum-
stances under which he did not adventure to abide."
You remember, when the plague was great in Israel,
David went to the 'thrashing-floor of Araunah' to
present sacrifice.. Why there? Why not to the altar
before the Tabernacle?—that was the appointed
place. But on examining the narrative you discover
that the Tabernacle of the Lord, which had been
made in the Wilderness, together with the altar of
burnt-offering, was at that time in the 'high places' of
Gibeon, whither David could not go to ask counsel
of Jehovah, because he feared the sword of the
angel of the Lord, that is, the pestilence. Therefore
David, unsent, could not go up to Gibeon (1 Chron.
xxi. 30).
I may as well give here the quaint lore with which
Bishop Hacket adorns this reference. He,' says he,
that loves to walk dangerous ways, shall perish in
them. Even King Josiah, one of the most lovely
darlings of God's favour among all the kings of Judah,
fell under the sword for pressing further against his
enemies than the word of the Lord did permit him.
The ancient Eliberitan Council enacted, that all those
who plucked down the idols or temples of the heathen
should not be accounted martyrs, though they died
for the faith of Christ, because they plucked perse-
cution upon themselves, and provoked their own
martyrdom.'¹
1 As before, p. 327,
182
The Temptation of Christ.
(
Again, as I have said, this 'tempting' of God comes.
out clearly when we look at it in the light of our every-
day experience. For example, the missionary of the
cross goes forth to his holy work taking his life in
his hand.' He relies on Him who holds the winds in
His fists, and the waters in the hollow of His hand,'
for protection on the voyage. But how easy to see
that it were a 'tempting' of God, or, to use the good
old Scottish phrase, 'a tempting of Providence,' were
that missionary, on the ground of these promises, to
set sail in a vessel which he knew to be unseaworthy,
and that might be expected to go down with the first
storm that arose. Parallel also is the man who, while
a loving God has graciously provided a chart and
compass by which to steer over life's mysterious
sea, even to its far verge in eternity, casts himself
out alone, and still looks to reach the haven at
last. Miserable castaway! Shipwreck is before
thee!
Before proceeding to such additional practical re-
marks as remain, I would here, in a sentence, remind
you how the very chapter of Deuteronomy from which
the Lord took His first answer, must have kept Him
vigilantly conscious—I speak of Him as a man-of
the omission of 'In all Thy ways.' Turning to that
chapter, the eighth, we find that from first to last
the 'ways' in which Divine protection was promised
are spoken of. Thus, in ver. 2: Thou shalt remem-
(
The Temptation of Christ.
183
ber all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee.'
Again, ver. 6: 'Thou shalt keep the commandments
of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways.' And so
throughout. All blessing is bound up with obedience,
all promise with keeping the commandments. To
think otherwise is a delusion. To expect help in any
other way a snare.
For hath not the Lord asked by
His prophet, Shall he break the covenant, and be
delivered?' (Ezek. xvii. 15.)
(
43. Concluding 'Improvement' of details in the Second
Temptation and the Lord's Answer.
I have now to add some practical enforcement of
points not already applied in this Second Temptation.
I observe-
G
1. It is a favourite Snare of the Tempter to 'take'
men, ay, Christian men, to ‘pinnacles.'-As I remarked
earlier, the Evil One has no wish to withhold any
worldly prosperity and advancement from his followers.
Let him only hold 'possession,' and they may rise ast
high and proudly, for him, as they choose. But even
Christian men are often ensnared by 'pinnacles.'
Height of place,' says Bishop Hall, 'gives oppor-
tunity of temptation. Thus busy is that Wicked
One in working against the members of Christ. If
any of them be in eminence above others, these he
labours most to ruinate. They had need to stand
fast that stand high. There is both more danger of
184
The Temptation of Christ.
their falling, and more hurt in their fall.'1 How true
is all this! How often is the fall all the greater
through the up-going to 'pinnacles.' How pun-
gently do the apostles 'warn' against that 'lording'
over God's heritage which not unfrequently ensues !
Only Christ and the Christ-like man can safely
stand high. Many are exalted only to their destruc-
tion. Think of the dread refrain over Capernaum.
Thou, Capernaum, exalted, shalt be thrust down,' not
merely sink but thrust.' Oh, that 'thrusting' Hand
behind the doomed! 2
'
(
But here I must put in a caveat. There are ‘pin-
nacles' in Church and State, and there must be men
to occupy them. It is perilous, it is to 'tempt' God,
uncalledly to ascend thither. But equally is it to
'tempt' Him to refuse to ascend when called. Christ
did not refuse. Again, it is to 'tempt' God, un-
calledly to seek to leave any 'pinnacle' whither in
His providence we may have been taken.' Christ
refused to 'cast Himself down.' So must we.
Equally must we ascend when led' of Him, and
¹ Bishop Hall, as before, vol. i. p. 314.
2 Have we here the source of Milton's 'solitary Hand of God'?
Archangel reproaches Satan for presuming to war with God, who
'Out of smallest things could without end
Have raised incessant armies to defeat
Thy folly, or with solitary hand
Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow,
Unaided could have finished thee, and whelm'd
Thy legions under darkness.'
The
Haydon has observed that these lines embody one of the most awful con-
ceptions upon earth.
The Temptation of Christ.
185
remain until 'led' down. I pray God that my words
may be used to strengthen any timid, shrinking
souls, 'tempted' to forsake any post, elevated it
may be a little above their fellows. Has God
placed you there, my brother? Are you there with-
out your own seeking? Then stand fast. Leave
not, 'cast' not yourself down. You will 'tempt'
God thereby.
I observe-
2. It is to 'tempt' God, to do anything wrong on the
plea of imagined or intended good to others.-Here I
rejoice to be able to enrich myself once more from
Maurice. With rare insight he says: Understand
from this history of our Lord's Second Temptation,
that we are not to plead love to our brethren as any
excuse for going out of God's way, or doing work
which He has not set us to do. Our Lord was urged
to "cast" Himself "down" from the Temple, that
He might "convince" ["convict "?] the Jews of their
unbelief. He who urged to it wished Him in that
very thing to commit an act of unbelief. Thousands
of such acts have been committed by men who
thought that they were honouring God, and helping
their brethren. They were doing neither. They
were not honouring God, for they believed that
they loved their brethren better than He did. They
were not helping their brethren, for the only way to
help them is to follow God's ways, and to give up
our own. To be working together with God is our
186
The Temptation of Christ.
highest honour. When we are not doing this, we
cannot be working any good to ourselves or to any
other man.'¹ Noble words! And, my brethren,
acting upon them should end very much of that
paltering compliance with the ways and works of the
world, that professing Christians allow themselves to
be 'tempted' into, on the ground of probable good,
by their
presence and countenance, to others. It is a
Devil's lie. God never can be served by untruth in
act or word. You may ween, that by talking the
world's talk, and refusing to be singular' or 'pecu-
liar,' you are commending Christianity. But it is not
So. You do it hurt, damage unspeakable, and you
do no good to those outside.
I observe-
<
3-
Too many make the same mis-use of the Bible that
the Devil did.-He quoted a Bible promise to 'tempt'
and deceive. He used those words 'out of the
mouth of God' to injure and perplex. Now, not a
few thus 'search' the Scriptures. They have a cruel
delight in getting hold of difficult, it may be very
dark and puzzling Bible words, and placing them
before the children of God. They rejoice to shake
faith--to put a tremor into a trustful heart—to over-
cloud assurance-to reduce to grey mist the seven-
fold rainbow of hope-to draw inferences and
conclusions from bits of the Word' that the lowly
believer may not be able to argue against. All that
1 As before, pp. 182, 183.
The Temptation of Christ.
187
is very sad, ay, and woe to the man who sends the
lowliest and frailest child of God in anguish and tears
to the throne of grace against such temptation! His
faint sighs the tempter may not reck, but they re-
verberate as the 'seven thunders' up yonder, and
the bolt may strike as lightning strikes. Beware of
reading God's Bible with any such purpose, as by
controversy or misquotation or otherwise, to weaken
a fellow-man in 'his way.'
'He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death;
He who shall teach the child to doubt,
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out;
He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
•
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”¹
I observe-
4. The believer must appropriate to himself the Bible
Promises and Commandments.-Very miserable is the
pottering of commentators and sermonizers over the
change of pronoun in the quotation from Deutero-
nomy in the second answer of the Lord. There it is,
Ye shall not tempt;' here, Thou shalt not tempt.'
Surely it is very plain that a law, by the necessities of
law, contains the individual in the whole; and when-
ever a nation is addressed, I, as a citizen and subject,
am addressed just as when I hear a general cry of
danger in shipwreck or fire, I act as if I, personally,
:
I William Blake, as before, p. 96.
(
188
The Temptation of Christ.
were summoned, not waiting to hear my individual
name shouted.
C
You remember the 'Sweet Singer' finely illustrates
this. God said to His people, 'Seek ye my face.'
What then? Was David to lose himself in the nation,
and God only to be approached by the nation in a
collective capacity? Not at all. My heart,' ex-
claimed he,' said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I
seek' (Ps. xxvii. 8). Exactly so with the words in
Deuteronomy. The charge included all and included
each. Thou' lay in the 'ye.'
८
O Sirs! We need more to realize and act upon
this solemn matter of the solitariness of the indi-
vidual, however surrounded by multitudes. Every
man shall bear his own burden' (Gal. vi. 5). Each
of us must confront law and promise for himself.
Very awful is this thought, and yet very blessed
also. For see how, amid all the universality and
all-embracing breadth of the invitations and pro-
mises, wooings and consolations, pleadings and re-
monstrances of the Word of God, every one of
us 'in Christ' may personally appropriate each, and
say, as of God's sunlight and rain, 'That is mine.
That most scholarly of early Scottish Divines, Pro-
fessor Dickson, has very well put this: What the
Scriptures speak indifferently to all it is to be esteemed
as spoken to every singular [individual] person, and
the singular persons are to be accounted as written in
the writing of the general; for upon this ground
C
k
The Temptation of Christ.
189
Christ saith, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God," because (Deut. vi. 16) it is written,
'Ye shall not tempt your God.” '¹
I observe-
S
5. Obedience must be kept abidingly in mind.—I
intend by this, that once satisfied that we are in a
place whither we have been 'led' of God,—that we are
occupying a sphere and discharging duties as by His
ordination, it will be to our soul's damage and danger
if we let any temptation' to turn elsewhither, or to
change our purposes, take us from such God-assigned
'ways' and duties :--
C
M
'Far better in its place the lowliest bird
Should sing aright to Him the lowliest song,
Than that a seraph, strayed, should take the Word
And sing His glory wrong."
ខ
6
Let not even Bible words thrust before us 'tempt.'
Depend upon it they are not truly given or applied.
'Peter' had no business in the hall of judgment
'sitting down among them' and warming himself at
their fire.' He might plead a wish to follow' Christ,
but he had no command to so follow Him. He was
wrong, and miserably he suffered for his disobe-
dience. And indeed John Bunyan was felicitously
right in making 'by-path meadow' lead to 'Doubt-
ing Castle' and 'Giant Despair.'
Therefore let us hear the Lord's call: 'Set thee up
way-marks, make thee high heaps; set thine heart to-
1 Brief Exposition of the Evangel of Jesus Christ according to Mat-
there. 12m0, 1651, p. 33.
2 Ingelow, as before, p. 31.
190
The Temptation of Christ.
ward the highway, even the way which thou wentest;
turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again' (Jer.
xxxi. 21).
I observe-
6. We must never sunder Means from the End.—I
have already sufficiently indicated this, and I only
recur to it now for the purpose of pointing it with the
wise prayer of the venerable Sir Thomas More:
'Domine, Deus, fac me in iis consequendis operam collo-
care, pro quibus obtinendis te orare soleo.' 'Lord! make
me to bestow pains in getting those things for the
obtaining of which I use to pray to Thee.'¹ Let
us master this principle, and all temptation' to
'cast' ourselves 'down' to gain an end for which
means have been provided, will fall from us in-
،
nocuous.
I observe-
7. Let the Tempted be peculiarly comforted by our
Lord's Second Temptation. Oh, my brother! my
sister! Have you ever had the awful spectre of
suicide raised up before your mind?
It is very
dreadful. But says good Thomas White: Thou
mayest be a child of God for all this, for our Saviour
was tempted to “cast Himself down.” ’²
'2
8. Let the Tempted realize the great protecting Hands.
-Here on the metaphor of the Psalm I will allow
Bishop Hacket to speak :-'Suffer me to add... the
1 Quoted in Manton, as before, p. 102, and previously by Trapp, as before,
in loco.
2 As before, p. 15.
2
The Temptation of Christ.
191
The in-
intension of the angel's care over us.
tension consists in this that they will put their hands
between us and harm; in their hands they will bear
thee up. In which figure we, alas! are compared to
infants, they to nurses or mothers that will keep us in
their own arms to save us from falling. Surely they
will not stick to carry so mean a similitude for our
sake; for, that you may not dread God's majesty, He
compares Himself but to a hen that clucks her chickens
under her wings. The chicken which is under the
wing, though it be very safe, yet is out of sight; but
that which is held in the hand, the eye will be care-
fully cast upon it. Therefore this is a phrase of as
tender pity and compassion as almost can be devised.
Were it in this style, "They shall admonish you of
danger at hand," it were a loving part; but we are
admonished of danger every week, and yet fall into
the snares of Satan. Did the consolation run in this
form, "They shall go before you or compass you about,
they shall look to your going out and coming in," it
would deserve to have God's name blessed for that
appointment; yet though angels go before us, unless
they will carry us out of our own ways, we shail run
into the broad path that leadeth to destruction.
Well! admit it were as God said to Israel, “I have
borne thee on eagles' wings, and brought thee to my-
self” (Ex. xix. 4). Yet it comes short of this love.
The eagle carries her young ones on her back; but
to lift up a thing upon the shoulders is to make it a
·
192
The Temptation of Christ.
burden and not a delight. That which is borne in
the hands is nearer to the bosom, ever in remem-
brance, most tenderly provided for; therefore out of
infinite love Judah was comforted: 'I will grave thee
in the palms of my hands.' ¹ (x) (y)
1
1 As before, p. 320.
The Third Temptation.
N
(
BETHINK thee how thy well-kept heart has known
Quick-starting thoughts, a frightful, poisonous growth;
Bethink thee how suggestions not thine own
Have crept and overcome it, slow and loth;
How a foul breath, o'er its bright vision blown,
Has buried all in the thick fog of sloth:
Dost thou not know him, yet, TEMPTER and sharer, both?
He all thy moods has known,
When willing and when loth.'
4
Fresh Hearts that Failed Three Thousand Years Ago,
with other Things.' (Boston, 1860.) I
'BUT let us wrestle with Despair and rise
From the cold Earth our arms embraced
But could not hold; our hot hands interlaced,
Fix we our gaze, unfaltering on the Skies.'
¿
Pansies,' by Fanshawe Brook.
1 See Notes and Illustrations (≈), for the whole striking poem, which is entitled 'The
Tempter at the Side.'
WE are now brought to the Third, and until a
fitting opportunity' (Luke iv. 13), the Last Tempta-
tion. I would describe it as
C
The Temptation of the Lord Jesus as the
acknowledged Messiah.¹
Vers. 8, 9. 'Again the Devil takes Him with him
on to a mountain, very elevated, and shows to Him
the whole of the kingdoms of the earth and the splen-
dour of them, and says to Him, "These—all—to
Thee-will I deliver, if bowing down, Thou mayest
do homage to me.""
I give here also the account in Luke iv. 5-7.
'And the Devil having conveyed Him up on to a
lofty [or elevated] mountain, shows to Him the whole
1 Classification of the Three Temptations.-I object to a very taking and
now common, but unless I err myself, mistaken arrangement of both the Temp-
tation of Eve and of our Lord, viz., according to 1 John ii. 16: 'The lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.' I object to this in limine
that 'lust' (èπivµía) is a far darker and deadlier thing than could by any
possibility be in sinless beings such as Eve and our Lord. The Tempter
knew the Holy One' too well to tempt Him in that sort. Again, speci-
fically, it is by the merest and sheerest accommodation that you get, in either
case, the threes to walk on their feet. For how preposterous to designate
as 'LUSTS' the things which such as advocate this arrangement place under
the 'lust of the flesh,' viz., Eve's seeing" the fruit to be good for food,
and Jesus' 'hunger,' addressed by the Temptation to turn 'stones' into-
C
(66
196 The Temptation of Christ.
kingdoms of the habitable earth, within an instant of
time. And the Devil said to Him, To Thee I will de-
liver the whole of this authority and the splendour of
these, because to me it is given up, and to whom I
may choose, I give it to him. Thou, therefore, if Thou
wilt do homage before me, all shall be of Thee.' ¹
1
As in the case of the two previous Temptations,
there are certain preliminaries, a brief examination of
which may serve to clear the way to our understand-
ing of the Third Temptation itself.
C
Ver. 8. Again the Devil takes Him with him on
to a mountain, very elevated, and shows to Him the
whole of the kingdoms of the earth and the splendour
of them.'
This opening narrative of the matter of fact-by
which we are reminded that 'facts properly told,
C
<
·
not delicacies, not luxuries, but plain loaves.' The desire of good food,
as of 'bread' when an-hungered, is no 'lust.' True, in the case of Eve it
was forbidden' fruit and in the case of Christ it was 'bread' to be gotten
by a self-relieving and self-exalting miracle; but that does not touch the
EπOvμía so-called. Once more, the 'fruit' good for food' which Eve
saw is not separable from the second lust, the 'lust of the eyes,' any
more than is the Saviour's seeing of the loaf-like stones and seeing 'all
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.' Further, 'the pride
of life' no more means 'desire to be wise,' or the Devil's snare put before
Christ, to pay homage to him for all the kingdoms of the earth,' than does
it mean black and white. In fact, Christ's First Temptation was not a
temptation to gratify the flesh, but through the 'flesh '[not the πiðvµía]
to command when He should serve. The Second Temptation [Luke's
arrangement being conceded to the above classifiers] was not a temptation to
gratify the 'lust of the eyes,' or the eyes at all, but bloodlessly to possess the
world; and the third was not to 'pride of life,' but to distrust of God.
Monod is exceedingly trifling, however dexterous here. Cf. p. 13 et seq.
Aside from the preceding objections I can cordially recommend a vigorous
sermon which follows very much the arrangement, by Rev. W. M. Taylor,
M.A., Liverpool, in his Life Truths. (Tempted like as we are,' pp. 147-
162.)
1 See Note (a) in loco,
The Temptation of Christ.
197
(
make mean all romances,' ¹—starts questions such as
these: What kind of taking up' was this? Why to
' a mountain, very elevated,' or to a mountain at all?
Was this a natural or a preternatural showing? and,
What is meant by all the kingdoms of the world?
I must reserve adequate discussion of these points
for my announced larger book; but having purposely
relegated the earlier use of the verb 'take' (ver. 5)
and other cognate matters to the present portion of
my Exposition, I would make a few observations in
answer to these several questions in their order.
44. Again the Devil takes Him with him.
What kind of taking' was this?
¿
Verbally, this corresponds with a like act done by
the Lord Himself. Thus in Matt. xvii. 1, we read :
'And after six days Jesus taketh [as before, 'takes']
Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought
them up into a high mountain apart.' The verb is
in both narratives the same (παραλαμβάνει).
It is plain, that in so far as the word is concerned,
this 'taking up' of the Lord might have been simply
an ordinary accompanying of the Tempter, in re-
sponse to his request, and as part of the Tempta-
tion. But no one needs to be told that etymological
meanings must be interpreted by the thing described."
1 Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, p. 149.
2 'Take;' Bagot (as before) arguing against the preternatural character
of the up-taking of the Lord, adduces above 'taking of the disciples,
and says, 'The word which is rendered "taketh," πapaλaußável, is the
παραλαμβάνει,
198
The Temptation of Christ.
Now, as looking at the thing, if we attend to the
use of the present verb in its exact present form, we
shall find that underlying the 'taking,' there is in-
variably a more or less measure of control, which
measure is determinable only from the context.
Thus in the parallel account of the Lord's above
'taking' of the three disciples apart, there is the sup-
plementary word 'leadeth them' (Mark. ix. 2), which
at once interprets the measure and mode. Again, in
Matt. ii. 21, we read, 'And he [Joseph] arose and
took ['takes'] the young child and his mother, and
came into the land of Egypt.' Here once more the
control exercised, viz. that of a husband over a wife,
and of a mother over a child, interprets to us the
measure and mode.
Applying this principle to, at once, the up-taking
to the pinnacle' of the Temple and to 'the exceed-
ing high mountain,' I think it is unquestionable that
there was control on the part of the Tempter, while
the measure of it must be fixed by the evident 'sur-
render' of the Lord in order to be tempted
(
same as that which occurs in the first verse of the seventeenth chapter of
St. Matthew's Gospel, where we read that “Jesus taketh Peter, and James,
and John, and went up into a mountain," where it simply denotes that Jesus
intimated to those three disciples His desire that they should accompany
Him to the scene of His Transfiguration, and that they readily complied with
the expression of His will on the occasion. And this word has no stronger
signification in the account before us.' All this is laborious trifling ; and see
how stupid it is! On the same principle I might argue, that because it is
said of our blessed Lord by the same verb (ȧπоðνýokw) that ' He died' as it
is said of the beggar, he died,' ergo the death of Christ was of the same
kind and has no stronger signification' in, for example among many
others, Rom. viii. 34: 'Who is he who condemneth? It is Christ that died,'
than in Luke xvi. 22, And it came to pass that the beggar died. The
<
C
The Temptation of Christ.
199
6
Further Thus recognising a preternatural power
throughout the Temptation, I must, in harmony there-
with, refuse to give so shallow a meaning as the mere
etymological one to rapà (= 'by his side'). Contrari-
wise, I must regard it as all but certain, that the Tempter
and the Lord ascended to and descended from
the 'pinnacle of the Temple,' and ascended to the
exceeding high mountain' preternaturally. It strikes
the most cursory reader that so deep a word as 'take'
never would have been employed unless control were
intended to be expressed, while the broad fact under-
lies the whole narrative that the Lord was surren-
dered' to His Adversary as really as Job was, ' in
order to be tempted. In the Classics the verb here is
often employed in the sense of 'seizing,' 'grasping,'
e.g. of an eagle carrying off its prey.¹
:
(
¶ 45. To a mountain very elevated. Why to a moun-
tain, very elevated, or to a mountain at all?
L
To this question very various, and many very in-
genious answers have been returned. But while we
have the fact again and again brought before us that
context, the thing as distinguished from the mere word, shows even a Sab-
bath-school child the difference to be wide as heaven and earth. But your
editors and exegetes of the Greek Testament for theological students and
ministers' are so perpetually pottering over mere verbal niceties that they
miss the truth underlying. A little common sense were worth a cart-load of
so-called 'scholarship' to these un-theological theologians of the Church of
England and otherwhere. I may add, that the horror of Bagot at the idea
of the Saviour being surrendered to the Tempter, betrays only a denser
ignorance still of text and context than in above blundering (cf. pp. 108,
109). I feel bound to add, that notwithstanding perpetual exegetical mis-
takes and shallownesses, Bagot's Commentary on Matthew has a good deal
in it that is fitted to be useful.
1 Pindar, N. 3. 141.
200
The Temptation of Christ.
!
some of the most memorable events in the history of the
Divine intercourse with man took place on mountains,
no reasons are assigned there for. It would seem,
therefore, impossible to determine what it was that
influenced the Tempter in his selection of a mountain-
top for his closing temptation. Nevertheless, the
circumstance that God had thus used Nebo as the
platform whence His servant Moses was shown' that
Land of Promise from which he had shut himself,
warrants perhaps the old Divines in their supposition,
that herein as in all things, Satan 'imitated the works
of the true God,' that thereby, as Gumbleden puts it,
The might persuade men to admire and adore him for
that God, who, in this case, had power to do as much
to Jesus as God Himself had done even to Moses.'1
¿
For my part, without pronouncing dogmatically, I
rather suspect that the Tempter thus 'took' the Lord
to one of the higher regions of his own dominions,
because he needed such a basis for that 'showing' with
which he would make a last effort to overcome the
Lord. As I shall state immediately, I deem the
'showing' as well as the 'taking' to have been pre-
ternatural, and one can understand how to its ac-
complishment a lofty mountain might be requisite.
In Divine miracles a basis of what is natural is usually
found, and so probably in Satanic.
With regard to where this mountain was, it were
very idle to inquire, for we are not told. Various
'mountains' have been named, and one, mediæval
1 As before, P. 49.
The Temptation of Christ.
201
tradition has specifically consecrated, viz. Quarantania.
But I do not see how, in absence of Scripture testi-
mony, it can be fixed. This much seems certain, that
wherever the mountain was, it must have been out-
side of Galilee, for we find that immediately after the
Temptation Jesus 'returned into Galilee' (Luke iv. 13),
which indicates He was not there at the end of the
Temptation. Practically, it is of no great moment
where the mountain was. But the distances of the
(probable) wilderness from Jerusalem, and of Jeru-
salem from any 'exceeding high mountain' beyond
Galilee, furnish surely, incidental evidence that the
'taking up' and the going and coming throughout,
were not ordinary walking or journeying, but preter-
natural movements.¹
T 46. And shows to Him the whole of the kingdoms
of the earth. Was this a natural or was it
a preternatural showing?
The poets from Milton to James D. Burns have
given many imaginings' of how the 'vision'—for
vision it is pronounced by them to have been-was
made to 'pass before' the eyes of the Saviour.
must content myself with the vivid fancy' of the
'Vision of the Mount:
I
'He raised his hand, and through the air
A wildering vapour breathed,
And fast arose a vision fair
By false enchantment wreathed.
1 Mountains. To all who would have their own inarticulate thrills up
among the great mountains expressed, I name Ruskin's splendid chapter on
'mountain glory' in Modern Painters, vol. iv. Stanley is also vivid, and
rath as dew.
202
The Temptation of Christ.
Rich masques, and radiant phantoms, blent
Within a luminous element,
A shifting splendour cast,
Till, from its heaped and mingling spoils,
Unwinding all its glittering coils,
Slow moved the pageant past.'
The 'slow-moved' of this theory of the 'showing'
does not very well correspond with the 'in a moment
of time' of the description in Luke (iv. 3).
It is scarcely necessary to observe that the likelihood
or unlikelihood of such poetic representations depends
very much upon the meaning of the verb rendered
'shows.' Let us therefore first of all, look at it, as
word and thing. As a word it is found in the Bible,
both in the Old Testament (LXX. version) and New
Testament, in these senses :-
1
(1.) To point out, present to the sight.
(Matt. viii. 4, and elsewhere.)
(2.) To exhibit, to cause to be seen.
•
(John ii. 18, and x. 32.)
(3.) To demonstrate, to prove.
(4.) Met. To teach, declare, announce, make
(James ii. 18, and iii. 13.)
known. (Matt. xvi. 21; John v. 20; Acts x. 28.)
Thus as 'point out,' or 'present to the sight,' or
'exhibit,' or cause to be seen'-which are the only
meanings possible to the word here-might express
simply the every-day and natural act of 'showing,'
we are thrown back upon the thing that is described.
And I apprehend that the peculiarly striking supple-
ment of Luke' in a moment of time' designedly stamps.
the showing with a preternatural character.
1 James D. Burns, as before, p. 36.
The Temptation of Christ.
203
Then again, as we find the same verb employed by
John in describing the 'visions' of the Apocalypse,
we are not unwarranted, I apprehend, in setting down
the 'showing' as similarly in 'vision.' It is to be
kept in mind, that such 'visions' flashed before the
lone prophet of Patmos in the Spirit,' or while he
was in just such a condition as the Lord was; for
it must never be forgotten that Jesus was 'full of
the Holy Ghost' Himself, as well as 'led up' of
The Spirit.
It is interesting to read the account by John
(Rev. iv. 1): 'I looked, and, behold, a door was
opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard
was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which
said, Come up hither, and I will show (deíĝw, same
verb) the things which must be hereafter. And
immediately I was in the Spirit; and, behold, a
throne. . . .' ¹
C
We know not how the being 'in the Spirit' purged
the mortal eye so as it could, unblenched, be shown'
such 'visions.' None of all the prophets ever seems
to have attempted to communicate the modus.
But
if man might thus preternaturally see the else in-
visible, much more might the Lord. And we know
so little of the working of spiritual power that it
were absurd to set limits to the Tempter, who be-
1 With reference to edeiğer Webster and Wilkinson, in loco (Luke iv. 5),
very properly render it 'pointed out.' Dean Alford on Matthew iv. 8 mis-
takes when he makes this = 'points out the direction of,” and then thrashes
his own man of straw.
204
The Temptation of Christ.
yond all gainsaying is of the loftiest and most potent
of the 'spirits.'
I would remark also that the up-going to an ex-
ceeding high mountain' has no significance unless a
preternatural' showing' be understood.
¶ 47. Shows to Him ALL the kingdoms of the earth?'
What is meant by ALL the kingdoms of
the earth?'
Some limit the expression by the undoubted fact
that the Roman Empire-which gathered into itself,
as it proudly boasted, all other kingdoms-was de-
signated 'the world.' We have a recognition of this
in Luke ii. 1 :
'It
came to pass in those days, that
there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that
all the world (πâσav тηv oiкоvpévny) should be taxed.'
That the term here rendered 'world' (oikovµévn)
is as comprehensive as that now before us (ẞavideía)
will appear when I adduce that broadest of all uses
of it in Matt. xxiv. 14: And this gospel of the
kingdom (rs Baoiλeías) shall be preached in all the
world (ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ) for a witness unto all
nations.'
My objection to the limitation is twofold: (1.) That
in the use of the phrase 'all the world' in Luke ii. 1,
the 'taxation' and entire context determine the mean-
ing to be the Roman empire, whereas there is no such
limiting or explaining context here. (2.) That it in
no respect lessens the difficulty, if difficulty there be;
The Temptation of Christ.
205
(
for unless you admit a preternatural or miraculous
'showing'-and those who contend for the limitation.
of 'world,' contend equally for a merely natural 'show-
ing-it was as impossible for the Tempter to 'show'
Christ' all the kingdoms of the' Roman empire, even
Rome itself, from any probable mountain-top, as to show
'all the kingdoms' of 'the world' in its wider sense.
While, therefore, I give full weight to all that has
been said for the Roman Empire in its numerous
kingdoms, as interpretative of all the kingdoms of
the world,' I do not see that we may thus limit the
expression. What then? I must suspend my judg-
ment as to my ultimate decision; but meantime I
think that if we accept the threefold division of the
world represented in the threefold inscription on the
Cross-the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew-we have a
key to what was shown. The Latin included all
'the kingdoms' under the sway of the Cæsars; and a
part might represent the whole. The Greek stretched
to 'furthest Ind,' including all the East with all its
fallen Capitals, and that empire could be 'pointed
out' from Palestine. The Hebrew had within it the
grand bribe of the people' whom Jehovah claimed
as His own, and there they were. I must understand
'all the kingdoms' to have included at least these.
I cannot tell how they were shown.' But it is to
turn plain definite words into babblement to so ex-
plain them as to explain them away; all the more
so, as I remarked, that all such modifications, apart
206
The Temptation of Christ.
from preternatural showing,' in nowise meet the
objections that suggest themselves to sense, but which
faith overleaps.1
Keep this before you, my brethren, that Jesus was
'led' of the Spirit 'in order to be tempted'—that
the Lord was 'surrendered' to the Evil One, and I
apprehend you will find foothold.
It is a strange
thing, to very awfulness, to find The Spirit co-operat-
ing, so to speak, with the Tempter; but there it is.
I accept it; and in accepting it I in a measure under-
stand how such faculty of 'showing' was permitted
to the Tempter. That is all I can say at present.
The good Lord grant us all in this and other 'deep
things' to act out the holy principle of St. Anselm's
well-known apophthegm: Neque intelligere quæro,
ut credam: sed credo, ut intelligam;' and of Justin
Martyr, 'This word us how? or in what manner?
is a manifest argument of incredulity.'
(
C
I proceed now in our Exposition, and in so doing
I must ask you specially to keep in mind once more
the opening statement of the whole marvellous narra-
1 I may note in this place, that in the Peshito or Syriac translation of the
New Testament,-one of the most venerable of existing versions,-Luke iv.
5, renders Tĥs olkovµérns by
the Land; but if by 'the Land,'
τῆς οἰκουμένης ;=
the Holy Land was intended, the phrase, 'all the kingdoms' becomes pre-
posterous; and such a petty possession no snare at all. It is difficult to
understand where 'the Land' was got by the translators. I have failed to
trace a reading justifying it. Even Tys yns would hardly have done so;
but even it I can't discover.
2 That is, 'I seek not to understand that I may believe, but I believe that
may understand.'
The Temptation of Christ.
207
tive that Jesus was 'led up of the Spirit in order to be
tempted.' Realize that, and then you will see and feel
how this third temptation carried within it elements
of as real snare and temptation as either of the other
two; and that the Tempter, though 'the Liar' by bad
pre-eminence, did not utterly lie now and here, when
he put the colossal bribe of all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them,' before the Lord. For
it cannot be too firmly held, as I took pains to show
you earlier, that precisely as in the case of holy Job,
the Son of God was DELIVERED OVER to the assaults
of the Adversary, with AUTHORITY to 'prove' Him
BY THESE THREE TEMPTATIONS. Consequently that
permission was given him to make this SPECIFIC
OFFER of all the kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them.'¹
I shall have more to say on this point in the sequel;
but now I ask you not to 'let slip' the fact reite-
rated, that you may once more understand that this
temptation was a reality, and no monstrous and
impossible thing.
Turn, then, to the Third Temptation itself-
Ver. 8, 9. 'Again the Devil takes Him with him
on to a mountain, very elevated, and shows to Him
the whole of the kingdoms of the earth and the splen-
dour of them, and says to Him, "These-all-to
Thee-will I deliver, if bowing down, Thou mayest
do homage to me.
}}}
1 See ¶ 12.
208
The Temptation of Christ.
48. The Third Temptation falls in with the design of
Messiah in coming to the world.
Here recall the prior Temptations. The second,
we found, sprang out of the first; and I think that the
third, in a measure, sprang out of the second. Thus
far the Tempter has addressed himself to the Lord as
a MAN ‘an-hungered, by speaking to Him of 'bread,'
and as a DEVOUT MAN, putting His trust in the Bible,
by speaking to Him of a Bible promise. He has failed
by either to turn Him aside from the path of OBE-
DIENCE and SERVICE prescribed to Him. But might
there not be a hope of success through a temptation
that should fall in with and be in harmony with the
end of all His obedience? The Lord Jesus had come
into the world to be a King. The angel-messengers
to His Virgin-mother had promised that He should
(
reign,' and that of 'His kingdom' there should be
'no end.' The wise men from the far East had fol-
lowed His 'sign' to Jerusalem, and asking, 'Where is
He that is born King of the Jews?' had bowed
before the manger-cradle of Bethlehem. Prophets
from age to age had proclaimed the magnificence, the
extent, the duration of His empire. All nations were
to fall down before Him; all kings were to do Him
service. The deep yearnings of captive and gyved
Israel and Judah had for long centuries been for THE
KING, even the Messiah. Of late the Baptist had
come forth from the Wilderness of Judea, and made
The Temptation of Christ.
209
the land vocal with the cry, The Kingdom of God is
at hand.' 'The people' were looking for a splendid
monarchy. Far other thoughts than of One coming
in humiliation and meanness and with ignominious
blood-shedding' throbbed in their hearts, flushed
their cheeks, kindled their eyes, bulged their veined
foreheads, clenched their hands. They looked for a
King whose sceptre should be a Sword, whose Crown
should flash with the spoils of every regalia, whose
blood-red Banner should flame with the legends of a
thousand victories. They looked for blood-shed-
ding' indeed, but it was to be of their oppressors.
C
What if he,—the Tempter,-could get the Lord,
in fulfilling His mission on earth, to do so by a less
troubled and disastrous way' toward 'The King-
dom' than He appeared to be following! That
would receive exultant welcome from the nation
specially interested. High-priest! Priest! Scribe!
Pharisee! Sadducee! all were looking, not for a
lowly and sorrowing and suffering,' but for a lofty
and avenging monarch. Was there no chance of
'the Nazarene' agreeing thereto? Was it altogether
impossible that the end being gained, He might yield
in degree, the means? He will try; he will set before
Him AT ONCE' all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them.' Peradventure, He may accept? And
so there ensued the Third stupendous Temptation:
To Thee, I will deliver the whole of this authority
and the splendour of these, because to me it is given
O
210
The Temptation of Christ.
up, and to whom I may choose I give it to him.
Thou, therefore, if Thou wilt do homage before me,
all shall be of Thee' (Luke iv. 6, 7).
I may remark, in passing, that this great offer was
characteristic of the Tempter. How proudly Satan
answers God in Job! 'From going to and fro in
the earth, and from walking up and down in it,' just
as if the 'round earth' were his estate or farm or
garden.
T 49. Wherein lay the Temptation?
I want you, my friends, to 'take heed,' even
' earnest heed,' while I try to answer this wide-reach-
ing, deep-searching question. There must be no
escaping from difficulties, real or imagined, by saying
the Tempter LIED. There must be no elimination of
the snare in the Temptation. The Tempter lied no
doubt, but there was sufficient truth and sufficient
faculty of up-giving, to make his offer a reality. You
dilute and empty the transaction altogether if you
resort to subterfuges of that sort. The honest course
is to accept the Temptation as it is set forth, viz., as
of truth a TEMPTATION, and not a mere spectre of
temptation.
،
The core of this temptation, I apprehend, lies
here the Lord Jesus was destined, as we have seen,
and as the Tempter knew well, to be king of all the
kingdoms of the world, but ere ever that could come
to pass, He must suffer and die. Between Him and
The Temptation of Christ.
211
His kingdom lay sorrow and shame, conflict and
agony, condemnation and death, and after death a
long, slow-long, course of years of waiting. The
Tempter addressed himself to all that, to Christ as
'surrendered' to undergo all that; and he says, 'I'LL
SAVE YOU FROM IT.' 'There need be no betrayal—
there need be no forsaking-there need be no denial-
there need be no mockery-there need be no smiting
or spitting there need be no lash-there need be no
fainting and falling in the public streets-there need
be no going up the mount of shame-there need be
no cross-there need be no 'blood-shedding'-there
need be no darkening down of the skies-there need
be no bursting and breaking of the billows of the sea
of wrath over Thy breaking heart. Without these,
—any of them, the least and lightest-THERE NOW ARE
ALL THE KINGDOMS! Without these, there are all the
crowns! Without these, there is every monarch your
vassal! Without these, there is your kingdom ex-
tending from 'the river to the uttermost ends of the
earth.' Behold! They are all mine. There's not
one of earth's kings but serves me. 'Pay but the
homage of a bended knee to me' therefore, and all
shall be Thine, and Thine now, instantly,-no many-
centuried waiting. A bloodless, atonement-less setting.
up of the kingdom-there lay the temptation of the
Evil One.
I pass to a second question-
212
The Temptation of Christ.
¶ 50. What was there in Christ to give the Tempter a
hope of prevailing by this temptation ?
Here we must approach the inquiry from the side
of the Incarnation. My friends, the Lord Jesus was
as verily a Man as any of us, and whatever, not of sin,
is in man, could be appealed to in Him. Observe, there-
fore, that what takes the mournful and soiled name
of lust of ambition in fallen man, was present in
Him as that noblest of human aspirations, love of
power for good. To be a king of men, whether by
occupying a throne or in the grander realm of thought,
is an ambition of every mind of wide capacity. It is
a splendid vantage and advantage to be at the head
of some great nation, not simply by birth but in right
of personal fitness. Consequently the great prize of
sceptre and crown has often overcome the virtue of
men.
The Tempter sought to find this 'lust' of power in
Jesus. But it was not there as a 'lust.' 'He found
nothing.' Love of power was there, but subordinated
to the will of Him whom He came to obey.'
(
But again, the Tempter knew that the Lord could have
executed what he put before Him; knew there must be the
consciousness of full power to reign' over all the king-
doms of the world! Yes! He could have accepted the
awful authority-grasped the irresponsible power-
placed around His brow the diadem of sovereign Rome
in all its empires-worn the crowns, as one wears his
The Temptation of Christ.
213
hair, that had clasped the foreheads of a Sesostris and
a Cyrus, an Alexander and the Cæsars-feeling no
burden, knowing no toil, and receiving no accession
of honour. For what had been earth's proudest
governments, earth's grandest thrones, earth's vastest
responsibilities, earth's mightiest guerdons, to Him
whose lavish hand had strewn worlds along the
sapphire sea of the sky as only a little handful of gold
dust from His inexhaustible treasury? Whose 'breath'
upheld, even then, the infinitude of existence, and
gave limit and guidance to the march of all events,
and Who could unchallengeably say, 'By Me kings
reign' (Prov. viii. 15).
But it was not 'His hour,' nor was it thus that He
would place upon His head His 'many crowns.' His
very consciousness of power gave Him power to—
wait. Nevertheless, as working out the problem of
the 'tempting' elements of this Third Temptation,
I observe, such consciousness of power gave leverage-
rest for the Tempter.¹
Once more, it is to be observed that the Tempter,
in this Third Temptation, used the strategy of the pre-
vious two. He had exacerbated the 'hunger' of
the Lord by speaking to Him of 'bread,' and not
only so, but had taken up and shown Him one of the
1 Well says Bishop Hacket: 'The Devil offered our Saviour so much wealth
that unless he had promised to give Him all the honour of the world it could
not have been spent; and again he offered Him so much honour that unless
he had promised Him all the wealth in the world it could not have been
maintained' (p. 349 as before).
214 The Temptation of Christ.
loaf-like stones. Again, he had led the Saviour to
the Temple, and from its 'wing' shown Him the ex-
pectant multitude. He repeats this craft now. He
'shows' all the kingdoms of the earth and the splen-
dour of them.
I recognise in the manner of this temptation another
avenue of approach to the human soul of Jesus. For
equally with us His human mind lay open to influ-
ences from the outer world.
I could imagine Him in His youth in Nazareth on
one of the heights above the village, with snowy
Hermon flashing in the eastern light, and the Medi-
terranean, like a sea of glass mingled with fire,'
stretching away westward from Carmel,-gazing out
over Immanuel's glorious land, and a whole tide of
influences flowing in upon the young gazer through
the eye.
In like manner now I can understand how
the spectacle, as a spectacle, of all the kingdoms of
the world' carried a strange fascination with it to His
lordly soul.
6
There is yet a third question-
¶ 51. What was there in the Temptation to make
the Lord's Overcoming a thing of suffering?
My answer must again be, He was a man ; and we
must remember that His absolute sinlessness deep-
ened, not shallowed, the suffering by Sin 'touching'
Him.¹ For the very fact that He was possessed of
1 It is Paul's profound word. Cf. Hebrews iv. 15.
The Temptation of Christ.
215
all the finest sensibilities of our nature, unblunted by
sin, may assure us that shame and suffering could not
be other than grievous to Him. Sirs! The 'cries'
of the Messianic Psalms, and that Gethsemane prayer,
'Father! if it be possible let this cup pass from me,'
tell how the human soul of Christ, by the very broad-
ness of it, reeled to its centre under the bare prospect
of the load that was to crush it.
It is plain that the Tempter calculated upon
this natural-sinlessly natural, and instinctive shrink-
ing from pain and shame and curse. And I cannot
maintain that his calculation either in this or in the
other elements of the Temptation, was improbable,
much less monstrous.
T52. This very Temptation renewed through Peter
and at the Crucifixion.
6
Let me remind you at this point, that just such a
bloodless, un-atoning setting up of the kingdom again
met the Lord. You remember how as the deep, vast
shadows of coming events were being flung around
Him, Peter on hearing his Lord tell that He must go
unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders,
and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised again the third day' (Matt. xvi. 22), took Him
and began mysterious words!-to 'rebuke' Him,
saying, 'Pity Thyself, Lord; THIS shall not be unto
Thee.'
216
The Temptation of Christ.
Can we wonder, therefore, that the same train of
thought should have passed through the mind of the
Tempter, and passing through it, is it wonderful
that he should have hoped to dissuade the Lord from
advancing along such a thunder-shadowed path as
was opening in awful perspective before Him? Or,
are we to see in the proposal of the impulsive Peter
the old foiled temptation projected into him by the
Tempter?
6
Again, I earlier remarked that the doubt-insinuat-
ing 'If Son Thou be of the God' in the very same
wording literally, was one of the cries that met the
dying Saviour upon the Cross. I have now to ask
you to observe that it took the same basis. For this
is the record they reviled Him,' saying, 'If Son
Thou be of the God, COME DOWN FROM THE CROSS ;'
and again, 'Let Him now cOME DOWN FROM THE
CROSS and we will believe Him' (Matt. xxvii. 40, 42).
Ah! then as now, men would have 'the Cross' re-
moved, the blood-shedding' abandoned; would
have the kingdom 'set up' without Atonement !
I pass on next, in order to give unity to our Ex-
position, to-
6
¶ 53. The Answer of the Lord to the Third Temp-
tation.
Ver. 10. Then Jesus says to him, Go-Satan : for
it is written, To Jehovah the God of thee, thou shalt
do homage; and to Him alone render worship.'
The Temptation of Christ.
217
You observe that as before, the Lord's answer
meets the snare that under-lay not alone this, but
the whole, of the Temptation. It was the OBEDIENCE
of the Lord, which the Tempter in each assault struck
at, but emphatically in the present. Accordingly, what
His Father had given Him to do is kept before Him.
That, and nothing less, that, and nothing more,-
that, and nothing else He must do. And 'the great
work' could not be done without Blood'-without
the Cross. Not thus therefore by outward bestowment
-by transferred allegiance-not by ignoring guilt and
curse upon the world-not un-atoningly, was
'the
kingdom' to be won back.' These kingdoms' of
the world had fallen under the dread jurisdiction of
the Prince of Darkness; had been 'delivered' up to
him by the Divinely ordained King of the earth,—
Man; but he must be cast out,' and with 'bruised
head.' The world was a guilty, condemned, a perish-
ing, a lost world—and it must be saved. The tight-
ened mortal-grip of the Law and its Penalty must
be loosened. The great shadows of Wrath must be
rolled away. The dread curse must be lifted off.
And all that could be accomplished only by 'obe-
dience;' only by obedience unto death, even the
death of the Cross;' only by 'suffering;' only by
ATONEMENT. Then, but not till then-thus, but only
thus, might all the kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them' be the possession-the rightful and
'purchased' possession of the Son of God. There-
C
218 The Temptation of Christ.
fore, again, and with deepened emphasis, was the
Temptation spurned. It is prescribed'—more that,
than even 'It is written'-asserted again that He was
there to obey, not command; that He was there to
'suffer,' not 'to seek His own glory' (John viii. 50);
that even every step of His 'way' He should take,
and every element of His 'Work' discharge, and
wait the appointed 'hour' of Triumph.
'To Thee I will give' was the temptation of the
Evil One. But another had spoken, 'Ask of Me and
I will give.' The Lord rested upon this and spurned
that, just as when in the Second Temptation the
Tempter would show Him a 'path,' in which if He
walked there should be 'safety' and 'glory,' whereas
Jehovah had put into the heart of David for David's
Lord, the grand Messianic words: Thou wilt show
Me the path of life' (Ps. xvi. 11),-He answered
Nay. That 'Thou' silenced the Devil's 'I''will
show.' Even so now the Lord was to reign not
Diaboli gratiâ rex or by grace of the Devil, but
gratia Dei by the will of God, and in spite of the
Devil.
T
¶ 54. The Answer of the Lord taken from Deutero-
nomy vi. 13. Verbal changes.
The answer of the Lord to the Third Temptation
gathers up into a pregnant phrase, many words of
Holy Scripture in which the principle is asserted;
but in all probability it was taken from the same
The Temptation of Christ.
219
book of Deuteronomy. We have now to consider it
as found therein.
Here allow me to remind you of previous obser-
vations on verbal changes in the citations of the
Old and the New Testaments. I would add two
confirmatory extracts from Gumbleden and Colfe.
'Our Saviour,' says the former, by supplying the
seeming want of one word with another, as
"Him
shalt thou serve," with "Him only shalt thou serve,'
rightly concludeth farther that that, and none but
that, was the true meaning of Moses; although in
that place, Deuteronomy vi. 13, it was not expressly
written by the pen of Moses. Neither is this supple-
mentary word of our Saviour, if I may so call it, any
real addition at all to the text of Moses; no, but
rather a true exposition it is of that text, which the
Greek version, or if you will, animadversion, after-
wards took special notice of, whence our Saviour
Himself cites this, and approveth it as the genuine
sense of Moses, as indeed it was. For He that com-
mands, ver. 13, "Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God,"
and immediately, ver. 14, forbids "Ye shall not go
after other gods, of the gods of the people round
about you," what doth he but command in sense
(and that is Scripture which is the true sense of the
Scripture), "Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God
only;" which is fully expressed in the like case
(1 Sam. vii. 3): "If you do return unto the Lord
with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods,
52
220 The Temptation of Christ.
and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your
hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only."' Simi-
larly Colfe: Christ addeth not anything unto these
words of Moses, . . . only He more plainly expound-
eth the words of Moses.'2
(
¶ 55. Dr. Thomas Manton and Dr. Thomas Taylor
upon the Answer of the Lord, Worship'
and serve.'
(
Looking now at the answer of the Lord itself, I
can say nothing half so good as Dr. Manton and Dr.
Thomas Taylor furnish upon the worship' and
'serve' of it, which are its two main things.
It is written [or said], To Jehovah, the God of
thee, thou shalt do homage; and to Him alone
render worship;' or, as in our English version, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve.'
C
C
Says the former, In this place, quoted by
our Saviour, there is employed a distinction of in-
ward and outward worship. "Fear" is for inward
worship, "serve" is for outward worship, and the
profession of the same. "Fear" in Moses is ex-
pounded "worship" by Christ. So Matthew xv. 9,
compared with Isaiah xxix. 13: "In vain do they
1 As before, p. 64.
2 As before, p. 135. Moreover, Josephus (lib. 3. c. 5. § 5), referring to
this commandment says, ‘God is One, καὶ δεῖ τούτον σέβεσθαι μόνον,
and therefore He only is to be worshipped."
The Temptation of Christ.
221
worship me, teaching for doctrines the command-
ments of men ;" but in the prophet it is, "Their fear
towards me is taught by the precepts of men." He
that worshippeth, feareth and reverenceth what he
worshippeth, or else all his worship is but a compli-
ment and empty formality. So that the fear of God
is that reverence and estimation that we have of
God; the "serving" of God is the necessary effect
and fruit of it, for service is an open testimony of
our reverence and worship. In this place you have
worship and service, both which are due to God.
But that you may perceive the force of our Saviour's
argument, and also of this precept, I shall a little
dilate on the word "service" what the Scripture in-
tendeth thereby. Satan saith, "Bow down and
worship me;" Christ saith, "Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."
Under "service," prayer and thanksgiving are com-
prehended, Isaiah xliv. 17: “And the residue thereof
he maketh a god, even his graven image: and he
falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth
unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god."
This is one of the external acts whereby the idolater
showeth the esteem of his heart. So Jeremiah ii. 27:
"Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a
stone, Thou hast brought me forth;" so
short, for it is endless to reckon up all which the
Scripture comprehendeth under "service," and ges-
tures of reverence. Exodus xx. 5: "Thou shalt not
In
222
The Temptation of Christ.
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." Bowing
the knee, 1 Kings xix. 18: "I have left me seven
thousand in Israel, which have not bowed the knee to
Baal." So that you see all gestures of reverence are
forbidden as terminated in idols. Thus strict and
jealous is God in His Law, that we might not bow
down and worship the Devil, or anything that is set
up by him.'1
Dr. Thomas Taylor similarly, but in his own origi-
nal way, observes: 'God must not only be wor-
shipped, but also served. The distinction is easily
observed. For a man may in heart and gesture.
honour another to whom he owes but little service.
And this word in the Hebrew is taken from servants,
who, besides inward reverence and outward worship,
owe to their masters their strength, labour, and ser-
vice, yea frank and cheerful obedience. And sup-
pose any man have a servant who will be very com-
plimental, and give his master cap and knee and very
good words, yet when his master commands him
anything, he will not do it, here is honour but no
service; and denying service, he plainly shows that
his honour is but dissembled and hypocritical. So
as this service to God, as to earthly masters, stands
(1.) In "fear” and reverent inward affection; (2.) In
dutiful and ready obedience in all holy and civil
[moral] actions. For-
1 As before, pp. 160-163.
The Temptation of Christ.
223
1. These two, God in the Scriptures hath everywhere
joined together; and therefore no man may separate
them: (Deut. v. 29), "Oh that there were in them
such an heart to 'fear' Me, and to keep My com-
mandments!" (Josh. xxiv. 14, 15), "Now, therefore,
fear the Lord and serve Him in uprightness, else
choose you: for I and my house will serve the Lord :'
(Ecc. xii. 13), "Let us hear the end of all, Fear God
and keep His commandments," which is all one with
"fear God and serve Him."
2. This service is a fruit of fear, and a true testi-
mony of it: for fear of God is expressed in service ;
and if a man would make true trial of his fear he may
do it by his service. It is a note and branch also of
our love unto God: all which the holy prophet Moses
declareth (Deut. x. 12) when he expresseth that
"walking in all God's ways" is a consequent of fear
and the service of the Lord a fruit of love: "And
now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of
thee, but to fear the Lord thy God and to walk in
His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord
thy God."'1
There are other equally pat and admirable words
in Manton and Taylor, and elsewhere; but these
must suffice.
I would, by the way, send you all, as you have
opportunity, to the books of the different worthies
which I from time to time quote. Never will you
1 As before, pp. 229, 230.
224
The Temptation of Christ.
turn to them without returning as from a garden of
nuts,' yea, as from a 'bed of spices.'
56. Completeness of the Answer of the Lord.
:
It needeth now only a few words to indicate the
elements of answer (not reply merely an echo re-
plies, but does not answer) in the blessed common-
place of the Lord's citation. 'He that runneth may
read' its thoroughness as an answer to the snare of
the Tempter. To the proud boast of all being deli-
vered to him, there is the command, 'Go, Satan.'
He was thus made to know that there was One, not
enrolled among the kings of the earth,' who could
command him, spite of his exultant sovereignty.
Again Underlying the colossal bribe was the snare
of turning the Lord from His OBEDIENCE to Jehovah
to obedience to him. 'Him ONLY' met that. There
was, once more, the craft of the Evil One in making
much of the things he offered and little of his own
condition: If Thou wilt pay homage to me:' just
that very little thing, bow the knee before me, and
'ALL shall be of Thee.'
t
How grandly was each met! There was rejec-
tion in the 'Go, Satan;' and then, while expressively
silent on the vaunted possession, the 'stooping' of
the knee is given its right name of 'worship and
service.' (a a) (bb)
The Temptation of Christ.
225
answer.
Such was the Third Temptation and the Lord's
And now I must return upon certain spe-
cialties of wording and detail that I designedly over-
passed while bringing out the broader aspects; and
in combination therewith I would put before you some
of those vital truths that naturally suggest themselves
for practical use from what has come before us in this
closing temptation.
I observe-
¶ 57. A very remarkable omission in the Third
Temptation.
It surely is very noticeable that whereas in the First
and Second Temptations the Evil One came with an
'If Son Thou be of the God,' there is no 'if' of this
sort in the third. I showed you that the 'if' of the
other temptations sprang out of no doubt on the
Tempter's part,-that his wish was to insinuate doubt
into the mind of Christ, not to express his own. But
even this strategy he is compelled to abandon. He
is shut up to own and address Christ as the very
Messiah, heir of his father David and 'of the kingdoms
of the Gentiles.'
Is there not matter for reflection here in our meet-
ing the 'devices' of the Adversary? My brother, my
sister! you may no longer be tempted by the Tempter
with an 'If;' may no longer be harassed with doubt
about your sonship. That, for guile or from moment-
ary defeat, he may concede. But beware that his be
P
226
The Temptation of Christ.
not a Parthian retreat; beware that he shoot not in
flying; beware that, taking another standing-place,
he rush not upon you with a deadlier assault than
ever.
I observe-
¶ 58. The Artifice of the Third Temptation.
2
:
When the Tempter would make his great offer of
'all the kingdoms of the earth, and the splendour of
them,' he takes the Lord to 'a mountain, very ele-
vated.' 'Distance lends enchantment to the view.'¹
Put a bit of broken glass, or a shred of worthless mica,
in a ploughed field, and let the sun shine upon it, and
it sparkles as vividly as that gem which 'spills its drop
of light' on the finger of Beauty. Afar off,' it is a
glory near, just a bit of broken glass, or shred of mica.
Speaking of this device of the ascent of the moun-
tain by the Tempter, excellently saith Bishop Hacket:
‘None of these things' (to wit, the concealments of the
Third Temptation, of which more anon) are per-
ceived while you stand off and look upon them. All's
well while you gaze on these transitory things from the
top of the mountain: bonæ terrenæ pluris sunt cum non
habentur et desiderantur, quam cum possidentur: they
are more worth the seeing than upon the possessing.'
' 3
1 Campbell.
2 This, as I take it, exquisitely felicitous description of the diamond, I dis-
covered years ago in a very unlikely place, viz., in the poem of Snuff, by
James Arbuckle, the friend and correspondent of Allan Ramsay.
3 As before, p. 336.
The Temptation of Christ.
227
My dear friends, beware of the 'glory,' the 'splen-
dour' that seems to show very substantially at a dis-
tance, but which needs only to be approached to
prove unreal.
I remember very well how, up in the
Italian and Styrian Alps, many an apparent sky-kiss-
ing range of yet mightier Alps seemed to tower, white
and lustrous, over what we had deemed the loftiest
peaks. They were but vanishing clouds, climbing
higher than the peaks, but with no base,-showing
fair, glitteringly, astonishingly, unutterably beautiful,
but carrying within them the rain that drenches, and
the lightning that smites and the blast that loosens the
roaring avalanche. Take heed' to this artifice of
the world's 'show' at a distance and from the moun-
tain-top. There is delusion and peril in the 'splen-
dour.' 1
I observe-
59. The Concealments of the Third Temptation.
It surely is very noticeable that the Tempter is
said to have shown the 'glory or splendour' of the
kingdoms only.
'He showed Him in a jewelled wreath
All crowns that earth bestows,
But not the rankling thorns beneath,
That pierce the wearers' brows.
1 Doddridge, in loco, suggests another element: 'As Christ was probably
attacked with this temptation upon some mountain in the Wilderness, this
beautiful and taking prospect that was represented to Him, being set off by
the horrors of the place He was in, would in such a contrast appear peculiarly
charming.'
228
The Temptation of Christ.
He showed him every specious prize
That sparkles in Ambition's eyes,-
But not the pale-eyed Care
That in the height of honour dwells,
And whispers mournful oracles
Behind the princely chair."¹
M
Here I must enrich myself with 'the apples of gold
in basket-work of silver' of the old Divines. First of
all listen to Dr. Thomas Manton :- The grievous-
ness,' he says of this Temptation, 'will appear in that
it was represented in a manner that was grateful and
pleasing. It was unnecessary to turn "stones into
bread," and dangerous to "throw Himself down from
a pinnacle of the Temple;" but it might seem sweet
and grateful to behold "the kingdoms of the world
and the glory thereof;" for surely the "glory of the
world" is a bewitching object, and would much move
a carnal heart; and therefore he produceth this
1 James D. Burns, as before, p. 38. I add Thomas Aird's terrific photo-
graph of the 'Infernal Throne,' from an earlier edition of The Devil's
Dream-
'A giant rock, like mineral stone instinct with dark red glow,
Its summit hid in darkness, rose from out the gulf below,
Whose fretted surf of gleaming waves still broke against its sides.
All serpents, as if spun from out the lashings of those tides
Sprung disengaged, and darted up that damnèd cliff amain,
Their bellies skinned with glossy fire: but none came down again.
These be the Cares, still coming Cares, that hang upon Hell's throne,
And live with him, nor leave him, who has rear'd it on that stone.
Clouds round it are, that he, at will, may hide his haughty woe,
But ah! no force has it to stay those comers from below.'
Every admirer of this true poet must deplore the suppression of some of the
best lines of this and numerous other passages. The text of 1848 is infinitely
preferable to the later editions, and ought to be restored. One is provoked
to find lines, epithets, that at once laid hold of one's memory, never to leave
it, absent on consulting the current edition.
The Temptation of Christ.
229
tempting object, and sets it before Christ Himself.
Mark! he showed Him "the glory" only, not the
burdens, the labours, the cares; those storms of
jealousy and envy which those encounter with, who
are at top. This way did he now choose wherewith
to assault Christ. Had he really represented the
world with all the vexations attending it, the Temp-
tation had not been so great; but he showeth the
kingdoms of the world and "the glory" thereof; the
bait, not the hook; he talketh highly of small things;
commendeth what is pleasing but hideth the bitter of
these luscious sweets; he offereth Christ "the glory
of the kingdoms of the world," but dissembleth the
cares, the troubles, the dangers. Alas! we see the best
side of those that live in Courts: their gorgeous apparel,
their costly entertainments, their power and great-
ness; but their fears of being depressed by superiors,
jostled by equals, undermined by inferiors, are hidden
from us. Therefore the Temptation was dexterously
managed by the Devil, in that he showed Him "the
kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof." Temp-
tations of the right hand are more dangerous than
those of the left hand.' 1 With equal richness says
Bishop Hall-'If there be any pomp, majesty,
pleasure, bravery in the world, where should it be
but in the courts of princes, whom God hath made
His images, His deputies, on earth? There are
soft raiment, sumptuous feasts, rich jewels, honour-
1 As before, PP. 130-132.
230
The Temptation of Christ.
able attendance, glorious triumphs, royal state; these
Satan lays out to the fairest show. But oh! the
craft of that Old Serpent! Many a care attends
greatness. No crown is without its thorns. High
seats are never but uneasy. All those infinite discon-
tentments which are the shadow of earthly sovereignty,
he hides out of the way; nothing may be seen but
what may both please and allure. Satan is still and
ever like himself. If temptations might be but turned
about, and shown on both sides, the kingdom of dark-
ness would not be so populous. Now, whensoever
the Tempter sets upon any poor soul, all sting of con-
science, wrath, judgment, torment, is concealed, as if
they were not; nothing may appear to the eye but
pleasure, profit, and seeming happiness in the enjoy-
ing of our desires. Those other woful objects are
reserved for the farewell of sin; that our misery may
be seen and felt at once. When we are once sure,
Satan is a tyrant; till then, he is a parasite. There
can be no safety if we do not view as well the back
as the face of temptation.' Similarly, in the wake
of an eloquent Father, the Bishop of Lichfield
quaintly puts it:-'St. Ambrose cut this path,' he
says, 'into my text for our meditations to walk in.
Saith he, there are treacheries, disturbance of rest,
violence, injustice, a thousand angariations in the
kingdoms of the world.'
What a lesson on all this is the huge 'glory' of a
1 As before, vol. iii. p. 317.
2 Hacket, as before, p. 336.
1
The Temptation of Christ.
231
Napoleon and its end—the Rock 'far i̇' the melan-
choly main.' 1
Lay to heart, my friends, especially
my fellow young brethren and sisters, these choice
words of warning. Be assured the glitter, and 'show,'
and 'splendour' of the temptations which the Evil
One presents and presses, conceal very terrible
woes. Ay, and when the so-called 'glory' is gone
-what remains?
¶ 60. 'Splendid shows' that are still used to tempt’
with.
I must come nearer to this device of the Tempter
of showing only the 'glory' and 'splendour' of his
snares. I would specify one or two in which the very
same principle or no principle, is operative. And here
I take not the wide 'shows' suggested by the Third
Temptation, but much narrower. I might warn of
the dread concealments under the 'splendour' of war
and its 'famous victories ;' and under the 'splendour'
of your fashionable balls and drawing-rooms, where
no thoughtful mind can get quit of the poor weary
diaphanous fingers of the needle-women who worked
at the gorgeous dresses, when 'ordered immediately' and
'immediately when ordered. These and the like open
1 Napoleon.-See the 'Ode to Napoleon' by Lord Byron, one of the most
impassioned and purged of all his poems, and than which I know hardly
anything so splendid in its scorn and contemptuous pity. It begins-
"Tis done-but yesterday a king!
And armed with kings to strive-
And now thou art a nameless thing;
So abject-yet alive!'
232
The Temptation of Christ.
out themes from which we might 'point many
a moral.' But I wish at present to limit and curb
myself by confining my warnings to those shows'
that are most likely to attract you, my hearers!
First of all-Young man! young woman, like to
be dazzled by the 'glory' of that gay world from
which perchance you are by station shut out, but which
some beguiler offers to open to you—at a small, ap-
parent cost-be your instant cry to the Lord: Turn
away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken
Thou me in Thy way. Stablish Thy word unto Thy
servant, who is devoted to Thy fear' (Ps. cxix. 37, 38).
Ay, 'devoted' child of God; child of godly father
and godly mother, 'devoted' in baptism, 'devoted'
in many a prayer from family altar and closet, ‘de-
voted' by personal promise, 'devoted' by public
profession (for so I may apply the Psalmist's de-
voted')—be warned of me for your very soul's life.
6
Oh the damage done to grace in the child of God
by this 'beholding of vanity!' How swift the tran-
sition often to looking and longing after the 'glory' of
the world, a 'glory' which He visibly, and in love,
withholds us the means of acquiring! And how the
Tempter keeps the 'glory' before the tempted! Ah!
that wished-for new bonnet, wished-for new shawl,
wished-for new dress, wished-for new ear-rings, wished-
for new ring, wished-for new 'show!'
What deadly
work the wish works! What painted expedients it
leads to! What blighting of truthfulness!
The Temptation of Christ.
233
But I turn to another and coarser, and, alas!
awfully common 'glory'-showing of the Tempter,—
LICENTIOUSNESS! That is what your butterfly soul that
will hover round the flame is perpetually exposed to.
Oh! as on my knees I would warn against it. Be-
neath the glitter there is deadliest woe; beneath the
'glory,' shame; beneath the shame, degradation;
beneath the degradation, anguish unspeakable; be-
neath the anguish, despair; and beneath despair-
Hell. There is 'show' and 'glory,' young man, in
that devil's bait, the 'lust of the flesh.' But, Sir! as
you would not have that seduced one be a lost soul to
sting you to all eternity, as you would not have the
flesh of whoredom, and the predestined fire that
'consumes' it, listen to one who knew all 'glory,'
and the misery of a pleasure-sated soul: 'The lips of
a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her
mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as
wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet
go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. LEST
THOU SHOULDEST PONDER THE PATH OF LIFE, her
ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
[She will go to church with you if you please, will pray
too and 'sing psalms'—any, any mask, anything to still
your and her conscience.] Hear me now, therefore, O
ye children, and depart not from the words of my
mouth. Remove thy way far from her [Oh mark that
'far;' not half-way, not as near as possible without
notoriety or exposure, but 'far.' For, oh! a hair's-
234
The Temptation of Christ.
breadth from temptation is just the breadth-of-a-hair
from sin], and come not nigh the door of her house;
lest thou give thine honour unto others [thy 'glory'],
and thy years unto the cruel; lest strangers be filled
with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of
a stranger; and thou mourn at the last, when thy
flesh and thy body are consumed [that is, when thou
art dead and buried and gone to ashes, and thy soul
-where?], and say, How have I hated instruction,
and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed
the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to
them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil,
in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
[While a professing Christian, a professing member of
Christ's Church !]' (Prov. v. 3-14.) 1
May my poor words, which pulsate with mournful
recollections, and are blurred with tears over actual
cases, arrest—if but a solitary soul; and help a
tempted brother, a tempted sister, to detect the
1 I add here the Hand-Mirror' of Walt Whitman in his Leaves of
Grass (p. 415):-
<
'Hold it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it? Is it you?)
Outside, fair costume-within, ashes and filth;
No more a flashing eye, no more a sonorous voice or springy step;
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, venerealee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and cankerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
No brain, no heart left, no magnetism of sex;
Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go hence,
Such a result so soon-and from such a beginning!'
1.
The Temptation of Christ.
235
offered and proffered 'glory' in its unrealness as well
as 'show.'
I observe-
¶ 61. The Limitations of the Third Temptation.
It may seem strange to you, that I should speak
of limitation when every word would seem to ex-
press universal surrender. Does not the Tempter
say, 'All this power will I give Thee;' and yet,
again, All shall be thine'? True! But mind!
nevertheless the utmost is 'All this power;' or
according to Matthew, 'All these.' The bribe, colos-
sal as it was, went no higher than-Earth. The
'kingdoms' were but 'the kingdoms of the world;' all
of them, yet only they! And What is a man
profited though he gain the whole world, and-lose
his soul!' or 'What will a man give in exchange for
his soul?'
.
Here I very gladly 'point the moral' in the words
of that godly noble-tongued worthy, one of the
honoured translators of our English Bible,-Richard
Clerke. Very epigrammatically he says, "Tis all, but
all these all the kingdoms of the Earth. He pre-
sumes not to proffer Him the kingdom of Heaven.
The Devil more moderate than the Pope ! He
would promise unto one that would blow up Parlia-
ment, or that would but kill a king, the kingdom of
heaven.'1
1 Sermons. Edited by Charles White, folio, 1637, p. 123.
236
The Temptation of Christ.
I observe-
(
¶ 62. The Transitoriness of the Splendour' of the
Third Temptation.
'In a moment of time' is the remarkable expression
of Luke. I have already explained to you the strategy
of that in its relation to the Lord. But how charac-
teristic is it of all that Satan grants unto his followers.
How swiftly vanisheth the 'pomp and circumstance '
of the proudest spectacle! How soon the roses fade !
How soon the lights surcease! How soon the lees
are reached! How the End strides in ! (
Vanity of
vanities'—how it comes ringing and echoing up!
My fellow-man! are you a snatcher at pleasure?
Are you seeking to hold what is for the moment
near you? Vain, vain the toil. But a moment of
time' and it is gone. Alas! alas! that the Tempter
should thus deftly keep so many in longing wistful-
ness through a quick glimpse and glance of what they
never should have seen.
I observe-
63. The new 'If' of the Third Temptation.
'All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall
down and worship me.' With quick-eyed discern-
ment speaks of the 'If,' dear old John Udall: 'You
see,' says he, how liberal he is of promise, but he
tieth it unto a condition, wherein you may perceive
how contrary his affection is unto the mind of the
C
The Temptation of Christ. 237
Lord. It is true that God will be worshipped of all
that He dealeth mercifully withal, but yet doth He
freely bestow His mercy without any respect of our
worshipping Him beforehand. But Satan will be
worshipped before he will perform his promise. So
that as the contrary disposition of God and Satan
appear in this point, in like manner, if you examine
it well, shall you find them that are of God and them
that are of their father the Devil to be; for the godly
having obtained mercy at the hands of God are also
inclined unto pity and mercy, careful to do good
according to their power, not for gain, but because
God hath been favourable unto them. The wicked,
on the other side, being minded as he is by whom
they are guided, will promise very beautifully, and
give us sugared words, and use as glorious terms as
though their tongues were made of butter. But all that
ever they promise is with an 'If.' For if they gain
not by thee, or if thou please not their humour, or if
thou crouch not unto them, they will not only not
perform the least part of their large promises, but
thou shalt find it in experience, that they will be unto
thee (as Satan was ever after to Christ) thy greatest
enemies, and as much as in them lieth do thee the
greatest displeasure.' If ever true wise words were
uttered, these are true and wise. My brethren, it
because we do not 'consider' the world's end, the
Devil's and the flesh's 'If,' that we are so over-
1 As before, § 20.
¹
238
The Temptation of Christ.
mastered. Let me say too, that the most dangerous
of all 'Ifs' is that which is unspoken, as the keen-
est, sharpest, surest hook lurks behind the brightest-
hued fly-bait !¹
¶ 64. The seeming graciousness of the Third Temptation.
'All these things will I give Thee.' Here I think
that the collocation of the wording in the Original
reveals much dexterity. In Matthew it runs literally:
These [he may be supposed to point to the far-
stretching "kingdoms "]-all-[he may now be sup-
posed to sweep round the whole]-to Thee-[no
mention yet of condition]—will I give or deliver—
[still no mention of a condition]-if-[only now in the
end when the "show" has flashed in all its splendour,
comes in the "If.”] In Luke it is, if possible, more
1 'If.'
I add in this footnote some quaint terse words from Edward
Philips The Devil's promises are fair, but there is some cursed con-
dition had and annexed to them. He will give Absalom a kingdom, but he
must ravish his father's concubines; he will get Doeg a place in the Court,
but he must persecute the Church: Caiaphas shall be chief-priest, so he will
betray Christ: Pilate shall be a judge, if he will be Cæsar's friend: Balaam
shall be highly promoted, if he will but curse the people: and Christ shall
have the whole world if He will but bend the knee to him.
He will pro-
mise a merchant shall be made an alderman, if he will but continue his
usury: a lawyer shall be made a judge, if he will not stick at a little bribery:
a scholar shall have great preferment, if he but follow his counsel, at first to
preach pleasingly, not to do it often, for then he shall be stale, to come up
only in famous places, especially at Bethel, the King's Chapel, or as the
country must not content him, he must preach like a clerk in his Greek,
Hebrew, and Latin, that the people may rather admire him than under-
stand him, think he hath knowledge rather than get any for themselves.
For Satan cannot abide to have them learned; he must defend all things not
only to be well established, but well executed; to beware lest he gall men
in authority, and howsoever in the pulpit he may generally glance at abuses,
yet after, to show himself plausible, and to make himself deaf when he
heareth an oath.' (As before, pp. 201, 202.)
<
The Temptation of Christ.
239
crafty. It is as follows: 'Shows to Him the whole
kingdoms of the habitable earth-[mark! each word.
deepens-" shows," and then "the whole," and then
"the kingdoms," and then "the habitable earth "]—
within an instant of time-[rapid, overwhelming,
amazing, as though a winter-night of stars were bared
once for a second, and cloud-draped again impene-
trably]—and said to Him, to Thee-I will give or
deliver-the whole-of this-of this authority-and
the splendour of these-because it is given up to me.
and to whom I may choose-[what magnificent flat-
tery he was choosing Him out of all]-I give it to
him-Thou therefore if'-[what delay until the 'if']
Observe then the seeming GRACIOUSNESS of the
'will I give Thee.' How like to the language of God !
How apparently liberal and generous!
But I turn again to the quips and holy badinage
about it by Richard Clerke. I cannot think of
shortening, save only by a few words, so rare a speci-
men of saintly-salt of wit. Listen :-
""I will give "—a verbal promise, not a real gift.
Gifts should precede the duty, not follow it; should
be with an ut, not with a si. So men do; so God
does. Do, ut facias, not dabo, si feceris. Where the
service goes before, and the gift comes after, 'tis a
reward, not a gift. Not donum largientis but merces
operantis, Saint Ambrose's phrase; not a largess but
wages; not xápioµa, but ỏþeíλnua, St. Paul's terms;
not a bounty, but a debt. Duty may be the final
240
The Temptation of Christ.
cause of bounty, but it must not be the efficient;
because grace must be free. God hath given us conv
Kai TVоην κатà Távтa, as St. Paul saith, "life and
breath and all things :" that we may serve Him, not
that we have served Him. We could not serve Him
before we were. Satan will be sure to be beforehand,
will be served first. The Pope learned that trick of
him. Frederick shall first fall down and worship him
ere he will crown him. King James must first have
been reconciled to Rome ere he might have come
to England, if Pope Clement could have hindered
him.
(C
But how comes Satan to be a promiser? ['I will
give.'] Promise is properly of good things. St.
Augustine saith, The Devil solæciseth when he pro-
miseth" for from him can come no good. Satan
may say he will ['I will give ']. But what? He
will entice. "I will be a false spirit in the prophets'
mouths." Of such things he may say he will. But
to give, to give kingdoms or aught else that good is,
he can not 'tis not in his power. Nay indeed, it
is not in his will, though he say it. "I will ascend up
into heaven, and raise my throne above the stars;
I will sit on the sides of the north, and be equal
to the Most Highest." Satan may say of this, he
will-say so of any sin. But to will good, any good,
any good to any man, Satan will not say it. Say it
he may; but he will not do it. Well may he say,
dabo, he will give; that's de futuro.
But where read
The Temptation of Christ.
241
we ever, "Do, I do give?" Satan is all in assumpsits;
he assumes, he presumes to "will do" many things;
but he does them not. Swow, saith the Devil, "I will
give."
&
'Antigonus, Plutarch saith, was surnamed Aúowv,
i.e., daturus, because he would still promise, never
perform. God performs what he promises, more
than He promises. His promisisse is dedisse, saith
Ravennas; His dixisse is fecisse, saith St. Jerome.
That is because πιστὸς ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος, saith the
apostle : "He is faithful that hath promised."
David plies God with that plea, secundum verbum
tuum; craves mercy, craves all grace, according to
His word. But the Devil is God's opposite in all
things, in this specially, in his word. God never
breaks it; Satan never keeps it. Christ calls him
ψεύστης, a Liar. 'Tis a worn proverb in every
man's mouth, in every child's mouth, as false as
the Devil. If he give, he gives the wrong: for
bread, a stone; for a fish, a scorpion. Eve found it.
He promised life, but it proved death. Then he
deceived the woman. Now he would fain deceive
the "Seed of the woman." St. Augustine saith the
world semper fallit, ever deceives. Surely Satan
does, the god of the world. Devils are but dabones,
Erasmus's term. His "gift" here is but a promise:
and quilibet, every man can be rich in promises.
C
To end this: "I will give," saith the Devil. Christ
must belike trust Satan on his word. A Liar on his
Q
J
!
242
The Temptation of Christ.
word! What is a promise in a leaser's lips? Pro-
mises are vain, verba dum sunt, where the person's
credit is cracked that promises. Promisit qui non
mentitur, St. Paul saith of God: He promises that lies
not. The Devil's daboes are but weak, unless he were
more trie² of truth! Satan had said something, had
the tense been present, had he said, "I give." "I do,"
is actual; I will do," is uncertain. Dabo is but lank
in a rank liar's mouth; and 'tis but a bare dabo too,
without either oath or protestation. The Devil, in
this, is honester than man, than many men, who will
bind with oaths those promises which they never
mean to keep. Satan will lie, but he will not swear too.
See how the subtle sophister takes advantage of the
tense: the "will" hath a wile in it-suspends the gift
till the service be performed; craves the condition first;
cares not for Christ's complaint of breach of promise.
Let Him sue him if He will upon assumpsit. Christ
having worshipped him, he hath that he would: Christ
hath done an act cannot be undone. He would up
to God presently and say, Here's He they call Thy
Son, He hath worshipped me. By it he should see
He was not the Son of God.
Let Christ then expos-
tulate for him beguiling Him, he would say Tu videris,
look to that Himself. Enough of this. Satan "will."
What "will" he?
tr
"He will give:' "All these will I
give Thee." 'Tis not locatio, a demising them, a let-
ting them to farm; 'tis datio, a gift. Not venundatio,
1 That is, liar's.
2 That is, 'choice' careful.
>>
1
The Temptation of Christ.
243
a sale for money, as Judas gave Christ. "Quid dabitis,
What will you give me and I will deliver Him?" Satan
will be frank, he will give freely. For the condition,
“to fall down and worship him," that's no price, 'tis
but an homage. That we do to God for the things
we have from Him and yet we acknowledge He
gives them freely. Wicked impostor! Calls he this
a gift? 'Tis a sale; 'tis nundinatio, not donatio, plain
merchandise!' ¹
My dear friends, Let us beware of the world's and
the Devil's and the flesh's graciousnesses and 'I will
gives; yea, let us beware of their givings altogether.
Even deeper still, let us beware of the principle in
us which their 'I will give' addresses.
Take spe-
cial heed of that. What will you give?
you give?' Ah! It belongs to us all. An Abraham
asked it as well as a Judas.
What will
'What will you give?' There's no question that
finds so ready an answer, and none that, on being
answered by 'gifts,' works such deadly mischief.
But, on the other hand, what a difference be-
tween all other 'I will gives' and the 'I will
give' of Jesus! After the ringing-of-changes by good
Richard Clerke on the Tempter's 'I will give,' let
the sweet bell-sounds of the Lord's promise-words
rise and swell through your memories: 'Come unto
Me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I
1 Sermons, as before, pp. 118-120. Other quotations from this brilliant and
yet scarcely known folio will be found in Notes and Illustrations.
2 Cf. Genesis xv. 2 with Matthew xxvi. 15,
244
The Temptation of Christ.
will give you rest' (Matt. xi. 28); 'Ask whatsoever
thou wilt, and I will give it' (Mark vi. 22); 'I will
give you the sure mercies of David' (Acts xiii. 34); 'I
will give thee a crown of life;' 'I will give him the
morning-star;' 'I will give unto him that is athirst
of the fountain of the water of life freely' (Rev. ii.
10, 28; xxi. 6). Thus is it also in the Old Testa-
ment, in Historic book and Prophecy and Psalm.¹
I observe-
¶ 65. The light statement of the Sin of the Third
Temptation.
It was but a bowing of the knee' as a 'homage'
that the Tempter sought, which, if it was, as we know
it was-from the book of Daniel and the Psalms
and elsewhere,-the manner of worshipping God, was
equally the manner in the East of approaching kings.
But underneath the slight, semi-reasonable words lay
exaction of the deeper and inward, not the mere
outward, ‘bowing.' And thus it ever is and must be
with that clever-and shall I say gentlemanly?-way
of putting things, by which new and gay names are
sought to hide old and real sins. Are there not many
who, if you call it mere bowing,'-only taking a pose
or attitude,—to stand in a Rimmon temple or before
way,
1 It will richly reward my readers to 'search' and 'compare.' By the
I embrace the present opportunity of very emphatically recommend-
ing to all who wish to do this in their reading of the Bible,-the Rev.
James Inglis' Bible Text Cyclopædia. It is an uncommonly well-arranged
and accurate Bible-help.
The Temptation of Christ.
245
a Popish altar, will do the thing and have no sting
of conscience, and yet would 'fear' if it got its own
name of 'idolatry"? And so the principle effloresces
and fruits, as the nightshade its deadly poison into
lilac blossoms and carbuncle-red berries. You have
'pride' named 'dignity,' and profligate 'waste' called
'liberality' even open-handedness and large-hearted-
ness;' and 'covetousness' gets itself-mean, wizened
thing-dubbed 'thrift,' and 'drunkenness' is 'friend-
liness,' and 'riot and chambering' are disguised under
'seeing life; and so on, and so on. Oh, my fellow
young men and you young women (or ladies,' if
you prefer another name than God gave you, another
and a poorer), beware of this light statement of sin !
C
My friends all, beware! beware! For the change
of name does not change the thing. Your so-
called dignity is 'pride,' your so-called liberality,
open-handedness, large-heartedness is 'profligate
waste,' your so-called thrift is covetousness,' your
so-called friendliness is drunkenness,' your so-called
'seeing life' is 'riot and chambering.' These are what
will appear against you up yonder, not those.¹ Be
vigilant therefore in looking through and through
such light statements of what-name it as you may
—is sin, and sin only, and sin absolutely, and sin
eternally. Let not the mask, the wrapping, the
seeming' deceive.' A holy suspicion here is im-
<
(
1 I may be permitted to refer here to my little treatise, Small Sins, more
particularly pp. 30, 51, 52, 55.
246 The Temptation of Christ.
perative. For the Tempter never will come to you,
and say plainly (they are the words of Isaac Colfe),
Forsake God, deny Him, renounce Him, abjure
Him; for thus should he grossly have betrayed
the greatness thereof, neither could he ever have
hoped to have won Christ to the committing of
the same, being such as cannot, without fear and
trembling, be once thought of; but he only saith,
“Fall down and worship me." As if he had said,
"I require no great thing at Thy hand; not anything
dangerous to Thy body; not, as before, to cast
Thyself down' from the top of this pinnacle, or head-
long from this high mountain; but only to 'fall down
and worship me' upon this mountain; neither any
great sin and offence before God. It is only this, that
'bowing Thyself Thou fall down and worship me.'
Thou mayest serve Him, believe in Him, worship
Him, and obey Him, and yet thus far yield unto me
as to fall down and worship me.” See how the Devil
covertly dissembleth the greatness of this offence,
whereunto he persuadeth Christ; and the rather is it
to be marked, because it is the very course of the
Devil in the tempting of us; for the more easily to
allure us to the committing of any sin he useth this
deceit, to persuade us of the smallness of those sins.
wherewith he enticeth us; and that therefore they
are not to be regarded of us.'¹ 2
1 As before, pp. 117, 118.
C
2 Thomas White (as before. p. 15) remarks on Matt. iv. 6, The Devil
The Temptation of Christ.
247
I observe-
¶ 66. The unquestioned Power asserted in the Third
Temptation by the Devil.
Elsewhere I hope thoroughly to discuss this. Now,
I can only spare a few sentences. Sir Thomas
Browne long ago said, that the deepest device' of
Satan is to 'persuade men that he does not exist.'¹
Perhaps there are more who have been thus per-
suaded than we suspect. Next in peril to such per-
suasion is that all too common taking away of the
force of the Bible records concerning what the Temp-
ter did and does,-designating him Liar. I have no
wish certainly to exemplify the error I condemn by
seeking to empty the significance of that terrible
name given him by the Lord Himself. Yet, is it not
true, and to be remembered, that your liars' have
potency in them? and again, that even your most
abandoned 'liar' may sometimes speak truth?
I believe, then, that the Devil has in kind, though
not in degree, the power he asserted in the Third
Temptation. I believe that, in a very awful sense,
man 'delivered' up to him what God had placed
in his keeping. I believe, that while under-lying
the delivering up' there was the Tempter's fraud
6
6
useth not any place of Scripture in the other temptations; in the former he
did not, because our Saviour had not discovered the great esteem of Scrip-
ture, now He had in the latter he did not, for he could not find any place
fit to persuade to idolatry.'
1 'Vulgar Errors,' Works, ii. 255. (By Wilkin, 4 vols. 8vo. 1835.)
248
The Temptation of Christ.
and usurpation, it nevertheless, and none the less,
became a reality; as, indeed, we know your 'wader
through blood,' your trampler on all rights, some-
times has a strong and far-transmitted power. I
believe that, in no shallow significance, but in-
tensely actual, Satan was, by the Fall of Man,
enthroned as the 'prince' and 'god' of this world.
I believe the wide-reaching saying in Job concerning
him (xli. 34), 'He is a king over all the children of
pride,' to be profoundly true. I believe that, up to
the crucifixion of Christ, and therefore at the period.
of the Temptation, his power was all but-humanly
speaking-boundless. I cannot otherwise get a mean-
ing out of words like these: Now [mark "now,"
but not before] is the judgment of this world; now
[again "now," only] shall the prince of this world be
cast out' (John xii. 31). Again, 'Hereafter I will
not talk much with you for the prince of this world
[still so designated] cometh' (John xiv. 30). Once
more, 'The prince of this world is judged' [the title
not withdrawn] (John xvi. 11). So elsewhere. Not
until a vision of His triumph on the cross rose before
Him did the Lord proclaim, 'I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven' (Matt. x. 18).
And even
after, in the visions of the Apocalypse, I read
(Rev. xiii. 2): The Dragon gave him his power, and
his seat, and great authority.'
(
I cannot treat these words as many (practically)
do. I cannot regard them as other than very
The Temptation of Christ.
+
249
awfully real, and than as expressing preterhuman
power. I cannot take less out of them than that,
albeit checked, limited, wounded, bruised, head-
bruised in and from the crucifixion, the Evil One is
still unutterably strong and unutterably truthful in
his claim to control, largely and livingly, all the
kingdoms of the world.' Sirs, let that lie on your
heart, let it down upon your conscience. The
'Lion' still roams abroad, and there are still ' great
teeth' in his jaw-bone,' broken though it be. The
Tempter has still much to give and much faculty of
ensnaring. It was no mere verbal offer that he made
to Christ.
Still further,—as I explained earlier, I believe that
in the heart of his wider power and authority there was
in this Third Temptation a special permission given
him to put this specific offer before the Lord. I don't
believe that he lied when he said the offer was within
his power. I don't believe that it was the phantasm
of a temptation; but an actual offer. I don't believe
you can give meaning to it as a temptation unless you
admit its possibility, yea certainty, upon fulfilment of
its condition.
And so, my dear friends, be it ours to realize the
weird and wondrous economy under which we are
born and grow up: be it ours to realize this double
Bible fact of a LIVING FOE-potent - subtle
malignant — vigilant - relentless; and blessed be
God of a LIVING FRIEND, not potent only but
Togg
M
250
The Temptation of Christ.
omnipotent, not subtle merely but heart-searching
and spiritual, not malignant but loving, not vigi-
lant alone but ever watchful, not relentless but
forgiving and gracious. Be it ours, while grasping
the dread verity that our Foe is in the world'
(not utterly chained in hell and darkness), to stay
ourselves up on the calming assurance,
( Greater,
stronger is He who is in us, than he who is in the
world' (1 John iv. 4).
Having thus enforced and applied the Third Temp-
tation in its details, I have now very briefly, similarly
to enforce and apply the Lord's answer to it—
Ver. 10. Then Jesus says to him, "Go-Satan,"
for it is written, To Jehovah, the God of thee, thou
shalt do homage, and to Him alone render worship.'
Attend here—
¶ 67. To the name‘Jesus' still.
Have we not in the threefold use of 'Jesus '---the
dearest to a sinner, as I can't too often remind
you, of all the Lord's names-a lesson as to the
character in which we ought to resist temptation?
My friends, the Lord stood upon the ground of
being a MAN. He did not busy Himself establishing
that He was Son of God. Even so; let us realize
under temptation more that we are but sinners
saved at the best than have confidence in our son-
ship or 'grace' in ourselves. Let us keep William
Huntingdon's ss [Sinner Saved] before us; and we
The Temptation of Christ.
251
shall not run risks or make boastings, much less
fall back upon mere assertions and defences of our
sonship. Surely in this name Jesus we are taught
this. For it is very noticeable that tempted, taunted,
bribed to assert that He was Son of God and to
act thereupon, the Lord never did so. What a les-
son, I repeat, have we in this beautiful modesty !
in this noble silence! in this magnanimous working
out of His Temptation not as Son of God but as Son
of Man,-a MAN. Methinks much of the volubility
and self-assertion of sonship, much of the coarse
familiarity and flippancy in revealing sonship, may
take reproof and instruction from all this.
Attend-
¶ 68. To the instant rejection of the Offer of the
Tempter.
Mark the emphatic 'Then' of ver. 10:' Then,' at
once, so soon as heard: no dallying, no weighing, no
hesitating, Then Jesus saith unto him, Go.' This,
my brethren, is the only safety when the great 'only'
of the Bible is sought to be transgressed, and when we
are urged in any way to bow the knee' or 'serve'
any besides God, in the grand matter of worship. To
pause a moment is to sin; to pause a moment is to
run risk; to look this way and that way instead of up
is ruinous, unspeakably ruinous. 'Who hesitates is
lost.' Therefore, none of it, oh, none of it! Be our
answer that of Christ, Away with thy kingdoms,
C
252
The Temptation of Christ..
away with thy promises, away with thy gifts, away
with thy condition, away with thyself!' 1
The emotion of the Saviour was, self-evidently-
profound. That Go-Satan' is launched like a
thunder-bolt-
'You would have wondered at His face, it seemed
Too grand to be so troubled; but a rock
Scorning the strokes of ocean, will grow dark
Under the passage of an April cloud. ²
T69. At no time would the Lord accept anything
from the Devil.
Apart from the present rejection of the Tempter's
offer, there is the broader fact that afterwards and
throughout the Lord would receive nothing from the
Devil. As matter of history, He refused the testi-
mony of the unclean spirits' to His Divinity, and
bade them hold their peace; and your word-exegetes,
who never can see outside their lexicons, wonder
with a 'foolish face of wonder' why He refused that.
But what decent man-to say no more--cares for or
would accept a certificate of character or letter of
introduction from a bad man? It was, therefore,
only the outcome of the necessities of a pure and
gracious heart that Christ spurned the offer of the
Tempter. He would not vault to empire by, but
in the teeth of, the Devil. He would receive no
1 Gumbleden, as before, p. 60.
2 The Story of Queen Isabel, by M. S. (Bell and Daldy, 1863.)
The Temptation of Christ.
253
'gift.'
Only as spoils-trophies-would He wear
on His radiant head the 'many crowns' of 'all the
kingdoms of the world.'
My dear friends, be there this chastity of soul and
resolution with us. Let us reject at the instant the
Devil's baits, the Devil's pleasures, and the Devil's
bribes. They will cost us dearly else.¹
Attend-
¶ 70. To the renewed assertion of Obedience.
There was the outflashing of holy indignation in
the 'Go, Satan.' But immediately the one standing-
place of OBEDIENCE is again occupied. 'Go; for it .
is written,' Prescribed.
I am inclined to think that there is a reference to
this rejection of universal and God-like empire-this
splendid prize in that remarkable and often mis-
understood passage (Phil. ii. 6): 'He did not deem
His equality to God a prize to be seized, snatched
at, but emptied Himself.'" If the Master thus un-
swervingly walked on in 'His way,' His prescribed
way, how much more ought we?
1 Elsewhere I shall notice the like rejection addressed to Peter, as
recorded in the Gospels. Meantime I cull a sentence from Gumbleden
about it. 'There was a difference: Jesus saith unto Satan not only, "Get
thee behind me:" but "Get thee hence, Satan" whereas Peter still
remained with his Saviour, although at that time, out of weakness not rightly
understanding that "it behoved Him thus and then to suffer," which the
Devil knew, and maliciously sought to hinder, he had highly provoked and
offended his Saviour.' (As before, p. 58.) But see Note (a) in loco.
2 Cf. Bishop Elicott in loco.
}
254
The Temptation of Christ.
Attend-
¶ 71. To the exposure of the Snare.
Against the Devil's 'bow' and 'homage' the Lord
rings out the grand 'only' of Jehovah, and holds up
the apparently small condition, dilated into 'zoor-
ship. That was what the Tempter sought, worship,'
'homage; whereas He was 'manifested' not to
acknowledge, but to 'cast out,' and not to cast out
merely, but to 'destroy.' For, 'for this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the Devil.'
Oh! my friends, temptation would lose half its
force if we gave the thing put before us its real cha-
racter and its real name, as here the Lord did.
Conclusion.
'LORD! I am Thine, Thy little child,
Though fiercely still within, and wild
The fires of youth do burn;
Oh! be not angry if I weep,
And dread these stormy waters deep-
Master to Thee I turn.
And, if in zeal and forward haste,
All rashly from the ship I past,
And tempted danger here;
Too great for one so weak as me-
Yet, Lord, it was to come to Thee,
Oh! let me find Thee near.'
F. W. Faber, B.D.
(As before. Matthew xiv. 30.)
WE have now arrived at the final 'record' of the
Temptation.
Ver. 11. 'Then the Devil leaves Him, and lo!
angels came and were waiting upon Him.'
I give also the account from Luke-
·Ver. 13. 'And the Devil having ended all a temp-
tation withdrew from Him until a fitting opportunity.'
I would here make a few elucidatory remarks, and
then 'bring out' the consolation, instruction, and
warning contained in the ending of a temptation.'
I notice-
(
(
T72. The Tempter is at once under authority.
Again we have a vivid 'Then' (TÓTE). Nor is it
different now and in the experience of the believer.
'Resist,' 'stand fast' in the strength of the Lord, and
the Devil will depart, must depart, even flee.' Thou
hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the Lord
helped me' (Ps. cxviii. 13) is the believer's experience.
Thomas White quaintly says of this 'leaving,' that
we are hereby taught that one may do that which
Christ commands, and yet be as bad as the Devil :
for Christ commanded the Devil to get him hence,
R
258
The Temptation of Christ.
and so he did. We do not obey God by doing what
he commands, but because He commands. When the
devils do what God commands, 'tis rather in them an
act of subjection than obedience, and the will of God.
is more properly done upon them than by them.' ¹
I add here the holy yearning of the good Quesnel,
after like deliverance with the Lord's: When will it
be, O my Saviour, that, our temptation being finished,
and the Devil having "left us," we shall serve Thee
in perfect peace, in the company of angels, and be
for ever satisfied with the enjoyment of Thyself?'"
I notice-
2
T73. The Tempter left only when his Temptation
was ended.
The Lord was 'led up' of The Spirit in order
to be tempted.' It is done. All the shafts have been
sped; the quiver is empty; the bow unstrung; and
now, but only now, comes the commanding 'Go.'
I note that, in the Original, there is no article. It
is not The Temptation as in our English Version, but
A Temptation. This is interpreted by what follows:
'until a fitting opportunity.' What had now tran-
spired was but one of many assaults which the Lord
was destined to undergo, with every opportunity.'
The ensnaring questions of the Pharisees; the 'evil
entreating' issuing in betrayal; the 'cries' of Geth-
1 As before, p. 25.
2 The New Testament, with Moral Reflections—in loco (by Russell, 1712.
Matthew.)
The Temptation of Christ.
259
semane; the more awful cries, in the dark, of Calvary,
and again the wild taunt, 'If Son Thou be of The
God,' give lurid interpretation to that 'until a fitting
opportunity.'
Ah, my dear friends! how sad to think that we,—
even professing Christians,-make so many 'fitting
opportunities' for the Tempter! How do we let the
door of our hearts stand a-jar, as it were, inviting
him in! How do we smooth the way by thought and
feeling and act! How secure we are apt to feel after
an overcome 'temptation' or an enjoyment!
I have remarked that Christ's temptation did not
cease until the Tempter had 'ended' what he was
permitted to do. So is it still. We need not imagine
that we can end our trials until the end' has been
gained. 'Of this we may fully assure ourselves' (they
are the words of wisdom of Isaac Colfe), 'that the
continuance of our temptations or other afflictions
proceedeth from this, that the cup which the Lord
Himself hath measured out for us is not yet emptied ;
and not from any other cause whatever. As for the
cup itself, it was measured with infinite wisdom.
"For He will not above that we are able suffer us to
be tempted" (1 Cor. x. 13).' (cc)
1
I notice-
¶ 74. Angels came when the Tempter left.
Finely has Bishop Hacket said of this: 'First a
1 As before, p. 141.
260
The Temptation of Christ.
Deluge, and then a rainbow; first a captivity, and
then a joyful return; first a Diocletian, and then a
Constantine; first the impugnation of the Devil, and
then the congratulation of angels. "Man goeth forth
unto his work, and to his labour until the evening,"
says the Psalmist. There is a time to give the body
a cessation from toil; and do you think the Lord
doth not measure out when He will give the soul and
spirit relaxation from misery? As a stranger is re-
ceived at night, and bids "God be with you" in the
morning. So indignation and the severity of chas-
tisement are strangers unto the Lord's clemency. He
calls vengeance, peregrinum opus, thy "strange work."
Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a
"stranger," after it hath stayed a while. "Heaviness
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morn-
ing" (Ps. xxx. 6). Temptations have their bout, and
the storms of hell their period; but the good angels
know their qu when to enter and to turn the scene.'¹
It is even so. If after blessing and privilege, as we
have found, there often comes temptation, equally
after temptation does there often come blessing. If
the Tempter be at the beginning, the angels are at
the close.' 1 2
1 As before, pp. 404, 405.
2 Angels. I assume that these were angels. There is no article in Matthew
or Luke, and hence some render it simply 'messengers;' but the word occurs
without the article repeatedly where the context shows that angels are desig-
nated. Besides, Mark has the article. I was amazed to find so scholarly and
so acute a man as Lancelot Shadwell, Esq., in his Matthew and Mark, with
Notes (1861), maintaining almost angrily that the word means, and can only
mean, 'messengers,' and human, not angelic. His note is on Matt. iv. 11:
II:
The Temptation of Christ.
261
1
¶ 75. 'Improvement' of the ending of the Temptation :
Dr. Henry Edward Manning
I gather up all I have to say upon this angelic
ministration in the beautiful words of Dr. Manning :
'From this we may learn a lesson applicable to our
own case, namely, that after temptations resisted, there
come seasons of peculiar rest: "times of refreshing
from the presence of the Lord" (Acts iii. 19). The
mere cessation of active trial is in itself an unspeakable
relief. So long as the tumult is kept up within, we are
worn, anxious, and depressed. The vividness of evil
thoughts and affections, the mistrust and repining of
our hearts, the useless and incessant chafings of our
desires against our conscience, the beating of strong
'We are not told who, or what, these messengers were, but they seem to
have brought refreshment to Jesus. But there is nothing to show that they
were not ordinary men ; for it is not said that they were ἄγγελοι Κύριου.
And even an ordinary man is sometimes called ἄγγελος Κύριου, as in the
case of John the Baptist, Mark i. 2.' This seems to me very weak and
unworthy. For (1.) the ayy. K. applied to the Baptist, is interpreted by the
naming of John; while (2.) there is no such interpretative fact concerning the
αγγ. here and if ordinary men' had been intended, it surely had been
easy to have written äveрwo or μalnтal? Then (3.) angelic ministra-
tion alone harmonizes with the event; and (4) Kúpios is not found after
angel, nor the article, even in, among many examples, John v. 6, where it
will not be gainsayed an ‘angel' is intended. I differ, with hesitation, from
so ripe and thorough a scholar, so singularly lucid a thinker, and so admir-
ably and inestimably true a man as Mr. Shadwell. His volume on Matthew
and Mark, in my opinion, contains more genuine learning and insight than
any half-dozen of clerical commentaries for 'theological students and mini-
His sarcasm is perhaps over-vehement at times, but he hits shams
only. His all too premature death was an unspeakable loss. Pity that his,
in a manner, privately-printed volume should not be published for all.
'Matthew' is occasionally to be picked up separately; but 'Mark' not at
all; and the complete volume is a prize which on no account ought to be
over-passed at almost any price by the student. His collections for the
other Gospels might surely be secured and edited.
sters.
262
The Temptation of Christ.
wishes against a clear consciousness of impossibility
or of a Divine prohibition: all these make a torment
within, to which hardly any other sorrow can be com-
pared. At such times all other affections of the soul
are confounded. We seem pent up into one thought
which besets our whole mind. Such a season of
temptation is a time of havoc and disorder, even in
those who come off with the mastery at last. Now,
the sure passing away of this is a refreshment like the
waking up out of a troubled dream, and finding it to
be without reality. When the Tempter is departed, the
trial is past, and we are full of peace. We have a
keener perception of God's love shed abroad in us, a
consciousness of having overcome in the strength of
Christ. It seems as if "angels came and ministered
unto us out of the depth of heavenly consolation.
'Now, such is God's gracious way of dealing with
us. After our trial comes rest; after our sorrow
comes refreshment. But there are peculiar dangers
attending this blessed change; and we have hardly
less need to watch when our temptation is ended,
than when it is yet upon us.' ¹ (dd) (ee) (ff)
1
""
I have thus, my dear friends, as I proposed, con-
sidered with such insight as He has been pleased to
give me, 'The Prince of Light and the Prince of
Darkness in Conflict.'
1 As before, pp. 162, 163; and let my readers, if they would find treasure,
get the volume and read the sequel, and indeed all the volumes, and all the
sermons of Manning, who is as subtle as Aquinas, and spiritual as Bernard.
The Temptation of Christ.
263
1
I would now, in conclusion, add three more general
thoughts from the Temptation as a whole.
I observe-
¶ 76. The Temptations actualize to the Believer what
he may expect as a son of God.
We are told that our Lord was 'in all points
tempted like as we are:' a corollary is, that we are
'tempted, in all points,' like as He was, from the
moment of our giving ourselves to Him. I do not
now refer to the wider truth that every believer must
expect to be tempted; but definitely that he will be
tempted in the sort Christ was. Our temptations
may not follow in the same order or always take the
same outward form ; but the same aim interpenetrates
them all. The Tempter thrusts in his temptations as
we thrust in a magnet into a heap of rubbish to see
if something will not be attracted; and while in the
'Sinless One' he found 'nothing,' in us, alas! he finds
all too much.
But let us look at the three Temptations, and see
how far they are repeated in our experience. First
of all, the Lord was tempted to turn 'stones' into
'bread' when He was 'an-hungered,' and beneath
that, to command when He was there not to com-
mand but to obey. Now, is it not so with His
followers, in measure? 'An-hungered' physically
or spiritually, are we not exposed to this very snare?
Physically: When in poverty and outward friend-
264
The Temptation of Christ.
(
lessness we have nothing to eat for ourselves, or—
more tryingly still-for those we love, the pang of
hunger is sore to bear, and in our weakness we are
prone are we not?-to 'turn aside' from 'the wilder-
ness' and provide wrongously. But again, brother!
sister! let me press upon you, your safety is to 'take
heed' to the words of the Lord: Abide-wait; and
verily thou shalt be fed. Give not way to the 'temp-
tation' of leaving the post of duty, or of forsaking the
true, the right, the good. A hundred and a hundred
times perish rather. Spiritually: When unfed be-
cause of, it may be, a given ministry, from which, be-
cause of providential arrangements, we cannot turn
to go elsewhither, we may be tempted to do one of
two things either to 'forsake the assembling of our-
selves together,' or to listen heedlessly to what is
preached. Each is perilous. To stay away from
God's house, is to disobey the Lord and neglect His
ordinances: to listen heedlessly, is to 'do despite' to
His word and service. Moreover, there is ever the
temptation in such circumstances to 'command'
where we ought to 'serve ;' and by criticism (which I
don't say must necessarily be mistaken or captious)
to turn, not stones into bread but bread into stones.
Ah! if we would but 'serve,' and wait on our God
who has 'led' us into the wilderness, and arranged for
us our circumstances, we should find Him turning the
most unfavourable circumstances, the barest ministry,
into channels of blessing, ay, very stones into bread.
:
Spag
The Temptation of Christ.
265
You remember the wonderful words of Jesus pre-
ceding the miracle of the 'loaves.' They had told
Him that they had but 'five barley loaves and a few
small fishes,' and what, they naturally asked, are
these among so many? Was His answer 'It is by
far too little,' or 'It is impossible by so little to feed
such a multitude'? No! But 'Bring them UNTO ME.'
Even so, my dear friends, let sermon or prayer, how-
ever slight and small, be brought to Jesus, and see
what He will make of it; and so throughout.
Be it ours then under such temptations as these,
physically or spiritually, to 'cry' to the Lord, and
seek from Him the delivering, relieving, sustaining,
preserving 'word.' For 'The man [the God-fearing,
God-trusting man] liveth not by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'
Again: Was Jesus tempted to 'cast Himself be-
neath' from the 'wing of the Temple,' and under that,
to distrust God, and to 'tempt' God on a falsely
pleaded promise? Exactly so is it also with His chil-
dren, in kind. We cannot go up to a 'pinnacle
without the risk of just such a temptation. Even
physically it is so. For who has not felt John Foster's
wild wish to cast himself beneath' while hanging
over the roaring Falls of Niagara or some great pre-
cipice? But specially is it so spiritually. We don't
advance in Christian growth without the snare of
making a show and spectacle of it. Let us beware.
Let our motto be, 'I, yet not I, but the grace of God.'
266 The Temptation of Christ.
:
That will keep us from bravado words and bravado
acts. But should it happen that we be placed on
such 'pinnacles,' and so placed that the Tempter
comes and assaileth us, grasp the promise of Divine
protection to trustful sonship, in its true meaning.
For blessed be God, there is a true as well as a false
meaning and true it is that in height or depth, whoso
' abideth under the shadow of the Almighty,' shall
'dwell in safety.' But oh! let the shadow fall over
our spiritual life and living, in so far as the world is
concerned. Let it be, except in very peculiar cases,
a thing in shade, unboasting, unpretending, 'hidden.'
My brother! my sister! suffer not yourself to 'tempt'
God by spiritual bravado, and spiritual show, and
spiritual 'proving' of the Lord!
6
Once more: Was Jesus tempted by all the king-
doms of the world' to pay homage to His Tempter,
and under that, to work out possession of the world,
'without blood'? Is it not also so in our expe-
rience? Still the Tempter seeks to tempt in this
very fashion. Looking at it broadly, how else explain
that unsated lust of dominion which makes the kings
of the earth seek to add province to province at
whatever cost of bloodshed and crime? Who can
refuse to recognise an awful glamour cast over their
eyes? Looking at it again, in smaller and obscurer
regions, is the principle at work at all different, where
the bribe of a shilling is temptation enough to tell a
lie, or to do the Devil's dirtiest drudgery?
The Temptation of Christ.
267
My dear friends, all indebtednesses to the Tempter ;
all, larger or lesser, acquisitions through 'devices' of
sin, carry the Third Temptation of Christ in them.
We have paid homage to the Devil. Even more
awfully, we have weighed the blood-bought salva-
tion against the Devil's bribes-and preferred them.
Miserable election! Prodigal preference! Let the
bribe even be all the kingdoms of the world,' what
of that? What are they to the kingdom' of which,
in Jesus Christ, I and you are 'heirs'?
'Go wing thy flight from star to star,
From world to luminous world as far
As the universe spreads its flaming wall:
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,
One minute of heaven is worth them all. 91
Is it not so? The Tempter's colossal bribe of 'all
the kingdoms of the world' is as nothing compared
with the REWARD which awaits the lowliest believer
as an heir of God, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ.'
'What is a man profited, THOUGH he gain the whole
world, and lose his soul?'
I observe-
77. The Temptation shows the tempted Believer
how to resist; and endears the Bible.
The most cursory reader of the Narratives that
have been occupying us must be struck with the per-
petual resort of the Lord to the Bible, and to those
means which are within our power equally as they
were within His, in this and in His after-conflicts.
1 Paradise and the Peri. By Thomas Moore.
1
268
The Temptation of Christ.
>
Here I would first of all let Dr. Thomas Taylor
speak for me: "Let the "meek answers" of Christ
"comfort us," he says, '(1.) By showing us that
there is something else besides Divine power to over-
come all hellish and Satanical power withal. For
else we that want Divine power, and are weaker than
water, could have small comfort. But now we see
Satan may be overcome of weak men by the means
Christ used, as fasting, prayer, and the Word of God.
(2.) By persuading us that if Christ in His humility
and abasement could encounter and foil Satan, much
more can He now help us, being in His glory and
exaltation. If he can rescue us out of the mouth of
the "roaring lion," when Himself is a Lamb before
the shearer, much more when He shall show Him-
self the mighty Lion of the tribe of Judah.'¹
These are very comforting words. But I am an-
xious, beyond all, to fix your attention upon the new
preciousness given to the Bible, and specially to the
Old Testament in its historical books, by the resist-
ance of the Lord having been grounded throughout
upon Deuteronomy: -
2
1 As before, pp. 72, 73.
2 Deuteronomy. Of this book Charles Kingsley has just said, nobly and
valiantly, among many other good and eloquent things:- It is, if possible,
the grandest and deepest book of the whole Old Testament. Its depth and
wisdom are unequalled. I hold it to be the sum and substance of all politi-
cal philosophy and morality, of the true life of a nation. The books of
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, grand as they are, are, as it were, its chil-
dren; growth out of the root which Deuteronomy reveals.'-(The Gospel in
the Pentateuch, p. 185.) It is noteworthy that this Book of Deuteronomy,
so endeared to the Christian by Christ's use of it and resting on its words,
should be the grand object of attack to Bishop Colenso. The third part of
his notorious book is devoted almost wholly to Deuteronomy.
The Temptation of Christ.
269
Welcome, dear book, soul's joy and food!
The feast
Of spirits; Heaven extracted lyes in thee.
Thou art life's Charter, the Dove's spotless nest,
Where souls are hatch'd unto Eternitie.' ¹
Who will not say 'amen' to the exultant song
of
'The Silurist'? Be it ours to prize more and more
this 'weapon of our warfare :—
}
'O most impenetrable buckler! how
Slender an help is triple steel to thee!
Seven-times redoubled adamant must bow
To thy less vulnerable durity.
O Scripture! what vain straws and feathers are
Goliah's arms, if they with thee compare.' 2
My brethren, let us 'lay to heart' and practise the
counsel of the great Apostle of the Gentiles:—a counsel
that, I apprehend, refers to the temptation of Christ
as our pattern: 'Be strong in the Lord, and in the
power of His might; put on the whole armour of God
[how like to Jesus going forth only in the power of
His might' as 'full of the Holy Spirit'], that ye may
be able to stand against the WILES of the Devil. For
we [we as well as Christ] wrestle not against flesh and
blood [not with fellow-men merely], but against prin-
cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world [still of this world'], against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take
unto you [even as the Lord] the whole armour of God,
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, hav-
6
2 Beaumont, as before, p. 135.
H. Vaughan, as before, p. 62.
$
270
The Temptation of Christ.
ing your loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God' (Eph. vi. 10-17).
Place that Word of God and God the Word before
you, and no fear of defeat. 'It is written' taken up
as a 'stone' from the 'stream of the water of life'
and slung in faith, will smite the broadest-browed and
most gigantic Goliath defiant of the armies of the
living God.' 'It is written' the Tempter never dared
to deny it. 'It is written the Tempter never chal-
lenged its authority. Like Eleazar of old story, let us
so grasp the 'sword of the Spirit,' that our hand shall
'cleave unto it' (2 Sam. xxiii. 10). Be it ours to be
ready. For ready or unready Temptation will come,
and we had need to be cunning at our fence, seeing
that if the Devil sought our overthrow in Christ, much
more will he do it in ourselves. God had one Son
free from sin, but no son free from temptation. Be
it our part therefore to stand fast,' and to stand
prepared. (gg)
Ay! and let us prize the privilege of our free and
open Bible, and sympathize far more than I am afraid
we do with those souls who, in the Church of Rome and
in Popish countries, do love the Saviour,--and there
are multitudes of such,—but are deprived of the Bible,
The Temptation of Christ.
271
are deprived at once, of that fuller truth for which they
yearn unsatisfiedly, and of the weapons' of their
'warfare.' No one who has mingled with the godly of
Roman Catholic Europe, especially the peasantry of
France and Italy, Belgium and Austria, but must have.
been humbled in view of attainments in spiritual
things without the Bible and in semi-darkness, that
might compare with his own, with the Bible and in
this free land of ours. Oh, the foul wrong done to
Christ's own Spirit-quickened 'sons and daughters'
by the priestly withholding of the Bible! How long!
O Lord! how long !' And, in absence of the Bible,
I cannot but rejoice in the great paintings of the great
Facts of the Gospel, and in the abounding Crosses,
in church and street and by the wayside, in Popish
countries. I have myself seen incontestable evi-
dences of adoring communion with the invisible
Saviour through these; and it seems to me Protes-
tantism gone mad to pronounce against them indiscri-
minately in the peculiar circumstances of Bibleless lands.
I observe-
'
(
¶ 78. The Temptation exalts and yet humanizes
Christ to the Believer.
I do not think that it would be difficult to con-
struct an argument for the supreme Divinity of the
Lord Jesus from the simple fact of the offer in the
Third Temptation. Look at it for a moment. Up
to this time Jesus had done no 'wonderful works,'
272
The Temptation of Christ.
(
spoken no weighty words. He was still in the eyes
of His fellow-countrymen, and even of His own two
brothers (by Mary), no more than a Galilean peasant
and carpenter. How comes it about that to this out-
wardly lowly, obscure, unnoted man, of no recognised
lineage, with no followers, with no vantage or advan-
tage whatever, the Prince of Darkness offers to de-
liver up' his-ALL? Many kings, remember, had
come claiming to be Gods.' Many had received
Divine honours. From Alexander to the then reign-
ing Cæsar, coins are extant with legends of Divinity
upon them. But Satan never blundered into the
admission. You don't find him stooping his broad
forehead to any of them. You don't hear of him
presenting the vast bribe to any of them. You don't
come upon so lofty an estimate of their stooped knee.
You don't trace a solitary acceptance of their boastful
exactions. But now he is at the service of this peas-
ant, this carpenter, this ignoble and 'despised' Jew.
The dazzling Regalia of the round world will clasp
His forehead for a bended knee! How explain this?
I answer, The devils BELIEVE, ... and tremble.'
There came a first time, 'If Son Thou be of the God,'
and a second time, 'If Son Thou be of the God;
but the scoff died away on the pallored lip at last.
6
Again: While through the Temptation we thus get
a deep glance into the grand truth of His Supreme
and absolute Divinity, it is yet very consolatory to
mark how the Trial' brings out His Humanity.
•
The Temptation of Christ.
273
Need I remind you of His 'Hunger' to faintness?
Need I recall His 'strong crying' in His agony?
Need I expatiate upon His tears' as He suffered,
being tempted'? Need I recur to His devout turn-
ing to the 'Word'? Need I bring back again the
needed 'ministration' at the close? How all these
tender the mighty Lord to us!
6
But more specifically, let me ask you to remember
the words of Paul, 'Verily He took not on Him
the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed
of Abraham. WHEREFORE in all things it behoved
Him to be made like unto His brethren, THAT He might
be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things per-
taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people.' And then,' For in that He Himself hath
suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them
that are tempted' (Heb. ii. 16-18). How near these.
great words bring Jesus to us! how near ought they
to bring us to Jesus! What a BREADTH and depth
of experience He had! Ours is very narrow and
meagre, even when we put together the experience
of a whole congregation; but who can read the Gospel,
and not be impressed with the broadness of His?
DEPTH
I want you, my dear friends, to keep a grip of that.
For this experience of Christ, gained through actual
Temptation and Suffering in Temptation, and conse-
quent SYMPATHY with you and me in our temptation,
and suffering in temptation, is a part and a very vital
part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
S
274
The Temptation of Christ.
I am the more earnest and urgent in this because
there is a danger of over-simplifying the Gospel by a
narrowing process. That is to say, as I apprehend,
we miss out often what is very priceless, by trying
to reduce the Gospel to two or three propositions or
formulas that may be stated in words of one syllable.
It is a glory of the Gospel that it can be stated in so
few and simple words, that there is no language, how-
ever sparse, without equivalents; but yet, as I take it,
we ought to summon men to awake and look at it in
its breadth and grandeur and universality. And no
one adequately understands the Gospel, i.e. as he
should do, who misses out the Saviour's Tempta-
tions and their infinite applications.¹
6
Once more :-The Temptation exalts and yet
humanizes Jesus to the Believer in so far forth as it
presents Him as a 'tried' Saviour proved perfect.
It is impossible to exaggerate the worth of the three
Temptations in this aspect. The Believer needs,
down in the very core of his nature, to be assured of
the absolute sinlessness of that Saviour to whom he
has intrusted his sinner's soul. Is there any evil ten-
dency in His bosom? Any dormant principle or
germ of sin that may be stimulated into life? Any
weakness overcome? Any possibility of projecting
evil thought or wish? The Temptation is the answer.
1 On 'The Sympathy' of Christ, see Professor Maclagan's very able Dis-
course, introduced anonymously in Marcus Dod's sound and valuable but
hard-to-be-read Treatise on The Incarnation of the Eternal Word (c. viii.,
from Heb. iv. 15), 2d. ed. 1849.
The Temptation of Christ.
275
If there had been any sinful tendency, the Devil
would have found it out. If there had been any
handle to work Him by, the Devil would have used
it. If it had been possible to seduce Him, the Devil
would have done it. But no! Emphatically he
FOUND NOTHING' in Him. Throughout, the Lord
Jesus Christ stood triumphant.
(
The Temptation is ended ; and now, up on that 'ex-
ceeding high mountain,' there stands One loftier than
the mountain. A mountain for pedestal had dwarfed
any other occupant. It is dwarfed by Him. Now
confronting Him, the Tempter makes the awful dis-
covery that words which he had spoken in rash and
reckless frivolity of fraud, had a meaning within them
deeper far than ever he intended or understood, and
that they are coming in terrible resurrection back
upon him. The Prince of Light towers over The
Prince of Darkness, and in the outflashing glory of
that radiant human face that looks down upon him,
the Evil One finds he uttered a prophecy whose
fulfilment is smiting himself,-in the great Eden lie,
'YE shall be as GODS.' 'It is fulfilled.' He sought
to 'tempt' a man; and, lo! it is 'Gop, manifest in
the flesh;' and men, in the great plan of redemption,
are secured, in Him, to become 'PARTAKERS of the
Divine nature.'
276
The Temptation of Christ.
And Now, symbol of the FINAL TRIUMPH, there
standeth One only on the great mountain-top. Far
up in the realms of light I catch a vision of the
Prince of Light. The loaded air is cleared. The
landscape swims in light. The pageant of all the
kingdoms of the world' has paled and passed. But
there-ALONE-He seeth' of the travail of His soul.'
The cross rises up stark and stern before Him, but
THE MANY' given to Him girdle its base, and the
'many crowns' gleam radiantly above. I gaze, I
listen. Behold!
'Behold! Angels have come and are mini-
stering to Him.' The 'Old Serpent' squirms beneath
the firm-placed foot. The Lord hath 'overcome' in
the CONFLICT.
6
What wonder if thus it happenéd, now!
The mighty only Heir of Heaven was there;
He, for Whose high and best-deserving brow,
Eternity was busy'd to prepare,
That sun-outshining crown, which flaming is
Upon His incarnation's lowliness.'1
•
AMEN AND AMEN.
1 Beaumont, as before, c. ix. st. 126, p. 131.
Appendir
of
Notes and Jllustrations.
'I HAVE heard divines say, that it is very hard to convince men of
the existence of A DEVIL, that they scarcely know whether they are con-
vinced of it themselves. I think they are mistaken. I believe they may
give their people credit for having that belief, whatever other they have not.
am satisfied that they themselves acknowledge a DEVIL.
I wish I were
as sure that we or that you were always believing in God.
'The name, we all know, is never long absent from human discourse. It
is used in jest by those who do not use it in earnest. That is one sign. An
opinion, a fear, a fancy, call it what you will, must have prevailed long,
must have taken possession of men's minds, before it could find its way so
readily to their lips. Are there no other signs? Does not each man com-
plain of some burden, some incubus which he wants to throw off? One may
find it outside of him; if he could have better or less stupid beings to work
with, all would be well. Another feels as if it were altogether within him.
He finds the enemy in his chamber; he carries the enemy about with him
in his heart. It is a miserable, solitary strife, of which no one knows
anything, in which no one has any interest but himself. Standing at these
two opposite poles, these men are nevertheless at one as to the fact of there
being that which acts upon them, just as some subtle invader or tyrant,
whom they could behold in an outward shape, would do. Christians and
Atheists may often argue that the language of Scripture is unsuitable to our
time. But they agree also in this, that they fall into it unawares when they
seek to describe what they are feeling and suffering. Intelligent travellers
and zealous missionaries know that, in barbarous countries, the difficulty is
not to convince men of this doctrine, but of any other.
'Perhaps this reflection may relieve our minds of a very painful suspicion.
Scholars often affirm, with an air of great confidence, that our Lord was only
conforming Himself to a Jewish habit and tradition when He spoke of evil
spirits, and attributed to them the plagues from which men are suffering.
Considering how large a portion of His acts and words express or imply
this doctrine, no one who believes that He is the Truth, and that He was
born into the world to bear witness of the Truth, can accept this state-
ment. But I care much more, that we should not shrink, through any
shame of an old and vulgar opinion, from the acknowledgment THAT THERE
IS AN ADVERSARY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND UNITY, WHO IS PLOTTING
AGAINST US ALL.'
·
•
Frederick Denison Maurice,
('The Devil and God' [1 Peter v. 8, 9], Sermons,
privately printed, vol. i. pp. 299-301, 313.)
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
NOTE (a.)-Pp. 1-3.
Translation of the Narratives of the Temptation.
I HAVE inserted the figures 1, 2, 3, etc., at such places of my
Translation as offer occasion for remark, or depart more or
less from the venerable and venerated Authorized Version. I
propose, therefore, in this Note a, to explain and confirm these
places and departures, in so far as I deem it needful.
C
1. Jesus.'-The Textus Receptus is ò Inooûs, to which Scholz,
Webster and Wilkinson, and Wordsworth, as before them Titt-
man and Robinson, adhere: Alford reads simply 'Inooûs, though
in his margin-references he gives us authorities for ỏ (C?) D,
etc. without the ó BUA (P?). To MSS. U and A slight autho-
rity belongs, while C (which is queried) and D stand very high.
Surely the ỏ commends itself to our acceptance. For thereby the
Lord is marked out, not as a Jesus, a Saviour, but as the Jesus,
the Saviour. I may be told that the article appears before other
proper names, e.g., ò IIéтpos; but what then? In all such cases
I would similarly render the article. It is not a Peter, or any
Peter indefinitely, but the Peter, who is designated; and while
it perhaps clumsies a translation for popular use, and brings it
into a comparison that scarcely any new translation can bear
with the music of the English Bible, yet for critical and exe-
getical purposes it were well if none of these niceties were
missed. For my part, I don't see how, without such explana-
tions as these, I am at liberty to say Jesus, when the inspired
Greek says 'The Jesus,' The Saviour, the latter being, I appre-
hend, the most accurate translation.-Cf. Matt. i. 21. The
law of the article in English has still to be explained. Gram-
280
Notes and Illustrations.
marians seem to shirk it. It is singular that we always speak
of 'rivers' and 'oceans' and 'mountains' with 'the,' e.g., the
Forth, the Thames, the Atlantic, the Alps; but not so of towns
or villages, etc. We say the Clyde, but only Glasgow; and
the Clyde, but not the Loch Lomond.
2. Led up.
The Greek is ávýx0ŋ = ává and dyw. Bishop
Andrewes observes :-' The manner of leading is described to
be such a kind of leading as when a ship is loosed from the
shore; as Luke the 8th chapter and 22d verse, it is called
"launching forth" (ávýx@noav), so in the 18th chapter of the
Acts, the 21st verse, Paul is said to have "sailed forth" (ax0n).'
—(Sermons, vol. v. p. 498; Anglo-Catholic Library edition of
the Seven Sermons upon the Temptation.) Wickliffe renders it
'ledde of,' Tyndale 'ledd awaye,' Cranmer 'led awaye,' the
Geneva version (1557) 'led asyde,' the Rheims (1582) 'ledde
of,' and our authorized version (1611) ‘led vp,' Campbell 'con-
ducted,' Shadwell 'led into,' Cureton 'led of,' Prof. Godwin
'led away.' Alford expounds 'The Spirit carried Him away,'
Webster and Wilkinson assume a 'miraculous transportation,'
Wordsworth, as usual when there is a real difficulty, has nothing
about it. If the 'wilderness' were the wilderness of Arabia, a
preternatural 'leading' or 'transportation' is demanded. Of
this, as of other things, I must more fully speak in my larger
book.
3. ‘Within.'—In Matthew the Greek is els T. e.; but in Mark
and Luke év T.e., which interprets the former, and expresses not
merely 'into' (as Prof. Godwin retains), but as I have rendered
'within': ='its very midst,' as Dr. Oosterzee. Does this mean
that Jesus was in the wilderness, on its borders, at His baptism,
but that He now passed into the interior?
4. Under.' The preposition is vrò, and I deem it of the
last importance to note this. The ev of Luke is ep-exegetical
of Matthew's ÚπÒ. See 7.
'
5. The Spirit.'-The article is expressed (vπò тоû IIveúµatos),
and it is singular that Wickliffe should render 'a Spirit.' Yet
I have been astounded with the numbers who overlook the fact,
that it was God the Holy Spirit, not the Devil, who 'led' the
Saviour to be tempted.' Cureton's Syriac is 'The Spirit of
Holiness.'
6. In order to be tempted.'—The original is repao@ĥvaι, which
Notes and Illustrations.
281
all the versions above in 2 render to be tempted;' Shadwell,
as myself, 'In order to be tempted.' I may here adduce Alford:
‘π. The express purpose of ἀνήχθη. No other rendering is
even grammatical. Hence it is evident that our Lord at this
time was not "led up" of His own will and design, but as a part
of the conflict with the Power of darkness, He was brought to
the Temptation. As He had been subject to his earthly parents
at Nazareth, so now He is subject in the outset of His official
course, to his heavenly Parent, and is by His will thus carried
up to be tempted.' In passing, I have these remarks to make
upon this note :-(1.) There is surely incaution in affirming
that the going to the Temptation was not of the Lord's own will
and design. It was not of His own will-ing or design-ing, that
is, it was contrived for Him; but that is something very differ-
ent from its not having been His will and design. His Father's
will became His will; and certainly, in harmony therewith, it
was His 'design,' in going forth, 'to be tempted.' (2.) Why
"in the outset only? Throughout and to the close He was
'obedient,' was the servant. (3.) The Dean mistakes when he
says, 'no other rendering is grammatical,' for according to the
usage of πeipášw, it signifies not to 'tempt' merely, but
put to the test,' 'to put to the proof,' 'to prove,' all of which
are warrantable and grammatical.' Perhaps he means that
only as the infinitive to av. can . be rendered grammatically;
but he does not say so. Moreover, who ever thought of con-
struing, grammatically or ungrammatically, otherwise?
to
'
7. Under.'-In the whole of the three Evangelists the pre-
position is vπd, and in my Exposition I show that the subordi-
nation and surrender for the Temptation hinge upon it. I call
special attention to ¶ 12, 13. I don't find sufficient force given
to vrò by any of the translators or commentators.
8. The Devil.'-In Matthew and Luke we have Toû diaßóλov
διαβόλου
the Calumniator, or Slanderer, or perhaps Variance-Causer.
In Mark i. 13 it is Toû Zaravâ— the Adversary. Were it not
better to indicate these names according as a different Greek
word is employed? Pre-eminently did the Devil appear now as
a 'Calumniator' and 'Adversary.' Wickliffe renders it 'the
fende,' .. 'the fiend.' Tyndale (1534) first uses 'devyll.'
Cf. Campbell's Sixth Dissertation, Part I., upon Aiaßoλos, Dai-
μwy, and Aayμoviov. Prof. Godwin renders the Adversary,'
μων, Δαιμονιον.
:
282
Notes and Illustrations.
and so in verses 5 and 8, but inconsistently retains Satan in
verse IO.
9. 'Days forty and nights forty.'-The Greek is nμépas Teσ-
σαράκοντα καὶ νύκτας τεσσαράκοντα, and the exact order imparts
vividness. It is noticeable that in the Very Antient Recension
of the Four Gospels in Syriac, so admirably edited by Dr. Cure-
ton, the 'forty nights' are not found, which agrees with Mark
i. 13 and Luke iv. 2. The Peshito itself, however, follows the
Greek of Matthew. On the imitation of the Lord's Fast, called
Lent, consult John Mayer in his Commentary and Authorities,
in loco (Matthew). With reference to the period of 'forty days
and forty nights,' Thomas Fuller observes :-'Long battles are
seldom hot, but battles are seldom long; this was both' (as
before, p. 2).
10. He was hungry.'-The Greek is érelvaσe. It is more
than a play upon words to find our expressive English 'pine'
here. I apprehend that far more than ordinary 'hunger' is de-
signated: say 'famished' (?) Wickliffe is 'he hungrid,' Tyndale
originated our authorized version an-hungered.'
renders 'He was afterwards hungry.'
Shadwell
C
II. 'The Tempter-The original is ò repáčov, present par-
ticiple as in 1 Thess. iii. 5. Have we not a reference back here
to the Eden Temptation,' and consequent Fall?
6
12. 'Iƒ'—i.e. el. I find an excellent quotation here, in
Alford, from Euthymius; and I give the whole note :—' The
ei implies no doubt of the Lord's Messiahship, but, as Euthymius
observes, ᾤετο ὅτι παρακνισθήσεται τῷ λόγῳ, καθάπερ ὀνειδισθεὶς
ἐπὶ τῷ μὴ εἶναι υἱὸς Θεοῦ.’
<
13. 'The God.'-The original of the phrase is El viòs el toû
Ocoû; hence my literal translation. It seems to me that the
article before 'God' expresses the compelled acknowledgment of
'The one living and true God' by the Devil. While, as in my
Exposition, I show there is craft in the collocation of the words.
Cf. ¶ 20.
With regard to the omission of the article before vids, say
Webster and Wilkinson, 'some difficulty has been felt but
'
t
nouns are frequently anarthrous when they express "in the re-
lation or character of," and then
and then the charge upon which our
Saviour was condemned before the Sanhedrim was, that He
claimed the incommunicable attributes of the Godhead. His
Notes and Illustrations.
283
καίπερ
words, as quoted by His triumphant accusers and judges, were:
Oeoû eluì viós, Matt. xxvii. 43, i.e. I claim to stand toward God
in the relation of Son. So Heb. i. 2, ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ ;
V. 8, Kaiπeρ av viós, "though being Son." See Arnold, Thuc.
iii. 57. Cf. Bishop Middleton's acute and satisfactory Note in
reply to Campbell and Wakefield (and to Samuel Sharpe by
anticipation, and Maurice on Hebrews), who translate prepos-
tercusly, 'a Son of God' (On The Doctrine of the Greek Article,
edition by Rose, 1833, pp. 133, 134). Wickliffe is 'if Thou
art Goddis sone. See ¶ 20, p. 93, foot-note.
14. 'Speak.'--The Greek is eiπè, and while command' is
implied, it is better to abide by the exact meaning. Mark the
antithesis between the two 'speaks' in the Tempter's appeal.
He said, 'speak' (or say). But Jesus 'spake (or said). This
is not accidental, I believe. Wickliffe properly has 'seye.'
Tyndale originated 'commaunde.' Here, as elsewhere, Wick-
liffe is by much the preferable translator. Prof. Godwin renders
'bid.'
(C
15. 'Loaves.'—Webster and Wilkinson observe here: 'äρro,
loaves." aρros used indefinitely is bread; but joined with
els, or any word which limits the signification, it ought to be
rendered loaf.' Wickliffe has 'loaves,' Tyndale 'breed.' Prof.
Godwin adheres to 'bread.'
C
}
16. ‘Spake,' eîπe. —See remarks in 14.
17. The man.'-I quote here Bishop Middleton's note :—
äv@ρwños. Wetstein's C, D, E, etc., prefix the article, and in the
parallel passage, Luke iv. 4, the article is found in the majority
of MSS. As this is an exclusive proposition (see Part i. chap. iii.
sect. iii. § 5), the article would regularly be omitted. The pas-
sage, however, is quoted from the LXX., Deut. viii. 3, who have
ỏ åvůρwros, and on turning to the Hebrew, I found, as I ex-
pected, .' (As before, p. 135.) Without seeking to impugn
the Bishop's rule as to 'exclusive propositions,' I think most
will refuse its application here in the face of the ô in the LXX.
and the corresponding Hebrew. Dean Alford gives the ỏ, but
makes no use of it.
K
C
<
18. Every word proceeding through the mouth of God.'—The
Greek is ἀλλ' ἐπὶ παντὶ ῥήματι ἐκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ.
Cureton in his Syriac translates thing,' and the following is
his note :-
284
Notes and Illustrations.
' Thing.—I have given this rendering of the original alda
to distinguish it from, word, of the Peshito, which has
followed the Greek phμari, and because of the original mean-
ing of the Hebrew (Deut. viii. 3), mm nid bɔ, “Whatsoever
'o nrıd
cometh out of the mouth of Jehovah (or the LORD)." The
Peshito of Deuteronomy has rendered the Hebrew exactly,
everything that ܒܟܠ ܡܕܡ ܕܡܦܩ ܦܘܡܗ ܕܡܪܝܐ
cometh out of the mouth of the LORD."'
With the profoundest estimate of Dr. Cureton's scholarship,
it must be permitted me to doubt the sufficiency of his reasons
for departing from the Peshito and Greek. Besides, what
other than words' can be said to come out of' (or through)
the mouth of Jehovah? See Psalm xxxiii. 6; John i. 3. Surely
it is trifling to speak of the things' themselves so coming;
and I must here repeat that no presumed 'meaning of the
original Hebrew,' especially where there is an ellipsis, will
satisfy the devout reader of the New Testament that the
very words of The Lord are not to be taken, unmodified by
others, and above all unmodified by mere etymological or
syntactical rules. Cf. Shadwell, who reads év instead of èπì
with Tischendorf.
66
C
C
19. Took Him with him.'-See ¶ 32. The Greek as there
explained is παραλαμβάνει. Webster and WVilkinson say, ‘παρά,
"by his side," as his companion, ii. 21.' Wickliffe renders,
'Thaune the fend took Him;' Tyndale, 'took Hym;' Cranmer,
'taketh Hym;' Geneva, 'toke Him;' Rheims, 'took Him;' and
authorized version, 'taketh Him.' Shadwell, with myself, 'took
Him with him.' Doddridge, 'taketh Him along with him.'
Campbell, conveyed Him.' Elsewhere I shall discuss fully
this 'taking.' From Jerome onwards it has been regarded as
a carrying through the air. Lange calls this 'fantastic,' but it is
nothing compared with the 'fantasticalness' of his own ab-
surdities concerning the Tempter, as one of the Jewish
Sanhedrim !
20. 'The wing.'-The Greek is Tò TTEрúylov, on which, for
the present, I would simply refer to Bishop Middleton, pp.
135, 136. Brameld renders it 'gable,' following Luther.
21. 'Beneath.'-The Greek is ßáλe σeautÒV KÉTW. Wick-
liffe is 'sende thee adown.' Tyndale originates 'Cast Thyself
down.' I apprehend the kárw refers to place, and therefore is
Notes and Illustrations.
285
,
to be rendered 'beneath.' It seems to me vividly to realize to
us the giddy chasm far below 'the wing' of the Temple as
described by Josephus.
CC
66
22. Upon.'-I here enrich myself with a good note from
Thrupp on Psalm xci. 11: 'In both Evangelists the quota-
tion is, so far as it goes, taken correctly from the LXX. It is
curious that our English version of the passage, both as it stands
in the Old Testament and as it is quoted in the New Testament,
contains an erroneous rendering, which neither the Hebrew nor
the Greek will bear. For in their hands" we should read
on their hands." The false rendering, although here happily
of no great importance, is thus precisely parallel to that at Psalm
xvi. 10 (in for to); which is in like manner warranted neither
by the Hebrew original nor by the Greek of the LXX., as
quoted by the New Testament. Thus unaccountably do in-
defensible errors of translation creep in and become perpetuated
in the best-known passages, in spite of the check imposed by
the existence of a double original. The difference between "in
their hands" and "on their hands" is nearly the same with
that difference between "under her wings
and "on her
wings," which Mr. Jebb, and after him the author of the Plain
Commentary, have neglected when they assert Ps. xci. 4 to be
parallel to Deut. xxxii. 11, 12. The wings in the two passages
are by no means the same: the one illustrates the love with
which God protects, the other that with which he schooled his
people.'—(Introduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms. By
J. F. Thrupp, M. A. 2 vols. 8vo. 1860. Macmillan.) Wick-
liffe has 'in handis;' Tyndale with their handes;' and so
Cranmer and Geneva. The Rheims version originates in.'
Shadwell has 'on their arms.' Brameld carelessly retains the
'in,' and so Prof. Godwin. Sharpe has 'upon.'
C
>>
23. ‘Lest ever.'--The Greek is μýroтe. Campbell's note on
the word deserves attention, albeit doubtful: Lest at any
time. From an excessive solicitude not to say less than the
original, words have been explained from etymology rather than
from use; in consequence of which practice some versions are
encumbered with expletives which enfeeble instead of strengthen-
ing the expression. Of this kind is the phrase “at any time,”
which in this passage adds nothing to the sense.
The com-
pound μýroтe in the use of the sacred penmen scarcely signifies
286
Notes and Illustrations.
more than the simple un, "lest." It is used by the LXX. in
translating a Hebrew term that imports no more. In the Psalm
referred to it is rendered simply "lest." And to go no further
than this Gospel, our translators have not hesitated to render it
so in the following passages: vii. 6; xiii. 29; xv. 32; xxv. 9;
xxvii. 64. Why they have not done so in this and most other
places, I can discover no good reasons.'-(The Four Gospels
Translated from the Greek, with Preliminary Dissertations,
Notes Critical and Explanatory. By George Campbell, D.D.
Many editions.) It will be observed that, with characteristic
Scotch caution, Dr. Campbell takes care to guard himself by
qualifying words, e.g. 'scarcely signifies more;' and no 'good
reasons,' i.e. which he considers 'good.' But we naturally
ask, if μήποτε is only = μή, why was μὴ not employed? And
if there be any, however slight shade 'more,' why not express
it? That there is this shade more, no student of the subtle
niceties of Greek and of the Greek of the New Testament will
doubt; and indeed, painful as it is to say it of so scholarly and
thoughtful a man, Dr. Campbell ought to have remembered
that as a conjunction µýrore signifies 'lest ever,' or 'that never,'
or 'that not ever.' So after verbs implying purpose with the
subjunctive, and preceded by a future, a present or aorist, or an
indicative past tense. So as here, c. fut. preced. Cf. Robin-
son sub voce. 'At any time,' then, is quite accurate, but 'lest
ever' more terse. Wickliffe has 'leest perauenture;' Tyndale
that thou;' Cranmer originates 'lest at anye tyme.'
The Greek is Tòv Tóda σov, i.e. literally,
τὸν πόδα σου,
24. Thy foot.'
'the foot of thee.'
25. Again.'-The Greek is Táдw, as = not contra, but
máλw,
rursus or iterum. I refer the máλw to Christ's answering
again,' not to its being again written,' according to the
arrangement ὁ Ἰησοῦς πάλιν, Γέγραπται,
Hence Camp-
bell's cavil seems captious when putting a comma after máλw
not 'Inooûs, and reading properly 'Jesus again answered,' he
then observes: 'It is not easy to say in what sense the words
quoted can be said to have been written again.' But who said
so, Dr. Campbell? Samuel Sharpe has again it is written.'
26. 'Jehovah.'—The Greek is Kúpios, and very pertinently
does Shadwell observe in another place: The word Kúpios in
this and in many other passages in the New Testament means
!
•
•
•
Notes and Illustrations.
287
Jehovah, the proper name of God; and it is most important to
restore this word to the English translation.' Cf. his able if
over-vehement note on Matthew i. 20. The remarks on the
vulgarizing of the name 'Lord' are well worthy of attention,
though as He who was Jehovah 'manifest in the flesh' did not
refuse to use Kúpios, I don't see that I could go all the length of
Mr. Shadwell. Sharpe has 'Thou shalt not try the Lord thy
God.'
27. 'Unto,' els, = forward to (?) Sharpe has 'on to.'
28. Very elevated.'-The Greek is öpos úyŋìòv Xíav.
ὑψηλὸν
The
authorized version is somewhat too strong a rendering of Nav.
29. 'Splendour.'-The original is тoû Kóσμov κal Thν dóžav
τοῦ κόσμου τὴν
aŮTŵv. Let the reader remark the word xboμos. Is the 'glory'
αὐτῶν.
not an ep-exegesis of it? That is, Is what the Tempter showed
not the Earth as orderly and beautiful, as so magnificently
reasoned out by Humboldt in his Cosmos?
Shadwell is very
unsatisfactory here, regarding the phrase as 'The land in all
the beauty of spring or early summer.' Wickliffe has the joy
of them;' Tyndale originates 'glory.'
'
30. Deliver-The Greek is dwow, which I deem better
rendered by deliver' than simply 'give.' It brings out the
deeper meaning.
31. ‘Do homage.'-The original is ¿àν πεσшν прοσкνvýσŋs μοι.
I give here Dr. Cureton's note:—
C
Worship before me.-Greek μo only, which the Peshito
follows, reading . Luke iv. 7 has пpookνhons evwπlov μov,
and the Peshito has rendered it there exactly as it is here,
20.70 a. This, which is more peculiarly an Ara-
maic idiom, is also more in accordance with the expression Get
thee behind me in ver. 10, which, although omitted in several
Greek manuscripts and in the Peshito, is confirmed by the
palimpsest Codex Ephræmi C, the Codex Beza D, and the
Dublin Codex Z, as well as by the old Latin a, b, c.'
Professor Godwin inelegantly renders, ‘If Thou wilt fall and
bow down to me,'
<
32. “Go, Satan'-The Greek is ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ,
on which see 30. The o. u. is omitted in the common readings,
but Tischendorf adopts them. Lange rejects, and pronounces
them an interpolation from Matthew xvi. 23. 'Go,' so sub-
lime in its simplicity, is far preferable to 'Get thee hence.'
288
Notes and Illustrations.
'He spake as one having authority.' The obedience was in-
stant, the victory complete, upon which Thomas Fuller ob-
serves: 'The success of some fights hath been in such a twilight,
that after the battles ended with the swords of soldiers they
have been begun with the pens of historians, disputing who got
the better.' (As before, p. 2.)
33. ' Worship.'—'Service' in its religious sense is included.
Therefore our authorized version is a correct interpretation.
34. Leaves.'-The original word is TOTE ȧplηow avтÒV ỏ
diáßolos. It is a pity the tenses are not rendered in authorized
version with more precision.
C
35. Are waiting.'-The original is kal idov, äɣɣeλoɩ πрoσ-
ῆλθον καὶ διηκόνουν αὐτῷ as a servant waits.
36. 'Impelleth.'-See ¶ 6, p. 35, footnote 2.
ẻкßáλλei. Sharpe has 'sendeth Him forth.'
ἐκβάλλει.
37. 'Days forty.'-See 9.
38. ‘ The Adzersary.’—Tou Ear Qua
39.
See S.
'Wild beasts.'-See ¶ 11, and Note (i.)
The Greek is
40. 'Of the Holy Spirit.'-The Greek is dè Пveúµatos ȧyíov
πλήρης.
41.
'Turned back.'-Greek, vπéσтрEYEV ȧπò тоû 'I.
42. In the Spirit,' èv т& IIv. = 'in the Spirit.' Here I give
Monod's note:-'This expression, in the Spirit, does not ex-
actly correspond to St. Matthew's, by the Spirit. It usually
implies that special and miraculous way in which the Holy
Ghost acted upon the persons whom He inspired, to make
them either act or speak. Thus it is in the Spirit that Simeon
comes to the Temple (Luke ii. 27); it is in the Spirit that St.
John receives the vision of the Apocalypse (Rev. i. 10); it is in
the Spirit that he is transported by an angel in the wilderness
(Rev. xvii. 3), nearly as Ezekiel is transferred from one place to
another under the prophetic action (Ezek. viii. 3; xi. 1).’—(As
before, p. 2.) So far so good. But I cannot see that Luke's év
does not exactly correspond to St. Matthew's vπò,' seeing,
beyond all doubt, it is the same act, the same thing that is
spoken of. Moreover, Luke ii. 27 is parallel with our verses,
but not Rev. i. 10, xvii. 3, where the context tells us it was quite
another kind of transportation. Sharpe has 'being full of holy
spirit' the absence of capitals is significant.
.
43. Under the Devil.'-See 7 and S.
Notes and Illustrations.
289
44. 'Did eat nothing whatever?—The original is kal oùk ëḍayev
οὐδὲν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις. The double negative in the Greek
presents a curious example of the working of Greek as distin-
guished from our intellect. We take up the double negative in
this way, 'He did not eat nothing.' There can only be 'nothing'
and 'something:' therefore He did eat something. The Greek
mind, on the other hand, says, 'He did not eat nothing,' i.e. He
did not get the length of nothing, far less of something: which
looks odd to us, but it was the Greek way.
45. ‘Afterwards,' vσтeρov èπ.—Says Shadwell, on Matthew :
'A remarkable expression; and the same is said by Luke iv. 2.
During the forty days of waiting upon Jehovah, the presence of
hunger was not felt; but afterwards nature asserted her rights.
The whole narrative shows, that Jesus had assumed human
nature with all its incidents, and that God dealt with Him as
He had before done with created man. Here is to be seen the
wonderful humiliation of Jesus.' Sharpe has 'at last.'
46. This stone,' T Xlow TOúry.-(See footnote, p. 98.)
47. A loaf.'-See 15.
48. Word of God.'-See 18.
49. Conducted.'—See 2.
mountain.'
C
(
Sharpe has, taking him up a high
↓
50. Lofty mountain,' öpos vynλbv.
ὑψηλόν.
I
51. The habitable earth,' rîs olkovμévns.—See ¶ 47. I appre-
hend it is impossible to limit the large phraseology here.
don't doubt of the Divine power to cause any one to so see ´ all
the kingdoms of the habitable earth.' He could cause me to
see right through the solid granite if it were needful; and we
know nothing of spiritual faculty, and nothing of the extent to
which power was delegated to the Tempter on this particular
occasion, for the particular end.
52. 'Deliver.-See 30.
53. ' Given up,' ötɩ éµoi πapadédorai.—See 30.
54. Before me.-See 31. So Sharpe.
55. Of thee,' tσтαι σov πâσa =not 'to' thee, but of thee or
thine. I prefer this to the reading σo.
56. “This place,’βάλε σεαυτὸν ἐντεῦθεν κάτω.
57. ‘Prescribed,' eïpnrai.
58. 'A Temptation,' weɩpaoμdv. Sharpe has 'every tempta-
tion.'
T
290
Notes and Illustrations.
59. ‘A fitting opportunity,' äxpi кαιρoû.--Dr. Cureton found
'for a season' in his Antient Syriac in Matthew, upon which he
has this note :
6 For a season.— -Omitted in the Greek and in the Peshito.
If it did not belong to the original Aramaic Gospel, it has pro-
bably been added from Luke iv. 13, axpɩ kaɩpov, which the Pe-
ܥܕ ܙܒܢܐ : shito renders in that place as this copy has it here
Dr. David Brown, in his Commentary (Matthew in loco), ren-
ders till a season.' See his remarks. Dr. Thomas Fuller has
t
"
two bits of characteristic comment upon the 'departing' of Satan
in the Temptation :-(I.) 'It is said of Marcellus, the Roman
General, he could not be quiet, nec victor, nec victus, neither
conquered, nor conqueror. Yea, it is said of the Parthians that
their flight was more to be feared than their fight, having a
sleight to shoot their arrows over their back, whereby they
galled their pursuing enemies. Suspect Satan even departing;
for it is animo revertendi' (as before, p. 68). (2.) 'Morsus
ferarum morientium dirissimi, the bites of dying beasts are the
sharpest; and when Satan must depart (a death to him), and
leave off to tempt us, he will, badger-like, make his teeth meet,
and take his leave with leaving a deep impression' (as before,
p. 142).
It may be well here to add the titles of the several books
referred to in the above Notes, in so far as they have not been
already given therein, or in my Exposition :-
:
ALFORD (HENRY), D. D.-'The Greek Testament with a
critically revised Text,
and a Critical and Exegetical
Commentary, for the use of Theological Students and Ministers.
Vol. i. The Gospels. 3d edition, 1856.' See foot-note 2,
P. 86.
D
•
Webster and WILKINSON.—The Greek Testament, with
Notes Grammatical and Exegetical. Vol. i. The Four Gospels
and the Acts of the Apostles.' 2 vols. 8vo, 1855, 1861. For
ripe scholarship, spiritual insight, suggestiveness, and truthful-
ness, I know no edition of the Greek Testament surpassing this.
It has no pretentiousness, no dogmatism, and is honest. It is
far ahead of Alford in everything but his text and margin-
references.
Notes and Illustrations.
291
WORDSWORTH (CHR.), D.D.-' The Greek Testament of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Original Greek: with
Notes. Part . The Four Gospels, 1856.' Full of patristic
lore and patristic nonsense, and thorough but over-verbal in its
scholarship. I have found him amusingly dexterous in evading
difficulties; and rearing enormous buttresses of quotations to
keep up rotten beams.
WICKLIFFE, ETC.-I take these versions from Bagster's noble
· English Hexapla,' royal 4to [no date].
SHADWELL.-See ¶ 74, foot-note in pp. 260, 261.
CURETON (WILLIAM), D. D.-'Remains of a Very Antient
Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, hitherto unknown in
Europe; Discovered, Edited, and Translated by' -(London,
Murray, 1858, 4to.)
ROBINSON (EDWARD), D.D., LL. D.- The Greek and
English Lexicon of the New Testament,' edition 1850. Long-
man, 8vo.
LANGE (J. S.), D.D.-' Theological and Homiletical Com-
mentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew.' By Edersheim. Clark's
Foreign Theological Library. Good; but dreadfully 'dreich,'
and many-worded and big-worded.
Dr. OosterzeE.-His contribution to the work of Lange, of
a Commentary on Luke, is much more get-at-able and common-
sensed than Lange.
G. W. BRAMELD, M.A.-'The Holy Gospels: Translated
from the Original Greek;' etc. etc. Longman, 1863, large Svo.
A mite towards the great desideratum of a reverential revision
of the authorized version; but arrogant and very churchly.
Some of his renderings are illiterate, and all the notes meagre.
PROF. JOHN F. GODWIN.- The Gospel according to St.
Matthew a New Translation, with Brief Notes, and a Har-
mony of the Four Gospels.' Bagster, 1863, 8vo. Has merit,
and shows pains-taking; yet often clumsy, and oddly and in-
explicably inaccurate in very simple things occasionally.
SAMUEL SHARPE.- The New Testament translated from
Griesbach's Text,' 5th edition. J. R. Smith, 1862, 12mo.
Very good as a whole.
292
Notes and Illustrations.
NOTE (6.)-P. 6.
The Temptation a Fact of Revelation.
The Temptation of the Lord
peculiarly a thing of revelation.
human witnesses are concerned.
Christ Himself, who must either (1) have told it to the Evan-
gelists personally, or (2) by the 'inspiration' of the Holy Spirit.
It is not, therefore, a matter appertaining to proof. It can't be
proved. It rests, nevertheless, on an impregnable basis,—the
character of Christ as the Truth,' and the great body of evi-
dences for the inspiration of Holy Scripture. Let the sarcastic
words of John Sterling be well considered here: A man once
said, with an air of much self-complacency, I believe only what
is proved. Another answered, You seem to think that a merit;
yet what does it mean, but that you believe only what you cannot
help believing?'
(
Jesus is pre-eminently and
It was solitary in so far as
It rests on the authority of
"THAT WHICH IT IS IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE, IS THAT
WHICH WE NEED NOT BELIEVE, UNLESS WE WILL TO DO
So. The ancient oracles often deceived men to believe that
which it was a duty to disbelieve. There are modern ones
which seek to better the instruction, by changing it into the
exact converse. On all sides mingle, and help each other's
discord, the thin whines and harsh grunts of a faithless neces-
sity. On all sides yawns before us the grim and stupid false-
hood, -the will has nothing to do with our belief. '—(' Crystals
from a Cavern,' pp. 113, 114, in Essays and Tales, edited by
Hare, 2 vols. 8vo, 1848.) Would that we more acted upon
this vehement yet wise counsel, and bowed our will to the
acceptance of things removed from outward 'proof,' but all
the more massively resting on that deeper foundation FAITH
builds upon.
William Blake, in his own original fashion, has summed the
whole in a couplet :
'He's a blockhead who wants a proof of what he can't perceive,
And he's a fool who tries to make such a blockhead believe.'
Poems hitherto Unpublished' in Gilchrist's Life of Blake,
2 vols. 8vo, 1863.)
Notes and Illustrations.
293
NOTE (c.)-P. 9.
The Temptation a Revelation of the Economy under which
we live.
I am sure every reader will thank me for the following vivid
and thrilling extract bearing upon supra, from the very remarkable
Sermons of Dr. Henry E. Manning, which is only the first of
various contributions from him, with which I propose to enrich
these Notes and Illustrations :-
'This Temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ lays open to us
the reality and nature of our own. It lifts the veil which is
upon our eyes, the unconsciousness which is upon our hearts,
and shows us what is really going on at all times in the spiritual
world around us; by what we are beset, and what are the mys-
terious powers which are exerting themselves upon us. Much
that we never suspect to be more than the effect of chance, or
hazard, or the motion of our own minds, or the caprice of fancy,
may be the agency of this same awful being who tempted both
the first Adam and the Second. There is something very fearful
in the thought that Satan, whom we so slight or forget, is an
angel—a spiritual being of the highest order-endowed, there-
fore, with energies and gifts of a superhuman power; with in-
telligence as great as his malice; lofty, majestic, and terrible
even in his fall. Next to the holy angels, what being can it be
more fearful to have opposed to us, and that with intense and
vigilant enmity, and at all times hovering invisibly about us?—
(Sermons, ii. 83. 1840.) I give the last words although they
go far beyond my own conception of Satan, and approach much
too near, if not altogether, the Divine attributes of omnipresence
and omnipotence, if not omniscience also.
I add some quaint words from vivid Daniel Dyke: 'Repent-
ance and temptation are the two purgatories that a Christian in his
way to heaven must pass through. The first is of water, the
other of fire. We can no sooner come out of the one but we
must look to enter into the other. No sooner have we bathed
and washed our souls in the waters of repentance, but we must
presently expect the "fiery darts" of Satan's temptations to be
driving at us. What we get and gain from Satan by repentance
he seeks to regain and recover by his temptations. We must
294
Notes and Illustrations.
not think to pass quietly out of Egypt without Pharaoh's pur-
suit, nor to travel the wilderness of this world without the
opposition of the Amalekites.'-(Michael and the Dragon; or
Christ Tempted and Satan Foiled. Works, 1635. Vol. i. p. 204.)
NOTE (d.)-P. 34.
The Time chosen for the Temptation, and attending
circumstances.
In these 'Notes and Illustrations,' it is my design to place
under a reference-letter, at the close of each particular point of
my Exposition, a selection from my out-of-the-way readings
among, mainly, the old divines, Church and Puritan. The
several headings and specific details will indicate the specialities
intended to be severally illustrated.
C
I. • Trouble accompanyeth every good action.'-JOHN UDALL
[1596]. We see that Christ, as soon as ever He beginneth,
as it were, to point the finger towards that public office where-
unto He was allotted of God the Father, is forthwith assailed,
showing unto us that whensoever it pleaseth God to move us to
take in hand any good action, the enemy will be sure to cross
it with all the stumbling-blocks that he is able to lay in the way.
The which we see verified by experience in the Book of God.
The trouble of Moses did begin (Acts vii. 23) when it came in
his heart to visit his brethren. David (1 Samuel xvii. 34) lived
quietly until the Lord used means to bring him to Saul's camp,
that he might set upon and overcome Goliath; and afterward
his troubles were endless. Paul (Acts ix. 23) was not contra-
dicted, but lived in great credit until the Lord made him a
preacher of the gospel; then was he never free from slanderous
accusations, violences, and all kinds of injuries. The reason
whereof is, for that Satan being jealous over his own kingdom,
and fearing the overthrow thereof, when he seeth any raised up
to fight against it, doth most basely bestir himself for the suffer-
ing of the same. Therefore, as every one that will do any good
thing that may be acceptable to God, comfortable to his con-
science, and profitable to his brethren, must learn to have an
invincible and indefatigable stomach; for that he shall be sure
to have many a counter-buffet and fall if Satan can procure it;
Notes and Illustrations.
295
so in the depth of all his extremities, and in the midst of
tribulations, he may gather an argument unto himself of sin-
gular comfort, that if he do that which is warranted by the
Word of God, and taketh it in hand with the testimony of a
good conscience, he may assure himself-for most sure it is-
the more troubles that he endureth the more is he in the favour
of God, and doth Him the more service against the enemies of
His glory, the world and the Devil; and surely as this is a
most profitable doctrine to be learned, so is it most necessary
for all God's people in these days.'-(The Combate betwixt Christ
and the Deuill. Four Sermons vpon the Temptations of Christ
in the wildernes by Sathan, wherein are to be sene the subtle
sleightes that the Tempter useth agaynst the children of God,
and the meanes that God hath appointed to resiste him, sanc-
tified to our vse in the example of our Saviour Jesvs Christ.
By John Vdall, preacher of the word of God at Kyngston-vpon-
Thames. At London, printed by Robert Wald-graue for
Thomas Man and William Brome. [12mo, 1596.] ¶ 1.
Excessively rare, and very good.
2. Salan attacks those especially rich in grace.-JOHN BOYS,
D.D. [1629]: 'St. Matthew reports in the words immediately
before, that the time was after Christ had been baptized in
Jordan, and the Spirit had descended upon Him, and a voice
from heaven had said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased. Here then, as in a crystal glass, we may behold
the condition of all Christians; as soon as we give up our names
unto Christ in baptism, so soon as the Spirit shall descend upon
us, enlightening our understanding and reforming our affections;
as soon as we begin to please God we despise Satan, instantly
making him our enemy, roaring and raging against our poor
soul with all might and malice.-(Hilarius et Theophylact. in
loco; Ambrose in Luc. 4; Jansen, Con. c. 15.)
CC
Nunquam bella bonis, nunquam discidia cessant
Et quocum certet, meus pia semper habet."-(Prosper, in Epigram.)
As Paul when he came to Macedonia (2 Cor. vii. 5), so we, so
soon as we look toward Jerusalem and make conscience of sin,
shall be "troubled on every side; fightings without and terrors
within.
""
'It is written (Apoc. xii. 4) that the great Red Dragon stood
296
Notes and Illustrations.
66
before the woman which was ready to be delivered, that he
might devour her child when she had brought it forth.
In a
mystical sense this Woman (Rupertus Com. in Apoc. lib. 7, pp.
423 et 424, et Vega, Dom. 1 in quadrages) is the Church, and
this dragon is the Devil, evermore ready to devour the penitent,
all such as are new creatures in Christ, born again by baptism
and repentance. As the crafty thief will not break into an
empty house, but into some fat kitchen or full barn where he
may find a good booty, so Satan assaults them especially who
are rich in grace; for as a dog (Diez, in loc.) barks at strangers,
and not at such as are domestical; and as the fowler layeth his
snare for birds that are wild, not for his pigeons or partridges
in his own custody; so when the Devil as a strong man
armed keepeth his hold, the things he possesseth are in peace"
(Luke xi. 21). Then, as Holofernes (Judith i. 11) to Judith,
"Fear not in thine heart, for I never hurt any that would serve
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the earth." In like manner he
saith, I never molest any that are content to serve me, the Prince
of the World. Discomfort not thyself, then, in any temptation,
for it is a manifest argument Satan hath no possession or part
in thee, but that thou art the servant and son of God; for whom
God loves, assuredly the Devil hates; as the one works in mercy,
the other works in malice. Let not the Prince of Darkness be
wiser in kind than the children of God. As he is crafty in ob-
serving his "Then," and taking his time to tempt, so let us be
prudent in watching our heart to quell his suggestions; un-
doubtedly the best time is to resist him at the first time, audacius
insistit a tergo quam resistit in faciem (Bernard, Ep. 1.) “If
ye resist the Devil, he will flee from you," saith St. James
(iv. 7.)
Est leo si fugias si stas quasi musca recedit."'
-(Works, folio, 1638, p. 231. Sermon on Matthew iv. 1, first
Sunday in Lent.)
When Christ was
'Then' when 'an-hungered,' Ibid.-
3.
an-hungered, then the Tempter came to Him, as (Diez, in loco)
the cunning fowler sets his limed ears of corn to catch sparrows
in an hard frost or great snow when they be ready to starve.'—
(Works, p. 235.)
4. Special times of favour are times of special temptation.—
JOHN TRAPP, M. A. [1656]: No sooner was Christ out of the
A
Notes and Illustrations.
297
>>
water of Baptism than in the fire of Temptation. So David,
after his anointing, was hunted "as a partridge upon the moun-
tains. Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues
them. Hezekiah no sooner had left that solemn passover than
Sennacherib comes up against him. St. Paul is assaulted with
vile temptations after the "abundance of his revelations ;" and
Christ teacheth us, after forgiveness of sins, to look for tempta-
tions, and to pray against them. While Jacob would be Laban's
drudge and packhorse, all was well; but when once he began to
flee, he makes after him with all his might. All was jolly quiet
at Ephesus before St. Paul came thither; but then "there
arose no small stir about that way." All the while our Saviour
lay in his father's shop, and meddled only with carpenter's chips,
the Devil troubled Him not. But now that He is to enter more
publicly upon his office of Mediatorship, the Tempter pierceth
His tender soul with many sorrows by solicitation to sin (reιpážw
of welpw, to pierce through). And dealt he so with the green
tree, what will he do with the dry?'-(Commentary in loco,
Matthew iv. I. Folio, 1656.)
I take this opportunity of commending my worthy book-
selling friend of London, Mr. Richard D. Dickenson, in the
matter of his proposed reprint of Trapp on the New Testament.
I rejoice in such a commencement, and indulge the hope that its
success will be such as to lead to a like reprint, worthily edited, of
the Old Testament. There is more of recondite learning inge-
niously applied, more of spiritual insight felicitously expressed,
more of searching application tersely put, more of genial sunny
wit, nimble fancy, chatty anecdote, racy allusion, vivid sugges-
tiveness, and robust common sense within the five noble folios of
John Trapp than in any half a hundred of the miserable trash
that circulates as religious commentary. Rich as is the New
Testament volume, the Old Testament ones are far more so.
5. Discovery of intended good leads to temptation.—JOHN
GUMBLEDEN, B.D. [1657]: Even then the Devil, fuller of
wrath, fearing he should lose his kingdom, than Herod was
after he heard of His birth, for fear he should presently lose
his, sets upon our Saviour with a resolute purpose to deceive
Him by Temptation. Before He was baptized we read not at
all that He was at any time tempted. No, for while with
Joseph and Mary, his mother, He led a private life at Nazareth
298
Notes and Illustrations.
in Galilee, where He fared for many years after His safe return
out of Egypt-the Devil, as knowing as he is, could not distin-
guish Him at all from another, from an ordinary person. No;
but then immediately after the public solemnity of His inaugura-
tion to His prophetical office was fully ended at Jordan, then
was there special notice taken of Him by that Evil Spirit, by
that diligent observer both of persons, words, and actions;
and that he might not lose so fit an opportunity to bring forth
what he then began to conceive, even a burden of temptations,
he the more narrowly watched which way His motion tended,
and if I may so speak, diligently waited on Him, though in a
bad sense and to a bad end, till he found Him in a fit capacity,
all things as yet being but in preparation, to be tempted in the
wilderness. Then, even after the heavens had been opened
unto Him, ver. 16, in testimony that He came down from
heaven, as afterwards He testified of Himself (John iii. 13),
though for a time most willing, He was now to become the
object of the Devil's temptations on earth. Lo! thus was it
with our Saviour Christ, and thus also it is with Christians ;
the One was tempted of the Devil, the other is not exempted
from the like condition. Wherefore that of our Saviour to His
apostles is, by way of allusion, fitly applicable here: "The dis-
ciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord
(Matt. x. 24). And "If they" (meaning the stiff-necked and
malicious Jews) "have persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you" (John xv. 20). 'Tis an argument from the greater to the
less; and the apostles afterwards were sensible of the strength
and weight of it by more than ordinary experience in them-
selves. So if the Devil durst so early, even almost when He
was but then come out of the water, tempt our Saviour, surely
he will make no scruple at all, at any time, to tempt those who
faithfully believe in that Saviour; it being as an uncontrolled
maxim in his school, that none at any time displease him until
they first begin to serve and please God. But then, even so
soon as we have given up our names to Christ, so soon as we
begin to have any opening of the heavens unto us, any heavenly
grace, any measure of faith, any degree of repentance in us, any
descending of God's Holy Spirit upon us to enlighten the dark-
ness of our hearts, the dimness of our understandings, to reform
the crooked perverseness of our wills, —even then, presently we
1
Notes and Illustrations.
299
daily more and more become the "butt" at which all the fiery
darts of Satan are furiously shot.'-(As before, pp. 12, 13. See
footnote, p. 19, for title-page.)
6. The more God graceth, the more Satan seeks to disgrace.—
THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D. [1659].- "Then." Hence note, That
the more God doth give any man, or advance him in gifts or
place, the more doth Satan set himself to disgrace and molest
him. We read not that the Devil did ever set upon Christ
while He lived as a private man, though perhaps he did; but
now His Father setting Him apart to work man's redemption,
baptizing Him, pouring His Spirit upon Him, and giving tes-
timony with Him that He is the Son of His love, now He is
assailed with most violent temptations. No sooner is He "set
apart" to His office, therein to glorify God and gratify man,
but He is set upon by Satan, a deadly enemy to both.
Christ was no sooner baptized but He must go forth to be
exercised with Satan; and His members also, who not only by
outward profession, but inward sincerity also, make a league
with God to renounce Satan, sin, and this evil world, shall not
want all the molestation that Satan can create them. And
such is his malice, that whom he cannot hinder of salvation, he
will hinder of their peace and joy as much as he can: if he
cannot chase virtue out of the world, he can disgrace it; and
if he cannot quite hinder all good proceedings, he will by moles-
tation delay them as long as he may. He is subtle; if he can-
not do the greatest evil that he would, he will do the lesser
that he may, as by Sanballat he did hinder the re-edifying of
the Temple. The condition of the child of God is military in
this life he hath Satan and all his army of wicked ones, mortal
foes against him.
'Many deceive themselves who mean to profess religion so
long only as they may enjoy peace and credit and the applause
of the world; so long as they may see Christ with a golden
crown and sceptre, and follow him into Jerusalem with Ho-
sannah ! But they have not cast their accounts right, nor
weighed the difficulties of sound profession of Christ, and there-
fore, like the foundation of the foolish builder, when winds and
floods arise, they fall downright; with shame they forsake
Christ and religion and all; they look back and run back to
the filthiness of the world; they embrace a course which
·
•
•
300
Notes and Illustrations.
standeth with their own ease: but never shall they have the
honour of honouring God, or of effecting anything which shall
bring God true praise, and themselves true peace. It will be
the wisdom therefore of any Christian undertaking, any com-
mendable action, so to look and begin with God, that ever he
have another eye upon Satan and his malice, both to expect it
and resolve not to be beaten off for it.'-(As before, pp. 2, 3, 4.
For title-page, see footnote, p. 30.)
7. Praise of the saints occasion of temptation.-BISHOP HACKET
[1675].' I bend my meditations. to the time which
Satan thought he nickt very right for his purpose
"then."
Тvúσке кalрov, it was the motto of the wise man, Pittacus of
Greece, "Know the seasons and appointments of time," and
you can hardly fail of that which you enterprise.
There
is no bait at which the old Serpent will bite sooner than the
lofty commendations of the saints. At the baptism of our
Saviour, and the descension of the Holy Ghost, there came a
voice from heaven that did resound His glory far and wide,
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted
of the Devil. The heathen were wont to say, Be moderate in
the commendation of any man. Whatsoever was overpraised
was obnoxious to the envy of the gods. Indeed, as for the gods
of the heathen, they were but spirits of damnation. And what-
soever is highly praised, an hellish envy dogs and follows it to
take away the garland from it. Breves et infausti populi Romani
amores, says the historian; those whom the people of Rome
did much prosecute with their love and applause, they were
never long prosperous. What was the beginning of Job's afflic-
tion, but those words wherewith God did so graciously testify
to his integrity : "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that
there is none like him in the earth?" (Job i. 8.) Some that are
bold to conjecture, say as much for David; the envy of the
Devil was stirred up against him because he was called a man
after God's own heart. They carry the same conceit upon the
first time that Peter was smartly rebuked, "Get thee behind
me, Satan :" immediately, in a few verses before that encomium
was given him, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I
build my church." Necteris ipsis ex vincula sertis, as the poet
says, the waggish boys took Silenus his garland, and made
(6
•
•
•
Notes and Illustrations.
301
fetters therewith to bind him. So Satan contrives mischief out
of the garlands, out of the praise of the saints.'-—(A Century of
Sermons, folio, 1675. Edited by Plume, pp. 215, 216.)
8. Failure after eminent service not uncommon.—THOMAS
MANTON [1685].-' God's Providence permitteth this, that we
may not be careless and secure after temptation, though we have
gotten the victory. For our life is a continual warfare (Job
vii. 1), “Is there not an appointed time for man upon earth?”
The same word signifieth also "a warfare." Man's life is a
perpetual toil, and a condition of manifold temptations and
hazards, such as a soldier is exposed to; therefore we must
perpetually watch. We get not an absolute victory till death.
Now this should the more prevail with us, because many of
God's people have failed after some eminent service performed
for God. Josiah, after he had prepared the Temple, fell into
that rash attempt against Pharaoh-Necho, which cost him his
life (2 Chron. xxxv. 20): “After all this, when Josiah had pre-
pared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against
Carchemish by Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.'
And Peter, after he had made a glorious confession, giveth his
Master carnal counsel (Matt. xvi. 18): "Thou art Peter; and
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it ;" and yet, verse 23, "Get thee be-
hind me, Satan." Many, after they have been much lifted up
in consolation, do readily miscarry; first he made a glorious
confession, a sign of great faith; then carnal wisdom vents itself
in some counsel concerning the ease of the flesh. Oh! what
need have we to stand upon our guard till God tread Satan
under our feet. As one of the Roman generals, whether con-
quering or conquered, semper instaurat pugnam : so doth Satan.'
-(As before, pp. 64, 65.) See ¶ 4.
9. Greatest help in greatest need.-ISAAC COLFE [1654].—
"He will so "help our infirmities" (Rom. viii. 26), that we
shall not faint under His cross, but according to the measure
of our afflictions will minister unto us comfort: according to
that saying of Chrysostom on 2 Cor. xii. Homil. 26,
"Tunc
anima majori fruitur auxilio, quum ampliore egat subsidio.”
Then doth the soul enjoy greatest help when it needeth the
greatest succour, the which is ministered by the Spirit of God,
302
Notes and Illustrations.
by whom we are led to be tempted.'-(As before, p. 18, ¶ 4,
and my Preface.)
10. Temptation itself no sin, but vigilance needed.-HENRY
HIBBERT [1662].-'The Lord, by Jeremiah, saith unto the
Jews, chap. iv. 14, "How long shall wicked thoughts harbour
in thee?" He asketh not wherefore they come, but wherefore
they stay; for many good men are oftentimes overtaken with
evil thoughts, but yet will not yield their consents thereunto.
So let a giant knock,-while the door is shut, he may with ease
be still kept out; but if once open, that he gets in but a limb
of himself, then there is no course left to keep out the remain-
ing bulk. Intorto capite, sequetur corpus. We may admit, if
not pull in, more with one finger, than after thrust out with
both shoulders.'-(Syntagma Theologicum, folio, p. 342). A
perfect mine of the quaintest, most brilliant and practical things :
utterly unknown, apparently.
II. Temptation inevitable.-THOMAS FULLER, D.D.-'As
sure as a valley attends on a hill in nature; so after a height of
holiness in thy soul (too fine ware to have much measure of),
beware a depression, concavity and hollowness of a tempta-
tion.'-(As before, p. 4.)
(
12. The Anointment of Christ.-MATTHEW Brookes, D.D.
[1657]. By the different habit of the High Priest and his
superabundant unction, they [Israel] were shewed the difference
that must be betwixt the type and the antitype: for kings,
priests, and prophets are typical persons, and they all were
anointed by men. But that He must be anointed by the Father
through the Holy Ghost. They were anointed with the holy
anointing oil; but He must be anointed with all spiritual graces
meant and intended by it. They were anointed in measure, but
He must be anointed above measure. They were anointed as
men, but He must be anointed as God and man. They were
anointed to offices temporal, but He must be anointed to offices
eternal. They by their unction were Christi Domini, the Lord's
Christ, but He by His unction must be Christus Dominus, the
Lord Christ (Acts ii. 36).'—(The Sacred and Most Mysterious
History of Man's Redemption, folio, 1657, p. 32.)
Notes and Illustrations.
303
NOTE (e.)-P. 35.
C
Temptation the occasion of the First Adam's' First Sin, and
the Second Adam's' First Work.
'Now the time appointed being come, He being baptized,
and having received these sensible testimonies and warrants there-
upon, without any longer delay, He presently with all diligence
prepareth Himself to put the same in faithful execution. Into
the which He maketh His entrance by the submitting of Him-
self unto the temptation of the Devil, that so, where the work
of the death and damnation of man took beginning-which was
at the Temptation of the Devil, as plainly appeareth, Gen. iii. I
—there also might begin the work of his redemption and sal-
vation.'-(ISAAC COLFE, as before, p. 1.) See ¶ 5.
NOTE (.)—P. 41.
C
Illustrative Quotations upon led up with a few Critical Notes.
C
1. How the Spirit is said to lead in Temptation.-JOHN
Boys, D.D.—'God is a worker in Temptation so far forth as
it is an action; for every action, as it is an action, is good and
of God (Lombard, 2 sent. dis. 35), in whom we live, move, and
have our being. A man rides upon a lame horse; the rider is
the cause of the motion, but the horse himself is the cause of
the halting in the motion. So God is the author of every action,
but not of the wickedness in any action; and yet, being infinite
in greatness and goodness, He doth dispose well of that which
is ill, as the cunning [= skilful] physician makes of deadly poison
a wholesome medicine (Basil, Orat. Quod Deus non sit auther ma-
lorum). “Licet Deus non sit author tamen ordinator est pecca-
torum ne universitatis naturam turbare vel turpare permittantur"
(Augustini contra Faust., lib. 22, c. 78. Cf. Melanchthon loc.
com. tit. de causa peccati). And so God suffers His children to
be tempted, eis yvuvaolav (Macar. Hom. 7), for their exercise,
that they be not "exalted out of measure," that they may
know the power of the Lord and proof of His armour, that
they may be thankful for that inestimable treasure committed
unto them by the Father of mercies (Euthymius on Matt. iv.),
304
Notes and Illustrations.
I mean their soul, which Satan assaults daily to win from them.'
-(Works, p. 234.)
2. As Christ, so Christ's are 'led.'--Ibid.-'As Christ the
natural Son (= by nature), so Christians, adoptive children of
God, are "led" by the Spirit of God, ducuntur non trahuntur :
as the School, Deus non necessitat sed facilitat: an harsh phrase,
but a sweet sentence, verba lateritia sed ratio marmorea (Cajetan).
So David, "O God, my heart is ready, my heart is ready" (Ps.
cviii. 1). Paratum cor meum ad prospera, paratum ad adversa,
paratum ad sublimia, paratum ad humilia, paratum ad uni-
versa, quæ præceperis.' (Bernard, Sec. 2, de quadrag.) — O
God, my heart is ready for prosperity, ready for adversity. Wilt
Thou have me to be a shepherd? O God, my heart is ready.
Wilt Thou make me a king? O God, my heart is ready: ready
for honour and ready for a mean estate. Whatsoever it please
Thee to send, I will sing and give praise with the best member
I have.'-(As before, p. 233.)
3. The leadings' of the Spirit to be followed.—ISAAC COLFE.
C
44
We are hereout taught with what mind and affection we are
to prepare ourselves unto these temptations whereunto we are
"led" by the Spirit of God, even, all reasonings, and disputa-
tions, and excuses, and delays laid apart, with ready and will-
ing minds to go whithersoever He leadeth us, and to press
forwards whithersoever it pleaseth Him to drive" us for
thus doth our Saviour obey the leading of the Spirit in this
place for He disobeyeth not, He murmureth not, He reasoneth
not, He delayeth not; He first returneth not to Nazareth, He
consulteth not with flesh and blood, He biddeth not His parents
and kinsfolks farewell; but as He was "immediately" after His
coming out of Jordan "led" (Mark i. 12), so He "imme-
diately" obeyed. And thus did the saints of God, from time
to time, prepare themselves unto the like, which might at length
be confirmed by many examples in the Holy Scriptures. Being
called, they answered; being led, they followed; not looking
upon the greatness of the danger which in their judgment was
threatened thereby, but always fixing the eye of their faith upon
Him that "led" them, and setting their minds upon the as-
surance of His comfort therein, as may appear by the example
of Abraham on the taking of his journey from his own country;
of Moses, in going into Egypt, etc. And what event followed?
Notes and Illustrations.
305
Even this you shall always find that their obedience turned to
their benefit. They were not frustrate of their hope, neither
were they forsaken in time of trouble; but sometimes were most
miraculously delivered, and always most mightily defended in
the midst of them. But as for those, who refusing endeavoured
to avoid danger, and sought to work to themselves security,
that which they sought was far off from them, and that which
they feared happened unto them, according to that of Solomon
X. 24: "That which the wicked feareth shall come upon him;
but God will grant the desire of the righteous." Lo! this is
the mercy of God towards the one, and His justice against the
other. As therefore we see it vaine and perilous to flee from
the hand of the Lord, so we see that great is the benefit of obe-
dience in yielding ourselves thereunto. That is, if with willing-
ness of mind we follow the leading and directing of God's Spirit,
that event which we find following the obedience of the saints
of God and of Jesus Christ, we may fully assure unto ourselves :
that Spirit that leadeth us into temptations will comfort us in
them, and strengthen us to bear them to the end; for "The
Spirit of glory and of God that resteth upon us" (1 Peter iv. 14)
will so "help our infirmities" (Rom. viii. 26), that
we shall
not faint under the cross."'-(As before, pp. 17, 18.)
4. There is no danger in following God's Spirit.—Ibid. —‘Thus
doth He "lead" us into the battle with the one hand, and keep
us from the foil [= falling] with the other; how then shall we
fear the leading of the Spirit of God? A valiant captain lead-
ing the way stirreth up the most faint-hearted soldiers with
courage to follow, and without fear of danger to enter into the
combat; but let the captain be wise and valiant, the soldiers
many and courageous, yet oftentimes they lose the field and are
overcome. But we alone are weak to fight against many and
mighty enemies, even against legions of devils; yet having the
Spirit of God to our Captain, we cannot perish in the combat.
We may fall, but we shall rise again; we may be wounded, but
not to the death; the victory shall be ours, and all this by the
virtue [strength] of God's Spirit, who, being alone in us, is
mightier than all our enemies that fight against us, and whose
power is made perfect through our weakness" (2 Cor. xii. 9).
With safety, therefore, may we follow the leading of the Spirit.'
-(As before, p. 18.)
66
U
306
Notes and Illustrations.
5. Satan cannot tempt unless we are commited into his hands
by God.-Ibid.-'Hereout to our great comfort we may learn
that albeit great is the malice of the Devil against us, and that
great is his diligence in seeking of all advantages to devour us,
yet he hath not so much power of himself as once to touch us
unless we be "led" by the Spirit of God "to be tempted."
Nor could he here attempt anything against Christ until the
Spirit had "led" Him "to be tempted" of him, and had, as
it were, committed Him into his hands. Neither over the body
and goods of righteous Job, until the Lord had said to him,
"Lo, he" (Job i. 12) “and all that he hath is in thy hands,
only save his life" (ii. 6). Neither over the unclean swine of
the faithless Gergesenes, until it was said unto him "go;" yea,
and that albeit they were "a legion of devils" (Mark v. 9, 13).
That therefore we are tempted, it absolutely cometh not of the
power of the Devil, but from the providence of the Lord Him-
self, who also hath "led" us by His Spirit "to be tempted."
So saith Tertullian (Lib. de Persecutione:) Persecutiones veniunt
aliquando per diabolum non autem a diabolo—persecutions come
sometimes by the Devil, but not of the Devil; that is, by him
as the instrument, not of him as the author. We are in the
hands of God, not in the hands of the Devil. And what greater
comfort in the time of temptation can we reap than this, that
we are "led" by God Himself "to be tempted?" without
whose license Satan cannot tempt us, or tempting of us, tempt
us any further than He hath limited and appointed.'—(As before,
pp. 18, 19.)
1
6. Three notable effects from assurance of the Spirit's guidance.
-THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D.—‘1. Being "led" of the Spirit,
thou wilt follow willingly. 2. If thou see the Spirit leading
thee, thou shalt not faint under the cross, no not when thou
lookest upon the greatest danger that can be threatened, be-
cause the other eye is upon the Spirit which "helpeth thy in-
firmities," and according to the measure of affliction ministereth
a sound measure of comfort. 3. If thou see the Spirit leading
thee into trial, it will keep thee from seeking to wind thyself
out by any unlawful or unwarrantable means; thou wilt follow
1 I do not give 1 and 2, as the filling-up is nearly verbally from Isaac
Colfe; and I regret that so full and original a mind as Taylor's should not
have made acknowledgment of indebtedness to the earlier writer.
Notes and Illustrations.
307
Him to be led out by Him, as well as thou wast led in by Him;
thou wilt wait His leisure for the removal of thy trial, in whose
good pleasure it lieth most seasonably to deliver thee. This is
often the reason why God giveth His children to be "led" by
the Spirit, to try whether they will ABIDE in temptation or no.
And those who will shift themselves out of trouble by lying,
swearing, and the like, or avoid crosses and losses by wicked
means, or poverty by breaking the Sabbath, sickness by sorcery
and witchcraft, what spirit soever led them in, certainly the
Evil Spirit hath led them out. The remedy is worse than their
disease, and their escape is made only by breaking the prison.'
-(As before, p. 12.)
7. Sons of God are they who are 'led' of the Spirit.-Ibid.-
'As Christ was "led" by the Spirit in all His course of life, so
should Christians; for "as many as are the sons of God are led
by the Spirit of God" (Romans viii. 14). So the apostles in
their ministry went hither and thither, stayed or departed,
preached and prophesied by the Spirit. They were forbidden
by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia and Bithynia
(Acts xvi. 6, 7; xxi. 4). Certain disciples told Paul by the
Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. And it is the
duty of all true believers to resign themselves in subjection to
God's Spirit.'-(As before, p. 12.)
<
8. Over-boldness without leading-Ibid.-Many men say
they are of so strong a faith and of such grace that they defy
Satan. They were never troubled with him; he hath nothing
to do with them. Alas! poor souls; the more grace the more
trouble. If strength of faith and grace had given privilege from
temptation, our Lord Jesus had not been tempted. Hast thou
more than He? or hast thou more than Adam in innocency?
yet Adam in innocency was tempted. Oh, take heed lest the
፡፡
strong man" have carried all away, and so thou hast peace.
Thinkest thou that he durst assault Christ, and dares not come
near thee? Dares he encounter with a lion, and will he stand
in fear of a fearful hare?'-(As before, p. 6.)
2
9. We must not thrust ourselves into trials, but seek the lead-
ing of the Spirit.-Ibid.- In every trial see that the Spirit lead
thee, for this is a sure ground of comfort, and hath assured hope
in it of a good end. Christ was not led into temptation by
private motion, neither did He thrust Himself into it. No more
308
Notes and Illustrations.
must we rashly run into or pull dangers upon us, or through
presumption subject ourselves unto temptations. If we do, we
must needs fall, and cannot expect safety, because we tempt the
Lord, and provoke Him to withdraw His fatherly protection
from us; whereas there is no danger in following the leading
and guidance of the Spirit. Many a man is of so strong a faith
that nothing can harm him; he is for all courses and all com-
panies. But how can a man be safe where Satan's throne is?
Peter thought himself strong enough to go into the High Priest's
hall, but he found in the end it was no fit company for him.
Others, through vain prefidence¹ of God's protection, run in
times of contagion into infected houses, which upon just calling
a man may; but for one to run out of his calling in the way of
an ordinary visitation, he shall find that God's angels have com-
mission to protect him no longer than he is in his way (Psalm
xci. 11), and that being out of it, this arrow of the Lord shall
sooner hit him than another that is not half so confident.
Others are bold-hardy to set upon the Devil in his own holds ;
they dare enter into and lodge in houses given up by God to the
Devil's possession; which is, if it be out of one's lawful calling,
to cast a man's self into most probable danger. For whereas
we ought to use all good and lawful means for the preventing
of imminent danger, this is to seek danger and hurt; and com-
monly they that seek it justly find it. Others through
temerity and rashness bring on themselves much woe, who
follow the motions of their own spirits in their courses, and
never or seldom consider whether they have God's Spirit before
them or no. They look not for warrant out of God's Word in
the things they do or speak. They beg not of God's direction
and assistance. They spy not in what ambush Satan lieth,
what advantages he easily taketh; and so for want of Christian
watchfulness lay themselves open to many evils and dangers,
wherein they can meet with no great comfort, because they
cannot say with a good conscience, "Lord, Thou hast led me
into this estate," but rather "I have cast myself into this
danger."'-(As before, p. 11.)
•
10. 'Take heed' when ‘led' into dangerous places.—Ibid.—
"In places of bad resort or scorners, if our calling lead us into
them, let us take with us the exhortation of the apostle (2 Peter
1 That is, presumption.
Notes and Illustrations.
309
iii. 17): “Take heed ye be not plucked away with the error of
the wicked, and fall from your stedfastness." And besides: 1.
Let us grieve that we are fallen into such company.
2. Let us
think of some good or special work of God's mercy or judgment
fresh in memory.
3. If there be apparent evil, either give ap-
parent token of dislike, or in a wise and peaceable manner so
speak as God's honour be not by our silence trodden down.
4. If there be no opportunity or place for good, depart with all
speed (Prov. xiv. 7), and beware of falling into the like com-
pany again.'-(As before, p. 121.)
11. Never invite Temptation.-ANTHONY FARINDON, B.D.
[1658]. Therefore it will not be safe for us to challenge and
provoke a temptation, but to arm and prepare ourselves against
it; to stand upon our guard, and neither to offer battle nor yet
refuse it. Sapiens feret ista, non eliget: "It is the part of a
wise man not to seek for evil, but to endure it." And to this
end it concerneth every man to exercise τὴν πνευματικὴν σύνεσιν,
his "spiritual wisdom, "that he may discover Spiritus ductiones
et diaboli seductiones, "the Spirit's leading and the Devil's
seducements;" lest he do not only seek temptations but create
them, and make that a provocation to evil which bespeaketh
only his obedience or his patience; lest I conceive that the
Spirit sendeth me when I resist Him, when I do ȧνTɩπíTTEW,
"fall cross with" Him, and run violently against Him.'-
(Works. Edition by Nichols. Vol. iv. pp. 127, 128, Sermons
on Christ's Temptation.)
12. Never tempt the Devil.-THOMAS FULLER, D.D.—This
serves 'to confute such who, on the proud opinion of their
strength, hollo in the ears of a sleeping temptation, and tempt
it to tempt them-dealing therewith as Asahel with Abner
(2 Sam. ii.)'-(As before, p. 8.)
13. We must take heed' whither we are led.-JOHN UDALL.
"Now, in that Satan, before he offer unto Christ the con-
sideration of the thing that he goeth about, doth first bring Him
to a place, as he thinketh, most convenient for his purpose, we
may behold in another circumstance his cunning and subtlety:
for as at the first he took the advantage of the time, so here
doth he also of the place, yea, and that before he goeth about
to practise the thing. And this we have diligently to note, that
we may make good use unto ourselves of it: for if Satan begin
310
Notes and Illustrations.
his practices against the godly, by bringing them into those
places that are fittest for his purpose, we are carefully to take
heed into what places and companies we do come; and so much
the rather in these days of sin, when godliness is almost every-
where barked at, and sin and wickedness advanced and ex-
tolled so that a man shall scarce come into that company, but
either he shall hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the professors
thereof evil spoken of, or the name of God in common talk
blasphemed and taken in vain. So that he is brought thereby
into this strait, that he must either consent by silence, or soothe
them up in their sins and wickedness: and then hath Satan,
that for which he brought him thither: or else boldly, accord-
ing to his duty, reprove the offenders; and then oftentimes the
rage of the wicked is so incensed thereby, that he rather in-
creaseth his dishonouring of God than, which were to be wished,
taketh any warning to amend; and then shall the party that
feareth God be greatly grieved to see it, and, as many con-
sciences be very tender, fear lest he have some way been the
cause of that outrage. How much better, therefore, had it
been for such a one to have taken heed beforehand, and not
to have come there at all.'-(As before, ¶ 18. See the sequel
also, which is plain and useful.)
6 C
14. How to return from spiritual ordinances.-DANIEL DYKE.
-'Learn how we should come from the Word and Sacrament,
even as Jesus from John, "full of the Holy Ghost. So did
Paul after his rapture; and Jacob, after Bethel's vision, lifted
up his feet like a traveller that goes freshly after a good bait.
Many are like Judas after the sop, they depart, not full of
the Holy Ghost," but full of Satan; and as the Israelites, they
"sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play." We must
return from Jordan the same we were in Jordan. The Church
is God's fencing-school, thence bring we skill. It is God's
armory, thence bring we charges against Satan. Only the Holy
Ghost can overcome the filthy ghost.'— (As before, pp. 206-7.)
Critical Notes on 'led up.
15. CHRISTOPHER BLACKWOOD [1659].—'It was not, then,
Satan that "led" Him, but the Spirit of God. Whether
carried through the air as Elias (2 Kings ii. 16), and Ezekiel
Notes and Illustrations.
311
(iii. 12), and Philip when he was taken from the eunuch, or
whether He went on the feet, I leave it in the midst. But from
the word avýxen, of åvà, sursum, and dyw, duco, I incline to
think He was carried up into the air.'-(Expositions and Ser-
mons upon the Ten First Chapters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Matthew, 4to, 1659, p. 89.)
16. BISHOP HACKET.-How did the Spirit lead Him?
This can be conceived but two ways: Either by inward in-
stigation, or removing Him suddenly from one place to another,
which is called outward translocation. Each way may be ad-
mitted, for both are according to analogy of faith, and both are
favoured out of the Greek text of the sundry Evangelists. You
shall read in St. Luke, chap. iv. I : yeтo èv тų ПIveúμaтi, He
was led by the Spirit, which doth imply that the Holy Ghost
did inwardly inspire that revelation into Him, and did assist
continually while He abode in the Wilderness. You shall read
in St. Mark i. 12: ékßáλλei eis τǹv ěpnµov, The Spirit driveth
Him into the Wilderness, as if He had been transported thither
in some wonderful rapture. And my text is read thus in St.
Matthew : ἀνήχθη εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ὑπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος, He was
led up of the Spirit. The preposition ȧvà, sursum, to lead up,
hath either regard to the situation of the Desert, which was by
far the higher ground in respect of Jordan, where our Saviour
was before; or else that He was exalted from the earth, and
carried away by the Spirit through the air, until He came unto
that place where He spent forty days in prayer, fasting, and
meditation. I dare not contend out of the Scriptures but that
the Spirit wrought both ways upon Christ; both carrying His
body into the wilderness and instigating His mind.'—(As before,
pp. 218, 219. See also sequel, full of lore and happy quaintness.)
17. WEBSTER and WILKINSON.- ¿v Tŷ èрhuw is preferable
ἐν ἐρήμῳ
to εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, denoting the continued act of ἤγετο. Cf.
I Kings xix. 4, 8.'—(As before, on Luke iv. 1.)
*
NOTE (g.)-P. 42.
The Holy Spirit the Leader of Jesus.
I. See quotation from MONOD, in Note (a.) 42, p. 288.
2. RUDOLF STIER, D.D.—‘The words of Jesus on this occa-
312
Notes and Illustrations.
sion are not new and distinctively His own; they are God's
words long ago uttered, and taken from the ancient Scriptures
which He as the Fulfiller appropriates to Himself. This is, at
the outset, of great significance. The child had grown and be-
come "strong in Spirit," had increased in wisdom; the man,
arrived at the mature, priestly age, and anointed for the inaugu-
ration of His office, is now full of the Holy Ghost (Luke iv. I).'
—(As before, I, p. 35. For much out-of-the-way learning, cf.
John Mayer in his Commentary, in loco (Matthew), only second
to Trapp.)
NOTE (h.)-P. 45.
Moses sent to the Wilderness."'
'And so forty years went on, and Moses was an old man
eighty years of age. Yet God had not had mercy on his poor
countrymen in Egypt.
It must have been a strange life for him. The adopted son
of Pharaoh's daughter; brought up in the court of the most
powerful and highly civilized country of the old world; learned
in all the learning of the Egyptians; and now married into a
tribe of wild Arabs, keeping flocks in the lonely desert, year
after year but no doubt thinking, thinking, year after year, as
he fed his flocks alone. Thinking over all the learning which
he had gained in Egypt, and wondering whether it would ever
be of any use to him. Thinking over the misery of his people
in Egypt, and wondering whether he should ever be able to
help them. Thinking, too, and more than all, of God,-of
God's promise to Abraham and his children. Would that ever
come true? Would God help those wretched Jews, even if he
could not? Was God faithful and true, just and merciful?'-
(The Gospel of the Pentateuch. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley,
1863, p. 115.)
NOTE (i.)-P. 53.
The Wilderness of the Temptation: the Wild Beasts.
1. Where was it? I regret that my over-crowded space, re-
trospective and prospective, compels me merely to refer to the
Notes and Illustrations.
313
following well-known and less known discussions of the ques-
tion (1.) A very excellent paragraph, in Bishop Middleton's
Treatise on the Doctrine of the Greek Article (edition by Rose,
pp. 131-133), in which he introduces Michaelis' observations :
(2.) Dr. Robinson's Biblical Researches (i. 567, et seq. 2d edit.
1856), and Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine. See specially in
the latter, Appendix, § 9. It may be noticed that Benson, in
Matthew in loco, accepts the Wilderness near Jordan as the
scene; and yet adds in Mark: 'Mark, we may observe, not
only gives us a compendium of Matthew's Gospel, but likewise
several valuable particulars which he and the other evangelists
have omitted; especially such particulars as might enable the
Romans or Gentiles in general better to understand him. Thus,
as a Roman might not know how wild and uninhabited the
deserts of Arabia were, in which Christ was tempted, he adds
here that he was with "the wild beasts ;" and in Luke again,
he leaves the scene uncertain. (I quote from the 6th edition.)
Such carelessness is not at all uncommon. Only think of such
big worthless Commentaries as those of Benson, and others
inferior even to his, being circulated by the thousand, while
Trapp and Mayer remain 'out of print'!!! (3.) De Geographia
Christ. tentantis diaboli, Matt. iv. 8, et Luke iv. 5, 6. By
A. F. J. Ritter, Goettingen, 1734
6
2. Shadows' of the Temptation in the Wilderness of Arabia
Petrea.'-THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D.-'It is not determined in
Scripture [where it was]; but it is not unlikely it was that
great wilderness in which the Israelites wandered forty years,
called by eminence ǹ ěpnuos, the Wilderness. And we know
that there were some figures which might shadow the temp-
tation in this place, as Exodus xvii. 7, it is called
"the place
of the temptation," Massah and Meribah, because of con-
tending and tempting the Lord: here the Lord was contended
with and tempted. Again, Exodus xvi. 4, this was the place
wherein the Lord showed them that "Man liveth not by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God." Compare it with Deut. viii. 3. This also was the wil-
derness in which Moses and Elias fasted forty days, and if it
were not the same, it must needs be figured by it. But it is no
article of faith to be stood upon or contended about.'—(As be-
fore, p. 28.)
314
Notes and Illustrations.
3. Contrast of Eden with the Wilderness.-FREDERICK W.
KRUMMACHER, D. D.-'It seems scarcely possible, my friends,
that any one can overlook the connexion-limited indeed to very
striking contrasts-which is observable between the isolated
situation in which we here perceive the Lord of glory, and the
position of our first parents before the Fall. There, the Garden
of Eden; here, the desolate wilderness. There, the trees
"pleasant to the sight, and good for food;" here, only thorns
and thistles, the harvest of the seed of sin. There, fulness of
enjoyment, and a profusion of delights of every kind; here,
want, even of that which was absolutely necessary. There,
heaven graciously open over the earth; here, the opened abyss
of hell. There, the eternal Father walking in the Garden; here,
Satan, unfettered, on the arena. There, temptation also, as
here; "Hath God said?" "Eat," "Do whatever thou pleasest."
But there, defeat of the tempted; here, victory of the assailed.
There, the drawing down of the curse upon earth; here, the
banishment of the curse, and the restoration of the blessing.'-
(As before, p. 66.)
4. Different persons different actors in the same scene.—JOHN
GUMBLEDEN, B.D.—The place where our Saviour was tempted
of the Devil was 'the wilderness." See! John the Baptist,
who was sent before to prepare the way of the Lord, came
preaching in the wilderness; but the Devil came tempting in the
wilderness. Different persons, different actions. Idem qua idem
semper facit idem, it being as natural to the Devil to curse and
tempt, as to the Baptist to bless and preach. Lo!, here is bitter
water and sweet; but not out of one and the same fountain,
though (probably) both in one and the same place, both in one
and the same wilderness. There sweetness flows from John
while he preached; there bitterness flows from Satan while he
tempted.'-(As before, p. 7.)
5. False reason for assigning the Wilderness of Arabia Petrea
as the scene.-THOMAS WHITE, B. L.-He says: This was
not the Wilderness of Judea, where John preached; for there
were locusts and wild honey, so that Christ need not have
fasted for want of food.'-(As before, p. 2.) This 'for,' which
is very much what Michaelis also says with more words, is
very inconclusive. There was no 'need' laid upon Christ.
He chose to 'fast,' and could as easily have 'fasted' where
Notes and Illustrations.
315
there were 'locusts and wild honey,' as where there was no
food.
6. Retirement sought by good men, even the heathen.-AN-
THONY FARINDON, B.D.—‘This hath been the practice, not only
of holy men, but of heathen men. Thus did Tully and Anthony
and Crassus make way to that honour and renown which they
afterwards purchased in eloquence [Cicero, De Officiis, lib. ii.
c. 13; lib. viii. c. 7]; thus did they pass a solitudine in scholas,
a scholis in forum, "from their secret retirement into the schools,
and from the schools into the pleading-place."'-(As before,
p. 130. Read context before and after; very suggestive.)
C
7. The wild beasts.'-THOMAS WHITE, B. L.-'It may be
the Devil might provoke the wild beasts to run upon Him as if
they would devour Him.'-(As before, p. 5.)
8. The awe of the wild beasts toward Jesus.—Joseph Beau-
MONT, D.D.—The 'Pysche' of this very remarkable man
being accessible to comparatively few, though prized by all who
really have studied and not merely skimmed it, I give here a
further extract of what he says of the wild beasts.' Milton is
known to everybody :
<
6
THESE Beasts were heirs to them who when as yet
Time and the World were young in Paradise,
At God's own summoning together met
To pay their homages in humble guise,
To princely Adam, who sat mounting high
On his fair throne of native monarchy.
Well then they mark'd their sovereign's eyes and face,
And all his person's lovely majesty,
Which streamèd on them with such potent grace
That they durst not allegiance deny
To so sweet violence, but to his beck
And gentle yoke, bow'd down their loyal neck.
But when unwary Adam's fall had spread
Guilt's vail upon his bruised face; with wonder
The creatures gazed, and fain would there have read
Their former lesson of majestic splendour ;
But seeing all was blurr'd, abhorrence sworn
And
open foes of subjects made them turn.
Their sons and generations after them,
Succeeded in their hate to human sin;
į
316
Notes and Illustrations.
And all these barbarous beasts which hither came,
Had in their quarrel born and nurtured been ;
Who, whensoe'er chance showed them a man,
To him as their condemnèd prey they ran.
For never spy'd they any one, but in
His self-betraying countenance they saw
The odious characters of deep-writ sin;
Which their commission was, their powers to draw
Against the foul apostate, and withal
Their fury answer Vengeance's loud call.
But when on Jesus' face they try'd their eyes,
No blurr or sign of guilt they could descry:
His looks were purer than the virgin skies
Polish'd with beauty's best serenity,
Array'd with princely stateliness, and dight
With love, with life, with grace, and royal light.
This waked those ancient seeds of memory,
Which prudent nature in their hearts had set;
And which by wise instinct did signify
That their unspotted Monarch they had met.
They had indeed; for this was Adam too:
Alas! that beasts much more than men should know!
Men knew Him not; but beasts distinctly read.
In Him the Protoplast's all-graceful feature ;
Such were the gallant glories of His head;
Such was the goodly measure of His stature ;
Such were the reverend innocencies' beams
Which from His flaming eyes poured pleasures' streams.
Such radiant awfulness men fancy in
Th' apparent heirs of earthly kingdoms, that
They think the King of beasts by royal kin
To their condition groweth courteous at
Their sight, and quite forgets his cruel sense
Of being savageness's dreadful Prince.'
sequel in
For the next stanza, see close of my Exposition; and see the
Pysche.'
Pysche.' The whole canto (ix.) is rich with the
'barbaric pearl and gold' of genius, and indeed the whole
poem, spite of its personifications.—(As before, pp. 130, 131.)
Notes and Illustrations.
317
NOTE (j.)—P. 67.
• To be Tempted.'
1. Strange that Jesus should have been tempted.—THOMAS
TAYLOR, D.D.-' It will seem strange, if we consider in our
Lord Jesus: 1. The perfection of His nature. He was free from
all original corruption, by His most holy conception by the
overshadowing of the Holy Ghost; as also from all actual sin
(1 Peter ii. 22), "He DID NO SIN, neither was ANY guile found
in His mouth." And though He had our substance and our in-
firmities, yet without one exception "without sin" (Heb. iv. 15).
2. The perfection of grace. For He was now "full of the Holy
Ghost," endued with infinite knowledge, wisdom, holiness, and
grace, and it might seem that there was no place or room for
temptation. 3. The perfection of His power. Being the Creator
and preserver of all things; the Lord of hosts, by whose very
word or beck all creatures, as they be sustained, so might be
brought to nothing; who, being at the weakest, was able by
one word to cast down to the earth all that came to apprehend
Him, and compel the very devils to beg favour of Him.
4. The
perfection of His Father's love. Having immediately before tes-
tified that He was His "beloved Son," in whom He " was
well pleased," who as in His private estate He increased in
favour with God (Luke ii. 52), so now much more hath He
gained His Father's love, as we have heard. And yet Jesus
must not escape the Tempter. It is not any excellency or high
respect that can exempt any man from Satan's temptations. '—
(As before, p. 5.)
2. Why was Christ tempted ?—THOMAS WHITE, B. L.-'The
reasons why our Saviour was tempted were not the same for
which His members are tempted; for they are tempted-1.
Sometimes to humble them, and that they may not, after great
revelations and consolations, be exalted above measure. So St.
Paul. 2. To make them see that their strength is not of nor from
themselves. 3. To purify and cleanse them. For none of all
these reasons was our Saviour tempted: but, 1. That He might
be touched with, and bear all our infirmities that were without sin.
2. That He might overcome Satan in all his ways, and vanquish
him at every weapon. 3. That no man, be he never so holy,
318
Notes and Illustrations.
may think himself free, but expect and provide for temptation.
4. As for caution so for comfort, that no man may judge him-
self out of God's favour because he hath grievous temptations.
5. That He might show us by His example how to demean our-
selves in, and how to overcome temptations.'-(As before, p. 3.)
3. Look to be tempted.-ISAAC COLFE. Now therefore if
Adam and Eve, and Christ Jesus Himself, were subject to the
temptation of the Devil, then who is he amongst all the sons of
men, as being all freighted with so many sinful infirmities, that
by his perfection and righteousness can think to exempt himself
from temptation? "For if this be done to the
"For if this be done to the green tree, what
shall be done to the dry?" (Luke xxiii. 31.) If to the perfect,
how much more to the imperfect? If to the strong, how much
more to the weak? And therefore let every man prepare his
soul to temptation.'—(As before, p. 4.)
4. Temptation separates not from God. —Ibid. —'Now in that
this so entirely beloved Son of God in whom He is so well
pleased, is tempted, hereby may we reap great comfort unto
ourselves; for hereby it doth plainly appear that temptations,
be they never so fearful to the eye, grievous to the heart, or
painful to the flesh, yet they separate us not from the love of
God, neither are they tokens of His displeasure and hatred as
the world esteemeth them, which weigheth the favour of God in
deceivable balances of worldly prosperity; but rather that they
are testimonies of His favour toward us.'-(As before, p. 4.)
5. The grand occasion and motive of the Devil's temptation.—
Ibid. All his endeavour is against us; but the cause and be-
ginning proceedeth herefrom, that he might fight against us
because of his hatred against the majesty of God. That he
hateth us then, it is, because he hateth God; and in us which
pertain unto Him he seeketh to be revenged on Him; as the
servant to persecute the master, in the members the Head.'-
(As before, p. 6; and see the very precious sequel, and also on-
ward, wherein is shown that 'temptation' is of God's chasten-
ing love; very valuable, pp. 6-8.)
6. Temptation no evidence of the disfavour of God.-JOHN
UDALL. 'If we look into the Book of Job, and all those
speeches that his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar
uttered concerning the power, wisdom, and justice of God, we
shall see that they do tend only to this, that Job being in such
Notes and Illustrations.
319
extremity, could not be in the favour of God so highly as he
professed; neither could it be, if his so glorious profession in
the time of his peace had been sincere and single, that ever he
should fall into such misery. This motion cometh too often
and sticketh too near, not the ribs but the heart, of the dearest
child of God. For if we consider the present estate of our souls,
how weak and faint our faith is, yea, and how it is to our own
feeling oftentimes utterly gone, our sins, which we profess to
be buried in oblivion with the Lord, and utterly to be razed
out in the blood-shedding of Christ Jesus, do yet notwithstand-
ing often so assail us, lie so heavy upon us, and are so bitter
unto us, as if the very pains of hell had already seized and taken
possession of us. In which case, the holiest do best know how
often the motion of doubting cometh into our minds, saying
unto us, If God the Father loved me, I should see His counte-
nance; if Christ Jesus were my Head, I should taste of His
grace; if my sins were forgiven me, they would not so press
and oppress me.
How can it be that the severe countenance of
God should be turned to them whom He loveth?' Then simi-
larly he proceeds to show like trials in the body, and concludes:
Against all these, and such like, our Saviour Christ's example
doth minister unto us most singular comfort; for concerning
the grief of soul for sin, was ever any man more or so much
laden as He was when, having not His own but our sins laid
upon Him, He suffered the very torments of hell, in such-wise
that He burst out into these speeches of most bitter agony, "My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Again; for the
troubles of the body, doth any thing befall unto thee that He
felt not? Thou lackest food: He was hungry and had nothing
to eat (Matt. iv. 2). And hast no possession, neither any worldly
stay to take to? He had not where to lay His head (Luke ix. 58).
Thy friends become thy foes? His own servant and scholar
betrayed him (Ps. lv. 13). Thy own kinsfolks like not of thee?
and He had such good entertainment of His that he saith (Matt.
xiii. 57) "that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own
country, and amongst his own kindred." The world hateth thee
without a cause? so it did Him (Ps. xxxv. 7) being without sin.
They reward thee evil for good? He wept over Jerusalem, and
would have gathered them as the hen gathereth her chickens,
and they cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Thou wishest
320
Notes and Illustrations.
and workest their wealth, and they abuse thee? He wrought
their salvation, and they nailed Him to the cross. So that His
example in all our extremities is our stay and comfort, that what-
soever befalleth unto us, although it seem strange unto us for
that we have not been experienced in it, and for that it is un-
pleasant unto flesh and blood, not only He Himself hath broken
the use, and gone through the same to give us an example; but
even it hath been the continual course that God hath set His
dearest and best beloved servants to wade through from time to
time.'-(As before, ¶ 10.)
7. Temptations preservative.-BISHOP HACKET FROM ST.
AMBROSE.—' Animam oportet assiduis saliri tentationibus, says
St. Ambrose, some errors and offences do rub salt upon a good
man's integrity, that it may not putrify with presumption.'—(As
before, p. 210.)
8. Templation evil, whether lesser or larger.-DR. PUSEY.-
'But although all these [deadly] sins kill at one stroke, other
sins steal away the heart from God, and banish God from the
heart. A vessel will sink, whether filled with heavy stones or
with sand. Fine grains of sand will bury travellers in the desert.
Fine flakes of snow, so light that they seem to hang in the air
and scarce to fall, will, if they gather over the sleepy wayfarer,
extinguish life; if they drift, they will bury whole houses and
their dwellers. Fine, delicate sins, as people think them, will
chill the soul and take away its life.'
9. Deliverance from temptation not always immediate.-Ibid.
-‘Pursue, strike it down, whenever it appears. [But] one blow
will not do to death a besetting sin. It would not be well for
us to have the victory so easily. We might be puffed up with
our success, and think success an easy matter, in our own hands.
We might think it our own work, not God's, and so cast out one
devil by another, Pride, and in the end be the slave of both.
Thin, fine, invisible as a gossamer's thread, when the
light from God shines not upon them, seem the single threads of
our sins.
The enchantress Sin smiles sweetly on you, that you
may conceive no ill, until she has wound them slowly round you.
When she has wound them, she will clap her hands and say,
"Thou art mine." Slowly they intertwine, line with line, fibre
with fibre, sin with sin; once intertwined, no human strength
can burst the tightened cord. Stronger than thou is he who,
Notes and Illustrations.
321
whilst thou wert asleep and listless, wound them round thee;
but "stronger than the strong man" is He who will unloose
thee. Yet, one by one didst thou let these cords pass over
thee; by little and little didst thou give thyself to be bound;
little by little will God unbind thee.'-(8 and
(8 and 9 from Parochial
Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 154-155. Oxford, 1853.)
10. More than deliverance from temptation to be sought.—Ibid.
—‘Do not strive only to abstain from sin, but strive, by God's
grace, to gain the opposite grace. If thou wouldst save thyself
from falling backward, thou shouldst throw thyself forward. If
thou wouldst not slip back into sin, thou must stretch forward
to Christ and His holiness. It is a dull, heavy, dreary, miser-
able, toilsome way, just to avoid sin. It is to give up the miserable
pleasure of sin, without receiving in return the heavenly pleasures
of delight in God; and it has nothing generous, nothing noble,
nothing ennobling, nothing worthy of the price paid for us,
nothing befitting what we have been made, the sons of God.
Thou wouldst not simply not be impatient; thou wouldst long
to be like thy Lord, who was meek and lowly of heart.'—(As
before, p. 159.)
NOTE (4.)-P. 72.
We must be Solitary when we are Tempted.
CC
'We must be solitary when we are tempted. The arrange-
ment of the character, the correction of evil habits, the suppres-
sion of wrong desires, the creation of new virtues--this is a work
strictly individual, with which no stranger intermeddleth,"
in which the sympathy of friends may be deceptive, and our only
safety is in a superhuman reliance. The relation of the human
being to God is altogether personal; there can be no partner-
ship in its responsibilities. Our moral convictions must have
an undivided allegiance; and to withhold our reverence till they
are supported by the suffrages of others, is an insult which they
will not bear. What can those even who read us best know of
our weaknesses and wants and capabilities? They would have
to clothe themselves with our very consciousness, before they
could be fit advisers here. How often does their very affection
become our temptation, cheat us out of our contrition, and lead
X
322
Notes and Illustrations.
us to adopt some pleasant theory about ourselves, in place of the
stern and melancholy truth! How often does their erring judg-
ment lead us to indolence and self-indulgence, to a dalliance with
our infirmities, and a fatal patience with our sins! If, indeed,
there were a more prevalent conscientiousness in the distribution
of praise and blame, if all men felt how serious a thing it is to
dispense such mighty powers, friends might consult together with
greater security respecting their moral failures and obligations;
penitence might pour itself forth in a species of auricular confes-
sions no less safe than natural; the sense of wrong would become
more profound, when the violation of duty had shaped itself into
words; and the secret suggestions and resolves of conscience be
doubly strong, when echoed by the living voice of human tender-
ness. Even then, however, we must vigilantly guard our own
moral perceptions, clear the atmosphere between them and
Heaven, and allow no sophistry to shade us from the eye of God.
At best, we must often have to forego all sympathy: none can
be with us in our multiform temptations. Many a purpose, fit
only for ourselves, suited to the peculiarities of our own character
and condition, we must take up in private, and in silence pile up
effort after effort, till it be accomplished. And in these lonely
struggles of duty, in this invisible repression of wrong impulses
and maintenance of great aims, the inevitable loss of human aid
must be replaced by our affinity with God. While He is with
us, we are not alone. He that invented human virtue, and
breathed into us our private veneration for its greatness; He
that loves the martyr-spirit, scorning suffering for the sake of
truth; He that beholds in every faithful mind the reflection of
Himself; He that hath built an everlasting world, at once the
shelter of victorious goodness and the theatre of its yet nobler
triumphs, ―enwraps us in His immensity, and sustains us by
His love. The sooner we learn to lean on Him, and find com-
fort in the society of God, the better are we prepared for every
solemn passage of our existence. It is well, ere we depart, to
confide ourselves sometimes to the invisible; for then, at least,
we must be thrust forth upon it in a solitude personal as well as
moral. The dying make that pass alone: human voices fade away;
human forms retire; familiar scenes sink from sight; and silent
and lonely the spirit migrates to the great secret. Who would
not feel himself then beneath the all-sheltering wing, and say
Notes and Illustrations.
323
amid the mystic space, "I am not alone, for the Father is with
me.” '—(Endeavours after the Christian Life, vol. i. pp. 229-
232. 3d edition, 1860, Longmans.)
NOTE ()-P. 75.
Was Christ Tempted throughout the Forty Days and Forty
Nights?
Elsewhere and fully I must discuss this question. For the
present, the following quotation from Gumbleden (as before,
pp. 16, 17) may suffice :—
C
Objection.—It appears by St. Luke's words, chap. iv. 2, that
our Saviour was tempted of the Devil all those forty days which
St. Matthew speaketh of; or at least that He was tempted long
before the time of His fasting ended.
Co
'Answer.—It is but an appearance, and there is light enough
even in the text and Mark i. 13, rightly read, to dispel the mists
or the mistakes rather of any that shall but imagine it; for the
text, verses 2, 3, setteth down plainly and in order: 1. Our
Saviour's fasting forty days and forty nights. 2. His hunger
after His so long fasting. 3. His tempting after both, the one
immediately following the other, and in the same order as they
are there mentioned, as it is also Luke iv. 2, 3 : In those forty
days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He after-
wards hungered. And the Devil said unto Him :" an argu-
ment undeniable, because the texts positively affirm it, that our
Saviour's tempting followed both His fasting and His hunger,
and was not any ways a concomitant or coetaneous with the one,
nor an antecedent of the other; not a concomitant with His
fasting, for the "forty days and forty nights" were fully ended
before He was "an-hungered;" nor an antecedent of His
hunger, for thereupon the Devil took the first occasion of His
tempting; as after He had fasted so long a time He was an-
hungered" (ver. 2): and after He was an-hungered," "then
the Tempter came unto Him, and said" (ver. 3): then and not
before. So that when St. Mark saith (i. 13) "that He was
there" (in the Wilderness) forty days tempted of the Devil; and
St. Luke (iv. 2), "being forty day's tempted of the Devil," they
do not mean that the Saviour was tempted either all or any of
C¢
เ
324
Notes and Illustrations.
""
those days wherein He fasted : no; and that the comma in the
Original, in Mark i. 13, between the time of His fasting and
the time of His tempting, makes plain and manifest; and so
should our Translation be printed with the comma after "forty
days," thus: He was there in the Wilderness forty days,
tempted of Satan. Thus also is that of St. Luke to be under-
stood, as interpreters rightly observe upon the place (iv. 2) [Ari.
Montan. Piscat. Schol.], reconciling the seeming difference of
one by the plain words of another Evangelist. And because
this of St. Matthew is the plainest, it is also for that reason the
fittest to interpret the two others' meaning, as it fully doth; and
the true meaning is, that our Saviour was not tempted of the
Devil until He had fasted full forty days and forty nights.'
Besides all above, as Dr. Whedon observes in the place,
Mark's 'forty days, tempted' no more means that the whole
forty days were filled up with the Temptation, than that the
ministry of angels, mentioned in the last clause, so continued.
(Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. By D. D.
Whedon, D.D. New York, 1860.)
NOTE (m.)-P. 77.
Rabbinical Explanation of the 'Forty Days and Forty Nights''
Fasting.
Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary upon the place, fur-
nishes us with a fine Rabbinical explanation. Relative, he says,
to the forty days' fast' of Moses, there is a beautiful saying of
the Talmudists: 'Is it possible that any man can fast forty days
and forty nights? To which Rabbi Meir answered, “When
thou takest up thy abode in any particular city, thou must live
according to its customs. Moses ascended to heaven, where
they neither eat nor drink. Therefore he became assimilated to
them. We are accustomed to eat and drink; and when angels
descend to us they eat and drink also."' It was, in very truth,
a 'heavenly' not an earthly life,' in the case equally of Moses,
Elijah, and the Lord.
Notes and Illustrations.
325
NOTE (12.)-P. 78.
Fasting.
1. Erroneous reasons for the Fasting.-BISHOP HACKET,
I begin my illustrations of the present note with a quotation
from Bishop Hacket, which gives, in a short space, an example
of erroneous reasons for Christ's fasting; and which I wish
emphatically to condemn, as, however unintentionally, most dis-
honouring to the Lord: 'As His will was always subject to
His Father, according to that prayer in the garden, “Not My
will, but Thy will be done," so the Divine Nature did suggest
a reason to His Human Nature to fast, to put a fallacy upon
Satan, that he might peremptorily conclude Christ was no more
than a man, who suffered hunger, and sought for somewhat to
eat in the wilderness, and was not replenished. As if a lion
should put on the skin of a silly sheep, to draw on a ravening
wolf to set upon him, and therefore devour the wolf who came
to be the devourer. So our Saviour walked about the Desert
in the person of a silly man, half-famished; the Tempter was in
great suspense, and knew not what to think of Him, and stood
ambiguously in this dilemma, says St. Chrysostom: He hath
fasted forty days and ate nothing, I dare not meddle with Him,
this is no man; but after forty days ended, He is hungry, and
wants food, I will give Him the onset, this is no God. So
Jesus, gazing about like a poor sheep that could find nothing
but stones for fodder, the wolf grins upon Him, but He proved
to be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, impar congressus Achilli ;
and the wild beast of the forest was repelled by Him that "led
captivity captive;" the more infirmity pretended on Christ's part,
the more glorious the victory, fames Domini pius fraus est, ne
caveat tentare Diabolus, says Bonaventure; this fast and hunger
was a pious fraud or stratagem laid by God to draw on Satan to
tempt his Lord and Maker, and so prove Him guilty of a most foul
rebellion. St. Austin doth so receive this opinion, that he rejects
all others. It may be said, says he [Serm. De Temp. 157], that
Fasting came after Baptism, even as a good diet is to be left after
health recovered, for fear of a relapse, but that is impertinent,
Illius causa jejunii non Jordanus tinctio sed Diaboli tentatio fuit.
This fact had no reference to the dipping in Jordan, but to cosen
Satan, and make him rashly adventure upon the ensuing tentation.
326
Notes and Illustrations.
So St. Ambrose likewise, and almost all the best authors of the
best antiquity. It is a fatal requital upon some busy wits, that
as they are sharp and sore deceivers, so when their own turn
comes about, they are as sorrily deceived. Marcus Crassus was
one of the cunningest flatterers that ever was, and yet no man
was so easily and so notoriously gull'd with flattery [Plut. Vita
Crass.] So Satan is the grand impostor of mankind, and yet
this grand impostor was thrust upon Him to enter combat with
Christ, who is invincible and omnipotent. And let cheaters and
cunning practisers beware that their own cheat rebound not upon
themselves. God hath a retorsion in store, a fallere fallentem,
which will fall upon them in spite of subtlety and circumspec-
tion. They think they work closely, and no harm shall happen
to them; I am sure that David prophesies how certainly they
shall be stew'd in their own sauce. They are taken in the crafty
wiliness that they imagined for others; in the same net that they
hid privily, is their foot taken. The ways of a serpent are
slippery, and treachery shall be tript up with treachery.
Lord hath spoken it, and the Lord hath done it."'—[As before,
Pp. 241, 242.]
"The
There is useful truth well put in the above, but spite of
St. Augustine and St. Ambrose and Bishop Hacket, and the
other venerable names who sanction the so-called putting
a fallacy upon,' and 'cozening' Satan, I must utterly and abso-
lutely repudiate the notion as unwarranted and monstrous.
It
was the Lord, not Satan, who was led out' to be tempted.'
The Lord 'tempts NONE.' There was no 'GUILE' found in Him.
It is the more necessary to thus speak, because these great
names give the view a false weight, and because your purblind
followers of the Fathers' promulge their most stupid nonsense
unquestioningly, and deem the position established when they
have arrayed their authorities in their margins.
2. The Fasting of the Second Adam' had reference to the Eat-
ing of the First Adam.'-JOHN GUMBLEDEN, B. D.-'He now
thus prepares Himself to be tempted and afterwards to become
a conqueror, judging it the best way for Himself, who came
into the world to satisfy God's wrath for man's sin of disobedi-
ence committed by " eating" (Gen. iii. 6), to pull down the
Devil's pride, even by humility, by abstinence, by fasting, and
hunger.'—(As before, p. 15.)
C
Notes and Illustrations.
327
3. Fasting a most necessary duty, and profitable.—THOMAS
TAYLOR, D.D.-'This example of Christ teacheth us of what
great necessity this exercise of fasting is, both for the entrance
and comfortable continuance of the duties of our calling, both
general and special. This Nehemiah knew well when, hearing
of the calamity of Jerusalem and his brethren the Jews, he
fasted certain days, and prayed before the God of heaven
(i. 4). And Ezra proclaimed a fast to seek the right way
homeward, and safe from their enemies (viii. 21). See also
Acts xiii. 3.
'Reasons-1. Fasting in an holy and religious manner helpeth
forward graces that are necessary for our calling. (1.) The grace
of conversion, and therefore is made an adjunct of it: Joel ii. 12,
"Turn you with all your heart, with fasting and weeping.'
(2.) The grace of prayer; for as prayer sanctifieth fasting, so
fasting strengtheneth prayer. Otherwise to place God's worship
in fasting is to make the belly the God. (3.) It helps forward
the knowledge of the mysteries of God and godliness: Daniel
ix. 3 compared with xx. 21, As Daniel was praying and fasting,
Gabriel was sent to instruct him, and revealed to him the mystery
of the seventy weeks. (4.) It adds strength and courage in the
Christian combat between the flesh and the spirit: it is as a
third that comes in to take the spirit's part, and so helpeth to the
victory by subduing the flesh.
2. The necessity and profit of this exercise appeareth in
respect of ourselves: for (1.) If we want public or private benefit,
fasting joined with prayer is the means wherein God will have
them sought and obtained. The Benjamites after two sore over-
throws by this means got the victory, Judges xx. 28. Hannah
by the same obtained her Samuel; and David fasted for his
child's life. (2.) If we be in danger of public or personal judg-
ments, by the same means they are to be diverted: religious
fasting is a chief part of the defensive armour of the Church, as
we may see in the example of Esther saving her people from
Haman's device, and of the Ninevites turning away the destruc-
tion threatened by Jonah by fasting and humbling themselves.
(3.) If we be to attempt public or private duties, hereby we must
fit ourselves and obtain success and blessing. So did Nehemiah
and Ezra, as we saw before; and when Paul and Barnabas were
separated to the work of the ministry they fasted and prayed
328
Notes and Illustrations.
(Acts xiii. 3.) Yes, Christ Himself spent a whole night in fasting
and prayer before He chose His disciples (Luke vi. 12, 13).
'3. Daily experience shows the necessity of religious fasting :
for (1.) How many men observe in themselves that for want of
this duty they grow dull in their professions and heavy in holy
practices, yea empty of grace, so as they may think the Spirit is
departed from them! Yet when they have renewed this exer-
cise they find themselves more ripe and ready, more quick and
able to good duties, as if they had new souls given them. (2.)
Do we not see that the more conscionably a man carrieth him-
self the more busily Satan doth bestir himself against him? and
had he not need so much the more fence himself with coat-
armour, and fly to God for strength and protection? If a good
magistrate or minister be to be brought into any place, how doth
Satan storm and bend his forces against him, because he thinks
that then his kingdom must be divided! Therefore if a man
mean to be serviceable to God in any place, it is meet he should
first sanctify it by fasting and prayer as Christ did.'—(As before,
p. 34.)
4. The uses and advantages of Fasting.-DR. HENRY E.
MANNING. The Sermons of this remarkable man, having
been allowed by him to fall "out of print," are become exces-
sively rare and costly, fetching many pounds when they occur
complete. Being fortunate enough to possess the whole, as well
the volumes as those single, I have the pleasure to share my
privilege with my readers partially. In Dr. Manning's Sermons
on The Temptation, five in all-which for subtle thinking and
force combined with exquisite perfectness of workmanship in
expression-he states with surpassing effectiveness the duty and
privilege of Fasting.' I therefore here give a number of ex-
tracts, albeit I feel as though I were tearing fair roses to pieces,
and presenting the despoiled leaves instead of the 'perfect
flower' in so doing :-
(1.) The Lord fasted for our imitation.-' He fasted for our
imitation; not, indeed, in the length and intensity of His mira-
culous abstinence, but according to the measures of our nature.
His example has all the force of a command. Though there
were no precept of fasting in the New Testament, yet this pro-
minent act of our Great Master, the true pattern of a devout
and holy life, would be enough. In this, likewise, it is most
Notes and Illustrations.
329
66
>>
true that "the disciple is not above his Master, neither the
servant above his Lord." We may be sure that there are virtues
and an efficacy in the discipline of Fasting known only to Him
who knew what is in man. It is related, in some deeper way
than we understand, to the realities of our spiritual warfare, to
the actings of our spiritual life, and to the substance of our
natural being. Whether we can see all the reasons of it or no,
we may rest assured that by His own example He has, in the
most emphatic way, prescribed fasting to us; that no one who
desires to advance in a devout life will venture to disregard the
practice; and that none but they who dare to slight the example
of our blessed Lord, will venture to speak lightly of the duty.
I say this, because worldly, self-confident, and light-ininded
people, not knowing of what they speak, are wont to justify
their own shallow and self-sparing religion by sinful levities on
this most sacred duty. Let them beware of what they are say-
ing. Either our Lord's life is our example or it is not. Let
them choose which they will, and abide by the consequences.
To those for whom His life is no example, His death is no
atonement; to them to whom His example is a law, the prac-
tice of fasting is a duty.'-(Sermons, vol. ii. 'Fasting a means
to Christian Perfection,' pp. 57, 58.)
(2.) Fasting a reality with Christ.—' The fasting of our blessed
Lord was not a mere semblance; it was not an appearance,
as the Docetæ believed his manhood itself to be an unreal
action, for the sake of leaving an example to us. Though He
was all pure, and had in Him nothing on which sin could lay its
hold, yet, without doubt, even in His perfect and spotless
humanity, abstinence had its proper work." Though He were
a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suf-
fered" (Heb. v. 8), by that inscrutable mystery of suffering He
tasted of sorrows, which in His impassible nature He could
never receive into His person. He was weary, faint, grieved,
buffeted, and put to pain, even as we are; and these things on
His humanity had the same effect as they have on ours. So,
without doubt, in His fasting. What may have been its effects
on the actings of His spotless soul in its aspect towards God, we
dare not speculate; but can we doubt that the fast of forty days
had its own peculiar work in that perfect sympathy toward us,
by which He is able to feel with us in our natural infirmities?
330
Notes and Illustrations.
Was it not out of the same depth of experience that He spake,
when, as St. Mark writes, "In those days, the multitude being
very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples
unto Him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multi-
tude, because they have now been with me three days, and have
nothing to eat; and if I send them away fasting to their own
houses, they will faint by the way for divers of them came from
far" (Mark viii. 1-3). May we not say that he thereby made
trial of such bodily infirmities as give to the poor, the sick, the
self-denying, a peculiar share in His perfect sympathy?'-(As
before, pp. 68, 69.)
uses.
(3.) Fasting a personal benefit to the Believer. With us, how-
ever, fasting is a means of humiliation, abasement, repentance
for the guilt of sins committed, and for the soils of sin which
penetrate our inmost soul. To us sinners it is a sharp and neces-
sary medicine to cleanse our hearts, to waken and excite devo-
tion, to chasten and clear the spiritual affections towards God,
and to humble our natural pride. These are its first and obvious
It also helps to form in us a pure and unselfish sympathy
with the suffering members of Christ, in their patience and
necessities, in their faintness and heavy toil, in the languor of
sickness and feebleness of age. It is good for us to see our tables
spread like a poor man's board; for many go from their birth to
their grave, and never know the taste of hunger. There are
secrets of suffering into which not only the rich and soft, but
even the charitable and pitiful, can never enter, except by self-
denial, of which fasting is an example and a pledge.'—(As before,
pp. 69, 70.)
(
(4) Fasting a help to higher spiritual attainment.-'It may
be safely said, that without fasting and the habits implied in it,
we shall hardly attain to any high degrees of the spiritual life.
I would not be understood to say, that there are not to be found
some who never fast, and are yet purer and more penitent than
some who do; that is very certain. Some who fast seem not at
all the better: rather, as has been said, they seem to grow less
gentle, less self-mistrusting, less charitable, more high-toned in
their professions, projects, and censures. Again; some who have
never been taught to look upon fasting as a duty, have gone
through life without using it as a part of their personal religion,
yet are nevertheless truly pious, gentle, and devout. But the
Notes and Illustrations.
331
question is rather to be stated thus: Seeing what they are with-
out this scriptural practice, what would they have been if they
had been early taught to use it? Surely we may believe they
would, in all parts of a holy life, have outstripped their present
selves. If they have come to be what they are without follow-
ing this precept of our Lord's example, what might they not
have attained by a fuller imitation of His life! For it is not to
be denied that there are, even among persons of a devout life,
two very distinct classes. There is one which consists of people
who are truly conscientious, faithful to the light that is in them,
charitable, blameless, diligent in the usual means of grace, and
visibly advanced in the practice and principle of a religious obe-
dience. Yet there is something wanting. Their alms are given
without the grace of charity; their consolations are not sooth-
ing. There is a want of sympathy, tenderness, meekness, re-
verence, submission of will, self-renouncement; sometimes there
is a tone which is even selfish, imperious, heathen, or worldly.
The other class are perceptibly distinct; and their difference
may be said to lie in the depth and vividness of their charity and
compassion. They inspire no fear, except that which attends
on great purity of life; they attract and win to themselves the
love of others, especially of the poor, the timid, the suffering,
and even of children. There is about them something which is
rather to be felt than defined. We feel ourselves to be in the
presence of a superior, and yet of one who has nothing fearful
or exciting, nothing that rudely absorbs or repels us. We feel
to be sensibly drawn to them, and to be thoroughly persuaded
of their goodness and gentleness of heart. Though we know
that our least faults will in their eyes seem greater than much
graver faults in the eyes of others, yet we have less fear of
making them known, because we feel some of their tenderness
and kind interpretation. Such they are in their aspect towards
us. What is their devotion, as it is seen by God alone, we can
only conjecture from the purity and intensity of all their spiritual
life. Now such characters as this certainly seem almost to differ
in kind, rather than in degree, from the others. They have
another pattern of devotion before them, and are under another
discipline. Their self-control is perceptibly of a purer sort;
the subjugation of their passions is evidently on a more perfect
rule; and their elevation has a vividness and depth which the
332
Notes and Illustrations.
others do not possess.
Now this seems to be the cast of cha-
racter which is seldom, if ever, formed without an habitual ex-
ercise of secret humiliation. All that we preserve of sympathy
and gentleness is the result of contrition and self-chastisement
before God. And this is wrought in them by a system of self-
discipline, into which fasting seldom, if ever, fails to enter.
Without this, and the kindred habits allied to it, there can be
but little of that recollection of heart out of which comes a keener
perception of the spirituality of the law of God, of the malign
character of sin, or of the habitual consciousness of our own
infinite unworthiness in the sight of heaven. All these, which
are the first principles of repentance and purification, are but
faintly, if at all, apprehended by any but those who use in secret
a discipline of self-chastisement, and all attempts at such dis-
cipline will be found, sooner or later, to be most imperfect, and
indeed all but in vain, unless they are ordered on the rule which
is here given by the example of our blessed Lord.'—(As before,
PP. 70-73.)
(5.) No ostentation of Fasting.-'Whatsoever your practice,
let it be without ostentation. "Thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto
men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secrei." There
are few that can stand being noticed, without suffering in the
purity of their intention. Howsoever well they may have be-
gun, secondary motives insinuate themselves with a strange
subtilty. The comments of others, either by way of opposi-
tion, or, much more dangerously, of approval, seldom fail to
produce an unhealthy self-consciousness which mars all, and
then "verily we have our reward.' Moreover, there is no
reason why we should not carry our secret discipline with us
into all paths and conditions of life. We may fast in the midst
of the world, in its business and distractions, even when com-
pelled to be present in the midst of its feastings. Let it be a
matter between ourselves and God.'—-(As before, p. 74.)
4 I would recommend also the characteristic sermon on
'Christian Fasting,' by Dr. Thomas Arnold, in his Christian
Life: its Hopes, its Fears, and its Close (3d edition, 1845), pp.
120-130.
>>
Notes and Illustrations.
333
NOTE (0.)-P. 83.
Hunger.
1. Why the hunger of Jesus is recorded.-JOHN GUMBLEDEN,
B.D.—The effect or consequence of His fasting was, that after
He had abstained from all manner of food so long a time, "He
was afterwards an-hungered" (ver. 2), which we do not read
at all either of Moses or Elias after their long fasting. We do
not read it, because no penman of the Holy Ghost hath recorded
it; neither was there the same reason to mention their hunger
(mere men) after their fasting, as there was particularly our
Saviour's (God and man) after His fasting. And the reasons
why our Saviour's hunger, in particular, is here mentioned, may
be two: I. To manifest to all succeeding ages that He that was
very God, the Person here to be tempted, was very man also ;
it being incident unto man also, and not unto God, to be
Co
hungry.' 2. To note, that though the Devil, even then, were
prepared to tempt, yet the occasion thereof, to a good end, was
first offered unto him by our Saviour."—(As before, p. 18.) I
don't give what follows, as it is only another statement of Bishop
Hacket's erroneous reasons for the fasting. See Note (n.)
2. Base advantage-taking of Satan in assailing the Lord' an
hungered.'-RICHARD GILPIN.-Outward afflictions are a load
and burden this gives a probability that his designs may the
better take place. 'Tis easy to overthrow those that are “bowed
down," to "break" those that are "bruised," to master those
that are weary" "and weak-handed.'-(As before, Part iii.
obs. 4.)
CC
3. Temptation through Hunger.-DR. HENRY E. MANNING.
-It may be taken as a sample of a class of temptation to
which some of us are especially liable. In our Lord's hunger
we may see a type of the straits and necessities into which we
sometimes fall in our worldly condition; and in the temptation
of Satan an example of the unlawful and indirect ways in which
men are tempted to escape from them. In one word, it may be
taken as a sample of the temptations which beset those who
have the part of Martha, who live in the world, charged with
its temporal duties and cares, who have to provide for their own
living, and for the support of others who belong to them. Our
334
Notes and Illustrations.
Lord's conduct is an example of trust in the providential care of
God, and of the duty of abstaining from all unsanctioned ways
of providing for ourselves.'-(As before, p. 97, ' Worldly Cares.')
4. Hunger not the excuse of many.-DANIEL DYKE.—' Christ
in His greatest necessity would not turn stones into bread to
save His life; and wilt thou in far less necessity, not to save
life but increase wealth and so honour and greatness, turn not
stones but blood, even the blood of the poor saints of God, into
bread, by oppression and extortion? How many are there that
turn not stones into bread, but lies, flatteries, base shifts, into
silver and gold, yea jewels and precious stones!'-(As before,
p. 269.)
5. Hunger not to be given way to.—Ibid.—' We say the belly
hath no ears for others, but we should have no ears for it. The
belly is common with us to the brutes; and while we much
affect it, we are more brutish than reasonable. Reason is
clouded with these fogs and mists that ascend up out of the
kitchen of the stomach to the brain. -(As before, p. 229.)
NOTE (p.)-P. 86.
Was the 'coming' of the Devil a visible coming?
I have given my reasons for answering this question in the
negative. It will fall to be more amply argued out elsewhere.
Meantime I cannot withhold Dr. Thomas Taylor's 'reasons'
for answering in the affirmative.
Our reasons which probably conclude the contrary [¿.c., to
those who hold the negative], for it is no fundamental point
necessarily and stiffly to be held, because the Scripture is not
plain in it, are these :
M
'I. As Satan in his combat overcame the first Adam in a
bodily shape and external temptation, so it is likely he came
against the second Adam in some bodily shape. And that he
thus externally assaulted him by outward objects is probable by
these things in the text: (1.) He spake often to Christ and
Christ truly spake and answered. (2.) He said "Command
these stones," not stones in general, but either offering, holding,
or pointing at them, being real stones as Mr. Calvin saith. (3.)
He wills Christ to fall down before him and worship him, even
Notes and Illustrations.
335
by bodily and outward gesture, and citeth Scripture for his
Second Temptation. (4) He took Him and led Him to the
pinnacle of the Temple, by local motion; neither was the
Second Temptation in the wilderness as the former was, but in
the Holy City, Jerusalem, and on the pinnacle of the Temple,
as after we shall see. (5.) Christ bids him depart. (6.) How
could He hurt Himself by His fall if it were only in vision?
'The word "porowv doth imply a corporal access; by
which these temptations differed from the former, wherewith he
was exercised in the forty days of His fast; for they were lighter
skirmishes and lesser onsets by suggestion sent out like scouts ;
but now he comes in person with all his strength, and thus he
now came and not before.
'3. Some good Divines make difference between Christ's
Temptations and His members', which giveth good light on
this question; that whereas our temptations are chiefly inward,
because they find good entertainment in us (our disposition
being like a mutinous city that is not only besieged with strong
enemies without, but with false traitors within, ready to betray
it), contrarily Christ's Temptations, if not only, yet chiefly are
external, presented by outward voices and objects to His out-
ward senses; but presently, by the perfect light of His mind
and unchangeable holiness of His will, discerned and repelled,
that they could not get within Him, and much less to be moved
and affected with them.
4. This is an history, wherein the letter is so far to be kept
as it is not repugnant to the analogy of faith or true interpreta-
tion of the Scriptures; but that Satan should come bodily, or
assume a shape, is not against the Scripture, but confirmed in
the example of Eve and Samuel.'—(As before, pp. 48, 49.)
¿
Perhaps above is as acute a statement of the affirmative as
is to be found; but it is nevertheless very weak, and indeed
self-confuting, as I will take an after-opportunity of showing.
I would remark generally, that Dr. Taylor assumes that a
vision' is the alternative if bodily or rather 'visible shape' be
denied ; but this is a mistake. The angels' were really, bodily
present over the beleaguered city, but were invisible, except for
the moment that the servant's eyes' were 'purged' to 'see'
them. I believe the Tempter to have been present, actually
and bodily, but invisibly. It is difficulty enough to explain the
C
336
Notes and Illustrations.
Lord's visible presence on the pinnacle' of the Temple; but
a hundred times more so if the Devil is held to have been
C visible' there!
Nearly all the popular commentators assume a 'bodily ap-
pearance,' e.g., Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Dr. Doddridge,
Dr. Campbell, Thomas Scott, Benson, Clarke, Barnes, et hoc
genus omne, also Ebrard, and others of the German school. I
propose to examine their reasonings or no-reasonings in my
larger Book.
NOTE (7.)-P. 98.
Loaf-like Stones.
I have unfortunately mislaid my references. The fact, how-
ever, is reported by all who visit the regions. Kitto, in his Daily
Bible Illustrations (32d week), mentions it; but there are
weightier authorities.
NOTE (r.)-P. 132.
'If Son Thou be of the God.'
1. On the phrase, 'el viòs el TOû Оeoû,' consult Bishop Mid-
dleton's very satisfactory handling of Campbell and Wakefield's
rendering a Son of God.'-(As before, pp. 133, 134.) See
also my own remarks on the same words at the Crucifixion, in
¶ 20 and 52.
It is amazing how your mere verbal critic and
exegete misses the thing in attending to the mere word or words
before him. Dean Alford furnishes abundant examples.
2. No doubt in Satan though he uses 'If.'-BISHOP HALL.
'Satan could not but have heard God say, "This is my well-
beloved Son." He had heard the message and the carol of the
angels; he saw the star, and the journey and offerings of the
sages; he could not but take notice of the gratulations of
Zachary, Simeon, Anna; he well knew the predictions of the
prophets; yet, now that he saw Christ fainting with hunger, as
not comprehending how infirmities could consist with a God-
head, he can say, "If Thou be the Son of God." Had not
Satan known that the Son of God was to come into the world,
he had never said, "If Thou be the Son of God." The very
Notes and Illustrations.
337
supposition convinces [convicts] him. The ground of his temp-
tation answered itself. If, therefore, Christ seemed to be a
mere man, because after forty days He was hungry, why was He
not confessed more than a man, in that for forty days He hun-
gered not? (As before, Works, iii. 310, 311.)
3. 'If' a trick of rhetoric.
- BISHOP ANDREWES.—' The
Heathens have observed, that in rhetoric it is a point of chiefest
cunning, when you would outface a man, or importune him to
do a thing, to press and urge him with that which he will not,
or cannot, for shame, deny to be in himself; as by saying, If
you have any wit, then you will do thus and thus: If you be
an honest man, or a good fellow, do this. So here the Devil,
not being to learn any point of subtlety, comes to our Saviour,
saying, "If Thou be the Son of God," as it may be doubted.
You being in this case-then "make these stones bread." No,
no, it follows not; a man may be the Son of God, and not show
it by any such art. So, when Pilate asked who accused Christ,
they answered, "IF He had not been a malefactor, we would
not have brought Him before thee." They were jolly, grave
men; it was a flat flattery; and in John the twenty-first chapter
and twenty-third verse there is the like. This ought to put us
in mind, when we are tempted in like manner, that we take
heed that we be not outfaced.'-(As before, p. 513.)
?>
4. 'If' since.-REV. WILLIAM HALES, D. D.-The original
term, el, si, is frequently used for ere, siquidem, or quoniam,
"sure, because," intimating not doubtfulness of supposition,
but certainty of fact; as in Matt. vi. 30; xxii. 45; John viii.
46; xiii. 14-32; xv. 20; Acts iv. 9; 1 John iv. 11, etc. Thus
Horace prays that Faunus would be propitious to his flocks: Si
tener cadit agnus ; "Since a tender lamb is sacrificed" to him
regularly at the end of the year.-Ode iii. 18. 5.' [A New
Analysis of Chronology and Geography, History, and Prophecy,
Vol. iii. p. 77, foot-note, 2d. edit. 1830.] It will be seen
that I prefer to regard ei as used = si, if, as intended to insinuate
doubt into the mind of the Lord, though there was none in
Satan himself. See ¶ 20.
etc.
"
5. 'If:'-Faith the grand object of attack.—ISAAC COLFE.—
'No marvel therefore though he make his beginning with the
assaulting of our faith: for seeing that we "stand by faith"
(Rom. xi. 20), he having once made shipwreck of our faith, we
Y
338
Notes and Illustrations.
1
are not able to resist or stand any longer, but remediless fall
down, overcome to utter confusion. And here his policy to
bring this his purpose to effect is to be marked. He knoweth
that our faith is grounded upon the sweet promises of God's
mercy in his Son Jesus Christ, revealed in His Word, according
to that of the Apostle (Rom. x. 17), “Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God," and is therefore called "The
word of faith" in the same place. Therefore, as God, for the
engendering and confirming of faith in our hearts, as the outward
and ordinary means, useth the ministry of His Word, so, on the
contrary part, for the weakening and overthrowing of our faith,
Satan calleth into question the verity and authority of the Word,
that it might not be believed and credited, but doubted and
suspected of us, as uncertain and untrue. For the one being
overthrown, the other cannot stand, the one being grounded
upon the certainty of the other.'-—(As before, pp. 63, 64.)
6. Because Satan most oppugneth our faith, we must fortify
it.—THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D.-' Policy teacheth men to plant
the most strength at that fort or part of the wall where the
enemy plants his greatest ordnance, and makes the strongest
assault. And nature teacheth us to defend all our parts, but
especially our head and heart and such-like vital parts. The
very serpent will save his head as long as he can, by natural
instinct, whatsoever becomes of other parts. Our chief fortress
is our Faith. We have no grace but is worth preserving and
saving; yet of them all Faith is, as it were, the head and
leader; it sends the vital spirits of heavenly life to the whole
man. Let grace, therefore, teach us to save this grace which is
the heart of a Christian above all the rest, and to beware of the
least prick or crack in it, which is dangerous. A man may
receive great gashes and wounds in his arms and thighs, or
external parts, and recover it well enough; not so in the heart
or brain. Though thy comfort, joy, feeling, yea, and fruits may
fail, take heed thy faith, thy root fail not. This is that which
the Apostle Peter exhorteth, I Pet. v. 9, "Whom resist sted-
fast in the faith," wherein if a man sit not very fast, Satan will
soon unhorse him. And of all others let afflicted and humble
souls lay hold and make use of this exhortation for Satan doth
with so much the more violence assault them as he findeth it
easier to prevail with them; for well he knows that howsoever
İ
Notes and Illustrations.
339
they heartily detest all other sins, and much ado he hath to
bring them to his lure in others, yet their spirits being oppressed
and wounded by the sense of sin and God's displeasure for it,
he finds them inclinable enough, upon every trivial temptation,
to despair; and so makes a wide breach by their improvidence,
watching narrowly all other things, but not that which they
ought most of all, and which Satan most of all impugneth.'--
-(As before, p. 55.)
7. The inference contained in Satan's 'If.'-JOHN GUMBLE-
DEN, B.D.—But what wilt thou infer thence? Wilt thou
conclude, as thine own words, "If thou be," seem to imply,
that the Person whom thou temptest is not the Son of God,
because at thy command He will not distrust in God, and turn
:
stones into bread?" Shall not the Lord Jehovah be God,
unless Baal subscribe unto it? Must "If thou be the Son of
God" be resolved preposterously into "Thou art not the Son
of God," if Satan's demand be not granted, and his curiosity
satisfied? Monstrous! Whereas to have done what the Devil
demanded had been altogether to derogate from the glory of
the Son of God; for whom it was as improper in anything to
become obedient unto Satan (such was the case here), as most
proper it was for Him in everything to continue constant in His
filial obedience unto His Father, as He did; for not at all re-
garding what Satan should judge of Him for not complying with
him, He utterly refused to obey his voice and none of his
charms, none of his temptations, none of his baits, none of his
fair words, in his sense capable of a foul construction, could
anywise prevail with Him, or remove and unrivet Him, which
was so much desired by the Devil, from His unshaken con-
fidence and assurance in His Father's providence; who, He
was persuaded, was able to provide for His Son in this His
hunger, even without His own particular assistance (which had
been to doubt of His Father's providence), by turning stones
into bread. Lo! this was the Devil's motive, "If thou be the
Son of God," command that these stones be made bread.
"Command:" the work to be done was left wholly unto our
Saviour; yet upon pain, if He did it not, to be declared not to
be the Son of God by Satan; a strong, a violent temptation,
yet easily repelled by our Saviour's reply to Satan and his in-
solency.'-(As before, p. 24.)
<<
p
340
Notes and Illustrations.
8. Misreasoning in the 'If.'-BISHOP HACKET.—‘This is
the enemy's chain-shot, two deadly bullets made fast together,
discharged out of one cannon; two such impious rules that I
may well call them the two Tables of the Devil's Law. This
is the first whosoever is in distress, let him think himself to be
none of God's children, for God doth not care for him. The
second in this wise whosoever is in want, let him raise his own
fortune by hook or by crook, and as it were in despite of God,
let him care for himself.'-(As before, p. 264.)
:
Again: There are two opinions of which carnal men do
especially surfeit, epidemical diseases, which slay as many souls
as any two vices you can name. First, that every son of God
is always provided of bread, and hath sufficiency, if not satiety,
of all worldly necessaries; and therefore, if any man be in dis-
tress and want, let him take it to heart that God hath cast him
off he is none of His sons, for He provides not for him.
Secondly, whosoever wants bread, let him never ask God for
it, but fetch it out of the hard stones, get it by any stratagem or
device; let him remember to furnish himself with the sleight of
his own wits, since God hath forgot him.
These are the upper
and the nether mill-stones by which Beelzebub grounds despair
and worldly sorrow out of one principle, and all manner of in-
justice and wrong-dealing out of the other.'—(As before, p. 273.)
Sonship' not to be vaunted.-THOMAS TAYLOR, D. D.-
'The answer of Christ was a most modest answer. Satan would
have Him confess Himself the Son of God. This He denieth
not nor yet affirmeth, but modestly acknowledgeth Himself a—
Alas! How far are we degenerate from this our
pattern, who, if we be but the sons of mean men, we will stand
upon it much more than Christ did upon being the Son of God!
We will pride it out, and ruffle and brag, and bear ourselves
upon our ancestors if they be stept but one step above the lowest.
Christ, when He had good occasion, would not scarce profess
Himself the Son of God, being of another manner of spirit than
that which breathed out that brag in the temptation afterward,
"All these will I give Thee."'-(As before, p. 74.)
9.
man.
10. The 'if' to be carefully observed.-DANIEL DYKE.-' Let
us labour to see Jael's nail as well as her milk, Delilah's scissors
as well as her bosom, the snake's poison as well as her embrace,
and the bee's sting as well as her honey.'-(As before, p. 320.)
•
•
6
Notes and Illustrations.
341
NOTE (S.)-P. 132.
The First Temptation as a Whole and in its Details.
،،
:
The Temptation unfolded.-THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D.-'See
how cunningly Satan conveys it, . . . implying in these few
words: 1. That it is an easy thing: say the word, or com-
mand," here is no labour; and being so easy, why should
Christ stick at it? 2. That it is now fit: here is an object
ready, here be stones, these stones. 3. That it is harmless, only
a proof of the power of the Son of God; and in reason what
should Satan have gained by it? and God's Son cannot sin, nor
God be angry with His Son. 4. That it is a necessary thing :
is it not necessary for a man that is ready to starve, to eat and
procure bread? If he will live, he must eat. 5. That it is a
glorious thing to command stones: I say not "pray" (for by
prayer as great things as this have been done; the sea dried, fire
turned into water, the sun stayed in his course to stand still, yea,
and go back) but "command," by Thine own proper power.
6. That it is a work of special use, not only for the relief of
Thyself in this want, but to satisfy me for if Thou makest
stones bread, I will confess the finger of God, and believe Thy
Father's voice that Thou art the Son of God, and accordingly
account of Thee; and so shall all that shall come to the know-
ledge of this great and extraordinary work. 7. That it is not
unreasonable to command a few stones to be made bread will
be no hurt to any man; and if Thou will not transubstantiate
many stones, turn but one stone into bread; so it is, Luke iv. 3,
'Say to this stone that it be bread," in the singular number;
whereas it is probable that at first he offered Him many or all
the stones in the place, which Matthew readeth. If Christ think
that too much, he will be content that he turn but that one into
bread, as Luke has it. 8. The Son of God should demean
Himself as the Son of such a Father, who is heir and Lord of
all things methinks Thy estate is not suited to Thy person, and
therefore by this action manifest that which Thy state doth not ;
and if Thou dost not, give me leave to doubt of Thy person, and
take Thee for an impostor.'-(As before, p. 68.)
..
342
Notes and Illustrations.
NOTE (t.)-P. 132.
Answer of the Lord to the First Temptation.
1. Christ did answer, but did not obey—and why?—THOMAS
WHITE, B.L.-'The question may be, Why our Saviour did
not turn those stones into bread? Whether because the thing
itself was not fit to be done, or because Satan proposed it? I
answer, because the thing itself was unlawful; for if it had been
because Satan desired Him so to do, then He would not after-
wards have yielded to any of Satan's desires; but apparent it is
that God Himself yielded to Satan in the trial of Job, in the
deceiving of Ahab, and Christ in bidding them to go into the
swine. 1. Our Saviour's answer doth not import any such thing,
but He answers to the temptation, not the Tempter; for His
answer shows that the thing itself ought not to be done, whoso-
ever had moved it, and so all His answers are. 2. Why did He
answer Satan? (1.) To show that there cannot be so much said
for sin but all may be answered and more said against it. (2.) If
by power He had overcome Satan, He had not left us an ex-
ample; for we have not the power our Saviour had; we have
the same Scripture. (3.) If He had overcome him with power
this time, He should have hindered Satan from tempting Him
any more. (4) Some say there were two things that Satan desired
to find out and accomplish: 1. He desired to make Christ sin;
2. He would fain know whether He were the Son of God. Now,
if our Saviour had by power overcome the Devil, He had satis-
fied him in one of his intentions, for He had fully showed Him-
self to be the Son of God.'-(As before, pp. 8, 9.)
C
2. Man, the man.—BISHOP MIDDLETON.— Wetstein's C, D,
E, F, prefix the article, and in the parallel passage, Luke iv. 4,
the article is found in the majority of MSS. As this is an exclu-
sive proposition (see Part i. c. iii. sect. iii. § 5), the article would
regularly be omitted. The passage, however, is quoted from
the LXX., Deut. viii. 3, who have ỏ v0рwπos, and on turning
to the Hebrew, I found, as I expected, 07.'—(As before, p.
135.) The latter half of the above neutralizes the other, and
establishes the authority of the article.
3. 'Man liveth not by BREAD alone.'-' Bread.' - See Note
(a), 15.
Notes and Illustrations.
343
4. God's blessing needed.-THOMAS PLAYFERE, D.D. —' Saith
the Prophet, "Ye drink but ye are not filled." Many consume,
and as we say, drink down their whole patrimony. Like the
horse-leech they ever say, Give, give;" like the man in the
Gospel that had the dropsy, they drink still, and the more they
drink the more they list [wish]. Committing in the mean
season two sins, "forsaking God the fountain of living waters,
and digging to themselves pits that can hold no water" (Jer.
ii. 13). On the other side, Elias, whereas the angel brought
him a cake baked on the hearth and a pot of water, was so fully
satisfied with these that he went in the strength of this meat and
drink forty days unto Horeb the mount of God. Could such a
small pittance of bread and water of itself sustain him so long?
No marry.
What was the matter then? The word that pro-
ceeded out of God's mouth had appointed so that one cruse of
water should suffice him all that time. Whereby we see that
man is not filled with drinking only. Man liveth not by bread
only, but,' etc.-(As before, pp. 14, 15.)
5. God's blessing to be sought, with thanks.-BISHOP HACKET.
-Therefore look up to heaven, and give thanks, as the little
birds do when they sip a drop of water. If thou obeyest the
Lord, thou shalt be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.
As the fable is that the unicorn dips his horn into the river, and
makes it wholesome for all the beasts to drink, so the mercy of
the Lord shall breathe upon all thy sustenance and sanctify it
for cheerfulness and health, and thy bones shall be filled with
marrow and fatness. But though we take our meat from God,
yet through infidelity it seems to me we will not take His word,
that He will concoct it to vivicate and strengthen us.
For if you
do trust to that secret infusion that He gives unto His gifts, why
are you so solicitous what you shall eat and what you shall
drink? Why do you confect everything you take with such
licious cost? Why do you ingurgitate yourselves with super-
fluity? I am sure this makes it evident that you will neither
trust God nor nature, unless all the art which luxury and wanton-
ness can excogitate be added unto it? As Elkanah said to
Hannah his wife, Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So
let it run in your mind as if the Lord spake it to you in your
ear, Am not I better unto thee than all the corn in the fields?
than all the cattle upon a thousand hills? than all the cookery
"C
344
Notes and Illustrations.
in the world that can be sweet upon the palate? What is
bread? What is a plentiful table without My benediction?
Man liveth not, etc.'-(As before, p. 290.) Let Job xxxi. 25,
28, and Jeremiah xvii. 5 be pondered.
6. The needed blessing of God too often not sought.-JOHN
UDALL. 'God is not tied unto means to give it a blessing; for
we see many that have outward helps at will, and yet the bless-
ing of God not being upon them, they are unprofitable unto them.
Which doctrines for our instruction have a double use: first, in
particular, concerning food, which is especially here mentioned,
that for so much as God hath given man leave to use all His
creatures and to feed off them, yet with prayer and thanksgiving
(1 Tim. iv. 5), that we never presume to lay hands upon the
same to apply them to our bodies in the nourishment thereof,
but first we call upon the name of God that His blessing may
be upon the same, that He would sanctify them unto us and us
unto Himself in such manner that they may be of force, by His
power given unto them, to nourish our bodies; knowing that
however the use of them be common and therefore seem unto
carnal men to have power in themselves to give nourishment;
yet we know by faith grounded on God's own word that He
that made bread not only can, but also hath threatened that He
will, for the disobedience of man, break the staff of bread (Lev.
xxvi. 26; Ezek. iv. 16; v. 16; Hag. i. 6), that is, take away
His blessing from it, that it being eaten shall not feed nor
nourish us.
Which lesson I would to God that the profane and
godless people of the world could once learn; who, grovelling
upon the ground like hogs, and never lifting up their minds to
God, the author of all those blessings that they plentifully enjoy,
do fall to their food like the horse to his provender, and having
satisfied, depart away like the beast of the field without under-
standing; and as for Him by whose meats they are satisfied He
never came into their remembrance, unless it be by tearing
Him in pieces to blaspheme His most holy name.
But if they
did know that even while they sit eating and drinking, the hand
of God writeth upon the wall (Daniel v. 4) determining their
destruction; if they knew how God made the quails, a dainty
food (Numb. i. 20), to come out at the nostrils of the Israel-
ites in most loathsome sort; or if they considered that God
might justly choke them with every morsel that entereth into
Notes and Illustrations.
345
their mouths, they would be more careful to learn the lesson
taught by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. x. 31) that "whatsoever we
do, whether we eat or drink, or whatelse soever, that all must be
done to the glory and praise of God, who is to be blessed for
ever and ever. It is also a lesson to us in general, concerning
all the rest of God's creatures; that forasmuch as a man may
be great and cursed of God, as was Pharaoh; rich, and go to
hell with Dives; that we do not build ourselves strong upon
them, thinking if we have them who may controul us? and so
do what we list, as we see it is the manner of men that know
not God, but contrariwise saying with ourselves if God mean to
send a famine upon me all the corn in my garner shall not save
me; if plague and pestilence, my walled houses cannot preserve
me from it; if fire and sword, my riches will not help me; and
therefore that we pray continually unto God that He will so
bless His own riches bestowed upon us, and so guide us in the
use of the same, that He by us and them may be glorified, and
not they turned as faggots to increase the fire of His wrathful
indignation against us.'-(As before, ¶ 12.)
7. Dr. Thomas Taylor (as before, p. 92, et seq.) has some richly
scriptural observations on the powerful Word' of God; and
Dr. Henry Edward Manning (as before, pp. 152-156) some very
solemn and awakening reflections on the apparent success of the
wicked, who take all without God's blessing; and showing how
seeming failure is often the truest success. I regret that my over-
crowded space prevents more than a reference.
NOTE (u.)-P. 153.
Compulsion and Resistance.
The Schoolmen and Fathers, and our own early divines, both
Church and Puritan, furnish many curious hits and gibes on the
impotence of Satan to cast down.' These I must give in my
larger Book.
But there is a danger, perhaps, of going too far
in the direction indicated. That is, I am not sure that our great
Adversary can't push or cast down, as well as lead up. Cf.
Luke xxii. 3, et seq., and Matt. xxvii. 5; also Acts v. 3, et seq.
There is another error of a different sort, viz., on the part of
those Expositors who difference the Temptation of the Lord
346
Notes and Illustrations.
from ours absolutely, so as to represent the Tempter as under
control with Him in a way he is not with us. Thus the present
Dean of Ely (Harvey Goodwin), in his Christ in the Wilderness:
Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in the
month of February 1855 (Cambridge, 1855), observes: 'I con-
tent myself with stating my belief, that the sacred writers have,
under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, preserved for us an
account of a mysterious passage in the life of Christ, which
transcends at every point human experience and human language,
in the truest and best form in which it could have been pre-
served' (p. 6). The italics are mine; and it is marvellous that
one so reverent and evangelical as the Dean should so forget
Hebrews iv. 15, '[One who] was in all points tempted like-as we
are.' Verily the Temptation were robbed of all its precious-
ness to us if Dean Goodwin's incautious words were true. But
they are the reverse of true.
There are other statements in these Four Sermons' upon
which, had space permitted, I should have animadverted. In-
deed, as a whole, they are, I regret to say, eminently unsatis-
factory and unscholarly.
C
NOTE (7.)-P. 158.
The Scene of the Second Temptation itself a Snare.
RICHARD GILPIN. The experiences that we have of his
"devices" assure us that in our temptation his ends are oft
manifold and I cannot but think that Satan would make all
things sure, and provide in his projecting mind against all
events; for if Christ should have yielded and evidenced so great
a power in the sight of all the people, it might have been a con-
viction general that He was the Messiah, about that time uni-
versally expected; and partly, I am ready to think so, because
in case Christ had done so, it lay so fair to confirm the Jews
in a misapprehension of the personal coming of Elias [Lightfoot
Harm. in loco], of whom they understood the prophecy of
Malachi (iii. 1), "Behold, I will send my messenger," etc. If
the Jews expected Elias to come from heaven to the Temple,
how strongly would they have been confirmed in this opinion
if they had seen a man fly from the Temple in the air; and by
Notes and Illustrations.
347
this means John the Baptist, who was the Elias that was to
come, should have been neglected, and Christ Himself, though
honoured as Elias, not owned for the Messiah.'—(As before,
Part iii. chap. xiii. obs. 5.) While I very highly estimate Gil-
pin's extraordinary book, I yet agree with Scott's criticism in
his Congregational Lecture, Note (0.)
NOTE (W.)-P. 165.
Stairs.
>>
JOHN LIGHTFOOT, D.D.—'Whether he placed Him upon
the Temple itself, or upon some building within the holy circuit,
it is in vain to seek, because it cannot be found. If it were upon
the Temple itself, I should reflect upon the top of the s
"Porch of the Temple;" if upon some other building, I
should reflect upon the Στοὰν βασιλικὴν,
"The royal gallery.'
The priests were wont sometimes to go up to the top of the
Temple, stairs being made for this purpose, and described in the
Talmudic book, entitled Middoth, cap. 4, hal. 5.'—(Works, edi-
tion by Pitman, vol. xi. p. 83. Hebrew and Talmudical Ex-
ercitations upon St. Matthew in loco. See also Colfe (as before,
p. 101.)
DANIEL DYKE furnishes here some vivid and quaint words :.
Satan,' says he, 'doth not only sever those things which God
hath joined together, sin and punishment, but as here we see,
joined together that which God hath severed, sin and reward;
tempting of God and preservation by angels; implunging our-
selves into the gulf of sin, and resting in God's kingdom; sow-
ing cockle, and reaping wheat; setting thorns, and gathering
figs; brewing with crabs [i.e. crab-apples], and drinking sweet
and pleasant beer; wasting and spoiling the Lord's vineyard,
and our pay and our penny with the labourers at the end of the
day. He makes us believe we may find the heavenly kingdom
as Saul found the earthly, without seeking, nay, in seeking a far
different matter, his father's asses; and so, that we may find
God's kingdom while we are hunting after the sinful pleasures
of the day. As he would persuade Christ of a sure descent from
the Temple without going down by the stairs, nay, by using a
contrary means, a violent flinging of Himself down; so he would
:
348
Notes and Illustrations.
persuade us of a sure ascent into heaven without going up by the
stairs of obedience, without climbing of the hill, nay, though we
run down the hill amain.'-(As before, pp. 291, 292.)
NOTE (x.)—P. 192.
The Second Temptation Illustrated.
I
'Again:' Temptation not abandoned.-Consult John Udall
(As before, ¶ 13) for admirable application of this. More sum-
marily Bishop Andrewes says, 'The Hebrew writers note that
the Devil's name Beelzebub signifieth a great flesh-fly or a master-
fly: flee him away never so often, he will still fly thither again.
So the Devil will never cease molesting us, till the "smok-
ing flax" be quite quenched, and "the bruised reed" clean
broken.'-(As before, p. 554)
<
2. The scene of it-the Holy City' and 'the Temple.'-See
Isaac Colfe (as before, p. 93, et seq.), and John Udall (as before,
¶ 14), for very excellent explanations and applications.
3. 'Took Him up.'-How ?-THOMAS TAYLOR, D.D.-
'Now, seeing that His presence in the Holy City and upon the
pinnacle was real and local, not in vision and mental, the next
question is, How the Devil took Him up and set Him on.
'Ans. It must necessarily be one of these two ways: either
Satan must lead Him, or else must carry Him.
'The former, that Satan took Him as a companion or a leader,
seems not so probable. 1. Because Christ of His own will
would not go; for, as we have heard, the Spirit led Him into
the Wilderness to be tempted; and He would not of Himself go
elsewhere, because the Spirit of God called Him thither and no
whither else. 2. Christ would not do it at Satan's instigation,
whom He knew to be the Tempter; for neither must we do
anything at Satan's request, be it never so lawful; for whatever
we do we must have a word of God to do it in faith. 3. If
Christ had yielded to be led as a companion, He might have
seemed to have sought temptation, and been a co-worker with
Satan against Himself; but it was enough to yield Himself a
patient in it. 4. The distance of the Holy City from the Wil-
derness, which was, as those say that make it least, twelve miles
M
Notes and Illustrations.
349
from Jerusalem, admitteth not that Christ, being hungry and
ready to faint, should follow Satan so many miles.
<<
'The latter, therefore, seems to be the right manner of Christ's
conveyance, namely, that He was carried by Satan through the
air, who, by God's and Christ's permission, took Him up and
transported His blessed body to Jerusalem, and set Him on the
battlements of the Temple. For, I. The words
For, 1. The words "He set Him
on the Temple," signifieth, he set Him down who had formerly
taken Him up; and if he had power to set Him there, why
should he not also have power to carry Him thither? And if
he had not carried Him thither, but Christ had followed Him,
the Evangelist would have said, "When they came to the pin-
nacle of the Temple," and not, set Him on the pinnacle."
2. This was the hour of the power of darkness, wherein Satan
was allowed to take advantages to further his temptation; and
he sought, through this violent transportation, a means either of
shaking Christ's faith with terror and fear what might become
of Him, being now delivered into the hands of Satan; or else
to make Him swell with pride and insolency that He was able to
fly in the air, or to be conveyed in the air from place to place,
without hurt, which an ordinary man could not; and this would
well fit the scope of the temptation ensuing.'— (As before,
pp. 123, 124, and see sequel). It must not be supposed that I
agree with the reasons or reasoning of the preceding or with all
the quotations given in these Notes and Illustrations.' In the
earlier half of above extract, the good divine seems to me over-
anxious in saying what Christ 'could not do,' but it is a specimen
of the way in which our fathers looked at the matter. Elsewhere
I'll notice the pros and cons. The sequel of Dr. Taylor's obser-
vations replies effectively to objections concerning the surrender-
ing of the 'body' of Christ to the Tempter. I may remark, by
the way, that those who seem most horrified at the idea of the
Lord having been thus surrendered, eg. Bagot, have none for
the far more monstrous faculty ascribed to the Tempter, viz., of
causing these successive temptations to arise in the mind of the
Lord.
4. The mode of changing the scene.-JOSEPH BEAUMONT, D.D.
C
His plot now
slylier driving on
He plausibly pretends this sullen place
•
350
Notes and Illustrations.
To be the stage where Heaven's illustrious Son
Should act His greatness, too unworthy was;
And in high courtship hastes to change this mean
And despicable, for a gallant scene.
For as a straggling cloud came by that way,
He, as th' usurping monarch of the air,
His leisure sternly beckonèd it to stay,
And so gat up into this flying chair;
Taking the Lord with him, who was content
To try what by this new design he meant.
Nodding the west wind, then, on him to wait,
He through the welkin scour'd, and quickly came
(For now his way all open lay and strait)
To this long journey's butt, Jerusalem;
Where on the Temple's highest spire he set
Him who, he fear'd, might prove the God of it.'
—(As before, p. 136, canto ix. st. 213-215.)
On the mode of 'taking' the Lord, further consult John Gum-
bleden, B.D.—(As before, pp. 31, 32.) See Note a, in loco.
So early as Gregory [in Evang. lib. i. Homil. xvi. init.], the
objection to the 'surrender' of Christ to be 'assumpted' by
Satan was pronounced offensive only to the-weak.
5. The pinnacle.--See Note a, in loco; and I add here the
following references: (1.) Bishop Middleton (as before, pp. 135,
136); (2.) John Gumbleden, B.D. (as before, pp. 32, 33); (3.)
Dr. Thomas Taylor (as before, pp. 135, 140, etc. etc.); (4)
John Trapp, Matthew in loco. Good learning and good prac-
tical lessons will be found in these references.
6. The second' If.'-BISHOP HACKET. "If Thou be the
Son of God." This thorn is yet in his foot, and pricks him.
He would fain put it out of doubt whether this were the Eternal
and only-begotten Son of God. And he follows the search in
these words, as if he were no infidel, but by way of concession
yielded this, "Thou art the Son of God, therefore it can be no
harm to Thee to cast Thyself down from a pinnacle of the
Temple." Which is as St. Paul writes, "If by any means I
might attain to the resurrection of the dead :" he was certain to
attain unto it, and therefore that IF is a particle of modesty,
not of hesitation. As Ribadenira says of Father Ignatius [lib.
iv. c. 18), that he halted of the wound which he received at
Pampelune, but so little that the most curious could scarce discern
Notes and Illustrations.
351
that he halted. So Satan distrusts whether Christ were the
promised Messiah, but so artificially, that he would not seem to
be distrustful.'-(As before, pp. 308, 309; and see the sequel,
which is equally good.)
7. Cast Thyself down.'-Satan exalteth first, God humbleth
first.-JOHN UDALL.-'As Satan is contrary unto God, so is
his doing most unlike the Lord's. For the Lord, while He
intendeth the profit of a man, doth humble him, cast him down,
and make him seem base in his own eyes, that he may advance
him, lift him up and adorn him with glory; and Satan doth
here clean contrary, to wit, exalteth highly to the end he may
throw down the lower; and therefore we are to take heed of
those things in this world that either offer unto us present
pleasure, or feed our humour in pleasing of ourselves. And
on the other side, not despise the snubs and checks that the
Lord doth often lay upon His people; for so-much as, however
in present, the former may be more delightful, yet the latter in
the end, to him that hath the right use of it, is far more profit-
able.'-(As before, ¶ 15.) Bishop Hacket amplifies the thought
from Udall with his usual lore and vividness.-Cf. as before,
PP. 304-306.
8. Extremes.- Presumption.-See Isaac Colfe on 'Presump-
tion,' from this casting down,'-suggestive and solemn.-(As
before, p. 97, et seq.)
<
9. In all thy ways.'-RICHARD GILPIN.-"Tis evident
that the sense is no more than this, God is with you while you
are with Him. We have a paraphrase of this text, to this pur-
pose, in Prov. iii. 23, "Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely,
and thy foot shall not stumble: "where the condition of this
safety, pointed to in the word "then," which leads the promise,
is expressly mentioned in the foregoing verses: My son, let
them (that is, the precepts of wisdom) not depart from thine
Then (not upon other terms) shalt thou walk in thy way
safely." The "ways," then, in this promise, cited by Satan,
are the "
ways" of duty, or the ways of our lawful callings.'—
(As before, Part iii. c. xvii.)
eyes.
10. The Devil persuades, not compels.-See Theophylact's ex-
cellent note on Ephesians ii. 2. In accord with this Daniel
Dyke has tersely said, 'Many fondly excuse themselves and
their sins by the Devil; but the Devil could not make thee sin
"C
352
Notes and Illustrations.
except thou wert willing. And he hath no power to constrain
thy will. The Devil is the father of thy sin, but thine own con-
cupiscence is thy mother (James i. 14).'
II. Christ was invisible on the Temple.—BISHOP HACKET.-
'What a gazing sight would this be for all the region over which
Christ did fly, and for the populous city of Jerusalem! It must
needs be an object upon which all men would cast their eyes ;
and why is it not more spoken of in the Gospel and objected to
our Saviour by His enemies? It is no solid answer to say it
happened in the night, and none were aware of it. For the
Temptation which follows must needs be done in the clear light
when he showed the Son of God all the kingdoms and glory of
the world in the twinkling of an eye. The true answer is that
Satan was more over-reached in this surmise than in all the rest.
For he thought by this hovering aloft in the air to make Christ
a spectacle to all the world, that men might think Him some
enchanter or magician by riding above in the clouds. In the
meantime, says St. Chrysostom, Christ made Himself invisible,
that He was seen of no man, the Devil being no way privy to
it that He did abide invisible. So John viii. ult., the Jews took
up stones to cast at Christ, "but He hid Himself, and went out
of the Temple, going through the midst of them." What was
this to hide Himself, and go through the midst of them, but to
pass through the throng invisible? as, among others, Euthymius
noteth.'-(As before, p. 296.)
NOTE (.)-P. 192.
The Answer of the Lord to the Second Temptation.
See John Udall. (As before, ¶ 16.)—
(As before, p. 172, et seq.)
2. Tempt' the Lord.-See full and rich illustration of this in
Dr. Thomas Manton. (As before, pp. 92-110.)
1. Means to be used.
Dr. Thomas Taylor.
3. 'It is written.'-JOHN GUMBLEDEN, B.D.-""It is writ-
ten," . . . and in vain thou temptest Me to tempt Him; in
sense thus much, "Thou that temptest Me (no good textuary),
though thou judgest thyself strong enough to oppose Me, and
finally prevail against Me with thy too too short weapon, with a
Notes and Illustrations.
353
piece of a text; yet I am stronger than thou, and as able now as
before (ver. 4), by citing a whole text according to its true sense
and meaning, which thou hast not done, to foil and repell thee;
and thus I do it, "It is written" again. Thou mightest have
been satisfied at first, but since thou wilt not, My Father's word
shall again defend Me, and again offend thee: It is written again,
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'-(As before, pp. 38, 39.
See also pp. 43, 44.)
(
NOTE (2.)-P. 194.
"THE TEMPTER AT THE SIDE.'
SEEST thou the shadow dogging at thy feet,
Without the breath of any at thy side?
Lo! there is one whom thou shalt never meet
Though thou do travel earth, both long and wide ;
Never in lonely field,-in crowded street,-
In joy or grief: whatever thee betide,
To meet thee face to face, nowhere shall he abide.
Seest thou it at thy feet?
Know'st thou him at thy side?
He has been nigh thee since thy tottering pace
First faltered, doubtful, from thy mother's hand;
Anigh thee, yet, he hath his constant place,
Now that with strong men thou hast taken stand.
Go as thou wilt, thou winnest not the race ;
Stay where thou wilt, in this or farthest land,
Untired he leaves thee not, whose face thou hast not scanned.
He ever hath his place:
Ever is he at hand.
Albeit in the growing time of night
When the green things are starting everywhere,
And bud and leaf, sure of its tiny right,
Stretches towards its God for its blest share,
Then on thy longing mind celestial might
Has lighted down, and with quick vigour there
Has settled deep and still,-yet, not the less, beware!
Not present to thy sight,
The dark one loitered there.
Albeit in the stir and throng of men,
Catching warm influence from the glance of eye,
N
354
Notes and Illustrations.
And thrill of words, that full and fragrant, then,
Go kindling to the heart, ere they will die,
Thou hast not slumbered,—nor been coward, when,
If need were, thy lone voice must rise on high,
And thou go lone through all,-yet then that One was nigh,
Amid the crowd of men
On thee he kept his eye.
Albeit in the home's dear sunny scene,
Where low and homelike sounds, of birds and bees,
Float ever, streaming through that sea of sheen
And wide peace bounds the world's strange haunts from thee:
In that,―man's noblest place,thy soul has been
Like a blest soul, familiar and at ease,
Sharing a heavenly love that sin could never seize,
He was in that pure scene,
Though thou wast all at ease.
Bethink thee how thy well-kept heart has known
Quick-starting thoughts, a frightful, poisonous growth;
Bethink thee how suggestions not thine own
Have crept and overcome it, slow and loth;
How a foul breath, o'er its bright vision blown,
Has buried all in the thick fog of sloth:
Dost thou not know him, yet, tempter and sharer, both?
He all thy moods has known,
When willing and when loth.
God set that shadow dogging at thy feet,
To warn thee one was ever at thy side
Whate'er thy state, to pour in promptings meet
From heavenly-guided life to draw thee wide.
Therefore by day that shade doth near thee fleet,
Nor in the night that shadow is denied
When for God's light of day man's light has been supplied:
Dark shadow at thy feet,
Dark foe is at thy side.'
NOTE (aa.)-P. 224.
The Third Temptation.
As the Car-
1. The third was the last.-BISHOP HACKET.
thaginians in their third Punic War lost their city and kingdom
to the Romans, and never bore arms more; so you shall see
Satan so repulsed at this onset that he left the field to the con-
queror, and never after propounded any blasphemous tempta-
tion in a visible shape to the Son of God. David was much
Notes and Illustrations.
355
emboldened to fight with Goliah, and assured himself of victory,
because he had grappled with two savage beasts and slain them
both, and thus spake cheerfully to Saul: "Thy servant slew
both the lion and the bear, and that uncircumcised Philistine
shall be as one of them. So the first temptation was unto our
Saviour like a ravenous, gluttonous bear: "Command that
these stones be made bread." The second was like a ramping
and a roaring lion, all boldness and presumption :
"Cast thy-
self down from a pinnacle of the Temple." Now he that
escaped both these, out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, shall triumph most victoriously over this great
Goliah in the last and most bewitching temptation which begins
in this form: " Again the Devil," etc.'-(As before, p. 331.)
"}
2. The Third Temptation divided.—BISHOP ANDREWES has
done this very well :-'Now come we to the Temptation itself,
which hath three general heads: first, the ball of wildfire, which
is to consume His faith; secondly, the dart, "Cast Thyself
down,” which is to prove the soul; thirdly, he tempereth the
head of his dart with some stronger metal, which is Scriptum
est.'—(As before, p. 533.)
'Most pro-
3. 'Taketh Him up.'-THOMAS MANTON, D.D.-
bably Satan was permitted to carry [the Lord] in the air.
But how Christ was carried in the air, visibly or invisibly, the
Scripture showeth not. It affirmeth the thing, but sets not
down the manner. We must believe what it asserteth, reverence
what it concealeth.'-(As before, p. 55: concerns the 'taking'
to the Temple, but equally applicable to the present.)
4. ‘A mountain, very elevated.”—JOSEPH BEAUMONT, D.D. :—
(
Up to a mount he march'd, whose stately head
Despised Basan, Carmel, Libanus,
The Alpes, where Winter always keeps his bed
With Pendle, Calpe, Atlas, Caucasus,
And all the proudest cliffs of Ararat,
Where Noah's floating ark first footing got.
A mount, which on the highest clouds looked down
And saw all kinds of weather far below;
A mount, which rose like earth's imperial crown,
Where never any wind aspired to blow;
•
A mount, which bravely reach'd at heaven, and made
Far distant countries subject to its shade.'
(As before, pp. 136, 137.)
356
Notes and Illustrations.
Cf. Mill's Note U in Appendix to his Five Sermons on the
Temptation of Christ (8vo, 1844).
5. Showed Him.'-See John Udall (as before, ¶ 19) for racy
enforcement as well as vivid elucidation: for a powerful and
eloquent statement of the probable effect upon the Lord, Dean
Alford's Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i. pp. 185-187.
6. The mode of Showing.--See Beaumont's Pysche, c. ix.
st. 235-243 and the sequel.
<
7. The glory or splendour of them.'-See John Udall (as
before, ¶ 21) and for searching application, Dr. Manning (as
before, p. 150), and the same for suggestive thinking on 'lawful ’
ambition (as before, pp. 138, 139). I am sorry that I can only
give here a very few words: We shall do best simply to believe
that from some vast summit, looking down upon a boundless
reach of earth, the Tempter did show the kingdoms, and pomp,
and riches, and splendour, and glory of the world. It was a
vision of worldly power and greatness, full of allurements and
promises; of unbounded means of doing good to mankind; of
wielding such dominion as perhaps man never wielded before.'
-(As before, p. 141.)
8. The Devil offers and prevails with much smaller bribes.
BISHOP ANDREWES.—There be some that will say, they were
never tempted with kingdoms. It may well be, for it needs not,
when less will serve. It was Christ only that was thus tempted;
in Him lay a "heroical" mind, that could not be allured with
small matters. But with us it is nothing so; we esteem far
more basely of ourselves; we set our wares at a very easy price,
he may buy us even dagger-cheap, as we say; he need never
carry us so high as the mount, the pinnacle is high enough;
yea, the lowest steeple in all the town would serve the turn. Or
let him but carry us to the leads or gutters of our own houses,
nay, let us but stand in our window or in our doors, if he will
give us but so much as we can there see, he will tempt us
throughly, we will accept it and thank him too. He shall not
need to come to us with kingdoms, one kingdom is too much;
what say ye to "half" a one? No, will the Devil say, I will
give ye half a one (Mark vi. 23). If he would come to us but
with "thirty pence," I am afraid many of us would play Judas.
Nay, less than so would buy a great sort, even "handfuls of
barley and pieces of bread." Yea, some will not stick to "buy"
Notes and Illustrations.
357
and sell "the poor for a pair of shoes," as Amos speaketh
(Ezek. xiii. 19; Prov. xxviii. 21; Amos viii. 6). When he
cometh, then, to tempt us, he may abate a great deal of this
that he offers Christ; he may strike out omnia and hæc too, and
instead thereof put in hoc, and say, Hold, ye shall have this to
worship me, I will give ye no more. I fear me, we will make
short work, and take it; hoc aliquid, a matter of half-a-crown or
ten groats, a pair of shoes or some such trifle, will bring us on
our knees to the devil. Is there a pretty commodity to be had?
It makes no matter for breaking faith and promise. This is that
that makes the Devil so good a husband[er] and thrifty, and to
go near hand; what need he give more, when so little will
serve?'—(As before, p. 562.)
9. Satan-derived honours.-DANIEL DYKE.-'How many are
there that may thank the Devil for their honours and offices.'
(As before, p. 391.)
NOTE (bb)-Pp. 224.
The Answer of the Lord to the Third Temptation.
1. See on the whole answer John Udall (as before, ¶ 20); and
on 'fear' and 'serve' (as before, ¶ 22).
2. 'Fear' and 'serve.'-See John Gumbleden, B.D. (as before,
p. 72); and Thomas Manton, D.D. (as before, pp. 168, 169,
et seq.)
▸
NOTE (cc.)-P. 259.
End of the Temptation.
πάντα
'All.'-WEBSTER and WILKINSON have this note :—' wávra
reipaσµdv, “every" mode of "temptation."
temptation." When a noun in
the singular has not the article, wâs should be rendered "every,"
Acts xv. 36; Thuc. ii. 43, ἀνδρῶν ἐπιφανῶν πᾶσα γῆ τάφος,
Arnold (margin); Green iv. § 4: "every temptation," Wick-
liffe: ،،
all his temptations," Tyndale, Geneva. ǎxpɩ kaipoû, to
return, however, "in the hour of darkness" with tenfold power,
358
Notes and Illustrations.
I simply
Luke xxii. 53, John xiv. 30.'-(As before, in loco.)
observe here and now, that whether we take πávra as every or
as = all, it must be limited by the fact that these three tempta-
tions can by no means be held as embracing 'every' (kind of)
temptation; and therefore interpretative only of the 'all' or
'every' of the appointed Temptation.
NOTE (dd.)-P. 262.
Angels.
'Angels.'—See Gumbleden (as before, p. 80, et seq.)
GUARDIAN Angels.
On a friend expressing the hope that we had not 'Guardian Angels,'
'Far different my soul's desire to thine!
Oh! I would ever trust, as now I deem,
That betwixt earth and heaven a living stream.
Of glistering forms-a galaxy divine-
Is pouring forth, and that round me and mine
Gentle and holy spirits float; a dream
Of such sweet consolation, earth would seem
Without it, cold as a deserted shrine.
Did heathen faith the river, vale, and wood,
People with Deity-as poets sing-
Who innocence protected, and the good
Strengthen'd in virtue ?—and shall we not cling
To a belief, which o'er our thoughts would fling
Its gracious power, all evil to exclude?'-
A
From The Strawberry Girl, with other Thoughts and
Fancies in Verse.' By H. M. RATHBONE (1858).
NOTE (ee.)-P. 262.
The Devil's Gifts.
I should have liked much to have given here Dr. Richard
Clerke's quaint and vivid playing upon the 'gifts' of the Tempter,
and upon God's 'gifts;' but the passages are much too lengthy.
I can only now furnish the reference, viz., as before, pp. 120,
121, et seq.
Notes and Illustrations.
359
NOTE (ff.)-P. 262.
The Meekness of Jesus throughout.
For admirable thinking, admirably worded, on this topic, see
Dr. Thomas Taylor.-(As before, pp. 72, 73, et seq.)
NOTE (gg.)—P. 270.
The Bible as a whole, and the Book of Deuteronomy in particular.
1. The Devil denies not the authority of Holy Scripture.—
THOMAS WHITE, B. L.-' Observe the authority of the Word
of God: the Devil cannot deny either that it was so written, or
that such writing is authentical; for if we were not bound by
it, it were not a sufficient argument to prove that we should or
should not do such or such a thing because it is written so.'-
(As before, p. 11.)
CC
K
2. Deuteronomy.-BISHOP HACKET. —' Above all the Scrip-
ture, as above all other works of Moses, Christ hath refuted the
Devil only out of the Book of Deuteronomy, at every turn that He
spake unto him. Whether Moses were anciently divided into a
Pentateuch or five several books, whereof this is the last, I concur
with them that doubt it. This is certain, the seventy interpreters
were the first that called it Deuteronomy: for the Jews gave
the Five Books no other names but the first words of the Book.
A singular and most select piece of Scripture it is, containing
the whole body of godly practice and true religion for the king,
for all magistrates, for the priests, and for the people. It is
Moses his cygnea cantio, the last exhortation which he made
before he took his leave of the world. And it is supposed there
is more divination in the spirit in the nearest enlightenings be-
fore death than at other times, as if the soul were almost out of
the earth and a little in heaven. . . . Ruminate upon this, that
you shall not find such instances for the memorial of any other
sacred book, and that Christ drew only out of this fountain to
quench the
fiery darts" of the Devil.'-(As before, p. 285.)
'WHAT'S this thought,
Shapeless and shadowy, that keeps wheeling round,
Like a dumb creature that sees coming danger,
And breaks its heart trying in vain to speak?
I know the moment: 'tis a dreadful one,
Which in the life of every one comes once:
When, for the frighted hesitating soul,
High heaven and luring sin with promises
Bid and contend; oft the faltering spirit,
O'ercome by the fair fascinating fiend,
Gives her eternal heritage of life
For one caress, for one triumphant crime.'
T. L. Beddoes
(Death's Fest-Book).
'MARVEL not, in these loose drifting times
If anchored spirits in their blythest motion
Dip to their anchors veiled within the ocean.'
F. W. Faber, D.D.
(The Cherwell Water-Lily).
'I DIE!
Life ebbs, despite my immortality,
From out my being !-ebbs, and leaves me dry
As the hot desert, empty as the wind,
And hungry as the sea l'
3. Noel Paton
('Syrinx,' Poems by a Painter).
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE,
PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Volumes Issued, and proposed to be Issued,
By the REV. ALEXANDER B. GROSART, KINROSS.
London: JAMES NISBET & Co., 21, Berners Street, W.
Just Published,
I. THE PRINCE OF LIGHT AND THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS
IN CONFLICT; OR, THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST NEWLY
TRANSLATED, EXPLAINED, ILLUSTRATED, AND APPLIEd.
Fcap. 8vo, 360 pp. and xxxvi. pp., cloth antique, price 5s.
16mo, cloth
II. SMALL SINS. Second Edition. Pp. 114.
antique, price Is. 6d.
TEXT-Song of Solomon ii. 15: Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that
spoil the vines for our vines have tender grapes.'
ARRANGEMENT:-
I. Small sins are as really sinful as larger. They are 'foxes.' 'Take
us the foxes.
<
II. Small sins are insidious. They are little foxes' 'Take us the
foxes, the little foxes.'
4
<
III. Small sins, as being sinful and as being insidious, do damage.
They spoil the vines.' 'Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that
spoil the vines.
IV. Small sins do damage to what is most precious in the vines. They
devour the grapes, the tender grapes.' 'Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.”
V. Small sins, as thus insidiously doing damage to what is most pre-
cious, are to be destroyed. The command is, 'Take us the
foxes,' etc.
VI. Small sins that are to be thus dealt with are to be carried to the
Lord of the vineyard. The royal charge is, 'Take us the foxes,
the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for OUR vines have tender
grapes.
>
A Few Opinions of the Press.
1. British and Foreign Evangelical Review (Quarterly), July 1863.
'All lovers of the Puritan divines in general, and of the heavenly-minded
Richard Sibbes in particular, will welcome the appearance of his latest and
best biographer, the careful and loving editor of his works, in the field of inde-
pendent authorship. Knowing nothing of Mr. Grosart but what we had been
able to gather from his own preface and memoir of Sibbes, prefixed to the
edition of his works now issuing from the press, and deeply impressed with
the rare and happy combination of qualities which he had brought to the
execution of his task, a zeal of antiquarian research wedded to the passion
and fervour of poetic imagination, it was with no small curiosity that we
turned to the little treatise before us. Though written and preached origi-
nally in the regular course of pastoral duty, as a discourse suitable to a
communion service, we cannot speak of it as a 'sermon,' in the ordinary
sense of the term. It was natural that those who first listened to its glowing
thoughts, and grave, earnest counsels, should wish to possess it in more en-
during form. . Only a mind of ripe and liberal culture, and truly catholic
sympathies, keen of sight, and strong upon the wing to range far and wide,
could have accumulated the materials that shed such varied illustration over
2
the subject from sources so dissimilar. As might have been anticipated,
every page bears pleasant testimony, in its antique cast of diction and afflu-
ence of scriptural allusion, to the influence which a long and close fellowship
with those whom he calls his "daily, almost hourly companions and coun-
sellors,' has had on his mind. Yet not less noticeable in his tractate is its
adaptation to the special wants and evils of the times. It is a faithful ex-
posure of the "little sins" that more easily beset the Christian profession in
these latter days, and to a lamentable extent clog the action and impair the
efficiency of the Church-the specks of dust that, by their friction, hinder
the smooth, swift workings of its wheels. With all the writer's brilliant
opulence of imagery, there is no lack of plain, direct speaking to the con-
science. Enough has been said to show the freshness and forcibleness
of Mr. Grosart's treatment of his subject, and to commend his little treatise
to careful study and wide circulation.'
2. THE NONCONFORMIST, September 9, 1863.
This is an admirable little piece of practical religious counsel, having
much of the quaint manner and racy feeling of the old Puritan writers.
It is a novelty in modern religious writing, and is both engaging and in-
structive.'
(
3. THE WITNESS, May 22, 1863.
'The author of this little book is well known to the Church of Christ in
our land as the biographer of Richard Sibbes, and the editor of the works
of that divine, now being published in Nichol's Puritan Series.
In his con-
duct of that work he has shown a mind wonderfully imbued with the spirit
of the Puritan age, and such an amount of knowledge of the writings of the
period, as probably no other living man possesses. In this treatise he shows
how able he is to turn both this knowledge and his own original observation
of men and things, and his own study of the Scriptures of truth, to excellent
account. He discovers a deep study of the mysteries of the human heart,
and no ordinary power of tracing its windings, and unmasking the hypo-
crisies with which it so often deceives itself, and thus to impose upon the
all-knowing God. If read with earnest self-application, with a good and
honest heart,' the book cannot fail to be useful, by God's blessing, both for
instruction and impression. There are in it some things that are brilliant:
many that are deeply solemn and the whole is worthy of being read and
pondered, and passages marked for future reference and frequent re-perusal.'
•
4. THE SCOTSMAN, June 24, 1863.
'We are glad to see the second edition of this thoughtful sermon, in
which there is both genius and judgment, good writing, good learning,
and good gospel. It is perhaps a little too quaint and enriched-too over-
laid with gold; but Mr. Grosart is not quaint because he has steeped him-
self in Fuller and Sibbes, and Charles Lamb,-he steeps himself in their
congenial natures because he is himself by nature quaint and rich. We
cordially commend this little book for its æsthetic as well as its deep, and,
in the best sense, evangelical worth.'
5. THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE, October 1, 1863.
"The whole sermon is an excellent specimen of good, sound, impressive
preaching, and the subject is worthy of the author's powers.
The occasional quaintness of the style will call up to those who know the
author, the outspoken sincerity of the man. We commend this little volume
to our readers; it will both interest them and do them good.'
6. REV. CHARLES H. SPURGEON, London.
'Mr. Grosart's NOBLE SERMON.'-Appended to an extract from it in his
Illustrated Almanac for 1864.
7. THE FREEMAN (London), November 25, 1863.
'So far as we know, the present is his first appearance in the field of in-
dependent authorship; and we regard his little book as a valuable one,
3
whether viewed as performance or as promise. We are not surprised to
find that it has already reached the second edition. We observe that it is
revised, and somewhat enlarged. If a vessel is of white iron all the tinker-
ing and polishing in the world will fail to turn it into silver, and it must be
the comfort of the worker, that even a white iron pitcher may be of some
use in the great house. Mr. Grosart's little book, however, is of the more
precious metal. There is a frequent quaintness in it which we imagine to
be native to the individual mind, and which occasionally tempts a smile, till
we perceive that the quaintness is but the forceful uttering of some unex-
pected thought. The theology of the book is Puritanic; the thinking mas-
culine and weighty; the illustrations picturesque, and drawn from a wide
range of observation and reading; and the appeals to the conscience are
often both unexpected and very pungent. The small sins' with which the
author deals, are our acquaintances that we meet by the fireside and in the
market, and one of the things we relish very much is the plainness of speech
with which they are treated. The author's brilliancy-and there is not a
little of it is like a rifle-flash, which tells that a bullet is on its way.'
(
III. JESUS-MIGHTY TO SAVE ;' OR, CHRIST FOR ALL THE
WORLD, AND ALL THE WORLD FOR CHRIST. Second
Edition. Pp. 190, 16mo, cloth-antique, price 2s.
Opinions of the Press.
I. THE DAILY REVIEW, December 21, 1863.
(From a review of Mr. Grosart's two books along with Dr. Hamilton's
Life in Earnest.)
Small Books on Great Subjects.
"These books, which we have thus grouped under a title borrowed from
Mr. Helps, resemble each other in more points than in their external resem-
blance and issue from the same publishing house. The minds of the authors,
with specific characteristics, have likewise a great deal in common. And
much that we say of one may be strictly affirmed of the other.
No man will dig in the mines of Puritan theology so vigorously, so long,
or so lovingly as Mr. Grosart, without himself becoming encrusted with the
precious dust, and partaking of the golden hue. It is impossible to read
many pages of either of the two little books bearing the name of the minister
of Kinross without discovering, first, that he has been with Jesus,' which
is the most important discovery: and, second, that he has been with Howe
and Adams, and Sibbes and Owen. The garments in which he clothes
his argument, his 'singing robes,' as Milton says finely, are indeed stiff with
the gold of Ophir. His style recalls so vividly the manner of the good, great
men who have been now two hundred years in heaven, that the first impres-
sion it produces is, that rather of imitative skill than of fresh and natural
vigour. But this is a mistake that is soon corrected. The possession of a
family likeness is found to be perfectly compatible with a distinct individu-
ality both in character and feature. The mind of the author shows itself
throughout to be singularly appreciative and assimilative. He introduces
both his little volumes with some pithy quotations by way of motto from the
most dissimilar quarters, from J. H. Newman, from Mrs. Clive, from Arthur
Helps, from Shakspere, St. John, and Dr. Sibbes, for, like a man with a
healthy appetite, he is able to digest whatever comes before him in the shape
of mental pabulum, and does not require to confine himself in preparing for
his pulpit duties, to the Arabica Revalenta of Divinity Halls, or the tapioca
of modern sermons. What we have to remark is, that he does assimilate his
materials, introducing us to an ampler ether, a diviner air,' the ampler ether
of philosophical divinity suffused with the 'purpureal gleams' of a true poetical
nature, but never overlaying his writings with the purpurei panni of quota-
tion. The very reverse is the truth. The flush is not in the garment, but
in the skin. The fineness comes all from within. And what we remark of
Mr. Grosart in this respect we affirm of the now tolerably well-known and
(
4
justly well-appreciated lectures of Dr. James Hamilton. Both authors, as we
have said, have their rarest and most valuable elements of character in
common. They have both managed to handle the very loftiest themes in a
manner which would alone have riveted the attention, and vindicated the pul-
pit from the charge of tediousness, sometimes not unwarrantably brought
against it, and though the style of these sermons, like the daffodil in
March, takes the winds with beauty, the matter is not less valuable. Most
men grow mainly either to one side or another. They are either strong at
the expense of fineness, or they are fine and feeble. They are either all
practical, without a peg in their heads to hang a single shred of Tennyson
on, or they are poetical and dreamy, pleasant, genial fellows, but extremely
ill cut out for such a counting-house world as this is. The two authors before
us have both the practical and the poetical, and with all respect to honest
dulness, their prelections are not the less satisfactory for their being the pro-
duction of minds elegant as well as learned, capable of using with equal
effect the weapons of science and of sentiment. Not that they invariably
speak our own sentiments, as people praise a man's politics only when these
politics are theirs. What we affirm is, that if their reflections occasionally
provoke us to differ, they provoke us also to reflect. We can thoroughly
commend these volumes. If a man has the machinery of thought within
him, if he is not in the condition of a mill that has been visited by the
frame-breakers, or of a mill that has never had a frame to break; if the
machinery is in him, there is that in each of these little books that will as-
suredly set it in motion. . . . Of the second work in our list we have left
ourselves space to say little more than that the author does not in the least
imply, by his second and explanatory title, to contravene the theology of
Augustine and Calvin. He holds precisely to the Pauline doctrines of Elec-
tion, Sovereignty, Substitution, etc., but instead of a so-called " Calvinism,"
which gives us all the ism, and very little of the Calvin, he strives after his
earthly master, to show that all these doctrines and truths are harmonized.
in the Divine plan with the personal responsibility of every man who re-
fuses the offered salvation.'
2. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN Magazine, December 1863.
'We can confidently recommend this volume as fitted, with the divine
blessing, to render service to all classes of mind, and in all conditions of life.'
3. THE BAPTIST Magazine, December 1863.
'The present book is earnest, suggestive, impressive, in itself well deserving
of perusal. Over and above these qualities, it is adorned in text and notes,
with the aptest quotations-things new and old-whilst a Puritanic spirit, in
the noblest sense, pervades the whole. Nor can we easily imagine a more
welcome or a more economical gift-book for young students and ministers,
and older laics. All will find a rich, full Gospel; and the former will find
besides, a happy specimen of the skilful use of writers, whom we have heard
some describe-very erroneously in our judgment—as altogether unsuited
"for our times.""
4. THE GLASGOW HERALD, December 16, 1863.
'An excellent little book, carefully thought out, full of earnest and pious
exhortation, enriched with valuable notes, and evidently the production of
a mind of superior power and very varied attainments.'
IV. SELECTED QUESTIONS AND PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE;
BEING RECOLLECTIONS OF ADDRESSES AT MY PRAYER-
MEETINGS IN KINROSS AND GAIRNEY-BRIDGE.
V. CONSOLATION FOR THE POOR IN SPIRIT.'
VI. THOROUGHNESS.
**
* The publishing of the closing three of the Series will be commencea
toward Autumn of 1864 (God sparing).
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3
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<<
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4
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6
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,,
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8
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• •
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10
WORKS PUBLISHED BY
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MENDIP ANNALS; or, A Journal of the Charitable
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14
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THE SONG of SONGS: A Practical Exposition of the
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7
THE PUBLIC SPEAKER, and HOW to MAKE ONE.
By a CAMBRIDGE MAN. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. cloth.
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HYMNS of the CHURCH MILITANT. Compiled by
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""
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16
WORKS PUBLISHED BY JAMES NISBET AND CO.
HYMNS of FAITH and HOPE. By HORATIUS BONAR,
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MENDIP ANNALS: a Journal of the Charitable Labours
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THE THREE WAKINGS, with HYMNS and SONGS.
By the Author of "The Voice of Christian Life in Seng,'
Sketches of Christian Life," &c. &c. Crown Svo. 38. 6d. cloth.
"Tales and
})
"All of these poems mark an author of considerable ability, while many of them
are full of great beauty and feeling."—St. James's Chronicle.
"A very delightful volume of poems."-Critic.
THE VISITOR'S BOOK of TEXTS; or, the Word
brought nigh to the Sick and Sorrowful. By the Rev. ANDREW A. BONAR,
Glasgow. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. cloth.
"Mr. Bonar, like the Master, has the tongue of the learned to speak a word in
season to him that is weary. This book will be found singularly valuable in the
sick chamber.”—London Monthly Record.
ENGLISH HEARTS and ENGLISH HANDS; or, The
Railway and the Trenches. By the Author of " Memorials of Captain
Hedley Vicars." Small crown 8vo. 5s. cloth. Also a Cheaper Edition, 2s.
cloth limp.
"The Memorials of Vicars and these Memorials of the Crystal Palace Navvies
are books of precisely the same type, and must not be overlooked. We recognise
in them an honesty of purpose, a purity of heart, and a warmth of human affection,
combined with a religious faith, that are very beautiful."-Times.
THE HIGHER CHRISTIAN LIFE. By Rev. W. E.
BOARDMAN. Edited, with a Preface, including Notices of the Revivals, by the
Author of "Memorials of Captain Hedley Vicars," and “ English Hearts and
English Hands." Crown Svo. 38. 6d. cloth.
"There is a freshness and force in the work which pleases us much.
The Preface extends to more than forty pages, and contains a rapid sketch, inter-
spersed with facts, of the gracious revival which is now spreading so auspiciously
through the Churches."-Evangelical Christendom.
LONDON:
JAMES NISBET AND CO. BERNERS STREET.

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