purpose or profit or damage to ensue; as when the mind doubteth of
anything, and therein desires to be satisfied, without great love or
extreme hatred of the thing that is tempted or tried. David tempted;
that is, tried himself if he could go in harness. (I Sam. xvii.) And
Gideon said, "Let not thine anger kindle against me, if I tempt thee
once again." So the Queen of Sheba came to tempt Solomon in subtle
questions. This famous queen, not fully trusting the report and fame
that was spread of Solomon, by subtle questions desired to prove his
wisdom; at the first, neither extremely hating nor fervently loving the
person of the king. And David, as a man not accustomed to harness, would
try how he was able to go, and behave and fashion himself therein,
before he would hazard battle with Goliath so armed. And Gideon, not
satisfied in his conscience by the first that he received, desired,
without contempt or hatred of God, a second time to be certified of his
vocation. In this sense must the apostle be expounded when he commands
us to tempt; that is, to try and examine ourselves, if we stand in the
faith. Thus much for the term.
Now to the person tempted, and to the time and place of his temptation.
The person tempted is the only well-beloved Son of God; the time was
immediately after His baptism; and the place was the desert or
wilderness. But that we derive advantage from what is related, we must
consider the same more profoundly. That the Son of God was thus tempted
gives instructions to us, that temptations, altho they be ever so
grievous and fearful, do not separate us from God's favor and mercy, but
rather declare the great graces of God to appertain to us, which makes
Satan to rage as a roaring lion; for against none does He so fiercely
fight as against those of whose hearts Christ has taken possession.
The time of Christ's temptation is here most diligently to be noted. And
that was, as Mark and Luke witness, immediately after the voice of God
the Father had commended His Son to the world, and had visibly pointed
to Him by the sign of the Holy Ghost; He was led or moved by the Spirit
to go to a wilderness, where forty days he remained fasting among the
wild beasts. This Spirit which led Christ into the wilderness was not
the devil, but the holy Spirit of God the Father, by whom Christ, as
touching His human and manly nature, was conducted and led; likewise by
the same Spirit He was strengthened and made strong, and, finally,
raised up from the dead. The Spirit of God, I say, led Christ to the
place of His battle, where He endured the combat for the whole forty
days and nights. As Luke saith, "He was tempted," but in the end most
vehemently, after His continual fasting, and that He began to be hungry.
Upon this forty days and this fasting of Christ do our Papists found
and build their Lent; for, say they, all the actions of Christ are our
instructions; what He did we ought to follow. But He fasted forty days,
therefore we ought to do the like. I answer, that if we ought to follow
all Christ's actions, then ought we neither to eat nor drink for the
space of forty days, for so fasted Christ; we ought to go upon the
waters with our feet; to cast out devils by our word; to heal and cure
all sorts of maladies; to call again the dead to life; for so did
Christ. This I write only that men may see the vanity of those who,
boasting themselves of wisdom, have become fools.
Did Christ fast those forty days to teach us superstitious fasting? Can
the Papists assure me, or any other man, which were the forty days that
Christ fasted? plain it is he fasted the forty days and nights that
immediately followed His baptism, but which they were, or in what month
was the day of His baptism, Scripture does not express; and altho the
day were exprest, am I or any Christian bound to counterfeit Christ's
actions as the ape counterfeits the act or work of man? He Himself
requires no such obedience of His true followers, but saith to the
apostles, "Go and preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; commanding them to
observe and keep all that I have commanded you." Here Christ Jesus
requires the observance of His precepts and commandments, not of His
actions, except in so far as He had also commanded them; and so must the
apostle be understood when he saith, "Be followers of Christ, for Christ
hath suffered for us, that we should follow His footsteps," which can
not be understood of every action of Christ, either in the mystery of
our redemption, or in His actions and marvelous works, but only of those
which He hath commanded us to observe. But where the Papists are so
diligent in establishing their dreams and fantasies, they lose the
profit that here is to be gathered; that is, why Christ fasted those
forty days; which were a doctrine more necessary for Christians than to
corrupt the simple hearts with superstition, as tho the wisdom of God,
Christ Jesus, had taught us no other mystery by His fasting than the
abstinence from flesh, or once on the day to eat flesh, for the space of
forty days. God hath taken a just vengeance upon the pride of such men,
while He thus confounds the wisdom of those that do most glory in
wisdom, and strikes with blindness such as will be guides and lanterns
to the feet of others, and yet refuse themselves to hear or follow the
light of God's word. From such deliver thy poor flock, O Lord!
The uses of Christ's fasting these forty days I find chiefly to be two:
The first, to witness to the world the dignity and excellence of His
vocation, which Christ, after His baptism, was to take upon Him openly;
the other, to declare that he entered into battle willingly for our
cause, and does, as it were, provoke his adversary to assault Him: altho
Christ Jesus, in the eternal counsel of His Father, was appointed to be
the Prince of Peace, the angel (that is, the messenger) of His
testament, and He alone that could fight our battles for us, yet He did
not enter in execution of it, in the sight of men, till He was commended
to mankind by the voice of His heavenly Father; and as He was placed and
anointed by the Holy Ghost by a visible sign given to the eyes of men.
After which time He was led to the desert, and fasted, as before is
said; and this He did to teach us with what fear, carefulness, and
reverence the messengers of the Word ought to enter on their vocation,
which is not only most excellent (for who is worthy to be God's
ambassador?) but also subject to most extreme troubles and dangers. For
he that is appointed pastor, watchman, or preacher, if he feed not with
his whole power, if he warn and admonish not when he sees the snare
come, and if, in doctrine, he divide not the Word righteously, the blood
and souls of those that perish for lack of food, admonition, and
doctrine shall be required of his hand.
But to our purpose; that Christ exceeded not the space of forty days in
His fasting, He did it to the imitation of Moses and Elias; of whom, the
one before the receiving of the law, and the other before the
communication and reasoning which he had with God in Mount Horeb, in
which He was commanded to anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king
over Israel, and Elisha to be prophet, fasted the same number of days.
The events that ensued and followed this supernatural fasting of these
two servants of God, Moses and Elias, impaired and diminished the
tyranny of the kingdom of Satan. For by the law came the knowledge of
sin, the damnation of such impieties, specially of idolatry, and such as
the devil had invented; and, finally, by the law came such a revelation
of God's will that no man could justly afterward excuse his sin by
ignorance, by which the devil before had blinded many. So that the law,
altho it might not renew and purge the heart, for that the Spirit of
Christ Jesus worketh by faith only, yet it was a bridle that did hinder
and stay the rage of external wickedness in many, and was a schoolmaster
that led unto Christ. For when man can find no power in himself to do
that which is commanded, and perfectly understands, and when he believes
that the curse of God is pronounced against those that abide not in
everything that is commanded in God's law to do them--the man, I say,
that understands and knows his own corrupt nature and God's severe
judgment, most gladly will receive the free redemption offered by Christ
Jesus, which is the only victory that overthrows Satan and his power.
And so by the giving of the law God greatly weakened, impaired, and made
frail the tyranny and kingdom of the devil. In the days of Elias, the
devil had so prevailed that kings and rulers made open war against God,
killing His prophets, destroying His ordinances, and building up
idolatry, which did so prevail that the prophet complained that of all
the true fearers and worshipers of God he was left alone, and wicked
Jezebel sought His life also. After this, his fasting and complaint, he
was sent by God to anoint the persons aforenamed, who took such
vengeance upon the wicked and obstinate idolaters that he who escaped
the sword of Hazael fell into the hands of Jehu, and those whom Jehu
left escaped not God's vengeance under Elisha.
The remembrance of this was fearful to Satan, for, at the coming of
Christ Jesus, impiety was in the highest degree among those that
pretended most knowledge of God's will; and Satan was at such rest in
his kingdom that the priests, scribes and Pharisees had taken away the
key of knowledge; that is, they had so obscured and darkened God's Holy
Scriptures, by false glosses and vain traditions, that neither would
they themselves enter into the kingdom of God, nor suffer and permit
others to enter; but with violence restrained, and with tyranny struck
back from the right way, that is, from Christ Jesus Himself, such as
would have entered into the possession of life everlasting by Him.
Satan, I say, having such dominion over the chief rulers of the visible
Church, and espying in Christ, such graces as before he had not seen in
man, and considering Him to follow in fasting the footsteps of Moses and
Elias, no doubt greatly feared that the quietness and rest of his most
obedient servants, the priests, and their adherents, would be troubled
by Christ. And, therefore, by all engines and craft, he assaults Him to
see what advantage he could have of Him. And Christ did not repel him,
as by the power of His Godhead He might have done, that he should not
tempt Him, but permitted him to spend all his artillery, and received
the strokes and assaults of Satan's temptations in His own body, to the
end He might weaken and enfeeble the strength and tyrannous power of our
adversary by His long suffering. For thus, methinks, our Master and
Champion, Jesus Christ, provoked our enemy to battle: "Satan, thou
gloriest of thy power and victories over mankind, that there is none
able to withstand thy assaults, nor escape thy darts, but at one time
or other thou givest him a wound: lo! I am a man like to my brethren,
having flesh and blood, and all properties of man's nature (sin, which
is thy venom, excepted); tempt, try, and assault me; I offer you here a
place most convenient--the wilderness. There shall be no mortal to
comfort me against thy assaults; thou shalt have time sufficient; do
what thou canst, I shall not fly the place of battle. If thou become
victor, thou shalt still continue in possession of thy kingdom in this
wretched world; but if thou canst not prevail against me, then must thy
prey and unjust spoil be taken from thee; thou must grant thyself
vanquished and confounded, and must be compelled to leave off from all
accusation of the members of my body; for to them appertains the fruit
of my battle, my victory is theirs, as I am appointed to take the
punishment of their sins in my body."
What comfort ought the remembrance of these signs to be to our hearts!
Christ Jesus hath fought our battle; He Himself hath taken us into His
care and protection; however the devil may rage by temptations, be they
spiritual or corporeal, he is not able to bereave us out of the hand of
the almighty Son of God. To Him be all glory for His mercies most
abundantly poured upon us!
There remains yet to be spoken of the time when our Lord was tempted,
which began immediately after His baptism. Whereupon we have to note
the mark, that altho the malice of Satan never ceases, but always seeks
for means to trouble the godly, yet sometimes he rages more fiercely
than others, and that is commonly when God begins to manifest His love
and favor to any of His children, and at the end of their battle, when
they are nearest to obtain final victory. The devil, no doubt, did at
all times envy the humble spirit that was in Abel, but he did not stir
up the cruel heart of Cain against him till God declared His favor
toward him by accepting his sacrifice. The same we find in Jacob,
Joseph, David, and most evidently in Christ Jesus. How Satan raged at
the tidings of Christ's nativity! what blood he caused to be shed on
purpose to have murdered Christ in His infancy! The evangelist St.
Matthew witnesses that in all the coasts and borders of Bethlehem the
children of two years old and less age were murdered without mercy. A
fearful spectacle and horrid example of insolent and unaccustomed
tyranny! And what is the cause moving Satan thus to rage against
innocents, considering that by reason of their imperfections they could
not hurt his kingdom at that instant? Oh, the crafty eye of Satan looked
farther than to the present time; he heard reports by the three wise
men, that they had learned by the appearance of a star that the King of
the Jews was born; and he was not ignorant that the time prophesied of
Christ's coming was then instant; for a stranger was clad with the crown
and scepter of Judah. The angel had declared the glad tidings to the
shepherds, that a Savior, which was Christ the Lord, was born in the
city of David. All these tidings inflamed the wrath and malice of Satan,
for he perfectly understood that the coming of the promised Seed was
appointed to his confusion, and to the breaking down of his head and
tyranny; and therefore he raged most cruelly, even at the first hearing
of Christ's birth, thinking that altho he could not hinder nor withstand
His coming, yet he could shorten his days upon earth, lest by long life
and peaceable quietness in it, the number of good men, by Christ's
doctrine and virtuous life, should be multiplied; and so he strove to
cut Him away among the other children before He could open His mouth on
His Father's message. Oh, cruel serpent! in vain dost thou spend thy
venom, for the days of God's elect thou canst not shorten! And when the
wheat is fallen on the ground, then doth it most multiply.
But from these things mark, what hath been the practise of the devil
from the beginning--most cruelly to rage against God's children when God
begins to show them His mercy. And, therefore, marvel not, dearly
beloved, altho the like come unto you.
If Satan fume or roar against you, whether it be against your bodies by
persecution, or inwardly in your conscience by a spiritual battle, be
not discouraged, as tho you were less acceptable in God's presence, or
as if Satan might at any time prevail against you. No; your temptations
and storms, that arise so suddenly, argue and witness that the seed
which is sown is fallen on good ground, begins to take root and shall,
by God's grace, bring forth fruit abundantly in due season and
convenient time. That is it which Satan fears, and therefore thus he
rages, and shall rage against you, thinking that if he can repulse you
now suddenly in the beginning, that then you shall be at all times an
easy prey, never able to resist his assaults. But as my hope is good,
so shall my prayer be, that so you may be strengthened, that the world
and Satan himself may perceive or understand that God fights your
battle. For you remember that being present with you and treating of the
same place, I admonished you that Satan could not long sleep when his
kingdom was threatened. And therefore I willed you, if you were in mind
to continue with Christ, to prepare yourselves for the day of
temptation. The person of the speaker is wretched, miserable, and
nothing to be regarded, but the things that were spoken are the
infallible and eternal truth of God; without observation of which, life
neither can or shall come to mankind. God grant you continuance to the
end.
This much have I briefly spoken of the temptation of Christ Jesus, who
was tempted; and of the time and place of His temptation. Now remains to
be spoken how He was tempted, and by what means. The most part of
expositors think that all this temptation was in spirit and in
imagination only, the corporeal senses being nothing moved. I will
contend with no man in such cases, but patiently will I suffer every man
to abound in his own knowledge; and without prejudice of any man's
estimation, I offer my judgment to be weighed and considered by
Christian charity. It appears to me by the plain text that Christ
suffered this temptation in body and spirit. Likewise, as the hunger
which Christ suffered, and the desert in which He remained, were not
things offered to the imagination, but that the body did verily remain
in the wilderness among beasts, and after forty days did hunger and
faint for lack of food; so the external ear did hear the tempting words
of Satan, which entered into the knowledge of the soul, and which,
repelling the venom of such temptations, caused the tongue to speak and
confute Satan, to our unspeakable comfort and consolation. It appears
also that the body of Christ Jesus was carried by Satan from the
wilderness unto the temple of Jerusalem, and that it was placed upon
the pinnacle of the same temple, from whence it was carried to a high
mountain and there tempted. If any man can show to the contrary hereof
by the plain Scriptures of God, with all submission and thanksgiving I
will prefer his judgment to my own; but if the matter stand only in
probability and opinion of men, then it is lawful for me to believe as
the Scripture here speaks; that is, that Satan spake and Christ
answered, and Satan took Him and carried Him from one place to another.
Besides the evidence of the text affirming that Satan was permitted to
carry the body of Christ from place to place, and yet was not permitted
to execute any further tyranny against it, is most singular comfort to
such as are afflicted or troubled in body or spirit. The weak and feeble
conscience of man under such temptations, commonly gathers and collects
a false consequence. For man reasons thus: The body or the spirit is
vexed by assaults and temptations of Satan, and he troubles or molests
it, therefore God is angry with it, and takes no care of it. I answer,
tribulations or grievous vexations of body or of mind are never signs of
God's displeasure against the sufferer, neither yet does it follow that
God has cast away the care of His creatures because He permits them to
be molested and vexed for a time. For if any sort of tribulation were
the infallible sign of God's displeasure, then should we condemn the
best beloved children of God. But of this we may speak hereafter. Now to
the temptation.
Verse 2. "And when he fasteth forty days and forty nights, He was
afterwards an hungered." Verse 3. 'Then came to Him the tempter,' and
said, 'If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread,' etc. Why Christ fasted forty days and would not exceed the same,
without sense and feeling of hunger, is before touched upon, that is, He
would provoke the devil to battle by the wilderness and long abstinence,
but He would not usurp or arrogate any more to Himself in that case than
God had wrought with others, His servants and messengers before. But
Christ Jesus (as St. Augustine more amply declares), without feeling of
hunger, might have endured the whole year, or to time without end, as
well as He did endure the space of forty days. For the nature of mankind
was sustained those forty days by the invisible power of God, which is
at all times of equal power. But Christ, willing to offer further
occasion to Satan to proceed in tempting of Him, permitted the human
nature to crave earnestly that which it lacked, that is to say,
refreshing of meat; which Satan perceiving took occasion, as before, to
tempt and assault. Some judge that Satan tempted Christ to gluttony, but
this appears little to agree with the purpose of the Holy Ghost; who
shows us this history to let us understand that Satan never ceases to
oppugn the children of God, but continually, by one mean or other,
drives or provokes them to some wicked opinions of their God; and to
have them desire stones to be converted into bread, or to desire hunger
to be satisfied, has never been sin, nor yet a wicked opinion of God.
And therefore I doubt not but the temptation was more spiritual, more
subtle, and more dangerous. Satan had respect to the voice of God, which
had pronounced Christ to be His well-beloved Son, etc. Against this
voice he fights, as his nature is ever to do against the assured and
immutable Word of God; for such is his malice against God, and against
His chosen children, that where and to whom God pronounces love and
mercy, to these he threatens displeasures and damnation; and where God
threatens death, there is he bold to pronounce life; and for this course
is Satan called a liar from the beginning. And so the purpose of Satan
was to drive Christ into desperation, that he should not believe the
former voice of God His Father; which appears to be the meaning of this
temptation: "Thou hast heard," would Satan say, "a voice proclaimed in
the air, that Thou wast the beloved Son of God, in whom His soul was
pleased; but mayst Thou not be judged more than mad, and weaker than the
brainless fool if Thou believest any such promise? Where are the signs
of His love? Art Thou not cast out from comfort of all creatures? Thou
art in worse case than the brute beasts, for every day they hunt for
their prey, and the earth produces grass and herbs for their sustenance,
so that none of them are pined and consumed away by hunger; but Thou
hast fasted forty days and nights, ever waiting for some relief and
comfort from above, but Thy best provision is hard stones! If Thou dost
glory in thy God, and dost verily believe the promise that is made,
command that these stones be bread. But evident it is that so Thou canst
not do; for if Thou couldst, or if Thy God would have showed Thee any
such pleasure, Thou mightest long ago have removed Thy hunger, and
needest not have endured this languishing for lack of food. But seeing
Thou hast long continued thus, and no provision is made for Thee, it is
vanity longer to believe any such promise, and therefore despair of any
help from God's hand, and provide for Thyself by some other means!"
Many words have I used here, dearly beloved, but I can not express the
thousandth part of the malicious despite which lurked in this one
temptation of Satan. It was a mocking of Christ and of His obedience. It
was a plain denial of God's promise. It was the triumphing voice of him
that appeared to have gotten victory. Oh, how bitter this temptation
was no creature can understand but such as feel the grief of such darts
as Satan casts at the tender conscience of those that gladly would rest
and repose in God, and in the promises of His mercy. But here is to be
noted the ground and foundation. The conclusion of Satan is this: Thou
art none of God's elect, much less His well-beloved Son. His reason is
this: Thou art in trouble and findest no relief. There the foundation of
the temptation was Christ's poverty, and the lack of food without hope
of remedy to be sent from God. And it is the same temptation which the
devil objected to Him by the princes of the priests in His grievous
torments upon the cross; for thus they cried, "If he be the Son of God,
let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him; he trusted
in God, let him deliver him, if he have the pleasure in him." As tho
they would say, God is the deliverer of His servants from troubles; God
never permits those that fear Him to come to confusion; this man we see
in extreme trouble; if He be the Son of God, or even a true worshiper of
His name, He will deliver Him from this calamity. If He deliver Him not,
but suffer Him to perish in these anguishes, then it is an assured sign
that God has rejected Him as a hypocrite, that shall have no portion of
His glory. Thus, I say, Satan takes occasion to tempt, and moves also
others to judge and condemn God's elect and chosen children, by reason
that troubles are multiplied upon them.