_Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on
the pinnacle of the temple._—Mat. iv. 5.
_The preparation to the second temptation.—Of his nimbleness to catch
advantages from our answers to temptation.—That Satan carried Christ
in the air.—Of his power to molest the bodies of God’s children.—How
little the supposed holiness of places privilegeth us from Satan.—Of
Satan’s policy in seeming to countenance imaginary defences.—Of his
pretended flight in such cases, with the reasons of that policy.—Of
his improving a temptation to serve several ends._
I omit Christ’s answer to the first temptation at present, purposing to
handle his answers to all the temptations together. And now the second
temptation is before us, in which, first, I shall observe a few things
in Satan’s preparation to the temptation, which takes in [1.] The time;
[2.] The manner of his carrying him; [3.] The place where he acted it.
(1.) First, For the time. That is noted in the word ‘then,’ which [1.]
Points at the immediate succession of this to the former assault. The
evangelist Luke puts this temptation last, but he only had respect to
the substance of the temptation in his narration; not regarding the
order of them, which Matthew hath punctually observed, as appears by
his close connecting of them, with the particles ‘then’ and ‘again,’
ver. 5, 8. Besides, whosoever shall consider that in the first, Satan
tempted Christ to distrust, which he repelled by telling him that it
was his duty, in the failure of outward means, to rely upon divine
providence, seeing man lives not by bread alone, &c., he will see so
much of connexion in the matter of the temptations that he will easily
persuade himself that the second place belongs to this, for this is
but, as it were, a fit and pertinent reply to Christ’s refusal; as if
Satan had said, ‘Since thou wilt rely upon the help and providence of
God in an extraordinary way of working, give an experiment of that by
casting thyself down, which thou mayest with greater confidence do,
because he hath promised an extraordinary help, and hath given his
angels charge concerning thee,’ &c. Hence observe,
_Obs._ 1. _That Satan is not discouraged easily, nor doth he always
desist upon the first repulse, but frequently renews the assault when
he is strongly and resolutely resisted._
This word, ‘then,’ doth also [2.] Tell us of Satan’s nimbleness in
catching a present advantage for a new temptation from Christ’s answer.
He declared his trust in providence; this he presently lays hold on as
a fit opportunity to tempt him to presumption. Here note,
_Obs._ 2. _That when Satan is upon any design, if an occasional
advantage occur from our way of refusal, he will not let it slip, but
improves it to what it may lead to, though it be contrary to that which
he was first labouring for._
This was the policy which Benhadad’s servants used in their address to
Ahab, 1 Kings xx. 33; the men did diligently observe whether anything
would come from him, and did hastily catch it. If anything come from
us we are under his temptation, he is diligent to observe it, and
prosecutes it accordingly; which may serve to satisfy the wonder that
some have concerning the contrariety in the temptations to which they
are urged. They admire how it comes to pass that their temptations
should so suddenly alter, that when Satan seems to be so intent upon
one design, he should so quickly change, and urge them presently to a
different or contrary thing; but they may know that the devil watcheth
the wind, and spreads his sail according to the advantage which ariseth
from our answer or repulse. So that if we would but plough with our own
heifer, and observe our frame of spirit, we should easily find out this
riddle. For as it is in disputings and arguings of men, replies beget
new matter for answer, and so do they multiply one another; thus are
temptations altered and multiplied, and out of the ashes of one assault
repelled, another doth quickly spring up.
The second circumstance of preparation is, _Satan’s taking him up
and setting him on the temple_. That this was not a visionary or an
imaginary thing, hath been proved before. Yet granting it to have been
real, as in truth it seems to have been, it is disputed what was the
_modus_, the way and manner of it. Some think this was no more than
Christ’s voluntary following of Satan, who guided and conducted the
way;[400] partly because the words παραλαμβάνειν and ἄγειν are in
Scripture accommodated to a man’s taking of any as a companion under
his guide and conduct of the way, and to a disposal of them in any kind
of station. Thus, where it is said, ‘Joseph took Mary and the young
child to go to Egypt,’ Mat. ii. 13, the same word is used; and when
Christ tells his disciples that they shall bring the ass and the colt
which they should find tied, the same word which expresseth Christ
being set on the temple is there used, Mat. xxii. 2. Partly also, they
think it below the dignity of Christ to be thus violently hurried.
Others think that Satan was permitted to take up the body of Christ,
and by his power to have conveyed him in the air; and indeed the whole
series of the narration, with all the circumstances thereof, are
evident for it. The distances of places, the quickness and speediness
of the removals, the more proper applications of the words, ‘taking’
and ‘setting,’ to Satan as the actor, and the declaration of his power
therein, as able to do great things; these make the matter so clear,
that it seems to be an unnatural forcing of the text to give it any
other interpretation. Besides, the former opinion of Satan’s taking
of Christ, as a manuductor or guide, seems every way unreasonable;
for if Christ only followed Satan, then it must have been either by a
land journey on foot or in the air. This latter it could not be; for
if Christ had supported himself in the air by his own power, he had
anticipated the temptation, and it would have been folly and madness
for Satan to have urged him to fly in the air, after such an evidence
of his power; and who can imagine that Christ followed Satan on foot
from the wilderness to the temple, or that his access to the roof of
the temple was so easy, in such a way when the temple was always so
strictly guarded? Note, hence,
_Obs._ 3. _That Satan is sometime permitted to exercise his power upon
the bodies of those that are dear to God._ That he hath power to carry
the bodies of men in the air, is sufficiently confirmed by what he
doth frequently to witches, who are usually carried, if we can give
any credit to the stories that are writ of them, in the air, to places
far remote from their dwellings, _equitatio cum Diana aut Herodiade_.
And that this power is permitted him upon others, than such as are in
compact with him, is as evident from what is testified of those whose
forward curiosity hath led to imitate witches in their anointings,
who have thereupon been conveyed after them to their assemblies, and
when the company hath been suddenly dismissed, they have been found
many miles distant from their dwellings; such instances we have in
Bodin, and among other things that of Domina Rossa mentioned by him,
whom Satan would sometime bind to a tree, sometime to a table, or to
a bed’s-foot, or to a manger, sometime one hand bound to another; the
devil thus molested her from eight years old, a long time.[401] This
power of conveying persons in the air is not usual, yet there are some
in this place—Newcastle—that have known one frequently molested by
Satan at this rate. However, if we take notice of his power to abuse
the bodies of holy persons more generally, we shall find it frequent.
Mary Magdelene was possessed; Christ mentions a daughter of Abraham
bowed down by him many years; Job was filled with botches and sores;
and there are many diseases wherein Satan hath a greater hand than
is commonly imagined. Physicians frequently conclude so much, while
they observe some distempers to elude such remedies as are usually
successful upon other persons under the same diseases.
_Applic._ From this we may infer, [1.] The great power of Satan; who
can tell the extent of it? doubtless, if he were permitted, we should
see sad instances hereof daily. [2.] This discovers the wonderful care
and providence of God over us in our preservation from his fury. [3.]
We may further note that the abuse of the bodies of men by Satan, will
be no evidence that therefore God doth disregard them, or that they are
not precious to him. Christ did undergo this abuse, to give such as
shall be so molested, some comfort in his example.
The third circumstance, which is that _of place_, is set down first
in general, ‘the holy city,’ that is Jerusalem, for so Luke speaks
expressly, Luke iv. 9. Jerusalem was so called, because of God’s
worship there established, and his peculiar presence there; but that
it should be called so at this time may seem strange, seeing it might
now be lamented as of old, ‘How is the faithful city become an harlot!
Righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers,’ [Isa. i. 21.] In answer
to this, we must know that God having not yet given her a bill of
divorce, he is pleased to continue her title and privilege. This might
be profitably improved; but I will not suffer myself to be diverted
from the matter of temptation, which is the only thing I propound to
prosecute from hence. I shall here only observe,
_Obs._ 4. _That the holiness or sanctity of a place will be no
privilege against temptations._ He is not so fearful, as many imagine,
as that he dares not approach a churchyard or a church; neither place
nor duty can keep him off. I do not believe the popish fiction of their
St Bennet’s vision, wherein they tell of his seeing but one devil in
a market, and ten in a monastery; yet I question not the truth of
this, that the devil is as busy at a sermon or prayer as at any other
employment.
But to search a little further into this matter, it seems undeniable
that Satan had a design in reference to the place, of which afterward;
and I see no reason to exclude our suspicion of a design from the
name and title which the evangelist here gives to Jerusalem. It is
an expression which, to my remembrance, we meet not with oft in the
New Testament. At the suffering of Christ, when the bodies of the
saints arose out of their graves, it is said ‘they went into the holy
city,’ Mat. xxvii. 53; but it is evident that it is there so styled
upon special design, as if the evangelist would by that point at the
staining of their glory, and that in a little time their boast of the
temple and holy city should cease, and that all should be polluted
with the carcases of the slain. And by the same reason may we suppose
that Satan, intending for Christ a temptation of presumption, and
backing it with the promise of a guard of angels, had in his eye the
usual confidence that the Jews had of that city, as a place where the
presence of angels might be more expected than elsewhere. So that it
seems Satan intended to impose upon Christ a confidence in order to
presumption. From the privilege of the place, here observe,
_Obs._ 5. _That Satan is willing to gratify us with nominal and
imaginary privileges and defences against himself._ He will willingly
allow us such defences as are altogether insignificant and delusive,
and his policy here is centred upon these two things:—
(1.) First, _He doth industriously prompt us to self-devised
inventions_, such as were never appointed or blessed of God to any such
use; but only found out by the bold superstitions of men. Of this we
have an instance in Balak, who carried Baalam from place to place in
his prosecution of his design of cursing Israel; neither can we imagine
that a commodious prospect of Israel was all he aimed at, seeing he
discovers his mind in this variation of places, ‘Peradventure it will
please God that thou mayest curse them from thence,’ Num. xxiii.
27; clearly implying that he had a confidence that the place might
contribute something to his design, and that there was some inherent
virtue in those consecrated places; and therefore did he begin with
the high-places of Baal, and then to the held of Zophim, and then to
the top of Peor, Num. xxii. 27, xxiii. 14, 28. Among the papists we
find too much of this. What power they attribute to holy water, blessed
salt, sign of the cross, hallowed earth, consecrated places, relics,
baptized bells, exorcisms, and abundance of such stuff, may be seen in
many of their writings, too tedious to be related.[402]
(2.) Secondly, He is also willing _that men use those real defences
and helps which God hath commanded, so that they use them in a formal
manner_, which indeed deprives them of all the life and efficacy that
might be expected from an instituted means. Thus he readily permits
ignorant persons, without any disturbance or molestation, to use the
repetition of the Lord’s prayer, ten commandments, and creed, or any
other prayer, while they persuade themselves that the very saying of
the words is a sufficient defence against the devil all that day.
The reasons of Satan’s policy in such gratifications are these:—
[1.] First, _While we are kept doing with these, we are diverted from
that which might be really helpful_. He puts a broken reed into our
hand, that we might be deprived of a staff. Experience confirms this.
Those that, with greatest devotion, use these empty inventions, are
usually careless in the use of God’s own appointments.
[2.] Secondly, _Besides that he thus betrays them by these lying helps,
he doth by this means cast them on a further iniquity of idolising
these foolish calves of their own invention_. In this case men have
a presumptuous expectation from such usages of that which God never
promised to do by them, neither ever entered into his heart so to do,
seeing he answers them all with this, ‘Who hath required these things
at your hands?’ [Isa. i. 12.] And accordingly their consciences are
more concerned for the omission of one of these fooleries, than for
the neglect of the greater things of the law. Such are more troubled
for the neglect of the sign of the cross or holy water, than for their
constant carelessness and want of faith, by which their hearts should
be guarded against their enemy.
[3.] Thirdly, _In the meantime he makes work for his own triumph over
them that dote upon these sottish inventions_. If we can suppose Satan
to have pleasure or mirth at anything, we may be sure he will laugh
at such preparations for a spiritual welfare,[403] it being as truly
ridiculous for any man to go out with these weapons against Satan, as
for a combatant to assail a giant with a paper helmet, a wicker shield,
and a wooden dagger. And indeed when Satan counterfeits a flight or
fear of such matters, as for his advantage he sometimes doth, it is
but in design to beget or confirm in men a confidence of a virtue or
strength in these usages against his power, that so they may fix upon
them to the neglect of God’s own institutions, which he most dreads.
Thus we read that he cunningly ceased his oracle at Daphne upon a
pretence of the silencing power of the bones of the martyr Babilas,
which were buried near the place, on purpose to lead unwary Christians
to the adoration of saints and their relics.[404] Many such instances
we have in Sprenger, of the devil’s feigned flight at the sign of the
cross, the sprinkling of holy water, the angelical salutation, St
Bernard’s staff, or certain words and verses hung about the neck.[405]
And a great deal of such stuff we may meet with in most of their
writers, all which are but cunning contrivances of Satan, to advance a
belief of the virtue of these things; and so to stop men there, to the
neglect of those spiritual weapons which the Scripture recommends.
These we have observed from the place in general, ‘the holy city.’
Let us go on to the place in particular where Satan acted all this,
‘the pinnacle of the temple.’ Various are the conjectures of men
about this, whether it were some fane, or the top of some spire, or
the place whence the apostle James was thrown down, or the top of the
king’s porch, which was erected to a great height over a deep valley,
or some battlement, &c. But we are not concerned in such inquiries;
only here shall I take notice of Scultetus, who, supposing the place
to be the top of a fane or spire, and reading in Josephus that the
points of such broaches were so sharp that a bird could not rest upon
them without piercing its foot, was therefore willing to conclude that
these temptations were not really and historically acted, but in vision
only.[406] All this ariseth from a wrong interpretation of πτερύγιον,
which our English renders _pinnacle_, whereas it properly signifies
any battlement or angular prominency, jutting out over the rest like a
wing, which would afford a sufficient footing and support.[407]
It is more profitable to inquire after Satan’s reason for the choice
of such a place. No question but it was upon design, for else he might
with equal convenience have tempted Christ to cast himself down from
some tree or precipice in the wilderness; but then what that design
was, is not so easy to determine. It seems plain that he might suppose
that Christ might be the rather animated to the undertaking of flying
in the air by the hopes of glory which might be expected from such a
performance before so many spectators. But some think that he had a
design also upon the men of Jerusalem, and intended some delusion to
the Jews,[408] which I am not unwilling to close with, partly because
the experiences that we have of his devices assure us that in one
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
conviction general that he was the Messiah, about that time universally
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, of whom they understood the prophecy of
Mal. 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.’[409] 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 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.
_Obs._ 6. Observe then, _That Satan’s designs are large, and that he
projects the ensnaring or deluding of others by such temptations as
seem only to concern those that are under the immediate trouble of
them_. He tempts Christ to cast himself down, and also by it, at least,
intends a delusion to the Jews. He tempts one man upon the back of
another. One is tempted to error; another by that man’s temptation is
tempted to atheism and rejecting of all religion. One man is tempted to
profaneness, another is tempted by that to an uncharitable disrespect
of him. It is easy to multiply instance of this.