Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. Matt. 4:1
The cause moving me to treat of this place of
Scripture is, that such as by the inscrutable providence of God fall into
divers temptations, judge not themselves by reason thereof to be less
acceptable in God's presence. But, on the contrary, having the way prepared to
victory by Jesus Christ, they shall not fear above measure the crafty assaults
of that subtle serpent Satan; but with joy and bold courage, having such a guide
as here is pointed forth, such a champion, and such weapons as here are to be
found (if with obedience we will hear, and unfeigned faith believe), we may
assure ourselves of God's present favor, and of final victory, by the means of
Him, who, for our safeguard and deliverance, entered in the battle, and
triumphed over His adversary, and all his raging fury. And that this being
heard and understood, may the better be kept in memory; this order, by God's
grace, we propose to observe, in treating the matter: First, What this word
temptation meaneth, and how it is used within the Scriptures. Secondly, Who is
here tempted and at what time this temptation happened. Thirdly, How and by what
means He was tempted. Fourthly, Why He should suffer these temptations, and
what fruits ensue to us from the same.
First, Temptation, or to tempt, in the
Scriptures of God, is called to try, to prove, or to assault the valor, the
power, the will, the pleasure, or the wisdom--whether it be of God, or of
creatures. And it is taken sometimes in good part, as when it is said that God
tempted Abraham; God tempted the people of Israel; that is, God did try and examine
them, not for His own knowledge, to whom nothing is hid, but to certify others
how obedient Abraham was to God's commandment, and how weak and inferior
Israelites were in their journey toward the promised land. And this temptation
is always good, because it proceeds immediately from God, to open and make manifest
the secret motions of men's hearts, the puissance and power of God's word, and
the great lenity and gentleness of God toward the iniquities (yea, horrible
sins and rebellions) of those whom He hath received into His regimen and care.
For who could have believed that the bare word of God could so have moved the
heart and affections of Abraham, that to obey God's commandment he determined
to kill, with his own hand, his best-beloved son Isaac? Who could have trusted
that, so many torments as Job suffered, he should not speak in all his great
temptation one foolish word against God? Or who could have thought that God so
mercifully should have pardoned so many and so manifest transgressions
committed by His people in the desert, and yet that His mercy never utterly
left them, but still continued with them, till at length he performed His promise
made to Abraham? Who, I say, would have been persuaded of these things, unless
by trials and temptations taken of His creatures by God, they had come by
revelation made in His holy Scriptures to our knowledge? And so this kind of
temptation is profitable, good, and necessary, as a thing proceeding from God,
who is the fountain of all goodness, to the manifestation of His own glory, and
to the profit of the suffered, however the flesh may judge in the hour of
temptation. Otherwise temptation, or to tempt, is taken in evil part; that is,
he that assaults or assails intends destruction and confusion to him that is
assaulted. As when Satan tempted the women in the garden, Job by divers
tribulations, and David by adultery. The scribes and Pharisees tempted Christ
by divers means, questions, and subtleties. And of this matter, saith St.
James, "God tempteth no man"; that is, by temptation proceeding
immediately from Him He intends no man's destruction. And here you shall note,
that although Satan appears sometimes to prevail against God's elect, yet he is
ever frustrated of his final purpose. By temptation He led Eve and David from
the obedience of God, but He could not retain them forever under His thraldom.
Power was granted to Him to spoil Job of his substance and children, and to
strike his body with a plague and sickness most vile and fearful, but He could
not compel his mouth to blaspheme God's majesty; and, therefore, although we
are laid open sometimes, as it were, to tribulation for a time, it is that when
He has poured forth the venom of His malice against God's elect it may return to
His own confusion, and that the deliverance of God's children may be more to
His glory, and the comfort of the afflicted: knowing that His hand is so
powerful, His mercy and good-will so prompt, that He delivers His little ones
from their cruel enemy, even as David did his sheep and lambs from the mouth of
the lion. For a little benefit received in extreme danger more moves us than
the preservation from ten thousand perils, so that we fall not into them. And
yet to preserve from dangers and perils so that we fall not into them, whether
they are of body or spirit, is no less the work of God than to deliver from
them; but the weakness of our faith does not perceive it: this I leave at the
present.
Also, to tempt means simply to prove or try
without any determinate 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, although 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.
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