the vvant of worldly necessaries The dignitie of Gods sons stands not in aboundance of worldly things Comfort against the want of worldly things How wee shold confirme our selues in the assurance of our Election and Adoption We should do nothing for sathans command though it seeme neuer so reasonable Sathan in his temptations aymeth at this to make vs earthly minded Mat. 4. 3. Many care for this life as if it wer eternall for eternall life as if in a moment it might be obtained Christs reply to Sathans first tentation The word is the sword of the spirit by which we should fight against Sathan Christin Math. hom 2. Papists conuinced who take the vse of the word from the people 〈…〉 vpon themselues a famine of the word Amos 8. 11. Chris. ibid. Two parts of Christs answere Of the first we learne that second meanes ordained by God should not be despised This serues first for weake Christians who through errour of conscience defraud their bodies of necessary foode Next for idle men who neglect the ordinarie meanes by which they should liue And yet we should not trust in the second meanes but in God Who sometime workes without meanes sometime by small meanes and sometime makes the meanes of life instruments of death The nature of the second meanes proues that our life is not by them Experience also confirmes the same This is made more cleare out of the second part of Christs answere Psal. 90. 3. The great stupiditie of men who rebell against God of whom they hold their life Comfort when ordinarie meanes failes In the right wing of Sathans battell stands Presumption Sathan changes tentations for his owne aduantage Sathans second captaine ouerthrowne also by our Lord. After victory in any temptation let vs stand ready for a new battel Christs transportation whether mentall or corporall Offences that may arise of Christs corporall transportation remoued In it the inuincible power of our Lord is made manifest Comfort for Gods children whose bodies are afflicted by Sathan for a time The place of this temptation is Ierusalem the holy City No place on earth free from the temptations of Sathan Yea in most holy places he is a most busie tempter The Lord casts down that hee may raise vp Sathan by the contrary raises vp that he may cast downe The pith of this second tentation The temptation of presumption preuaileth greatly in this age Christs death abused to nourish the life of sinne Sathans tentations to vaine-glory customable among men Pro. 25. 27 Sathan can not hurt vs except wee helpe him Sathans proper voice is Cast downe thy selfe Still seeking mans disgrace destruction The reason vsed by Sathan to strengthen his most vnreasonable desire He seekes to remoue godly fear that hee may bring men to a remediles most fearefull estate Greg. moral lib. 6. This testimony of Scripture is falsely vsed by Sathan in three respects 1 Ioh. 2. 1. That hee makes any place of Scripture to confirme a sin How Atheists Sathans disciples doe learne at him Greg. moral lib. 2. That reciting such a place of Scripture as reproueth his sinne he is touched with no remorse This proceedeth from his obstinacie which lets him not repent By presumption he fell by obstinacie he cannot rise Gods great mercy to vs worthy to be marked His Grace hath put a difference betweene vs and others wher there was no difference by Nature Such as heare their sins condemned by the word and are not moued are here conuinced How the children of God tremble at the rebukes of his word Acts 2. 37. Act. 16. 30. Chrisost. in Mat. hom 6 Thirdly he abuseth Scripture in mutilating of it The promises of God can be no comforts to vs if we neglect the condition wherupon they are made In the right vse of this testimonie we consider two things First the great glory and maiestie of God Dan. 7. 10. Psal. 68. 17 How farre inferiour the most glorious Courts of Kings is to the Lords Court Secondly the fatherly care and prouidence of God toward his Children Sathan should alwayes be refused resisted 2 Tim. 2. 26 The best weapon whereby wee can fight against him is the sword of the Spirit Scripture should be expounded by Scripture The summe of our Sauiours answere to this temptation How men tempt God In his prouidence In his mercie In his Iustice By neglecting the ordinarie meanes Both the wing◠of Sathans army being discomfited he now comes forward with his maine battell Sathan againe seeketh vantage by the place Num. 23. Christ tempted here at the eye with a faire shew at the eare with faire offers How it is that Sathan presented to the eye of our Lord al the kingdomes of the world One of Sathans customable policies is to infect the heart by the eye And therfore if we would keepe the heart we should first haue a care to keepe the eye Augu. Gregor lib. 21. Moral Nazian in deploratio calam animae sua Sathan speakes of earthly kingdomes but not of the heauenly which he hath lost Worldlings by their talke declares that they are of the same spirit Gregor Moral lib. 7. Sathans great subtiltie in shewing the glory of worldly kingdomes but not their misery Earthly kingdomes may be represented not so the heauenly 1 Cor. 29. Aug. de ciuit Dei lib. 10. cap. 18. Ephes. 5. 14 Vanitie of earthly pleasures proued by their breuitie Heb. 11. 25. Gregor Moral lib. 15. Sathan hauing assaulted the eye of our Lord now goes about and assaults his eare Psal. 24. 1. In this he makes two notable lyes first in affirming that the kingdomes of the world were his How Sathan is called The God of the world Next he lies in pretending that hee would giue them to Christ which he neuer would albeit he might Sathans promises are alwaies to be distinguished from his performances Yet blinde worldlings follow Sathan as if the world were at his donation Sathan frames his temptations according to the estimation he hath of men He bids but a small price for such as hee knowes may be easily conquered ☜ This is their shame who doe Sathan seruice for small rewards Hee seekes more from men then he is able to giue vnto them If he offer earth it is vpon this condition that wee forsake heauen The blind folly of men bewitched with Sathans offers Many abhorre to be called Sathans worshippers who abhor not to be so indeede As namely they who worship the Lord otherwise then according to his owne will And they in like manner who serue their own beastly affections Rom. 6. 16. Why Christs last answere is sharper then any of the former In worship the Lord can suffer no companion 1 Sam. 7. 3. Papists worshipping others with God guiltie of Idolatry How the distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not excuse them Religious bowing of the knee to creatures a note of Idolaters Leuit. 2. 1. 2 King 18. 4. 2 King 23. 5. An obiection of the Aduersaries answered Worship and the glory of saluation should be reserued to the Lord onely Psal. 19. Ios. 10. 2. Cor. 6. Rom. 10. Psal. 119. 57. Psal. 119. 77. Mal. 2. 15. 1. Pet. 3. Aug. Nazian De ira cap. 5.
when he is in the hands of his very enemies Againe this is for the comfort of Gods children for sometime power is giuen to Sathan ouer their bodies to afflict them as we see for a time in Iob or for a time to possesse them as hee did the body of Magdalen for albeit then shee was not called yet euen then was shee an elect woman least therefore the children of God should at any time be discouraged with the like of this to take it for an argument of reprobation or finall deliuery of them vnto Sathan that the Lord for a time permits him to haue power our their bodies the Lord Iesus who would in all things be tempted as we are except sinne did taste of this temptation also for our comfort This being spoken concerning the manner of his carrying now we come to the place which is the holy City Ierusalem more particularly the very Temple which stood in the sight of all Ierusalem Sathan sets him on the platforme of it wherein were turrets with pinacles on their tops this place he takes as most conuenient for his purpose thou hast lurked too long as a priuate man among this people if thou be the Sonne of GOD that promised Messiah the king of Israel here is the time and place to shew thy selfe in the sight of Ierusalem all the people shall admire thee and acknowledge thee for to be the Sonne of God if thou cast thy selfe downe among them which easily thou maist doe without all perill or harme seeing the Lord hath giuen his Angels charge ouer thee to keepe thee Concerning the place beside that which we marked in the first temptation how that there is no place so holy on earth wherin we can be free from the temptations of this vnholy spirit In Paradise he tempted Adam at Christs table he tempted Iudas and in the very Temple dedicated to the seruice of God how often finde wee by experience that hee dare tempt vs making vs eyther to turne the house of God into an house of marchandise while hee drawes away our mindes to thinke vpon worldly affaires or else into a den of theeues whilst he carryeth our Eyes to wander after vanitie that so hee may infect the heart or else at least he casts vpon vs the spirit of slumbring that wee cannot with reuerence heare the word of the Lord. Sathan is an enemie to euery good action standing alwayes at Iosuahs right hand to hinder him but specially doth hee resist vs in the Exercâ—ses of the Word and Prayer and seeketh to polluâ—e vs most in those places wherein wee should be most sanctified and therefore as the Iewes in the building of Ierusalem had their weapon in the one hand and their worke-toole in the other so wee when wee come to edifie our selues in the most holy Faith haue neede to haue an eye continually vpon our aduersarie and our weapon ready to resist him And set him on a pinnacle of the Temple FOr what end Sathan set our Lord there is euident out of that which followes that he might from thence cast him downe Sathan in his working is contrary vnto the Lord for the Lord casts downe to the end hee may raise vp so did hee with S. Paul first he cast him to the ground and then raised him vp to the honour of an Apostle but Sathan if he raise vp any man it is for this end that he may cast him downe It is true preferment comes neither from the East nor from the West but from the Lord yet such as come to high places by euill meanes are said to be raised vp by Sathan It were good for men to abhorre such preferments with those famous Martyrs who when offers of honourable Offices were made to them answered Nolumus honorem vnde nobis nascetur ignominia wee will none of that honour which breedes vs ignominie for that honour wherevnto men come with an euill conscience shall assuredly end in shame If thou be THis tentation as wee said is to Presumption and Vaine-glory Before men thou shalt haue great honour if by this Miracle thou manifest thy selfe the Sonne of God and at Gods hand thou needest feare none euill for since thou art his Son thou maist doe what thou wilt hee will not let thee perish This temptation to presumption in this age preuailes mightily ouer many who abuse Gods mercy and turne the grace of God into wantonnesse conceiting with themselues that because God is mercifull and Christ hath dyed for sinners and they haue receiued the seales of the Couenant and are now by adoption the Sonnes of God therefore they may doe what they list And though they cast not their bodies from on high to the ground being loath to endanger their naturall liues yet they spare not to make daily shipwracke of their Soules and Consciences by casting themselues downe head-long into euery snare of the Diuell A lamentable thing that the death of Christ should be abused to entertaine the life of sinne he died to abolish sinne and destroy the workes of the Diuell and miserable man will take boldnesse to sin the more freely because Christ dyed for him Where desperation enters all men see and abhorre it but though this presumption possesse the greatest multitude in this generation yet are they few who perceiue it The other branch of this temptation as I noted tends to a seeking of vaine-glory before men while hee would prouoke our Sauiour to manifest by vnlawfull meanes that hee was the Sonne of God And this is Sathans ordinarie temptation whereby hee assaults such as are endued with graces aboue others If the Apostle S. Paul had neede of counterpoyse against pride alas what haue wee Many doth Sathan so bewitch with a loue of their owne glory that rather then it shall not be manifested they will blaze it abroad themselues in most vaine-glorious manner and so vnawares they cast downe themselues before Sathan for to seeke thine owne glory is not glory But this is strange that Sathan hauing power to set our Lord on the toppe of the Temple puts not to his owne hand to cast him downe but tempts him to cast himselfe downe thus we see how in the greatest libertie Sathan hath hee is alwayes bound and brideled that he cannot doe what he would if hee get a commission or power it is euer with limitation as wee see in Iob loe he is in thine hand but saue his life And except wee our selues giue him armour he cannot hurt for it is by man himselfe that hee gets at any time vantage ouer man Let vs praise the power of God that restraines him let vs marke the impotence of Sathan let vs confirme our harts by grace to resist him so shall hee neuer be able to hurt vs. Last of all as here his voyce is Cast thy selfe downe so is it in the next assault Fall downe and worship mee This is the
in the world that his were onely externall that is such as Sathan presented by externall voices and obiects to his eare and eye but could neuer carry any further for incontinent the Lord Iesus discerned the vanitie of them by the perfect light of his minde and instantly repelled them by the vnchangeable holines of his will so that he was not so much as affected or moued with them farre lesse infected by consenting vnto them and in this as I said hee farre excels the first Adam and all his posteritie For as for our first Parents Adam and Euah in that first onset Sathan made vpon them by presenting externall obiects to their eyes and voices to their eares he incontinent fastned his sting into them by reason that they howsoeuer made holy yet being mutable were easily affected with his allurements and so wounded by him but the second Adam being perfect and vnchangeable in holines was in such sort tempted that he was not nor could not be peruerted no more then the most stable rockes of the Sea are moued or remoued by the raging waues thereof Whereof great comfort redounds vnto vs who now by grace are the generation of the second Adam and beares his image as by Nature we were the sonnes of the first Adam and did carry also his image What the first Adam had by creation hee receiued it not for himselfe onely but for his posteritie also if he had kept it for himselfe hee had kept it to them also and when he lost it to himselfe he lost it to his posteritie And the second Adam the Lord Iesus in like maner that stock of life in whom by grace we are grafted and of whom onely wee as Christians haue our beginning and being what hee hath receiued as Mediator from his Father he receiued it not for himselfe but for his brethren that he might conquer communicate and conserue vnto vs a most sure saluation for so long as hee who haue obtained it cannot loose it so long wee are sure it cannot be lost vnto vs seeing of him and in him we possesse it And as for Adams posteritie now since the fall our estate is so much by Nature the more miserable that our greatest temptation comes from our inward corruption so that albeit there were no externall tempter to tempt vs with obiects of sinne presented to our eyes and eares yet wee are tempted of our owne concupiscence within vs. Tale quippe est vitium malignitatis vt a nullo impulsa plerunque sese ipsa praecipitet for such is the corruption of our wicked Nature saith Chrysostome that although it be not moued or enforced by any other yet it runneth headlong into sinne thus wee are like vnto a besieged citie that not onely hath strong enemies without pursuing it but in like manner false Traytors within to betray it Now haue wee seene how the temptations of Christ Iesus doe differ from Adams and ours The other thing in this circumstance that comes to be considered is the endes for which our Lord humbles himselfe to be tempted of Sathan and those we shall see doe most of all respect vs as for our cause he was in carnate so for our cause hee was tempted all that hee suffered in our Nature are medicines to cure the infirmities of our nature First then hee was content to be tempted by our enemie that hee might ouercome our enemie and that in so iust and lawfull a manner as against which the enemie could haue no exception for in mans nature hee encountred with him in a place conuenient for Sathanin a state and condition most subiect to temptation wanting all necessaries for refreshment of his body and hauing none to comfort him and no doubt it did wonderfully astonish and confound that euill one that hauing ouercome so many since the beginning of the world now hee encounters with a man ouer whom hee hath so many apparant vantages and against whom he assayed all his temptations yet can hee not any way fasten his sting in him Secondly to let vs see what a spitefull enemie of mans saluation Sathan is for the hatred he beares to the glory of God hee hates man made to the image of God and doth all that hee can to hinder his saluation Non enim vult vt ibi simus vnde ipse deiectus est for hee can not abide that man should be exalted to that place from which for his sinne hee was deiected If wee could apprehend this and take it to heart what a deadly enemie Sathan is vnto vs and for what cause it would encourage vs to make stronger resistance to him then we doe Thirdly hee vndergoeth this temptation to teach vs his Seruants and Souldiours how to encounter with him Pugnat Imperator vt discant Milites and therewithall to assure vs that if wee wil fight against him in the might of our Lord it is possible that we clothed with this same nature shall ouercome him Since the dayes of Adam Sathan by sinne hath wonderfully preuailed ouer men none haue escaped him without a wound and many hath he slaine vnto the death but now in the same nature the Lord Iesus wrastles with him and ouercomes him that so radicitus euelleret desperationem ex natura a nostra that hee might plucke vp desperation by the roote out of our nature And fourthly hee humbled himselfe to suffer temptation that by experience hee might learne wherein the strength of Sathan lyeth and so might be the more able to succour vs in all temptations For wee haue not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sinne and therefore is able sufficiently to haue compassion on vs. And last of all that we should not apprehend our tentations to come from an angry God as commonly of our weakenesse we doe wee see here that the Lord Iesus who a little before was proclaimed to be the Sonne of GOD in whom the Father was well pleased is now led by the Spirit of God to be tempted of Sathan The fift Circumstance is of him that tempteth called by S. Luke the Diuell and by S. Mathew the Tempter stiles both of them properly belonging to Sathan for before him there was no tempter vnto euill nor yet after him except such as are tempted by him wherefore Augustine doth thus prettily describe him Quid est diabolus Angelus per superbiam à Deo separatus à semetipso ceptus alios decipiens author mendacij radix malitiae caput scelerum princeps omnium vitiorum What is the Diuell Hee is an Angell through his pride separated from God deceiued by himselfe deceiuing others the Father of lyes the roote of malice the chiefe head of all wickednesses the Prince of all sinnes and vices In tempting hee is restlesse sparing no time no place no person It may truely
tempting of God men fall into it many manner of wayes sometime they tempt him in his prouidence as Israel did in the Wildernesse limiting the holy one Sometime they tempt him in his mercy as they who cast themselues into vnnecessary dangers vnder hope that God will deliuer them And somtime they tempt him in his Iustice walking without repentance in their sinnes and yet thinke God will not punish them But most commonly they tempt him by neglecting the ordinarie meanes which God hath appointed to do good eyther to their bodies or soules as at this day many carnall professors doe who contemning the Exercises of the Word and Prayer do notwithstanding vainly conceit that they shall be saued as if now the Lord saued men by miracles as hee did that malefactor on the Crosse and not by the ordinarie meanes appointed by himselfe MATH 4 VER 8. Againe the Diuell tooke him vp SAthan now perceiuing both the wings of his armie discomfited by the armour of righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left wherewith our Lord resisted comes now forward with his maine battell wherein stands the loue of the world with the pleasures and preferments thereof but this he doth with no better successe then he had in the former for this Captaine also with his Fiftie or rather with his Legion is consumed by the fire of our true Elijah the onely Sonne of God hauing in most singular manner Iehouah for his strong God and Father In him I say did the fiery graces of the holy Ghost burne so feruently that all his powers were enflamed with a loue of the glory of God and saluation of his brethren and no place for the loue of the world was left in him In this temptation as in the former the Aduersary takes vantage of the place for now hee carries him from the Temple to the top of a mountaine as Balak King of Moab changed his place three times thinking to get Israel cursed in one place when hee could not in another but all in vaine so here doth Sathan but in vaine also And here we haue first the onset made by Sathan to be considered Secondly the repulse giuen by our Lord. In the onset we haue first to see how hee tempts our Sauiours eye with a shew of the glory of worldly kingdomes Secondly how he tempts his eare with an offer of them all vnto him And thirdly vpon what condition If thou wilt fall downe and worship me By this temptation of worldly things pleasant to the eye did he entangle our first Parents by this since then hath he snared and wounded all their posteritie and by it now as his strongest temptation doth hee hope to preuaile against the Lord Iesus but as wee haue said the successe is not according to his expectation And he shewed him HOw it is that Sathan could shew our Lord all the kingdomes of the world wee are not curiously to enquire seeing by the subtiltie of his wit and knowledge gotten by long experience hee being now almost sixe thousand yeares olde hee can doe many things which wee cannot vnderstand for if a man by the quicknes of his wit hath found out the way to present a view of the whole world in a Mappe or to let a man see himselfe represented in a glasse if this I say man can doe by the helpe of nature who for knowledge is but a childe if he be compared with Angels and for experience but of yesterday why shall wee thinke it strange to heare that Sathan could make a real representation in the Aire of all the glorious kingdomes of the world which we thinke he did But howeuer he did it certaine it is he presents to our Lord a glorious worldly sight for wee will neuer thinke that hee made him beleeue he saw that which he saw not and his end in presenting this pleasant obiect to the eye was out of all question to assay if hee could allure his heart with the loue thereof for this is one of his customable temptations whereby he hath greatly preuailed among the sonnes of men by the eye to encroach vpon the heart He deceiued Euah by looking on the Apple pleasant to the eye he deceiued the Sonnes of God who were of the line of Seth by looking on the daughters of men who were of the house of Cain he deceiued Achan by looking on a wedge of Gold and a goodly Babilonish garment hee deceiued Dauid by looking on the beauty of Bathsheba but so could hee not preuaile ouer our Lord for neither was his nature mutable from good as was Euah in her best estate farre lesse infected with a corrupt inclination to euill by exterior obiects as was Dauids and therefore could not this temptation worke vpon him But as for vs we haue great neede to arme our selues against it by reason of our inhabitant corruption which is easily wakened by exterior obiects vnlesse by holy discipline wee keepe and obserue our senses with no lesse holy care then Lot kept his in Sodome whose righteous soule was vexed but not delighted by hearing and seeing the vnrighteous words and deeds of the Sodomites Potiphars wife first cast her eyes vpon Ioseph Prima adulterii tela oculorum sunt the senses especially the eye saith Gregory sunt quasi quaedam viae mentis per quas for as veniat by which it comes after a sort out of the body to view things which are without by them quasi per fenestras exteriora animus respicit respiciens concupiscit and then doth death come in at our windowes when by our eyes concupiscence of things vnlawfull is wakened in our soules and therefore did Nazian in his lamentations wish that his eyes and eares should neuer open but vnto that which is good Malis autem vtrunque sua sponte clauderetur and Iob protested that hee suffered not his heart to walke after his eye but this will require both circumspection and earnest prayer with Dauid Lord turne away my eyes from regarding vanitie Secondly Sathan shewes our Lord the glorie of worldly kingdomes but he can speak nothing to the commendation of the heauenly kingdome once he was a partaker of it but hee lost it through his pride hee knowes it will neuer be his againe and therefore hee hath no delight to speake of it This I marke for worldlings that they may know of what spirit they are who when the heauen is offered to them in the Gospel hath no delight neither to heare nor speake of it all their talke is of the earth surely euen their speech bewrayes them for hee that is of the earth sanctis viris insolens est intolerabile quicquid illud non sanat quod intus amant but vnto men who are truely holy euery word which sounds not of that which inwardly they loue is not onely vnaccustomed but also intolerable And thirdly here is