himself was foiled by the fecond. The fubftance of this relation is to the following effect:

After our bleffed Saviour had fuftained a long fast in the wilderness, the devil was permitted to tempt him; and firft makes an application to the neceffities of nature: If thou be the Son of God, command thefe ftones to be made bread. Jefus gave him an anfwer, implying, that bread was not fo neceffary to man, as the fpiritual food of religion, and truth. On this anfwer, the devil forms his fecond temptation: If thou thus trufteft in the mercies of God, let us fee what the power of God will do for thee: throw thyself down from this height *, and try whether that God, in whom thou trufteft, will sustain thee from harm. Jefus answered him by a paffage from Mofes: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God:thou shalt not try any unneceffary experiments of God's power to preferve us; it is enough to truft God in all the unavoidable difficulties of life.

The devil being thus foiled in these two temptations, makes his next attempt upon the

* It is rather probable, that the devil, who is ftyled prince of the air, fhould form an appearance like the temple, than that he fhould carry Jefus to Jerufalem.

paffions

paffions of our bleffed Saviour; and endeavours to find out, whether there is any fecret inclination in him to ambition, covetoufness, vanity, or pleasure; which he well knew was fatal ground to the fons of men. Look round, faid he, from this lofty ftand; fee all the kingdoms of the earth spread before thee-all their wealth-all their glory, and all their pleasures: all is mine; and shall be thine, if thou wilt give up thy allegiance to God, and put thy trust in me *.-This was more than the bleffed Jefus could bear. He rebuked the devil with authority, and fent him away on which we read, that good angels came and miniftered unto him.

There is no doubt but this, and all other parts of scripture, are recorded for our improvement: nor can we fuppofe the devil was per mitted to affault our bleffed Saviour, but for wife ends; and particularly for our instruction. Let us then fee what inftruction it affords.

In the first place, one great defign of our bleffed Saviour's having been tempted, was, we

It is probable, that this view of all the kingdoms and glory of the world was, like the former, only a vifionary jeene, produced for the purpofe. The expreffion, in a moment of time, feems to imply this-one fcene following another.

may suppose, to encourage all good chriftians to withstand bravely those temptations, with which their Lord had been affaulted before. If we fay, that Chrift's refifting temptation is no encouragement to us, because his nature was divine, we do not confider the cafe. It is true, if man was left entirely to himself, he could not be able to refift the temptations of fin. And in this cafe, undoubtedly, Chrift's refifting temptation, would be no encouragement to him. But we know this is not the cafe-we know, that it is every where the doctrine of scripture, that we are not left to ourselves; but that our fincere endeavours will be affifted by the Holy Spirit of God. And when we are affured that our blessed Lord was tempted like as we are, we cannot but have encouragement to hope, that he will kindly affift us in the fame circumftances; efpecially when we endeavour to fupport thofe temptations for his fake. Our reafon-our natural feelings, encourage us to hope, that he will thus affift us. But these hopes become certainty, when we read in the word of God, that Chrift having been tempted, is able to fuccour those who are tempted.

Another great use of our Saviour's temptation is, to convince us that we must all expect

VOL. IV.

E

to

1

to meet our trials, in fome fhape. No man, even of the moft exalted goodness, can hope to live free from temptations: they meet us in every part of our paffage through this world. In the cottage-in the palace-in company-in folitude; ftill temptation, in fome form, is ready to meet us. Temptations, we know, are God's means, in this world, to try and prove our religion. If there were no temptations, there could be no goodness. Our good works confift chiefly in conquering the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must confider our temptations therefore in this light; and manfully ftrive against them, whatever they are; nay, the apostle James bids us count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations but that is, on a fuppofition we overcome them; becaufe, as he goes on to tell us, these are trials of our faith, which, like gold that is purified in the fire, comes out more pure. For what reason, think you, are we fo frequently told, that the life of a christian is like the life of a foldier? We are ordered to fight the good fight-to put on the armour of God-to wrestle against principalities and powers: for what, but to give us fair warning of the dangers we are to expect? Frequent action, conftant danger, alarms,

7

alarms, and watchings, make up the life of a foldier on duty: he can never be in a state of repofe, because he cannot tell on what fide his enemies may attack him: it is experience in all these things that makes the foldier: the best discipline will be incomplete without it: it is practice that confirms his valour-that acquires him prefence of mind-that makes him familiar with danger, and prevents his being overpowered by it. Juft fuch is the fpiritual foldier in Chrift: till he hath been brought into the field against his enemies-till he hath faced temptation, and boldly combated the world, the flesh, and the devil, he would be unfit for service; he would be unexperienced: having never been tried, he could not be depended on; nor expect those glorious rewards, which God hath promised to his faithful foldiers in Christ.

Again, we may learn from our bleffed Saviour's temptation, the nature of temptation in general. When the Tempter attacked our Lord, we find he did it under the pleas of reason, and religion; nay, he even quoted fcripture to fupport his delufions: Caft thyfelf down; for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands they fhall bear thee up, left at