SERMON XI.

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.

ON TEMPTATIONS.

GOSPEL.

St. Matthew, iv. 1-11. At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter coming said to him, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Who answered and said, It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, That he hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain; and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said to him, All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me. Then Jesus saith to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left him, and behold angels came and ministered to him.

THE Gospel of this Sunday presents us with an account of a most extraordinary transaction. The blessed Jesus led into the desert by the Spirit of God, to be tempted by the devil! But was this an office consistent with the sanctity of the Spirit of God? And was not the situation in which the blessed Jesus himself was placed, beneath the

dignity of his august character? What! The spirit of truth condescend to become an agent in promoting the designs of the spirit of falsehood. The incarnate son of the Most High, set up as a mark against which his most bitter and determined enemy might discharge at leisure the shafts of his malignity! What could be the meaning of all this? That the whole of this proceeding has something in it extremely marvellous I am willing to allow. But, that it reflected, in any manner, the least disgrace on either of the two divine persons, who acted in it such conspicuous parts, I positively deny. On the contrary, I contend, that if all the circumstances connected with it, be duly attended to, it will be found to have highly redounded to their honor. For, consider, in the first place, the precise period when this event occurred. It was just after Jesus had been inaugurated by baptism into that sacred ministry, on the functions of which he was about to enter. It was just when this immortal champion of our salvation was on the point of opening his grand campaign against the prince of darkness, destined to terminate in the subversion of his despotic empire, and the emancipation of mankind from their degrading slavery. Fitting, therefore, it was, both for his own credit, and for the encouragement of his followers, that, in this conjuncture, he should clearly manifest his decided superiority over the infernal enemy with whom he was about to contend, and consequently the opportunity which was

here afforded him of evincing that superiority in so striking a manner, was worthy both of himself and of that Holy Spirit whose divine agency caused it to occur. But although the strength inherent in him was abundantly sufficient to qualify him to withstand the most formidable attack which might possibly be made upon him, by so inferior a foe, yet, for the benefit of his infirm adherents, he deemed it expedient to have recourse to a measure, which, in similar circumstances, it might be proper for them to adopt. That measure was the mortification of the sensual appetite by a temporary abstinence from corporal nourishment. "For he fasted," as we are informed in the Gospel, "forty days and forty nights." Perfectly calm and collected in his mind, he now awaited, with dignified composure, the assault of the enemy who advanced towards him. The first attempt of the devil was suggested by the keen sensation of hunger which Jesus experienced after his forty days fast. "And when," says the evangelist, "he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." The consideration of this circumstance urged the tempter to endeavour to shake his confidence in his heavenly Father, by stimulating him to prove the validity of his pretensions to his assumed character of the Son of God, in a way which might argue a want of reliance on Divine Providence." "And the tempter coming, said to him; if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." This attempt, how

ever, the blessed Jesus completely frustrated, by citing a passage in the book of Deuteronomy, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel; which evidently implies, that though the ordinary mode of sustenance should fail, yet that Great Provider for the wants and necessities of the creatures of his hand, has other means of supporting them at his disposal; and that in the boundless resources of his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, it becomes them to confide, without apprehension or disquietude. "But he answered and said: Not by bread alone, doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Not having succeeded in this his first attempt against the Saviour of mankind, the tempter, altering his mode of attack, conducted him to Jerusalem, and having there stationed him on the summit of the Temple, resorted to an expedient which was the reverse of that which experience had proved to be ineffectual. For as he before endeavoured in vain to instigate him to a miracle which might have been construed into a distrust of the providence of the Most High, so he now strove to prevail upon him to embark in an undertaking which would have evinced a presumptuous confidence in his protection. This undertaking was nothing less than that of precipitating himself from the elevated station on which he then stood; and the more effectually to persuade him to so rash an act, he pretended to corroborate his wicked suggestions by the authority

of inspiration. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone." But to this gross misapplication of the sacred text, in order to prove the lawfulness of the deed which he proposed, Jesus instantly replied by a prompt citation of another passage of holy writ, more apposite far to the proposal which was made to him, and which was calculated to exhibit in the clearest light the Devil's horrible prostitution of the oracle of God. "Jesus said to him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." By which words. he plainly intimated, that although the Almighty has promised his protection to those, who, amidst the difficulties and dangers to which they are unavoidably exposed in the discharge of the duties of their respective stations, put their trust and confidence in him, yet he has not pledged it to the daring adventurer, who should wantonly rush into the jaws of destruction. The tempter having been thus foiled in two attacks, which he successively made on the Saviour of mankind, with an arrogance worthy of the rebel angel who had aspired presumptuously to an equality with the Most High, had the audacity at length to assail him in the very centre of his holiness. For having displayed to him a magnificent spectacle of costly