SERMON XIII. Chrift tempted to Mistrust in God. When Jefus had fafted forty Days, and forty But he answered, and faid, It is written, W riff, afked the People, what it was HEN Chrift, fpeaking of the Bap-S ER M. which they went out into the Wilderness to fee, the XIII. SER M. the Wilderness; we may raise our Expectati XIII. ons to see something remarkable, and well all XIII. all the Particulars: Of which the Time, the SER M. Place, the Guide, and the Preparation have already been spoke to: The Engagement itfelf is what we are now to confider, where we are chiefly to obferve the Devil's Art and Stratagem in the Affault, and the Arms made Ufe of by Jefus to repel him. But as it was a furious Attack which our Saviour stood; as the Devil would have worked firft upon one Paffion and then another; and fo was forced to have Recourfe to different Arguments, or rather Fallacies, to apply; to give his Temptations a proper and due Confideration, it is necessary we should confider them distinctly. I shall therefore, I. FIRST lay before you the Nature and Subtlety of the Devil's Temptation, with the Strength and Force of our Saviour's Reply. II. SECONDLY, I fhall make a practical Obfervation or two upon the real Intent and Defign of the Temptation, and fo conclude. I. FIRST, I shall lay before you the Nature and Subtlety of the Devil's Temptation, with the Strength and Force of our Saviour's Reply. And here I must begin with that Infirmity of Chrift, to which his Humanity (though Dd 2 SERM. (though united with his Divinity) made him foon as he had discovered it, laid hold of as In order to this, fince he finds him hungry, and perhaps faint and languishing for Want of some necessary Sustenance to fupport him; he first begins to allure him. with Food, which he might reasonably suppose was more defirable to him then, than Glory or Wealth. The Tempter therefore came to him and faid, If thou be the Son of GOD, command that thefe Stones be made Bread. Where by the Way it is worth our While to obferve the Kindness of the Devil's Offer. The hungry Jefus wants Bread, and the IfSER M. the indulgent Satan fhews him a Stone. a Son afk Bread of any of you that is a Father, will be give him a Stone? Luke xi. 11. The very Propofal, (if Chrift had not known him before) was enough to have difcovered whence he came. And yet the Temptation, confidering the present Circumstances of our Lord, and the Barrennefs of the Place, was well laid and artfully applied. It feems to be fetched from that miraculous Provifion, which GOD always had made for his former Servants, whenever any of them had been driven to the fame Distress; and consequently it appears to be urged with a Defign`to raise in Jefus a Diffidence and Diftruft of God's Care over him; to put him upon renouncing any further Dependance upon his Provifion; and to make Ufe of that Power which he had already received, to provide for himself., The Words of the Devil (if taken in this View) may be paraphrased thus: "Son of God, "if fo thou art; (and sure a Voice which "pronounced thee fo from Heaven may be believed) what is it that induces thee in "this defolate Place, to abide fo patiently "in this Hunger and Distress, and to seem "as helplefs as if thou wert but meer Man? "Thou knoweft that here thou canst expect 68 na Dd 3 XIII. |