rect contrary. "Then was Jefus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Does not this fay in the most express terms that our Lord was led, not in a dream, or trance, or vision, but was actually and literally led by the fpirit into the wilderness of Judea? There is, I know, an interpretation which explains away this obvious meaning. But that interpretation refts folely on the doubtful fignification of a fingle Greek particle, which is furely much too flender a ground to justify a departure from the plain and literal fenfe of the paffage. Certain it is, that if any one had meant to defcribe a real tranfaction, he could not have selected any expreffions better adapted to that purpofe than those actually made ufe of by the Evangelift; and I believe no one at his firft reading of our Lord's temptation ever entertained the flightest idea of its being a vifionary representation.

3. There is an obfervation which has been made, and which has great weight in this queftion. It is this: All the prophets of the Old Testament, except Mofes, faw vifions, and dreamed dreams, and the prophets of the New did the fame. St. Peter had a vifion, St. John faw vifions, St. Paul had vifions and dreams: but Chrift himself neither faw vifions nor dreamed dreams. He had an intimate and immediate communication with the Father; and he, and no one elfe in his days, had feen the Father. The cafe was the fame with Mofes; he faw God face to face. "If there be a prophet among you, fays God to Aaron, and Miriam, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My fervant Mofes is not fo, who is faithful in all my houfe; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches; and the fimilitude of the Lord fhall he behold."* Now Moses we all know was a type of Chrift; and the resemblance holds between them in this inftance as well as in many others. They neither of them had vifions or dreams, but had both an immediate communication with God. They both "faw God face to face."+ This was a distinction and a mark of dignity peculiar to thofe two only, to the great legiflator of the Jews, and the great legislator of the Chriftians. It is + Exod. xxxiii. 15.

Numb. xii, 6—8.

1

therefore inconfiftent with this high priviledge, this mark of fuperior eminence, to fuppofe that our Lord was tempt ed in a vision, when we fee no other inftance of a vision in the whole course of his ministry.

4. There is still another confideration which militates ftrongly against the fuppofition of a vifionary temptation. It was in itself extremely probable that there fhould be a real and perfonal conflict between Chrift and Satan, when the former was entering upon his public ministry.

It is well known that the great chief of the fallen angels, who is discribed in fcripture under the various names of Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, and the Prince of the devils, has ever been an irreconcileable enemy of the human race, and has been conftantly giving the moft decided and most fatal proofs of this enmity from the beginning of the world to this hour. His hoftility began with the very first creation of man upon earth, when he no fooner discovered our first parents in that state of innocence and happiness in which the gracious hand of the Almighty had just placed them, than with a malignity truly diabolical, he refolved if poffible to destroy all this fair scene of virtuous blifs, and to plunge them into the gulph of fin and mifery. For this purpose he exerted all his art and fubtilty and powers of persuasion; and how well he fucceeded we all know and feel. From that hour he ef tablished and exercifed an aftonishing dominion over the minds of men, leading them into fuch acts of folly, stupidity, and wickedness, as can on no other principle be account. ed for. At the time of our Saviour's appearance his tyranny feems to have arrived at its utmost height, and to have extended to the bodies as well as to the fouls of men, of both which he fometimes took abfolute poffeffion as we fee in the history of thofe unhappy perfons mentioned in scripture whom we call demoniacs and who were truly faid to be poffeffed by the devil. It was therefore extremely natural to fuppofe, that when he found there was a great and extraordina ry perfonage who had just made his appearance in the world, who was faid to be the Son of God, the promised Saviour of mankind, that feed of the woman who was to bruife the ferpent's head; it was natural that he fhould be exceedingly alarmed

at these tidings, that he fhould tremble for his dominion ; that he should first endeavour to ascertain the fact, whether this was really the Christ or not; and if it turned out to be fo, that he should exert his utmost efforts to subdue this formidable enemy, or at leaft to feduce him from his allegiance to God, and divert him from his benevolent purpose towards man. He had ruined the first Adam, and he might there. fore flatter himself with the hope of being equally fuccessful with the second Adam. He had entailed a mortal disease on the human race; and to prevent their recovery from that disease, and their restoration to virtue and to happiness, would be a triumph indeed, a conqueft worthy of the prince of the devils.

On the other hand it was equally probable that our blessed Lord would think it a measure highly proper to begin his miniftry with fhewing a decided fuperiority over the great adverfary of man, whofe empire he was going to abolish; with manifefting to mankind that the great Captain of their falvation was able to accomplish the important work he had undertaken, and with fetting an example of virtuous firmnefs to his followers, which might encourage them to refift the most powerful temptations that the prince of darkness could throw in their way.

Thefe confiderations, in addition to many others, afford a ftrong ground for believing that the temptation of Chrift in the wilderness was, as the history itself plainly intimates, a real tranfaction, a perfonal contest between the great enemy and the great Redeemer of the human race; and in this point of view therefore I fhall proceed to confider fome of the moft remarkable circumftances attending it, and the practi cal ufes refulting from it.*

It is an ingenious obfervation of a learned friend of mine, that the temptation of Chrift in the wilderness bears an evident analogy to the trial of Adam in Paradife, and elucidates the nature of that trial in which the tempter prevailed and man fell. The fecond Adam, who undertook the cause of fallen men, was fubjected to temptation by the fame apoftate fpirit. Herein the tempter failed, and the second Adam in consequence became the restorer of the fallen race of the firft. St. Paul in more places than one, points out the refemblance between the firft Adam and the fecond, and the temptation in the wilderness exhibits a most interesting tranfaction, where the fecond Adam was actually placed in a situation

We are told in the first place that " Jefus was led up of the fpirit into the wilderness," that is, not by the evil spirit but by the fpirit of God, by the fuggeftions and by the impulfe of the Holy Ghoft, of whofe divine influences he was then full.For the time when this happened was immediately after his baptism, which is related in the conclufion of the preceding chapter. We are there informed that Jefus when he was baptized went up ftraightway out of the water, and lo the heavens were opened, and he faw the spirit of God defcending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo a voice from heaven faying, This is my beloved fon, in whom I am well pleafed. Then (it immediately follows) was Jefus led up of the fpirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.In that moment of exaltation, when he was acknowledged by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God, and when the Spirit of God had taken full poffeffion of his foul, then it was that Jefus went forth under the guidance of that spirit in full confidence of his divine power into the wilderness, to incounter the prince of this world. A plain proof that this conteft was a preconcerted defign, a measure approved by heaven, and fubfervient to the grand defign, in which our Saviour was engaged of refcuing mankind from the dominion of Satan.

The place into which our bleffed Lord was thus led was the wilderness, probably the great wilderness near the river Jordan, in which Jesus was baptized, and foon afterwards tempted. This wilderness is thus difcribed by a traveller of great credit and varacity, who had himself feen it. "In a few hours (fays this writer) we arrived at the mountainous defert, in which our Saviour was led by the fpirit to be tempted by the devil. It is a most miserable dry barren place, confift ing of high rocky mountains, fo torn and difordered as if the earth had fuffered fome great convulfion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking down into a deep valley, as we paffed along we faw

very fimilar to that of the firft. The fecrets of the Most High are unfathomable to fhort-fighted mortals; but it would appear from what may be humbly learnt and inferred from this tranfaction, that our blessed Lord's temptation by Satan was a neceffary part in the divine economy towards accomplishing the redemption of mankind.

* Matth. iii, 16. 17. .

forne ruins of small cells and cottages, which we were told were formerly the habitations of hermits retiring hither for penance and mortification; and certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. On defcending from these hills of defolation into the plain, we foon came to the foot of Mount Quarrantania, which they fay is the mountain from whence the devil tempted our Saviour with that visionary scene of all the kingdoms and glories of this world. It is, as St. Matthew calls it, an exceeding high mountain, and in its afcent difficult and dangerous. It has a fmall chappel at the top, and another about half way up, on a prominent part of a rock. Near this latter are feveral caves and holes in the fides of the mountain, made ufe of anciently by hermits, and by fome at this day for places to keep their Lent in, in imitation of that of our bleffed Saviour."*

This was a theatre perfectly proper for the prince of the fallen angels to act his part upon, and perfectly well fuited to his dark malignant purposes.

Here then after our Saviour (as Mofes and Elijah had done before him) had endured a long abftinence from food, the devil abruptly and artfully affailed him with a temptation well calculated to produce a powerful effect on a perfon faint and worn out with fafting. "If thou be the Son of God, command that these ftones be made bread." But our Saviour repelled this infidious advice, by quoting the words of Mofes to the Ifraelites in the wilderness, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."+ That is, he that brought me into this wilderness, and fubjected me to these trials, can fupport me under the preffure of hunger, by a variety of means, befides the common one of bread, just as he fed the Ifraelites in the wilderness with manna, with food from heaven. I will therefore rather choose to rely on his gracious providence for my fupport in this exigency, than work a miracle myself for the fupply of my wants.

This anfwer was perfectly conformable to the principle on which our Lord acted throughout the whole of his ministry. Deut. viii. 3. Matth. iv. 4.

• Maundrell.