All his miracles were wrought for the benefit of others, not qne for his own gratification. Though he endured hun. ger and thirft, and indigence and fatigue, and all the other evils of a laborious and an itinerant life, yet he never once relieved himself from any of these inconveniences, or pro cured a fingle comfort to himself by the working of miracles. Thefe were all appropriated to the grand object of proving the truth of his religion and the reality of his divine miffion, and he never applied them to any other purpose. And in this, as in all other cafes, he acted with the most perfect wifdom; for had he always or often delivered himself from the fafferings and the diftreffes incident to human nature by the exertions of his miraculous powers, the benefit of his example would have been in a great measure lost to mankind, and it would have been of little use to us, that he was in all things tempted like as we are*, because he would have been fupported and fuccoured as we cannot expect to be.

Having thus led to work upon one of the strongest of the fenfual appetites, hunger, the tempter's next application was to a different paffion, but one which, in fome minds, is extremely powerful, and often leads to great folly and guilt, I mean vanity and felf-importance. "He taketh our Lord into the holy city, and fetteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and faith unto him, if thou be the Son of God caft thyfelf down for it is written, he fhall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they will bear thee up, left at any time thou dafh thy foot against a ftonet."

The place where our Saviour now stood was on a pinnacle, or rather on a wing of the magnificent temple of Jerufalem, from whence there was a view of the vaft concourfe of people who were worshipping in the area below. In this fituation the feducer flattered himfelf that our Saviour, indignant at the doubts which he artfully expreffed of his being the Son of God, would be eager to give him and all the multitude that beheld them a moft convincing proof that he was fo, by cafting himfelf from the height on which he stood into the court below, accompanied all the way as he descended by an illuftrious hoft of angels, anxiously guarding his per

* Heb, iv. 15. † Matth. iv. 5, 6.

fon from all danger, and plainly manifefting by their folia citude to protect and to preserve him, that they had a most invaluable treasure committed to their care, and that he was in truth the beloved Son of God, the peculiar favorite of heaven.

To a vain-glorious mind nothing could have been more gratifying, more flattering, than fuch a propofal as this ; more especially as fo magnificent a fpectacle in the fight of all the Jews would probably have induced them to receive him as their Meffiah, whom it is well known they expected to defcend visibly from heaven in fome fuch triumphant manner as this.

But on the humble mind of Jefus all this had no effect.--To him who never affected parade or fhew, who never courted admiration or applause, who kept himself as quiet and as retired as the nature of his miffion would allow, and frequently withdrew from the multitudes that flocked around him, to deferts and to mountains, to him this temptation carried no force; his answer was, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;" thou fhalt not rufh into unnecessary danger in order to tempt God, in order to try whether he will interpofe to fave thee in a miraculous manner; much lefs ought this to be done as now propofed for the purposes of vanity and oftentation.

The next temptation is thus described by St. Matthew:

Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and fheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and faith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

It has been thought an infuperable difficulty to conceive how Satan could from any mountain however elevated, fhew to our Saviour all the kingdoms of the earth, and the glory of them. And even they who defend the literal fense of the transaction in general, yet have recourse to a vifionary representation in this particular inftance. But there seems to me no neceffity for calling in the help of a vision Matth. iv, 8, 9.

even here. The Evangelift defcribes the mountain of which Chrift was placed as an exceeding high one; and the traveller* to whom I before referred, describes it in the fame terms. From thence of courfe there must have been a very extenfive view; and accordingly another writer, the Abbè Mariti, in his travels through Cyprus, &c. fpeaking of this mountain, fays, "Here we enjoyed the most beautiful profpect imaginable. This part of the mountain overlooks the mountains of Arabia, the country of Gilead, the country of the Ammonites, the plains of Moab, the plain of Jericho, the river Jordan, and the whole extent of the Dead fea." These various domains the tempter might fhew to our Lord diftinctly, and might also at the fame time point out (for fo the original word deiknumi fometimes fignifies) and direct our Lord's eye towards feveral other regions that lay beyond them, which might comprehend all the principal kingdoms of the eastern world. And he might then properly enough fay, "all these kingdoms which you now fee, or towards which I now point, will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." This explanation appears to me an easy and a natural one. But if others think differ ently, it is fufficient to fay, that this particular incident is not more extraordinary than almost every other part of this very fingular tranfaction; throughout the whole of which the devil appears to have been permitted to exercise a power far beyond what naturally belonged to him.

But whatever we may decide on this point, the nature and magnitude of the temptation are evident. It is no lefsthan an offer of kingdoms, with all their glory; all the honors, power, rank, wealth, grandeur, and magnificence, that this world has to give.. But all thefe put together could not for one moment fhake the firm mind of our divine Mafter, or feduce him from the duty he owed to God. He rejected with abhorrence the impious propofition made to him, and anfwered with a proper indignation, in the words of fcripture," Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, thou fhalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve. Upon this we are told that the, devil left him, and that angels came and miniftered unto him.

* Maundrell.

Matth, iv. 10, II.

Thus ended this memorable fcene of Chrift's temptation in the wilderness. The reafons of it refpecting our Lord have been already explained; the inftructions it furnishes to ourselves are principally these :

1. It teaches us, that even the best of men may fometimes be permitted to fall into great temptations, for we fee that our blessed Lord himself was expofed to the severest. They are not therefore to be confidered as marks of God's displeasure or desertion of us, but only as trials of our virtue ; as means of proving (as Mofes tells the Ifraelites) what is in our hearts, whether we will keep God's commandments or no; as opportunities gracioufly afforded us to demonstrate our fincerity, our fortitude, our integrity, our unshaken allegiance and fidelity to the great Ruler of the world.

2. Whenever we are thus brought into temptation, we have every reason to hope for the divine affiftance to extricate us from danger. We have the example of our blessed Lord to encourage us. We fee the great Captain of our falvation affaulted by all the art and all the power of Satan, and yet rising fuperior to all his efforts. We fee him going before us in the paths of virtue and of glory, and calling upon us to follow him. Though he was led by the spirit of God himself into the wilderness in order to be tempted, yet the fame divine fpirit accompanied and fupported him throughout the whole of his bitter conflict, and enabled him to triumph over his infernal adverfary. To the fame heavenly spirit we also may look for deliverance. If we implore God in fervent prayer to fend him to us, he will affuredly grant our petition. He will not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation alfo make a way to escape (when we ourselves cannot find one) that we may be able to bear it.t

3. We may learn from the conduct of our Lord under this great trial, that when temptations affail us we are not to parley or to reafon with them, to hefitate and deliberate whether we shall give way to them or not, but muft at once repel them with firmnefs and with vigour, and oppofe to Cor. x. 13.

Deut. viii. 2.

the dictates of our paffions the plain and pofitive commands of God in his holy word. We must say refolutely to the tempter, as our Lord did, "Get thee hence, Satan,"* and he will inftantly flee from us, as he did from him.

4. It is a moft folid confolation to us under fuch contefts as thefe, that if we honeftly exert our utmost efforts to vanquifh the enemies of our falvation, most humbly and devoutly foliciting at the fame time the influences of divine grace to aid our weak endeavours, the unavoidable errors and imperfections of our nature will not be afcribed to us, nor will God be extreme to mark every thing that is done amifs; for we fhall not be judged by one who has no feel ing of our infirmities, but by one who knows and who pities them, who was himself in all things tempted like as we are, yet without fint, and who will therefore make all due allowances for our involuntary failings, though none for our wilful tranfgreffions.

5. And lastly, in the various allurements prefented to our Lord, we fee but too faithful a picture of those we are to expect ourselves in our progress through life. Our Lord's temptations were, as we have feen, fenfual gratifications, incitements to vanity and oftentation, and the charms of wealth, power, rank, and fplendour. All thefe will in the different stages of our existence fucceffively rise up to feduce us, to oppofe our progress to heaven, and bring us into captivity to fin and mifery. Pleafure, intereft, bufinefs, honour, glory, fame, all the follies and all the corruptions of the world, will each in their turn affault our feeble nature; and through these we muft manfully fight our way to the great end we have in view. But the difficulty and the pain of this conteft will be confiderably leffened by a refolute and vigorous exertion of our powers and our resources at our first setting out in life. It was immediately after his baptifm, and at the very beginning of his miniftry, that our Lord was expofed to all the power and all the artifices of the devil, and completely triumphing over both, effectually fecured himself from all future attempts of that implacable enemy. In the fame manner it is on our first set+ Heb. iv. 15:

Matth. iv. 10.