3. The time.
[1.] Presently after his baptism. Now the baptism of Christ agreeth with ours as to the general nature of it. Baptism is our initiation into the service of God, or our solemn consecration of our- selves to him ; and it doth not only imply work, but fight : Kom. vi. 13, ' Neither yield ye your members as instruments, oirXa, of un- righteousness unto sin : but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God ; ' and, Kom. xiii. 12, ' Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light,' Christ's baptism had the same general nature with ours, not the same special nature : the general nature is an engagement to God, the special use of baptism is to be a seal of the new covenant, or to be to us ' the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.' Now this Christ was not capable of, he had no sin to be repented of or remitted ; but his baptism was an engagement to the same military work to which we are engaged. He came into the world for that end and purpose, to war against sin and Satan ; he engageth as the general, we as the common soldiers. He as the general : 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, "va Xvcrr), that he might destroy the works of the devil.' His baptism was the taking of the field as general ; we undertake to fight under him in our rank and place.
[2.] At this baptismal engagement the Father had given him a testi- mony by a voice from heaven : ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;' and the Holy Ghost had descended upon him in the form of a dove, Mark iii. 16, 17. Now presently after this he is set upon by the tempter. Thus many times the children of God, after solemn assurances of his love, are exposed to great temptations. Of this you may see an instance in Abraham : Gen. xxii. 1, ' And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham;' that is, after he had assured Abraham that he was ' his shield, and his exceeding great reward,' and given him so many renewed testimonies of his favour. So Paul, after his rapture, ' lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given to him a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him,' 2 Cor. xii. 7. So Heb. X. 32, ' But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions ;' i.e., after ye were fully convinced of the Christian faith, and furnished with those virtues and graces that belong to it. God's conduct is gentle, and proportioned to our strength, as Jacob drove as the little ones were able to bear it. He never suffers his castles to be besieged till they are victualled.
[3.] Immediately before he entered upon his prophetical office.
Mat. IV. 1.] Christ's temptation. 261
Experience of temptations fits for the ministry, as Christ's temptations prepared him to set a-foot the kingdom of God, for the recovery of poor souls out of their bondage into the liberty of the children of God : ver. 17, * From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Kepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Our state of inno- cency was our health, the grace of the Redeemer our medicine, Christ our physician ; for the devil had poisoned our human nature. There- fore, when he sets a-foot his healing cure, it was fit and congruous that he should experimentally feel the power of the tempter, and in what manner he doth assault and endanger souls : Christ also would show us that ministers should not only be men of science, but of experience.
[4.] The place or field where this combat was fought, the wilderness, where were none but wild beasts: Mark i. 13, ' And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts ; and the angels ministered unto him.' Great question there is in what wilderness Christ was ; their opinion is most probable who think it was the great wilderness, called the desert of Arabia, in which the Israelites wandered forty years, and in which Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights. In this solitary place Satan tried his utmost power against our Saviour,
This teacheth us : —
(1.) That Christ alone grappled with Satan, having no fellow- worker with him, that we may know the strength of our Redeemer, who is able himself lo overcome the tempter without any assistance, and to ' save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him,' Heb. vii. 25.
(2.) That the devil often abuseth our solitude. It is good sometimes to be alone ; but then we need to be stocked with holy thoughts or employed in holy exercises, that we may be able to say, as Christ, John xvi. 32, ' I am not alone, because the Father is with me.' Howsoever a state of retirement from human converse, if it be not necessary, exposeth us to temptations ; but if we are cast upon it, we must expect God's presence and help.