[1.] By transportations, or carrying them from one place to another, which usually is not found but in those that give up themselves to his diabolical enchantments. Or,
[2.] In possessions, which were frequent and rife in Christ's time : ' My daughter is sorely vexed with a devil,' Mat. xv. 22. Or,
[3.] In diseases, which is more common. Thus he afflicted Job's body with ulcers ; and what we read, Ps. xli. 8, ' An evil disease
cleaveth fast unto him.' It is bjk^^_^^-151 ' a thing of Belial,' as if it
were a pestilential disease from the devil. So some understand that, Ps. xci. 3, ' Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.' As if those sudden darts of venom by which we are stricken in the plague came from Satan. Cer- tainly evil angels may have a great hand in our diseases : Ps. Ixxviii. 49, ' He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indig- nation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.' But I press it not much. Only,
(1.) A word of patience, that we would submit to God, though our trials be never so sharp. We must yield to that measure of humilia- tion which it shall please God to preiscribe. If he should give leave to Satan to inflame our blood and trouble the humours of our body, we must not repine ; the Son of God permitted his sacred body to be transported by the devil in the air.
(2.) A word of comfort. Wiiatever power God permitteth Satan to have over our bodies, or bodily interests, yet it is limited ; he cannot hurt or molest any further than God pleaseth. He had power to set Christ on a pinnacle of the temple, but not to cast him down. He had a power to touch Job's skin, but a charge not to endanger his
282 chkist's temptation. [Ser. III.
life : Job ii. 6, ' Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.' God sets bounds and limits to the malice of Satan, that he is not able to compass all his designs. Job was to be exercised, but God would not have him die in a cloud, his life was to be secured till better times.
(3.) A word of caution. Let not the devil make an advantage of those troubles which he bringeth upon our bodies, or the interests of the bodily life, yet let him not thereby draw you to sin. Here the devil may set Christ upon a precipice, but he can do him no further hurt ; he may persuade us to cast down ourselves, but he cannot cast us down unless we cast down ourselves, Nemo Iccditur nisi a seipso. His main spite is at your souls, to involve you in sin. God may give him and his instruments a power over your bodily lives, but he doth not give him a power over the graces of the saints. The devil aimeth at the destruction of souls ; he can let men enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, that he may deprive you of delight in God and celestial pleasures ; he can be content that you shall have dignities and honours if they prove a snare to you. If the devil seek to bring you to poverty, trouble, and nakedness, it is to draw you from God. He careth not for the body but as it may be an occasion to ruin the soul.
3. Observe, If Satan lead us up, it is to throw us down. He taketh up Christ to the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, * Cast thyself down.' He bringeth up many by little and little to some high place, that by their aspiring they may at length break their necks. Thus he did Haman, and so he doth many others, whose climbing maketh way for their greater fall. The devil himself was an aspirer, and fell from heaven like lightning : Luke x, 18, ' I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven/ And though in show he may seem to befriend many that hearken to his temptations, yet in the end he crieth, ' Down with them, down with them, even to the ground.' God's manner is quite contrary ; when he meaneth to exalt a man, he will first humble him, and make him low : Mat. xxiii. 12, ' Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.' But the devil's way is to lift them up to the clouds, that he may bring them down to the lowest pit of destruction. Adam, in conceit, must be like God, that indeed he may be like the beasts that perish : Ps. xlix. 20, ' Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.'
4. Observe, ' If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.' The temptation is quite contrary to what it was before. Then it was to preserve life by unlawful means, now to endanger life by the neglect of means lawful ; there to distrust God's care of our preservation when he hath set us about any task or work, here to presume on his care without warrant. The devil tempts us sometimes to pamper the flesh, sometimes to neglect it in snch a way as is destructive to our service. Thus the devil hurrieth us from one extreme to another, as the possessed man ' fell oft-times into the fire, and oft into the water,' Mat. xvii. 15. Those that are guided by Satan reel from one ex- tremity to another ; either men slight sin and make light of it, or sinners are apt to sorrow above measure, as the incestuous Corinthian : 2 Cor. ii. 17, * Lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.' And the apostle showeth there that these were the