[2.] Be firmly persuaded of God's care and providence over his people, and so careth for you in particular. This is assured to us by ])romises and by experiences. By promises : 1 Pet. v, 7, ' Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you ; ' Phil. iv. 6, 7, ' Be careful for nothing: but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God ; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.' By experiences : Mat. xvi. 8, 9, '0 ye of little faith ! why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread ? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember
Mat. IV. 8, 9.] Christ's temptation. 301
the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?' Christ was angry with his disciples, that they should be troubled about bread, since they had lately such experience of his power to provide bread at pleasure. Use the means God puts into your hands, and refer the success to him. You need not be anxious about anything in this world.
[3.] Let all this produce in you an holy obstinacy of trust and obedience, or an invincible confidence in God, and close adherence to him, whatever your dangers, straits, and extremities be, and this will guard your heart against all tempting of God : —
(1.) A resolute trust and dependence : Job xiii. 15, * Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.^ This is the soul that is prepared to be true to God, and contentedly to bear whatever he sendeth.
(2.) A constant adherence to our duty: 'Wait on the Lord, and keep his way,' Ps. xxxvii. 34. Do not go one step out of God's way for all the good in the world. The greatest extremities are to be borne rather than the least sin yielded to : Dan. iii. 17, 18, ' Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace ; and he will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee, 0 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.' Please God, and God will be always with you, when you seem to be left destitute : John viii. 29, ' And he that sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone ; for I do always those things that please him.'
SERMON V.
Again, the devil tal'eth him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the ii'orld,and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and loorship me. — Mat. IV. 8, 9.
This is the third temptation. In handling it I shall use the former method, give you the history of the temptation, and observations thereupon.
In the history. I. The introduction, ver. 8.
II. The temptation itself, with the grievousness of it, ver. 9. III. Christ's reply, ver. 10. First, In the introduction we have —
1. The place the devil taketh him unto: an exceeding high mountain.
2. The fact : he shoiceth him all the kingdoms of the world, aiid the glory of them.
1. The place chosen for the conflict, * an exceeding high moun- tain.' For the mountain, the scripture would not name it, and we need not anxiously inquire after it, whether any near Jericho, as some say, or as others, some mountain near Jerusalem ; and possibly the
302 CHRIST'S TEMPTATION. [SeR. V.
hio-hest above the rest was chosen by the tempter. The pinnacle of the temple was not proper, because Jerusalem was surrounded with higher mountains on all sides : Ps. cxxv. 2, ' As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,' &c. He chose an high mountain, because of the fairer prospect, where the horizon might be as spacious as was possible, and the sight not hindered by any interposing object. God took Moses into Mount Pisgah, and showed him the land of Canaan, Deut. xxxiv. 1. The devil, who affecteth to do in evil as God doth in what is good, taketh Christ into a mountain. He leadeth us high, and promiseth us high things, that suiteth with his disposition ; but it endeth in a downfall that suiteth with his condition. The close is still ' cast thyself down,' or else, as here, ' fall dovm and worship me.' The devil's taking him up thither is to be explained the same way with his taking him up to the pinnacle of the temple.
2. The fact, and ' showeth him all the kingcfoms of the world, and the glory of them.' But how could the devil from one moun- tain show him all the kingdoms of the world, when there is none so high as that we can see the latitude of one kingdom, much less through all, partly through the unequal swellings of the earth, and partly through the weakness of the eye, which cannot reach so far ? The sight could go no further than the horizon, and the other hemisphere is not to be seen at all ; that part which w^e see is much less than that part which we see not. Therefore how could he show him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory thereof ? Ans. These words must not be taken rigorously ; but that he showed them : — (1.) In compendio. (2.) In speculo, (3.) In colloquio.