[2.] As he dealeth with us by promise. Everything we hope to get by sin is a kind of promise or offer of the devil to us ; as suppose by unconscionable dealing in our calling. Here consider two things : —
(1.) The falsity of the devil's promises.
(2.) The truth and stability of God's promises.
(1st.) The falsity of Satan's promises. Either he giveth not what he promised, as he promised our first parents to be as gods : Gen. iii. 5, ' Ye shall be as gods ; ' and what ensued? Ps. xlix. 12, 'Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish;' degraded to the beasts, as the brutish and bestial nature prevailed in. him when he fell from God. Or else, if we have them, we were better be without them ; we have them with a curse, with the loss of better things: Jer. xvii. 13, ' 0 Lord, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth.' They are condemned to this felicity : we have them with stings of con- science: — Mat. xxvii. 4, 5, 'I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood ; and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and went and hanged himself ; ' — which are most quick and sensible when we come to die : Jer. xvii. 11, ' He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.' Now rise up in indignation against the temptation. Shall I sell my birthright ? lose my fatness to rule over the trees ? — as the olive-tree in Jotham's parable, Judges ix. 9.
(2dly.) The sufficiency and stability of God's promises.
First, Sufficiency: Gen. xvii. 1, 'I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect ; ' 1 Tim. iv. 8, ' Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come ; ' — of heaven and of earth : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added to you.' It may be you have less than those that indulge themselves in all manner of shifts and wiles, but you shall have enough, not to be left wholly destitute : Heb. xiii. 5, ' He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' And you shall have it with contentment : Prov. xv\ (5, ' In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble ; ' and * better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with sin,' Prov. xvi. 8. And you have it so as not to lose other things.
Second! If, Stability : 2 Cor. i. 20, ' All the promises of God in him are Yea, and in him Amen ; ' and Heb. vi. 18, ' That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,' &c. ; Ps. cxix. Ill, ' Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: they are the rejoicing of my heart.'
IV. Observe — Fall doicn — The pride of the devil : he sinneth from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8. The sin of pride was fatal to him at first, and the cause of those chains of darkness in which now he is
Mat. IV. 10.] Christ's temptation. 313
held ; yet still he sinneth the same sin, he requireth adoration, and would be admitted into a partnership of divine worship. He obtained it from pagans and idolaters, not from Christ. The angel deprecates and detests it : Kev. xix. 10, * And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me. See thou do it not ; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus : worship thou God.' So Kev. xxii. 9, ' I fell down to worship before the face of the angel that showed me these things. And he said to me, See thou do it not : for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this book : worship God.' Paul, when the priests at Lycaonia were about to sacrifice to him : Acts xiv. 14, 15, ' When the apostles heard of it, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do you these things ? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God.' But the evil angels they are apt to invade the right of God.
SEKMON VI.
Then saith Jesus unto Mm, Get thee hence, Satan : for it is icritten^ Thou shalt ivorship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. — Mat. IV. 10.
Thirdly, Christ's answer and reply, which is double : —
I. By way of rebuke, defiance, and bitter reprehension : Get thee hence, Satan. II. By way of confutation : For it is icritten, &c. 1. The rebuke showeth Christ's indignation against idolatry: ' Get thee hence, Satan.' This was not to be endured. Twice Christ useth this form of speech, virwye Xarava, — to Satan tempting him to idola- try here, and when his servant dissuaded him from suffering : Mat. xvi. 23, ' Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offence to me ; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.' This suggestion intrenched or touched upon the glory of God, the other upon his love to mankind ; and Christ could endure neither; Satan is commanded out of his presence with indignation. The same zeal we see in his servants: in Moses in case of idolatr}', Exod. xxxii. 19, He brake the tables ; so in case of contradiction to the faith of Christ, Paul taketh up Elymas, Acts xiii. 10, ' 0 full of subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteous- ness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? ' Open blasphemy must be abhorred, and needeth not only a confutation but a rebuke. Besides, it was an impudent demand of Satan to require adoration from him, to whom adoration is due from every creature ; to ask him to bow down before him, to whom every knee must bow : and therefore a bold temptation must have a peremptory answer. There is no mincing in such cases. It is no way contrary to that lenity that was in Christ ; and it teacheth us, in such open cases