2. The devil tempts us to evil of every kind, and lays snares for us, even in our best actions. Satan, having access to the sensorium, lays inducements before the minds of men to solicit them to sin (1 Cor. vii, 5; 1 Thess. iii, 5; James i, 13, 14). Hence Satan is called that old serpent, the devil, and "the tempter" (Kev. xii, 9; jMatt. iv, 3), and the temptation of our first parents to sin is expressly recognised as the work of the devil (Gen. iii, 1-15; John viii, 44; 2 Cor. xi, 3; 1 John iii, 8). He tempted our Saviour in the wilderness, and en- deavored to infuse into him sentiments of pride, ambi- tion, and distrust (Matt, iv, 1 ; ^Mark i, 13; Luke iv, 2). He tempted Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy (ihost (Acts V, 3). In the prayer that Christ himself has taught us, we pray God '-to lead us not into temp- tation" (Matt, vi, 13); and a little before his death, our Saviour exhorted his disciples to " watch and pray, that they might not enter into temptation" (xxvi, 41). Paul says, " God will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear" (1 Cor. x, 13).
3. Men are said to tempt the Lord when they unsea- sonably require proofs of the divine presence, power, or goodness. Without doubt, we are allowed to seek the Lord for his assistance, and to pray him to give us what we need ; but it is not allowed us to tempt him, nor to expose ourselves to dangers from which we cannot es- cape unless by miraculous interposition of his omnipo- tence. God is not obliged to work miracles in our favor; he requires of us oidy the performance of such actions as are within the ordinary measures of our strength. The Israelites in the desert repeatedly tempted the Lord, as if they had reason to doubt his presence among them, or his goodness, or his power, after all his ap- pearances in their favor (Exod. xvi, 2, 7, 17 ; Numb. XX, 12; Psa. Ixxviii, 18, 41, etc.).
4. Men tempt or try one another when they would know whether things are really what they seem to be, whether men are such as they are thought or desired to be. The queen of Sheba came to prove the wisdom of Solomon by proposing riddles for him to explain (1 Kings xi, 1; 2 Chron. ix, 1). Daniel desired of him who had the care of feeding him and his companions to prove them for some days whether abstinence from food of certain kinds would make them leaner (Dan. i, 12, 14). The scribes and Pharisees often tempted our Saviour, and endeavored to decoy him into their snares (Matt. xvi, 1; xix, 3; xxii, 18). — Calmet.
Temptation (HS'C, wetpaafKuj, lioth meaning tri- al), ill the modern usage of the term, is the enticement of a person to commit sin by offering some seeming ad- vantage. There are four things, says one, in tempta- tion—(1) deception, (2) infection, (3) seduction, (4) per- dition. The sources of temptation are Satan, the world, and the flesh. We are exposed to them in everv state, in every place, and in every time of life. They may be
wisely permitted to show us our w-eakness, to try our faith, to promote our humility, and to teach us to place our dependence on a superior Power; yet we must not run into them, but watcli and [tray ; avoid sinfid cora- jiaiiy; consider the love, sufferings, and constancy of Christ, and the awful consequences of falling a victim to temptation. The following rules have been laid down, by which we may in some measure know when a temptation comes from Satan : 1. When the temp- tation is unnatural, or contrnry to the general bias or teni|)er of our minds; 2. When it is opposite to the present frame of the mind; 3. When the tempta- tion itself is irrational, being contrary to whatever we could imagine our own minds would suggest to us; 4. When a temptation is detested in its first rising and appearance; 5. Lastly, when it is violent. See Brooks, Owen, Gilpin, Capel, and Gillespie on Temp- tation; South, Seren /Sc'?-mo)is on Tcyiipfdtion, in vol. vi oi' h\s Sermons ; Pike and Hay ward. Cases of Con- science ; and BislK^p Porteus, Sermons, vol. i, ser. 3 and 4.— Buck.
TEIMPTATION of Christ. Immediately after the inauguration of his ministry, Jesus was led np of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; and after enduring for forty days the general assault of Satan, he suffered three special solicitations, which are recited in detail (Matt, iv, 1-11; Mark i, 12, 13; Luke iv, 1-13). See Jksus Ciikist.
I. Particulars and Drift of the Trial. — In the first temptation the Pedeemer is ahungered, and when the devil bids him, if he be the Son of God, command that the stones maj' be made bread, there would seem to be no great sin in this use of divine power to overcome the pressing human w^ant. Our Lord's answer is required to show us where the essence of the temptation lay. He takes the words of Moses to the children of Israel (Dent, viii, 3), which mean, not that men must dispense with bread and feed only on the study of the Divine Word, but that our meat and drink, our food and rai- ment, are all the work of the creating hand of God, and that a sense of dependence on God is the duty of man. He tells the tempter that as the sons of Israel standing in the wilderness were forced to humble themselves and to wait upon the hand of God for the bread from heaven which he gave them, so the Son of man, fainting in the wilderness from hunger, will be humble and will wait upon his Father in heaven for the M'oril that shall bring him food, and will not be hasty to deliver liim- self from that dependent state, but will wait patiently for the gifts of his goodness.