posing his suggestions in a personal conversation-The tempter came to him and said, If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In this, Christ is persuaded, to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, by unlawful means, and to labour for the meat that perisheth, instead of that which endureth to everlasting life. His reasoning is to this purpose; "if thou be the "Son of God, thou canst not want power "and interest sufficient to obtain bread for "the satisfying of thy hunger. No Father,

even amongst men, if his Son ask bread, "will give him a stone instead of it: there"fore these stones at thy command will be "turned into bread; provided thou really art, "what the voice from heaven hath declared "thee to be, the Son of God; and also that "thou art in want of bread; of which there "can be no doubt after such a course of ab"stinence." This reasoning is plausible, and seems inoffensive: but the evil tendency of it is made to appear by the answer it received"It is written, man shall not live by bread "alone, but by every word that proceedeth "out of the mouth of God." Christ, in his (necessity, is tempted by Satan to distrust the care of God, and to take thought for his life,

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what he should eat. The bread which he persuaded Christ to provide by a miracle was not the true bread, but that food of the body, which is the primary object to those whose affections are not set upon God. Our first care should be to secure that which endureth to everlasting life; and then the care of God, according to his word, will be engaged to provide the other, or to put us in a way of providing it, by some lawful means. When he led the Israelites into the wilderness, he provided that food by a miracle, which could not be provided by the ordinary means: when he sends us forth into the world upon our duty, he gives his promise, that he will never leave us nor forsake us. (And by the same rule, the emptiness of the wilderness could not leave Christ unprovided, when he had placed himself there by the direction of God.) Therefore he answers, "Man shall not live by "bread alone, but by every word that pro

ceedeth out of the mouth of God. They "who can believe, that this bread is of so "much importance as you would persuade "them, will not long be innocent; and as

soon as they attempt to procure it in your way, they will be guilty." If Eve had made a like answer, the world had never been N 3 lost.

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lost. To her the Devil offered an inferior sort of bread, when the food of immortality was at hand. The Tree of Life grew in the same garden with the Tree of Knowledge; but it was provided for the spiritual appetite; and the Tempter succeeded by adapting his Temptation to the carnal.

X. On another occasion, the Israelites were tempted in like manner to lust after evil things. When they were suffered to hunger (as Moses reminded them) they murmured against their leaders, and wished to partake once more of the bread of Egypt. In this time of their necessity, they were supplied with bread from Heaven; that very food to which our Saviour referred in these wordsHe fed thee with Manna, that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. (For Eve in Paradise the Tree of Life was provided: these Israelites in the wilderness were fed with Manna from Heaven in each of these cases there was a provision of supernatural and heavenly nourishment; but in each it was rejected, and the preference given to another sort of diet

• Exod. xvi. 3

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which was attended with servility and misery in Egypt, and with spiritual death in Paradise.

When Christ was an hungred in the wilder ness, a method was proposed to him, whereby he also might have fallen after the same examples of unbelief: but this, instead of se ducing him, as it had succeeded before, gave him occasion to reverse the sin of man by making a contrary choice: and thus the Devil was taken in his own snare.

XI. The next attempt of the adversary, is to make Christ assume his own character, that of a tempter, even a tempter of God: a character which argues the highest degree of presumption, and is peculiarly odious, because it is defiled with the wickedness of the Devil; who, being a spirit, can be guilty only of spiritual wickedness. Then the Devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and saith unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, he shall give his Angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. By this we discover, that the Devil is acquainted with the Scripture, and can reason from it with a malignant N 4

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gravity, to serve his own wicked purposes. We think it a sign of godliness, if a man is diligent in turning over the Bible. But certainly, this rule is not to be relied upon, because it hath been perused by the Devil, the father of all mischief; and it hath always been applied to, and now is, by many, with the spirit of the Devil; a Spirit which turns the Scripture against its own Truth; using it as an engine accommodated to all the designs and doctrines of darkness. He that would deceive a Christian, must do it with a Bible in his hand. Therefore Satan, whose office it is to deceive, hath been careful not to neglect the reading of the Scripture: but he who listens to it when thus perverted, hath the means of his Salvation turned into the instruments of his destruction; and is in that fearful state, wherein the things that should have been for his wealth, become an occasion of falling.

XII. If we examine how the Devil accommodates the Scripture to his own purposes, we shall gain some insight into the mystery of iniquity, and the working of Antichrist. He gives a literal interpretation of a figurative passage; which ought to teach us, whence the literal interpretation of such Scriptures is

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