forfeited by the fall of Adam, and the just judgment of God had driven us from that scene of happiness into the world, as into a barren and desolate wilderness. In the second Adam, we see things working backward again to Paradise and the Tree of Life. He, as our representative, takes our nature, with all the disadvantages of its situation, and places himself in a wilderness, where sin had placed us. But as the dispensations of God are found to accord in a wonderful manner with one another, this circumstance of the place has respect to the temptation of the Israelites; who, after their baptism in the Red Sea, were proved in the wilderness, and fell there, without reaching to Jordan, and the borders of Canaan. Christ, therefore, being baptised in Jordan, goes thence to be proved in the wilderness; returning as it were to meet the trial over again, and defeat the adversary where the strength of his people had failed them*. To this place, a desolate howling wilderness, the spirit led him, in absolute solitude, without either meat or drink to support him, there to spend many days and nights, among the wild beasts, at the hourly hazard of his life; and to be tempted of the Devil, more cruel as well as more subtle than every beast of the field. What was the temptation of Adam or of Israel when compared with this? The introduction to the temptation of Christ, the prospect at *Commentators are not agreed about the particular wilderness here intended; whether it were the same in which the Baptist was prepared for his ministry, and which might be beyond Jordan; as the place also was in which he first exercised his baptism; or whether it were some other more remote: but however this may be, the words of Grotius are worth observing-Complementum hoc erat veteris figure; nam et populus Israel per salitudinem ductus. Sea Poli Synops. in loc. + Mark i. 13. the first entrance, would have blasted the courage of any other man, and have terrified him out of his senses. V. But we are now to apply such light as the Scripture affords us with regard to the circumstance of his fasting, and the particular period or duration of it-when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. Though nothing is here related to us by St. Matthew, but that Christ fasted forty days and forty nights, yet we learn from the account of St. Luke, that during these forty days, he was tempted of the Devil: but as to the kind and quality of the temptations then presented to him, whether sensual or intellectual, visible or invisible, the Scripture is silent; such only being published as happened at the end of forty days, and which are more expedient for us to know. It is scarcely to be imagined that the tempter would be idle himself, or permit Christ to remain unmolested in his solitude, even for a single day but the passages are omitted, either as being too copious and superfluous in themselves, or dangerous for us to be acquainted with, or above the reach of our capacity to understand. During all this time, he fasted; mortifying the body, and bringing it into subjection, that it might obey the dictates of the Spirit. When the bodily appetites are gratified, the intellectual faculties are not at liberty to be influenced by the spirit of God. He only who can endure hardness, and can practise it by choice, will be able to endure temptation. To this rule Christ himself submitted: as to baptism, for the obtaining of the Spirit, so to fasting, that he might concur with the motions of the Spirit: and it was proper also upon another account; for the act of eating having given occasion to the fall of man, it was natural that the Redeemer should undertake to reverse our condemnation, by the opposite practice of fasting, and mortification. VI. Concerning the period of forty days, the words of St. Luke seem to imply, that it refers to some other transaction of the Scripture, as a counter-part and accomplishment; and that this precise time of forty days, rather than any other, was proper to the occasion. He says, when the days were ended, or, as the Greek will bear, "when the days were fulfilled;" the word being the same as in that passage of St. Mark, "what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?" But I lay no great stress upon the word: for whether the expression of the Evangelist implies it or not, the period of forty days doth certainly connect this transaction with many others in the sacred history; and there is reason to suppose, that the period itself was derived from some very early occasion. After revolving it long in my thoughts, I would propose the following conjecture to those who are skilful in the Scripture; namely, that the first man spent forty days in Paradise, and that in this period he was tempted, fell into sin by eating the forbidden fruit, and forfeited the Tree of Life, with the inheritance of immortality. If this be supposed, the period of forty days will occur naturally in other transactions, and particularly in this of our Saviour's temptation, which is evidently founded on the temptation and fall of the first Adam. The curse brought upon the world by the flood, and occasioned by the Sin committed in Paradise*, was forty days in the execution; for so long the rains were descending, and the great deep emptying itself upon the earth's sur *See Gen. v. 29. face; that the sin and its history might be recognized in the punishment. When the Israelites searched the land of Canaan, that second paradise, which was to be the reward of their probation in the wilderness, they had a foretaste of it for forty days*; and the people who murmured at the evil report of the faithless Spies, were condemned to wander forty years in the wilderness, a year for a day: so that this penance symbolizes again with the curse which was consequent to the loss of Paradise. Under the ministry of the prophet Jonah, the space of forty days was allowed to the Ninevites, as an interval, in which they might have opportunity of averting the divine judgment by repentance and fasting. Moses spent forty days and forty nights upon the mount, when he received the tables of the law, from the hand of God: and the same act was repeated, on occasion of the tables which were broken. During his continuance in the mount, he did neither eat bread nor drink water; and his fast was observed in a wilderness. Elijah also, when he fled out of Judæa, crossed the river Jordan, and fasted forty days and forty nights in that wilderness wherein mount Horeb stood; where Moses had twice fasted for forty days, and where the Israelites were led about in a state of penance for forty years. This general agreement on so many occasions concerning the period of forty days, might probably be derived from the original I have supposed; but however that may be, it could not happen by chance; and therefore it might well be said, when Christ had fasted forty days, that the days were fulfilled; this period, according to the abundant testimony of the * Numb. xiv. 33, 34. Scripture, being more suitable to the occasion than any other. As he suffered and rose again on the third day, according to the Scripture, so he fasted forty days according to the same Scripture: and the example of Moses, independent of every other testimony, would have been thought sufficient to prove this, in the opinion of many good judges, both ancient and modern. VII. The hunger, which arose in our blessed Lord, when the forty days were expired, prepared the way for the first temptation which the Scripture hath recorded: so that the history, now descending to particulars, begins where Satan began with Eve in Paradise, namely, with a persuasion to eat; and on such principles as were contrary to the will of God. The tempter came to him and said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. The Devil is called the tempter at his first appearance, and had acquired the title by many acts, especially by one, prior to the present occasion. The same Spirit had found his way into Paradise, to seduce the parents of the human race, in the character of the Serpent, the only name under which we hear of him in the Book of Genesis. But in the Book of Revelation, the figurative and the proper names are applied to the same agent; and being taken together, the person intended by them is sufficiently ascertained-He laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years*. Under his ancient character, and upon the same business which first brought him into the world, he presents himself to Christ in his solitude, and makes his attempt in a personal conversation, as at first in * Chap. xx. |
