the Garden of Eden. Under what figure he appeared, it is not very material for us to know, and it would be fruitless to enquire. It is much more for our purpose here to observe, that he doth not operate upon our Saviour by any internal suggestions, as upon other men, but by a discourse from without: and the reason of this is worth inquiring into.

VIII. When the nature of man was as yet uncorrupted by sin, the wicked Spirit had no immediate access to the heart, but was obliged to tempt Eve in the way of a personal conversation; as she also afterwards tempted Adam. But when his lies had taken effect, the condition of our nature was changed, and he who had spoken from without, acquired by the just permission of God the privilege of speaking from within. As the poison of the Serpent's mouth diffuses itself over the whole frame of man, and soon carries its effects to the vital parts; so did the power of the spiritual Serpent get possession of the heart, and of all that is within us, our thoughts, desires, and affections. He is styled, the Spirit that now worketh IN the Children of disobedience*; and that strong delusion, as it is called, with which they are visited who receive not the love of the truth, is, when more literally rendered, deceit working within them. To convince us of this mortifying fact, so inconsist ent with the presumed dignity of human nature, the bodies as well as the souls of men were delivered up to be agitated by evil Spirits; and Christ cast them out from the body in the presence of the multitude, to shew that he only can make us free, and restore us to the original immunities of our nature, by dislodg ing the Devil from his habitation in the heart and

* Το νυν ενεργεν. Εν τοις υιοις της απείθειας. Ephes. ii. 2. + Ενέργεια πλανης. 2 Thes. ii. 11.

affections. In one of the parables of our Lord, the same evil Spirit is signified by a strong man armed, who keepeth his palace, and his goods are in peace. The passions, converted into his domestics, become obedient to his word; and the will cannot resist him, so' long as it is insensible of his tyranny. Till a stronger than he comes upon him, he is unmolested in his dwelling for man doth not know, till revelation informs him of it, that he is infested by such an Usurper: and they who are but half-instructed in the principles of the Gospel, are too apt to be indifferent in their attention to the powerful operations of this infernal Agent, who is almost totally forgotten in some cold and barren exhortations to moral virtue independent of christian faith. Perhaps it may be thought low, impertinent, and discouraging, to be bringing in the agency of the Devil upon every occasion but it is to be feared, he hath most to do now, as of old in the heathen world, where he is least thought of. It is our duty, and will be found our greatest wisdom, to take the Christian system as we find it; to omit imaginary improvements, and to believe as the scripture directs; which informs us too plainly to be contradicted, that the Deceiver hath seated himself in the human heart, and hath gotten possession of our interior œconomy. And if the scripture had given us no other evidence, this one consideration would for ever satisfy me, that our nature is depraved, and that sin, from the fall of Adam, is original to the constitution of man, as certainly as that the captive of an Algerine renegado is not pos

*

This doctrine gave rise (how early I cannot find) to the cere mony of exorcism, which was performed in the primitive Church, together with the office of baptism, and that not only in the baptism of adults, but of infants. See Suicer under the word sopioμes.

sessed of the freedom of an Englishman; though I do not here stand to enquire how far the cases are parallel*.

IX. But that influence to which other men are subject, could not extend in like manner to the person of Christ. In him, we have another perfect man, untouched by the tempter, and upon the terms of the first Adam. To him therefore, as at first, the evil spirit makes his approaches from without, proposing 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: therefore these stones at thy command will be turned into bread; provided "thou really art, what the voice from heaven hath de"clared 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 abstinence." This reasoning is plausible, and seems inoffensive: but the

On the Text of Eph. ii. 2. Theophylact has this remark; oux είπε, τα αναγκαζον Θ, αλλα τε ενεργεντο οθεν δηλον ότι ἑκονίων αρχει· ενεργει εν τοις υιοις της απείθειας, τετέσι, τοις μη πειθομένοις μεν Θεώ, πειθομένοις δε Exeivw, ex avayxagoμsvors" He hath not said, of the Spirit which compelleth, but which worketh in the children of disobedience; whence it is manifest that Satan ruleth over voluntary subjects"-volentes per populos dat jura-and again-"He worketh in the children of disobedience, that is, in those who do not obey God, but obey him, without compulsion."

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, 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 proceedeth 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

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procure it in your way, they will be guilty." If Eve had made a like answer, the world had never been 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 words-He 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; which was attended with servility and misery in Egypt, and with spiritual death in Paradise.

When Christ was an hungered in the wilderness, a method was proposed to him, whereby he also might have fallen after the same examples of unbelief: but this, instead of seducing 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 pinnacie of the

*Exod. xvi. 3.