SERM..

no Food by any ordinary Supply: and what XIII, "avails thy extraordinary Power, if thou "doeft not, or mayeft not, make Ufe of it

now, at fuch a Time, for thy own Relief? Nor think a Miracle ill beftowed, "because laid out upon thy bodily ProvifiСС on: For who was ever fuffered to wan"der here, without the Expence of Mira"cles to fuftain them? Were not the Hea

vens opened daily for forty Years together to rain Bread upon the Ifraelites; and were not the Rocks obliged to yield forth "Water to find them with Drink? When only Elijah, a fingle Prophet, had under

gone the Abftinence of one Day only in "this defolate Place, an Angel dispatched "from Heaven to comfort him, provided "him thou knoweft a Cake ready baken, and

a Crufe ready filled, and carefully ftood by him till he had twice eat and drank, and was fufficiently refreshed, 1 Kings xix. 4,

&c. Nay even the rejected Hagar and her "Son, though Outcafts from the House and "Family of the Faithful, and that by God's "efpecial Command; yet were not so far "forgotten by Providence, but that when "they were in the Wilderness, deftitute and "forlorn, the Angel of GoD purposely de

"fcends

"fcends to nourish and sustain them.

How SER M.
XIII.

"is it then that thou, who art far from be

ing an Outcaft, who art not only of the Family and Houfhold of Faith, but alfo "art the very Object of their Faith, the Cen<< ter of all their Confidence and Truft; "that thou, who art not only a Prophet, but the Sum and Completion of all the Prophets before thee; that art not only of Ifrael, the chofen and favourite People of "GOD, but haft lately been proclaimed be

yond them all, his beloved Son in whom he "is pleafed; How comes it that thou only, " with all these Characters, art neglected "and left alone in this defolate Place, and "in fuch Extremity of Hunger and Want? "Is not this a Sign that thy Father thinks "thee fufficiently able to provide for thy"felf? And therefore if thou art truly the "Son of GOD, and art endued with a Power, equal to what that Title implies; it concerns thee to exert and make Ufe of "it now, when thou feeft thou must look "for no farther Help from him."

In fome fuch Terms as thefe, or the like, we may suppose the Devil to have couched and disguised the Bait he laid for our Blessed Lord, the Subject of which only the EvanDd 4

gelifts

XIII.

SERM. gelifts exprefs, and that in general Terms. But by thus covering and gilding his Design, the crafty Devil might imagine that he should bring our Saviour either into a Doubt of the Divine Power invested in him; or else to prefume upon it, to provide for himself, from a Distrust of his Father's Providence over him, and not to wait till he in his good and proper Time should fend him a Supply. And it is certain that to have turned a Stone into Bread, would not have been more faulty in itfelf, than the multiplying of Loaves already provided, or the turning of Water into Wine. But in the present Cafe, it was not fit for Jefus himself, who knew on whom he depended, to foreftall or haften the Provisions defigned him: Nor were Miracles to be lavished away or abused, for the Devil's Conviction, or at his Command. Jefus therefore

does not at all concern himself to convince Satan that he was the Son of GOD: But fhews that he had no Reason to mistrust Gon's Care of him, whether he was truly his Son or not.

To this end he wifely divests the Devil of his Arms, and wrefts from him the very Ground of his Temptation. Satan, we see, had taken it for granted, that Man could not

be

XIII.

be sustained unless he had Bread to fupport SER M. him: But our Saviour fhews him from an infallible Evidence, from the Word of God, that he had very grofly mislaid his Suggestion. For be answered and faid, It is written, that Man fhall not live by Bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of GOD. The Place where this is written is in the 8th of Deuteronomy, ver. 3. where Mofes, in exhorting the Children of Ifrael to Obedience, in regard of God's Providence and Dealing with them, reminds them of his fuftaining them miraculously in the Wilderness, where no ordinary Suftenance could be procured for them. He fuffered thee (faith he) to hunger, and fed thee with Manna (which thou kneweft not, neither did thy Fathers know) that he might make thee know, that Man does not live by Bread only, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of the Lord, doth Man live, i, e. by every Thing (for fo the Word in Scripture often fignifies) which Gop by his Word or Command appoints or fubftitutes to nourish and fuftain us. For GOD, if he please, can either sustain us without Bread at all, as he did Mofes and Elias before, and Jefus now, for forty Days; or else he can feed us with

Bread

XIII.

SERM. Bread showered down immediately from Heaven, as he did the Ifraelites for forty Years. He can either fend new Provifions by repeated Miracles, as he did to his Prophet by the Ministry of a Raven, 1 Kings xvii. 4, &c. or by one fingle Miracle he can multiply the Provifions we have already, as he did the Widow's Oil and Meal, in her Barrel and Crufe, ver. 14, &c. It is true indeed that in ordinary Cafes, we are fed and nourished by ordinary Food: Yet even in all Food the Power that fuftains, is the Power that comes forth entirely from GOD. For without his Providence, even the Bread we eat would have no Quality or Power to feed us: Should he but withdraw his Bleffing from it, we fhould perish immediately, though in the Midst of the greatest Plenty and Abundance. We are not therefore to fix our Eyes fo intenfely on the Means, as not to look up to that Hand, from whence alone it's Sustenance proceeds. But (to ufe a devout and elegant. Expreffion in the Book of Wisdom) Thy Children, O Lord, whom thou lovest, should know that it is not the growing of Fruits that nourifbeth Man, but that it is thy Word which preferveth them that put their Trust in thee, Wisdom xvi. 26,