their ministry in the production of his omnipotent works in the beginning for that cause the creation of Angels is concealed there and the ministry of Angels for a time suspended here For that cause that our Creator might not be robbed of his glory by a misconstruction of the one nor our Redeemer robbed of his by a misinterpretation of the other But now when the Temptation was fully ended and the Conquest on our Saviour's part fully obtained there being not the least ground at all left why any creature should presume to engross any part of the honour of that victory as due unto themselves now those glorious Spirits were commanded to do him service again as they had done before and commanded they obey Behold Angels came and ministred unto him Angels ministred unto him Ministred not onely food and sustenance unto him if they did that after his long-fasting as was done by the hand of an Angel to r 1 Kings 19.5 6. Elias in the like case but no doubt they also ministred comfort unto him and there was cause for it because as man he was then in most need of comfort even when he was but newly escaped from the snares and temptations of Satan and cause there was for Angels then men were not fit to do it to minister comfort unto him as at another time one of that heavenly host did when being in a great agony an Angel most opportunely appeared unto him from Å¿ Luke 22.43 Heaven strengthning him Nay I see no cause why I may not also safely affirm that part of this Angelical service and ministry was spent at that time in congratulating his late and happy victory and in singing an Eucharistical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a song of praise and thanksgiving to his Father for delivering his Son from the Temptations of Satan When the Israelites had escaped out of the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians there was joy and thanksgiving for that Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and t Exod. 15.1 said c. At another time when they were delivered from the Tyranny of Jaâ—in King of Canaan and Sisera the Captain of his Host Judg. 4. there was joy and thanksgiving for that Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Aliâ—â—am on that day saying Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of u Judg. 5.1 2 c. Israel When David after the death of his son Absalon was delivered from the hands of all his enemies round about him there was also joy and thanksgiving for that And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hands of all his enemies and cut of the hands of w 2 Sam. 22.1 c. Saul And can we think that our Saviour was delivered out of the hands of Satan a far more potent Adversary then either Saul or Sisera or Jabin or Pharaoh or all can we conceive I say that this was done without an Eucharistical song of praise and thanksgiving unto God Surely no it was not and who were so fit to do it as Angels that holy and heavenly Quire who in multitudes together magnified the Father for the birth of his Son saying Glory be to God on x Luke 2.13 high All heavenly Hallelu-jah's being most properly set to their melodious voice which is Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his y Isa 6.3 glory And John in his vision heard the Angels about the Throne cry out with a loud voice saying Worthy is the Lamb to receive honour and glory and a Rev. 5.11 12. praise Lo the work of praise and thanksgiving all and all at other times performed by the holy Angels Therefore David putting them in mind not of their duty which they always remember but of the constant and continual delight they have in praising God which they never forget saith O praise the Lord ye Angels of b Psal 103.10 his which they continually do and then in particular did when hâ—re praising God for Satans overthrow and our Saviour's victory they came and ministred unto him They ministred unto him And therein they did but that for which they were Created even to be ministring Spirits to be God's messengers from Heaven to Faâ—th and again from Earth to Heaven between him and his Church before his Son's Incarnation afterwards between him and his Son the head presupposeth the body also whole he was here on Earth and now our Saviour being bodily absent and the Angels having no more to do for him on Earth in this matter as touching his own Person Ministring Spirits they still are and shall be between God and his * Angels minister unto Saints Saints so long as they shall remain here even to the worlds end as it hath been ever even from the beginning surely so it is and that it is so the Apostle plainly proves saying They are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of c Heb. 1.14 salvation Lo the Angels work is to minister as here they did to our Saviour and still do to us Lo they themselves are the Sons of God by d Job 38.7 creation and 't is most proper for such to take care of and diligently watch over those that are his sons by grace and adoption which that their ministry may never cease they carefully do and will do and that both while they live when they die and also after they are dead While we live the holy Angels are appointed to protect and defend us both from corporal and spiritual dangers The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth c Psal 34.7 them When we die they shall carry our souls as they did the soul of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome into f Luke 16.22 heavens and at the last day when the general resurrection shall come though our bodies have long before been resolved into their first principles the son of man shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to g Matth. 24.31 another So sacred are even their very ashes unto him and the dead in Christ in the faith of Christ shall rise h Thes 4.16 first that they first may be glorified both in soul and body before the reprobates be in both eternally punished Lo God never forgets his Church those that shall be heirs of salvation God never forgets them not in their life not in their death no nor after death neither and therefore the holy Angels shall never forget their office which is to minister for the spiritual and eternal good of all those that shall be saved and that they shall never cease to minister unto us an argument it is in that they here came and ministred unto our Saviour
and Apostolical men such as Peter and Barnabas were if such are not capable of Religious worship much less are dead men and Saints departed who are absent from us and cannot help us whom we then sufficiently honour and as much as God himself requireth of us 1. When we remember them with all Christian reverence as the Instruments while they lived of his u August de Civ Dei lib. 8. cap. 27. glory 2. When we thankfully bless God for them and for the benefits he vouchsafed by them unto his Church 3. When we imitate their vertues their repentance their faith their love their humility their meekness their patience c. wherein they excelled But Christian Religion saith w De vera relig cap. 55. Austin rightly teacheth us not in any wise to worship dead men Notwithstanding though we have express x Deut. 10.20 Matth. 4.10 Scripture as this we now speak of therein also several Examples against them in this Case yet the Romish Church refusing to be guided by either regards not at all either what the Angel said to John or Peter to Cornelius or Paul and Barnabas to those Idolatrous people at Lystra or God himself to the people by the mouth of Moses or what our Saviour here said to the Divel It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve A Text strong enough were not men wilfully obstinate to overthrow all Popish Idolatry in this Case upheld and underpropped only with certain weak and unwarrantable distinctions repugnant to the Word of God and forged in their own braines for the promoting of their own Cause And if I should tell them plainly that in this they are more malapert then Satan was I need not go far for evidence cleer enough to prove it for after the Divel had once heard what our Saviour said as touching this matter in point of Religious worship wholy denied unto Creatures he though insolent enough before immediately ceased to reply any more but these though they daily hear it yet they still reply and too too much relying on their own Inventions affirm still that some kind of Worship and Adoration is properly due to Saints and Martyrs departed nay even to their very Reliques c. which say what they can will be found to be Religious worship proper unto God y Quem sanctis cultum deferunt Papistae nihil reipsa differre a Dei cultupalam est Calvin Institu lib. 1. c. 12. S. 2. onely and altogether disavowed in the Text as any ways due to any Creature Lo this is their doctrine this is one point of their Religion and upon this ground they Invocate and call upon dead Saints who cannot hear them and expect help and succour from such who in time of need cannot relieve them Or if they could are not at all to be adored by them And did but those glorious Spirits now know what were done on Earth they would still refuse such Adoration as Peter and Paul and Barnabas did while they were on Earth Now that the Papists maintain such forbidden Religious worship and adoration as due to Creatures thereby to uphold their Invocation of Saints is more then manifest even from their own writings and by their own practice answerable thereunto for it is the positive conclusion of a Controvers lib. 1. ca. 13. de sanctor beatit Bellarmine that to the holy Angels and Saints in Heaven is due though less then divine yet more then Civil or humane honour and worship And if the Jesuite had not otherwhere fully explained b Idem ibid. ca. 12. himself yet plain it is by this that to make his own assertion the more plausible he distinguisheth of three sorts or kinds of Worship 1. Divine 2. Lesse then Divine yet more then Civil 3. Civil or Humane The first in shew he reserves for God The second for Angels and Saints in Heaven The third the Civil or Humane he maketh use of as an Argument to uphold the second which he calleth more then Civil Thus men civilly honour one another while they live c Idem ibid. cap. 12. on Earth therefore Saints in Heaven must be honoured with more then that No nor with so much as that as it any ways relateth to religious worship Although we deny not but that with a pious and precious commemoration of them and their vertues they ought always to be honoured of us even now they are in Heaven This we grant and allow a pious commemoration of them but no adoration at all of the Saints in Heaven do we allow neither may we under what name soever it be subtilly couched to ensnare and entice men unto Idolatry besides an Argument thus drawn from Civil worship which is meerly humane to establish that which is meerly divine as all Religious worship is not admitting of magis and minus more and less though the Jesuite without any warrant from the Word of truth mince and part it into minorem divino less then d Vbi supra Divine and majorem civili more then Civil will not hold at all in Christ's School But let us hear the Jesuites distinction together with what the Fautors thereof say first in their own Termes and then see whether it hath any weight at all in it or not to grant that worship to any Creature which our Saviour here disputing against Satan absolutely denyes to all Now their Terms are these Latria Doulia and e Bel. ubi supra Joan. de Combis Compend Theol. lib 1. c. 58. Boskhi Ara Coeli Conci 22. Lodovic Vives in August lib. 10. de Civit. Dei c. 1. Hyperdoulia The first the Latria or Divine worship they pretend they reserve unto God onely but in that they give any Religious worship at all to Creatures as by their distinction it appears they doe it is neither against sound reason nor sacred Religion to say how fair soever their pretences be that they reserve none at all to God who must have all or else he accepts of none All whole and entire unto himself or else he hath none at all unto himself The second the Doulia or Saint-worship they reserve onely for Creatures granting that to Saints which by our Saviour was here deny'd to Satan wheras in the word of God there is no difference at all between the one and the other between the Latria and the f Differentia Latriae Douliae nulla est Par. in cap. 1. ad Roma v. 9. Fest Hom. disput 35. adver sus Pontifici Thes 1. Doulia as will appear afterwards And because among holy Creatures the humanity of our Saviour doth singularly excel for that it is inseparably united to the Person of the Word and further because the Mother of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blessed Virgin far exceedeth other Saints this Doulia or Saint-worship they subdivide again into Doulia properly so called as common to all Saints and
betraying him false witnesse accusing him Pontius Pilate condemning him the souldiers crucifying him yet all together too weak to subdue and conquer him who rose again the third day from the dead and the Divel afterwards never in his own person assaulted him any more who at first after he had tempted him departed from him for a season but our Saviour will never depart from his Church and Chosen not while they are Militant here on earth Lo I am with you always even to the end of the f Mat. 28.20 world and there is no cause to fear his departing from us when we are triumphant in Heaven where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt g Mat. 6.20 and where thieves do not break through and steal nor Satan break through to tempt and destroy But I will not say too much by way of Preface least the Gate become wider then the City the Introduction larger then the Exposition In brief here I say but this or rather the Apostle saith it 2 Tim. 2.3 Be thou careful as a good souldier of Jesus Christ to fight the good fight of h 1 Tim 6.12 faith against Satan and then in and by the power of thy victorious Saviour thou shalt obtain the victory over Satan which is the dayly prayer of him for thee who faithfully believeth by the same power to be made partaker with thee of the same victory Amen Thine to accompany thee in the Way to Heaven JOHN GUMBLEDEN CHRIST TEMPTED the Divell conquered OR A Short and plain Exposition on a part of the fourth Chapter of St. Matthews Gospel In the first Chapter of this Gospel the Evangelist speaketh chiefly of the Genealogie and Birth of Christ In the second of the swise men that came from the East to Jerusalem to worship him and of his speedy flight by night into Egypt for feare of Herod after they had worshipped him In the third of the preaching and Office of John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ who baptized him in Jordan being then about the age of thirty yeers Luke 3.21 23. But in this fourth Chapter a part whereof we have now before us the Evangelist from the first to the twelfth verse beginneth to treat of that which immediately followed afterwards after our Saviour was but then newly baptized of John this Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the divel v. 1. and when he had fasted fourty daies and fourty nights he was afterwards an hungred v. 2. and this we may properly call the preparation or introduction to the whole following narration both touching the single combat between Satan tempting and our Saviour conquering The whole then being thus divided in generall into an Introduction v. 1 2. and a narration in the nine following verses comprehending therein the happy issue of all on our Saviours part in respect of his conquest and the Angels ministring unto him to congratulate his victory we will examine the words in order beginning vers 1. where there is mention both of the Spirit 's work who led up Jesus into the wilderness and also of the Divels work who afterwards tempted Jesus in the wilderness See! different Agents and as different Actions yet all relating to one and the same Subject even to Jesus led up of the good Spirit into the wilderness and to the same Jesus to be tempted of the evil spirit in the wilderness But perhaps at the first hearing this may seem strange unto you that the Saviour of the world should be tempted by the destroyer of the world yet if we rightly consider the first promise made by God to man of a Redeemer to save man strange it is not and the promise in sense is this The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents a head giving power notwithstanding even by the samo promise to the same serpent to bruise the heel of the womans seed But who properly was the womans seed Surely the Son of God that promised seed who in the fulness of time was made man of a Gen. 3.15 b Gal. 4.4 woman by the powerful overshadowing of the holy c Luke 1.35 ghost according to his Fathers purpose and intention when he first promised him under the name of the seed of the woman and by the Serpent who doubteth but that the Divel is meant who at that time used the serpent both as his Active and Passive Instrument to beguile the woman there being none of the beasts of the field found so fit as the serpent was to express to the life the craftie subtilties of d Gen. 3.1 Satan that old e Reu. 12.9 serpent who is still suffered to Tempt but not suffered to overcome Suffered by many both outward and inward Tryals and Temptations to bruise the heel of the womans seed of Christ in his members which is still acknowledged to be a real tempting of Christ even by Christ himself Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Acts 9.4 Satan Satan why temptest thou me but denyed it is to be any Conquering on Satans part either of Christ or his members the faithful the womans seed also by any of those temptations God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are f 1 Cor. 10.13 able that is not so far to be tempted by Satan as to be overcome by Satan So that it is no new thing to hear of the Divels malice either against Christ or against Christians or of the g 1 Pet. 5.8 lyon and that Lyon of the tribe of Juda. Revel 5.5 of the battel between Michael and the h Rev. 12.7 Dragon Or of the wily and subtile practices of the Divel that i Rev 9.11 Apollyon that destroyer of the world against the Son of God made man that Saviour and Redeemer of the world no new thing at all onely to be malitious proper it is to Satan but to be victorius both for himself and us most proper it is to our Saviour for God who said to the serpent I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her k Gen. 3.15 seed never said that the serpent the Divel should bruise the head and finally prevail against the womans seed never said it will never suffer it and if we had no other proof from the holy Text to confirm us in the full assurance thereof yet this Combate here between Christ and the Divel partly in the wilderness v. 4. partly in the holy City on the pinacle of the Temple v. 7. and partly on an exceeding high mountain v. 10. our Saviour in each place prevailing against Satan is abundantly sufficient to strengthen our saith and confidence in this sacred truth but as yet we are no farther then the Introduction the Gate and entrance into both both to the Combate and the Victory Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Divel v. 1.
in respect of any creature wholy to be ascribed to himself alone So it is here none assisted our Saviour in conquering Satan and therefore none ought to partake with him in the honour of that Conquest his alone the victory was and that the honour thereof might be wholy his also he would be tempted in the wilderness And 5ly There also tempted he would be rather then in any other place even to manifest thereby that there was no place fitter then that to Conquer the Divel y Aquin. tert pars Serm. q. 41. Artic. 2. in who before had conquered man in the Garden in Paradise both were desart and solitary places both Paradise and the Wilderness Paradise where the first Adam was alone when the serpent the Divel by the woman tempted and conquered him The Wilderness where the second Adam was alone when he conquered Satan Solitary places both and the one was rightly chosen to Conquer the Divel in who in the other had been a Conqueror Nullus ubique potest faelici ludere dextra No mans game Is still the same Thus hitherto I. Jesus was led up of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost 2. Led up he was by him into the wilderness 3. Into the wilderness there to be tempted of the Divel And there to be tempted the rather that the Divel where he had the most advantage might to his own greater shame have the least success having now to deal with one who would be tempted in the wilderness that having secluded himself from the society of men and alone prepared himself by prayer and fasting for the work of God he might have the whole honour of his own victory over the Divel whom he left not unrequited neither but conquered him in the wilderness who before had conquered man in Paradise As I have done so God hath rewarded me Judg. 1.7 4. The Time when our Saviour was tempted in the wilderness is pointed at in the first word of the Text. Then that word relating to those immediately before cap. 3. v. 16 17. Then Even so soon as he was Baptized of John in Jordan and as man inrolled into the Family of God Then So soon as the holy Ghost had descended on him like a Dove in testimony of his innocency Then So soon as he was publikely declared from Heaven to be that Son of God and therefore that second Person of the most glorious Trinity under the veile of humane flesh never so cleerly revealed before to the sonns of men even Then the Divel fuller of wrath fearing he should lose his Kingdome then Herod was after he heard of his a Mar. 2.3 Birth for fear he should presently loose his sets upon our Saviour with a resolute purpose to deceive him by Temptations before he was baptized we read not at all that he was at any time tempted no for while with Joseph and Mary his Mother he led a private life at Nazareth in b Mat. 2.23 Galilee where he fixed for many yeers after his safe return out of Egypt the Divel as knowing as he is could not distinguish him at all from another from an ordinary Person no but Then immediately after the publicke solemnity of his Inauguration to his Prophetical Office was fully ended at Jordan then was there special notice taken of him by that evil spirit by that diligent Observer both of Persons Words and Actions and that he might not lose so fit an opportunity to bring forth what he then began to conceive even a burthen of Temptations he the more narrowly watched which way his motion tended and if I may so speak diligently waited on him though in a bad sense and to a bad end till he found him in a fit capacity all things as yet being but in preparation to be Tempted in the Wilderness Then even after the Heavens had been opened unto him v. 16. in testimony that he came down from Heaven as afterwards he testified of himself John 3.13 though for a time most willing he was now to become the Object of the Divels temptations on earth Lo thus it was with our Saviour Christ and thus also it is with Christians the one was Tempted of the Divel the other is not exempted from the like condition Wherefore that of our Saviour to his Apostles is by way of allusion fitly appliable here the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his c Mat. 10.24 Lord. And If they meaning the stiff-necked and malicious Jews if they have persecuted me they will also persecute d John 15.20 you 'T is an Argument from the greater to the less and the Apostles afterwards were sensible of the strength and weight of it by more then ordinary experience in themselves So if the Divel durst so early even almost when he was but then come out of the water tempt our Saviour surely he will make no scruple at all at any time to tempt those who faithfully believe in that Saviour it being as an uncontrouled Maximâ— in his school that none at any time displease him until they first begin to serve and please God But then even so soon as we have given up our names to Christ so soon as we begin to have any opening of the Heavens unto us any heavenly grace any measure of faith any degree of repentance in us any descending of God's holy Spirit upon us to enlighten the darkness of our hearts the dimness of our understandings to reform the crooked perversness of our wills even then presently we daily more and more become the Butt at which all the fiery darts of Satan are furiously e Diabolus semper primordia boni pulsat saencta in ipso ortu festinat extinguere Chryoslog de jejeun tent Christi Serm. 11. shot as Saul in his furious mood cast his javelin at David 1 Sam. 18.11 and They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 1 Tim. 3.12 shall be subject to Temptation Neither is this done without the Providence of a good God who would have it to be so And that 1. To try us whether we will be patient and faithful unto him or not even when we are under the pressures and by his permission for our good troden down for a time in the Wine press of Satan as Job was 2. That knowing our own weak and frail condition we might the sooner be moved to flee unto him for help and succour in the time of our fiery tryal in the day of our calamity 3. That we might learn with thankful hearts to give him the whole glory who from time to time out of his great love and mercy unto us hath sent us such or such a mighty Deliverance Who 4. In suffering us for a time to be tempted doth thereby intend for the promotion of our Spiritual state to conform us daily more and more to the Image of his Son and to the example of his sufferings who was tempted of the Divel and his
doubtless was the more willing now to tempt our Saviour on a mountain that both by his presence there he might then defile that place and also that by his practise there he might disgrace the works of God that at any time had been done before or should be done afterwards in such or such places But howsoever it was whether 1. For the manifestation of his own natural pride and loftinesse Or 2. From his emulation to imitate the works of God that thereby he might the better deceive men Or 3. From the envy and spite he had within him prompting him to discountenance and reproach the works of God done at any time in such and such places howsoever it was and what other end soever he had in so doing manifest enough it is from the Text that the Divel in this his third assault took up our Saviour into an exceeding high mountain And when he had taken him up thither he sheweth him all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them v. 8. And that as S. Luke saith in a moment of x Luke 4.5 time in the least point of time which Paul in another case calleth the twinckling of an y 1 Cor. 15.52 eye which circumstance rightly weighed makes it appear more then probable that all this here as touching this latter temptation was done in a a Marlor in Locum a Vision the Divel in a moment of time presenting or rather representing all those glorious objects not to the eyes outwardly but inwardly to the mind and understanding of our Saviour for otherwise and after any other manner then in a vision it was not possible for our Saviour as man in uno nunc in an instant in a moment of time and uno intuitu at one view actually to behold all the Kingdomes of the world not possible to do it in so short a time with the eyes of his body but in a vision with the eyes of his imagination possible it was as Peter in a vision saw at once all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air in a vessel descending from Heaven as it had been a great sheet knit at the four b Acts 10.11 10. corners And possible it was also for Satan thus to represent the forms and portraiture of all those Kingdomes to the imagination of our Saviour as man in a vision but as he was God the Divel had nothing at all to do with him which is supposed to be the true reason why S. John who in his Gospel speaketh principally of our Saviour as c Haymo homil Domin prim Quadrages God maketh no mention at all of any of his temptations which were incident unto him only as man Besides all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them are comprehended within the circumference of two Hemispheres the one whereof is always above the other always beneath us insomuch that if a man were placed in the body of the Sun and could thence having strong and un-impedited Opticks behold the Earth yet could he not at once see above half thereof much lesse could he see so much from any mountain though it were exceeding high Wherefore when the Texts say That the Divel shewed our Saviour all the Kingdomes of the world in a moment of time this seems to me to be meant after no other manner then only in a vision wherein at once as in an exact Map of the whole universe all these things were by the Divel set before the imagination and understanding of our Saviour to contemplate on giving him sufficient time afterwards no doubt more leisurely to take a further view of them all and of the glory of them which at first in a moment of time were shewed unto him in a vision and that after he had been actually and locally transported by the Divel from the Pinacle of the Temple to an exceeding high mountain Or if you will let it be otherwise if any sufficient reason can be yielded by any how it could be otherwise then only in a vision though whether it were so or so is not at all positively determinable from the Text yet this is thence positively determinable this that the Divels temptation perswading him to covetousness and ambition took not at all in any wise with our Saviour As the Serpents did with the woman Gen. 3. or as the woman 's did again with the man too too credulous and uxorious who had grace enough given him in his Creation if he would to resist it although it was both his and our unhappinesse that willingly he yielded to the voice of his wife to his wifes temptation But no such yielding no such compliance was there here no for whether this representation of the worlds beauty were made either to our Saviour's eye that was not at all delighted with or to his heart neither was that any ways affected with all the Kingdomes of the world notwithstanding all these seemed so glorious to Satan although there were no reason for it for all are but things meerly transitory and in respect of that which is divine and heavenly fit to have no other inscription engraven upon them then that indelible character of d Eccles 1.1 2. Solomon written if I may so speak on both sides like the Tragedy of e Scriptus in tergo nec dum finitus Orestes Orestes vanity of vanities on one side and vanity of vanities on the other side and round about again all is vanity All whether it be the Kingdomes of the world or the clory of them But the Divel here was of another judgement altogether dissenting from that of Solomon probably because he knew that Solomon himself had much gold brought him from f 1 Kings 9.28.10.14 Ophir hoording it up and delighting in it the Divel I say was of another judgement and therefore sets a far higher price upon his usurped possessions then the price of vanity not willing at all to part either with glory or Kingdomes without far more then a sufficient recompence He saith unto him and what he required by way of recompence for his liberal gift now to be tendered unto him the Text tells us thus All these things will I give thee by way of compact will I give thee If thou wilt fall down and worship me v. 9. if thou wilt by way of compensation Surely too too great a retribution for a gift though in appearance great But He saith unto him Lo our Saviour once suffered not the divels to speaks because they knew g Mark 1.34 him but here he suffered this Divel to speak thrice because he tempted him it being necessary that words should now mutually passe between them as interpreters of the mind of the meaning of each there is a time to keep h Eccles 3.7 silence and a time to speak And this was now the Divel's time who after his two former repulses having liberty
not for easier it shall be in the day of judgement for impenitent men then for monstrously maliticious Divels though no ease at all can there be for unbelieving and therefore unpardoned men continually tormented with Divels Then saith Jesus unto him Get thee hence Satan And then began our Saviour to be thus wrathfully incensed when his Father's glory began first to be questioned for 't was not so when the Divel tempted him after his long fasting to distrust and diffidence in his Father's Providence v. 3 4. nor was it so when he tempted him to vain-glory by casting himself down from the pinacle of the Temple v. 5 6 7. Satan received then no rebuke at all from our Saviour No and the reason was because in those Two Temptations the injury was more properly and more immediately done unto himself and therefore he could without any indignation at all patiently bear and sleight that But when he saw that the Divel had appropriated unto himself the honour that was peculiarly due unto God All these things will I give thee tempting him to become an Idolater and so fall away from his God from his Father If thou wilt fall down worship me v. 9. then his patient meekness was much moved his wrath was very much kindled and his fury exasperated to the highest to teach us to bear with all patience and long suffering our own wrongs and injuries But to be more zealous alwaies in God's cause then our own as our Saviour here e Aquin. 3. pars Sum. q. 41. Concl. 4. was who justly provoked by the wrong done unto his Father most sharply reproved the Divel that had done that wrong unto his Father saying Get thee hence Satan bold impudent malitious exceeding sinful Satan Get thee hence I detest thy self I abhor thy gift neither am I at all in the least beholding unto thee in that thou madest the first offer thereof unto me who will none of thy promises none of thy Kingdomes none of thy glory none of thy power as Abram said to the King of f Gen 14.22 23. Sodome I have lift up my hand unto the Lord the most high God the possessour of Heaven and Earth That I will not take from a thred even to a shoo-latchet and that I will not take any thing that is thine lest thou shouldest say I have made Abram rich So our Saviour to his and his Father 's malitious Adversary Satan here I will not accept of any thing thou offerest me of any thing thou falsly callest thine or if it were properly thine own I abhor and detest both it and thee Therefore away with thy Kingdoms away with thy promises away with thy gift away with thy condition away with thy self Get thee hence get thee behind me Satan Yet though wrathfully and justly moved thereunto our Saviour did not thus with indignation dismiss and send away Satan without a special Warrant from his Father's word to doe it he did not but as twice before v. 4. 7. So now again v. 10. he strongly opposeth his false suggestions with full power and authority from the Word of truth and his authority is It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Note him only which positively concludes that the Divels motion was but in vain If thou wilt fall down and wholy excluded him from what he so much desired even from all manner of religious Worship and Adoration as not at all due unto him his proposal conditionally If thou wilt fall down being answered here in sense with our Saviour's flat denial positively I will not fall down and worship thee thou wilt not Why for it is written and one word of my Father's writing is more available to keep me in his fear then all that thou canst either say or doe to remove me from it Thy Ifs and thy Conditions which are nothing else but the forerunners of thy Temptations shall never take at all with me and though thou wilt not alledge a Text rightly when it makes for me against thy self witness thy false dealing with me on the pinacle of the Temple yet I do rightly alledge here what makes for my self and wholy against thee It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Him only and I may not fall down before thee this is my Father's Word this is my Father's will to keep his own Worship entire unto himself and so will I keep it and Worship him only Thus and thus did our Saviour Answer Satan partly rebuking his bold impudency with Get thee hence and partly denying his suit with It is written and this his denial from which we may we will open our way to a further discourse briefly includes in it Two things 1. A most just claiming of all Religious worship as peculiarly due unto God onely And 2. as just a disclaiming from and a disavowing of any such worship as due to any creature on any specious pretences whatsoever according to the Rule of Affirmative Precepts which alwaies include in them their Negatives as on the contrary the Negatives alwaies include their Affirmatives Now the Precept here is Affirmative Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve therefore the Negative thereof must needs be thou shalt not religiously worship any of the Creatures no not the Divel Let us then weigh the words impartially knowing that we can have no better Argument to defend the Cause of God then that which is immediately drawn as this is from the written Word of God which is that touchstone to distinguish between counterfeit Gold and true that Rule to discern between streight and crooked that Ballance wherein falshood is overpoysed by truth and such a Ballance such a Rule such a Touchstone is this Word here of our Saviour It is written But Where is it written Answ Deut. 6.13.10.20 where God's command to the people by the mouth of Moses is Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him words aequipollent in sense though I confess somewhat fuller in the Sentence as it is here in the Text cited by our Saviour and if aequivalent they be and aequipollent in sense that is sufficient Now that the sense is one and the same in both will evidently appear by comparing both Texts together Thus Moses saith Thou shalt fear g Timebis the Lord thy God Our Saviour saith Thou shalt worship h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord thy God Where worship is put in stead of fear Again Moses saith And him shalt thou i Ipsi servies serve But our Saviour saith And him onely k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illi soli servies shalt thou serve Where this word onely is more according to the letters then is in Moses Yet in sense not more then is in Moses the sound indeed varieth somewhat but not the substance not the meaning for our Saviour who is the best
their diligent attendance on the head while he was on earth is our full assurance that they will never fail to take care of the body while it is on earth Mystically the body is the Church the whole company of all true believers through the whole world Christ alone is their head the Angels really came and ministred unto him and assuredly they will come and upon all occasions as God shall see it best for us and our salvation as really minister unto us till we shall all be like them in heaven But'tis now time to make an end and well may the lamp fail when the oyl is spent the Temptation is ended and the Exposition is ended the sum whereof is briefly this our Saviour led up of the Spirit into the Wildernesse was thrice tempted of the Divel after he had fasted forty days and forty nights and the Divel likewise was as often conquered by our Saviour with the sword of the Spirit It is written and thus conquered he leaveth him but not until our Saviour with indignation sent him away Get thee hence Satan And thus in fury dismissed and speedily gone the good Angels not willing at all to defile themselves with the Divels company came and ministred unto him Ministred comfort unto our Saviour who so lately had so many conflicts with Satan and their ministring unto him concludes by an argument drawn from the greater to the lesse that they are also appointed of God to minister unto us and that they are appointed of God to minister unto us unto those that shall be heirs of salvation is most true and comfortable First Most true it is or else the Book of truth hath failed me for do but ask the Question whether this doctrine be true or not and presently God's word will resolve us to the full in the Affirmative As who delivered righteous Lot from the rage and fury of the vicious Sodomites i Gen. 19.15 16. Angels Who brought the welcome message to Abraham that Sarah his Wife should bear a son that message including a promise of a Saviour and that promise manifesting God's favour to Abraham k Gen. 18.10 Angels Who comforted Jacob when he fled from the face of his brother Esau l Gen. 32.1 2 c. Angels Who restrained the natural heat of the fire when Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were in the furnace seven times more hot then it was wont to m Dan. 3.19 28. be Who shut the hungry Lions mouths when Daniel was in the Den God by his n Dan. 6.22 Angel Who warned Joseph in a dream to take the young child Jesus and his mother and flee into Egypt from the cruelty of Herod An o Matth. 2.13 Angel who at that time even in that also ministred unto our Saviour as many Angels now did when he was newly released from Satan Who opened the prison doors and brought forth all the Apostles at one time persecuted for preaching in the name of p Acts 5.19 Jesus Who delivered Peter out of the hands of q Acts 12.7 Herod Who comforted Paul with a promise of secure safety in his dangerous voyage to Rome at another time An Angel The Lord by an r Acts 27.23 Angel Now as there is the same God still so no doubt when there is cause there is the same ministry of Angels still commanded by the same God to guard and protect us a truth which none but a Divell will impugne can deny Secondly Most comfortable it is and to those only that shall be heirs of salvation most comfortable it is 't was so to Abraham who had the happinesse to receive Angels into his Å¿ Gen. 18.5 c. house 't was so to Lot who also had the same happinesse Gen. 193. 't was so to Manoah the Father of t Judg. 13.15 Sampson 't was a comfort unto them that they received Angel into their houses knowing they were such as bare good will unto them and that they were God appointing it to be so and would be their Guardians to protect them in any time of trouble the consideration whereof should also be a comfort unto us who though we now receive them not into our houses visibly as they did yet if we truly serve the Lord our God we have a promise that we shall never be left destitute of their help and protection as they never were He shall give his Angels charge over u Psal 91.11 thee and they who by God's appointment have a particular charge over us will never fail when God sendeth them forth to be watchfully present with us though to the outward eye not discernable Some put their trust in Chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our w Psal 20.7 God We will remember him with joy and thankefulnesse with all comfort and cheerfulness because he never forgetteth us but as he instructeth us by his word sanctifieth us by his spirit saveth us by his Son so also in the way to that end he most powerfully defends us and most graciously ministers unto us by his holy Angels whereof we reioyce Jacob in his dream saw them ascending and x Gen. 28.12 descending that right motion noting what their dayly office is even always to come down from God to man and when their work is done on earth to return from man again to God in Heaven and all for the good of man and who hears of this and is not comforted with this When the wise men that came from the East saw the Star Standâ—ver the house where the young Child was they rejoyced with exceeding great y Matth. 2.10 joy And surely if we rightly consider that the Angels of God commanded to watch over us all our life long and keep us in all our ways stand oftentimes though now invisible over our house nay in our house if we belong unto him we also have just cause to rejoyce with exceeding great joy all is but this God hath several ways to bring us unto himself one whereof is by the ministry of Angels who as their duty was came and ministred unto our Saviour and as their office is will in all times of need minister unto us and because all is for our good all should also be for our comfort But above all let all be for the glory of God the Creator of Angels to whom let us always give praise both with heart and tongue even in the Angels own words of thanksgiving Glory be to God in the a Luke 2.14 highest who though he hath made us lower then the Angels yet when we want it and he seeth it most expedient for us hath vouchsafed us for our comfort the never failing service of Angels But more of this in the Sermon following A Prayer O My blessed Saviour who sufferedst thy self to be tempted of the Divel but not to be conquered suffer not me poor sinner to be conquered when I am tempted I do not because I may not neither is it thy will I should pray wholly to be exempted from all manner of temptations but that I may not be led into temptation not be left destitute of thy divine help in it and that I may not be tempted above what I am able to bear but that where mine own strength faileth me as it doth O Lord I confess in every temptation thy assisting thy sanctifying grace may always support me and my sinful weaknesse for this I pray Lord hear my voice thou O Jesus conqueredst Satan for me that I might have the benefit of thy victory wherefore grant I beseech thee that what thou hast gained for me I may keep and be ever truly thankeful unto thee for what of thine own infinite love unto me thou hast gained for me who in my self am too weak to contest with Satan unlesse thou be present with me by thy grace by thy Spirit by thy power to rebuke and overcome sin O let not my Lord be angry and I will speak but this once And O most merciful Saviour my humble Petition is that thine holy Angels may be commanded to guard me to protect me to minister unto me while I live and while I am within the danger of Satan and when I die to carry my soul into those eternal joyes which thou hast prepared for all that love thee Amen Amen FINIS