Section :,0:hir' 7 No, / C^£ ^gstog of tijf ^tmi^Mwn. THE MYSTERY THE TEMPTATION 9 Coursfe of Itttnvt^. BY THE REV. W. H.'HUTCHINGS, M.A., RECTOR OF KIRBV MISPERTON. 'TiS ONE THING TO BE TEMPTED . . . ANOTHER THING TO FALL. %ctonti lEtiition, Bcbisctr anU lEnlargctf. LONDON : J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET. LONDON : PRINTED BY J. MASTERS AND CO., ALBION BUILDINGS, S. BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, E.G. TO THE REVEREND RICHARD TEMPLE WEST, M.A., D.C.L., VICAR OF S. MARY MAGDALENE, PADDINGTON, ®!)is Uolume IS AGAIN AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED, AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF THE AUTHOR'S SENSE OF THE VALUE OF HIS FRIENDSHIP, AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MUCH KINDNESS. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 'T^HE thoughts which these Lectures embody, were origi- nally expressed in a series of Lenten Addresses which were delivered in the Church of S. Mary Magdalene, Paddington. In this second edition, the Lectures have been revised, and some portions of the work expanded. Moreover, a considerable number of brief notes have been added which are intended to serve the twofold purpose of elucidating certain passages in the text, and of calling atten- tion to some of the sources which have been consulted in the composition of these Lectures. Whilst, however, the title of this volume, and the portion of Holy Scripture of which it contains an exposition, natu- rally connect the book with Lent, and suggest its use during that penitential season the length of which is governed by that of our Lord's Fast and Temptation — the Truth which it is sought to enforce in these pages is one of cardinal importance, and touches upon the very essence of Christianity. The imitation of Christ is the viii Preface to Second Edition. fundamental law of Christian conduct, and the question is one of vital importance — was Christ really tempted or not? If not, if the Temptation was only a semblance, what sympathy can there be between Him and us in our spiritual conflicts ? His Holy Life may still be an object of reverence and admiration, but we should despair of in any measure reproducing it. Its conditions would be too different from our own to excite in us any hope of living it ourselves. His Example would be unsuited to tempted man, and we should have in our contest with the powers of Evil to look elsewhere for our Ideal. But if Christ was really tempted " in all points" as we are, but without sin ; if He knew the struggle, the tension, the effort of resistance, as we do; then, — the Tempted Christ can be our Stay and Hope in times of conflict, as the Suffering Christ is our Strength and Solace, in the hour of pain and sorrow. The Reality of Christ's Temptation is no theological nicety which may very well have occupied the attention of the Schoolmen in mediaeval times ; but a truth, a belief in which must always be of the greatest practical importance. It establishes a tie between Him and us, the hnk of a common sympathy, which like a magnetic current connects us together. Every human soul has its spiritual struggles ; and those who are in the midst of the battle — whether they are in the shop or the factory, in the city or in the fields, at the summit of Society or at its base, whatever their lot may be — all can look up for help to the One Perfect Pat- Preface to Second Edition, ix tern, " the Captain of their Salvation," Who was first the " Straggler," then the " Victor," in the same warfare, — "And if Satan, vexing sore, Flesh or spirit should assail, Tkou his Vanquisher before^ Grant we may not faint nor fail." If the treatment of "the Temptation" which is provided in these pages, should not only tend to a truer realization of the Mystery, and of its "utility" in its bearing upon our Lord's Example throughout His Life ; but also aid some to a fuller apprehension of the fact, that they can meet the assaults of the Evil One in union with Christ, and that Christ reiterates His triumphs in His members, — the labour which has been bestowed upon these Lectures will not have been spent in rain. W. H. H. KiRBY MiSPERTON ReCTORY, Septtiagesima, 1889. CONTENTS, nocture \. PAGE THE ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPTATION . . i Hecttire M. THE FAST 30 nocture W\. THE PERSONALITY OF SA TAN 64 ILztWxxz TU. THE FIRST TEMPTATION 96 Eecture V. THE SECOND TEMPTATION 128 Uecture V\. THE THIRD TEMPTATION 166 Hecture FM. THE END OF THE TEMPTATION . . . .207 Cl^t Pgsttrg of tl^t ^tmi^Mxan. ierture }♦ TJI£ ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPTATION. " Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the deviV'—S. Matt. iv. i. T^HE force of Christ's Example depends very much upon the fact that He was susceptible of, and subjected to, temptation ; for, an example appeals to us with greater persuasiveness, the more closely the conditions under which it is produced resemble our own. Christ's Example, had He known no conflict, would still have claimed the atten- tion and deference of the human mind, as a Divinely- authorized representation of a perfect Manhood ; but, unless He, Who held up to the world the Ideal, had Himself tasted the bitterness of the struggles of Humanity, His Example would not have touched man's heart, and retained its hold upon his affections. The power of example arises from a fellowship of expe- B 2 The Entrance into the Temptation. riences, — from the presence of some common ground be- tween the one who gives the example and the one who is to follow it. If angels are proposed to us^ as models for imitation, it must be remembered, that they too have tasted some real trial, and have passed through a time of moral probation. Virtues manifested without a struggle, if they do not serve as an excuse for the shortcomings of those who can only produce them after a hard conflict, at least can hardly be expected to excite hopeful imitation. We feel it would be unfair to place together the flower from the hothouse and the bloom from the common hedge ; the circumstances which have favoured the production of the former are too diff"erent from those under which the latter has contrived to grow, to admit of a comparison between them. It is not the general who, like David of old, tarries still at Jerusalem " when kings go forth to battle," whose conduct is likely to inspire his soldiers with courage ; but it is the leader who presents himself in the midst of the battle who animates his followers with confidence as they meet the foe. Thus, common experiences, as they justify the claim to propose an example, at the same time invest it with a sincerity, an attractiveness, and an attainableness which are real elements of its strength. " The Temptation has an importance, not only as one of the Mysteries of the Life of Christ, but also in its bearing on the exemplary efficacy of His Life as a whole. ^ S. Matt. vi. 10. The Entrance into the Temptation. 3 Whatever capacity for temptation Christ possessed in the wilderness, the same was His, both before and after that time, and remained with Him throughout the whole course of His Life. The Temptation, it is true, manifested this liability in a singular manner, and was a crisis of con- densed opposition to Christ's Mission on the side of the powers of evil ; but it was only an extreme, and perhaps visible form of what was going on continually in a lesser degree, and indirectly, and from other causes. The life which could not be touched by trial and temptation, however beautiful it may be, would have no abiding charm, for it would be isolated from the universal experience of mankind. "The life of man upon earth is a warfare,"^ Job says. To be able to be " touched with the feeling of our infirmities,"^ to be tempted " in all points like as we are," is an essential feature of an Example which is to be a living and abiding power in the world. To be the Example of all, it has been well said, Christ must be both like us and unlike us,^ — like us in being subject to a true human probation, unlike us in being "holy, harm- less, undefiled, separate from sinners."* To vindicate the Temptation from the criticism which would regard it simply as the product of an excited imagination, or as a visionary transaction, is not only to rescue a passage in the history of Christ from a degrading interpretation, but it is to 1 Job vii. I, Vulg. 2 Heb. iv. 15. ' Martensen, " Christian Ethics," p. 242. "* Heb. vii. 26. 4 The Entrance into the Temptation, preserve His Example within the range of our sympathies and aspirations. The main object of the following Lectures is to maintain the reah'fy of Christ's Temptation. We shall consider the entrance into the Temptation ; the Fast ; the reality of the Temptation on the side of the Tempter; his personality and formidableness as a Foe ; the susceptibility to tempta- tion in Jesus Christ, viewed successively in relation to the three assaults ; and, lastly, the final victory with which the struggle terminated. In this way travelling through the Mystery, we shall pause from time to time to notice the spiritual or moral lessons which lie in our road. Our thoughts will first be directed to those circumstances of the event, which form an introduction to the Mystery, and are, so to speak, the material setting of the Truth which we shall afterwards contemplate. " Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilder- ness." We have here recorded the time of the Tempta- tion ; the influence under which Christ was conducted to the scene of conflict ; and, the nature of the place. I. Our Lord retired to the desert "immediately" after His Baptism, and after this the Temptation commenced ; yet the exact point of its commencement is not certain. S. Matthew's account seems rather to imply that the Temptation began after the forty days' fast, whilst S. Mark and S. Luke^ say that the Temptation continued throughout the forty ^ S. Mark i. 13 ; S. Luke iv. 2. The Entrance into the Temptation. 5 days. All are agreed that the recorded temptations did not take place until the end, it may be, the last day of the long fast ; but different opinions have been entertained about S. Mark's and S." Luke's statements.^ Some have understood those Evangelists to refer to certain invisible and ordinary temptations, to which Christ had been subjected throughout His abode in the desert ; others have regarded their words as simply instances of a succinct and proleptic mode of narration. One of old,^ taking the former view, says that " the invisible temptations were too many to be recorded," and ventures to employ in reference to them the hyperbolical language of S. John, that " had they all been revealed, the world itself could not contain the books which would be written." We may safely conclude that the words of one Evangelist supply what was wanting in the record of the other, and therefore that our Lord's Life in the wilderness was one in some sense of constant tempta- tion, and that the assaults with which that mysterious period closed, were but the visible culminations of a protracted struggle — "the three illustrious Temptations." Such an interpretation seems the only one which can satisfy the in- spired account of the Divine purpose — " He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted" Satan reserved ^ The R. V. rendering of S. Luke iv. i, 2, "Jesus . . . was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, tempted of the devil" — nearly removes the difference between the statements of that Evangelist and of S. Matthew. 2 Origen. 6 The Entrance into the Temptation, the fiercest assaults until the time when he thought Christ might be worn out by fasting and conflict, and least able to resist him. Temptation, then, first invisible and then visible, followed closely upon the Baptism of Christ. The time of the Temptation reveals at the outset one object of the Temptation. A writer of the last century ^ gave as one of his reasons for rejecting the literal interpre- tation of the Temptation, that he could see "no good end " that " would be answered by it, either with respect to Christ or His followers," and this objection has been revived. It is important from a critical as well as from a practical point of view, to dwell upon "the ends" of this Mystery. Instead of being barren, it seems to be fertile in purposes,^ and one of these was the un- veiling of the tactics of the Evil One ; it was " for a pre- caution to us." In the time, order, and method of the outward assaults we see what is to be expected in the hidden conflicts of the soul. After His Baptism, after the descent of the Spirit, after the declaration of Sonship through the voice of the Father, after the solemn inaugu- ration of His Public Ministry, Satan, in an especial manner, approached to tempt Christ. When we have received an increase of grace, the Evil One draws near to rob us of the ^ Hugh Farmer, **An Inquiry into the Nature and Design of Christ's Temptation." London, 1765. ' Aquinas says : *' Christ willed to be tempted for four reasons, that He might give us, Ae/p, caution^ z. pattern, and confidence.'''' The Entrance inio the Temptation. y treasure, as pirates attack those vessels which seem to be heavily laden with merchandise. Not that Christ was capable of receiving new grace from without ; for He was Himself the Fountain of grace, and in His Human Nature differed from all others, in that the Spirit was not given " by measure"^ unto Him ; but He, Who increased in wisdom and stature, could develop latent spiritual power, and mani- fest it in greater measure, and in this manner increase "in favour with God and man. "2 His Baptism would in other respects correspond with such experiences in the life of the Christian, as the reception of a Sacrament, the en- trance upon a new state of life, a fresh realization of the grace of adoption, the witness of the Spirit, the putting into exercise a vocation which had been hitherto but a secret thought and longing. Whatever might have been the temp- tations which Jesus had known in the peaceful Home at Nazareth, the Tempter appears not to have put forth his strength against Him, until that mysterious consecration for His Work which took place on the banks of Jordan, The opening of Heaven from above, was followed by the opening of Hell from beneath. It was when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, then " Satan came also among them."^ The attack upon Christ at such a time was to serve as a precaution to us, lest we should think any place, time, or season so holy as to be exempt from the Tempter's power. The necessity of ^ S. John iii. 34. ^ 3. Luke ii. 52. ^ Job ii. i. 8 The Entrance into the Temptation. preparation in order to receive aright the means of grace is an admitted truth, and that thanksgiving should be offered when the gift has been bestowed is also practi- cally acknowledged; but that, besides these, a spirit of watchfulness is of the greatest moment afterwards is not so commonly remembered. We have not only to make ourselves ready to receive, and then to give thanks for the gift which has been vouchsafed to us, but also to guard the treasure after it has been bestowed. So again, we must not think it strange, if, when we have begun well, we fall into divers temptations ; for the more we resist sin and work for God, the keener will become the opposition of the Enemy. " Against those who are being sanctified the temptations of the Devil thicken, because he is more eager to gain a victory over the holy." The son of Sirach had already given the same warning, *' My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation."^ It may be that, when we are expecting peace and joy, we have suddenly to enter into struggles, darkness, and desolation. When the echoes of the voice from Heaven have scarcely died away, and when the light of the Holy Dove has hardly been withdrawn, and the cleansing stream dried up, the boding form of the Evil One draws nigh to harass the soul. God has, however, an object in permitting the assaults of Satan at such a time. It may seem at first that we are ^ Ecclus. ii. I. The Entrance into the Temptation. g exposed to the attacks of some marauder, who is under no laws, and knows no limits to his power ; and if Satan were an Evil Principle, and beyond the control of Divine Pro- vidence, and not a creature of God, such a dread might be reasonable, and temptation might be an unmixed evil. But, on the contrary, it must be remembered that, as Satan is an instrument of God, the trial is from God ; Who permits it, in order to keep the soul low, when, from the very presence of the gift or Divine favour, there may be otherwise a risk of self-exaltation. S. Paul alludes to this purpose of trial, when he writes concerning himself — " And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the re- velations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure."^ The Apostle, who had been caught up within the Everlasting Doors, and had heard words unutterable in this lower sphere, was subject to some hu- miliating trial, lest his humility should be endangered. A temptation, which is a witness to our corruption, is a coun- terpoise to the elevating effect of some Divine gift, and by occupying the soul in resistance, calls away its attention from the growth of graces. God hides, so to speak, the rising fabric of the spiritual life, lest the sight of it should, by engendering pride, shake the foundation. Whilst on the one hand, we must be vigilant, and expect the ap- proach of the Enemy when there is something to lose, ' 2 Cor. xii. 7. 10 The Entrance into the Temptation. knowing that " the thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy ;"i on the other, we must not allow temptations to produce despondency or dismay, but re- member that they are allowed by God, and are a part of that great law of His Providence whereby evil is made to minister to, and to be productive of, good — a law the working out of some part of which He assigns to each one of His moral agents. II. From the time of the temptation we pass to the con- sideration of the influence under which Christ was led to the scene of conflict — "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit" It has been suggested that this expression forms the introduction to a vision, and is equivalent to such statements as, " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day -"^ or, " The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which is full of bones ;"^ and that there- fore we are to infer that our Lord was carried into the wilderness only in imagination, and not in reality. There are two objections to this mode of dealing with the narrative. First, it does not take into account the different character of the compositions in which these phrases are found. When we read the prophecy of Ezekiel, or the book of the Reve- lation, we are prepared for allegory and vision ; but when we read the Holy Gospels, we expect the events which are recorded to be historical, unless we are distinctly told that ' S. John X. 10. 2 Rev. i. lo. ^ Ezek. xxxvii. i. The Entrance into the Temptation. ii they are imaginary. If one Mystery of the Life of Christ be admitted to be a merely figurative and allegorical trans- action, the same destructive interpretation may be applied to the rest of His history. Secondly, the expressions them- selves are not equivalent, so that on grammatical grounds the comparison is untenable. In the citation from the Re- velation (which approaches most nearly to the language of S. Luke) "Spirit" lacks the article, and in that in Ezekiel, which has a less resemblance to the words we are consider- ing, there is the same omission. There is a material differ- ence between the expression " led up of the Spirit" and the expression " carried out in Spirit."^ The preposition which S. Matthew employs denotes the agency through which any action is accomplished, whether personal or not. The verb^ — the simple form in S. Luke, and the compound in S. Matthew — is employed by the Evangelists in other places in its natural sense, as e.g., " they brought Him to Jerusalem,"^ and they " led Him into their council j"* and from its signification of leading from a lower to a higher position, it came to have a nautical application, as a vessel leaving the shore seems to rise ; it is frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles for " setting sail" or " launching forth." Whether we regard the inadmissibility of a vision into the Gospel narrative without a] note of warning to inform us that we are passing from the solid ground of * Ezek. xxxvii. i ; S. Luke ii. 27. - avr^x^Vi ^yfro. 3 S. Luke ii. 22. * S. Luke xxii. 66. 12 Jhe Entrance into the Temptation. fact into the mystic region of allegory; or, whether we examine the effort to find in the text the notion of a rapture — an effort which, as some have candidly admitted, was prompted by the desire to avoid the difficulties of the literal interpretation rather than by the demands of the text itself — the conclusion which we arrive at must be the same ; viz., that the Temptation is as truly history as any other portion of the Gospels, and must be interpreted after the same manner as any other Mystery of our Lord's Life. Moreover, the Temptation is circumstantially recorded by two EvangeHsts, and mentioned by a third; and its power as an experience is appealed to by S. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews.^ This fulness of revelation in the ^ It has been questioned whether Heb. ii. i8 and iv. 15 refer to the Temptation. The interpretation which points to the conflict in the wilderness is said to be one instance of the way men are apt **to be governed by the sound, rather than the sense of Scripture." But it seems natural to regard these passages as relating not only to Christ's sufferings and trials generally, but also and chiefly to the Temptation. It was so understood by the Fathers. They interpreted these verses as referring to temptation in the sense of "solicitation to evil," by which the Devil tempts Christ and the Christian, and urges to sin ; for Christ is said to have merited for us, by His Temptation, strength and help in all our temptations. Thus S. Ambrose says. He was "tempted in all points; that is, by the Devil." Further, the uni- versality of the Temptation seems to describe the triple trial in the wilderness which embraced "all points ;" inasmuch as there are forms of trial which our Lord seems not to have endured, and which are common to us, as, e.g., sickness. Moreover, the limitation "yet with- out sin" would seem to imply that the kind of temptation was "provo- catio ad culpam," and one the occurrence of which needed to be guarded The Entrj^nce into the TEMPr^rioN. 13 New Testament, whilst it betokens the momentousness of an event, is also an indication of its reality as an actual occurrence. The desire to reduce the Temptation to a vision — whether it be a vision Divine or diabolical — often springs from a want of perception as to the place and importance of this Mystery in the Life of Christ ; unless, indeed, it arises from a disbelief in the personality of the Tempter, or some false notion as to the Natures of the Tempted ; but in the text itself we unhesitatingly state that there is no reasonable ground for giving to this event a different handling from that which we employ in interpret- ing the rest of the Gospel. By being " led up of the Spirit into the wilderness" we understand a local movement of Christ's Body from one spot to another. We now proceed further to regard the source and limits of the influence through which Christ entered into the Temptation. The Spirit, under whose guidance Christ was conducted into the desert, was the Holy Spirit. It is evident that the Evangelists intended us to understand the Heavenly Mover to be the same Spirit, as the one Who in the form of a dove just before abode upon Christ. The connection in S. Luke's Gospel is still more clear than in the other Evangelists : "And Jesus being full of the Holy against possible error as to our Lord's Sinlessness. It is not, however, requisite that the Mystery of the Temptation should be referred to in the Epistles, in order that it may be considered "historical." There are other mysteries in the Life of Christ which are only recorded in the Gospels, and whose literal occurrence is not denied. 14 The Entrance into the Temptation, Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."^ To suppose that the Evil Spirit is meant at the end of this verse, and the Good Spirit at the beginning, is to charge the Sacred Scriptures with a most misguiding use of words; and, in addition, to forget that the term 'spirit' without an attribute is scarcely more than once throughout the whole of the Scriptures used for the Evil One. Moreover, the concurrence of the Holy Spirit with this action is fully in accord with other notices of His relations with the Incarnate Lord. Christ was conceived through the operation of the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit dwelt in, and co-operated with, the Sacred Humanity in all Its actions. Under the guidance of the Spirit, Jesus preached. He says Himself, *' The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Mq to preach the Gospel to the poor,"^ &c. " He returned" from the Temp- tation " in the power of the Spirit into Gahlee."^ When He wrought miracles, He attributed the victory over the evil spirits to the power of the Holy Ghost — " If I cast out devils," saith our Lord, " by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you;"* so under the guidance of the same Spirit He went into the wilderness. The Spirit, Who was " the Principle of His Natural Life, the Guide of His Hidden Life, became also the Inspirer of His Public Life." In the withdrawal into the desert, 1 S. Luke iv. I. 25. Luke iv. 18. 3 S. Luke iv. 14. 4 s. Matt. xii. 28. The Entrance inio the Temptation. 15 His co-operation with Christ is more especially recorded, in that, as it was the first act of our Lord after the Spirit's Presence in Him had been revealed, it was to serve as an illustration and specimen of all that would follow ; and the influence of the Holy Ghost was more positively affirmed in this instance, as the going forth to meet temptation might have been the one act in which the Spirit's guid- ance would have been otherwise distrusted or denied. Christ was always led by the Spirit, and on special occa- sions willed to make His concurrence known. We are further justified in interpreting the words "by the Spirit" to mean ' by the Holy Ghost,' by the fact that we are in this following the almost universal opinion of commentators. Indeed, in one ancient version the title " Holy Ghost" forms a part of the text — ' He was led up by the Holy Ghost.' It will be necessary now to consider the extent of the Spirit's influence. The three Evangelists employ three different words to express this influence. The stronger term is used by S. Mark, "The Spirit driveth Him."i S. Matthew says, Jesus was " led up :" S. Luke, " was led."^ From the language of S. Mark, we must not con- clude that Christ went into the desert by compulsion, but by voluntary accordance with an inward impulse. The word may be so explained when used of moral agents, as e.g., "pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest."^ This ' sending 1 S. Mark i. 12, iKfidWei. 2 3. Luke iv. i. ^ S. Luke x. 2. i6 The Entrance into the Temptation. forth' does not imply an enforced service, but a call of grace to missionary labour. At the same time, so strong a term brings out the joyous and triumphant character of the Spirit's movements. " There is a river," the Psalmist says, "the streams whereof shall make glad the city of GoD."^ 'The river' represents in mystical language, the Holy Spirit, the * waters '^ which Ezekiel saw in vision, the "pure river of water of life," which S. John beheld, " proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb f^ the 'city of God' is the Holy Humanity, which is glad- dened by its streams, and borne onward by its currents. Whilst one Evangelist notes the activity, the expression of the other is rather suggestive of the calmness of the influence which the Spirit exerted over the Human Soul of Christ. The combined sweetness and energy of that Spirit, Who "knows no tardy movements," is thus portrayed. That Jesus should be led by the Spirit was a primary example and illustration of what would be repeated in His members ; " for as many," S. Paul says, " as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;"* and that the action of the Spirit should be so com- plete, that Christ should be said to be " driven" by it, is not surprising, when we bear in mind that the Spirit in Christ did not receive any hindrances or feeble co- ^ Psalm xlvi. 4. " Ezek. xlvii. i — 9. 3 Rev, xxii. i, * Rom. viii. 14. The Entrance into the Temptation, 17 operations as He does in us, but had full play, and was met by perfect correspondence with His promptings, on the part of the faculties of the Soul of Christ. The stream which has been checked in its progress by many a weir, and has had to make its way through rough and shallow places, and has lost its wandering waters through many a broken bank or marshy border, will at last run but feebly; whereas the river, which has known neither waste nor hindrance, but on the contrary has been fed by tributary springs, will flow on in depth and width with a calm and majestic force. The springs of grace which in us too often share the fate of the dwindling stream, in the Soul of Jesus have such free course that they are said to * drive' Him by their unrestrained and welcomed impetus. The influence which led Christ into temptation, again reminds us that the Mystery was " for a precaution to us." We are taught that we must not enter into temptation unless it be under the guidance of the Spirit of God : not only because in the strength of God alone we can hope to conquer, but also because we are not justified in meeting temptations except when they come to us in the path of Providence. Nay more, there are temptations which we must flee from when we find ourselves exposed to them (as Lot fled from Sodom), a hankering look upon which incurs Divine punishment. Temptations are of two kinds — voluntary and involuntary. The latter can be always overcome, if the right weapons are duly used. To each c 1 8 The Ei^trance into the Temptation, temptation which is a predestined part of our day of trial, there is an accompanying grace whereby we may resist it ; but if, contrary to God's Providence, we expose ourselves to temptations, we have then no promise of protection; for, it is written, " he that loveth danger shall perish in it.''^ The conflict with Satan in the case of Jesus Christ lay in the very thoroughfare of His Mission; for "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."^ Christ, as the Second Adam, must overcome the Tempter, and undo the effects of the overthrow of the first Adam. He foreknew that the issues of the temptation would be to the glory of God and the benefit of man. Whilst then, " God is faithful," and "will not suffer" us " to be tempted beyond that we are able,"^ provided that the temptations are inevitable; on the other hand, if we expose ourselves unnecessarily to temptations, God will permit us to fall, thereby punishing the spirit of pride and presumption or of carelessness, which caused us to imagine that we were strong enough to go into them and come out scatheless. Indeed, to go unnecessarily into an occasion of sin, even though we do not fall through it, is itself sometimes a sin, and in some cases a grievous one. To pray, " Lead us not into temp- tation,"* and then wilfully to enter the place, associate in the company, read the book, gaze on the picture, or con- * Ecclus. iii. 26. 2 I s. John iii. 8. 3 I Cor. X. 13. ■* S. Matt. vi. 13. The Entrance into the Temptation. 19 tinue the conversation, of which we know that sin has before been the result, is to belie our own petitions, and to tempt God. If it be asked, 'How is it to be known whether a temptation is a part of God's appointment or a self-sought danger ?' it may be replied, that — if any evident duty involve with it temptations, we must not on that account shrink from undertaking it ; but if we foresee a temptation, the avoidance of which would entail no aban- donment of duty, it is ordinarily right to flee from it. But this is only a general rule; for it is impossible, except from experience or guidance, oftentimes to decide what course should be pursued. It is often after many falls that the soul ascertains where the buoys should be placed to mark the dangerous points in the spiritual chart ; and only after exercising the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of Counsel, and the virtue of prudence, that, in particular instances, caution can be distinguished from cowardice. And there are, it may be, times of doubt when we must be content to act simply and with a pure intention. However, when the occasion of sin is itself an attraction, a pleasure to nature, and half-way, as it were, towards the actual sin, and no call of duty brings us in its path, there can be no question then but that it is a voluntary temptation, and that to place oneself in the way of it, is to trifle with sin, with the soul, and with God. The Spirit's movements are often to be known by their contrariety to our incli- nations. The Spirit often leads " into the wilderness,"—, 20 The Entrance into the Temptation. to solitude, to mortification, and hiddenness of life ; whereas nature craves companionship, ease, and display. The triumphant movement of the Spirit in Christ, as the representative of mankind, by which He was borne on- ward to the conflict, is reiterated, and continued in different ways and degrees in His members ; and it is only when we are thus ' led by the Spirit of God'^ that we can claim the Temptation for our model, or hope for victory over the Foe. in. It remains for us now to turn our thoughts to the place whither Christ was led, and His reasons for sojourn- ing in the desert. The traditional site is between the mount of Olives and Jericho, "about five hours' march from Jerusalem." It is thus described by a traveller: "From Bethany, after some hours' travel, you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our Beloved Saviour was led by the Spirit, to be tempted by the Devil. A most miserable barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered as if the earth had here suffered some great convulsion." Some, however, have thought the great desert of Arabia to be the one referred to in the sacred narrative, both because of its greater solitude, and also from the fact that the fast of Christ would thus more conspicuously correspond with that of Moses and Elijah. It is not, however, the geographical position, but the * Rom. viii. 14. The Entrance into the Temptation, 21 character of the place, which is of importance ; that it was a desert — a place rugged and uncultivated, the haunt of wild beasts,! untraversed by man, and destitute of human comforts and necessaries, is evident from Holy Scripture ; but as to the exact spot — as in the case of so many other sites which are of sacred interest — we must either accept the tradition, or remain always in doubt. That the wild tract of country in the neighbourhood of the Mount, since called " Quarantania," was the scene of the Temptation is an old tradition, not dating merely from the Crusades, though then naturally brought into prominence, but ex- isting previously in the East.^ Thus, then, as God's an- cient people were tempted in the wilderness, so Christ, Whom Israel typified, passed through a similar experience ; and the language of the Old Testament may be applied to the place of Christ's sojourn — " He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; He led him about. He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. "3 Christ willed to meet the Tempter in the wilderness, that by His unassisted might the victory should be won : in this, as in other sufferings of His Life, He could say, " I have trodden the winepress alone."* The circumstances of » S. Mark i. 13. 2 Dr. Mill observes "that the Abyssinians, who had never the least religious sympathy with the Latins, nove venerate the site." ^ Deut. xxxii. 10. * Isa. Ixiii. 3. 22 The Entrance into the Temptatjon. the Temptation, independent of the suffering of tempta- tion itself, formed a real suffering. Adam was tempted in Eden : Christ in a wilderness. Our Lord had not, as the Baptist, been in the deserts till His showing unto Israel, but had lived at home. However hard the life at Nazareth was, it had the sweetness of home-Hfe in it, and of such a Home too ! The first thirty years of life are said to shape human opinion and habit into a permanent mould. For Christ to pass from the companionship of His Blessed Mother, and from all with whom He was familiar, and who were naturally dear to Him, from the tender associations of His early years, into a desert for forty days and nights, was itself a bitter suffering to human nature. The first separa- tion from home-life is painful, — as many may remember, — when it is only a change of place and companionships, with- out any violent contrast of circumstances, and with a return in prospect ; or, even when, though to some extent it does involve a contrast of circumstances, there are nevertheless in our new abode warm sympathies and common expe- riences to be found to soothe our aching hearts; what, then, must have been the cost to the Heart of Jesus in this sudden transition from Nazareth to the desert ; what the detachment, which He exercised, as He joyfully fulfilled His Mission — passing from the waters of Jordan into soli- tude, mortification, and trial! Thus did Jesus drink of the cup of human sorrows, in which changes and separations form a considerable element of bitterness. The Entrance into the Tempia71on, 23 By His withdrawal into the wilderness Christ sanctified times of Retreat, and states of retirement from the world for contemplation. The successive stages of His Life are like rays from a central sun, each illuminating and cheering some distinct and widening district of humanity. His Life at Nazareth sanctifies home-life; His Life in the desert, ascetic and contemplative life; His Life in His Ministry, active life ; His Life in His Passion, suffering life : each vocation finds its point of contact in some phase of His Representative Life; each age of the Church reproduces more especially some one feature of His universal character. This is a truth of the utmost importance. It is the for- getfulness of this truth, which causes one generation to malign another, and one vocation to look with contempt or jealously upon another. It is the forgetfulness of this truth, which has made the moral maxims of the gospel appear inapplicable to modern conditions of society, and the out- ward renunciation of all things seem to be the only way of following Christ. That " there are diversities of gifts,"^ " differences of administrations," and " diversities of opera- tions," is not taken into account, but all are measured by the same spiritual standard. The fundamental principles of Christian life are one and the same, but their outward expression and degree of application are diverse, according to differences of vocation, aptitude, and circumstance. But whilst we bear in mind that each life has a special * I Cor. xii. 4. 24 "The Entrance into the Temptation. fitness for copying a particular part of the Redeemer's Life, others are not excluded from having a share in the imita- tion of the same part; and thus our Lord's withdrawal into the desert may be regarded as sanctioning the practice of Retreats for those who at other times live in the world and are in the midst of active duties. We may feel assured that our Lord retired for the purpose of prayer as well as fasting, and that He Who recommended the union of prayer and fasting was Himself at that time an example of both those duties. Times of Retreat are necessary for deepening in the mind the impression of the realities of the unseen world, and for quickening devotion ; whilst the absence of busi- ness cares, and of intercourse with others, leaves for a while the faculties free and unhindered for spiritual exer- cises. In Retreat there is some approach towards the realization of the separateness of the soul, the individuality of our being. Constant intercourse with others and the exercise of the senses upon the objects of the external world, hinder the perception of the solitariness of the traveller. It is when we have " entered into solitude" that the soul's life with its history, its memories, its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows, its destiny — rises up before us. When "Jacob was left alone, "^ the mysterious struggle commenced which transformed Jacob into Israel. It is oftentimes when we are separated from the world that we * Gen. xxxii. 24, 28, 30. 7he Entrance into the Temptation. 25 too have to wrestle with spiritual powers until we prevail, and at last " the day breaketh," and we catch through the mists a vision of the " Face of God." Christ in the desert, according to His natural powers, could be immersed in Divine things in a more perfect manner than when He was in converse with men, and occupied with material objects. To imagine that Christ's actions were only exemplary, and not effectual, is to invest His Life with an air of unreality, and to weaken the bonds of sympathy which bind Him to us. Whilst holding inter- course with others, according to the laws of our nature. His human mind, imagination, organs, would be directed towards those persons, without distraction indeed, yet with a divided exercise ; but when alone, those human faculties might be solely occupied with God. Holy persons pass from action to devotion without loss of recollection in either, but yet with a conscious difference in the concentration of their powers. Christ was perfect in both states ; but a perfect absorption in Divine things belonged to the times of retirement in the Wilderness, on the Mountain-top, or in the Garden ; for such an absorption as would render one inattentive to practical duties, and neglectful in fulfilling them in the midst of active life, would be a fault, and not a mark of perfection. We venture, then, to say, that unless a constant miracle were wrought, sepa- ration from the companionship of man was not only an act performed as an energetic way of teaching a truth necessary 26 7he Entrance into the Temptation. for us, but was also a conscious passage of the sacred Hu- manity into the stillness of the full and undivided contem- plation of God Alone. The retirement of our Divine Lord into the desert, before the entrance upon His Public Ministry, not only authorizes periods of retreat from the world, but suggests that such exercises are never more fitting than when they form a part of the preparation for the Ministerial Office. The Apostles remained^ in retreat from the Day of the Ascen- sion till the Descent of the Holy Ghost. S. Paul retired to the Arabian desert for three years^ after his conversion, to prepare himself for the execution of the Apostolic Office. As seasons of retreat are useful to Christians generally, so are such times especially needed by those who have not only to deepen their own lives, but to give out of their fulness to others. Also, before any important step or choice of state, such seasons of devotion are great means of obtaining light and guidance. In this respect, on another occasion, Christ again is our pattern: when He chose His disciples. He spent the previous night in prayer to God, on the mountain. " He went out into a mountain and * Acts i. 14. ' Gal. i. 17. *' The objecf^ of this abode in Arabia was "probably religious meditation. " Ellicott in loc. Lightfoot in an excursus upon " S. Paul's sojourn in Arabia" excellently describes its purpose : " Can we doubt," he says, "that by this journey he sought seclusion from the outer world, that his desire was to commune with God and his own soul?"&c. The Entrance into the Temptation, 27 continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples : and of them He chose twelve."^ The circumstances of the Mystery of the Temptation, the time when, and the inward impulse by which, Christ was led into the wilderness, and the nature of the place where it occurred, have now been considered; and some of the spiritual and moral lessons which each in turn sug- gested have been noticed. We have already come into contact with two of the purposes of the Temptation. It was to serve as a warning to us; first, lest we should suppose any person, time, or place so holy as to be free from the Tempter's assaults ; secondly, against presuming on our own strength, and so entering into unnecessary dangers. It was for our instruction, that we might know the means which are best suited for meeting the Tempter ; one of which is the withdrawal from the world, either actually for a time on particular occasions, or at least in spirit, or — where there is a special call to it — by a life of retirement and devotion. The movement of the Spirit in the Soul of Jesus is repeated in His members. The promise, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak^ ' to her heart' " is for all time. In the practice of meditation the same abstraction from outward occupations and interests is for the time necessary. To bring this about — to go up ' S. Luke vi. 12, 13. 2 jj^g. ii. 14. 28 The Entrance into the Temptation, in spirit into the mount, or go forth into the desert — the human will must place itself under the guidance of divine grace, as Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, seasons of spiritual isolation may be seasons of conflict, dryness and trial, but it is through such experiences souls emerge into higher life. No human eye beheld the mysterious struggle in the desert ; but doubtless Heaven and Hell watched with in- tensest interest the meeting of the Prince of Light and the Prince of darkness, what Milton calls " the great duel." This Mystery was an object of faith as well to Apostles as to us. It was not like the miracles or Mysteries which had eye-witnesses^ at first, who were inspired to record what they saw; but it was made known by revelation to the mind of man, either from the lips of Christ Himself, or by the Lights of Pentecost. It seems, then, intended that this Mystery should in a special manner exercise our faith, and be a touchstone of sound doctrine. The many erroneous explanations of this portion of our Lord's history which have been resorted to by successive interpreters^ quite justify ^ For this reason, it has been thought, S. John does not record the Temptation. But, like the struggle in Gethsemane, which he did witness, he has left it unnoticed, because it had been fully related by other Evangelists, and did not bear directly upon the purpose of his Gospel. * Marcion cut out all account of our Lord's Temptation, with that of other Mysteries, from S. Luke. Origen resolved the Temptation, more or less, into a vision or allegory. Abelard denies the power of 7he Entrance into the Temptation, 29 the statement, that a right view of the Temptation "in- volves the integrity of doctrine on the great Christian Mystery of the Incarnation." Let us seek, then, the light of faith, that we may be preserved from error whilst we pursue our subject ; and let us pray that in each step we take, we may advance under the guidance of the same Divine Person under Whose influence Jesus was led into the desert. the Devil. With Strauss, the Temptation is a myth. Schleiermacher supposes it to be a parable. Irving made Christ peccable, &c. terture M* THE FAST. ^^ And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights^ He was after- ward an hungered. " — S. Matt. iv. 2. T^HE time of Christ's Temptation, the place where it commenced, and the influence under which He was led into the wilderness, have already occupied our atten- tion; but there is another prelude to that marvellous conflict. Christ prepared Himself for the struggle. We cannot regard our Lord's Fast as — what may be termed — an unavoidable accident of His position, resulting from His abode in a place where provisions could not be obtained, for His sojourn in the wilderness was a voluntary act. It is true that He did not go into the desert for the ultimate purpose of the Fast, for He was led up into the wilderness to be tempted ; yet the fast was not a mere accompani- ment, but an integral part, of the complex Mystery. Each was a distinct ground of merit and source of grace. In the obsecrations of the Litany we are taught to pray, " By Thy . . . Fasting, and Temptation,"^ "Good Lord, deliver * In the "Golden Litany" the words are more explicit — by "the tempting of the Fiend in the desert." The Fast, 31 us." Not only, — though chiefly, our Lord's Death, but also every Act of His Life, has a meritorious effect, a saving eflScacy, by means of which we can plead with God. Both S. Matthew and S. Luke record the duration, and the result of the fast ; and the latter Evangelist adds that the fast was absolute : — " In those days He did eat nothing."^ We cannot dissociate the Fast from the Temptation, for the first Temptation was rendered possible through the pre- vious fast. Although the Fast may be treated without allusion to the Temptation, the Temptation cannot be viewed apart from the Fast. Its length forbids us from assigning to it the place solely of a preparatory discipline to the Temptation, and an inducement to the Tempter to approach. That it was such an inducement we may be- lieve ; that, as the first enemy of Israel, after the passage of the Red Sea, came upon those who were 'feeble,' * faint and weary, '^ so now, the famished condition of the Redeemer was an encouragement to the Evil One to approach ; not only as aff"ording an opportunity for a par- ticular kind of enticement, but also as supplying a hope of possible success. The Fast, then, whether considered in itself, or in its connection with the Temptation, is of such importance as to justify us in pausing to dwell upon it at length; whilst the directions concerning fasting as a duty, to be found in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount,^ and its 1 S. Luke iv. 2. 2 j^gut. xxv. 18. 3 S. Matt. vi. 16. 32 The Fast. obligation as a precept of the Church, make it a subject of great practical consequence. Let us first direct our thoughts to the limits of Christ's Fast; secondly, to the purposes of it ; and lastly, to the manner or conditions of it. I. That the duration of Christ's Fast was forty days, the two Evangelists S. Matthew and S. Luke both certify. S. Matthew adds "forty nights," not merely as an ex- pressive way of relating the length of time, or as a Jewish mode of speaking, but to record that our Lord's Fast lasted through the nights as well as through the days ; for the Jews, when they fast, as a rule eat after the going down of the sun. Thus, our Lord's Fast lasted the same length of time as that of Moses^ and Elias.^ This fact has some- times been noticed, for the same reason for which we trace any other fulfilment of type or prophecy in the Re- deemer's History ; namely, that we may see in Him the end and explanation of the Old Testament. The words, too, of Moses — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet . . . like unto 7ne"^ may also here be said in one particular to be verified. The thought comes for- cibly to us, when we contemplate our Lord as He holds converse with Moses and Elias on the Mount of Trans- figuration, that the three forms which we behold in the midst of that Glory have each shared the experience of a forty days' fast. 1 Exod. xxxiv. 28. ^ I Kings xix. 8. ^ Deut. xviii. 15. The Fast. 33 But some — instead of seeing in this resemblance, and in other correspondences of a similar kind between our Lord and those of old, a special witness to His greatness, as the One to Whom the events of the Old Testament point, and in Whom they find their meaning and accomplishment, — continue to describe Him as an imitator of the deeds of the prophets, and One Who designedly made the various actions of His life fit in with their predictions. Such a view is untenable, for the simple reason that the main fulfilments of prophecy and type belong to our Lord's Birth, Infancy, Passion, Death, and Resurrection, the cir- cumstances of which were beyond any creature's pre- arrangement and control. It was impossible to have on record types and prophecies of the Messiah, the application of which extend throughout His Life, without exposing the accomplishment of some of them to this charge of imitation. Yet, whilst we rebut with indignation this attempt to weaken one of the evidences of Christianity, we must be careful to preserve that trait of beauty in Christ's character, — that lowliness through which He wills not to outvie His creatures without necessity, and sometimes, therefore, condescends to reproduce their acts or words. The craving for originality, which is the offspring oftentimes of pride or love of novelty for its own sake, could have no place in Christ. Even in the prayer, which is called by His Name, He willed to enshrine thoughts and words, already to some extent known to the Jews; and in His Sermon on the Mount He is D 34 T^HE pAsr. content to use the language and metaphor with which S. John the Baptist had recently made his disciples familiar.^ Jesus in His lowliness wills sometimes to employ the very thoughts and forms of speech which He as God had before enabled His creatures to think and to speak. Thus, in His Fast, though He equals, He will not outstrip His creatures, — fasting the exact time that He had enabled Moses to fast on Sinai, and Elijah on his journey to Horeb.^ And here we may notice, without entering into cabalistic interpretations or ascribing any exaggerated importance to numbers, how often in Holy Scripture this number " forty" occurs : the flood lasted forty days f forty days were " the days of those which are embalmed ;"* forty days the spies occupied in searching the land ;^ forty years the people of God were in the desert f forty days GoHath presented him- self before the terrified hosts of Israel -^ forty years was the predicted period of Egypt's desolation, and of Judah's chastisement according to Ezekiel's type;^ and forty days our Lord tarried on earth before His Ascension.^ So many instances of the employment of this number certainly suggest the idea that it has some special meaning attached to it, and the common explanation, that it is a symbol of 1 Conf. S. Matt. vii. 19, and S. Luke iii. 9. - S. Chrysostom says, "He did not fast longer than Moses and Elijah, lest His assumption of the flesh should be thought incredible." 3 Gen. vii. 17. "* Gen. I. 3. ' Num. xiii. 25. •* Exod. xvi. 35. 7 I Sam. xvii. 16. ^ Ezek. xxix. 13, and iv. 6. 3 Acts i. 3. The Fast. 35 our whole period of probation^ on earth, seems at least highly probable. It is the period of our probation during which, if we sin, we, like Israel of old, draw down upon ourselves Divine chastisements; during which we have to prepare for that time when our bodies shall be consigned to the tomb ; during which we have to pass through the wil- derness of this world, until we " come to the brink of the water of Jordan /'- during which our hopes and desires are sent before us to search the land ; when we are molested by the great Enemy who challenges us ; and when we are liable to that desolation and sorrow which in mystic language the prophet announced ; and finally, it is the period of prepara- tion for the Ascended Life, as well as that of fasting and temptation. The Church, in imitation of her Lord, has therefore made the Lenten Fast of forty days' duration. But it is not simply to the length, but to the limits, of Christ's Fast, that we must also direct our attention. We are not told of our Lord that He practised austerities, except in the desert. Whilst He lived at other times what — taking into account the difference between the habits and circumstances of the East and our own — must be called a ^ * * Forty is eight times five, the number of covenanted probation. Its orderly recurrence twelve times on the surface of Scripture, in the form of forty years, is pointed out in Pabnoni, and may be easily traced. In the larger title of this work, it recurs in the same form at least forty-four times, coming in first in connection with Abraham." — Mahan's Works, vol. ii., p. 230. 2 Josh. iii. 8. 36 7he Fast. hard life, yet He did not live in any unusual form an ascetic life. A life of toil in Nazareth ; a life of toil in His Public Ministry, though toil of a different kind ; a life usually without comforts from external things, and sometimes pinched for necessaries ; a life familiar with weariness, and with all the hardships of a wanderer, ah, of One Who some- times had not where to lay His Head — such was the Life of Jesus ! His disciples shared His privations ; but yet, with all these circumstances of trial, Christ's Life was not as a whole a life of continual austerity, or of self-sought mortification. The habits of S. John the Baptist, as an ascetic, are placed in contrast with those of Christ: "John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they say. He hath a devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking."^ Our Lord, in dress and manner, appears to have conformed to all harmless customs, and when at the table to have eaten the ordinary food which was set before Him. S. John, on the contrary, is de- scribed as appearing in "raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle," and as eating " locusts and wild honey."^ The perfectness and universality of Christ's Life did not admit of its being contracted into a single idea or type of holiness ; and the means employed for the attain- ment of holiness or of avoiding sin, which became the sinner, might not be in the same way a necessity to Him, — yet He endured all things for our sake. Had our 1 S. Matt. xi. 1 8, 19. 2 s. Matt. iii. 4. The Fast, 37 Lord led the life of S. John, who remained in the desert until the " day of his shewing unto Israel/'^ the notion that the creatures of God were in themselves bad, and to be altogether renounced, would have been confirmed, and Christianity condemned as incompatible with ordinary life. His Mission involved the manifestation of Himself in daily life, and in, so to speak, society. His mode of attracting was rather by way of familiarity than of asceticism. S. John attracted in the latter way ; his asceticism was his diploma, visibly authorizing his rebukes — " John," we are told, " did no miracle."^ Our Lord's works of power bore witness^ to Him. Our Lord, too, needed not the machinery of a rigorous austerity to attack the fuel of an evil nature, and to bring down a rebellious flesh ; yet He could be " tempted in all points as we are," though without sin. The con- tinuation of a life like that in the desert might well have been taken as a token of inward corruption. Neither was it requisite or possible for Christ to add to the infinite Merit of His Passion by previously subjecting Himself to some unwonted forms of mortification, which would have placed His Life altogether out of the reach and sympathy of ordinary persons. He would, too, have lent support to the idea that holiness consisted in external practices ; whereas it was one great purpose of the Redeemer to point to states of mind and heart, to moral and spiritual changes, as the very essence and pith of true perfection, and to all 1 S. Luke i. 80. 2 s. John x. 41. 3 s. John x. 25. 38 The Fast. else as only leading towards or flowing out of that inner life of faith, hope, love, and contrition. The ascetic, who comes with the marks of an extreme mortification, like the Baptist emerging from the deserts, stirs us with a sense of our softness by the great interval which separates his life from ours, and stands before us as a witness to the power of deep convictions. His life is an eloquent expression to us of his sincerity and courage, and thus may give the first impulse which awakens us from our worldliness. A modern artist has represented in a striking picture this effect of an example of excessive asceticism. Two Pagan girls are returning from some splendid enter- tainment. They are still decked with ornaments, and the roses are in their hair ; they are recounting their pleasures and the grandeur of the banquet, on their homeward path, when suddenly their attention is arrested by the shadow, cast by the moonbeams, of an attenuated form — a man in a posture of devotion on the top of a pillar. The thought of contrast between their life and his has evidently cut deeply into their souls, as they stand aghast before the shadow of the Stylite as before a spectre. The sight has evidently awakened them to the idea of a higher world and of an aim which should outlive the vanities of time in which they were then absorbed. Such a Saint — however singularly, fanatically, if you like — the principle of world- renunciation may be expressed by him., may yet have some- thing of the effect of the Baptist, and become a converting The F^st. 39 power; but the Saint who, entering into common life, and manifesting his sanctity through the ordinary actions of life, performs each duty with a completeness, and bears each trial with a sweetness, and greets each joy with a calmness, and diffuses an unction of holiness through what may be com- monplace, and simply acts in a CHRisx-like manner on all occasions, is after all the Saint that has a sustained influence and charm. Our Lord combines both ; but the former is only a passing phase of His history, imparting to asceticism His grace and authority, sanctioning it as a life, or as an element in the formation of a true life ', but the latter is His normal life, whereby He teaches perfection to all. As our Lord represented in an extreme form the life of morti- fication in the desert, gathering, as it were, into the forty days what in us may be spread out as a faint reflection through our life; so, in like manner. He gathered His bodily Sufferings into the last hours of His Passion, having been previously free from the pains of disease. We re- member mostly what lasts long, or is again and again re- peated ; but with the experiences of the Son of God it is different. Each passing condition not only leaves its in- delible mark on the Memory of Christ, but is still, so to speak, a distinct consciousness, a living fountain of merit and of sympathy. Whilst, then, we are now dwelling upon our Lord in the wilderness, watching Him as He fulfilled the Psalmist's description,^ not only of himself, but when ' Ps. cix. 24. 40 The Fast, speaking in the person of Messiah, he said, " My knees are weak through fasting ; my flesh is dried up for want of fat- ness," we must not allow the sight to cause us for a moment to entertain the idea that Christianity must in all cases take the form of a forbidding asceticism ; but we must remember the limits of the Fast, and that He Who sanctioned austerity was also afterwards present at the marriage festival, and joined in occasions of social mirth, and came " eating and drinking."^ II. We will now pass to the consideration of some of the purposes of Christ's Fast. Our Lord had a work to undo as well as to do. (i.) And first, let us see the purpose in this Suffering in reference to the past. Fasting was not in Christ the fulfil- ment of any Jewish law. The Jews were in the habit of fasting, as a cursory glance at the Old Testament shows. The day of Atonement was their annual fast. In later times other public fasts were added — the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months.^ Besides these, the Sab- bath had the character of a fast. There were also laws of abstinence concerning various kinds of food, and all leaven was forbidden for a week at the Passover. The Pharisees observed two weekly fasts, a fact which our Lord does not omit to mention in His portraiture of a self-righteous mem- ber of that sect. But the Jews had no long fasts, and con- sequently the Fast in the desert could have had no reference * S. Luke vii. 34. " Zech. viii. 19, The Fast. to Levitical obligations. Our Lord was by His Fast in- vesting fasting with a fresh efficacy ; He was doing in Person what He would reiterate in His members. His Fast in relation to the past was a satisfaction for sin. The sin of the First Adam was, in the outward act, the violation of a law of abstinence ■} the Fast of the Second Adam was an expression of sorrow for that transgression, and for all the sins of gluttony and intemperance which result from that first indulgence. Fasting may even be a natural effect of sorrow; for so closely are soul and body webbed together, that whatever deeply touches the one affects the other. We know from experience, that in bitter grief, at the time of any great be- reavement, we are less concerned about bodily necessities. Fasting and mourning go together. When the soul is smitten with a sense of sin — the deepest sorrow of which we are capable — its accompaniment is indifference to bodily comforts, or even necessaries. " My heart," says the psalmist, " is smitten, and withered like grass ; so that I forget to eat my bread. "^ In the exhortation in the Prophet Joel, " Turn ye even unto Me with all your heart, and with fasting,"^ the order is the same. The heart is first wounded, and then its secret sorrow is unveiled through the body's partnership in the act of repentance. The whole inward being turns to God, and then the outward withdraws itself * "Adam intemperantia ventris expulit a Paradise." — S. Chrys. - Ps. cii. 4. ^ Joel ii. 12. 42 The Fjst. from created delights. It is the same with worship : it commences in the aspirations and affections of the soul, and then transpires through the bodily expression of it. Mental absorption in any pursuit or enjoyment, may, though in a different way, produce the same result. The author of the Imitation tells us of those who, " through the great sweetness they enjoyed in prayer, sometimes even forgot their bodily necessities."^ There are those, too, who, through intense application in worldly business, in pursuit of gain or from ambition, eat the bread of carefulness, and are even ready to forego a meal to give themselves more con- tinuously to their employment. But these are different from the former : when sorrow produces abstinence, it is because the body is actually affected by the grief of the soul, and its cravings not merely postponed on behalf of other interests. But fasting as a natural effect of sorrow will be of rare occurrence, happening, perhaps, in a soul burdened with crime or some grievous sin, and only just awakened to its enormity; or in the case of a great calamity, when a nation, like Nineveh of old, is bowed down before its God. Fasting in reference to the past will ordinarily be undertaken as a penitential exercise. We cannot doubt but that Christ's Fast was an expression of sorrow, as well as a penance, which was imposed by Himself. The mourn- ing and fasting which are blended in the prophecies of ^ Imitation, bk. i. ch. xvii. The Fast. 43 the Psalter find in Him their fullest realization. That He should be said to hunger only when the forty days had expired, not only proclaims that His exhausted Humanity had hung upon the Life of His Higher Nature, but also denotes the previous concentration of His Soul upon spiritual interests. Our Lord had just been called the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world ; and now He bears the sins of the people, like the scapegoat, into the wilderness. Such a sorrow for sin had never be- fore been presented to God ; and it was a sorrow prompted only by charity, in which self had no share and no need. Expressions of sorrow for past sin had been offered to God not only in the ordinary Ritual of the Jews, but also on great emergencies and national calamities. Fasting had especially this aspect of old, it regarded the past ; but such a sorrow as that which Jesus offered was before unknown. It was a sorrow assumed for others, a sorrow which He of- fered as the new Head of our race, and rendered boundless in its extent and efficacy through the Divine Nature. The Second Adam atoned for the sin of the First; His Fast had a retrospective effect, and we in like manner can fast in union with Him, and thus put to account the grace which He obtained for us. As this relation to the past is the first view of Christ's Fast, so it will be often the same with our fasts. Our fast may have a general or a particular regard to the past; it may be undertaken as an act of self-vengeance for sinful indulgence of every kind ; 44 T^HE Fast, or, it may have a specific reference to sins of sensuality, gluttony, or intemperance. Fasting is therefore sometimes called a work of satisfaction. There is no need to shrink from this term, as though its use involved some disparage- ment of the one "full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." Such an idea arises from a mistake as to its theological meaning. It is wrongly supposed that by satisfaction for past sin is meant atonement for sin. No act of our own can remove the guilt of deadly sin, when that sin is our own, much less can it be conceived to do so when it is another's sin. There is only One to Whom we look, and cry, — " O Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world !" Satisfaction has relation, not to the guilt of sin, but to its penalties. The two, guilt of sin and penalty of sin, are distinct ; the one may be removed, and the other, at least in a measure, remain. Moses suffered the penalty of sin when its guilt had been removed ; he was forbidden to enter the land of promise because of his sin at Meribah,! yet we find him on the Mount by the side of his Transfigured Lord. David, the pattern of penitents in the Old Testament, incurred penalties on account of his sin, far-reaching and severe chastisements, yet we have the authority of Scripture for saying the guilt of that sin had been " put away." Penalties followed him to his grave; and after his death was still verified the ^ Num. XX. 12. The Fast, 45 awful utterance, " The sword shall never depart from thine house."^ A Divine absolution was followed by such punishments as the death of his child, war with his enemies, and division in his household. The second com- mandment refers to penalties, and not to guilt, for "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father."^ The sin of Adam is the only exception to this law. It is evident then, from Holy Scripture, that guilt of sin and penalties of sin are separable. It is further evident that works of penitence may affect the latter, mitigate or remove the impending punishment. An instance of both will suffice to substantiate this assertion. When Elijah pronounced the sentence of God against Ahab and his posterity, Ahab "rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly." And God said, " Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before Me ? Because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days ; but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. "^ This was an example of the effect of works of penitence on the Mind of God in relation to an individual and his family — a postponement, and con- sequently a transference of the penalties. Again, when the people of Nineveh "proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth," we are told, " God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way ; and God repented of the evil ^ 2 Sam. xii. lo. " Ezek. xviii. 20. ^ I Kings xxi. 29. 46 The Fast. that He had said that He would do unto them ; and He did it not."i Here there is the case of a nation or people, and of the entire removal of a penalty which had been distinctly foretold. But we must not conclude that, because works of satis- faction through God's grace can be done by us, and thereby penalties arrested, whilst guilt can only be removed through Christ, that therefore His Work is an Atonement for guilt, but not a perfect Satisfaction. It is both ; but the two are differently applied to the individual — the twofold efficacy is by different means extended to His members. Deliverance from guilt, and restoration to the Divine Favour, has a sa- cramental mode of application ; but deliverance from penal- ties is effected also by way of similitude. Penitential works in the Old Testament had their value as types of Christ's Penance, and were enriched by that grace which His Life threw back upon them ; penitential works in the New Tes- tament, done for past sin, are wrought in union with Him, are the extension of His Work in His members, by which they put to account the grace He has purchased. " The virtue of the Holy Ghost," says S. Cyprian, " is given to us in His own order, not according to our will." Thus we appropriate Christ's Satisfaction through our own efforts, filling up, as S. Paul says, "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. "^ Bear in mind that works of satisfaction are not a compensation for the guilt 1 Jonah iii. lo. ' Col. i. 24. The Fast. 47 of sin, but relate only to its penalties ; and that works of satisfaction are only of avail when wrought in and through Christ, and then — there need be no room for hesitation in using the term. If it may be said it is dangerous to use a term which may be misunderstood, it may be re- plied that it is still more hazardous to abstain from the use of a term, which prominently sets forth an aspect of Christianity which it is in the interests of corrupt nature to overlook. Christ came not only to be the Saviour of mankind, but also the Restorer. These acts of virtue — such as, alms- deeds, prayer, fasting, are needful in penitence, not merely to counterbalance in some objective account the evil of our past doings, but for self-restoration. That "sin is always a process of self-destruction,"^ is a truth which can- not be too often repeated. It injures our faculties and members, our life, our being ; and the adoption of re- straints upon the passions through which we have sinned is not only a punitive but a restorative discipline, the bring- ing to bear upon the wounded nature the healing grace of Christ. (2.) Christ's Fast had also relation to the present. He fasted as our Example to teach us one of the neces- sary means for vanquishing the Tempter. He taught us by this act, that the foe we have first to fear is the foe within us. Our Lord, as He was made "in the likeness ^ "Liberalism in Religion." W, Page Roberts. P. 131. 48 The Fast. of sinful flesh," " condemned sin in the flesh/'^ He treated His flesh as though it had within it the taint of our cor- ruption. "Fast," S. Chrysostom says, "because thou hast sinned, and fast that thou mayest not sin." When an in- fectious disorder is prevalent, it is commonly observed that those are the first to take it who are not in a good state of health; so with external temptations, we are more apt to be contaminated, when our inward condition has a special affinity with them. We are tempted when we are drawn aside by our own lust and enticed. " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts."^ The root of sin is within. You may take a city by siege as well as by direct attack ; fast- ing is the weakening of the enemy by the former process — by the withdrawal of supplies. As prayer is the remedy for the pride of life, and alms-deeds for the lust of the eye, so fasting strikes at the lusts of the flesh, and subdues it to the spirit. "I keep under my body," says the great Apostle, "and bring it into subjection : lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."^ That which our Lord did in confronting the power of evil, He taught His disciples the necessity of doing; when they failed in expelling the impure spirit. He explained to them that success in such cases depended on the combined use of " prayer and fasting."* This explanation was for future guidance ; for the children of the bridechamber were not to 1 Rom. viii. 3. - S. Matt. xv. 19. 3 I Cor. ix. 27. ^ S. Matt. xvii. 21. The Fast, 49 fast while the Bridegroom was with them. Thus Christ took occasion from a single instance to enunciate a general law. Fasting, in the Old Testament, was not so much em- ployed as a means of overcoming evil as in the New; in the Mosaic Law, it was used as a penitential act rather than as a preventive measure. Christ's Fast invested it with new properties, and with a brighter purpose. It was hence- forth to be exercised in a childlike spirit, by those who were living in the Divine Favour, and not merely by the guilty as the instrument of averting Divine Wrath. It was to be an accompaniment of the reign of the Spirit in the soul. It was to come under a law of the spiritual life, — the law which obliges us to avoid, when we can, occasions of sin : an avoidance not only to be practised with regard to external temptations, but also to be ex- tended to the inward causes of sin. The New Testament fast aims at the subdual of the flesh to the spirit — indica- tions of this purpose may be found in the Psalter, as anti- cipations of Christian Life, and may be traced in the saints of old — but fasting, according to Jewish ideas, was rather associated with affliction, calamity, and punishment, than with interior triumph and spiritual progress. In the Dispen- sation of the Spirit, a new necessity, and a new capacity for mortification have arisen. In the Mystery of the Temptation, this is intimated by the connection between the leading of the Spirit into the desert and the forty days' fast which immediately followed it. The Personal £ 50 The Fast. indwelling of the Holy Ghost demands the subdual of the flesh to the spirit, not only to prevent the outward violation of the Divine Law, but to avoid grieving an in- ward Presence. It was this additional reason for the sub- jugation of the flesh, which S. Paul urged upon the Co- rinthians.^ As after Communion, every one should feel a double necessity for guarding the soul ; so, after the gift of the Spirit, a further restraint of the lower nature became a consequence of His abiding Presence. It is now not merely our spirit which is overcome when the flesh pre- vails, but the Holy Spirit. We are not only fighting our own battle, but the Spirit, through us and in us, is warring against the powers of evil. Again, in the New Testament, fasting is employed for the subdual of the flesh to the spirit, out of honour to the Incar- nation- and Crucifixion.^ God had not assumed a human form in the Old Testament, neither had the law of mortifi- cation been taught by the Cross. Fasting has been trans- formed by our Lord's Life and Sufferings, and has become an instrument of sanctification, a remedy against tempta- tion, a preventive against relapse, a means of preserving and extending the reign of the Spirit within the soul. S. Paul joins purity to fasting, as having an intimate connection. When he is commemorating the different ways of approv- ing ourselves as the ministers of God, "in fastings"* is ^ I Cor. vi. 19. " I Cor. vi. 13. ' Gal. ii. 20. ■* 2 Cor. vi. 5, 6. The Fast. 51 placed immediately before "by pureness," as though the one were suggested by the mention of the other, and re- sulted from it. Thus Christ's Fast, viewed in reference to the present, suggests to us the importance of this prac- tice as a weapon with which to meet the Foe, and obtains for us the grace which is necessary in order to use it aright in our spiritual warfare. (3.) Christ's Fast sanctified fasting also in relation to the future, as a means for increasing illumination. Com- ing, as it did, immediately before the exercise of His Public Ministry, He sanctioned it as a practice which was calculated to produce an accession of light in the soul. "Fasting," says S. Augustine, "purifies the mind, elevates the feelings, subdues the flesh to the spirit, renders the heart humble and contrite, dispels the mists of lust, quenches the flames of passion, and enlightens with the true light of chastity." In the Old Testament, we read how Moses and Elias fasted; the former before receiving the Law, the latter before communing with God on the Mount. It was after Daniel "ate no pleasant bread "^ till three whole weeks were fulfilled that he was vouch- safed " a great vision." Cornelius^ fasted and prayed, and behold "a man" stood before him "in bright clothing." Doubtless this is one reason why fasting is enjoined before receiving Sacraments, to fit the mind for spiritual illumina- tion. Fasting in these instances fitted man for approaching ^ Dan. X. 3. 2 Acts x. 30, but R. V. omits "fasting." 52 The Fast, God, and for receiving some fresh knowledge of His Mind and Will. But here it must be remembered, that as Christ joined fasting and prayer together, so fasting alone does not suffice to produce illumination. Fasting disengages the soul from the trammels of corruption, lightens, so to speak, " the cor- ruptible body"! which presses it " down," and thus removes the impediments to illumination; but prayer obtains the light. Fasting and prayer act and react on one another in the soul's upward flight ; the one acquiring grace, the other using it. The soul rises with both these wings into the clear light of Heaven, as the clouds of sensuality are dispersed. Fasting, too, is a means of illumination, because it in- volves moral effort, the putting forth of the strength of the ■will — sacrifice. Sacrifice, as it mortifies the lower, so does it quicken the higher nature of man. Man belongs to two worlds, the material and the spiritual, and can develop either side of his complex being : by leading the life of the flesh he can in a great degree extinguish the spiritual elements of his being, and by living the life of the spirit he can overpower the carnal cravings. It is not merely the lessening of the physical forces of the body by reduc- tion of food, but the triumph of the moral effort which con- stitutes the complete " crucifixion of the flesh." It will be seen that inward light springs from mortifica- 1 Wisd. ix. 15. The Fast. 53 tion, as darkness is the result of self-indulgence. Experience in sin is unlike any other experience, it lessens our know- ledge of its nature, and hinders us from discovering its pre- sence and workings in the soul. Sensuality, especially, weakens or destroys the perception of sin, and obscures the view of God. The " understanding" becomes " dark- ened."^ On the other hand, self-denial clears away the mist and unveils God to the soul, and gradually restores to it a right judgment. This is but to express in other words what the Apostle has declared to us, that spiritual things cannot be discerned by the carnal mind. Our Lord's Fast stands an abiding witness to the need of spirituality, a witness so much the greater, as He Who gives it had no need of such a discipline on His own ac- count. As He sanctified fasting as a work of satisfaction for the past, and a part of our spiritual armour in present conflict ; so did He, by prefacing with such an ordeal that period of His Life when He was about to begin His Public Ministry and to unveil His Mind to others, — teach us that fasting, as it was a means of gaining, so did it qualify us for imparting Divine Light. in. It remains for us to look at the manner or condi- tions of Christ's Fast, in order that we may be on our guard against certain faults which are apt to mar or destroy the beneficial effects of this exercise. Our Lord assumed that Christians would fast. On the Mount He said, " When » Eph. iv. 18. 54 "The F^st. ye fast." He thus takes for granted that this custom would be continued. It has been said that He gave no express injunction about fasting. It may be replied that such in- junction was unnecessary, unless in the case of instituting an unknown observance, or of re-asserting one which had been obscured, ignored, or forgotten. The practice of fast- ing amongst the Jews had increased and not lessened by lapse of time, and was regularly observed by those to whom Christ was addressing Himself; so regularly, indeed, that amongst some, the departure of His disciples from this habit produced astonishment, the more so, because " the disciples of John fast often"^ — until Jesus explained that they were only temporarily dispensed from it because of His Presence — a Presence which by its effluence and constant action upon them, it may be, so subdued their lower impulses, and chastened and elevated their minds, as to render less neces- sary outward mortification. There was a joyousness in the atmosphere of His Presence with which rigorous abstinence was for the time inconsistent. What our Lord did by His Teaching on the Mount was to separate the precious from the vile, the semblance from the reality, the shadow from the substance. It should be remembered that a practice which in some form appears in the successive Dispensations of God, must be one of fundamental im- portance. (i.) A fast, according to Christ, must be a real self- * S. Luke V. 33. The Fast, 55 denial; it must be like His Fast. In the wilderness Christ ate nothing for forty days. To imagine that He fed on berries and fruits of the desert, is to deal unfairly with the sacred text,^ in order, it may be, to avoid a resort to the supernatural. Christ was kept alive by His Divinity. Moses and Elias were kept alive by Divine power ; but Christ, though upheld by the same, differed from them, in that in Him the power emanated from Himself. Though He did not hunger until the fortieth day of the fast, yet we may not conclude from this that He did not suffer. Those who have fasted long, know that weakness, exhaustion, and weariness, without hunger, are amongst the sharpest trials which they undergo. If the prophecies of the Psalter are fulfilled in Christ in this as in other events, such language as, " I wept and chastened my soul with fasting f- " By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin : I am become like a pelican of the wilderness : I am like an owl of the desert,"^ — must point to a condition of painful prostration and intense solitude. Christ felt keenly the deprivations of the wilderness ; fasting, then, in us must be a real self-denial. It was the absence of the essence of the act, namely, the crossing of the corrupt will, which led God to denounce the fast of Israel : " Behold, in the ^ To suppose that Jesus *' found all that was necessary for His bare sustenance in such scant fruits as the desert might afford" is contrary to the plain statement of S. Luke, that "He did eat nothing." 2 Ps. Ixix. 10. 3 ps, cii. 5, 6. 56 The Fast. day of your fast ye find pleasure,^^^ or, as the word may be rendered, "your own will." The first degree of mortification is the ceasing to gratify fallen inclinations ; and this involves a considerable struggle, especially in those who have been long addicted to any vice. The fast which God delights in is, first, the fast from sin, and from all that leads to sin.^ "Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes ; cease to do evil, learn to do well."^ " Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ?"* The higher refinements of mortification are much easier than the first efforts of avoiding gross sensuality, as those who have gone through the conflict have testified. After vicious excesses are removed, the next degree of mor- tification is the surrender of superfluities. This is easier in the rich than in the poor : God has put superfluities out of the reach of the latter. Nature has but few needs ; it is the factitious needs of a self-indulgent age which create points ^ Isa. Iviii. 3, ysn, vide Job xxxi. 16, to d^KiiyLara v/xau, LXX., "voluntas vestra," Vulg. * " Abstinentia ab omnibus illecebris." — Aquinas. ' Isa. i. 16, 17. * Isa. Iviii. 6, 7. T^HE Fast. 57 for mortification. Each rank of life is propped upon a greater number of needs than the one beneath it ; needs, not by nature, but by circumstances called into existence, and at last assuming the character of necessaries. It is a humbling consideration for the rich, how much more de- pendent upon outward things they are than the poor. What is fasting to the one, is affluence to the other. There is, however, a relieving side to the picture, namely, the mani- fold forms of mortification which a life surrounded by luxuries has ready at hand ; and this mode of using them can alone render such a life innocent. Such a life and position are so far removed from the actual circumstances of the Life of Christ as to demand a double care for de- tachment, so that, by acquiring Christ's spirit a close in- ward resemblance may compensate for the outward contrast. A further line of mortification is approached, when for a time the conveniences, as they may be termed, of life are withdrawn. These are things which are neither excesses nor superfluities, but which it is a trial to give up, such as social intercourse, amusing literature, innocent pleasures, warmth, ease, and the like. And, finally, mortification touches even the necessaries of hfe, which in fasting are for a brief space in a measure set aside, and voluntary hunger endured, whereby the soul may realize what the poor have often to suffer ; and may in a faint way realize, too, what Christ suffered when He hungered ; and may give itself to prayer, and to the consideration of Heavenly things. 58 7he F^st. (2.) On the other hand, fasting must be regulated by- prudence. One of old says : " We regulate our fasting according to our strength, although the zeal of some per- suades them to fast beyond what they are able."^ It is a means to an end, and is only advantageous when it tends towards the attainment of that end. Christ would not go beyond the appointed limit of His Fast, and " during the whole succeeding time governed His Body with due order. "^ Christ's Fast, as well as His journey into the desert, was under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The Church has ordained seasons and degrees of fasting, but a law is made for the multitude and its application in individual cases must rest with the legislator.^ Thus, the young, the aged, the infirm, the poor, the mother, the hard labourer, the traveller, and the man of exhausting occupation, have been more or less dispensed from the observance of the precept. Moreover, those who are bound to fast, should do so with discretion. Excess in fasting, may, instead of aiding, hinder the exercise of higher duties, and lead to temptations which the weakened faculties find it difficult to resist.* It may be itself the effect of self-will. The incidence of the precept of fasting must depend upon circumstances, such as age, health, climate, employment, and the degree of ' S. Greg. Naz. 2 g. Basil. ^ Aquinas. ■* Sir John Franklin relates in his ''Journey to the Polar Sea," how extreme hunger produced amongst his companions an irritable and quarrelsome temper. The Fast. 59 abstinence in particular cases be determined by the indi- vidual conscience and spiritual guidance. Whilst fasting then should involve real self-denial, it should be also dis- creet, that its fruits may be secured. (3.) Again, Christ's Fast was in secret, in innermost solitude, in the depths of the desert ; and in this He teaches us another lesson, namely, that fasting should not be done in a vain-glorious spirit. It is rare to find people severe with themselves, but rarer to find them humble and severe ; yet there is no true severity without humility ; for there is nothing but self-indulgence in a mortification which is supported by vain-glory. Our Lord solemnly warned us against vanity in fasting : " When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites ; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast."^ Nature has its revenges, and unless we are on our guard, while we mortify one side of the being, we may be gratifying another. There are coun- terfeit victories, which are only the triumph of one passion over another. Fasting is not a Httle ceremony, a little rest from public entertainments and from an oppressive amount of visiting, an almost pleasant interval of cessation from a luxurious table, which has the gratification of being re- marked upon by others. Neither does fasting consist in the greatness of the things which are given up, when such an abstinence leads to the injury of health and to incapacity for the fulfilment of the duties of our state ; but real self- * S. Matt. vi. 16. 6o The Fast, denial is the doing what we do not like, and the abstain- ing from doing what we do like, for the glory of God. Vanity in fasting will show itself both where fasting is re- cognized and valued, and where it is exceptional or offen- sive ; in the former, there may be the dislike to be sur- passed by others, and the desire to be conspicuous through little acts of mortification ; in the latter, there may be the air of a pretentious superiority or precocious display, which finds its utterance in the words, " I am not as other men are,"^ " Come not near me, I am holier than thou."^ Jesus suggests a contrast between the passing esteem of the crea- ture now, and the lasting reward of the Father, and the esteem of the creature, too — in the Day when the counsels of all hearts shall be revealed. Fasting, to be like that of Jesus Christ, must be united with hiddenness of life ; and is not to be displayed, except, as Jesus afterwards revealed His Fast, if necessary for the edification of others. It should be a sufficient delight that the Father seeth in secret, and rewardeth openly. (4.) With the enlargement of the motives of fasting, there was also an importation of brightness into the practice. Our Lord was led by the Spirit to His Fast, and where the Spirit is, there is liberty, joy, and peace. There are no sorrowful cadences, but a sustained tone of triumph in the Evangelical narrative. Our Lord condemned a gloomy appearance during fasting : " When ye fast, be not, as the ^ S. Luke xviii. 11. 2 jsa. bcv. 5. The Fast, 6i hypocrites, of a sad countenance : for they disfigure their faces . . . but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face."^ To anoint the head was a custom amongst the Jews, especially at festival times, so that by this reference Christ intended to convey to them the thought that fasting was to be accompanied with cheer- fulness. There is the danger of losing love or sweetness of temper, unless the fast be sustained by the power of the Spirit. Fasting and prayer^ must go together. The fast of the body should be the feast of the soul. Temptations which fasting sometimes produces are only opportunities for con- flict, and so for growth, when the fast is undertaken with prudence and under guidance, and in a spirit of obedience. Such temptations are accompanied by the grace of re- sistance, when the fast is in accordance with God's Will. Let it be remembered that all suffering without charity is nothing worth, and that " the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. "^ The head must be anointed with the oil of gladness, the unction of the Spirit ; for God, in this as in other things, "loveth a cheerful giver."* If fasting be joined to moroseness, there must be something irregular in the affections, which hinders us from entering heartily into the conflict with the flesh, the world, and the Devil. As of * S. Matt. vi. 16, 17. 2 s. Matt. xvii. 21. ^ Rom. xiv. 17. •* 2 Cor. ix. 7. 62 The F^st. old,^ so now, reluctance in entering into the battle is a hindrance to success. As soldiers go forth with joy and courage to battle, although they have to bear privations, and it may be incur suffering and death during the campaign ; so in putting on the spiritual armour, and going forth to meet the enemies of the soul, there must be the same brightness and confidence. And this brightness must be caught from the Captain of our salvation, and sustained by the constant presence of His Spirit : it is not merely the result of natural good spirits, but of an unearthly radiance, — the shining out of a supernatural life. We have now contemplated our Lord during His Fast of forty days, and considered its Hmits, purposes, and chief features ; regarding Him at one time as the Vic- tim, expressing His sorrow, though a sorrow bright with the joy of the Holy Ghost; at another time, we have viewed Him as our Example, teaching us how we should personally prepare to confront the Foe; lastly, we have noted the reaUty, the limit, the hiddenness, and the joy- ousness of His Fast in the desert. Whatever our pur- pose in fasting may be — whether fasting is undertaken in obedience to the Church, or as a private discipline ; whether for sin past, to meet present temptation, or to obtain light for the future or to increase and sustain that which has already been vouchsafed to us (and either one of these may be the end selected, or the predominant aim of the soul), our ^ Deut. XX. 8. The Fast, 63 fast should have as far as possible the features of Christ's Fast, — be a genuine self-denial, undertaken in a spirit of lowliness and discretion, in fellowship with Him, in de- pendence on His grace and sympathy, and under the guid- ance of the Holy Ghost. If we avoid unreality, excess, selfcomplacency, and moroseness, w^e shall by this practice gain some fresh victory over the Tempter, gain some fresh glimpse of Heaven, some deeper insight into the Mysteries of the Faith, some new feature of likeness to our Lord ; and, by the application of His meritorious Fast in the desert, some new fitness for that Country where mortification W\\\ find no place, but where its results will abide ; for " there they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."^ Those who have shared with the Lamb of God privation and trial, shall thereby be qualified in these respects for sharing a common joy with Him hereafter. * Rev. vii. i6, 17. aerture Mh THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN. •• The Tempter came to Him."—^. Matt. iv. 3. T^HE human soul has within it, as a part of itself, the power of self-guidance; but this power is not so centred in self and self-sufficient as to be indifferent to external influences, and to those impulses which other forms of life may bring to bear upon it. On the contrary, it is keenly alive to the attractions of other beings, and liable to be led either by their example or solicitation. Beings kindred with itself may directly entice it, and may indirectly act upon it through material inducements. The soul finds itself, in the midst of the universe of God, beset by many influences, by influences, too, which are opposed to one another ; and the soul is not deaf to these voices. It seems a feature of its constitution that it is not made to travel alone ; though complete in itself, it yet leans on one or other of these guides, and so must make its choice. As when a ship nears land, various pilots are sometimes seen The Personality of Satan. 65 to approach and bid for her guidance ; then one, and then another, comes up to the vessel till the terms are settled, after which the successful applicant may be watched, towing the ship out of the channel into the river. So the soul must agree to accept some proffered influence amongst the dif- ferent ones which beset her, and to be directed and led after- wards by it. But there is this difference : the ship settles the question once and for all, but the soul may yield now to one, then to another of these influences, and thus the candi- dates do not depart in the latter case, but make continuously renewed solicitations, seeking to obtain the guidance of the soul, or molesting it on its course. These influences, when they lead in an evil direction, are called temptations, and the person who first originated them, " the Tempter." There are six influences, the power of which a soul may feel ; and each of these reached the Soul of Christ in the Temptation. The first is the influence of the Blessed Spirit. The manner and extent of that influence under which Christ was led up into the wilderness has been already considered. When these influences are constant, and regularly obeyed, they become laws of life. Hence S. Paul speaking of those who yield themselves habitually to the movements of the Holy Spirit says that " the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the law of sin and death.''^ So also the Apostle makes mention of " another law in" his " members, warring against the law * Rom. viii. 2. F 66 The Personality of Satan. \ of" his " mind."^ The act of obeying the successive prompt- ings of different influences S. Paul calls walking " after the flesh," walking "after the Spirit."^ The Soul of Christ was under the influence of the Divine Spirit as a law of His Hfe, and as He went into the wilderness under His guidance, so He also mortified the flesh during His long Fast, and in the strength of that Spirit met the Temptation. He met temptation, that is, as we meet it, and not by the exercise of His Divine Power. He met it as man. Christ felt, too, the presence of the Evil Spirit—" the Tempter came to Him." He was conscious of an opposite suggestion and appeal, a counter influence, obliging Him to make a choice. That the Tempter is said to come to Christ implies that he was before in some sense at a dis- tance from Him, or that his presence was less felt. The Evangelist styles him " the Tempter," as descriptive of his office and of the actions which he was about to record. The three temptations are representative of three influ- ences 3 that of the flesh, of the human spirit, and of the world. When it is said that the Tempter originates all evil influences, it is not meant that all temptations directly emanate from him. Objects which can gratify the desires of the flesh and of the mind may act as temptations, and the Evil One have no immediate share in the matter. But in corrupt nature, in one way he always is the source of temptation, in that through him first of all that nature was 1 Rom. vii. 23. 2 Rom. viii. i. The Personality of Satan. 67 rendered prone to evil. Green wood will not burn ; dry wood soon takes fire ; he then who, although he does not act the part of an incendiary, dries the wood in order that it may the sooner ignite, has a real share in the cause and spread of the conflagration. Our Lord made use of this metaphorical distinction between uncorrupt and corrupt nature : " If they do these things in a green tree," He said, " what shall be done in the dry ?"i In this way, then, Satan has a hand in every temptation, though the objects which are the instruments or material of the temptation may now allure without any direct intervention on his part. In un- corrupt nature he is the source of temptation in a different manner ; namely, by adding to the outward objects certain enticements or proposals, which, while they appeal to natural desires, suggest a course of action contrary to the revealed Will of God. The outward objects are " the satellites of the malignant prince of darkness," and though sometimes impersonal and inanimate, are yet distinct influences which make themselves felt as they are presented to the soul. The proposal to turn stones into bread represents the influence of the flesh ; to manifest greatness by the miracle on the pinnacle of the Temple, the influence of the human spirit ; to gain all kingdoms, the influence of the world. Lastly, the sixth influence completes the experiences of Christ in the Mystery of the Temptation : " The angels came and ministered unto Him."^ Christ was conscious ^ S. Luke xxiii. 31. ^ S. Matt. iv. 11. 68 The PERSONALnr of Satan, of contact with Heaven, as He had been of contact with Hell. Now these six influences which we have noticed are re- solvable into two in the final resort, which set in motion the rest, either directly or indirectly — the Holy Spirit and the Evil Spirit. It will be our next step, having viewed the circumstances of the Temptation and the Fast, to con- template him who approaches Christ. Let us consider, first, the Personality of the Tempter ; secondly, his qualifi- cations for tempting. I. Hitherto we have treated of influences ; but now the question of the personality of the Evil One must not be slurred over ; for if we do not beHeve in his existence, to be consis- tent, we should regard the Temptation as a fable. Personal- ity differs from influence ; and by contrasting these two ideas we may gain some notion of what we mean by personality. Influence is that which emanates from personality, whilst personality is a source of influence. Personality is capable of receiving as well as giving, whilst influence only gives. Personality differs from influence as a flower is distinct from its perfume, or a poison from its effects. Personality may be viewed apart from influence ; but influence itself cannot be viewed alone. Influence can only exist where it has objects which are receptive of it ; but personality has an objective existence, apart from circumstances. Influence is evanes- cent, exercised in various degrees, and powerful according to the susceptibilities of its recipient. Personality is a The Personality of Satan, 69 centre of consciousness, with the power of regarding and controlling itself when its faculties are developed, of re- membering past impressions, of self-guidance and choice, of developing latent capacities ; it is the treasure-house of a history peculiar to itself, and has a distinct mind and character. By personality we mean the highest form of life with which we are acquainted, and hence we use the term of God. Not that we speak of the personality of God and of a creature as though it were to be employed in a parallel sense ; but we attribute to God our highest conception of life, believing that the Divine Personality transcends all our thoughts, and that creaturely personality bears to it but a distant relation, as instinct in animals is a true but distant shadow of reason in man. Such a contrast between and description of influence and personality, is avowedly admitted to be inadequate to re- present an idea which by its nature, like a primary colour, may perhaps be more easily known or understood than defined or explained. No one has yet been able adequately to define life, yet it exists. A further difficulty meets us when the personality under consideration is that of an immaterial being ; and this difficulty presents itself, whether we regard the disembodied spirits of men, the angels, or God Himself. We must be careful lest we confine it to the realization of the existence of the Evil Spirit. We are our- selves conscious of intellectual powers which are at work without the activity of the senses; but we can form no 70 The Personality of Satan, picture of a being with a mind, a will, a memory, a con- sciousness, without some material organism which shall incase those powers, and be ready for their use. Hence the aerial bodies with which the poet clothes the angels, and in part the anthropomorphic conceptions and descrip- tions of the Nature of God. These are the resort of the artist, or concessions to the human mind, in order to bring the spiritual and immaterial within the reach of the imagi- nation or senses. It is not an easier task to conceive of dead matter giving birth to mind, volition, and sensation, than to imagine that such faculties can be directly created, and exist apart from any corporeal form. Reason is insufficient in both cases to solve the mystery. And yet with our utter incapacity for realizing what a spirit is, it has been a question whether reason alone does not point towards the existence of an order of beings completely immaterial. The different tiers of being may lead us to suspect that man is not at the summit of creation, and that, as beings beneath him share with him the animal nature without the spiritual, so beings above him share the spiritual without the animal. The earth, the trees, the animals, men, angels, seem to form steps in a ladder, a rung of which would be wanting if spiritual essences were left out. If God is Himself a Spirit, and created a complete world, we should look for an order of beings who resembled Himself in His immateriality — an order of beings with finer faculties than those which we possess, and bodiless. The Person ALur of Satan, 71 Further, as we see good and bad persons amongst our- selves, so amongst spirits we may be prepared to find moral differences, and to find their powers for good or evil greater than our own ; and also to discover that they exercise these powers in trying to influence the nature which in the scale of being is next beneath them. As in showing the Existence of God to the unbeliever in Revelation, arguments are fetched from the existence of the universe, from the manifestation of design in the frame of the world, from conscience, from the concep- tions of the human mind, and from general consent ; so, in a similar manner, the existence of a spirit-world may be indicated. It would be difficult to reconcile with the Divine Goodness the condition of the world at any time, weighed down as it is with misery and suffering ; if some other agent than God were not at work in it, and the active cause of this misery ; and if some brighter Realm did not exist with its joyous inhabitants — a pure and countless host. The opinion that there was an Evil God as well as a Good God, which satisfied the minds of multitudes in the East, whilst it was the exaggeration of a truth, showed the necessity of tracing evil to some personal source distinct from God. Again, all nations in the past have borne witness to a belief in spiritual beings; and this conviction cannot be only the product of a savage and barbarous condition, which personifies everything, and which disappears as soon as civilization advances. In opposition to such an explana- 72 The Personality of Satan, tion, it has been urged^ that the early instincts of nations in religious matters are more likely to be the true exponents of human opinion than the later, when civilization has brought about a onesided development of nature — deve- loped the intellect without developing the moral sense. With regard to a belief in evil spirits, the disparagement of early convictions in comparison with later has little force. It has been said, we are aware, that "it is extremely doubtful whether the existence of evil demons was known either to the Greeks or Romans till about the time of the advent of Christ;"- and that it is in the later Jewish history, and not in the earlier, that the Evil One is pro- minent. But it has been discovered, that aborigines, as a rule, have an instinctive belief in demons, even when at best they have but a faint conception of a good God. The existence of spirits, good or bad, may certainly be drawn from the ground of primitive beHef. And in human nature, if the conscience bears witness to the Unseen Judge of all, are there not also strange im- pulses, horrid thoughts, spectres which haunt us — not me- mories, but thoughts which are sudden, disconnected, re- ''ducible to no mental law — coming at times without anything to suggest them from without, but with everything in con- trast to them — thoughts which witness to contact with him who " came and sowed tares among the wheat P"^ Those 1 Newman's " Grammar of Assent," p. 391. " Lecky's Hist, of European Morals, Vol. I. p. 404. ^ S. Matt. xiii. 25. The Personaliit of Satan. 73 who know best the experiences of the soul, not as a specu- lative study, but from practical acquaintance with the inner workings of human nature in all conditions of life, discover phenomena which can hardly be accounted for in any other way. Evil thoughts, which no stretch of the imagination can set down to the corrupt passions, but which are hated by those who are molested by them — thoughts of blasphemy, unbelief, hatred, or self-destruction, where no mental or moral tendency in those directions can be found, and all the efforts to trace them in every instance to disease or human depravity have been baffled. The prevalence of^ evil proclaims the presence of a disturbing force in God's creation ; and as the only ultimate cause with which we are acquainted is a personal will, so we are led to attribute to a personal will the misery which is around us. The con- dition of human life, the evidence of human opinion, and of spiritual experience, all point to the conviction that there exist evil spirits — spirits who do what evil men do, mar and destroy the work of God, only with greater powers to do harm, and powers more lastingly exercised than is possible in the case of human beings. But that which is but faintly visible by the lights of natural religion is made clear by the Revelation of God. What we suspect only and conjecture, becomes a certainty to Divine faith. The revelation of the spirit of Evil is gradual, like the revelation of the Spirit of Good. What- ever may be the interpretation of the third chapter of 74 T^HE Personality of Satan, Genesis — however allegorical — ' the serpent' in the case of our first parents, and the ' tempter' in that of the second Adam, play the same part, make use of temptations, the analogy between which it is impossible to deny. " Through envy of the devil," says Solomon, "came death into the world."! While the title of ' Satan' occurs in four books^ in the Old Testament (if the one in the book of Chronicles without the article may be counted), it occurs in eight-and- twenty distinct places in the New, and other titles for the Evil One occur at least five-and-thirty times. These num- bers will show that the doctrine which was found in germ in the Jewish Scriptures was developed by Christ and His Apostles. Again, in the marvellous drama at the opening of the book of Job — a book, believed by some to be the oldest in the Bible — Satan is mentioned as a person whose existence was an acknowledged truth. Again, we read of the evil spirit who molested Saul 3 of a lying spirit, in the days of Ahab. Later notices of the Evil One have been accounted for by the contact of God's people with Persian ideas ; but in the first place it is very doubtful how far the Jews during their exile could have been exposed to ideas which were probably no part of the religion of the Chal- deans ; and, secondly, if they did learn Dualistic notions, the * Wisd. ii. 24. 2 I Chron. xxi. i. Job i. 6—10; ii. 1—6. Ps. cix. 6. Zech. iii. 1,2. " Satan" is also employed in eight passages in the broad sense of an "adversary." The Personality of Satan, 75 mention of Satan in the sacred books after the captivity has such pointed reference to his subordination^ to the Supreme Being as to separate him off by an infinite interval from the doctrine of an eternal and coequal Principle of Evil. The prevalence of a belief in Satan in later rather than earlier times, entirely confutes the notion that such an idea is the mark only of a rude and uncultivated age. The fact is, revelation sheds an increased light in process of time both on the evil and on the good. The original idea is once for all imparted, and remains for a while like the seed which is hidden in the soil, but afterwards germinates. The Seed of the Woman "shall bruise" the serpent's " head,"2 as it waits for ages its fulfilment on the Divine side ; so, on the Satanic side, the revelation of the Tempter also had a corresponding delay. But as the time draws near, the prophecies of the Coming One are thicker and grow richer; so, the person and work of Satan are less dimly portrayed. The triple Personality of God, the dis- tinct but inseparable Personality of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, waited for the Incarnation to be revealed thereby ; so the antagonist was not fully known until the Seed of the Woman was ready for the conflict ; until Human Nature by its elevation in Christ had freshly stirred the * Parseeism regarded the universe as the product of two opposite powers — Ormuzd and Ahriman, but the one was not subordinate to the other, if inferior; they are "two original principles." 2 Gen. iii. 15. 76 The Personality of Saian. fury and jealousy of Hell '} until the powers of the Spirit were present to enable man to cope with a Foe, whom he in his own strength would be unable to meet — then " the Tempter came to Him." A belief in the Evil One must accompany ^ a belief in Jesus Christ, for His words and works alike proclaim the existence of the devil. Our Lord thus refers to Satan : " Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts;"^ the woman with an infirmity is described as one " whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years /'^ " If Satan cast out Satan, how shall his kingdom stand P"^ in the parable of the tares, "the enemy that soweth them is the devil."^ Alluding to the Fall of Satan, He says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven ;"7 He warned His chief Apostle, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you."^ Again, "Ye are of your father the devil He was a mur- derer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth f^ " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out /'^^ " The * As Lucifer avers : — " I battle it against him as I battled In highest heaven — All— all will I dispute !" - There are not w^anting those who have maintained an opposite opinion. Vide Lord Lyttelton's "Ephemera." 3 S. Mark iv. 15. ^ S. Luke xiii. 16. ^ S. Matt. xii. 26. 6 S. Matt. xiii. 39. 7 s. Luke x. 18. ^ S, Luke xxii. 31. 9 S. John viii. 44. 1° S. John xii. 31. The Personality of Satan. 77 prince of this world is judged ;" " The prince of this world Cometh. "1 Speaking of His Passion, Christ referred to something more than human wickedness, "This," He says of spiritual wickedness, " is your hour and the power of darkness."- These and other utterances of our Lord render it impossible to dissociate a belief in Satan from His Teaching, Who came into the world to bear witness to the truth. If a false idea had been imported into the religion of the Jews at the time of the captivity, would not our Lord not only have abstained from making these references to Satan, but have cleared the minds of the people from what would have been a gross and funda- mental error? Is it conceivable that our Lord, knowing that this use of the terms "Satan," "Devil," "Prince of this world," would foster an error, would yet have em- ployed them, meaning thereby on every occasion simply to rhetorically personify our evil passions? Such an ex- planation, besides in many cases rendering the passages meaningless, is inconsistent with our Lord's Character; for it would be a fault in any teacher who knew the con- sequences, to use a term which would be habitually mis- understood by his followers. But not only the Words of Christ, but His Work de- mand a belief in the Tempter. Redemption is the key- note of the work of Christ in a fallen world j and Re- demption of a race implies that the race has fallen under ^ S. John xiv. 30. 2 g^ Luke xxiiv 53. 78 7 HE Personality of Satan, some alien power — is in the hands of some tyrant from whom it is to be rescued. Because the devil overcame man by inducing him to sin, man came in some way under the yoke of Satan, on the principle that by " whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought in bondage."^ Christ came to set man free. Such certainly is the scrip- tural view of the work of Christ. He represents Himself as the true Deliverer from the thraldom of Satan : " If I," saith our Lord, "with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of 'God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace : but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted."^ It may be said that this is a metaphor, but a metaphor is the clothing of some truth ; and when all that is only figurative has been removed, our Lord's words can mean nothing else but that He has come into the world to de- stroy the works of the devil. The external deliverances of old were the types, and supplied the letter, whereby a spiritual Redemption was foretold and celebrated. It was of this the Psalmist delighted to sing — and not merely of 1 2 S. Pet. ii. 19. So strongly was this felt by the early Church, that from the days of S. Irenseus to those of S. Anselm the opinion held sway that the Ransom of Christ was paid to Satan. S. Irenseus speaks of the obedience of Christ to the precept of the Father, in the Three Temptations, as counteracting Adam's disobedience when he was tempted. - S. Luke xi. 20 — 22. The Personality of Satan, 79 a civil or political deliverance, — when he breaks forth with a joyous anticipation of spiritual freedom, in such words as these : " Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath re- deemed and delivered from the hand of the enemy.''^ And the writers of the New Testament with one mouth testify to the Personality of Satan. S. Peter says, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ?"2 when addressing Ananias. At Csesarea he describes Christ as going about to heal " all that were oppressed with the devil."^ He bids us, *^'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."^ S. Paul speaks of his mysterious trial, the thorn in the flesh as " the messenger of Satan to buflet'^^ \^\j^^ i^ ^j^g game epistle, he calls Satan " the god of this world,"^ and in another place " the prince of the power of the air. "7 The same Apostle warns us not by anger to " give place to the devil /'^ exhorts us to " stand against the wiles of the devil,"^ not to " fall into the condemnation of the devil," not to " fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. "lo s. John asserts : " He that committeth sin is of the devil; ... the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was 1 Ps. cvii. 2. 2 Acts V. 3. 3 Actsx. 38. ^ I S. Pet. V. 8. 5 2 Cor. xii. 7. ^ 2 Cor. iv. 4. The devil is called the God of this world, "non creatione, sed quia seculariter viventes ei serviunt." — Aquinas. 7 Eph. ii. 2. 8 Epji_ j^^ 27. 9 Eph. vi. 11. •« I Tim. iii. 6, 7. 8o The Personality of Satan. manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."^ S. James says, " Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."'^ S. Jude refers to the devil as having some mysterious dispute about the body of Moses.^ And in the Book of Revela- tion the devil is styled " the dragon"* and " the old serpent ;"^ the closing book of Scripture thus becoming, as it were, a reflection of the first book, leaving no doubt as to the one who acted through the instrumentality of the serpent in Eden. From the fact, as one ground of proof, that per- sonal actions are attributed to the Holy Ghost in Scrip- ture, the Church has concluded that the Holy Ghost is a Person ; and in a similar way, from personal actions being continually ascribed to the Evil Spirit, his personality is admitted. The argument in the latter case, is in one re- spect even clearer than in the former ; for in the former the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and so it is possible to fall into the error of regarding the Spirit as only an influence or power emanating from God ; but in the latter, the Evil Spirit possesses a single- ness and separateness of existence, and is incapable of * I S. John iii. 8. " S. James iv. 7. ^ S. Jude 9. It matters not for our present purpose from what source S. Jude obtained this information. In the Acts of the Second Nicene Council (A.D. 786) the words occur, "In the book, 'The Assumption of Moses,' the Archangel Michael, contending with the devil," &c. Origen traces the account to the same apocryphal writing. The frag- ment, however, of the manuscript, recently discovered, does not con- tain the event which S. Jude is supposed to refer to. ■* Rev. xii. 7. ^ Rev. xx. 2. 7 HE Personality of Satan, 8i being regarded as the influence of any other, in that he does not proceed from another, but was originally created. One result of the Mystery of the Temptation is the clearer revelation of the Personal Tempter. This was not simply that man might know his danger, but also that false notions about the origin and propagation of evil might be dispelled. To manifest the Tempter striving to draw away the Sinless One from the law of Righteousness was to manifest the cause of sin, and so to throw light upon what had been, and still is without this interpretation, an insoluble mystery. The existence and permission of evil is a problem which has continually exercised the minds of philosophers, and the different views which they have propounded have filtered into popular beliefs. Some millions have thought evil to be eternal, and believed in an evil God, co- existent with the good God; others have believed that evil was resident in matter ; some, on the other hand, have imagined that it was traceable to the good God — " Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it ?"^ — not distinguishing between physical and moral evil ; or that it was but " a lower form of good," '• a part of the Divine activity" as it manifests itself in the universe. The doctrine that evil is not an abstraction, not eternal, not from God, not in matter, but the result of the defection of a created will, and that from that personal source it extended, through the energetic action of that will, to other forms of life, ^ Amos iii. 6. G 82 The Personality of Satan, — casts some light upon a question of great perplexity; thereby vindicating the Divine Goodness, and the inno- cency of material things ; whilst it at the same time pro- claims the perilous nature of the attribute of free-will. And further, it may help us a little towards understanding that mysterious Providence which" permits evil. It may be that the gift of free-will necessitated such a possibility as sinning, in order that it may have scope for its exercise, and that God might have only voluntary worshippers and adherents, and not be the Object of an enforced allegiance. Evil has its purposes : by the power of contrast it reveals the good, and is an occasion for its exercise, both in the case of one's own evil and the evil of others with which we come in contact ; but its final purpose, which the Mys- tery of the Temptation discloses, is, that it may be overcome by good.^ " The dragon fought and his angels, and pre- vailed not. "2 God allowed it that greater good might come out of permitted evil, and that the Seed of the woman,^ and all in union with Him,^ may triumph over the powers of darkness, that where sin abounded grace and glory also might at last much more abound. The personality of Satan, and his Fall like lightning from heaven, teach us that sin had a beginning, that it sprang from him, that it was at first, and is still, an abuse of free-will. II. Hitherto we have been occupied with the consider- 1 Rom. xii. 2i. 2 Rev. xii. 7, 8. 3 Gen. iii. 15. ** Rom. xvi. 20. The Personality of Satan. 83 ation of the personality of the Tempter ; now we proceed to deal with his qualifications for the office which that title implies. All that we know of him leads us to conclude that he is a formidable enemy. There are three qualities in an enemy which inspire terror, and where these three are found in combination, then the foe is most of all to / be dreaded. These are, skill, power, and malice. The Evil One has an angelic nature, and consequently has mental faculties which far exceed those which we possess. Those who have compared the nature of the human soul with the nature of the angel, have noticed that there remain four features of difference between them, after having traced the points in which they resemble one another. The angel is completely immaterial ; the human soul has a certain need of, and affinity with, the body as its complement. The disembodied spirit is not perfect, it awaits reunion with the body, that "mortality might be swallowed up of life."^ Again, the angel's will is incon- vertible, and fixed in its choice for good or evil ; the human will changes, fluctuates, hates now what once it loved, and loves what once it hated. Further, the angel's nature can- not be touched either with the feeling of our infirmities or with our sensations ; the human soul is moved by the im- pulses and thrills of the flesh. And finally — which is the point at issue, — the angel's nature is intellectual^ the human soul only rational^ — and these two terms are used to ex- * 2 Cor. V. 4. 84 7i/£ Personality of Satan, press a great difference. The human mind assures itself of truths through an argumentative process, clothes its thoughts in material forms, and gains knowledge in an indirect and imperfect way ; the angelic mind comprehends truth without reasoning or deduction, and possesses a faculty of knowing which is more vigorous and direct than ours, even in an unfallen state ; and of the vigour of our in- tellect when unclouded by sin, perhaps we can now possess no just idea. If man is lower than the angels in his inno- cency, how much is he beneath them in his corruption ! Moreover, in the angelic nature itself. Holy Scripture reveals distinctions. If Satan be represented by ' Lucifer,'^ the " light-bearer," such a title would imply a higher know- ledge and influence than ordinary angels possessed. Subtlety was the attribute which characterized the serpent at first ; and one of the titles of Satan, -" Daemon," signifies, accord- ing to some, by its derivation, skill or discernment. S. Augustine, in his treatise on "the City of God,"2 men- tions two modes of obtaining knowledge amongst the angels : the one, which is called their ' morning know- ledge,' because of its clearness, the knowledge which they gained from seeing the nature of things in the mind of God ; the other, which, because it is relatively not so bright, is called ' the evening knowledge,' that which they * *' All the Fathers understand by * Lucifer' (Isaiah xiv. 12) the chief of the devils." Corn, a Lapide. 2 S. Aug. De Civitate Dei, lib. xi. cap. vii. 7hE PERSONALITr OF SaTAN, 85 gain by contemplation of the creatures themselves. They are like persons who become acquainted with some build- ing, not only by going over it, but also by having first mastered the plan. But besides the original capacity for knowledge which Satan possessed, and which is not lost by his Fall, — ^for his intellect is not merely an endowment of grace but a constituent part of his nature as a spirit — he has acquired another knowledge as ' the Tempter,' namely, that which is the result of experience. His skill arises from the use he has made of his natural power in bending it to the one design of tempting, thus learning, if it may be so called, the science of temptation from past successes and failures. As an evidence of this skill it would be sufficient to bring forward the temptations of the Second Adam, and the exquisite subtlety with which the Evil One successively framed them. * Knowledge,' it is said, ' is power,' and if so it will be a most dangerous weapon when it is wielded by an evil will. The power of Satan is threefold. First, there is will-power. As angels surpass men in mind, so in strength of will for good or evil. Thus we are conscious that angelic worship exceeds ours in concentration, in fervour and in sustained vigour, and therefore we — employing the language of the Psalmist — call on the angels when we feel the inadequacy of our own efforts to praise God : " Praise the Lord, ye angels of His, ye that excel in strength."^ In our highest * Ps. ciii. 20. 86 The Personality of Satan, Act of Worship, we unite ourselves " with angels and arch- angels and all the company of heaven" that we may catch something of the intensity of their devotion. Will-power is greater than any other. We are aware of this in intercourse with others, and speak of those who have a weak or strong will. All know, how even mental activity depends much upon the energy of the will ; how closeness of attention, for in- stance, is due to the mastery of the same faculty. Satan, then, in temptation brings the might of his will, as far as permitted, to bear upon the will he would seduce. Some have thought that in our Lord's case alone this power of his was allowed its unrestrained exercise. At any rate, we are told that God will not " suffer us to be tempted above that" we " are able."^ The next element of power is to be found in the fact that Satan does not stand alone in this work of temptation. The angels who sank with him seem to preserve what had been their hierarchical order. Scripture clearly reveals a kingdom of evil, and not merely an Evil Being ; a kingdom of darkness as well as a kingdom of light : " We wrestle not against flesh and blood," saith S. Paul, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the dark- ness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. "2 The unclean spirit who cried, " My name is Legion : for we are many,"^ was giving utterance to the same truth. The contest is not with a solitary individual, but with an organized army. It has been even thought 1 I Cor. X. 13. 2 Eph. vi. 12. 3 s. Mark v. 9. The Personality of Satan, 87 that in the order of the evil spirits there is a mimicry and imitation of the pure and blessed spirits which stand before the Throne of God, from the occurrence in Holy Scripture of the number seven^ in reference to the devils. At any rate, the New Testament states plainly that there is a host of evil angels as well as of good ; and some have ven- tured, from the mystical description of the Dragon in the Book of the Revelation, to conclude that " the third part of the stars of heaven"^ fell. A multitude of beings, then, mar- shalled by one leading will, is another ground of strength. Another source of power lies in that most mysterious relation between fallen man and the Tempter, which neces- sitated Redemption, and which justified our Lord's descrip- ' tions of Satan — " The Prince of this world,"^ and " the strong man armed."* In some way Satan gained power over us through the Fall,^ on the principle that " to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey ;"^ and this state of captivity continued until Christ " led captivity captive,"7 when in part it was broken. * S. Matt. xii. 45 ; S. Mark xvi. 9 ; Rev. xii. 3. 2 Rgy^ xij, 4^ 3 S. John xiv. 30. ^ S. Luke xi. 21. 5 The penalty of the Fall was death, and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes Satan as having *'the power of death," and Christ as dying in order to entirely disable him. There could be no stronger assertion of Satan's power than this. Whether Satan had ac- quired an actual right over man, or whether he was permitted to usurp a power to which he was not strictly entitled, it was a real power, for he held man bound by the chain of his sins. ^ Rom. vi. 16. ^ Eph. iv. 8. SS The Personality of Satan. And this skill and power are combined with an unchang- ing and unceasing hostility against God and man. Although fully conscious that his destiny, through the gift of free-will, was committed to his own keeping, and that his punish- ment was just ; yet he hates God, and never loses an occa- sion of maligning Him. He assails the Divine Perfections, and strives to distort them, and, above all, labours to ob- scure the Love of God. He misrepresented Him to our first parents as One who was envious and trying to deceive them. "A^e^shall not surely die;" " God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof .... ye shall be as gods.''^ " Doth Job serve God for nought ?"- " Command that these stones be made bread ;" " Cast Thyself down ;" " Fall down, and worship me ;"^ are all utterances which impugn some Attribute of God. And this malice against God he vents upon man, who is made in the image of God. He seeks to destroy God in that image ; to deprive God of the souls whom He loves with an infinite Love; and to prevent in them the attainment of that bliss and glory which he has forfeited. Thus pride and emy stimulate him in his deadly work. A Foe which combines such skill, strength, and malice, is a formidable one, and qualified to fulfil the office of tempter. But whilst we notice the extent of Satan's powers, we must not omit to mark also their limits. The title "Tempter'' itself indicates certain bounds to his operations. » Gen. iii. 4, 5. ' Job i. 9. ' S. Matt. iv. 3, 6, 9. The Personality of Satan. 89 Satan, as a creature, possesses finite capacities. Thus Satan's knowledge is restricted in two ways — he cannot discern our thoughts, nor by himself read the future. It is God's pre- rogative to be a " discemer of the thoughts and intents of the heart,"! and to be the One Who declares " the end from the beginning j"^ yet Satan invades that prerogative as far as possible. And though he cannot obtain a certain know- ledge, yet by observation, experience, suggestion, com- parison, and insight, he can acquire what may be termed a conjectural knowledge of what passes within the precincts of the mind. Although, when he instils some evil imagi- nation, he must, as it were, wait outside whilst his message is being delivered within the house ; yet can he predict the effect in one case, from the effect which he has observed under similar circumstances in countless others. Some have gone further than this, and have attributed to him a know- ledge of the thoughts, together with an ignorance of the intents of the hearts ; but to credit him only with a con- jectural or probable, and not with a certain or intuitive knowledge, seems the truer and safer course. A further boundary to the knowledge of Satan is placed by time. As it is God alone Who searcheth the heart, so it is God alone Who can " show the things that are to come hereafter. "^ The same capacities which help the Adversary to discern the secrets of the heart, may enable him astutely to predict or forecast what shall be ; but, without a special revelation ^ Heb. iv. 12. 2 isa. xlvi. lo. * Isa. xli. 23. ~ ' 90 The Personality of Satan. from God, the future as a certainty must ever be hidden from him. And as there are two limits to Satan's knowledge, so are there two restrictions placed upon his power ; one on the side of God, and one on man's side. On the Divine side there is the law of permission; Satan's actions are con- trolled by the Divine Dominion of Jurisdiction. God has a twofold Dominion over His creatures, that of Jurisdic- tion and Ownership. In other words, He governs those whom He creates, and His power over His rational crea- tures is exercised in five ways ; in commanding, in forbid- ding, in permitting, in punishing, and in rewarding. Satan, when he tempts, must obtain the permission of God. This is evident, in the history of Job : God gave Satan permission, and assigned him a certain limit beyond which he was not to go j a limit which afterwards was by a second permission extended, but still with a restriction.^ In like manner, we find the lying spirit only acting on Ahab's prophets, after receiving leave to do so.^ The unclean spirits entered into the herd of swine, only when Jesus had " suffered them."* Again, we are comforted by the words, already quoted : " God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able"* — words implying that action of the Divine Jurisdiction by which the power of the Evil One is curbed. ^ Job i. 12 ; ii. 6. ^ i, Kings xxii. 22. 3 S. Luke viii. 32. ^ i Cor. x. 13. The Personality of Satan. 91 On our side, too, there is a power which, though weaker than the corresponding power in Satan, can yet hold its own, the power of free-will. We are not forgetting that the will of man has been enfeebled through the Fall, and that there are limits to moral freedom resulting from personal idiosyn- cracy and our necessary environment, still there remains a self-determining power, a power of choice which is never overwhelmed. A spiritual writer has strongly expressed, this truth in the following words : " God has, in truth, given to the will such liberty and such power, that if all the senses, all evil spirits, and all the world were to conspire together, and with their combined strength to assault and oppress it, the will could still, in spite of them, will or will not whatever it liked with perfect freedom."^ The will cannot throw off its responsibility, which is independent of circumstances ; neither can it attribute to temptation an , overwhelming power. Satan is only the Tempter. He can- not force the citadel of the soul ; its gate must be opened before he can enter. He himself is conscious of his limited strength— '' Resist the devil," saith S. James, "and he will flee from you."^ It is, however, by subtlety and decep- tion, by enticement or persecution, that he hopes to gain over the will; rather than by direct attack or open violence. It is, in order to be able to stand against " the wiles"^ of the devil, that we need to be clothed with the panoply of God. ^ Scupoli, "Spiritual Combat," ch. xiv. - S. James iv. 7. 3 Eph. vi. II. 92 The Personaliiy of Satan, Formidable then as the Adversary is, there is no ground for despondency, nor excuse for failure in the conflict. If our mind and will were the sole forces with which we had to confront his skill, strength, and malice, we might indeed fear the result. But we fight in union with God, with Eternal Wisdom, Almighty Power, Infinite Goodness on our side. We go forth in the power of the Spirit of God. " Soldiers of the Cross, Count earthly things but loss, Quit you like men, be strong, The conflict is not long ; Your Captain reigns above, Look up to Him with love, He'll nerve you in the fight, Give you His Spirit's might." We must cast ourselves upon God. If angelic faculties are keener, stronger, more subtle than our own, there are su- pernal powers as well as powers from beneath; and the former are more in number than the latter,^ and will con- tend for us against our ghostly enemies, as of old * the stars in their courses' were said to * fight against Sisera.'^ We may, then, take courage, notwithstanding this Go- liath who presents himself, and defies the armies of Israel. Nay, in one way, from the fact of his existence as the Personal Source of evil, a certain hope may be drawn ; for in that " the generations of the world were healthful," and there " was no poison of destruction in them"^ until through 1 2 Kings vi. i6. ' Judges v. 20. ' Wisd. i. 14. \ The Personality of Satan, 93 " envy of the devil"^ death entered into the world, therefore evil is a foreign thing, and not indigenous in our nature. It was imported from another race. Thus we may hope to be delivered from that to which our nature did not give birth ; and when horrid thoughts oppress the soul, we may trace them to an Evil Spirit, rather than to our own con- dition, and regard them as the fetid exhalations of his poi- sonous breath, rather than the products of our own cor- ruption. The consciousness that we are contending not with a mere abstraction, but with a Personal Foe, arouses the prowess of the soul, creates sympathy for those who are fallen, transfers hatred from the objects which are apt to excite it to the original cause of all mischief, and whilst it renders us watchful, stimulates our energy and antagonism against evil, and thereby draws us closer to Christ, the Captain of our salvation. But the awful truth, that evil may be irretrievable, that the gift of free-will may lead to final ruin, is a sad subject for our contemplation, and full of warning. It is a truth too, which Nature as well as Revelation teaches. That a being of original excellence and dignity should fall, and should devote those powers which were intrusted to him, to work disaster in the universe of God, is a primary instance of the fearful way sin may be permitted to run its course ; whilst, on the other hand, that it should be inconsistent with the Divine Perfections, when the gift of free-will is ^ Wisd. ii. 24. 94 ^HE Personality of Satan, once given, to recall it or interfere with its subsequent action, though productive of such misery to its possessor and to others, is an indication that the presence of evil would on the whole be found to increase the good, when both shall be weighed in the balances of the Judgment of God. We must trust His Goodness, to Whom it seemed better that evil should exist, and good by His wisdom be drawn from it, than that it should never arise. He fore- saw, — Who knew how that gift, which is a shadow of His own independency, would be abused by angel and man, and the effects of their evil choice — that greater good would accrue from permitted evil than could have existed had evil no place in His Universe. It may be true that it is the mark of a wise workman to exclude defect from his work ; but that which holds good in the particular, may be inapplicable to the universal. The existence of defect in the particular, if it tend to the general excellence of the whole, may be consistent with that Wis- dom which finds its grandest exercise in overcoming evil and making it subservient to good. Where sin abounded, grace should much more abound.^ By reason of the Fall, we have Redemption; from death. Resurrection; from 1 It is in this sense, and not as implying that the Fall, regarded in itself, was not a calamity to mankind — that the Western Church on Holy Saturday, exclaims, "O felix culpa" of Adam's sin, because **it merited so great a Redeemer ;" nor again is it meant that Adam's Fall was predestined by GoD, by the words, " O certe necessarium Adse peccatum. " The Personality of Satan. 95 persecution, crowns of Martyrdom ; from misbeliefs, deve- loped dogmas of our Faith ; from remembrances of sin in the penitent, a constant incentive to virtues — to lowliness, contrition, thankfuhiess, and fervour in a forgiven soul; and by the sins of others are given to us the opportunities for the exercise of virtues, such as patience, meekness, for- giveness, courage, which would, but for evil, have been un- known ; from temptation comes the victory, and the Glory of Christ is the greater through the Wounds, which are the abiding witnesses of His Triumph over evil. The revelation of this principle, of overruling evil to the furtherance of good, is the special work of Christ — a work in which He does not stand alone, but calls each and all into fellowship with Him, each having some part in the conflict, some feature of evil to subdue, some share in the struggle, and the promise of a share also in the Reward ; for He saith, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."^ * Rev. iii. 21. ierture W* THE FIRST TEMPTATION. '■^ And when the Tempter came to Him, he said^ If Thou be the Son of God, co??imand that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'''' — S. Matt. iv. 3, 4. "\ 1 rE turn now from the Tempter to the Tempted. By the Tempter we understand a personal presence — the presence of a being who is most astute, has consummate power, and implacable malice. Before considering the First Temptation, there are two points which must not be passed over without comment, as they are intimately con- nected with some of the difficulties which have been sup- posed to stand in the way of the literal interpretation. The first concerns the visibility of the Tempter; the second relates to his knowledge of Christ's Divinity. With regard to the first, the Evangelists seem to imply that the Tempter presented himself before the Eyes of Christ. " The first interpretation that is suggested by an unprejudiced consideration of the text itself" is that Christ went into the desert "to undergo a temptation of the The First Temptation, 97 devil, who accordingly appeared to Him visibly and per- sonally, and, in various ways and at various places, to which he was the conductor, prosecuted his purpose of temptation."^ This is the candid avowal of the sceptic, before he begins his work of destruction ; and it seems to be the only fair way of dealing with the sacred record. When a being is said to come and to speak to another who is visible, to seek from him an act of worship, and to depart, — most certainly a visible presence is assumed. The common objections to this view, namely, that whilst the blessed angels are permitted to address man under visible forms, the evil angels are not recorded to have done so ; and, secondly, that Satan " by a personal and undis- guised appearance" would have no " prospect of success," are insufficient. For, as to the first, Satan, we have seen, was permitted to address our first parents through the in- tervention of a visible form, and therefore might again be permitted to do so, especially on the analogous occasion of tempting the second Adam ; and even if this were the only instance of a visible temptation,^ the greatness of the con- flict and its issues would be a reason for the permission of an exceptional mode of warfare. The acute remark, that a visible temptation makes Christ's conflict unlike our own, really mistakes the ground of likeness between the two, * Strauss. ^ It will be remembered, that in the lives of some of the Saints, accounts are found of the appearance of the Evil One, e.g., S. An- tony, S. Martin, &c. H 98 The First Temptation, which is not in the manner of tempting, but in the substance of the temptations. The second objection is based upon the supposition that the visible form of Satan was neces- sarily unsightly, and that we have no right to imagine that he transformed himself into an angel of light on this occa- sion. It may be replied that we do not know what form he assumed;^ but if he assumed a visible form, that it would be one which would, he imagined, be most calculated to further his designs, we can have no doubt ; and the idea that the form by which he rendered himself visible was odious, is altogether contrary to the tenor of a narrative, in which at one stage of the transaction he claims worship, and in the whole of which he acts by enticement, and not by threat. ^ The account in the Gospels appears to imply that Satan was per- mitted to assume a human form. Angels are allowed for special pur- poses to be clothed with an outward form, to bring themselves under the observation of our senses. Holy Scripture is silent as to the guise under which the Evil One appeared. He is described as coming to our Lord, speaking to Him, conducting Him from one spot to another, all of which — where nothing is revealed to the contrary— seem to favour the opinion that Satan drew near to Christ under the semblance of a man. Painters as a mle shrink from depicting the Evil Spirit. Those who have attempted it have sometimes represented Satan as odious and repellent, whilst others have painted him as an old man, clothed with a long robe ; vide Mrs. Jameson's " History of our Lord, as exem- plified in works of art," Vol. I. pp. 310 — 315. Milton's description of Satan — as a peasant with an appearance of age and simplicity of garb and manner, calculated to invite confidence, has been more or less copied by later artists. Ihe First TempTj^tion, 99 The second point which needs to be noticed is more important, and aflfects not the manner, but the credibility of the Temptation ; namely, Satan's knowledge of Christ. One of the earliest objections which were raised against this Mystery, was grounded on the assumption that Satan knew Christ to be the Son of God, and that therefore he could have entertained no hope of overcoming Him, and consequently that he could have had no motive for " taking the trouble to appear." Besides the obvious reply, that we know not what efforts a malicious spirit might not make, simply to insult, molest, and afflict Christ with his pre- sence ; we deny altogether the assumption that Satan was convinced that Christ was the Son of God. The sentence with which the first and second temptations were intro- duced, " If Thou be the Son of God" (as Christ had been proclaimed to be at His Baptism), — whatever amount of flattery or ridicule is to be found in the motive or tone of it, — is simply a conditional expression. The words, "If you are the Son of God, do this or that" — the act solicited being a proof of the claim to the title in the condition — would certainly lead an unbiassed reader to conclude that there was doubt as to Christ's pretensions in the one who employed those words. " He begins with flattery," as he did with Eve of old. With the one, he attempts to fascinate by the promise, " Ye shall be as gods ;" with the Other, he says fawningly, " Assuming that you are the Son of God, you will have no difficulty in giving this proof of your 100 The First Temptation, power." The general question concerning Satan's know- ledge of Christ's Divinity will be dealt with in the follow- ing lecture ; it will be sufficient now to indicate the view which is taken, and which will then be supported, which is this — that Satan was not certain about Christ's Divine Sonship, and that he had in tempting, the purpose of dis- covering it. The Temptation was, it has been said, "an exploration of Divinity ;"i " in the first plot the devil sought to find out whether Christ could create or change substances." " If" Christ " can do this. He is God ; if not. He is only man." " The devil, not knowing who was present before him, was endeavouring to lay snares in order to discover that which was secret and hidden from him." " In all the temptations he tried to find out whether Christ was the Son of God." These and many other quotations from ancient writers,^ to whom we mostly look when we would ascertain the meaning of Holy Scripture, may serve to show their opinion on this matter. We may, then, re- gard the ' Tempter'^ as approaching our Lord in a visible form, and as standing in doubt of His real Greatness— » Vide Suarez, Disp. Vol. II. Q. xli. Sect. iv. 2 SS. Ambrose, Hilary, Chrysostom, &c. 3 The Evil One is called by three names in the account of this Mys- tery:— "The Tempter," "Satan," and "the Devil." S. Matthew speaking of "the Tempter," the name, so to speak, of his office and which belongs to him "by way of eminency ;" both Evangelists relate that our Lord addressed him as " Satan" the Adversary ; and both use throughout the proper name Aidfio\os, the Slanderer. The First Temptation. ioi " And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." In contemplating the Tempted in His mysterious strug- gles, we need to keep alive a spirit of faith and lowliness, and to draw near to Him with reverence and awe. It must be borne in mind, that it is " the Mystery" of the Temptation which we are considering, and that therefore we must not approach it as a mathematical problem which has to be solved, and upon which we must exercise our ingenuity, until we can clear it of all obscurity. But, on the contrary, we must expect that there will be depths which we cannot fathom, and aspects of truth which it is difficult to reconcile with one another. First, we will con- sider the limits of the Temptation ; secondly, its reality. I. It has often been said that Christ's Temptation differs from ours, in that His was only external, and ours is internal also. In other words, that Christ possessed no susceptibility to temptation, but simply heard what Satan had to say without any inward excitement of desire through his proposals.! Now, such an explanation of the Tempta- tion takes from temptation its essence, and thereby removes * It is one thing to say, as Aquinas does, " Christus tentari voluit ab hoste sed non a came :" another, that Christ did not /eel the temp- tation. Aquinas explains his meaning in the context, for he is speak- ing of certain movements of the flesh which ** cannot be without sin ;" Christ's Temptations originated from without, but involved inward sti-uggle. 102 The First Temptation, this experience of Christ from our experience, when un- dergoing the same ordeal, by an interval so great, that no link of sympathy on this ground is left between Him and us. And yet, in the remarkable language of S. Paul, Christ is said " to be touched with the feeling of our in- firmities,"^ to have been " in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," to have acquired a new ground of sympathy with us through the temptation ; " for in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted. He is able to succour them that are tempted."^ It is plain, then, that any inter- pretation of the Temptation, which does not attribute to Christ a real conflict, cannot be a right one ; for a mere objective temptation cannot have purchased such results as those named by the author of the Epistle to the He- brews. Even amongst ourselves, when our temptations are widely different, it is difficult to establish any lasting spiritual sympathy. When one can say to another, ' I know that feeling; I have been through that struggle,' there is a common ground for fellowship, and a power to enter into and understand the difficulties of one another ; but where the sensibilities or propensities are very unlike, or the cir- cumstances very different, our attempts to sympathize with each other are often wide of the mark. If it is difficult to establish a bond of sympathy between those whose tempta- tions are not of a kindred nature, it will be a heavier task ^ Heb. iv. IS. 2 Heb. ii. 18. The First Temptation, 103 to bridge over the chasm which lies between those who are tempted, and those who are incapable of temptation ; for to say that our Lord was only objectively tempted is to say that He was not tempted at all. Objective temptation only deserves the name when it is viewed on the side of the tempter ; to the tempted it is not in any wise temptation. We say, in speaking of ourselves, * that is no temptation to me,' meaning that it produces no excitement of desire ; and such a declaration may be perfectly true under the circum- stances. It is a common saying, that what is a temptation to one person is none to another. If it may be said that our Lord passed through the Temp- tation as unmoved by the successive assaults which He encountered as a statue would have been, then for all prac- tical purposes we might resign this Mystery into their haiids who reduce it to a natural event, a fable, allegory, myth, or dream. It is the interior struggle which makes this Mystery precious to us. The Temptation creates a new fount of sympathy, and brings Christ most near to us in our own conflicts. We would not, then, limit the Temptation to an external trial. Neither would we reduce the Temptation to the general idea of suffering. Feeling the unsatisfactoriness of any explanation which does not include a subjective feature in it, and yet shrinking, through undue reverence or some imperfection of belief in the Incarnation, from asserting that our Lord was inwardly tried, some have spoken of the 104 ^HE First Temptation, Temptation simply as a suffering; and doubtless tempta- tion and suffering in Holy Scripture are sometimes con- vertible terms. That it was a suffering, the Apostle asserts : "He suffered, being tempted." This suffering has been supposed to spring from contact with the Tempter, and the consequent shrinking of a holy and pure nature from a loathsome presence ; and it cannot be doubted but that the approach of Satan must have been positive pain to Christ. If a good man feels it a trial to be in the company of the profane, the truthful to be with the insincere, the pure with the polluted, the loving with the cruel, what must have been the abhorrence of the Holy One when Satan was present and addressed Him? what the recoil of Him, in Whom all Holiness resides, from the touch of that being who is the source of all evil? But the pain of such a contact is rather a circumstance of the Temptation than the Temptation itself. When S. Paul says of Christ "He suffered,"! he adds the specific form of that suf- fering, " being tempted," and with the view of trac- ing as the result of that trial, a fresh ability to succour the tempted. Now, the outward contact with a visible Tempter, and the recoil from his touch, being a peculiar feature of Christ's Temptation, and one not shared by us, can hardly be said to capacitate Him for entering into our trials. Moreover, the perfect purity of Christ made Him ^ Heb. ii. i8. The First Temptation, 105 shrink from the presence of the Tempter, and His power of reading the motives and thoughts of the heart displayed to Him the inward subtlety and malice of the devil; neither of which attributes we possess, so that we have little in common with Christ which can associate us with that suffering of His Sinless Nature. It is the reality of His conflict which can alone enable us in our struggles to look up to the Glorified Christ, and claim His sympathy as of one who was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. It is the reality of His conflict upon which is staked the glory of His victory — a glory derived from actual struggle and conquest, and not from the semblance of it. We cannot then assign as the limit of the Temptation, that it was only a suffering on account of contact, outward and visible, with the Tempter. Both interpretations, namely, that the Temptation was only external, and that it was only a suffering from contact with the Tempter, are inadequate, and render the Temptation an objectless ordeal, and one utterly unlike anything which we have to experience. We maintain that the Temptation was a reality on the side of the Tempted as well as on that of the Tempter ; that is, that each temptation appealed to a desire in the Heart of Christ, which His Will restrained and refused to gratify. It remains for us to erect certain boundaries which ought to be observed, and which, when once laid down, must remain unalterably fixed as the true limits of the Mystery ; these will be three. io6 7he First Temptation, First, Christ was absolutely sinless. Every thought, word, and deed throughout His whole life was in perfect conformity to the Law of God. His own consciousness witnessed to His sinlessness. This experience is unique. Holy persons as they advance in sanctity seem to become more and more oppressed with the burden of their sinful- ness. The nearer they approach to God, the clearer do they see their sins and failings. Christ Alone could challenge His enemies to put their finger upon a single blot on His life : — " Which of you," He says, " convinceth Me of sin ?"i Others around Him were conscious of His Holi- ness. S. Peter felt the great difference between a sinless and a sinful nature when he poured forth that utterance of self-accusation, " Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O LoRD."2 The same Apostle, who had been our Lord's constant companion, says of Christ that He " did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."^ S. Paul asserts that Christ " knew no sin f^ in the same breath he refers to Christ's temptation and sinlessness, lest the latter truth should be imperilled by the fact of the former. He enlarges on Christ's sinlessness, and describes Him as "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;"^ * S. John viii. 46. There have not been wanting those who have pointed to the Fourth Word from the Cross, as expressive of movements in Christ of impatience and despair; but it was the utterance, "non dubitantis sed dolentis." 2 S. Luke V. 8. ^ i S. Pet. ii. 22. ^ 2 Cor. v. 21. ^ Heb. vii. 26. 7 HE First Temptation, 107 "holy," that is before God; harmless in relation to man ; "undefiled" in Himself.^ S. John says, "In Him is no sin. "2 The entire absence in Christ of actual sin is the outermost boundary which marks off truth from funda- mental error. Even Pilate, Judas, and the dying thief bear witness to the sinlessness of Christ in the face of His persecutors. But the absence of actual sin is one thing, and the absence of sinfulness another. A second barrier has here to be raised — a barrier which separates Christ not only from sinners, but from the sin- iwV Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost : though He took our nature, and with it all those infirmities which were not inconsistent with His Perfection ; yet, in taking it, no taint of the fall was permitted to intermingle with the foundations of His Human Life. It was a "holy thing" which the Blessed Virgin brought forth, and which was formed of her substance. Questions as to the title or sanc- tity of the Blessed Virgin had not anciently so much in view her personal greatness, as her relation to the Central Mystery of the Incarnation. A belief in the " Theotokos" is bound up with a true behef in the " Logos." ' The Holy ^ S. Anselm says, "Holy" within; "harmless" in His actions; " undefiled" in His Body. 2 I S. John iii. 5. 3 Edward Irving taught, that our Lord took "fallen humanity" that He might destroy the " venom of sin by making it die in Himself in His Death, and triumphing over it in His Resurrection." Such a view has been rightly called "blasphemous." io8 The First Temptation, Place' is the preparation for the way into the 'Holy of Holies.' In Christ, then, there was no fuel of evil concu- piscence, no trace of original sin, and so no affinity with evil. Our Lord's declaration amounts to this — " the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me."^ Any temptation which involved a violation of the Moral Law of God would find in the Heart of Jesus nothing to which it could appeal. Such a temptation would have no effect upon our Lord; He could not be tempted with that which was li intrinsically evil; but that a sinless nature is in some way capable of temptation is evident already from the trial of the angels, and the fall of our first parents. There is yet a distinction, which renders our conception of temptation in the case of our Lord more difficult than in any other — that is. His impeccability ; not only His sinless- ness, not only His original purity, but a certain impossi- bility of sinning, is affirmed of Him. But this impossibility must be so explained as not to destroy the faculty of free- will, which is a constituent element of human nature. Ab- solute impeccability belongs to God alone; impeccability in Christ is an attribute of His Person as a Divine Person, not of His Human Nature when viewed alone. In conse- quence of the union of that Nature with the Divine, and of the fulness of grace which resided in His soul, and of the Vision which it possessed, by a communication of proper- ties His Humanity shared in the impeccability of His ^ S. John xiv, 30. The First Temptation. 109 Person. 1 The iron which glows in the furnace, and is inseparable from it, cannot become cold, yet its heat is not its own ; so impeccability is the result of grace, and not of nature, in that Humanity of Christ which is en- kindled by the Divine Fire. When it is said of the Blessed in Heaven that they can sin no more, it is not meant that their free-will is lost, but that it is inconceivable that they should turn away from that Vision, which is their Joy and Satisfaction. Thus, in our Lord it is inconceivable, irre- verent, and blasphemous, to imagine that He cou/d sin; for to attribute such a possibility to Him is either to sup- pose that God could sin, or that the Sacred Humanity could be sundered in the moment of failure from its union with the Divine. Viewed objectively, then, sin was an impossibility to Him. But, on the other hand, we must not so interpret impossibility to sin as not to permit sus- ceptibility of temptation to co-exist with it ; the former is a theological inference, the latter a clear statement of Holy Scripture. Upon the exercise of free-will in Christ de- pend His Merits, the reality of His Temptation, the force of His Example, the greatness of His Obedience. To re- gard Him as moving by necessity as He approached the Cross, is to remove Him from our admiration, and to * Evident reasons for His impeccability may be drawn from "the dignity of His Person, the fulness of grace, the state of Beatitude which His Soul possessed from the moment of Conception," and "the end or object of the Incarnation, the destruction of sin." Suarez, Tom. i. Q. XV. p. 536. no The First Temptation. render His own words and conduct on that occasion inexplicable. The fear of reducing Christ's actions to the movements of a machine, rather than of a moral nature which has power of choice in each step which is taken, has led some Divines even to shrink from the assertion of His impecca- bility, and to invest Christ with the same freedom as the first Adam possessed before the Fall. But may we not find some way of holding to the doctrine of Christ's impecca- bility, and at the same time of accrediting Him with all the struggles and fears of simple humanity? Our minds are finite; and we discover their finiteness not only by the limits of truths which we cannot traverse, but also by the fact that the highest truths wear to us sometimes the ap- pearance of contradictions. We see this aspect and that ; but we cannot harmonize them, yet we can believe in each one separately. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Three Persons and One Personal God, — the doctrine of Divine Fore-knowledge and human freedom, — are instances of the highest truths, which we believe separately, but which are by our faculties irreconcilable one with another. Thus, we may believe as an abstract truth that Christ was unable / to sin, and yet on the other hand may believe that in some way He had all the struggles and difficulty which He would have had, had He not possessed that power — that He had for all purposes the same freedom as the first Adam. 7he First Temptation, hi We have dwelt on the limits of the Temptation : those we would not assign to it, namely, that it was simply ex- ternal, or only a suffering from contact with the Tempter ; those we would set around it, and regard as fixtures, or danger-signals, namely, the sinlessness of Christ, the absence of original sin in Christ, the impossibility of sinning as a Personal attribute of Christ. Having laid down these boundaries, we shall be able to enter upon the consideration of the reality of temptation to Christ with less risk of error ; and as we proceed, may His Spirit guide us into all truth ! II. It will be necessary, in order to maintain that temp- tation was a reality to Christ, to consider what are the constituent elements of temptation, and then to discover them in the Temptation of Christ. If we subject tempta- tion to an analysis, we shall find that five ingredients enter into its composition ; namely, desire, law, opposition be- tween desire and law, suggestion, and free-will. (i.) The first is desire, which lies at the root of the whole. If we can imagine a nature which has no capacity for desire, such a nature would have consequently no sus- ceptibility to temptation. Those who understand human nature best, assert that desire and anger are the two pri- mary and essential movements of the soul. Of these, desire is the deepest. It is, so to speak, the raw material out of which the different passions are formed. Our Lord, as perfect Man, experienced both desire and anger. Accord- 112 Ihe First Temptation. ingly we read of Him as exhbiiting anger -} He " looked round about on them with anger. "^ And we find Him ca- pable of desires, the natural desires, for instance, of food and drink, which in our present subject concern us most : we are told that, " When He had fasted forty days and forty nights. He was afterward an hungred."^ By the well of Samaria He was athirst, and said to the woman, " Give Me to drink."* In the morning when He returned from Bethany to Jerusa- lem, " He hungered ; and when He saw a fig tree in the way. He came to it."^ Again, on the Cross, He experienced the thirst, which was one of the agonies which usually accom- panied crucifixion. Our Lord also expressed desires of the mind as well as of the body : as, for instance, when He said, " With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer f^ and, when He gave utterance to the 1 It is important to bear in mind that anger is not necessarily sinful. When there is a just cause, and anger does not exceed due limits, and the end in view is right — the preservation of righteousness, or the cor- rection of wrong-doing, it is not only sinless, but praiseworthy. Anger enters into the composition of zeal, a grace which our Lord exercised when He cleansed the Temple, and His disciples remembered that it was written of Him, "the zeal of Thine House hath eaten Me up." S. John ii. 17, Ps. Ixix. 9. S. Paul, quoting from the LXX., says, '*Be ye angry, and sin not" — Eph. iv. 26, Ps. iv. 4, words which imply that rightful anger may be a duty, but a duty, the discharge of which is liable to lead to sin if not properly guarded. Christianity enlists all the natural powers of the soul ; Stoicism, on the other hand, regards anger and all the passions or affections as evil. 2 S. Mark iii. 5. ^ S. Matt. iv. 2. ^ S. John iv. 7. 5 S. Matt. xxi. 18, 19. « S. Luke xxii. 15. The First Temptation. 113 longing which He had to complete our Redemption — "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished."^ Desires are of two kinds or degrees : there is the desire which is simply natural, the movement of pure nature ; and there is the same desire in a second stage, when some morbid quality has been imported into it, which gives it a wrong direction or undue impetuosity. The one is the craving of nature according to its original condition; the other, the corrupt desire of nature when contaminated by sin. The one desire is the sign of health, the other of disease. The former was in Christ as true Man; the latter was not in Christ, because He had no stain of original sin. And it may be well to mention that in many passages in ancient writers, where the word which we trans- late ' impeccability' is used, this is all that is meant ; and thus in much that has been written, the peccability of Christ's Human Nature has been taken as identical with its sinfulness ; but " this detestable ascription of a corrupt humanity to our Lord" is a totally distinct doctrine from that of its peccability. Angels were created with a sin- less nature, but were peccable ; Adam had a sinless na- ture, but fell. " No sinful impulse finds a place in the soul of our Lord." The genuine thirst of nature was His, though the feverish thirst of sin found no place in Him. The pure craving of nature in Christ, then — which as man * S. Luke xii. 50. I 114 ^^^ FiRS7 Temptation, He possessed, and to the presence of which Holy Scrip- ture bears witness — is the first ingredient of Temptation. (ii.) The nextt hing which is necessary, in order that these desires should form the subjective basis of temptation, is the Law of God. The nature with this tendency to reach forth in different directions finds itself in the presence of a Rule of Life — a Law indicating what should be, and what should not be gratified — a Law allowing, commanding, restraining the range of these desires. But as there are two kinds of desires, that which is natural and that which is depraved, so there are two kinds of law — one positive, the other moral. The natural desires may be restrained by the Positive ; but the corrupt desires are restrained by the Moral Law. By the Positive Law of God, is intended any expression of the Divine Will which forbids or enjoins that which is not intrinsically right or wrong, — is not right or wrong in the nature of things, but which simply, because of the expression of the Divine Will, becomes in a relative sense the one or the other. By the Moral Law is meant that which does not make things to be right or wrong, but graciously indicates that they are already so, and that con- sequently they are either enjoined or forbidden. That which is opposed to the Moral Law is intrinsically evil, opposite to the Character of God, and to that reflection of His Moral Nature which remains in us. The Moral Law finds in us certain intuitions which endorse its precepts. Our moral sense informs us that injustice, untruthfulness. T:he First TEMprATioN. 115 impurity, &c., are wrong. The Positive Law on the other hand may command or forbid that of which we can neither see the purpose nor the meaning. The Moral Law is a written Rule of Life; the Positive Law is a Personal Rule. For temptation there must be law as well as desire. Desire without law may be a source of enjoyment ; law with- out desire a sign-post of duty ; but the two must co-exist, or otherwise that mysterious test and struggle, that tension of our inner being, called Temptation, cannot be known. (iii.) Thirdly, there must be opposition. The craving, whatever it may be, must come into collision with the law. If both point in the same direction, there can be no temp- tation. When " the Lord God commanded the man, say- ing. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,"i that command was the occasion of no temptation. Human nature was like a ship with both wind and tide in its favour. But when the addition was made, " But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it,"^ then temptation became possible. In the case of a pure crea- ture, the clash must be with a Positive Law ; with the cor- rupt creature, it will be also with the Moral Law. Thus with our first parents it was a positive commandment which restrained their desires. There could be nothing wrong in itself in eating the fruit of a tree which belonged to them ; it was only wrong because it was distinctly forbidden. Positive laws are tests of obedience, and are the occasions for the * Gen. ii. l6. 2 Gen. ii. 17. ii6 The First TEMPTArioN, exercise of virtues, and none the less so when we are unable to discern the purposes of them. By such, then, pure natures are tried ; and Jesus Christ, Who willed to be " made like unto His brethren" " in all things,"^ willed to be like them in this. That act, which would have been evil, even if God had not forbidden it, would have no attraction for a sinless nature. To eat bread, to turn stones into loaves, if you are able, when pressed by hunger, is no sin ; unless God has for some reason forbidden you, at the time, to work the miracle. Now, in Christ the desire of the body may be, nay, was, in opposition to the Divine Will ; the pure desire of nature was contrary to what our Lord knew to be the Fa- ther's Will. In this sense. His was inward, and therefore real, temptation. Jesus could feel no inward temptation to anything which was intrinsically sinful ; but what we feel in 1 1 relation to sinful attractions, He could feel in relation to forbidden objects. Jesus could feel no inward inclinable- ness to any act which was not in itself good, pure, and honest ; » but He could feel an inward desire for food, and yet that desire at the time be in opposition to the demands of the Divine Will. In the Agony there is the same sort of struggle, the craving of the will of sense to be delivered from the Awful Sufferings of the Passion ; the collision be- tween the pure instincts of a nature which shrank from pain and death, and " the commandment" which had been " received of the Father. "^ On the one side there is a 1 Heb. ii. 17. 2 s. John x. 18. The First TEMPrArioN. 117 struggle which Christ could not know because of His sinlessness, the struggle of an evil nature with the tempta- tions which are homogeneous with it ; on the other, there is a struggle which was possible to Him, a real struggle, and one which we cannot fully know, which arose from His per- fect foreknowledge and acceptance of all that His Mission involved according to the Divine Appointment — " Burnt- offerings and sacrifice for sin," saith the Psalmist, "hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come : in the volume of the book it is written of Me, that I should fulfil Thy Will, O My God : I am content to do it ; yea. Thy law is within My Heart. "^ The Moral Law of God we know both by inward light, and by the Written Law which coincides with, develops, strengthens, and fixes our intuitions ; but the Will of God, where the subject-matter does not involve moral distinc- tions, — where conscience does not declare for or against either of two courses which may be open to us — is unknown to us, unless we have received a special Revelation con- cerning it j and it was in this very respect, where our igno- rance of God's Will would prevent conflict in us, that our Lord could through the knowledge of that Will be sub- jected to a real trial. Jesus knew at all times His Father's Will and Desire ; that Will was the law of His Human Life, as the Moral Law supplies fallen nature with its restraints and guidance. Jesus knew on this occasion that it was » Ps. xl. 6, 7 ; Heb. x. 5, 6. ii8 The First Temptjiiion, contrary to the Divine Will to work a miracle for the relief of His hunger ; and His Human Nature craved that act, which as God He would have otherwise performed, and — hence the interior conflict. It must be carefully borne in mind, that in nothing that has been said on this third ingredient of temptation, namely, the opposition between desire and law, is any reference made to Christ's Human Will. His Human Will — the reasonable Will — was always in most perfect conformity with the Divine Will. The prayer in the Garden of Geth- semane, " Not My will, but Thine be done,"^ referred to the will of the body, the sensuous will,^ and not to any momentary swerving of His Perfect and most Holy Human Will. It was probably through some precipitate misunder- standing concerning this distinction that Honorius was led astray. It will be sufficient, then, to have added this cau- tion to what has been said, to prevent any mistake as to * S. Luke xxii. 42. 2 This distinction between the voluntas sensualitatis and the volun- tas rationalis has been illustrated in the following way. The sensuous will of a patient shuns pain, cutting, burning, and the like ; but the reasonable will desires it, because of the end in view, restoration of health or continuation of life. Thus, the will of sense in our Lord shrank from the Passion ; the will of reason embraced the Suffering for the sake of man's Redemption. But there are not two human wills in Christ, but one — which is called reasonable or sensuous, as it is allied to the understanding or to the flesh. The sensuous will in Christ felt the pain and struggle according to nature, and was permitted to prompt the cry "Not My will," yet its movements were ever kept in accordance with the will of reason and through it with the Divine Will. The First Temptation, 119 the perfect concord of the Human and Divine Wills in Christ. Desire, law, the collision between the two, these are three elements of a temptation ; then, the presentation of an ob- ject to the desire, will bring about the struggle. (iv.) Desires which are natural to us may remain quies- cent, unless they are excited by the presence or represen- tation of the object which may be desired. All natures, except the Divine,^ have dormant powers, which need some incentive or stimulus to set them in motion, or at least to stir them into keener activity. The desires of the sensitive appetite require to be informed by the intellect or senses, as blind men must be told of the nearness of objects for which they would crave if they saw them. There can be no real desire of that which is unknown ; and hence there arises in the spiritual life the need of constant guard and discrimination in the chamber of thought, and at its gate- ways, the senses. Our Lord, as true Man, was capable of being acted on by external objects and suggestions. That which was mentally known, came with a fresh force and inward effect when it was actually experienced. When He " ^^^/<:f the city,"2 He wept over it. The external object, presented to the senses, aroused the capacity for emotion in the Redeemer's Soul. When He "saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her,"^ He too wept j ^ The Schoolmen speak of God, as " Pure Act." 2 S. Luke xix, 41. ^ S. John xi. 33 — 35. 120 The First Temptation, He caught the infection of their sorrow. We find Him often thus moved with compassion at the sight of affliction. We see Him affected with wonder and admiration when He " /leard"^ the centurion's faith. Of the young man who " came running, and kneeled to Him," we are told, " Jesus beholding him loved him."^ His foreknowledge did not interfere with this law of human experience. Christ's de- sires could be called out and intensified by the presence of an object which through the senses appealed to them, or by the proposal of a possible mode of instantly gratifying them. It was, as of old, in the garden of Eden, the external object and the Tempter's inducement brought desire and positive law into an intensified collision. " If Thou be the Son of God," says the devil, " command this stone that it be made bread ;" — the stones being possibly by their form and colour, it has been said, suggestive of loaves. (v.) For temptation to be possible, the being who is tempted must possess a power of choice; free-will, then, is the last and formal element of temptation. The will in us stands between "the pleasures of sin" on the one side, and the claims of the Moral Law on the other, and makes its choice. The Will in Christ stands between the pure cravings of His Human Nature on the one hand, and the Good-pleasure of God on the other, and makes its choice. Our choice is between bad and good ; His between what is natural and what is commanded. Christ would not * S. Matt. viii. lO. 2 g^ Mark x. 21. The First Tempt ation. 121 be perfect man did He not possess the faculty of free-will ; neither could He be capable of trial or of merit, unless He had the power of moral choice. His Human faculties do not transcend the limits of a creature, though assumed by a Divine Person. In the domains of virtue and vice, His Will would simply be employed in the infinite hatred of the one and love of the other, in every shape and form : but His Will would have also an opportunity of putting forth its strength when it was possible to take either the path of sacrifice or that of gratification without traversing the lines which separate good from evil; when love and obedience would rather follow the indications of what would be most pleasing to the Father's Will, than assent to the desires of nature. That the good-pleasure of the Father was to Him a Law of Life we know from His own words, " He that sent Me is with Me : the Father hath not left Me alone ; for I do always those things that please Him."^ And so on the other hand we have ^. Paul's authority for saying that this pleasing of the Father involved a sacrifice of Christ's o^vn feelings and desires. " Even Christ," says the Apostle, " pleased not Himself."^ When the Tempter suggested the miracle of converting a stone into bread, and so satisfying therewith the sharp pangs of hunger, Christ's Perfect Will was called into true exercise. On the one hand. He denied to His lower Nature what it then craved ; He denied the gratification of the desires of * S. John viii. 29. 2 Rom. xv. 3, 122 The First Temptation. the flesh : and on the other, He preserved His Human Will in perfect conformity with the Divine Will, not only with its demands, but with its good-pleasure. The answer, " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," implies this : — that every expression of the Divine Mind, not only every absolute precept, but every revelation of the Divine Mind, was the secret food of Christ's Human Soul ; and that that food must not be forfeited to meet even the rightful cravings of the flesh. Life had to be sustained in higher as well as lower regions, but in higher first ; as on another occasion He said, when the question again turned upon food, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work."^ Christ longed for food ; it was the Father's Will that no miracle should be then wrought to relieve His hunger. He Who fed the famished multitudes is not now to work a miracle on His own behalf, nor in the presence of the being who solicits such an exhibition of Divine Power ; the desire of the flesh and the higher Will clash ; Satan presents the idea and object which suggests instant gratification, and the Will of Christ controls the lower desire, and makes oblation to the Father of the pain which the restraint cost Him. Here there is all that constitutes genuine temptation. We have thus considered the component parts of a temptation, and traced them in the First Temptation of ^ S. John iv. 34. The First Temptation, 123 Christ. It has been asserted, that "unless peccabiHty be supposed, temptation is impossible -"^ but, on the con- trary, we contend that the view we have taken of this Mystery provides a real temptation and inward struggle, where sin does not enter into the question. In Adam the violation of a positive law was sin, when that law was an absolute commandment; but in Christ there were higher communications of the Divine Pleasure, and indi- cations of what would be most agreeable to the Divine Mind, which partook not of the binding nature of an ex- pressed prohibition or commandment, but became a law to Christ and a rule of obedience through the perfection of His Love for the Father : as He Himself says, " That the world may know that I love the Father ; and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do."^ His choice lay between that which is good, and that which is better ; not between that which is good, and that which is in itself evil. The Humanity was exposed to all the violence of temp- tation by the Divine Nature ; and had to meet those assaults with grace, as we meet them. The struggle, as far as possible, was the same as in us. The lifeboat must brave the same storm, and plough through the same foam- ing billows, which threaten to engulf^ her, as the wrecked vessel to which she bears relief; and though so constructed as to be able to bear up against the fury of the waves, she needs the careful steerage, persevering efforts, ay, and * Ullmann's "Sinlessness of Christ." * S. John xiv. 31. 124 I'he First TempTj4Tion. courage, of those who venture forth to save the sinking ship. The Human Will of Jesus braved the storm of Temptation, and though unable to be overwhelmed, yet suffered the tension, the toil, and the weariness of the con- flict, in order to bring us relief ; not even sustaining itself by the conscious stay of the Higher Nature, but so far reach- ing down to us in our weakness and apprehensiveness as to be able to cry out, " Save Me, O God ; for the waters are come in, even unto My soul.''^ Now, it may be said, ' After all, is not temptation, such as we have been considering, something, if we may so speak, set in too high a key for it to be compared with our struggles, or to acquire sympathy with us ?' In reply, we would say that there are several truths which must be taken into calculation, when comparing temptation in Christ with temptation in our own case. Without doing more than alluding to the opinion that Satan was permitted to tempt Christ with unrestrained power, whereas in the case of all others there are certain limits assigned to him when he makes his assaults; it must be remembered, that the desires which are original and form a part of pure nature are in the long run the more intense ; the sinful desires may be hot and impulsive, but these are not the expression of the necessities of our being, % and are not so long sustained. The cry of intense hunger ^ or thirst is the cry of agony. The fearful resorts of those in ^ Ps. Ixix. I. The First TempTj^tion. 125 famine or siege, of which we read in sacred and in secular history, are enough to prove the intensity of a craving which is imperious, inexorable, and at last savage. We cannot then attempt to measure the violence of desire in Christ's Humanity for food, when that desire was the result of the reaction after a forty days' fast, and, perhaps, the withdrawal of supernatural support. Again, in temptations which have to do, not with base objects, but with things simply forbidden or less good, the soul cannot exercise itself in that which is one of the most powerful of deterrent motives, the odiousness and intrinsic evil of the object. And further, when we compare Christ's struggles with our own, we must take into account the finer susceptibili- ties of His uncorrupt Nature. We know what a difference there is amongst ourselves in our capacities for trial — how the more delicate the feelings, the more sensitive the nerves, the more educated the mind, the more tender the heart, the greater, oftentimes, is the inward sense of trial, and the whole being becomes quiveringly alive to a tempta- tion, which a less refined and susceptible nature knows only in its own dull way. Such thoughts may help us a little to realize, that the temptation of Christ was not only real, but intense, and therefore qualified Him for entering into our trials with the sympathy which experience alone can give. By the first assault He acquired a sympathy which extends to the whole region of sensuous temptations, and 126 The First TEMPTArioN, brings each one, whatever may be his temptation, within its reach. Whatever may be the shape or direction the desires of the flesh may assume through the importation of cor- ruption, the native desire — which lies at the root of all subsequent and corrupt longings in us — thrilled with the intensity of the assault in the wilderness, and with the re- sistance which the royal Will of Christ in the First Temp- tation imposed on it ; and that struggle was of a represen- tative character, purchasing for Christ sympathy with all who are tempted. Tasting the struggles with the flesh in a form which was possible to Him, He could by His all-embracing knowledge and love put to account that experience where the collision would be, — as it could not be in Him — between corrupt desire and the Moral Law, in forms of temptation which are most humiliating; for, as an old writer says, when we sin in pride, we sin in company with the angels ; when we sin in avarice, in fellowship with man ; but when we sin in sensuality, we sink to the level of the beast that perisheth : — in those forms of temptations which have a special moral turpitude, and which if yielded to bring darkness of soul and general degradation — in those forms of temptation which, above all others, from their violent or inveterate nature, tend to produce despondency and hopelessness of victory — it is something, indeed, to be able to look up to the Pure and All-Holy Christ, and to know that His sympathy may even reach out to all through the medium The First Temptation. 127 of that temptation in which He curbed the flesh, and kept it in abiding subjection to the higher nature; and that the Merit of His struggle with an innocent desire, has gained for us strength in our conflict with the corrupt lusts of the flesh. Though under conditions so different, we can lean on a common experience, as with the Apostle we strive to keep under the flesh, and bring it into subjection. This is the practical issue and drift of all that has been said. Reality of temptation brings reality of sympathy, stores up grace for the tempted, and glory for those who conquer. In the Heart of Christ abides the experience - of the wilderness ; in His Memory the vivid recollection of the struggle; and as His members pass through their struggles with the Tempter, He is able to succour them with a grace and compassion which flow from this Mystery. It is no abstract truth or theological nicety which we have laboured to enunciate, and which has no relation to the Christian's inward life; on the contrary, if it be true, as Job says,i that life is made up of temptation, a day will rarely pass wherein we shall not have needed Christ's Fellowship to be our support, wherein we shall not only have needed to bow down before Him as our God, but to find in His Human Heart the pulses of a common sym- pathy, which more than aught else may serve to give us comfort and courage ; and which may be our strength and stay in an hour when no other sympathy can reach us. * Job viL I, *' Militia est vita hominis super terrain." Vulg. Eerture W. THE SECOND TEMPTATION, *' 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. Jesus said unto him. It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'" — S. Matt. iv. 5-7. nPHERE was something in the resistance of our Lord, which took at once from Satan all hope of success in appealing to the sensual appetite. Satan does not venture to repeat the temptation which terminates in bodily delight, but comm^ences another kind of enticement. In the First Temptation he tried to overcome Christ by means of the cravings of the flesh. He knew that the human soul, by its nature and intimate union with the body, was keenly alive to its demands; and that Israel of old, when they had just passed through the Red Sea, and the echoes of their triumph-song had scarcely died away, murmured be- cause the water was bitter, and the bread was scarce. He The Second Temptation, 129 had known what it was to be successful with those forms of temptation, of which the angelic nature could have no experience, and had delighted in exciting the lusts of the flesh, as they provided him with an extended district in which to stir up antagonism against the Will of God. But from the promptitude, completeness, and calmness of Christ's rejection of the proposal to work a miracle to meet His bodily necessities, Satan felt that he was in the presence of One over Whom, through the sensual region at least, he had no chance of gain- ing any power. Satan may have at first stood in doubt of Christ's sinlessness as well as of His Divinity ; but of the former the failure of his attempts to make Him swerve from the path of righteousness became at once the evidence and the result. The Temptation stands as a great witness to the sinlessness of Christ; a sinlessness proved by the inabiHty of the Evil One to overthrow it, though he put forth all his power in order to do so. In the preceding lecture, we first saw what were, and what were not, the limits of temptation in regard to Christ. Temptation was not simply external, nor only suffering from contact with the Tempter j the boundaries of the Mystery were to be found in the sinlessness, original purity, and Personal incapability of sinning in Christ. We then re- solved a temptation into its constituent elements, and, find- ing all of them in Christ's Temptation, concluded that with Him temptation involved a real struggle as it does 130 The Second Temptation. with us. Those limits must be taken as belonging to the whole Mystery, and not simply to the first assault, in the consideration of which they are laid down ; and the same mode of interpretation must be applied to the Second and Third Temptations, that its consistency may be maintained, and our Lord's sympathy from real inward conflict may be extended to the other two sources of temptation. To affirm the reality of the First Temptation, and then, as one of old did, to resign the other two to the region of parable, imagination, or vision ; or to adopt an interpretation which will not admit of being applied to the three successive Temptations, is a most unsatisfactory way of dealing with the Mystery. Our purpose is to establish our Lord's sym- pathy with us in our struggles from an actual experience of kindred struggles in Himself ; and for this purpose to be completely gained, His sympathy must cover the whole area of temptation. Let us first examine the order of the Temptations ; secondly, Satan's purpose in this Temptation ; and thirdly, let us see how it could be a real Temptation to Christ. I. According to the Gospel of S. Matthew, the Tempta- tion on the pinnacle of the temple was the second ; and there is every reason to suppose that S. Matthew is adher- ing to the order of time, not because S. Matthew was an Apostle, and S. Luke only an Evangelist — a very dangerous way of accounting for the difference between them in their record of the Temptation, or any other variation in their The Second Iemptation. 131 respective statements, and one most damaging to two of the Holy Gospels — but because of the historical character which the adverbs of time give to the narrative of the former. The use of * when,' * then,' and ' again,'i — so marked in the account of S. Matthew — is altogether absent in the account given by S. Luke. But a stronger evidence of S. Matthew's accuracy as to the order of time is to be found in the repulse which Christ gave to Satan in the third temptation, " Get thee hence, Satan l"^ — a repulse which evidently marks the conclusion of the conflict.^ It has been thought that the poet preferred S. Luke's narra- tive, because it afforded the opportunity of representing the angels as ministering spirits in the act of conducting our * S. Matt. iv. I, 2, 3, 5, 8, II. 2 s. Matt. iv. lo. 3 Dr. Mill follows S. Luke's order, though without deciding which Evangelist relates " the actual order of events." He is induced to select S. Luke's narrative both because it accords with S. John's enur meration of the three great lusts (l S. John ii. i6) and because the world occupies ' ' the middle place" in our baptismal renunciation, and "an intermediate position" between carnal and spiritual sin. But if the baptismal order is to be accepted, the third 'temptation, according to S. Luke, would stand first and the first third. Geikie also adopts S. Luke's order. On the other hand S. Bonaventure ilji his "Life of Christ" takes S. Matthew for his guide. S. Bernard also speaks of the three temptations as occurring " in deserto, in pinnaculo, supra montem." Maldonatus says, " S. Matthew follows the order in which things took place." Bengel makes the acute remark, that "Matthew describes the assaults in the order of time, whilst S. Luke observes the gradation of places — desert, mountain, temple." Farrar adopts S. Matthew's order, for the reasons which are given above, and for one other which we cannot accept. 132 The Second Temptation, Lord from the summit of the temple j but such an office, however much it may become them, would on this occasion resemble too much what Satan had just before demanded, to admit of its discharge. The unassisted Manhood con- cluded the Temptation, and the Evil One had withdrawn ere the blessed spirits approached to minister to the second Adam after the struggle. Various reasons have been assigned to account for S. Luke's departure from the order of S. Matthew. One is that S. Luke had in view the Gentiles, for whom he chiefly wrote, and their dominant temptation was the love of the world — "After all these things do the Gentiles seek;"^ whilst S. Matthew wrote for the Jews, in whom, as a privi- leged people, spiritual pride took precedence. Again, it has been suggested that the Holy Spirit moved the Evan- gelist to adopt a different order from that which the Apostle used in recording the Temptation, that he might signify that the process of sin in souls is different : that in one soul sensuality leads to pride, in another to covetousness ; and that thus two orders of temptation are given, lest we should imagine that the tactics of the Enemy were invariable. But the chief reason for this variation between the two Evangelists is to be found, we may believe, in the different stand-points from which they view the Mystery. S. Matthew, as the historian, regards it in relation to time ; S. Luke views it from within, in its psychic progression. The tree 1 S. Matt. vi. 32. The Second Temptaiion. 133 of old was " good for food," " pleasant to the eyes," and " a tree to be desired to make one wise."^ That is S. Luke's order. It is the same with S. John — "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."^ There is a natural gradation between the temptations in this order : the first is sensual entirely ; the second has a mixed character, being partly sensual and partly spiritual ; the third is exclusively spiritual. But S. Matthew's narra- tive fits in more closely with human experience according to which appetite, ambition and love of possessions follow one another.^ A record of the same event, differently related, is often to be found in the Gospels, and of this the account of the Temptation is an instance, which must not be supposed to indicate any inaccuracy on the part of the Evangelists, but ^ Gen. iii. 6. ^ i S. John ii. i6. 3 No rigid law can be laid down as to the order of the three tempta- tions in relation to the spiritual life, or their evolution. S. James speaks of the wisdom which descendeth not from above, "but is earthly, sensual, devilish." (S. James iii. 15.) In that enumeration, the world stands first ; carnality, second ; and pride, third. S. Paul fol- lows S. Matthew's order when he describes the enemies of the Cross of Christ as those " whose God is their belly" (the first temptation), "whose glory is in their shame" (the second), "who mind earthly things" (the third). (Phil. iii. 19.) Again in the Collect for the i8th Sunday after Trinity, one of the gems of the Sacramentary of Gelasius which Cosin has amplified by turning the words "contagions of the Devil" into " the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil," — the third temptation stands first. Whether Cosin intended anything by the order in which he arranged the three foes of man, we cannot 134 T^HE Second TEMPrATioN, should lead us to trace some deep harmony of truth which for a moment the outward variation, whilst it awakens our suspicion of it, may yet hide from our view. Such varia- tions are pledges of the genuineness and independency of the sacred writings, and are also warnings to us not to regard truths or Mysteries exclusively from one point of view. It may sometimes be necessary to transpose the historic order in the spiritual application of the Mysteries of Christ. Thus, S. Paul deals with the Resurrection and Passion as S. Luke deals with the second and third Temptations, — in those glowing words of desire and fervent prayer which from his prison-house he pours forth, as he seems to be already gazing with rapture into the glory of the Eternal World — " That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." He places the Resurrection before the Passion, because it was only through the communication of the Risen Life to his soul that he was enabled to bear suffering aright, and thus to be united with Christ in His Passion. The historical order was one, the spiritual application another ; the order was reversed. It is the stand-point from which Mysteries, say. Dean Goulburn remarks, in his excellent work on "The Col- lects," that the world may have been put first, because it is the tempta- tion of early childhood, and so antedates * ' youthful lusts. " But the Dean evidently uses the term "world" as equivalent to the fascina- tion of things visible which is apt to accompany first impressions, and to absorb a child's attention, not in the grosser sense of "corrupt opinion," or the undue thirst for and love of possessions. The Second Tempt ArioN. 135 or the successive acts of a Mystery, are viewed, which sometimes regulates the order of the record of them, and their relation to spiritual experience. Thus, if in the presence of two persons a musician strikes the first three notes of an octave, but not in their order, one witness may give one account, and the other another of the sounds which he heard : one may give the musical order, independent of the order in which the notes were struck ; whilst the other may adhere to the actual order of the notes as they were struck, and not of their musical suc- cession.i Many apparent discrepancies in point of time between the Evangelists, may be reconciled by ascertaining the different aspects which they are respectively taking. Parables or miracles are not associated together and trans- ported from their historical position without some reason, and that reason may often be found in the inward con- nection which exists between them. Whilst one may give the order of time, another may be guided to make a classi- fication, which necessitates a sacrifice of historical sequence. We miss much if we fail to learn in the pages of the New Testament, not only from the events which are related, but also from their juxtaposition in the different Gospels. The psychological order, as it may be called — " the lust * E. g. If A, B, C were struck in the order A, C, B ; one, on being asked, may say he heard A, C, B, thinking only of the order in which the sounds reached him ; the other may say. A, B, C, making his reply according to their progressive connection. 136 The Second Temptation. of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" — is not the order of origination, nor necessarily of human experience. The generation of sin in an unfallen nature is from above, and not from beneath ; from spiritual, and not from carnal rebellion. The introduction of sin in man is an image and miniature of its commencement and exten- sion in the Universe. It began with the angels, and de- scended into human nature : it begins with our highest faculties, and afterwards throws into rebellion the lower passions. First, the mind is overthrown by the mind ; and then, and not till then, can the mind be overthrown by the flesh. " Pride is the beginning of sin."^ Many movements may concur in its production, and therefore sometimes the sin of our first parents is described as gluttony, sometimes as curiosity, unbelief, imprudence, disobedience; but the first disorder is found in the inner craving of the mind after some spiritual good which is in excess of the measure of the Divine Will. This mental thirst may set into motion other desires, which first result from and then strengthen it; but through it sin enters. " Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," constitutes the fascination of the finite creature, — the temptation to step beyond the boundaries of truth, and to grasp at a power and wisdom which are inconsistent with the conditions of created life. The mind rebels against God, and then the flesh against the mind, so that the order of origination ^ Ecclus. X. 13. The Second Temptation. 137 in an unfallen nature is the reverse of that given by S. John or S. Luke. Again, in experience, if the Temptation be taken as a representation of the successive struggles of human life, the order of S. Matthew is certainly the most common. The predominance of temptations of the flesh in youth, of ambition and pride in manhood and public life, of avarice and of earthliness in old age, will be admitted. It is far more important to us that the temptations occur so as to correspond with the different stages of human life, than that we should accept the arrangement of S. Luke for the sake of an abstract consideration : and, if it may be said we have in this the authority of S. Augustine against us ; it may be replied, that we have S. Ambrose on our side, who, though writing on S. Luke, forsakes his order of the Temp- tation, and follows S. Matthew's. Having, then, dealt with this seeming discrepancy between the two Evangelists, and having chosen S. Matthew for our guide, we are free now to pass to the consideration of the Temptation itself. II. Satan does not venture to tempt our Lord without the aid of external circumstances, as he sometimes does in dealing with a corrupt mind, but relies on the assist- ance of the outward occasion. He transports Christ from the wilderness to the pinnacle of the Temple. We are not told how this journey was effected, but we must conclude that it was performed in some extraordinary manner for two reasons :— it is evident that the three temptations occurred in quick succession at the close of 138 The Second TEMPTAriON. our Saviour's Fast, and that there could not have been time to pass from the wilderness to the Temple, and from the Temple to the Mount on foot — " It is not wonderful," says one of old, " that Christ should permit Himself to be taken about by Satan, when He permitted Himself to be crucified by His members." Moreover, the entrances to the Temple were guarded, so that no man might pass to the summit by the steps which led up to it. Our Lord, then, suffered Himself to be brought thither by the Evil One, allowing Himself to be conducted to the pinnacle, but not putting forth His own power in reaching it ; for that was the very power which Satan questioned. Hav- ing, then, placed Christ on the pinnacle, wing, or roof of the Royal Porch, Satan thus addressed Him : " If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down." We have to notice here Satan's doubt; his purpose, the argument with which he supported it ; and the passion to which he appealed. (i.) And, first, Satan stood in doubt as to the Divinity of Christ. We have already alluded to this ; but now, on the repetition of the words " if Thou be the Son of God," in the Second Temptation, we will inquire a little more minutely into this question, as it is of prime importance. There are four grounds on which the opinion that Satan was fully convinced that Christ was the Son of God is usually based. Sometimes it is urged on grammatical grounds, and then it is said that "if Thou art" is equal to The Second Temptation, 139 " seeing Thou art." Again, this opinion is derived from a certain explanation of the Fall of the Angels ; it is said that Satan fell, through not accepting the Mystery of the Incarnation, and therefore it is likely that he knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Thirdly, the fact is brought forward that the evil spirits knew Christ when He exercised His power upon them, as recorded in the Gospels ; as, for instance, in the expulsion of those devils who cried out, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?"1 And again, we are told that He would not suffer the " devils to speak, because they knew Him. "2 To the fruitless attempts of one to expel them, the evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know."^ And lastly, the outward manifestations of Christ's greatness are said to have been sufficient to convince Satan of His Divinity. But not one of these arguments is sufficient, neither is their cumulative force sufficient, to render the position we have taken untenable : a position, be it remembered, which has the support of almost all ancient writers. It was evi- dent to them that Satan must have been ignorant either of our Lord's Divinity, or of the way He would work out our Redemption; or else, neither would he himself have tempted Him, nor would he have urged men to crucify Him. Thus, S. Gregory Nazianzen says, " When the master of evil ensnared us by the hope of becoming divine, re- garding himself as invincible, he himself is ensnared by the » S. Matt. viii. 29. 2 g. Mark i. 34. ^ Acts xix. 15. 140 The Second Temptation. bait of flesh ; so that when he assaulted Adam he might encounter God, and thus the new Adam might save again the old." S. Gregory further describes how our Lord, on account of His corruptible nature, was not known by Satan as the Son of God. There is nothing inconsistent with Divine truthfulness in allowing Satan to be deceived, and to fall into judicial blindness as to the Mystery of Re- demption; in order that he might adopt a policy which would be subversive of his interests, and would at last undermine his own kingdom. With regard to the four grounds on which the opposite opinion, namely, that Satan fully knew Christ, rests, we would make the following remarks. As to the first, the best scholars affirm that the clause in question, " If Thou be the Son of God," may either be taken as expressing a doubt or a condition, and that the context must decide in which sense it is to be used ; but when it is allied to the demand for a miracle of demonstration, it simply assumes the air of an inquiry. Nothing can be decided on an opinion as to the Fall of the Angels, which is grounded on an interpretation which is not the only one of that event ; and, moreover, if Satan had been fully aware of the decree of the Incarnation, it would not follow that he recognized the Human Form in which that Incarnation took place. Whether the cries of the evil spirits were prompted simply by fear or suspicion, or by some real knowledge of the Divinity of Christ, we cannot say; but they were sub- 7 HE Second Temptation, 141 sequent to the Temptation, and the miracles of Christ might have been the means of subsequently convincing the Evil One of Christ's True Greatness, at least in a measure, though he still remained in darkness as to the mode of Redemption. Besides the Angelic Salutation and the Visitation, the angelic minstrelsy, and the announcement to the shepherds, which were vouchsafed on Christmas night ; and after this, the guiding of the star to the manger, and the worship of the magi ; then, the rapture of Simeon as he poured forth his " Nunc dimittis" and uttered his ob- scure prophecy ; then, the gleam of Divine Wisdom, which for a moment irradiated the doctors in the Temple ; and lastly, the unveiling of the Divine Sonship on the banks of Jordan, the hovering Dove, the Father's Voice, — there were counter manifestations; namely, the weakness of Christ's Infancy, the mark of Circumcision, the workshop at Nazareth, the submission to His parents, the emaciation from the long fast, the humiliation to which He subjected Himself in enduring the Temptation, all of which pointed in an opposite direction, and were surely sufficient to make the Author of doubt himself doubtful of Christ's Divinity. Moreover, there was a veil thrown over the Mysteries of Christ's Conception and Early Life, all which things we are twice^ told Mary locked up in her heart; so that we cannot say how much of these secrets which witnessed * S. Luke ii. 19, 51. 142 The Second Temptation, to Christ's greatness might have become known to the Evil One. Satan, then, was in doubt ; a doubt perhaps increased by Christ's refusal to work a miracle for His bodily support — at any rate not removed by it ; for Satan is not convinced by virtue, and does not accredit any one with a power which for moral or spiritual reasons he refuses to exercise. He has no beHef in enduring goodness. He did not be- lieve in Job's integrity because he was faithful under the first trial ; he expected that he would yield under a sharper chastisement. And now he makes a second attempt upon Christ in the same spirit. / (2.) But he had a very different purpose in view in the second Temptation from that which he had in the first. Both Temptations were complex, and addressed the soul as well as the body. The second Temptation was the oppo- ^^ite of the first. In the first, he aimed at imparting a dis- trust of the ordinary providence of God ; in the second, he desired to excite an undue trust in the extraordinary provi- dence of God. In the first he appealed to our sense of self-protection, and desired a miraculous supply of food for the preservation of the body : in the second he urged on Christ an act of self destruction, by casting His body down from the roof of the Temple. In this mode of proceeding, our Lord's Temptation un- veils another of the devices of the Enemy ; which is to form fresh snares out of our victories, and to attempt to lead us The Second Temptation, 143 into some excess in that which is good, when he discovers our bent of mind. Our Lord trusted in the wilderness ; therefore he would strive to make Him trust unduly. Trust he would stretch into presumption. Thus, those who prac- tise fasting and mortification he would have them carry their self-denial to excess, that thereby health may be in- jured and higher duties neglected. Again, those who are drawn to prayer and contemplation through its sweetness and delight, he would render forgetful of those active duties which belong to their state of life. Those who were eager to know themselves by diligent self-examination, he would endeavour to overthrow by scrupulosity and indecision. He strives to destroy that which is good by making it be- come inordinate j and therefore there is the utmost need of watchfulness, in order to preserve the true balance be- tween various graces and opposing claims of duty. Temptations quickly change, and when in conquering despair the impression of trust is fresh on the heart, then is presumption more liable to gain an entrance. We must be careful, then, not to overrate our victories, and to measure advancement by the absence of old temptations. A change of temptations may be mistaken for a victory. The temptations which were once troublesome, and it may be which overcame us, may be withdrawn as life advances, or new sets of circumstances arise. New passions develop, and old ones lose their fire. Or again, victories of passion may take the place of victories of grace ; for the passions 144 ^^^ Second Temptation, through the fall have a conflict amongst themselves, and sloth may vanquish pride, or ambition sloth, without any displacement of evil by grace, and therefore without any progress in sanctification. Again, the order of the Temptations warns us to beware lest after a victory we become presumptuous. " I said, in my prosperity, I shall never be removed : Thou, Lord, of Thy goodness, hast made my hill so strong."^ Victory over temptations of the flesh may be quickly and easily followed by temptations of the spirit; or, temptations to despair be succeeded by temptations to presumption. The human mind often oscillates between extremes, from defect to excess, and thus philosophers have taught us to look for virtues in the mean. At one time S. Peter is saying, " Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet ;"2 and the next moment, " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." At one time the Corinthians are sinfully lenient towards the incestuous person ; at another, they are full of undue severity. In philosophic systems of the Heathen world, and in the heresies which from time to time called forth fresh dogmatic expressions from the Church, we see the same principle of recoil. Heresies are one-sided ; and develop one aspect of a doctrine or truth, to the detriment or destruction of another. At one tim.e sensuality is en- couraged ; at another, a rigorous repression of innocent affections. At one time the Divinity of Christ is imper- ^ Ps. XXX. 6, 7. 2 s. John xiii. 8, 9. The Second Temptation. 145 fectly grasped ; and then, when that truth is authoritatively affirmed, defective views of His Humanity follow. Satan calculates on this swing of the mind, and thus purposes, now that Christ has avoided one extreme, to entrap Him in another, knowing that we are liable by the very care which we take against a fault to be betrayed into commit- ting its opposite. It was said that the temptation was complex, and had reference to the body as well as to the mind. Let us take the lower side of it now, and see Satan's purpose in refe- rence to Christ's human life. The act which Satan suggested would on the one hand be a certain indication of Divine Power, if successfully ac- complished ; or, on the other, result in loss of life, if at- tempted by mere man and contrary to God's Will. In the First Temptation failure to effect what was proposed would have brought with it no harm ; in the Second, failure would involve instant death. Satan's idea of Christ's Divinity was waning, because Christ did not work the miracle he proposed, by turning stones into bread. It may be that he interpreted this refusal into an inability on the part of Christ to do a supernatural act, and therefore he tempts Christ to perform an action which was in itself possible for the creature to attempt, especially when under the in- fluence of some vain presumption of extraordinary protec- tion. His object was, then — to put it in plain words — that Christ might be dashed to pieces on the ground. He 146 The Second Temptation, knew well that God would not miraculously preserve a creature who thus unnecessarily exposed himself to danger ; especially when that danger was incurred in order that his extraordinary preservation might be the sign and attestation of Divinity. Satan was thus engaged in his old work. He was from the beginning the cause of death in all forms : — " For God made not death : neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living."^ "Satan," said Christ, " was a murderer from the beginning, "^ and this not only because he was the author of that disintegration which sin ultimately causes, but also because he excites the human passions in order to hasten, or prematurely occasion, the •• destruction of human life. Any one of the passions may be the instrument which he employs in bringing about this end. Envy leads to it in Cain ; pride, in Saul and Ahitho- phel ; covetousness and despair, in Judas ; despondency excites the desire of death in Elijah and Jonah ; lust and intemperance produce the same result when they run their fatal course. Each passion in its final development may be the cause of destruction of life, either one's own or another's. Sometimes this temptation is dressed in the garb of courage and magnanimity ; sometimes it is clothed with a religious motive, such as satisfaction for sin ; and sometimes self- destruction presents itself as an heroic escape from trials and present pain, from defilement or ignominy. Indeed "the doctrine of suicide was the culminating point of » Wisd. i. 13. ^ S. John viii. 44. The Second Temptation, 147 Roman stoicism"^ — a doctrine which had such power and prevalence, that one,^ we are told, who taught it, had to be banished in order to put a stop to his baleful influence. The second Temptation raises the curtain, and shows us who was the prime source of those views of life and death with which the Pagan mind was so generally imbued, and who still, though on rare occasions, is able to effect his purposes, and often hides his work, now that it is no longer commended, under the cloke of a diseased mind. It must be remembered that, not only to destroy, but to imperil human life, whether through wantonness or for gain, in order to gratify the morbid taste of beholders, is in a " measure a result of the same secret workings of him who " Cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy," thereby manifesting his hatred of that nature which God would assume. The hasty expression of a wish for death which often rises to the lips of the passionate, the proud, the disap- pointed, and the despairing, in the moment of temptation, * Lecky, Hist. Europ. Morals, Vol. I. pp. 226 — 234. 2 " Hegesias, who was sumamed by the ancients the 'orator of death' ... he taught that life was so full of cares, and its pleasures so fleeting, that the happiest lot of man was death ; and such was the power of his eloquence, so intense the fascination which he cast around the tomb, that his disciples embraced with rapture the consequence of his doctrine : multitudes freed themselves by suicide from the trou- bles of the world. " 148 The Second Temptation, though not really meant, is nevertheless a token of the ultimate misery which that passion, if permitted to develop itself, would work, — and sometimes does work, though its awful consequence is often set down to mental and not to moral disorder. ■^ Again, the Second Temptation has this peculiarity, that it was backed with an argument, and an argument of a very specious nature. Satan asserted as a reason for the act he suggested, that it would occasion the fulfilment of a pro- phecy : " He shall give His angels charge over thee. . . . They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." He was not simply supporting his assault by a quotation from Holy Scripture, and thus imi- tating Christ : but He appealed to the great truth, that all the promises of the Old Testament were to be fulfilled in Christ ; so that, Christ would by casting Himself down prove the Fidelity of God as well as the truth of His own Messiahship. It has often been noticed how Satan garbled the quotation, omitting " in all thy ways" as suggestive of God's protecting care and of its limits, which he would fain keep out of sight. As S. Bernard says, He shall protect thee " in ways, not in precipices. This is, not a way, but a fall ; and if it is a way, it is thine, not His." Satan wisely too, stops short ; for the next verse runs — as if the Spirit had been dwelling already upon the use which would be made of this promise of angelic custody — "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder : the young lion and the The Second Temptation, 149 dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet."^ All these are names of Satan, as S. Gregory remarks, both revealing dif- ferent aspects of his character, and different results of his working in human nature. The promise is reiterated by S. Paul, when he says, " the God of peace shall * tread' Satan under your feet shortly. "^ We see how Satan not only" used Christ's trust in His Father, which the answer to the First Temptation revealed, from which to frame the Second Temptation, but also laid hold of Christ's weapon of defence. It is important to notice this, that we may be on our guard against temptations which come from mis- quotations or misapplications of texts of Scripture ; and that we may recognize the need of an Authoritative Teacher as not only witness and keeper, but also as exponent of In- spired Writings — " I should not beHeve the Gospel," said S. Augustine, " unless the authority of the Church moved me to do so j" — and that we may cultivate the inner light of conscience, lest " the things that should have been for our wealth be unto us an occasion of falling," for our Lord says, " if any man will do His" Father's " will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."^ ^ Ps. xci. 13. These words, we are aware, have been also lite- rally interpreted of lions and serpents, that God's servants shall be protected from them, as in the case of Daniel (Dan. vi. 22) and S. Paul (Acts xxviii. 5) ; but they are usually thought to describe the cruelty, subtlety, and violence of Satan. Vide i S. Pet. v. 8, Rev. xii. 3, XX. 2. 2 Rom. xvi. 20. ^ S. John vii. 17. 150 The Second TEMPTArioN. The text which Satan adduced would be fulfilled, but not then — not at his instance, nor in that manner. Angels who are ministers of Divine Protection may become, when there is a departure from the ways of God, the ministers of Divine Wrath, as when " the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Ba- laam's foot against the wall."i xhus the angel in Balaam's case caused that, which in the promise of the Psalmist angels are said to prevent. Their protection depends on the lines of the Providence of God being carefully pre- served ; and to outstep those lines in order to put to the test His Attributes, was, as our Lord described it, to tempt God. r^ We may tempt God either in words or deeds. To tempt God is to explore in a spirit of doubt, whether He knows or wills or is able to do something which is proposed to Him. By words, the Pharisees tempted Christ when they insidiously questioned Him. God is tempted by our actions, when we lean upon the intervention of His Power and neglect the use of means which are within our reach. Thus, to expose the body to danger without necessity, or } the soul to occasions of sin, is to tempt God, for it is to put His Power or Grace to an inordinate test. "The devil," it has been said, "tried to induce Christ to ' Num. xxii. 24, 25. The Second Temptation, 151 tempt God, by casting Himself down, out of a thirst for. fame."i -^ (3.) Satan appealed to the pride of the human heart. In the substance of the temptation, he sought to call out one form of it ; in the circumstances of the temptation, another. He cunningly constructed the temptation, so that it might be calculated to awaken both presumption and vain-glory. The act which he proposed was one which could be carried into effect from any eminence ; but he is careful to choose a spot which possessed not only the qualification of height, but of publicity. He " taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple."^ Satan * Aquinas. - The question is discussed by Tostatus, whether Christ was ac- tually carried to the pinnacle by Satan, or whether He Himself went to the Temple. It is urged that our Lord was borne thither by the Evil One; (i) because, it is said, he ** taketh" Him and "setteth'^ Him ; because the ordinary ascent by steps would have taken away the occasion of saying "cast Thyself down," for our Lord might have returned by the way He came ; (2) because the Second Temptation is re- presented as quickly following the First, and some days must have elapsed in order to reach the Temple on foot. This commentator further deals with the question whether Satan acted corporeally and visibly or not, and refers to the conveyance of Habbacuc by an angel into Babylon in Dan. xiv., (Vulg.,) and concludes that our Lord was taken by Satan " corporeally and visibly" to the pinnacle of the Temple. In the following chapter the same writer considers the question whether it was "fitting" that Christ should suffer Himself to be thus borne to the Temple and Mountain ; and he replies, first, that in the wilderness the Second and Third Temptations were impossible ; and, secondly, that Christ willed "perfectly to overcome Satan," and therefore permitted 15^ The Second Temptation. tempts to distrust in the wilderness, but to love of display on the pinnacle of the temple. He thus provides one in- gredient of temptation — the external occasion. The abut- ment or wing of the temple was a suitable place for exciting a vain-glorious act. As presumption, — the side of pride in relation to God; so vain-glory, — the side of pride in re- lation to man, were each to have a share in this complex temptation; so that if one failed the other might be suc- cessful, or that both combined might afford a sufficient in- ducement. Satan thus addresses a passion from different sides'at once, when he has felt the strength of resistance in any soul ; or when, being in doubt, he is searching about for some sign of weakness. As with the lusts of the flesh he approached with a temptation in its finest form ; so, when addressing the desires of the mind, he uses no gross consideration, but suggests thoughts of spiritual pride in a most subtle manner. He tries the temptation to which a pure angel was not insensible; that which is *the first temptation to come and the last to go,' * the arrow that flieth by day ;'^ that which feeds more on virtues than on vices ; that which is the ' secret spoiler' of holiness ; that which is abominable in the sight of God, because it robs Him of His inalienable right — His Glory, and turns the creature him, so to speak, to make his own arrangements for the second and third assaults, like an athlete who wills, by giving his adversary certain advantages, not only to vanquish but to confound him. Tostatus, Tom. ix., Q. xxxiv. — xxxvi. 1 Ps. xci. 5. The Second Temptation. 153 from his Final End, making the creature serve the creature, rather than the creature the Creator ; that which destroys all merit in works, however laborious, which are done to be * seen of men -/^ that which could turn an Archangel into a Devil; that which therefore is rightly, as S. Chrysostom says, styled " the mother of hell" — ^the temptation of vain- glory ! We have considered Satan's doubt of Christ's Divi- nity; the purpose for which he tempted our Lord, the argument he employed ; and the passion to which on two sides he appealed. Now let us see how his proposal could be a real temptation to Christ. III. For a temptation to be real, that is to occasion an internal struggle, we must find in it the five ingredients which compose it (as stated in the fourth lecture) ; namely, desire, law, collision between desire and law, suggestion, and free-will. If, then, these be discovered in the Second Temptation, we shall conclude that our Lord's was a genuine struggle in this case as in the former. This prin- ciple of interpretation may be less clearly seen in this temptation than in the first, as the temptation itself is more subtle, and appertains to the invisible workings of the mind, and not to the palpable cravings of the flesh. Tempta- tions which are purely spiritual are of course with greater difficulty subjected to analysis than those which are carnal. Satan was exploring the Divinity of Christ, and tempted * S. Matt, xxiii. 5. 154 ^HE Second Tempt^^ion, Him to reveal it in an unmistakable manner, and in a public and most sacred spot. That Christ had natural desires, arising from the de- mands of the body, which were not gratified at the sug- gestion of Satan, has been already seen; but now we go further, and point to desires of His Human Soul which were not gratified. When Satan confronted Him with the Second Temptation, did he not find in Christ a desire which would have responded to it ? We may believe he did. All that was truly human was in Christ ; the finite, though linked with the Infinite, lost nothing of its own proper action by that Union. As Pure and Holy Man, He loved those around Him — relations, friends, nation, with the different aff"ections of relationship, friendship, and pa- triotism; and loving them, He desired to confer upon them that which would be the highest benefit they could receive — the true knowledge of Himself As Redeemer, He de- sired to reveal Himself to those who looked for and needed Redemption. That He possessed desires, apart from bo- dily cravings, which nevertheless were never gratified, may be seen in the pathetic words with which He apostrophized Jerusalem, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . now often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen ga- thereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."^ There was desire, and it was unsatisfied. When Satan said, " Cast Thyself down," he appealed to an intense desire in * S. Matt, xxiii. 37. ^QiX-qtra. The Second Temptation. 155 Christ to vindicate the truth of the promises of God, and to manifest His Divinity to man in a manner which would carry with it irresistible conviction. But there was a law of the Divine manifestation, which (and not natural desire) was the guide of His Life — " Christ pleased not Himself. "^ The natural desire of the human heart may prompt to a manifestation at a time when, or in a degree in which God willed not, and thus the Divine pre-appointment would come into collision with the human longing ; and hence the desire would have to be restrained. The reason for not casting Himself down, is that it is not the Will of the Father ; in all things this Will was direct- ing Christ's steps. Of His words He says, " Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak ;"3 of His actions — "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do."^ In nothing was this controlling power of the Father's Will so conspicuous as in the matter of time. Christ re- mains in Nazareth in obscurity until thirty years of age ; in working miracles, the outpouring of Divine Power was sub- ject to some mysterious regulation as to time. He not only works the works of Him that sent Him, but at those points of time when they were appointed to be wrought. This is especially manifest with regard to the first mi- racle.* Christ's Blessed Mother seemed anxious to hasten 1 Rev. XV. 3. 2 S. John xii. 50. 3 S. John V. 19. * S. John ii. 4. 156 The Second Temptation, the manifestation, but our Lord replied to her suggestion, " Mine hour is not yet come." Again, in the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, when Christ heard of the illness of His friend, " He abode two days still in the same place where He was."^ When going up to the Feast, Jesus speaks thus — " My time is not yet come : but your time is alway ready."^ He avoids bringing on the Passion before the time which was appointed of the Father. It was ** when the time was come that He should be received up, that He steadfastly set His Face to go to Jerusalem."^ It is evident, then, that the innocent and natural desires of His Human Heart were restrained by that higher law of the Father's Will, with which His reasonable Will was ever in most perfect harmony — a harmony, however, which does not preclude that sharp opposition, between the crav- ings of pure nature, whether of flesh or of affection on the one side, and the demands of the Divine Purpose on the other, the collision between which, gave occasion for the con- stant exercise of sacrifice. The temptation to put His Divine Power into operation at the call of the human heart, must have taken place not only when standing upon the Temple, but must have oftentimes been felt by Christ. For instance, when He went down to Nazareth, where He had lived so long, and for whose inhabitants He must have entertained a special love, how must He have longed to reveal Hira- ^ S. John xi. 6. ^ S. John vii. 6. 3 S. Lukeix. 51. The Second Temptation. 157 self, so as to constrain them to acknowledge His Divinity ; but " He did no mighty work there because of their un- belief."^ As self-restraint would be needed when nature called for a miracle for its own relief, so self-restraint was needed when affection called for the exercise of miraculous powers in relation to others. There was a wonderful admixture of hiddenness and manifestation even in the Public Life of Christ. It would be contrary to the law of our probation, that He should so reveal Himself as to leave no moral choice to the beholder. There was enough evidence to take away all excuse for in- fidelity, but not enough evidence to take away all merit from faith. As with the evidences of religion, there is a point where a moral force must sustain and complete the mental process, so that conviction may be the result not of a single faculty, but of the conjoint operation of the whole being j so even with those who beheld Christ in the Flesh, the manifestations of Divinity were not so overwhelming as to make them exceptions to that test which all other moral beings have to undergo. The highest manifestations of the Divinity in the Resurrection and Ascension did not carry men away on an overwhelming tide of evidence. To S. Thomas, when he felt the Wounds, and fell in adoration before his Risen Lord, it is said, " Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast deh'eved ;"^ — there was still room for faith. And, as the result of our Lord's Appearance just before His 1 S. Matt. xiii. 58. 2 g. John xx. 29. 158 The Second Temptation, Ascension,^ — as if to assure us that even then, as now, beings had their moral choice of disbelieving or believing the evidences of religion, — it is said, "When they saw Him, they worshipped Him : but some doubted .'^'^ When Satan appealed to Christ for a decisive act of Self- manifestation, he appealed to a desire which must have frequently presented itself to the Man Christ Jesus, namely, to reveal Himself, so as to urge the darkened mind and reluctant will to acknowledge and accept those blessings, which He could only impart when the soul freely yielded herself up to receive them. " Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life,"^ are words which reveal both desire and disappointment. The law of manifestation, which human probation necessitated, clashed with the yearning desires of the Heart of Jesus, which were restrained by His Will. The desire to manifest Himself to " His own,"* who rejected Him, to descend " suddenly"^ into His Father's House where His Presence had been promised, that those who were assembled there might recognize Him — to reveal Himself to them and to all, with such a display of Divinity as would lead to an universal acknowledgment ; the desire to work miracles out of human sympathy, when the indisposi- tion of the beholders or participants was a hindrance even * S. Chrysostom regards the Manifestation on the mountain of Ga- lilee as the last of our Lord's Appearances before His Ascension. 2 S. Matt, xxviii. 17. ^ S. John v. 40. * S. Johni. II. 5 Mai. !„. j. The Second Temptation, 159 to the Omnipotent One — was often, we may believe, the source of a genuine struggle in Christ, and especially when from the Temple He was bidden to manifest Himself by casting Himself down. The place itself, we say, formed an element of the trial. ' Our Lord stood in full view of the Temple Courts which were beneath Him. Those Courts were ever thronged with worshippers. To those Courts were drawn those who had spiritual instincts, who cherished heavenly desires, who looked for Redemption in Israel, to whom the sight of the Messiah was the chief longing of their heart ; and the Temple was the very place where they expected Him to appear. Prophecies had guided them to that sacred spot, as the one where He would reveal Himself — " The glory of i this latter house" was thus to become " greater than of the former." — "The Lord, Whom they sought, was to come suddenly to His Temple." The place, therefore, and the assembled worshippers, suggested the manifestation which was proposed, and angel hosts would willingly have en- circled Him, as He passed from the pinnacle to make His Court in the Holy of Holies, and ministered to Him when enthroned within the sacred precincts of His Father's House. But the manifestation was withheld, the Father's Will obeyed, the human desire checked, and the subtle pro- posal of the Enemy represented in its true character — " Thou Shalt not /emj>f the Lord thy God." And here we must guard against the thought that such i6o The Second Temptation, a collision between human feeling or affection and the purposes of God attributes to the Divine Will a sternness and restraining action which are hardly in harmony with the loving Nature of God; and which seem in one way to represent man as more loving than God. We must remember, that here we pass into that primal Mystery of free-will and the universal law of probation which set limits to Christ's Self-manifestation ; and further, that the manifestation was ever abundant enough for those who willed to believe, and that its failure was through the effects of sin on the mind and will of man for which God is not accountable. The Love of the Father and the perfect knowledge of His Mind and Will did not destroy in Christ natural love and natural desires, but rather quickened and intensified them ; and therefore He could taste the pain of detachment when the rising of an inno- cent affection or desire had to be quelled by His reasonable Will, and brought under the law of a higher Love. We have seen in what sense this Second Temptation could have been a real temptation to Jesus Christ. By resisting the temptation to an undue self-manifestation, He purchased sympathy with us in another region of trial, in temptations to * the pride of life.'^ The sympathy which He acquired in the sensuous sphere is hereby ex- tended to the sphere of self consciousness. All tempta- tions which arise from an inordinate desire to be known, * I S. John ii. i6. The Second Temptation. i6i praised, and esteemed ; all thirst for honour, renown, and reputation in the sight of man ; all cravings for a greatness which is self-devised, and not that genuine greatness which is produced by exact correspondence to the original Idea and Will of God for us, are homogeneous with this temptation. With us the motive is or may be corrupt, may be selfish and mercenary, mean and envious; but in the Sinless Christ the desire was pure and innocent in itself — the desire to justify His Father's Care and to reveal Himself to man ; a desire, however, which was at that time contrary to the Will of God, and therefore not for one moment enter- tained; but the movement of His Human Soul was the same, and the repression the same, the struggle was only the more intense, because the desire of Self-manifestation arose from pure love — which is the strongest passion ; how strong, we cannot say, in the Heart that had no experience of selfishness. Ours is a desire, corrupted by self-love : His was a desire, prompted by the love of others. Ours is a desire which is restrained by the Moral Law; His was a desire which was checked through obedience to the Good Pleasure of the Divine Will. His was the sub- ordination of that which is good to that which is better ; ours is the restraint of that which is bad in order to become good. Whilst Jesus Christ purchased sympathy with us in all forms of temptation to pride, presumption, and vain- glory; He also acquired grace for us, whereby we might overcome those subtle temptations in union with Him, and M 1 62 The Second Temptation, thus sanctified by His Example the hidden life. Our Lord's conduct in this Temptation is a great witness to a law of His Life, which He Himself thus expressed — " I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth."! There were times, however, of manifestation as well as of concealment in the Life of Christ ; both were regulated by the same law of obedience to the Divine Will, and both had as their end the Father's Glory. In the same way, in the Christian's Life, there are times when the duty of edifying our neighbour demands some outward expres- sion of the inner life; but the times both of expression and of concealment must be regulated by the knowledge of the Divine Will, as that Will is made known by the suggestions of the Spirit. In this temptation the warning is against manifestations which are contrary to the guidings of the Good Spirit, and are the outcome of personal vanity, or the result of the working of that spirit who can transform himself into an angel of light, and use Scripture as his instrument of deception. We must therefore "try the spirits whether they are of God."^ It is not always easy to distinguish between the different movements which prompt us — whether they originate in ourselves, or are the inspirations of the Spirit, or the work- ings of the Evil One. There is need of prayer for light, * S. John viii. 50. ^ i S. John iv. I. 7 HE Second Temptation. 163 that we may be able to discern between the suggestions which are from above and those which are from beneath. Satan uses the spirit of the flesh, and that of the world, as " coadjutors f^ there is nevertheless a distinction between them. When you are attacked by " sensual thoughts," it is the spirit of the flesh which prompts them ; when by thoughts of honour and esteem of men, it is the spirit of the world ; when by bitterness, anger, impatience, revenge, it is the Evil Spirit. But at first, these temptations may be disguised and wear the appearance of good, how then are we to discern that which is really of God, from that which is false? How may we know whether it is right to be hidden, or right to manifest to others the work of God within us ? There are marks whereby the Holy Spirit's movements may be distinguished from those of the Evil or human spirit. One sign that the suggestions are from the Holy Spirit is the pure aim of glorifying the Father which His Presence instils into the soulj in such there is an absence of self- seeking and self-contemplation, because the gaze of the soul is concentrated upon God — " The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost."^ Again, the Good Spirit ever strives to make us pure and true, just and good, seeks to reproduce in us some feature of the Life of Christ. His promptings will always be found to lead to Christ — " He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto * S. Bernard. 2 Rom. v. 5. 164 7he Second Temptation. you."^ He will also guide us to that which is pure in re- lation to oneself, and that which is lowly and loving in re- ference to others. The marks of the true Spirit are given by S. James, when he says, the Wisdom which is from above " is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good works."^ If these signs are found, we may trustfully follow the guidance, whether it be in the path of concealment or edification, and in both the Glory of the Father will be accomplished. j^ One thing, however, is certain, that, however grand the results may seem, the Father's Glory is never obtained by doing extraordinary actions, which are beyond His Will and Appointment. * Not in precipices, but in our ways,'^ the angels will guard us ; and our sanctification will be perfected. When Satan tempts to display the inner life for the edifica- tion of others, in some unwonted action, or when he tempts . to resort to some extraordinary means — to the neglect of I those which are ordinary — we must recall the Second Temp- tation. We must be on our guard, for it may be that, when we think we are actuated by a pure motive, then the worm of self-love is hidden beneath. It is at all times dangerous to act simply with a view to the edification of others j their edification should arise from the unconscious outflow of the life itself, and then the absence of self-consciousness will give to that effluence a strength, a charm, and a loveliness. 1 S. John xvi. 14. ^ S. James iii. 17. 3 S. Bernard, Serm. xiv., in Ps. Qui habitat. The Second Temptation, 165 But these warnings are all subsidiary to the main thought which we would throughout keep in view, which is this : — that that chord in the human soul, which is the basis of all temptations to pride and self- consciousness, was most deeply- touched, and suffered such a tension as constitutes a genuine struggle, in the Soul of Christ ; and that there- fore to Him we can look for sympathy, and for that support which a common experience alone can give. Though our temptations, through our corruption, take a different direc- tion, or are stimulated by a different motive, the strain is the same ; and therefore, when we are confronted by the Evil One with his own special snare, we can place ourselves under the protection of One Who has vanquished him before, and Who through the experience of the Second Temptation can have fellowship with us. In the words of the Psalmist, we can pray for the grace which Christ purchased for us, that we also may be successful in the conflict — " O let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down." aerture Wh THE THIRD TEMPTATION. ^^ Again, the devil taketh Hivi up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Theft saith Jesus unto him. Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.'''' — S. Matt. iv. 8—10. C\? the three theological virtues— faith, hope, and love, the second has in some respects an especial import- ance. / No order of beings can exercise this virtue beside /'ourselves. It is different with faith and love : of the former, at least, as an intellectual act, the devils are capable — " the devils believe, and tremble;" and in the latter, the angels in Heaven have their part ; but hope is exclusively our own virtue ; and it has a peculiar way of offering homage to God. Faith and love may have less to say concerning the Divine Character, when that Character is viewed in relation to ourselves. Faith is the realization of God's Being ; love, of His Beauty ; but hope grasps Him " as the principle of The Third Temptation, 167 perfect goodness," and consequently trusts Him because of His Love to us. We may know and love any one, and at the same time feel no chance of any return of that love i but when we trust another, we then by that act bear witness to his goodness in regard to ourselves. But if, on the other hand, we are conscious in intercourse that we are distrusted, then there can be no lasting link of friendship or sweetness in associating together. Hope is that move- ment of the soul which has realized God's Love for itself, and lives in that realization. And as this virtue is our own, and peculiarly gratifying to God on account of the homage it offers to His Goodness and Benignity, so have we an especial need of it ; it is the virtue of the fallen, of those who amid " the waves of this troublesome world" have to contend with the results of the Fall, but to whom a Promise was given — a Promise, the gradual unfolding and fulfilment of which is like a beacon- light throughout a storm, which glows from a distant summit, and towards which, as its rays now shine out and then wane, the mariners lift their eyes and direct their shattered bark. This virtue, then, belonging so especially to mankind, honouring God with a worship of confidence, and sustain- ing man in the interval between the Fall and the Final Restoration ; this virtue, for the sake of which a Revela- tion was given, " for whatsoever things were written afore- time were written for our learning, that we through patience 1 68 The Third Temptation. and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope/'^ this virtue, which, standing in the midst of faith and love, con- nects and reacts upon both : upon faith, which presents it with its object which becomes "the substance of things hoped for,"2 and upon love, which realizing the Divine Goodness " hopeth all things,"^ — thus binding together and ministering to that which is less and to that which is greater than itself; this virtue of hope seems to be the especial object of attack on the part of Satan, and in the Mystery of the Temptation, which is a concentrated repre- sentation of his assaults upon Human Nature, though he also strikes at faith and love, yet he seems to make hope the chiefest point of assault throughout the whole. In the First Temptation, Satan assaulted the virtue of hope on the side of defect ; that is, he tempted to despair, to a distrust of Divine Providence, and so to a mode unwarrantable at the time, of meeting the needs of the body. In the Second Temptation, Satan assaulted the virtue of hope on the side of excess ; that is, he tempted to presumption, to an excessive confidence, and so to an un- warrantable expectation of Divine intervention. In the Third Temptation — which seems in some respects the great- est of all, and in which he throws off the mask, — he assaults the virtue of hope through the power of the present: he offers, as to the first Adam, a present gratification in lieu of that which is to come — " In the day ye eat thereof, then your * Rom. XV. 4. ^ Heb. xi. i. ' I Cor. xiii. 7. The Third TEMPTArioN, 169 eyes shall be opened."^ This last assault touched an essen- tial feature of the object of hope ; namely, that its realization lies in the future,^ and must be attained, if at all, through a predestined struggle ; for " hope that is seen is not hope."^ Thus the virtue, which Satan supposed our Lord as a man to possess, was attacked from three different points : from its two vicious extremes — despair and presumption ; and at its base, by offering the present possession of the kingdoms of the world — " Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the king- doms of the world." First, we will notice the preparation for this Temptation ; secondly, the offer which was made ; thirdly, we will en- deavour to see how it could be a real Temptation to Christ. I. Christ in His meekness suffered Himself again to be conveyed by Satan, now from the pinnacle of the Temple to "an exceeding high mountain." Tradition has fixed upon a steep mountain, called " Quarantania." It '•' rises precipitously, an almost perpendicular wall of rock, twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the plain."* " It was, they say, to this mountain the devil took our Blessed Saviour » Gen. iii. 5. 2 The object of hope, says Aquinas, has "four conditions." It must be "bonum, arduum, futurum, et possibile." Omit one condition, '* arduum," the result is presumption; leave out "possibile," and you have despair. 3 Rom. viii. 24. " Robinson's Palestine, Vol. I. p. 567. 1 70 The Third Temptation, when he tempted Him with the visionary scene of all the glories of the world ; and in its ascent it is not only difficult, but dangerous." Others have supposed Nebo, or Gerizim, to be the spot. At any rate, it was some mountain with an extensive view such as could not be obtained from the pinnacle of the Temple, because the "hills stand about Jerusalem," and hinder the sight of the surrounding country. Again, Satan suits the external circumstances to the Temptation, and draws his snare from them. It has been thought that in this act Satan was imitating God, Who brought Moses to the top of Pisgah, and then " showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and all the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar."i Satan from the first abode not in the truth, because he imitated God with an unjust and isolated imitation : un- just, in that he imitated that which the creature could not share — Independency; and isolated, in that he by that very act failed to copy the Moral Perfections of God, which he should have rightly imitated. And as with the begin- ning so with the continuance of evil, Satan imitated God's ways or travestied them. As amongst the angels there are " seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and go in and out before the glory of the Holy One,"^ so amongst the evil spirits the number seven seems preserved? 1 Deut. xxxiv. 1—3. 2 Xobit xii. 15. The Third Temptation, 171 and is mystically represented in the seven heads of the dragon,! ^nd morally by the seven spirits of eviP — the instigators of the seven deadly sins. There is a hierarchy beneath, as well as above ; for the fallen angels appear to preserve their respective grades as natural conditions of their existence: but, besides this reflexion of Heaven, which arises from the continuance in angels of their relative position and natural gifts, there may be in their movements room for a travesty of the Heavenly Court. Demoniacal possession has been regarded as a part of the same line of conduct, — imitating unjustly the ways of God. As there is a table of the Lord, so there is a table of devils.^ Satan has worshippers, sacrifices, victims; he tempted man to offer human victims — " They offered their sons and their daughters unto devils,"* thus venting his hatred on that bodily form which the Son of God Himself would take. From the idea then that it is the habit of Satan to parody the ways of God, the Third Temptation has been regarded as a specimen of this line of action. Satan, by bringing Christ to the mountain top, was pre- paring to tempt Him through the instrumentality of the eye. All the senses may be sources of temptation, but the chief amongst them is the eye. It is the sense in constant use, and that which is least dependent upon other persons. The ear requires the sound to be uttered ; but the eye sees * Rev. xii. 3. " S. Mark xvi. 9. 3 I Cor. X. 21. ^ Ps. cvi. 37. 172 The Third Temptation. without assistance, save that of the light of heaven. It reaches, where other senses fail to travel, to the stars above and to the distant hills. It acts without any intervention of the will, which can, however, hinder it from acting, or, by co-operating with it, can turn ' seeing^ into * looking.^ It is more closely allied to the imagination than the other senses, and feeds it with objects. 'To see' is used to describe intellectual acts. It is this powerful sense which gives a name to a third of those fascinations which compose the spirit of the world, and call forth our irregular desires — " the lust of the eyes."^ It is not only as other senses the passage through which temptation passes into the soul, as when Eve saw the tree which was " pleasant to the eyes ;"^ or, as when " the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair f^ or, as when Achan ^^ saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment ;"* or, as when David saw " Bathsheba ;"^ or, as when Ahab saw the " vineyard in Jezreel, which was hard by the palace ;"^ or, as when " all availed" Haman " nothing, so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate f^ — the eye thus not confining itself to ministering to the covetous desires, but also to the lusts of the flesh, and to the pride of life : — it is not only, as other senses, the entrance to the soul, but it is also the outlet — the organ through which sin is often expressed, as ^ I S. John ii. 16. ^ Gen. iii. 6. ' Gen. vi. 2. "* Joshua vii. 21. ^ 2 Sam. xi. 2. ^ i Kings xxi. I. 7 Esther v. 13. The Third Temptation, 173 well as temptation introduced, as the Psalmist declares, when he speaks of " the proud look f^ or our Lord, when He describes envy as the " evil eye"^ — " Is thine eye evil because I am good P"^ As the eye is the channel of temp- tation, so does it express the lust or passion, when the guilty pleasure or consent has turned temptation into sin. It was, then, through this powerful sense that Satan hoped to work on the imagination, the affections, and desires of Christ. And now we must consider the presentation of the object to Christ : Satan " showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." S. Luke adds, that this was done "in a moment of time."* We are here called to examine the most difficult part of the Mystery. There are three ways of interpreting these words of the EvangeHst. The first is, that Satan presented to Christ all the glories of the world by phantasm, by depicting distant objects upon the imagination of Christ, or by some illusion of the visual organs ; that is, he supplemented the panorama upon which Christ could gaze from the mountain by some pre- ternatural impressions : the second is, that God vouchsafed the sight of all the glories of the world to Christ, or rather, that Christ laid His Divinity under contribution (as in His Passion some have thought that He did, in order to add to His sufferings), and thus by His Omniscience brought within view the transient glory of all earthly king- * Prov. vi. 17. ' S. Mark vii. 22. 3 S. Matt. XX. 15. ^ S. Luke iv. 5. 174 "The Third Temptation, doms ; the third is, that the language is hyperbolical, and that Christ saw only the surrounding districts of Canaan, and that Satan described the rest. Now, the first interpretation has been objected to, on the ground that it seems to invest Satan with miraculous powers. To show Christ " not only the kingdoms of the world, but also all the glory of them ; that is the wealth and treasures of their subjects . . . the splendour and magnificence of their sovereigns ... as well as the whole exterior surface of the globe . . . and in a single instant of time ... is one of the greatest miracles we can con- ceive."^ Theologians, as a general rule, have shown great care in distinguishing between the " wonders" of Satan and genuine miracles ; because to attribute the latter to Satan is to infringe upon the prerogative of God, to destroy the aid and use of miracles as evidences, and appears to contradict clear statements of Holy Scripture. God alone can inno- vate, by permitting the operation of a higher law to invade the regular course of nature. Satan can produce wonders by dexterously using the causes which exist ; even in such instances as when the magicians imitated the miracles of Moses and the rod became a serpent, and the fire fell upon the cattle of Job,^ his miraculous powers have been by some * Farmer **0n the Temptation," p. 25. a.d. 1765. 2 S. Augustine admits that these were not phantasms but miracles. " They were the works of Satan to whom God had given this power." De Civ. Dei, Lib. xx. cap. 19. The Third Temptation, 175 doubted. The signs and wonders of false prophets, and of " him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,''^— that culminating manifestation of evil — must be traced up either to a know- ledge of secret causes already existing, or to some mode of hastening results in nature, or to deceptions of sense or of imagination whereby effects are wonderful to those who are not in possession of the same knowledge and dexterity, but not to the introduction of a new cause, not to any inroad upon the natural order of things — an act which is reserved to Him Alone, Who thereby asserts His Presence, and bears witness to His Truth. Whether the presenta- tion of the kingdoms of the world to Christ — supposing it to have been visionary — really involved the exercise of miraculous powers, or could be accounted for by those hallucinations which were properly in Satan's reach, we ^ 2 Thess. ii. 9. This difficult subject of the miraculous powers of evil spirits is treated by Aquinas in the Summa, I. Q. cxiv. iv. First, God Alone can properly be said to work miracles. Secondly, by the word "miracle," in its strict sense, is meant "some act beyond the ordinary course of nature ;" but the term is sometimes used more loosely, of anything which exceeds human faculty or comprehension. This seems to be like the modem distinction between absolute and r^/fl//z/^ miracles. The operations of Antichrist are "lying wonders," either because they deceive the senses of men, that is, are phantasms, or because if "tme prodigies, they lead to a belief in a lie." S. Thomas seems to teach, that the "wonders" of Satan may be "real things," that is, not merely subjective impressions of the senses, and yet not have "the real nature of a miracle." 176 The Third Temptation. need not pause to inquire ; because we consider it to be inconceivable on the side of Christ that He should have permitted His faculties, whether the eye or the imagina- tion, to have been thus played upon and deceived. One of old says — who accepted this interpretation of halluci- nation, " The faithful soul shudders to think of this," i.a, of our Lord's faculties being submitted to a spiritual de- lusion; "but do not shudder; for the greater the injury of the tempter, the more glorious the patience of the Victor." But is not this to exalt the patience of Christ at the expense of His Perfection? If even from bodily ailments our Lord was exempted, because they were thought to detract from His Perfection, surely to admit that He yielded for a moment His Eyes or His Imagina- tion to an untrue use, under the control of Satan when tempting Him, is to draw dangerously near to one of those limits which in the fourth Lecture were set about this Mystery. That Satan should have taken our Lord to a high mountain, in order that He might see the country far and wide, would be wholly unnecessary, if the Third Temptation was to be effected by some visionary de- ception. With regard to the second explanation, which is, that God miraculously represented the glories of the world to Christ, such an interpretation is contrary to the state- ments of Scripture ; for both in S. Matthew and S. Luke's Gospels Satan is described as showing the kingdoms to 7he Third Temptation, 177 Christ. If God is the Agent in the Third Temptation, we may regard Him as the Agent throughout the whole transac- tion, as a writer in the last century did, who (though believ- ing in the existence of Satan) considered the Spirit of God as " the immediate and sole author"' of the Temptation. The third explanation, which has the best authority of antiquity, is the one we would follow, as most consistent with the perfectness of Christ; which is, that He saw a magnificent \-iew from the Mount, and that Satan with mar\-ellous swiftness represented the different kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,^ as in the different directions Christ gazed — across the plains of Jericho — to Olivet — to the mountains of Arabia, even it may be — to the rim of the ^lediterranean Sea. Though the view was limited, the thought of Christ stretched across the boundaries of the horizon ; across, too, the ages past and the ages yet to come, and took in in one glance the measure of all earthly greatness, so that in one sense the language of the E^^angehst is only adequate to the truth. Those who would conrict the Evangelist of an absurdity in supposing that all the world could be seen from a mountain, and would attribute such a statement to his ignorance of the earth's spherical form — as though any * Rabanus says, — "The devil shows aU this to the Lord, not as though he had power to extend His vision, or show EKm anythii^ un- known : but setting forth in speech as excellent and pleasant thatgloiy in which he delighted." N 178 The Third Temptation, one could conceive that a view of the whole earth would be possible if the earth were a flat surface — forget that in Holy Scripture there are statements which are hyperbolical. The Evangelist employs as to the range of Christ's vision the same figure of speech as S. John uses in the last verse of his Gospel, where he says, that if " the many other things which Jesus did" " should be written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written."^ In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit resorts to the same mode of amplification : thus, to Abraham the Lord says, " Lift up thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward : for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make ^thy seed as the dust of the earth : so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered."^ It is not, then, by con- tracting the meaning of the word "world" so as to restrict it to Canaan ; — for still it would not be in its literal sense true that Christ with His bodily eyes saw the whole of Canaan; and the use of different words^ for "the world" in the two Gospels of S. Matthew and S. Luke (the one large enough to embrace the whole order of created things, the other including the civilized world) forbids this mode of dealing with the inspired record ; — but it is by explain- 1 S. John xxi. 25. ^ Gen. xiii. 14—16. 3 ToG k6