CHAPTER IV.
The fourth circumstance, the end wherefore Christ was led to the wilderness.—Holiness, employment, privileges, exempt not from temptation.—Of temptations that leave not impressions of sin behind them.—How Satan’s temptations are distinguished from the lusts of our own heart.
4. The fourth circumstance was the end. There was no other design in the main of Christ’s being led up and into the wilderness, but that he might be ‘tempted.’ In this two things seem to be matter of equal wonder:—
(1.) First, Why Christ would submit to be tempted. For this many great and weighty reasons may be given. As,
[1.] First, Thus was Christ evidenced to be the second Adam, and the seed of the woman. His being tempted, and in such a manner, doth clearly satisfy us that he was true man; and that in that nature he it was that was promised ‘to break the serpent’s head.’
[2.] Secondly, This was a fair preludium and earnest of that final conquest over Satan, and the breaking down of his power.
[3.] Thirdly, There was a more peculiar aim in God by these means of temptation to qualify him with pity and power to help, ‘For in that he suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted,’ Heb. ii. 18. And having experience of temptation himself, he became a merciful high-priest, apt to be ‘touched with the feeling of our infirmities,’ Heb. iv. 15.
[4.] Fourthly, The consequence of this experimental compassion in Christ, was a further reason why he submitted to be tempted, to wit, that we might have the greater comfort and encouragement in the expectancy of tender dealing from him. Hence the apostle, Heb. iv. 16, invites to ‘come boldly to the throne of grace at any time of need.’
[5.] Fifthly, A further end God seemed to have in this, viz., to give a signal and remarkable instance to us of the nature of temptations; of Satan’s subtlety, his impudency, of the usual temptations which we may expect; as also to teach us what weapons are necessary for resistance, and in what manner we must manage them.
(2.) Secondly, It seems as strange that Satan would undertake a thing so unfeasible and hopeless as the tempting of Christ. What expectation could he have to prevail against him, who was ‘anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows’? [Ps. xlv. 7.] Some answer,
[1.] First, That Satan might possibly doubt whether Christ were the Son of God or no. But the improbability of this I shall speak of afterwards.
[2.] Secondly, Others attribute it to his malice, which indeed is great, and might possibly blind him to a desperate undertaking. But,
[3.] Thirdly, We may justly apprehend the power of sin over Satan to be so great that it might enforce him to the bold attempt of such a wickedness. We see daily that wicked men, by the force of their own wicked principles, are restlessly hurried upon acts of sin, though they know the prohibition, and are not ignorant of the threatened danger. Satan is as great a slave to his own internal corrupt principles as any. And whatsoever blind fury is stirred up in man by the power of his lust, we may very well suppose the like in Satan.
[4.] Fourthly, There is a superior hand upon the devil, that sways, limits, and orders him in his temptations. He cannot tempt when he would, neither always what he would, but in his own cursed inclinations and the acting of them, he is forced to be subservient to God’s designs. And in this particular, whatever might be Satan’s proper end or principle, it is evident that God carried on a gracious design for the instruction and comfort of his children.
The end of Christ’s going to the wilderness being that he might be tempted, if together with this the holiness and dignity of Christ in respect of his person and office be considered, we may note from it,
Obs. 5. That neither height of privilege, nor eminency of employment, nor holiness of person, will discourage Satan from tempting, or secure any from his assaults. The best of men in the highest attainments may expect temptations. Grace itself doth not exempt them.
(1.) For first, None of these privileges in us, nor eminencies of grace, want matter to fix a temptation upon. The weaknesses of the best of men are such that a temptation is not rendered improbable, as to the success, by their graces. Nay, there are special occasions and inclinations in them, to encourage temptations of pride and neglect. He found indeed nothing in Christ that might offer the least probability of prevalency; but in the best of men, in their best estate, he can find some encouragement for his attempts.
(2.) Secondly, None of us are beyond the necessity of such exercises. It cannot be said that we need them not, or that there may not be holy ends wherefore God should not permit and order them for our good. Temptations, as they are in God’s disposal, are a necessary spiritual physic. The design of them is to humble us, to prove us, and to do us good in the latter end, Deut. viii. 16. Nothing will work more of care, watchfulness, diligence, and fear in a gracious heart, than a sense of Satan’s designment against it. Nothing puts a man more to prayer, breathing after God, desiring to be dissolved, and running to Christ, than the troublesome and afflictive pursuits of Satan. Nothing brings men more from the love of the world, and to a delight in the ordinances of God, than the trouble which here abides them unavoidably from Satan. This discipline the best have need of. There are such remainders of pride and other evils in them, that if God should not permit these pricks and thorns to humble them, and thereby also awaken them to laborious watchfulness, they would be careless, secure, and sadly declining. This made Augustine conclude that it was no way expedient that we should want temptations,[364] and that Christ taught us as much when he directed us not to pray that we should ‘not be tempted,’ but that we might not be ‘led into the power and prevalency of temptation.’
(3.) Thirdly, The privileges and graces of the children of God do stir up Satan’s pride, revenge, and rage against them. And though he hath no encouragement to expect so easy a conquest over these as he hath over others, who are captivated by him at pleasure; yet hath he encouragements to attempt them, for the singular use and advantage he makes of any success against them, the difficulty of the work being recompensed by the greatness of the booty. For the fall of a child of God, especially of such as are noted above others, is as when ‘a standard-bearer fainteth,’ [Isa. x. 18;] or as the fall of an oak, that bears down with it the lower shrubs that stand near it. How the hearts of others fail for fear, lest they should also be overcome; how the hearts of some grow thereby bold and venturesome; how a general disgrace and discredit thereby doth accrue to religion, and the sincere profession of it, are things of usual observation. If such men had not in them something of special prey in case of conquest, his pride would not so readily carry him against the heads and chief of the people, while he seems to overlook the meaner and weaker. Out-houses, though more accessible, are not the objects of the thief’s design, but the dwellinghouse, though stronger built and better guarded, because it affords hopes of richer spoil, is usually assaulted. Neither do pirates so much set themselves to take empty vessels, though weakly manned, but richly laden ships, though better able to make resistance, are the ships of their desire.
Applic. 1. This may be applied for the encouraging of those that think it strange that temptations do so haunt them, especially that they should, in their apprehension, be more troubled by him when they fly furthest from him. The consideration of this will much allay these thoughts, by these inferences which it affords:—
(1.) First, There is nothing unusual befalls these complainants. Satan frequently doth so to others; they cannot justly say their case is singular, or that they are alone in such disturbances; it is but what is common to man. If they urge the uncessantness of the devil’s attempts, Christ and others have felt the like. If they object the peculiar strangeness and horridness of the temptation, as most unsuitable to the state of an upright soul, Christ met with the like. He was tempted to self-destruction, to distrust, to blasphemy itself in the highest degree.
(2.) Secondly, There is a good advantage to be made of them: they are preservations from other sins that would otherwise grow upon us.
(3.) Thirdly, These temptations to the upright do but argue Satan’s loss of interest in them, and their greater sensibility of the danger. The captivated sinners complain not so much, because they are so inured to temptation that they mind not Satan’s frequent accesses. He that studies humility is more sensible of a temptation to pride than he that is proud.[365]
2. Secondly, This is also of use to those that are apt to be confident upon their successes against sin through grace. Satan, they may see, will be upon them again; so that they must behave themselves as mariners, who, when they have got the harbour, and are out of the storm, mend their ship and tackling, and prepare again for the sea.
Lastly, If we consider the unspotted holiness of Christ, and his constant integrity under these temptations, that they left not the least of taint or sinful impression upon him, we may observe,
Obs. 6. That there may be temptations, without leaving a touch of guilt or impurity behind them upon the tempted.
It is true this is rare with men. The best do seldom go down to the battle, but in their very conquests they receive some wound; and in those temptations that arise from our own hearts, we are never without fault; but in such as do solely arise from Satan, there is a possibility that the upright may so keep himself, that the wicked one may not so touch him as to leave the print of his fingers behind him.
Quest. But the great difficulty is, How it may be known when temptations are from Satan, and when from ourselves?
Ans. To answer this I shall lay down these conclusions:—
(1.) First, The same sins which our own natures would suggest to us, may also be injected by Satan. Sometimes we begin by the forward working of our own thoughts upon occasions and objects presented to us from without, or from the power of our own inclination, without the offer of external objects, and then Satan strikes in with it. Sometimes Satan begins with us, and by his injected motions endeavours to excite our inclinations; so that the same thing may be sometime from ourselves, and sometimes from Satan.
(2.) Secondly, There is no sin so vile, but our own heart might possibly produce it without Satan. Evil thoughts of the very worst kind, as of murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies may, as Christ speaks, Mat. xv. 19, be produced naturally from our own hearts; for seminally all sins, the very greatest of all impieties, are there. So that from the greatness and vileness of the temptation we cannot absolutely conclude that it is from Satan, no more than from the commonness of the temptation, or its suitableness to our inclination, we can conclude infallibly that its first rise is from ourselves.
(3.) Thirdly, There are many cases wherein it is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to determine whether our own heart or Satan gives the first life or breathing to a temptation. Who can determine, in most ordinary cases, when our thoughts are working upon objects presented to our senses, whether Satan or our own thoughts do run faster? Yea, when such thoughts are not the consequent of any former occasion, it is a work too hard for most men to determine which of the parents, father or mother, our own heart or Satan, is first in the fault. They are both forward enough, and usually join hand in hand with such readiness, that he must have a curious eye that can discover certainly to whom the first beginning is to be ascribed.
The difficulty is so great, that some have judged it altogether impossible to give any certain marks by which it may be determined when they are ours and when Satan’s.[366] And indeed the discoveries laid down by some are not sufficient for a certain determination; and so far I assent, that neither the suddenness of such thoughts—for the motions of our own lusts may be sudden—nor the horridness of the matter of them, are sufficient notes of distinction. That our own corrupt hearts may bring forth that which is unnatural and terrible, cannot be denied. Many of the sins of the heathens mentioned in Rom. i. were the violent productions of lust against natural principles; and to ascribe these to the devil, as to the first instigator, is more than any man hath warrant to do. Yet though it be confessed that in some cases it is impossible to distinguish, and that where a distinction may be made, these notes mentioned are not fully satisfactory, there may, I believe, be some cases wherein there is a possibility to discover when the motions are from Satan, and that by the addition of some remarkable circumstances to the fore-named marks of difference.
(4.) Fourthly, Though it be true, which some say,[367] that in most cases it is needless altogether to spend our time in disputing whether the motions of sin in our minds are firstly from ourselves or from Satan, our greatest business being rather to resist them than to difference them; yet there are special cases wherein it is very necessary to find out the true parent of a sinful motion, and these are when tender consciences are wounded and oppressed with violent and great temptations, as blasphemous thoughts, atheistical objections, &c. For here Satan in his furious molestations aims mainly at this, that such afflicted and tossed souls should take all these thoughts which are obtruded upon their imaginations, to be the issue of their own heart. As Joseph’s steward hid the cup in Benjamin’s sack, that it might be a ground of accusation against him, so doth the devil first oppress them with such thoughts, and then accuseth them of all that villainy and wickedness, the motions whereof he had with such importunity forced upon them; and so apt are the afflicted to comply with accusations against themselves, that they believe it is so, and from thence conclude that they are given up of God, hardened as Pharaoh, that they have sinned against the Holy Ghost, and finally that there is no hope of mercy for them. All this befalls them from their ignorance of Satan’s dealings, and here is their great need to distinguish Satan’s malice from their guilt.
(5.) Fifthly, Setting aside ordinary temptations, wherein it is neither so possible nor so material to busy ourselves to find out whether they are Satan’s or ours;—in extraordinary temptations, such as have been now instanced, we may discover if they proceed from Satan, though not simply from the matter of them, not from the suddenness and independency of them, yet from a due consideration of their nature and manner of proceeding, compared with the present temper and disposition of our heart. As,
[1.] First, When unusual temptations intrude upon us with a high impetuosity and violence, while our thoughts are otherwise concerned and taken up.[368] Temptations more agreeable to our inclination, though suddenly arising from objects and occasions presented, and gradually proceeding, after the manner of the working of natural passions, may throng in amidst our thoughts or actions that have no tendency that way, and yet we cannot so clearly accuse Satan for them; but when things that have not the encouragement of our affections are by a sudden violence enforced upon us, while we are otherwise concerned, we may justly suspect Satan’s hand to be in them.
[2.] Secondly, While such things are borne in upon us, against the actual loathing, strenuous reluctancy, and high complainings of the soul, when the mind is filled with horror and the body with trembling at the presence of such thoughts.[369] Sins that owe their first original to ourselves, may indeed be resisted upon their first rising up in our mind; and though a sanctified heart doth truly loathe them, yet they are not without some lower degree of tickling delight upon the affections; for the flesh in those cases presently riseth up with its lustings for the sinful motion; but when such unnatural temptations are from Satan, their first appearance to the mind is a horror without any sensible working of inclination towards them; and the greatness of the soul’s disquiet doth shew that it hath met with that which the affections look not on with any amicable compliance.
[3.] Thirdly, Our hearts may bring forth that which is unnatural in itself, and may give rise to a temptation that would be horrid to the thoughts of other men, but that it should of its own accord, without a tempter, on a sudden bring forth that which is directly contrary to its present light, reason, or inclination; as for a man to be haunted with thoughts of atheism, while he is under firm persuasions that there is a God; or of blasphemy, while he is under designs of honouring him, is as unimaginable as that our thoughts should of themselves contrive our death, while we are most solicitous for our life; or that our thoughts should soberly tell us it is night when we see the sun shine. Temptations that are contrary to the present state, posture, light, and disposition of the soul are Satan’s. They are so unnatural as to its present frame, that the production of them must be from some other agent.
[4.] Fourthly, Much more evident is it that such proceed from Satan, when they are of long continuance and constant trouble, when they so incessantly beat upon the mind, that it hath no rest from them, and yet is under grievous perplexities and anxieties of mind about them.
Applic. The consideration of this is of great use to those that suffer under the violent hurries of strange temptations.
(1.) First, In that sometime they can justly complain of the affliction of such temptation, when they have no reason to charge it upon themselves as their sin. It is one thing to be tempted, and another to consent or comply. To be tempted, and not to be brought into temptation, is not evil. Satan only barks when he suggests, but he then bites and wounds when he draws us to consent.[370]
(2.) Secondly, That not only the sin but the degree also, by just consequence, is to be measured by the consent of the heart. If we consent not, the sin is not ours, and the less degree of consent we give, the less is in the sin.