[2.] We must not only be sensible of our weakness, that we be not confident; but we must be apprehensive of the strength and power of God to carry us through, that we be not discouraged.
[3.] We must see our opposition, that we may be watchful; and yet must we refuse to give it the least place of consideration in our debates of duty, lest it sway us against duty or dishearten us in it.
(2.) If God be pleased to honour us with peculiar favours, then,
[1.] Though we must improve them to the full, yet must we not feed on them without fear.
[2.] We must not stay in the enjoyment or play with the token, but look to the tendency of such favours and improve them to duty, as to their proper end.
CHAPTER II.
The second circumstance, Christ’s being led by the Spirit.—What hand the Spirit of God hath in temptations.—And of running into temptation when not led into it.
2. The second circumstance acquaints how Christ was carried to the combat. In solemn combats and duels, the persons undertaking the fight were usually carried to the place with great solemnity and ceremony. Christ in this spiritual battle is described as having the conduct of the Spirit, ‘He was led up of the Spirit,’ &c. What this Spirit was is, though by a needless and over-officious diligence, questioned by some; but we need not stay much upon it, if we consider the phrase of the evangelists, who mention Spirit without any note of distinction—which of necessity must have been added if it had intended either his proper spirit as man, or the wicked spirit Satan—directing thereby to understand it of him to whom the word Spirit is more peculiarly attributed, viz., the Holy Ghost. Or if we observe the close connexion in Luke betwixt that expression of Christ’s being ‘full of the Holy Ghost,’ and his being ‘led by the Spirit,’ it will be out of controversy that the Holy Spirit is here intended. Hence was it that Beza translates it more fully, ‘Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, was led, eodem Spiritu, of the same Spirit;’ and the Syriac, in Matthew, doubts not to express it by the Holy Spirit. And what else can be imagined, when in this text the Spirit that led him up, and the devil that tempted, are mentioned in so direct an opposition? ‘He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.’ The manner of his being carried thither is expressed by such words as signify, though not an external rapture like that of Philip, a strong inward motion and impulse upon him. The Spirit driveth—ἐκβάλλεν—him, saith Mark. The Spirit ‘led him’—ἤγετο—saith Luke, using the same word by which the Scripture elsewhere expresseth the power of the Spirit upon the children of God, who are said to be ‘led’ by him.
Obs. 2. Hence note that the Spirit of God hath a hand in temptations. Christ was led by the Spirit to be tempted. This must not be understood as if God did properly tempt any to sin, either by enticing their hearts to evil, or by moving and suggesting wicked things to their minds, or by infusing evil inclinations, or by any proper compliance with Satan to undermine and delude us by any treachery or deceit. None of these can be imagined without apparent derogation to the holiness of God, ‘who tempteth no man, neither can he be tempted with evil,’ [James i. 13.] But what we are to understand by the Holy Spirit’s concerning himself in temptations, is included in these particulars:—