CHAPTER XIII.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple.—Mat. iv. 5.
The preparation to the second temptation.—Of his nimbleness to catch advantages from our answers to temptation.—That Satan carried Christ in the air.—Of his power to molest the bodies of God’s children.—How little the supposed holiness of places privilegeth us from Satan.—Of Satan’s policy in seeming to countenance imaginary defences.—Of his pretended flight in such cases, with the reasons of that policy.—Of his improving a temptation to serve several ends.
I omit Christ’s answer to the first temptation at present, purposing to handle his answers to all the temptations together. And now the second temptation is before us, in which, first, I shall observe a few things in Satan’s preparation to the temptation, which takes in [1.] The time; [2.] The manner of his carrying him; [3.] The place where he acted it.
(1.) First, For the time. That is noted in the word ‘then,’ which [1.] Points at the immediate succession of this to the former assault. The evangelist Luke puts this temptation last, but he only had respect to the substance of the temptation in his narration; not regarding the order of them, which Matthew hath punctually observed, as appears by his close connecting of them, with the particles ‘then’ and ‘again,’ ver. 5, 8. Besides, whosoever shall consider that in the first, Satan tempted Christ to distrust, which he repelled by telling him that it was his duty, in the failure of outward means, to rely upon divine providence, seeing man lives not by bread alone, &c., he will see so much of connexion in the matter of the temptations that he will easily persuade himself that the second place belongs to this, for this is but, as it were, a fit and pertinent reply to Christ’s refusal; as if Satan had said, ‘Since thou wilt rely upon the help and providence of God in an extraordinary way of working, give an experiment of that by casting thyself down, which thou mayest with greater confidence do, because he hath promised an extraordinary help, and hath given his angels charge concerning thee,’ &c. Hence observe,
Obs. 1. That Satan is not discouraged easily, nor doth he always desist upon the first repulse, but frequently renews the assault when he is strongly and resolutely resisted.
This word, ‘then,’ doth also [2.] Tell us of Satan’s nimbleness in catching a present advantage for a new temptation from Christ’s answer. He declared his trust in providence; this he presently lays hold on as a fit opportunity to tempt him to presumption. Here note,
Obs. 2. That when Satan is upon any design, if an occasional advantage occur from our way of refusal, he will not let it slip, but improves it to what it may lead to, though it be contrary to that which he was first labouring for.
This was the policy which Benhadad’s servants used in their address to Ahab, 1 Kings xx. 33; the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from him, and did hastily catch it. If anything come from us we are under his temptation, he is diligent to observe it, and prosecutes it accordingly; which may serve to satisfy the wonder that some have concerning the contrariety in the temptations to which they are urged. They admire how it comes to pass that their temptations should so suddenly alter, that when Satan seems to be so intent upon one design, he should so quickly change, and urge them presently to a different or contrary thing; but they may know that the devil watcheth the wind, and spreads his sail according to the advantage which ariseth from our answer or repulse. So that if we would but plough with our own heifer, and observe our frame of spirit, we should easily find out this riddle. For as it is in disputings and arguings of men, replies beget new matter for answer, and so do they multiply one another; thus are temptations altered and multiplied, and out of the ashes of one assault repelled, another doth quickly spring up.
The second circumstance of preparation is, Satan’s taking him up and setting him on the temple. That this was not a visionary or an imaginary thing, hath been proved before. Yet granting it to have been real, as in truth it seems to have been, it is disputed what was the modus, the way and manner of it. Some think this was no more than Christ’s voluntary following of Satan, who guided and conducted the way;[400] partly because the words παραλαμβάνειν and ἄγειν are in Scripture accommodated to a man’s taking of any as a companion under his guide and conduct of the way, and to a disposal of them in any kind of station. Thus, where it is said, ‘Joseph took Mary and the young child to go to Egypt,’ Mat. ii. 13, the same word is used; and when Christ tells his disciples that they shall bring the ass and the colt which they should find tied, the same word which expresseth Christ being set on the temple is there used, Mat. xxii. 2. Partly also, they think it below the dignity of Christ to be thus violently hurried.