CHAPTER XVIII.
Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.—Mat. iv. 8.
The manner of Satan’s shewing the kingdoms of the world.—Of Satan’s preparations before the motion of sin.—Of his confronting the Almighty by presumptuous imitation, and in what cases he doth so.—Of his beautifying the object of a temptation, and how he doth it.—His way of engaging the affections by the senses.—Of his seeming shyness.
This is the preparation to the third temptation; in which we have, (1.) The place where it was acted; (2.) The object set before him there.
1. First, The place was an ‘exceeding high mountain.’ What mountain it was, Nebo, Pisgah, or any other, it is needless to inquire. It is of more use to ask after the reasons of Satan’s choice of such a place. The text doth clearly imply one; that was the commodiousness of prospect. Satan intending to give him a view of the kingdoms of the world, chooseth a mountain as fittest for that end. But that this was not all the reason, is not only intimated by some,[439] but positively affirmed by others,[440] who think that Satan in this imitated the like in God to Moses, who was called up to Mount Nebo to view the land which God promised to Israel. Whether these circumstances of the mountain, and the view of the kingdoms of the world, were of purpose contrived to affront God by such an imitation, I will not be positive in it; but we may with greater evidence affirm that in offering the kingdoms of the world as things altogether in his disposal, he doth directly outbrave God by an insolent comparison of his power with that of the Almighty’s, whose is ‘the earth and the fulness of it,’ [Ps. xxiv. 1,] and to whom the sovereignty of the disposal of it doth belong.
2. Secondly, That which Satan sheweth Christ from the mountain is said to be ‘the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.’ Here some busy themselves to conjecture what kingdoms were thus pointed at. Some keep so strictly to the word ‘all,’ that they are forced to take up with that opinion, that all these temptations were only in vision,[441] for they consider that no one mountain in the world can give a prospect over one whole hemisphere, or if it could, yet no eye would be able to discern at so great a distance. But the inconveniences of this surmise have been pointed at before, and it is enough to shew that the text may admit of an interpretation which shall not be encumbered with this supposed impossibility.
Others restrain this to the land of Canaan, as if Satan only shewed this as a famous instance of the glory of all kingdoms. Some think the Roman empire, which was then most flourishing, and lifted up its head above other kingdoms, was the great bait laid before Christ, as if he had a design to divert Christ from the business of his office, by offering him the seat and power of Antichrist.[442] But the text runs not so favourably for any of these opinions as to constrain us to stay upon them. ‘Kingdoms of the world’ seem to intend more than Canaan or the Roman empire; the word κόσμος used here, and οἰκουμένη in Luke, which we translate ‘the world,’ do so apply to one another in a mutual accommodation, that we cannot stretch the ‘world’ to the largest sense of the whole globe of the earth, because it is expressed in Luke by οἰκουμένη, which signifies such a part of the world which is more cultivated and honoured by inhabitants; nor can we so restrain it to the Roman empire-though when they spake their apprehensions of their own empire, they seem to engross all, Luke ii. 1—because Matthew useth the word κόσμος, a word of greater freedom. It seems then that many kingdoms, or the most considerable kingdoms of the then known world, were here exposed to his sight. But then the difficulty still remains, how the devil could shew them to his eye. That it was not a visionary discovery to his mind, hath been said. Some think he shewed these partly by ocular prospect of those cities, castles, towns, vineyards, and fields that were near, as a compend of the whole, and partly by a discourse of the glory, power, and extent of other kingdoms that were out of the reach of the eye; but because the expression which Luke adds, ‘in a moment of time’—ἐν στυγμῇ χρόνου—intimates, that the way which Satan took was different from common prospecting or beholding, others are not satisfied with that solution of the difficulty, but fly to this supposition, that Satan used only juggling and delusion, by framing an airy horizon before the eyes of Christ, shewing not the kingdoms themselves, but a phantasm of his own making. But seeing this might have been done in any place, and that a high mountain was chosen for furthering the prospect, I think it is safest to conclude that the prospect was ocular, and not fantastical but real, only helped and assisted by Satan’s skill and art, as a great naturalist and as a prince of the power of the air, by which means, in reflections or extraordinary prospectives, he might discover things at vast distances; which we may the rather fix upon, because we know what helps for prospect art hath discovered by glasses and telescopes, by which the bodies of the sun, moon, and planets, at such unspeakable distance from us, have in this latter age been discovered to us beyond ordinary belief.[443] And we have reason to think that Satan’s skill this way far exceeds anything that we have come to the knowledge of, and so might make real discoveries of countries far remote, more than we can well imagine.
These things thus explained, I shall note several observations.
Obs. 1. First, If we consider this great preparation that Satan makes as introductory to the temptation to follow, we may observe, that where Satan hath a special design, he projects and makes ready all things relating to the temptation before he plainly utter his mind. He provides his materials before he builds, and lays his train before he gives fire. What is his method we may learn from the practice of those that are trained up in his service. They, in Rom. xiii. 14, are said to ‘make provision for the flesh’—πρόνοια—to fore-contrive their sins, and to project all circumstances of time, place, occasion, and advantage for their accomplishment. This is not to be understood of all sins, for in some that are inward in the mind, as vain thoughts, pride of heart, &c., there needs not such provisions. We may say of them their times are always, and in many cases ‘the house is swept and garnished’ [Mat. xii. 44] to his hand; he finds all things ready by the forwardness of those who are free in his service, and the sudden accidental concurrence of things. But where the temptation is solemn, and where the thing designed, in the perfecting of it, relates to exterior acts, there he useth this policy, to have all in readiness, though it cost him the labour of ‘compassing sea and land’ for it, before he expressly speak his purposes. His reasons are these:—