Angels came and ministered unto Him, when the temptation was ended. In like manner will angels minister to us if we successfully resist.
Observe also that—
I. This brings great consolation to the religious, who have pledged themselves to the angelic life of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
1. Christ overcame the temptation of the flesh when He rejected the offered stones.
2. Christ overcame the temptation to disobedience and self-glorification when He remained on the pinnacle of the temple instead of showing a form of will-worship and voluntary humility by casting Himself down. And so should religious occupy any position to which their superior appoints them without seeking to desert it.
3. Christ overcame the temptation to avarice when He rejected the offered kingdoms of the world: electing rather, poverty.
II. Angelic consolation follows retirement: the angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness. It follows victory over temptation: the angels ministered to Christ when the temptation was ended.
III. Conflict with Satan does not lead to conquest: Christ took no spoils by His triumph. It is rather the victory of successful defence, of having lost nothing in the struggle, not of having gained aught.
Now I ask any candid person whether this is not a marvellous sermon, abounding in thought, overflowing with suggestions? Having read it, will he take up Scott, or Matthew Henry, or D’Oyly and Mant, and see what those luminaries have to say on the passage of Scripture thus wrought out by the Jesuit preacher?