occasion than any other. As he suffered and rose again on the third day, according to the Scripture, so he fasted forty days according to the same Scripture: and the example of Moses, independent of every other testimony, would have been thought sufficient to prove this, in the opinion of many good judges, both ancient and modern.

VII. The hunger, which arose in our blessed Lord, when the forty days were expired, prepared the way for the first temptation which the Scripture hath recorded: so that the history, now descending to particulars, begins where Satan began with Eve in Paradise, namely, with a persuasion to eat ; and on such principles as were contrary to the will of God. The tempter came to him and said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. The Devil is called the tempter at his first appearance, and had acquired the title by many acts, especially by one, prior to the present occasion. The same Spirit had found his way into Paradise, to seduce the parents of the human race, in the character of the Serpent, the only name under which we hear of him in the Book of Genesis. But in the Book of Revelation, the figurative and the proper names are applied to the same

agent;

agent; and being taken together, the person intended by them is sufficiently ascertainedHe laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Under his ancient character, and upon the same business which first brought him into the world, he presents himself to Christ in his solitude, and makes his attempt in a personal conversation, as at first in the Garden of Eden. Under what figure he appeared, it is not very material for us to know, and it would be fruitless to enquire. It is much more for our purpose here to observe, that he doth not operate upon our Saviour by any internal suggestions, as upon other men, but by a discourse from without: and the reason of this is worth inquiring into.

VIII. When the nature of man was as yet uncorrupted by sin, the wicked Spirit had no immediate access to the heart, but was obliged to tempt Eve in the way of a personal conversation; as she also afterwards tempted Adam. But when his lyes had taken effect, the condition of our nature was changed, and he who had spoken from without, acquired by the just permission of God the privilege of

* Chap. xx.

speak

speaking from within. As the poison of the Serpent's mouth diffuses itself over the whole framme of man, and soon carries its effects to the vital parts; so did the power of the spiritual Serpent get possession of the heart, and of all that is within us, our thoughts, desires, and affections. He is styled, the Spirit that now worketh IN the Children of disobedience"; and that strong delusion, as it is called, with which they are visited who receive not the love of the truth, is, when more literally rendered, deceit working within them. To convince us of this mortifying fact, so inconsistent with the presumed dignity of human nature, the bodies as well as the souls of men were delivered up to be agitated by evil Spirits; and Christ cast them out from the body in the presence of the multitude, to shew that he only can make us free, and restore us to the original immunities of our nature, by dislodging the Devil from his habitation in the heart and affections. In one of the parables of our Lord, the same evil Spirit is signified by a strong man armed, who keepeth his palace, and his goods are in peace. The passions, con

a Tu vvv everysilo EN TOIS VIDIS THE Aжbas. Ephes. ii, 2. Ενεργεια πλάνης. 2 Thess. ii, 11.

b

VOL. III.

N

verted

verted into his domestics, become obedient to his word; and the will cannot resist him, so long as it is insensible of his tyranny. Till a stronger than he comes upon him, he is unmolested in his dwelling: for man doth not know, till revelation informs him of it, that he is infested by such an Usurper and they who are but half-instructed in the principles of the Gospel, are too apt to be indifferent in their attention to the powerful operations of this infernal Agent, who is almost totally forgotten in some cold and barren exhortations to moral virtue independent of christian faith. Perhaps it may be thought low, impertinent, and discouraging, to be bringing in the agency of the Devil upon every occasion: but it is to be feared, he hath most to do now, as of old in the heathen world, where he is least thought of. It is our duty, and will be found our greatest wisdom, to take the Christian system as we find it; to omit imaginary improvements, and to believe as the scripture directs; which informs us too plainly to be contradicted, that the Deceiver hath seated himself in the human heart, and hath gotten possession of our interior œconomy. And if the scripture had given us no other evidence, this one consideration would for

ever satisfy me, that our nature is depraved, and that sin, from the fall of Adam, is ori ginal to the constitution of man, as certainly as that the captive of an Algerine renegado is not possessed of the freedom of an Englishman; though I do not here stand to enquire how far the cases are parallel.

IX. But that influence to which other men are subject, could not extend in like manner to the person of Christ. In him, we have another perfect man, untouched by the tempter, and upon the terms of the first Adam. To him therefore, as at first, the evil spirit makes his approaches from without, pro

a This doctrine gave rise (how early I cannot find) to the ceremony of exorcism, which was performed in the primitive Church, together with the office of baptism, and that not only in the baptism of adults, but of infants. See Suicer under the word εξορκισμος.

On the Text of Eph. ii. 2. Theophylact has this remark; οὐκ είπε, το αναγκαζον, αλλα το ενεργέντ©· οθεν δηλον ὅτι Σκονίων αρχει· ενεργεί εν τοις υιοις της απείθειας, τετέςι, τοις μὴ πειθομενοις μεν Θεω, πειθομένοις δε εκείνω, εκ αναγκαζομενοις "He hath not said, of the Spirit which compelleth, but which worketh in the children of disobedience; whence it is manifest that Satan ruleth over voluntary subjects"-volentes per populos dat jura-and again-"He worketh in the children of disobedience, that is, in those who do not obey God, but obey him, without compulsion."