Ver. 1. Then was Jesus led up] Lest haply the people, hearing that testimony from heaven, should come and take him by force to make him a king, as John 6:15; to try their love also to him, who was thus overclouded as the sun in his first rising. Led up of the Spirit] The better to fit him thereby for the ministry. Luther observed of himself, that when God was about to set him upon any special service, he either laid some fit of sickness upon him beforehand, or turned Satan loose upon him; who so buffeted him (again) by his temptations, ut nec calor, nec sanguis, nec sensus, nec vex superesset, that neither heat, nor blood, nor sense, nor voice remained: the very venom of the temptations drank up his spirit, and his body seemed dead, as Justus Jonas, that was by and saw it, reported of him in his epistle to Melancthon. Hence also it was that in his sermons God gave him such a grace, saith Mr. Foxe, that when he preached, they that heard him thought, every one, his own temptation to be severally touched and noted. Whereof when signification was given unto him by his friends, and he demanded how that could be? “Mine own manifold temptations,” saith he, “and experiences are the cause thereof”: for from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts, as Melancthon in his Life testifieth. Also Hieronymus Wellerus, scholar to the said Mr. Luther, recordeth, that he oftentimes heard Luther his master report of himself, that he had been assaulted and vexed with all kinds of temptations (saving only with that of covetousness), and was thereby fitted for the work of the Lord. Whence also he was wont to say that three things made a preacher,—meditation, prayer, and temptation. Into the wilderness] Likely the wilderness of Sinai, where Moses and Elias had fasted before. These three great fasters met afterwards in Mount Tabor, Matthew 17:3. God promiseth to turn his people’s fasting into feasting, Zechariah 8:19. The devil took advantage of the place here, to assault our Saviour in the desert, but was beaten on his own dunghill, that we might overcome through him that loved us, Romans 8:37, the fiend being already foiled by Christ. To be tempted of the devil] No sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism than in the fire of temptation. So David, after his anointing, was hunted as a partridge upon the mountains. Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues them. Hezekiah no sooner had kept that solemn passover, than Sennacherib comes up against him. St Paul is assaulted with vile temptations after the abundance of his revelations, 2 Corinthians 12:7. And Christ teacheth us, after forgiveness of sins obtained, to look for temptations and to pray against them, Matthew 6:13. While Jacob would be Laban’s drudge and pack horse, all was well; but when once he began to flee, he makes after him with all his might. All was jolly quiet at Ephesus before St Paul came thither; but then “there arose no small stir about that way,” Acts 19:23. All the while our Saviour lay in his father’s shop, and meddled only with carpenter’s chips, the devil troubled him not. But now that he is to ente r more publicly upon his office of mediatorship, the tempter pierceth his tender soul with many sorrows, by solicitation to sin. (πειραζω from πειρω, to pierce through.) And dealt he so with the green tree? what will he do with the dry? Temptations (besides those that come from God, which are only probationis, approval, not perditionis, damnation as the other) are of two sorts: for either they are of seducement, James 1:14, or of buffeting and grievance, 2 Corinthians 12:7; either of allurement or frightment. (Irritamenta, vel terriculamenta.) In the former we are pressed with some darling corruption, whereto our appetites by nature have the most propensity; in the latter we are dogged with foulest lusts of atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, &c., that nature startles at: in these the devil tempts alone, and that so grossly, that the very flesh is ashamed of it. But in the former, that come more immediately from the flesh, the devil only interposeth himself, and speaks his good word for them; whence they are called messengers of Satan, 2 Corinthians 12:7 Eph 4:27, we are said in anger to “give place to the devil”; and in resisting of lusts, we “resist the devil,” James 4:7. Lutherus in oppidum Eisleben honorifice introductus est, valetudine admodum imbecilla, et tantum non desperata: quod sibi accidere semper, cum magni quippiam aggrederetur, dixit. Melchior Adam.
Ver. 2. And when he had fasted forty days, &c.] All Christ’s actions are for our instruction, not all for our imitation. We may not imitate the works miraculous of Christ, and proper to him as mediator. The ignorance of this caused some to counterfeit themselves Christ’s: as one Moor in King Edward VI’s time, and one Hacker in Queen Elizabeth’s time, David George, and various others; according to Matthew 24:24. Neither need we seek to imitate him in his infirmities, which (though they were not sinful, but only natural, and therefore unblamable) yet import a weakness (as that he was hungry, weary, sleepy, &c.), and so, though they be in us, yet we need not strive the attainment of them. But we must imitate the Lord Christ in all his imitable graces and actions: showing forth the praises or virtues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. (τας αρετας εξαγγειλητε, 1 Peter 2:9) The word signifies to preach them abroad; for we should practise those virtues so clearly, that our lives may be as so many sermons upon the life of Christ. It is a dishonour to a dear friend to hang his picture in a dark hole and not in a conspicuous place, that it may appear we rejoice in it as an ornament to us; think the same of Christ’s image and graces, show them forth we must, and express them to the world; walking in Christ, Colossians 2:6, yea, as Christ, 1 John 2:6, who therefore left us a copy that we might write after it, a sampler that we might work by it, a pattern that we should follow his steps, 1 Peter 2:21 (υπογραμμον. Exemplar quod oculo conspicitur), And although we cannot follow him passibus aequis, yet we must show our goodwills, stretching and straining our utmost, as St Paul did; [επεκτεινομενος, Philippians 3:14] striving what we can to resemble him, not as a picture doth a man in outward lineaments only; but as a son doth his father (for he is the Father of eternity, Isaiah 9:6) in nature and disposition; and as servants, labouring to do as our Lord, John 13:15, who therefore washed his disciples’ feet, to give us an example of humility; as he did likewise of meekness, Matthew 11:29; patience, 1 Peter 2:21; obedience, Hebrews 12:2; diligence and fidelity in his function, Hebrews 3:1,2; fewness of words, yet boldness of speech, going about and doing all possible good; beneficence to the poor saints, 2 Corinthians 8:9; constancy in profession, 1 Timothy 6:13; forgiveness of others and love to the brethren, Ephesians 5:2 “Be ye therefore followers herein of Christ, as dear children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,” 1 Peter 1:14,15. He was afterward an hungred] Our Saviour was tempted all that forty days’ time, saith St Luke; but these three worst assaults were reserved to the last. So deals the devil with the Church (which is Christ mystical, 1 Corinthians 12:12). He never ceaseth tempting, though never so often repulsed; and is therefore called Beelzebub, as some will have it, the lord of flies, because the fly is noted for an impudent creature, that will soon return to the bait, though beaten away but erewhile. (κυναμυια ponitur apud Homerum pro valde impudente; quia muscae pervicaces sunt, &c.) Hence those many bickerings and buffetings we meet with all our life long: and hence those sharpest encounters and terrible conflicts many times at the hour of death. The Israelites met with many trials and troubles in the wilderness, Amalek and the Amorites, sore thirst, and fiery serpents, &c., but were never so put to it as when they came to take possession of the promised land; for then all the kings of Canaan combined to keep them out. So the devil, furious enough at all times, most of all bestirs him at last cast, because he knows his time is but short, Revelation 12:12, for death sets a saint out of his gunshot (α βελους). Satan may compass the earth, but not enter the borders of heaven. He tempted Adam in the earthly Paradise; he cannot tempt in the heavenly: hence his malice, while he may. Morientium nempe bestiaram violentiores sunt morsus (ut ille olim de semidiruta Carthagine): beasts that have their death’s wound, bite cruelly, convulse exceedingly.