come one with thee and with thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord! and inherit the glory and felicity which thou didst prepare for us before the foundation of the world.

Through him, as his true disciples, we desire to ascribe unto thee, O Father, &c.

The Lord bless us. &c.

January 13, 1782,

SERMON

SERMON V.

MATTH. iv. 1.

Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

THIS is the beginning of the narrative of what is called our Saviour's temptation in the wilderness.

That it is a transaction, however, much out of the common way, highly deserving the notice of his followers, we may gather from its being one of those things which all the three historians of his life have recorded, and its being omitted by St. John, you well know, is no argument of his paying less attention to it.

We happily live in times when, by the diligence of christians and free inquiry into the scriptures, many things therein which had almost from the very first been misunderstood and perverted, have been set in a clear and useful light, and the divine oracles of truth vindicated from that unjust slight and contempt

tempt which some had ignorantly thrown

upon them.

The passage before us may well claim to be of this latter number; for, taken in the literal sense as a real history in all its parts, it would not be an easy matter to reconcile them, or remove the objections that lie against it.

I propose, in as brief a manner as I can, to point out to you some of the reasons which have induced learned men, in former times as well as in our own, to look upon this our Lord's temptation, not as a real transaction, but as passing in a vision. After this I shall consider what was the design of it with regard to him, and shall then endeavour to lead your minds to some of those advantages which we may derive from it for our own conduct in a spiritual and moral view. For there is nothing recorded of our Lord but with a view to benefit his followers in this important respect. And a sad abuse would it be of his time and office, for the christian teacher to stand up in his place and furnish merely what may minister to curiosity and amusement when speaking to fellow-mortals, whose business is to improve every hour of their short day of trial,

as

as no one knows that he shall see tomorrow's sun to rise.

I.

It naturally then presents itself to us, first to ask and inquire, By what spirit it was that our Lord here is said to be led up to be tempted.

Was it any violent impetuous movement of his own mind? Was it from an evil spirit? or by the good spirit or power of Almighty God?

The term led up, as the learned know, in the original, implies being forcibly impelled, lifted up by violence, where the subject or person is wholly passive in the business.

It cannot then be intended that it was the work of an evil spirit, for reasons that will hereafter appear; and because it would be a frivolous and absurd repetition, for the writer to say that Jesus was led up of the evil spirit to be tempted by the evil spirit.

Neither can he be said to be led of God to be tempted, as that signifies an actual solicitation to vice, for that is never the language of the scriptures concerning God, and would be to blaspheme his character. "Let no man say" speaks the holy apostle (James i. 13.) "when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God

cannot