The temptation of our blessed Saviour, | account is a suitable commentary upon that which is related by three of the Evangelists, which is given by St. Matthew "And was one of the most wonderful and myste- Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, rerious transactions in his earthly history, and turned from Jordan, and was led by the which we shall find, on examination, to have Spirit into the wilderness." "As soon as been essentially connected with that great he had come up out of the water of bapconflict with Satan, which he had under- tism, he is led into the fire of temptation." taken to carry on, in order to effect the re- Surely no mind but the mind of him who was demption of guilty man. It has been thought, holy, harmless, and undefiled, and which was indeed, by some, that the entire of that fear- strengthened by the indwelling power of the ful conflict took place when Jesus sustained Spirit, which was given to him without the agonies of the cross; but although his measure, could have sustained the shock of crucifixion should be regarded as the con- so sudden a transition from one extreme to summation and decisive climax of his suf- another. ferings and his work, yet the entire of his life, from the manger to the sepulchre, was a period of uninterrupted conflict and trial. As long as he continued in that world which is described as being at enmity with God, so long was he on Satan's ground, and liable to his assaults, and these assaults he sustained in the wilderness of Judea, as well as in the garden of Gethsemane, or on the cross of Calvary.

Let us briefly reflect upon this circumstance, which meets us at the very threshhold of our meditations. We have here a clear and decisive proof, that great and signal manifestations of the favour and mercy of God are not intended to afford any security against trials, so long as we are in the body. Those sweet and comfortable pledges of our heavenly Father's love, which are occasionally vouchsafed to us in our present An examination of this deeply interesting state, are intended for a different purpose, portion of our Saviour's history is well cal- to arm us with that spiritual fortitude which culated to impress the mind with feelings of shall render us able to endure approaching reverent awe and humble gratitude, by lead- trial, and to give such a rich type and anteing us to see something of that mysterious past of future bliss, as shall lead us to look toil and travail of soul which Jesus sus- beyond our light affliction, to that far more tained on account of man. Let us then, in exceeding and eternal weight of glory which dependence on the blessing and guidance of is the object of our ardent hopes, and to rethe Spirit of God, make this solemn trans-joice in every intervening trial, since all our action the subject of our meditations, that, sufferings shall issue in so bright and blessed as far as possible, we may discover its nature a result. and design, and derive from a contemplation of it that instruction and comfort, which it is eminently calculated to supply.

The inspired historian, Matthew, commences his account of this occurrence by a single, yet emphatic expression, denoting the time at which it took place: "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil." We are thus referred back to the preceding chapter, which contains an account of our Saviour's baptism, when he publicly and formally took upon himself the office of Mediator, and which also records the remarkable and memorable testimony which his heavenly Father pronounced, when he said"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." No sooner had these words been uttered, than Satan took the alarm, and came forth to attack the newly appointed champion of man's salvation.-St. Luke's

We likewise see, that the circumstance of the children of God being the subjects of temptation, affords no evidence of their not being, even at the very time, the favoured objects of his tender and paternal affection. Jesus was not less the well-beloved Son of God in the wilderness of Judea, than when he had just come up out of the waters of Jordan. He was led up to be tempted as the Son of God, and during the whole continuance of that dark and fiery trial, he had the full assurance of his Sonship dwelling in his mind. As God always prepares his people for those trials which he may consider it necessary that they should undergo, so, on this occasion, the testimony which was given to Jesus at his baptism, was intended to prepare him for his approaching conflict. Thus do we see, that the assurance of our being the sons of God is the best support under the pressure of outward

as more peculiarly his own ground, and thus | having deserted their first estate and left the glory of the Saviour's victory was the their own habitation; but a very slight exgreater. Besides, in the case of him who amination of the passages referred to will was holy, harmless, and undefiled, all places show the incorrectness of this opinion. The could not have presented the same facility" angels" mentioned by these two apostles and opportunity for such a transaction. With us, alas! it is vastly different. There is no place so unsuitable as not to be employed as the scene of our temptations. We carry about, in the corrupt affections of our sinful nature, a moral wilderness within us, in which Satan can always find his allies ready to betray our souls into his hands, if it were not that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and protected by him, against whom the gates of hell cannot prevail.

form the great work which he had under- | pearance and not in reality, directed against taken to achieve. In the next place, it was necessary for Christ, as the second Adam, and covenant-head of the human race, to enter into conflict with Satan, in order to vanquish and destroy him, and recover our lost inheritance, even the possession and dominion of this earth, which had been mortgaged by the first Adam, and had become the usurped dominion of him who is called "the prince of this world." And lastly, it was necessary that Jesus should be tempted, in order to convince his people that he can sympathize with them in all their sufferings of a similar kind, in consequence of his own experience of temptation in the flesh. So that we can say in the hour of trial-" We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are," and can feel a sure and certain confidence of being protected by his gracious power, "for in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."

ON THE HUMANITY OF christ.

Before we proceed in our meditations upon the deeply interesting account of the assaults which our blessed Lord sustained from Satan in the wilderness, it will be necessary to prepare the way, by laying down some preliminary remarks, in order to clear up some important difficulties, and to illustrate some general principles in connection with the subject of our Lord's humanity, and of the nature of temptation in general, which should be carefully attended to by all who desire to draw instruction and comfort from this portion of the Word of God. May the Spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind guide us in our reflections upon these points! We desire, then, to observe, at the very first, that we entirely disclaim the sentiments of those who either directly represent, or adopt principles of interpretation which would necessarily lead to a belief that the temptations of Christ were mere formal ceremonies, by which it was absolutely and in every sense impossible that he could have been overcome. We cannot imagine any moral purpose which could have been answered by these temptations, either as regarded the Saviour himself, or those whom he came to redeem, if they were only conflicts in ap

a person who was raised infinitely above the possibility of yielding, or who did not possess, in his moral and physical constitution, those faculties, desires, principles, and feelings, which might have been employed in submitting to the suggestions of the devil. Wherever the Scriptures refer to the temptations of Jesus, they invariably employ such expressions as invest them with the character of fearful and tremendous engagements. No one can have attended to the remarks of the apostle in the epistle to the Hebrews, without having felt this. Let us, at present, refer only to one passage, which occurs in the seventh verse of the fifth chapter, where it is said of Christ, that "in the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; and though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." On this passage it is enough to remark, that the strength and importunity of our blessed Saviour's prayers were caused by the violence and intensity of the temptations by which he was assailed; for it is to sufferings caused by temptations that the apostle here refers.

And, indeed, we shall be far from thinking lightly of the Saviour's temptations, if we sufficiently reflect upon the awful and tremendous power of Satan, and upon the weakness of the nature which Christ assumed. We are, no doubt, correct in representing the power of God as infinitely superior to that of Satan; but when we contemplate the Saviour as a man, possessing the same nature as those whom he came to redeem, entering into conflict with the Prince of Darkness, who is invested with the power of death, we should always feel that the encounter was one which involved a fearful and tremendous struggle. It is very questionable whether Christians in general entertain adequate conceptions of the awful power of the evil one; but of this every reader of the four gospels ought to be aware, that the Lord himself never spake slightingly or lightly upon this point. He represents the Devil as a strong man armed." He speaks of himself as casting out Satan, not by the proper power of his humanity, but by the aid of the Spirit of God. And this consideration may likewise be employed to illustrate the weakness of our Lord's hu

manity, which was ever supported and up- | inconveniences of a terrestrial residence, who held in all its conflicts by the power of the condescended to be born, to pass through Holy Ghost, by whom his work on earth the several stages of infancy, childhood, boywas superintended. For when Christ as- hood, and manhood, to breathe the same sumed our human nature into connection air, and eat the same food with man, and at with the divine, he did not invest it with length to die; when we, who profess to walk superhuman properties, but took it with in his footsteps, are told of a person such as all the essential qualities of a moral and this having been tempted in all points like physical kind, by which, from the first, it as we are, of his having sustained in his was distinguished. own person the shock and violence of Satan's fiercest assaults, of his having had full and intimate experience of the melancholy weakness of human nature, and of the necessity which there is that it should ever be supported by a distinct and superior strength; when we are told all this in conjunction with the important fact, that this same Jesus never failed or yielded, but conquered the tempter, and is now exalted at the right hand of God, able to assist his people, in the hour of their trial, with plentiful supplies of grace and strength;-should not such a statement convince us, that he can not only pity, but likewise sympathize with us in our trials, and that his sympathy will give us a sure pledge that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it?

And this leads us to notice, that in order that the Saviour's temptations should serve those purposes of encouragement and consolation for which they have been employed, it is necessary, that he should have assumed with all its peculiar properties, the very nature which we possess; that "as the children" whom he came to redeem "were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise himself should take part of the same." It would be impossible to found effectually, upon the fact of our Lord's having been tempted like as we are, any argument persuading us to endure trials and temptations with patience, and confidence, and hope, if there had not been such a similarity between him and us, as to authorize us to say that his nature and ours are, in every essential point, the same nature, in words as distinct as those which the apostle employs, when he says" Both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one; for which cause, he is not ashamed to call them brethren." What comfort could it afford to the afflicted believer in the hour of dark and fearful trial, to be told that angelic beings had been tempted in the same way? We should immediately think of the nobler powers of intellect with which they are endowed; of the higher advantages and resources which are within their reach; of the superior mental fortitude and moral nerve by which they are distinguished; and should at once infer, that there existed such a dissimilarity between their nature and ours, as to render any reference to their circumstances totally ineffectual in the way of comfort or encouragement to us. But when we are told of Jesus, who was a man, possessing the same nature with ourselves, a partaker of the same flesh and blood, who assumed a real human mind as well as a human body, taking all the faculties, affections, desires, senses, and appetites which are essential appendages to our humanity, who dwelt in our world, and surrounded himself with the common circumstances and

And this is precisely the way in which the Scriptures point to the sufferings of Jesus in the flesh, and thus do they establish a complete sympathy on his part with us, in consequence of his own experience. The Gospel does not merely comfort its believing adherents, by putting forth abstract reasonings upon the benefit of trial, and upon the duty of patient submission to the will of God; but it exhibits a living and affecting picture of the man of sorrows, weeping as we weep, suffering as we suffer, meeting the attacks of Satan in the wilderness and in the garden; and it tells us, that every pang which the believer sustains is felt by our living head, and awakens in his mind such an affecting recollection of his own sufferings, as leads him to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But this use of our Lord's temptations derives its value entirely from the previously admitted fact of their reality, and from a conviction of the similarity of his nature with ours.

The Saviour, then, was really and truly a partaker of our humanity. The important question however, and that which must excite the greatest interest, is this—in what