tered with every care maternal tenderness could show when missed by Mary and his supposed father, they sorrowing returned unto Jerusalem, in anxious quest of him. He dwelt among his kinsfolk and acquaintance, and, till he commenced his public mission, was in favour with God and These were circumstances not calculated to inspire that stubborn hardihood which man sometimes displays; and far less likely was the celestial wisdom, love, gentleness, and joy, with which he was replete, to arm him with that sturdy courage which man has often evinced.

man.

These circumstances certainly tended to exasperate the severity of the contest; and there is good ground to believe, that mortality never so experimentally uttered that lamenting exclamation, as did our blessed Lord, " The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." But, however averse weak human nature was to sustain the arduous contest which stern duty now imperiously imposed, how timidly soever it now shrunk from and feared to face its foe, it was compelled to submit: for it was the woman's seed which was to break the subtle serpent's head. The deity

within, and the deity without, goaded it into action; dove-like as was the Holy Spirit of God, it allowed of no parley; immediately it drove it into the frightful solitude,* and acting as coadju

* This wilderness is thus described by a traveller of great credit and veracity, who had himself seen it: "In a few hours," says the writer, "we arrived at that mountainous desert, into which our Saviour was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. It is a most miserable, dry, barren place, consisting of

tor with the incarnate Son of God, obtained full victory.

We are next informed, that when Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, that He was afterwards an hungered. It is certain that neither Moses, Elijah, or the human nature of the Messiah, could have sustained a fast of forty days, without some natural or supernatural support; but whatever assistance was in any of these cases, through either of these means vouchsafed, in the case of our Lord there is reason peculiarly to conclude, that it was merely sufficient for the preservation of life; and that at the expiration of this distressing trial, He was left in a worn-out and exhausted state: had He not laboured under

high, rocky mountains, so torn and disordered, as if the earth had suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking down into a deep valley, as we passed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which we were told were formerly the habitations of hermits retiring hither for penance and mortification; and certainly, there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose.

"On descending from these hills of desolation into the plain, we soon came to the foot of mount Quarantania, which they say is the mountain from whence the devil tempted our Saviour with that visionary scene of all the kingdoms and glories of this world. It is, as St. Matthew calls it, an exceeding high mountain, and in its ascent difficult and dangerous. It has a small chapel at the top, and another about half way up, on a prominent part of a rock. Near this latter are several caves and holes in the sides of the mountain, made use of anciently by hermits, and by some at this day, for places to keep their Lent in, in imitation of that of our blessed Saviour."-Maundrell.

Buckingham gives the same account of this wilderness.

every disadvantage such circumstances could produce, it would have deducted from the glory of the triumph He was ordained to obtain; and that the mortal frame of Christ was as liable as ours to bodily sufferance there is just reason to conclude; for we are expressly told, He not only took on him our infirmities, but bare our sicknesses. (Matt. viii. 17.)

There does, however, here occur an observation, which we cannot omit to state, namely, that in no instance did our blessed Lord ever augment his sufferings by self-imposed trials; for in the instance now before us, the duty to be performed was plainly enjoined by his Almighty Father, who was pleased himself to bruise him, and who gave him the cup to drink; and seconded also by the powerful operations of the Holy Ghost. But Christ did not, like as we often do, resist the Holy Spirit, but suffered himself to be led by him, which, if we also do, we shall also conquer with him. It would be an impious supposition to imagine that it was only the semblance of sufferings which our Lord sustained, or that He ever appeared to suffer what He in reality did not : "God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar." (Rom. iii. 4.) But there is a consideration which precludes the possibility of an unreal semblance. If truth is happiness, and falsehood misery, God must be true; were He not so, He would, instead of being the greatest, wisest, best, and happiest of beings, be the most false, the

When we come to comment on Christ's crucifixion, we shall enter more particularly into this subject.

very

most wicked, and the most miserable of beings. He would impose upon intelligents burdens grievous to be borne, and touch them not himself with one of his fingers. But far differently does God deal with frail probationaries. For in all their affliction He is himself afflicted, and the proof whereby is proved the love of God is, that He laid down his life for us. (1 John iii. 16.) The happiness of the blessed God of truth consisteth in his truth, and we have thereby strong consolation; "the truth of God is an immutable thing; it is impossible for God to lie." (Heb. vi. 18.) "Seeing then that we have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession; for 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, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. iv. 14-16.) The weak, exhausted state in which the Redeemer languished in the appalling wilderness, life sinking, and human nature craving for its natural support, exhibited an opportunity not to be lost by the malignant foe for exercising his deadly enmity unto the woman's seed. He did indeed well know, that it was the holy One of God who was incarnate in the weak envelope which he longed to torment; that it would ultimately prove victorious, and thereby break his head. (Gen. iii. 15.) Yet in the declarations made to sinning Eve, there was contained a further annunciation, too

gratifying to the evil one to be given up; for it was also said, that in the conflict with the seeend Adam, that he should bruise his heel; God thereby took the evil one in his own craftiness, 1 Cor. iii. 19, and snared him in the work of his own hands. (Psalms ix. 16.) The contest did, indeed, essentially involve the high contestor in suffering and death; and had it not done so, no triumph had been gained.

Under the very propitious circumstances we Lave just surveyed, the wily foe advanced, and instantly assailed the blessed Redeemer by the

lowing most artful, malicious, and insidious speech: “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread;" and by this sy temptation assaulted at once the twofold nature of the great Messiah, both his divine and human. "If thou be the Son of God," ―oretending to doubt or disbelieve the truth of Christ's pretensions, an insinuation the most irritating be could suggest unto the God of truth; psy and artfully demanding at the same Uuse a proof of Christ's_divinity,* which applied

de mst powerful manner to the distresses wyck, from karger and exhaustion, the Lamb of God was & fering, as these would thereby have der wstantly relieved;—if thou be the Son of God, greve it by an exercise of thy Almighty

× My love ÀnÀ de sine mode of attack which was afterwards OHMERE 20Mg De Esma, sccre of the Redeemer's crucifixion Da Chose who di Jat #87L, crisis acted under the controul of the nating cholaa uz vies power that tremendous hour was do de Son of God, come now down