This Spirit which led Christ into the wilderness was not
the devil, but the holy Spirit of God the Father, by whom Christ, as
touching His human and manly nature, was conducted and led; likewise by
the same Spirit He was strengthened and made strong, and, finally,
raised up from the dead. The Spirit of God, I say, led Christ to the
place of His battle, where He endured the combat for the whole forty
days and nights. As Luke saith, "He was tempted," but in the end most
vehemently, after His continual fasting, and that He began to be hungry.
Upon this forty days and this fasting of Christ do our Papists found
and build their Lent; for, say they, all the actions of Christ are our
instructions; what He did we ought to follow. But He fasted forty days,
therefore we ought to do the like. I answer, that if we ought to follow
all Christ's actions, then ought we neither to eat nor drink for the
space of forty days, for so fasted Christ; we ought to go upon the
waters with our feet; to cast out devils by our word; to heal and cure
all sorts of maladies; to call again the dead to life; for so did
Christ. This I write only that men may see the vanity of those who,
boasting themselves of wisdom, have become fools.
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