But where the Papists are so
diligent in establishing their dreams and fantasies, they lose the
profit that here is to be gathered; that is, why Christ fasted those
forty days; which were a doctrine more necessary for Christians than to
corrupt the simple hearts with superstition, as tho the wisdom of God,
Christ Jesus, had taught us no other mystery by His fasting than the
abstinence from flesh, or once on the day to eat flesh, for the space of
forty days. God hath taken a just vengeance upon the pride of such men,
while He thus confounds the wisdom of those that do most glory in
wisdom, and strikes with blindness such as will be guides and lanterns
to the feet of others, and yet refuse themselves to hear or follow the
light of God's word. From such deliver thy poor flock, O Lord!
The uses of Christ's fasting these forty days I find chiefly to be two:
The first, to witness to the world the dignity and excellence of His
vocation, which Christ, after His baptism, was to take upon Him openly;
the other, to declare that he entered into battle willingly for our
cause, and does, as it were, provoke his adversary to assault Him: altho
Christ Jesus, in the eternal counsel of His Father, was appointed to be
the Prince of Peace, the angel (that is, the messenger) of His
testament, and He alone that could fight our battles for us, yet He did
not enter in execution of it, in the sight of men, till He was commended
to mankind by the voice of His heavenly Father; and as He was placed and
anointed by the Holy Ghost by a visible sign given to the eyes of men.
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