But seeing
Thou hast long continued thus, and no provision is made for Thee, it is
vanity longer to believe any such promise, and therefore despair of any
help from God's hand, and provide for Thyself by some other means!"
Many words have I used here, dearly beloved, but I can not express the
thousandth part of the malicious despite which lurked in this one
temptation of Satan. It was a mocking of Christ and of His obedience. It
was a plain denial of God's promise. It was the triumphing voice of him
that appeared to have gotten victory. Oh, how bitter this temptation
was no creature can understand but such as feel the grief of such darts
as Satan casts at the tender conscience of those that gladly would rest
and repose in God, and in the promises of His mercy. But here is to be
noted the ground and foundation. The conclusion of Satan is this: Thou
art none of God's elect, much less His well-beloved Son. His reason is
this: Thou art in trouble and findest no relief. There the foundation of
the temptation was Christ's poverty, and the lack of food without hope
of remedy to be sent from God. And it is the same temptation which the
devil objected to Him by the princes of the priests in His grievous
torments upon the cross; for thus they cried, "If he be the Son of God,
let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him; he trusted
in God, let him deliver him, if he have the pleasure in him.
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