I. Satan placed two dangers before our Lord: that of being dashed to pieces, and that of committing a sin.
To remove the fear of either committing the sin, or of exposing Himself to danger, Satan quotes Scripture. He does this on two grounds—
1. To exhibit himself in a favourable light, as though he were the angel of God sent to bear Christ up.
2. To remove the fear of injury, on the authority of Scripture promises.
II. Satan endeavours to remove the prospect of danger, so as to make the thought of committing the sin less alarming. For many are deterred from crime by fear of its consequences; and if the fear be removed, then they are ready to commit the sin.
Eve was prevented from disobeying God by the fear of the consequences (Gen. iii. 3); Satan removed the fear when he said, Ye shall not surely die; and then at once the woman fell. So when Satan removes the fear of death, as something doleful to think upon, when we are in health, we are ready enough to sin. Whereas fear is salutary; as says Scripture, To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Ecclus. i. 14. 16. Matt. iii. 7. Luke xii. 5. Examples of the fear of the Lord deterring from sin in Gen. xxxix. 9. Hist. Susanna 23.
III. Satan quotes Scripture for his own vile purposes, to screen himself under the semblance of piety. We have a warning here against those renegade Catholic priests and monks who desert the Church and the authority of the Bishops, that they may give themselves up to heresy and to unclean living, sheltering themselves all the while under Scripture texts distorted to serve their own purposes.
IV. Satan garbles Scripture in quoting it.
1. He distorts the sense. Christ needed not angelic hands to sustain Him, and therefore the passage is not applicable to Him, but refers to His people. (Acts i. 9. Heb. i. 3.)
2. He omits passages which did not suit his purpose. The words are, They shall keep Thee in all Thy ways, i. e. in the ways of God’s commandments, not in breaking those commands. He also omits, Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt Thou tread under Thy feet, because those words referred to himself as overcome by Christ.
V. Note also how great is the dignity of the true servant of God, upon whom, by God’s command, the angels wait. Hence we may learn:—
1. Not to regard ourselves as of no value, for we are so highly esteemed of God that He commissions His own ministers to attend on us.
2. To entrust ourselves altogether to their guidance, for they will keep us in perfect peace.
3. To lead such a life as will make the angels surround us, and be our constant attendants. As bees swarm about a bed of flowers, so will they gather around those who bloom with Christian graces. Thus, the Bride is spoken of as terrible as an army with banners, that army of the living God, the angelic hosts of chariots and horses of fire surrounding the faithful. Around the bed of Solomon were threescore valiant men. And angels are about our bed watching and protecting us.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Note here that—
I. Christ does not enter into a long discussion with the devil, but at once silences him, knowing his obduracy. (Tit. iii. 10.) He teaches us thereby not to parley with diabolic suggestions, but at once to suppress them.
II. Christ answered in the words of Scripture, to show us how to meet the assaults of the evil one; not with weapons of our own devising, but with those taken from the armoury of God’s Word.
III. Christ met and overcame Satan with his own weapon. Thus did David slay Goliath with his own sword; thus was Haman hanged on his own gallows; thus did Christ triumph at the last over Satan by a tree, wherewith Satan had ruined man.
IV. We tempt the Lord our God, whenever—
1. Presumptuously we require Him to alter the course of nature on our behalf.
2. We rush needlessly into danger.
3. We thoughtlessly cast ourselves into prayer, without having prepared our minds as to what we shall ask. (Eccles. xviii. 23.)
4. We persevere in sin that grace may abound, postponing repentance, stopping our ears to the calls of God.
5. We tie God down to means, as the princes of Bethulia tempted God, when they said that they would give up the city in five days. (Judith viii. 11.)
6. We attempt to excogitate the meaning of Scripture, with regard to doctrine, for ourselves, without following the direction of our divinely-constituted and infallible guide, the Church.
7. We stifle the promptings of conscience.
8. We neglect the appointed means of grace for those of our own choosing.
Again the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and St. Luke adds, in a moment of time.
I. Whereas St. John was shown the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ, in ecstatic vision, here in vision are the kingdoms of the world shown to Christ as bowing under the rule of Satan.
II. Note also, how that—
1. Satan exhibited all the kingdoms to tempt Christ, whilst to tempt us one jug of wine, one fair woman, one handful of gold, are deemed quite sufficient.
2. Satan showed the glory of the kingdoms of earth, but not their emptiness, their troubles, their fleetingness.
3. Satan spreads the net of ambition before those who are leading a life of high spirituality. Thus the Apostles, who had forsaken all for Christ, yet strove amongst themselves as to which of them should be the greatest. (Luke xxii. 24. 2 Kings xxiv. 2.)
4. Satan showed the glories of earth, not of Heaven, trying by this temptation also to withdraw Christ’s mind from things above to things below.
5. Satan did not show the real kingdoms, but only a semblance of them. So he offers us, not those things which will satisfy, but things which have no substance. (James iv. 14.)
Whatsoever there is in this world of glory, of beauty, of majesty, is but the shadow of good things to come. Satan tries to urge us to clasp the shadow, that we may lose the substance.
6. Satan showed all in a moment of time; we learn thereby—
α. That his temptations come upon us with great suddenness.
β. That the things he offers us are fleeting and without stability. In this world nothing is enduring. (1 Cor. vii. 35.) If Satan gives us what we desire, he removes it from us speedily. (Ps. lxxvi. 5. Prov. xiii. 11.)
And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Here note—
I. Satan no longer says, If Thou be the Son of God, for he is now presenting himself as God, and might therefore be supposed to know all things.
II. Note here also, that—
1. The devil’s motive in tempting man is still his unconquered pride. Still does he desire to be equal with God. But one of the three things which God hateth is, a poor man that is proud (Ecclus. xxv. 2); and who is poorer than the devil, yet who more proud?
2. All sin leads to the worship of Satan, and the breach of the First Commandment. For sin is a turning from the obedience of God to the bondage of corruption, a leaving the kingdom of grace for the slavery of sin, an electing of eternal death in the realm of outer darkness in place of resurrection to eternal life in the kingdom of Christ. All sin leads to this, for—
α. Sin must inherit death and damnation.
β. Sins lead to infidelity. (Ps. xiv. 1. Prov. xviii. 3.)
γ. They make gods of mammon or the belly. (Tobit iii. 3. Phil. iii. 19. Eph. v. 5.)
3. Satan is like a merchant offering wares in exchange for souls; like the king of Sodom who said, Give me the souls, and take the goods to thyself. (Gen. xiv. 21, Vulg.) But what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
4. Satan tells here three lies.
α. He claims the world and its kingdoms as his own, whereas they belong to God. The whole world is Mine, and all that therein is.
β. He says that he gives kingdoms to whom he will (St. Luke); whereas God says, By Me kings reign. (Prov. viii. 15. Dan. ii. 21. John xii. 31.)
γ. He says that he has power to bestow things, whereas he has no such power whatever.
5. Satan tempts Christ to fall down: and so—
α. His deceptions have all one object: the accomplishment of our fall.
β. No man can worship Satan, without falling first most grievously.
6. Satan begins with small temptations, and ends with great ones; begins with a matter of bread, and ends with an offer of kingdoms. This teaches us not to despise small temptations; they are the forerunners of greater ones, the little foxes which spoil the vines. (Cant. ii. 15.) Give an inch, and Satan will take an ell. St. Peter began his fall by mixing with bad company about a fire; he ended by denying his Master with oaths and curses.
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
I. Hitherto Christ has answered with gentleness, as the shafts of the devil were aimed simply at Himself as man; but now that Satan casts the arrow of blasphemy against God, He is kindled with zeal: thereby teaching us to bear our own injuries with meekness, but to resent with the flame of indignation any affront offered to the majesty of God. So Christ endured patiently being called a gluttonous man and a winebibber, but He was fired with zeal when He saw His Father’s house made a house of merchandise.
II. Christ said not, Get thee behind Me, Satan; but, Get thee hence, Satan: for to Satan there was left no place for repentance, whilst to Peter, all that was needed was a following of Jesus in His humiliations and sufferings.
III. The weapons wielded by Christ in His temptation, were, pure trust in God, the Word of God, and hatred of the devil.
IV. It is of advantage that when we are tempted, we should recognize the tempter through his disguise. Temptation loses half its power when it is recognized as a temptation. When Christ showed Satan that He knew him, at once Satan took to flight. (1 Cor. xi. 14. 2 Cor. ii. 11. 1 John iii. 4.)
V. Christ made no allusion to Satan’s offer, but passed at once to the condition, to show us that we should not suffer his allurements to find the smallest lodgment in our minds.
VI. Christ made use of the words, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, instead of Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, Deut. vi. 13, from which He quoted, to show that in Him we have passed from the bondage of fear to the liberty of love, from the fear of servants to the reverence of children, that we have come to the perfect love of the New Covenant, which casteth out fear of the Old Law.
VII. Christ teaches us that God demands worship and bodily reverence, that reverence of falling down on the knee which Satan asked for himself.
VIII. Christ says not only, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, but also, Him only shalt thou serve: to teach us that bodily and spiritual worship is insufficient, unless it is followed by obedient service; that acts of devotion must go hand in hand with observance of the commandments.
Then the devil leaveth Him, and behold angels came and ministered unto Him.
Leaveth Him, St. Luke adds, for a season; for Satan returned to Him with provocations throughout His life, and finally afflicted Him on the cross. It was of his coming to Him then that Christ spoke, when He said, The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. (John xiv. 30.) It was then on the cross that Christ endured the last assaults of Satan: then, when He made that offering of a sweet-smelling savour, which, when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the uttermost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him. (Tobit viii. 3.)
Note here likewise that—
The devil leaveth Christ: thus does he also leave us, after having tempted us,—
α. In the hopes of returning with seven other spirits to take up a permanent abode in man’s heart, if found empty of the love of Jesus.
β. That he may plot some new form of temptation; retiring to gather strength. We must use this time of freedom for recruiting our forces and collecting additional arms of defence.
γ. That he may throw us off our guard, luring us into false security and spiritual sloth:—tempting us by his very absence.
Angels came and ministered unto Him, when the temptation was ended. In like manner will angels minister to us if we successfully resist.
Observe also that—
I. This brings great consolation to the religious, who have pledged themselves to the angelic life of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
1. Christ overcame the temptation of the flesh when He rejected the offered stones.
2. Christ overcame the temptation to disobedience and self-glorification when He remained on the pinnacle of the temple instead of showing a form of will-worship and voluntary humility by casting Himself down. And so should religious occupy any position to which their superior appoints them without seeking to desert it.
3. Christ overcame the temptation to avarice when He rejected the offered kingdoms of the world: electing rather, poverty.
II. Angelic consolation follows retirement: the angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness. It follows victory over temptation: the angels ministered to Christ when the temptation was ended.
III. Conflict with Satan does not lead to conquest: Christ took no spoils by His triumph. It is rather the victory of successful defence, of having lost nothing in the struggle, not of having gained aught.
Now I ask any candid person whether this is not a marvellous sermon, abounding in thought, overflowing with suggestions? Having read it, will he take up Scott, or Matthew Henry, or D’Oyly and Mant, and see what those luminaries have to say on the passage of Scripture thus wrought out by the Jesuit preacher?
I have not the least doubt as to the opinion he will form on the contrast.
We may truly say of the majority of Protestant commentators, that—Their minds are blinded: for until this day remaineth the veil—upon their heart—in the reading of the Old, or New, Testament. This is more applicable, of course, to foreign reformed theologians—if I may use the term theologian of those who are ignorant of the first principles of theology—than to our own divines. The English Church has always studied the Fathers, and has loved them; there is no great gulf fixed between us and the Mediævals, as there is between the Church and Protestant sectaries, and gleams of patristic light are reflected in the pages of our great divines. But there are commentators among us, such as Scott, who, scorning the master-expositors of early and Mediæval days, go to the study of God’s Word with the veil of their self-sufficiency on their hearts, and become hopelessly involved in heresy.
Scott affords us a melancholy example of a mistaken vocation. A commentator on Holy Scripture should be a man of profound theological learning, and of great intellectual power. Scott, a most amiable and pious clergyman, was neither a well-read man, nor were his abilities at all above par. His voluminous Commentary is accordingly, though overflowing with pious sentiment, of small theological value.
Protestant clergy commenting on Scripture, amidst the bustle of their ministerial avocations and their connubial distractions, without referring to the great works of early and Mediæval theologians, whose whole lives were spent in prayer and Scriptural studies, stand the chance of blundering as grossly as would a farm labourer if he undertook to excogitate, for himself, a system of astronomy, without reference to any treatises on the science already existing, or qualifying himself for the study, by a mastery of the rule of three, but regarded with unmitigated contempt all the discoveries made by those who have spent their lives in the exclusive study of the stars, and rejected as useless all the appliances of art invented to facilitate this investigation.
FOOTNOTES
[1] I have been obliged somewhat to modify these expressions here; the originals are too profane for reproduction.
[2] The manner in which these and other points are deduced from the text cannot be explained here; suffice it to say that it exhibits great ingenuity and subtlety in the preacher.
[3] Notice the gentle and loving spirit of the Jesuit here; he avoids giving offence without retiring from his position.
[4] I believe he quotes Juvenal twice, Ovid once, and the Æneid twice.
[5] Valderama, however, is not to be commended; he is vulgar, pompous, and irreverent.
INDEX.
- Absurd sermons, 18-21. 70-73
- Alberti, Leander, 19
- Anecdotes
- of F. de Neuilly, 11
- told by Balzac, 12
- of Cambridge preacher, 43, 44
- of Franciscan preacher, 44
- of Chaussemer, 45
- of the Père Seraphim, 45
- of Felix trembling, 47, 48
- of a long sermon, 55
- of Jerome de Narni, 57
- of St. John Capistran, 57
- of a public confession, 57
- of a usurer, 58
- of the Devil preaching, 81
- of Hannibal, 143
- Bequest to Apollo, 13
- Birds, 29-31
- Bon-mots, 15, 16
- Catholic preachers, 23-25
- Classical allusions, 13, 14. 192
- Commentators, 39, 235, 236
- Conclusions, 56
- D’Oyly and Mant, 40. 235
- Effects produced by sermons, 56-58
- Exordium, 13. 45-47
- Flowers, 31-33
- Friar-preachers, 17
- Gratian de Drusac, 79
- Henry IV., 16
- Horæ Homileticæ, 54
- James I., 43
- Lapide, Cornelius à, 156
- Lapide, Joannes de, 83
- Lengthy sermon, 55
- Louis XIV., 45
- Love of nature, 28-33
- Mademoiselle d’Entragues, 16
- Marginal notes, 12
- Mariolatry, 27. 84
- Mystical interpretations, 37-43. 85. 124. 141. 187
- Natural history, 84. 88. 94-97. 139
- Nature, love of, 28-33
- Oblates, 161
- Open-air sermons, 11. 17
- Parker, Matthew, 9
- Preachers,
- Adrien Mangotius, 59, 60
- Alfric, 10
- Ambrose, St., 8
- Andrew of Crete, St., 10
- André, le Père, 15
- Andrewes, Bp., 60
- Ange de Rouen, 19
- Antonio Vieyra, 60
- Athanasius, St., 7
- Augustine, St., 8
- Barlette, Gabriel, 16. 19, 20
- Barzia, Joseph de, 27. 33. 134-154. 178
- Basil, St., 8
- Basil of Seleucia, 9
- Bede, the Venerable, 10
- Biel, Gabriel, 12. 61-68
- Borgia, Francis, 132
- Bourdaloue, 60
- Brydaine, Jacques, 45-47
- Cæsarius of Arles, St., 9
- Camus, Bp. of Belley, 14
- Capistran, St. John, 57
- Celles, Peter of, 43
- Chrysostom, St., 8
- Claude, 54
- Clement of Alexandria, St., 7
- Coster, Francis, 206-236
- Cyprian, St., 7, 8
- Damascene, St. John, 10
- Deza, Maximilian, 192-205
- Ephraem Syrus, St., 7
- Eucher, St., 9
- Faber, Matthias, 31. 49-54. 100-115
- Foulque de Neuilly, 11
- Geminiano, John, 53, 59. 145
- Gonthier, le Père, 16
- Granada, Louis of, 12
- Gregory the Great, St., 8
- Gregory Nazianzen, St., 8
- Guerin, le Père, 15
- Guevara, Antonio de, Bp. of Mondoneda, 56
- Harphius, Henry, 22. 158
- Harrone, le Père d’, 60
- Hartung, Philip von, 29. 43. 116-133
- Helmesius, 26. 135
- Imbert, Father, 19
- Kempis, St. Thomas à, 22
- Königstein, 25
- Labat, 17
- Langton, Stephen, 43
- Latimer, Hugh, 60
- Leo, St., 8
- Macarii, the, 7
- Maillard, Oliver, 12, 13. 43. 70
- Marchant, Jacques, 40. 136. 155-176
- Meffreth, 70. 81-99
- Menot, Michael, 21. 70
- Narni, Jerome de, 56
- Narni, Philip de, 12
- Neuilly, Foulque de, 11
- Origen, 7
- Osorius, John, 33, 34. 177-191
- Pantænus, St., 7
- Paoletti, 56
- Polygranus, 26
- Raulin, Jean, 69-80
- Salvian, 9
- Satan, 81
- Savonarola, 12
- Segneri, Paolo, 60. 134. 194
- Simeon, Mr., 54, 55
- Stella, 39, 40
- Turricremata, John, 22
- Valerian of Cemele, 9
- Venerable Bede, 10
- Vieyra, Antonio, 60
- Wulfstan of York, 10
- Protestant preachers, 23-25
- Proverbs, 114, 115
- Relation between Nature and Revelation, 28, 29
- Scott the commentator, 39. 235, 236
- Scriptural illustrations, 34. 37
- Sermons for,—
- First Sunday in Advent, 198-202
- Christmas Day, 14. 25
- St. John’s Day, 153, 154
- Sunday after Christmas Day, 148-153
- Epiphany, 70-73
- First Sunday after Epiphany, 107-110. 119-125
- Sexagesima, 85-87
- Septuagesima, 64-68
- Ash-Wednesday, 194-198
- First Sunday in Lent, 213-236
- Fourth Sunday in Lent, 103-107
- Palm Sunday, 111-113
- Good Friday, 169-171
- Easter Day, 110, 111
- Easter Monday, 172, 173
- Low Sunday, 172, 173
- Easter Tide, 161-167
- Second Sunday after Easter, 126-131
- Ascension Day, 173-176. 186, 187
- Trinity Sunday, 181-185
- Second Sunday after Trinity, 88-93
- Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 140-144
- Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 144-147
- Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity,29-33
- Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 137-140
- Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, 36, 37
- Feast of St. Andrew, 198-202
- The Purification of our Lady, 27, 28. 148-153
- The Annunciation, 28
- St. Peter, 14
- St. James, 189-191
- Transfiguration of our Lord, 49-54
- Nativity of our Lady, 28
- Name of Mary, 17
- Similes, 22, 23. 34. 74. 113, 114. 139, 140. 142. 181-186
- Subjects of sermons, 47-54
- Sermon on
- Birds, 29. 31
- Danger of neglecting trifling faults, 137-140
- Example, bad, 148-153
- Elect, small number of, 36, 37
- Flowers, 31-33
- Heaven, 126-131
- Hell, 119-125
- Judgment, 198-205
- Resurrection of Lazarus, 186-189
- Shortness of life, 194-198
- Sower, parable of, 85-87
- Supper, parable of, 88-93
- Temptation, 213-235
- Uncertainty of our future condition, 153, 154
- Vanity of the work of sinners, 140-144
- Wounded Side, 169-171
- Tales related in sermons, 75
- Beasts at penance, 75
- Toad and his son, 77
- Widow and her servant, 78
- Hermit and the way of safety, 79, 80
- Mice in the larder, 94, 95
- Poor Robin, 97, 98
- Hermit and the olive-tree, 98
- Priest and capon, 99
- Crab and oyster, 139
- Hannibal, 143
- Women and the clew of wool, 146
- Children and the child Jesus, 209
- Priest and the acolyte, 211
- Texts, strange, 13. 43-45
- Unction, 84
- Viaud, Theophilus, 15
- Violent denunciations, 70
- Vitry, Jacques de, 11
THE END.
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN’S SQUARE, LONDON.