^ Q_ ,j^ ra Q. ^ JO ,i*^ Ic .T-** i-i Q. w ^ ^.j M- €55 !zi o ^ ^ ' ? ^ OJ ^ c C^ o m ^" i § O < 3 iz; . £ .^ '«i> M I j "*s» JS* P^ CO "S- P4 ^ 4 * 0) ^ ^ t 0) V> dl 1 - -- « ^\ r.>^ PREFACE. \% / ep>j/J.(p, evdwuTe Tr]i> odov K.vpiov, Ka9io<: e'nrfv W7 Tpa-^ela ek TreS/a, it departs yet further from the Hebrew ; but the difference is just such as might be found in a memoriter quotation. In the next verse, it follows the Septuagint in departing widely from the Hebrew, putting to awrrjpiov tov Qeov ior ^"TH^ together; — which suggests the suspicion that there had been another reading IJ^EJ^^ His Salvation. 26 THE MINISTRY OF To the quotation made by the other Evangelists, S. Luke (vv. 5, 6) adds the two verses which follow in Isaiah : Every valley (or ravine) shall he filled up, and every mountain and hill shall he lowered, and the croolzed shall he made a straight way, and the rough roads shall he made into smooth, and all fiesh shall see the Salvation of God. The future tense used in this sentence is not so much predictive as what is called in Hebrew grammar jussive. The crier in the wilderness is still speaking, and calling upon the people to do that which, nevertheless, they failed to do. Various commentators have perplexed themselves by attempting to explain in detail the several par- ticulars here enumerated, and differ very much from each other in their results. Origen and Bede take mountains as meaning proud men, and valleys as meaning the lowly; or again, motmtains are the Jews, and valleys the Gentiles. Bengel explains val- leys, i. e. hollows and vacuities, as being what is empty of true goodness, as the publicans and soldiers of vv. 12, 14; and the mountains, of the swellings of human self-righteousness, or of power, as in the case of Herod. Maldonatus's judgment seems much sounder, who thinks that these figures denote generally un- evenness of ground, which is to be made even, in order that a road may be levelled ; id est, vitiorum injequa- litas repugnantiaque ad virtutis mediocritatem redu- cenda, ne quid subeuntem in animos nostros Christum offendat. The last clause, and all flesh shall see the salva- tion of God, clearly denotes the result in which this preparation was to issue. Commentators are not S. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 27 agreed as to its exact meaning. Some have referred to Ps. xcviii. 2 : The Lord hath made known his sal- vation : his rightousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen; and to Isai. Lii. 10 : The Lord hath made hare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. And they have inferred that the meaning of the prophet is, that the glory of God in redeeming His people should be so conspicuously revealed, that all the world should see and acknow- ledge it. Another explanation is, that all should have the opportunity offered them of sharing in God's sal- vation. But there is nothing in the context which leads to the supposition, that all flesh is put with reference to the Gentiles, but rather that it means, all without distifiction ; as in Acts ii. 17, I will pour out of my Spi7'it upon all flesh ; i. e. all those whom the salvation concerned; who, in the present case, were the people of IsraeP\ S. Mark adds another quotation from the prophet- ical books, the last verse of the third chapter of Mala- chi ; a passage which is most strikingly predictive of the Baptist's mission, and, together with the prophecy of Isaiah, so clearly sets forth the preparatory nature of his work. There are, however, two points here which require notice. The first respects the manner in which the holy Evangelist introduces the quotation. In the Textus Receptus, indeed, we have, ms ye- •ypairrai ev toi<; irpocptJTai^ ; and Mill reads, ojs 7^'/* ^'^ 31 "OxjyeTai. nulla jam in?equalitate umbram in via retinente, omnibus partibus expositis luci. Bencfel. 28 THE MINISTRY OF Tw 7rpo(p/iTr]', neither of which is attended by any difficulty. But all recent editors prefer ojs yeypairTai €v 'Hrraia. tw Trpocpijrrj, as being the reading which has, by far the preponderating external evidence in its favour, and as being recommended by the very diffi- culty which accompanies it, introducing, as it does, words which clearly were not taken from Isaiah. The explanation of the matter seems to be, that the sacred Evangelist, having in view chiefly the prophecy of Isaiah, which was so currently quoted as Isaiah's (compare Matth. iii. 3 ; Luke iii. 4 ; John i. 23), and which he adduces as well, also specified the name of that prophet, and inserted, perhaps by an after- thought, the quotation from Malachi between the mention of Isaiah's name and the citation of Isaiah's words. The second point relates to the difference which obtains between his quotation and the words as they stand in the Hebrew and are rendered in the Septuagint. These concur in giving the words as follows : Behold I send My messenger, and he shall ■prepare the way before me^^. The difference, how- ever, does not affect the essential character of the thought : for, as we have already seen in considering the quotation from Isaiah, in the Messiah, who is re- presented in S. Mark's quotation as addressed by the Lord in the second person, the Lord Himself was coming to visit His people. It is very remarkable, that S. Matthew (xi. 10.) and S. Luke (vii. 27), re- 32 The Hebrew is: ^:i3S TriTn^si ^dnS-!: n':^^'" m-?. Ai T : I V V T . • T : - •• ... The Septuagint lias : IcoC e^aTroa-reWw rov ayjeXov /jlov ku\ eTri/]\e- \|/6Tai ocov irpo irpoa-ui'jrov fxov. S. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 29 cording the citation made of these Avords by our blessed Lord Himself as fulfilled in S. John Baptist, give them in precisely the same form as they are pre- sented by S. Mark. This concurrence in departing from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint, is to be explained in the same way as the similar phenomena just now noticed in respect to the quotation from Isaiah (p. 25 7iote). Matth. iii. 5, 6. Mark i. 5. The impression which the appearance of such a preacher, at a time when the Jews were so earnestly expecting the appearance of the Christ their promised Deliverer, produced upon the minds of the population, was immense. The in- habitants of the neighbouring country "went out into the wilderness" in vast multitudes, and were wrought upon by the solemnity and earnestness of his dis- courses to a most extraordinary degree. The examples which history gives us in other times, as in the middle ages, when the Crusades were preached, may help us to understand, in some degree, the effect now produced by the preaching of the holy Baptist. As in the middle ages, there was an appeal, not indeed, perhaps, made by the Prophet, but so taken by the multitudes, to deep and powerful worldly passions, as well as to the sentiments of conscience and religion. The prospect of the speedy appearance of the great Deliverer of their nation, kept back only by their sins, was calcu- lated to stimulate their minds to an apparent ardour of reformation, far exceeding what would be produced by the genuine impulses of conscience and piety. Ac- cordingly, the population seemed to have suddenly become devout. These great multitudes were all 30 THE MINISTRY OF baptized by John in the Jordan, penitently confessing their sins, and thankfully receiving the seal of Hea- venly forgiveness. As our Divine Lord afterwards intimated (Matth. xii. 43), the unclean S'pirit was gone out of that ivicked generation; but only, to return ; with sevenfold greater power. ^ Matth. iii. 7 — 9. Luke iiL 7, 8. The Pharisees and Sadducees, for the most part, kept aloof from the popular movement, and regarded the Man of God himself as an enthusiast or demoniac (Luke vii. 30, 33). What response, indeed, was the exhortation to repent of sin likely to find, either with the Pharisee, who prided himself on his holiness and delighted in the admiration of the people, or with the Sadducee, whose views and wishes were bounded by the present state of existence ? A considerable number, however, even of them joined with the general impulse. It is evident that they were insincere ; — more so than the multitudes around them, inasmuch as their insincerity was known to their own hearts. So far from being humble penitents, there rankled in their minds senti- ments of antipathy to the Divine message addressed to them, ready afterwards to break out into more overt hostility. This the Prophet, guided by the Holy Spirit, did not fail to detect and expose. Like his great Lord, who knew what was in man, (compare Matth. xii. 34 ; xxiii. 33), he upbraided them with their malignity and hypocrisy, and greeted them with the appellation of broods of viper s^^. 33 Tewtjijia does not, however, necessarily express more than one individual. S. JOUN THE BAPTIST. 31 It is observable that S. Matthew represents these words as addressed to those Pharisees and Sadducees whom he saw coming forward to offer themselves for baptism, whilst in S. Luke they appear addressed to the multitude at large. The explanation seems to be, that the former Evangelist wrote for Jewish Chris- tians, and was therefore more concerned to bring out distinctly into view such differences as were observa- ble among the Jews within themselves ; but S. Luke, writing for Gentile Christians, does not distinguish the persons more especially denounced from other Jews ; feeling, perhaps, that the nation generally was chargeable with just the same malignity; — which the history of the New Testament proves to have been the case. (1 Thess. ii. 15, 16). In the question which follows : ris v-n-eSei^ev vmlv (pvyeiu OTTO r^? fxeXXovcrtjs 6py^9 ; there IS a little diffi- culty. Calvin thinks that the Prophet, suspecting the reality of their repentance, asks, with doubt mingled with wonder, whether it could possibly be the case that they were heartily penitent. Maldonatus para- phrases it thus : who has taught you to come hither to seek a means of escaping future wrath, being vipers rather than men^^? An easier solution is gained by taking (pvyelu as escape, not ^ee, as in Matth. xxiii. 33, ocpei^ yewrmxaTa ey^tovcHv, ttws (pvyrjre {how are ye to escape) airo rrj^ Kpia-ew^ rrj? yeeuvr]s ; and ^ Thus S. Chrysostom. {Homil. xi. in Matth.) tI jdp yeyove, (prjaiv, oTi ■traltet; ovTet €Kelvwv Kai ovru) Tpa(p€VT£<; kuku)^, jxCTe- votjcrav ; irodei/ t] ToaavTt] yeyove /jLeraftoXr] ; tic to ■rpa'^v Tri<: yvw- firj^ vfJ.oat/ HarefxaXa^f • t('? Be tapdwae to aviuTov ; 32 THE MINISTRY OF by understanding the aorist infinitive, as in Luke ii. 26, y}v avTip K€-^pr]fxaTicr/xei'oi' ,aj) loeiP OdvaTov, 7'6V6(ll6d that he should not see death. So here : who hath pointed out to you that ye shall escape the coming wrath^^f The Pharisees and Sadducees sought bap- tism as the seal of their forgiveness, while yet, in consequence of their impenitence and malignity, they had no warrant to believe that they w ould be saved. The future wrath was, in part, the wrath which was, ere long, to fall upon the Jewish people (Luke xxi. 23) in their national overthrow, intimation of which had been given in the concluding words of the Old Testament, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse^ and which S. Paul (1 Thess. ii. 16) recognised as already beginning to manifest itself; but much more, that wrath to come, which S. Paul speaks of in the same Epistle (i. 10), of which the other was only the premonitory symbol ; — the condemnation of hell, denounced by our Divine Lord against these very parties (Matth. xxiii. 33). And yet, if he thus felt their case to be desperate, S. John Baptist felt that it was so only through their impenitence. If they would come to his baptism as penitents, the door of grace was yet open to them ; only they must demonstrate the sincerity of their re- 35 'Yirole'iKvvm is used with reference to the future, as in Siracli XLVI. 20. virelet^e ftacrtXeT tjji' TeXevrrii' avTov. It may be observed that (pvyeTv diro is a Hebraism, being constructed after the Hebrew )J2 n*l!2 '• ju^t as cItto is put in the New Testament after verbs of fearing and the Hke, in imitation of the Hebrew |^ 5^1*- S. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 33 pentance by a corresponding life : Bring forth, there- fore, fruits meet for repentance^^. And think not (Matth. ; begin not, Luke") to say within yourselves. We have Abraham for our father ; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. The besotted con- fidence which the Jews placed in their descent from Abraham, appears repeatedly in the New Testament ; as e. g. in Joh. viii. 33, 39, and in those passages in which S. Paul found it necessary to explain who were the true Israel to whom the blessings of the new economy belong, as Phil. iii. 2, 4, 5 ; Rom. ii. 29, &c. Wetstein quotes from several rabbinical authors very strong expressions of this confidence. Sanhedr. p. 90. 1. All Israel has a portion in the world to come. Beresh. R. 18. 7. b. In tlie futuTe life Abraham sits by the gates of Hell (gehenna), and suffers no circum- cised Israelite to go dovm there. In dissuading them from this false confidence, John points to the stones which lay around : " God will not endure the wicked ; rather than continue His favour to such as you, bound though He may be by His own promise to bless the descendants of Abraham, He will, as He can do, ^ noieri- Ka^TTDu'?, or KapTTov, is the Hebrew ^"iS) 'Pi^V- Comp. Matth. vii. 17, 18. In Acts xxvi. 20, we have the more purely Greek form a^ta Ttj^ fxCTauola^ epya 7rpaa-crovTa<;. ^^ Against that miserably superficial criticism of Kuinoel and others, which would make ap^rjade in S. Luke, and to^t^-re in S. Matthew, merely pleonastic or periphrastic, we may cite the paraphrase of the keen-sighted Calvin : " Nunc durius a me incre- piti, nolite facere quod vestri similes solent, nt scilicet remedium ex vano fallacique prsetextu captetis." H.E. 3 34 THE MINISTRY OF quicken these stones even, and adopt them into Abra- ham's family." The inspired preacher, as interpreted in the light of subsequent events, points clearly to the possible call of the Gentiles, who, for the Kingdom of God, were as dead as the very stones themselves (Ephes. ii. 1)^1 Matth. iii. 10. Luke iii. 9. And now also the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree, there- fore, which bring eth not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fre^^. The meaning of the holy Baptist is clearly this : God's judgements were pre- sently about to burst forth upon that people ; without respect to their descent, the Jews would be dealt with, and that too without any delay, according to their own merits. There is a similar use of the figure of the axe in Isaiah x. 33, 34. Compare also Matth. xv. 12, \^'\ '° Tii/e? fxev ovv (pacAv oti trep\ Ttjav eQvwv Tavra \eyei, \idov<; av- TOir? fX€Ta(popiKtS^ Ka\(aV iyw Be Ka\ eTcpav evvoiav to elprifxevov ^t]ix\ e^etv. TToiav Sr/ TavTr]v ; fxr] vofx'itj£Te, ^tjatv, oti eav J^eP? dTroXtjcrOe, ctTraioa iroirjcrCTe tov iraTpiapj^riv ovk ecTTi rauTa, ovk ecrrj. tw yap ©ew CvvaTOv Kai aivo Xlvwv avvpuyTrov; avTiJa dovvai^ koi eh Trjv crvyyev- eiav eKe'ivtjv dyayeTu. Thus S. Chrysostom (Homil. xi. in Matth.), with the tact and discretion so very observable in his commentaries. The expression eyeipai tekvu tw 'Aftpadfx is likewise Hebraistic. Cp. Gen. xxxviii. 8. Yr'^'? V^\ ^\?^\ 39 In the /;S>7 le Ka\ of S. Luke, the Ka\ follows Ce without fixing any stress upon the word immediately next to it, but expressing only the introduction of a new thought. Tliis usage is of fre- quent occurrence in S. Luke. De Wette refers to iii. 12, 14; viii. 36; xvi. 1 ; xviii. 1, 9, 15; xxiii. 38. In S. Matthew the Kai is here probably not genuine. It is wanting in B. C. D. M. ; and is omitted by Lachmann and Tischendorf as borrowed from S. Luke. On CKKOTTTeTai, Bengel remarks, Prcesens: sine mora. *'' Ouoei/ ydp to (xea-ov Xoiirov, . Chrys. ut supra. 3—2 36 THE MINISTRY OF Luke iii. 12, 13. S. Luke here particularises the baptism of publicans as a feature deserving of especial notice ; and not without evident reason. Li addition to the odium, which, as in any conquered country, would naturally attach to those among the Jews who discharged the lower offices in the collection of the taxes imposed by the Romans — the tax-gatherer being always unwelcome, and in this case especially hated, as joining with aliens in the oppression of his country — there mingled with civil and political hatred feel- ings of religious contempt also. Hence, in Matth. xviii. 17, Let him he unto thee as a heathen man and a 'publican. According to the Rabbins*^ a religious man who became a publican was to be driven out of religious society. In consequence, only Jews of no character would engage in such a calling; and it might be expected that there would be found amongst them very much dishonesty and oppression ; so that we need not wonder that publicans are so often classed with sinners. Now it is a remarkable feature in the holy Bap- tist's ministry, that with all the austerity which be- longed to his character, he was yet willing to receive and baptize these outcasts of the people, — the Pariahs of Judaism. His doing so was an indication of the presence with him of the same Divine Spirit which afterwards manifested itself in all its glory in the adorable Redeemer Himself. In both cases, the Divine stood in just the same relation of mutual antipathy *^ Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. et Talm. in Matth. xviii. I7, See Winer, Realwort. Art. ZoUner. Kitto's Cyclop. Art. Pnhlican. S. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 37 with the unreal sanctity and real hard-heartedness of Pharisaism, Hence they who rejected the Lord re- jected also His Forerunner. (Luke vii. 29, 30 ; xx. When the penitent Publicans (for in their case, as in that of other sinners, there appears to have been ranch reality in their profession of repentance, Matth xi. 12. Luke vii, 29. xxi. 32), asked in what way they should prove their sincerity, he referred to the duties of their own particular calling; requiring that in these they should adhere to the principles of equity : Eocact no more than is appointed you^^. In the same spirit he exhorts the soldiers, Bengel finely observes : Fructus intimge poenitentige in extimas vitae partes exit, neque speciosis sed civilibus et tamen bonis operibus constat. Luke iii. 14. The soldiers also asked him, And what shall we do f FATrrjpwTwi' aurov Kal cTTpaTCvd fj.€vot. As S. Luke often uses the word arpuTiwrai, there is something remarkable in the use of the participle in the present instance. It means : certain who were serving in the army^^. And this form of expression *2 This feature in S. John Baptist's ministry is brought to light only by S. Luke ; and indeed generally it is a fact which can hardly have been accidental, that in S. Matthew we find very much less concerning the position taken by our Lord towards Publicans and other Sinners of the Jews, than we do in S. Luke. Was the reason this, That these outcasts approximated so nearly in their supposed theocratical position to the heathen, for whom S. Luke wrote ? ^ Mf/oei/ irapd to ciaTeTayixevov v/xTi/ TrpucrcreTe. Ilapa after a comparative as in Hebrews i. 4, ^tacpopcoTepov Trap" avrov^ ; ii. 7, 9 ; iii. 3, ^laTerayixevov Vfxw, sc. irpaa-a-eiv. *•* For the verb, compare 1 Cor. ix. 7 ; 2 Tim. ii. 4. / 38 THE MINISTRY OF was probably chosen from the feeling that it was not generally thought becoming in a Jew, whether regarded as a patriot or as a member of a theocratic state, to serve in the army under the heathen Ro- mans. Those who did so lent themselves, like the Publicans, to the oppressors of their country, and were, most likely, men of bad moral character as well as of mean estimation. And this is probably the reason why S. Luke discriminates these, together with the Publicans, alone out of the multitudes whom the holy Prophet was baptizing. The Evangelist means hereby to illustrate the spirit of the Baptist's minis- try, and of the Dispensation, the approach of which he was sent to proclaim. — Of course, that ministry contemplated none but Jews; so that Roman or other heathen soldiers could not have been those of whom S. Luke is here speaking. S. John tells them not to employ their power as carrying arms, for purposes of extortion and oppres- sion, and to he content with their wages ;— mi answer, as has been already observed, given in the same spirit as that which dictated his reply to the Publicans*^ *' M»j6ei/a ^ia]re, koi apKeTaOe to?? d\|/-toi/(oi? vfxuv. Aiaa-e'ieti/, properly to shake thoroughly^ hence to frighten, and then hke conciitere in Latin, to extort money by intimi- dation. 3 Mace. vii. 21. uVo jxrihevo^ ^laa-eicrOevTe^ twi/ vrrap-^ovroiv^ robbed of their property. So eTravaa-eietv in Josephus, Antiq. xix, 1. 1 6. The origin of the a-vKoipdvTt]^ in the evasion of the custom-laws of Attica is well known. The verb avKocpai'TeTv Ttt/a, to play the 7 xWov €7rtow'(rei; 1 Cor. i. 13; Luke v. 34, and very often. HoTe, ever, adds to /xij a tone of surprise, q. d. can it ever, i. e. in anyway, he true ? Sometimes then jUfjVoTe may mean thus : can it he so ? hardly ! yet one wonders whether it is not ? i. e. it may be used, when we scarcely venture to assume a conclusion, which yet, without dar- ing to say so, we are almost disposed to assume. Thus in a direct question in John vii. 26, ntjvoTe dXtjdw^ eyvaaav ol ap-^ovre^ on ouTo<; ecTTJi/ o Xrxo-To? ; 40 THE MINISTRY OF the holy Baptist by the deputation from Jerusalem, leads to the same inference. Indeed, it was this un- certainty on the part of the people which led John to declare his own inferiority with so much emphasis. Appearing suddenly as he did with a Divine Com- mission, and announcing the Kingdom of Heaven as at hand, it is by no means surprising that the mul- titude should have eagerly caught at the surmise, that he might be the Christ Himself, seen as yet in the earliest form of His manifestation. In just the same way they afterwards flocked after several false Christs, who went out into the wilderness there to gather followers beyond the immediate reach of the Roman police. (Cf Matth. xxiv. 25). To do away with this false conception, which, so far as it went, would have counteracted the pur- pose of his mission, the Baptist declared in the most public and solemn manner, {aTreKp'tvaro anaai Xeytov^ Luke), 1 indeed baptize with water unto repentance ; but He is coming after me, Who is mightier than I, Whose shoe-latchet I am not iwrthy to unloose ; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. I indeed baptize you with water^\ The low esti- ^'^ S. Matthew has : 'Eyo) fxev /3a7rT<^w J/xa7 here is not exactly equivalent to to Zikoiov^ as Olshausen thought, but is rather the practice of what is right. But at all events, our Lord's using the term in the way He did showed that He regarded it as lUaiov that He should be baptized, and therefore irpeTrov that botli He Himself and John should concur in bringing about this result. THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD JESUS. 51 similarity of circumstances to constitute any action exemplary. Still less is it satisfactory to say, that He submitted to this rite merely in order that He might be marked out by the accompanying circumstances as the Christ. This end might have been attained without His being baptized. In endeavouring, with a full consciousness of our inability to fathom the depths of the Divine Councils, to attain some solution of this difficulty, so far as we can presume to investigate the subject, our minds will revert to the rite of circumcision, to which the Divine Jesus had been subjected when an infant. That was indeed, in some respects, different, particu- larly as being the rite of introduction into a national covenant. Yet it presents features of resemblance which seem to suggest a probable answer to our pre- sent enquiry. The Baptism of John was, among other things, significant, as we have seen, of initiation into an eco- nomy (so to speak) preparatory to that of the king- dom of God^. It was fitting, therefore, (we may reverently suppose), that the Divine Jesus should enter this preparatory economy as well as others ; since, though ministering therein as the Christ, He yet was to minister in a condition preparatory to that in which He was afterwards as the exalted Prince and Saviour to reign. At the same time it was so ordered, that while thus entering that economy with 2 In Neander's language : " das allgemeine Inaugurations-sym- bol fiir die anhrechende messianische Zeit." — Lehen Jesu, p. ^^. 4—2 52 THE BAPTISM OF others, He should enter it in a manner wliich suffi- ciently marked His own relation both to the economy itself and also to other men^. Neither was baptism, regarded as the symbol of purification, altogether irrelevant, even in the case of the holy Jesus. For though, in the case of men in general, it expressed the cleansing away of siii^, in which respect it was inapplicable to Him, being wholly without sin, yet, viewed in relation to His work, it had its propriety. Our blessed Lord had hitherto passed His Life amidst secular engagements ; (for, from the question of the Nazarenes, recorded Mark vi. 3, Is not this the carpenter f it is clear that He had Him- self carried on the business of His reputed father). He had thus, and in other ways as a fellow-inhabitant of the town, been mingled with the people of Naza- reth in the various engagements of social life — labour- ing, and selling and buying, and taking part in the offices and intercourse of neighbourhood. In short, He had been completely assimilated to His sinful bre- thren (except in their sins), — associated and blended with them. But now He was about to assume the 3 Nearly to this eflfect is the following observation of Lightfoot {Horce Hehr. Sfc. in Matth. iii. lo) : " Wlien by tlie institution of Christ those that entered into the profession of the Gospel were to be introduced by Baptism, it was just, yea necessary, that Christ, being to enter into the same profession and to preach it too, should be admitted by Baptism." He does not, however, in this state- ment discriminate sufficiently between the Baptism of John and that of the Christian Church. * And thus His submitting to it, and so " performing," as Bishop Taylor says, " the sacrament of sinners," was another instance of His coming ev ofxoiwfxaTi o-apKO? afxapT'ia<;, THE LORD JESUS. 53 Divine functions of the Lord's Christ ; if we may ven- ture thus to apply tlie language which S. Paul has used in reference to His actual death, He was to die unto sin, that He might live unto God (Rom. vi. 10). It therefore seems fitting that such a transition should be accompanied by His passing through a rite which so graphically expressed purification ; in which, in His instance, it was set forth, that He washed himself clean of worldly associations, and came forth pure and en- tire as the Christ of God. Thus, under the Law, the high priest, though he might be under no peculiar defilement, was yet required to wash his flesh in water before he put on those holy garments wherewith he was to enter behind the veil (Levit. xvi. 4). Neither, again, are we to overlook the relation which His baptism bears to the baptism of His Church ; — a relation which is expressed in that an- cient prayer retained in the Baptismal offices of the English Church, in these words : Almighty and ever- lasting God... who by the Baptism of thy well-beloved Son, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify Water to the mystical washing away of sin. The whole life of our Lord and its several steps were in truth sacramental ; giving a grace and consecration to all that appertains to our human existence, and filling it all with the presence of His love and holiness". ^ S. Ambrose {Expositio Evang. sec. Luc. in loc.) remarks : Baptizatus est ergo Dominus, non mundari volens, sed mundare aquas; ut ablutie per camem Christi quae peccatum non cognovit baptismatis jiis haberent. Calvin {Comment.): Specialis ratio adducta fuit 54 THE BAPTISM OF Such, then, we may humbly suppose, were the reasons which made it suitable that the Son of God should be baptized as well as sinful men. Let us now consider the details of the transaction. It is intimated, by the manner in which S. Luke (iii. 21) introduces the brief account which he gives of it, that there was no distinction made by its out- ward circumstances between the baptism of Christ and that of men in general. Such seems to be the meaning of his words : And it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also being bap- tized, and praying, heaven was opened^. The cir- cumstances which distinguished this from the baptism fuit quod communem nobiscum baptismum susceperit, ut certius sibi jjersuaderent fideles in ejus corpus sese inseri, et consepeliri cum eo baptismo ut in vitce novitatem resurgant. Ista enim generalis suscipiendi baptismi ratio fuit Christo, ut plenam obedientiam pree- staret Patri ; specialis autem ut baptismum consecraret in suo ipsius corpore, ut nobis communis cum eo esset. Bengal {Gnomon) : Non sibi baptizatus est Christus. Et Spiritum sanctum accepit, quo nos baptizaret. Job. i. 33. See also the second Introduction to the 3rd Chapter of S. Matthew in Otto von Gerlach's very useful edition of the German New Testament (Berlin. 1840). ** 'EyeveTO he ev tm (^aTTTKrQrjvai airavTa tov \a6v, kui 'Irjcrov f^aTTTKrOevToi koi nrpocrexj'yofxevov, dv€u>-)^6r]vai top ovpavov. The aorist tense of (iairTia-Qrivai does not express that tlie baptism of all the people preceded that of our Lord and was all over before He came, but simply, that at the same time that all the people were baptized, He was baptized likewise ; — i. e. there was no distinction made in point of time between His baptism and theirs. Hence S. Luke adds airavra. If he had meant, after they were all haptized, we might have expected him rather to say eVei — efiwn-r'KTdri. The present tense ftairTi^taOai, again, would have fixed the reader's attention more on the continuance of their baptism while His took ])lace ; whilst all the people tvere being baptized. THE LORD JESUS. 55 of the multitudes who flocked into the wilderness, were those which occurred after the ascent of our Lord from the water. It is plainly indicated by all the three Evangelists, that the Holy Spirit descended upon the blessed Jesus not till after His baptism. And in this we may likewise discern a fitness and propriety. The first part of the act of baptism, the dipping down beneath the stream, represents the negative, — the put- ting aside of the old man (Rom. vi. 4 ) ; in the second part, the rising up from the water, was exhibited the positive, — the coming forth of the neiv man. And it was upon the new man, the Jesus now dead to His former relations and connexions with the world, that the Holy Spirit was to descend, anointing Him to be the Christ'. It is particularly stated by S. Matthew (iii. IG) and S. Mark (i. 9, 10), that immediately after He had been baptized, He went up from the water. Upon being immersed by the holy Prophet, our Lord, know- ing what was to ensue, did not continue for any time in the water as others probably did', but immediately " Olshausen, Commentar, p. 173. ® Quod EutbjTnius scribit ideo Evangelistam dixisse Christum ab aqua ascendisse, ut, inter Christum Dominum et alios quid inter- esset, significaret : solitum quippe fuisse Joamiem cateros in Jor- dane collo tenus immersos manu capiti imposita detinere, donee pec- cata sua confiterentur ; Christum vero, quia peccatum quod confitere- tur non habebat statim ascendisse ; ab eo creditum ac dictum miror. Maldonatus. This interpretation of Euthymius is certainly hypo- thetical ; yet some may perhaps be at a loss to see why Maldonatus should have regarded it as so very strange. Maldouatiis's own explanation, at any rate, of a trajection of the adverb cvQv^ in 8. ^latthew, 56 THE BAPTISM OF ascended the banks of the river, and, no doubt, threw Himself into the attitude of prayer (for S. Luke par- ticularly adds that He was praying), thus to receive the Divine gift with that reverence and humility, which as a Man, and even as Son, He doubtless felt to be befitting^ And, behold ! the heavens were opened {dvewxOti- o-av) unto Hi7n, and He saw the Spirit of God descend- ing. Thus S. Matthew. S. Mark records thus : He saw the heavens rending asunder (o-^^t^o/uei^oi/?), (t.nd the Spirit descending. To these accounts we must add that given us by the Apostle John (i. 32 — 34) : And John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending ;... and I knew him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water. He said unto me. On whom- soever tho.u seest the Spirit descending. He it is that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit ; and I have see7i and have given my testimony, that this is the Son of God. From these accounts we learn, Jirst, that the Lord Jesus saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit de- scending ; for, in the text of S. Mark, we cannot possibly understand the subject of the verb saw as other than Jesus. Its being specified that He saw it, leads us to the inference that it was not seen by the Matthew, which he thinks properly belongs to ai/6w';^>;;(tou 67ri Tov luphdvrji/ iroTa^ov evda o lo}avvr]<; epwrrTi^e, KaTe\6ovTo<; tov lr]a-ov 67ri to v^cop, Koi irvp dvt](p6t] ev tco ^\opZavt}, kcli ai/aSJi/To? avTov OTTO TOV vdaTo i^ot even if we connect it closely with virea-Tpeypev^ as if it were vnea-Tpexp^ev Kui ijyeTo, equivalent to vTrea-Tpe^ev dyofxevo^. On the contrary the natural construction of the sentence requires us to join it with Treipatjifxevoation, whereby the properties of the one are infused into the other." Bishop Taylor {Life of Christ, Vol. ii. Hcber's Edition, p. 142) says, with reference to Luke ii. 52: " They that love to serve God in hard questions use to dispute whether Christ did truly, or in appearance only, increase in wisdom. For being personally united to the Word, and being the eternal Wisdom of the Father, it seemeth to them that a plenitude of wisdom was as natural to the whole per- son as to the Divine nature. But others, fixing their belief upon the words of the story, which equally afiirms Christ as properly to have increeised in favour icith God as tcith man, in icisdom as in stature, they apprehend no inconvenience in affirming it to belong to the verity of human nature, to have degrees of understanding as well as of other perfections ; and though the humanity of Christ made up the same person with the Divinity, yet they think the Divinity still to be free, even in those communications which were imparted to his 72 THE TEMPTATION OF ness, to be tempted hy the Demi. This likewise may be explained, first, objectively; again in the words of his inferior nature; and the Godhead might as well suspend the emanation of all the treasures of wisdom upon the himianity for a time, as he did the beatifical vision, which most certainly was not imparted in the interval of his sad and dolorous passion." There can be no doubt which was Bishop Taylor's own opinion. Bishop Pearson On the Greed (p. 252, Nichol's Edition). " And certainly if the Son of God would vouchsafe to take the frailty of our flesh, He would not omit the nobler part, our soul, without which He could not be Man. For Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature (Luke ii. 52) ; one in respect of His body, the other of His soul. Wisdom belongeth not to the flesh, nor can the know- ledge of God, which is infinite, increase ; He then, whose knowledge did improve together with His years, must have a subject proper for it, which was no other than a human soul. This was the seat of His finite understanding and directed will, distinct from the will of His Father, and consequently of His Divine nature ; as appeareth by that known submission : Not my tcill, hut thine, be dove (Luke xxii. 42)." Again (p. 253) : " If we should conceive such a mix- tion and confusion of substances, as to make an union of natures, we should be so far from acknowledging Him to be both God and Man, that thereby we should profess Him to be neither God nor Man, but a person of a nature as different from both, as all mixed bodies are distinct from each element which concurs unto their com- position." It would be easy to accumulate similar statements of Catholic doctrine from the most eminent teachers of the church, whether at home or abroad. But these will sufiice to point out the nature of that position, from wliich alone it is impossible to form any concep- tion whatever of the whole doctrine of the blessed Jesus's inspira- tion ; — a doctrine of which all the Gospels are full, and most of all the Gospel of John the GeoAoyo"?; — or to understand, in any degree, the fact of our Lord's Temptation in the wilderness. Perhaps some readers of Theology may resent the length to which this note has been carried, as altogether unnecessary. But it may be questioned, whether antagonism against degrading views of our Saviour's Person has not, in very many minds, produced a tendency towards sentiments which foimd their dogmatic statement in the teaching of Appollinaris. Though a vigorous maintainer of the THE LORD JESUS. 73 Calvin : Mihi iion dubiiim est, quin Deus in Filii sui persona, tanquam in clarissimo speculo, ostenderit, quam infestus et importuniis humane salutis adver- sarius sit Satan. — Simul notandum est, Filiiim Dei subiisse ultro tentationes de quibus nunc agitur, et cum Diabolo quasi conserta manu esse luctatum, ut sua victoria nobis triumphum acquireret. Thus also S. Ambrose : Plenus igitur Jesus Spiritu Sancto age- batur in desertum : consilio, ut diabolum provocaret ; nam nisi ille certasset, non mihi iste vicisset : mys- terio, ut Adam ilium de exsilio liberaret [ — this will be understood by what S. Ambrose says, § 7. In deserto Adam, in deserto Christus; sciebat enim ubi posset invenire damnatum, quem ad Paradisum resoluto errore revocaret — ] : exemplo ut ostenderet nobis Dia- bolum ad meliora tendentibus invidere ; et tunc magis esse cavendum, ne mysterii gratiam deserat mentis infirmitas. Expos. Ev. Sec. Luc. Lib, iv. §. 14. This objective purpose is likewise finely expressed by S. Augustin {In Psalm. Ix.) : Agnosce te in illo tentatum, et te in illo agnosce vincentem. But, further, if we consider the time at which this took place, — immediately after His inauguration into His Messianic Office, and before He came forth in the public discharge of that Office amongst men ; — and Nicene doctrine against the Arians, he fell under the just censure of the Church at the Council of Constantinople (a. d. 381 . Canon 7) for teaching, that while in our Lord's Person the o-w/xa and the \//ii^fj a\o7o?, the principle of animal life, were properly human, the 4'*'X'l '^oY"*'/'} vov<;, or wevixa, which in the trichotomical theory of human nature was the third part, was not human, but that its part was taken by the Divine \6yo^ or i/ou? 0e?o?. 74 THE TEMPTATION OF also the character of the temptations themselves, as they are recorded for us by the holy Evangelists, that is to say, that they were aimed to educe Him to a misuse of the powers with which He had been in- vested as the Christ of God, and not, in form or sub- ject-matter, to any of those sins which men in ordinary circumstances can commit^ ; and if we then observe that FULL OF THE HoLY Ghost^ He was led hy the Sjnrit into the wilderness, in order that he might be tempted hy the Devil in this particular way ; it hardly will seem a rash or unwarranted explanation, that subjectively, the temptation had a twofold purpose : — partly, more fully to develope to the human conscious- ness of our blessed Redeemer what the nature of His stupendous work on our behalf was to be, by vividly exhibiting the form into which the Evil One would fain have warped and perverted it ; and partly, lo arm His holy soul against those conflicts, of which His temptation was, as Bengel says, a specimen, and 3 I say in form or subject-matter ; for most fully must we concur in Bengel's observation : Tentatio haec specimen est totius cxinanitionis Cliristi ; omniumque tentationum, non solum mnialium sed spiritualium maxime, epitome, quas macliiiiatus est diabolus ab initio. This view the reader will find drawn out in detail by S. Cyprian in his Treatise, De Jejunio et Tentationihus Christi, and by S. Ambrose in his Exposition. In modern days, it will suffice to refer to Dr. Mill's Sermons preached at Cambridge in 1844, as Christian Advocate. ^ These expressions render in tlic highest degree improbable the notion put forward by Olshausen, that during these temptations there was a suspension of the Holy Spirit's influence on His soul, leaving It to Itself. On the contrary, the representation of the Evangelists is, that the blessed Redeemer was then most fully anned and, so to speak, secured against the Tempter's arts and power. T1]E LOHD JESUS. 75 which throuohout His earthly course were to be con- tinually reproduced in His path^ But how was our blessed Lord capable of being tempted ? On this difficult point I cannot do better than first quote the following judicious observations of Calvin : Hac lege factus est homo, ut afFectus nos- tros una cum carne susciperet. — Solutio difficilis non erit, si in mentem veniat, integram Ad^e naturam, quum adhuc pura illic fulgeret Dei imago, subjectam tamen fuisse tentationibus. Quotquot in homine sunt corporales afl:ectus, totidem illius tentandi occa- siones arripit Satan. Atque hsec merito censetur naturae humanse infirmitas, sensus moveri rebus objec- tis; sed qu?e per se vitiosa non esset, nisi accederet corruptio, qua fit ut nunquam adoriatur nos Satan, quin vulnus aliquod infligat, vel saltem aliqua punc- tione nos Isedat, Christum hac in parte naturae integ- ritas a nobis separavit, quanquam non media quaedam in eo conditio imaginanda est, qualis fuit in Adam, cui tantum datum fuerat, posse non peccare. Atqui scimus, ea Spiritus virtute munitum fuisse Christum, ut Satanae telis penetrabilis non esset. ^ The great objection to this view is, that it has not been pro- pounded (so far as I know) by any great teacher in the Catholic Church. It is therefore not without reluctance that I have stated it. Nevertheless, as it appears, in my humble judgment, to furnish the key for unlocking the true meaning of this great transaction viewed subjectively, and also to be in entire accordance with the Catholic doctrine of the entire Humanity as well as Godhead of our Lord, I beg leave to submit it to the judgment of others ; — being most willing that it should perish, if it can be justly regarded either as improbable in itself, or as a presumptuous prying into a subject too high and sacred for our investigations. 76 THE TEMPTATION OF This lucid exposition contemplates, however, only the inspired and holy Humanity of our Lord ; but how are we to connect the notion of His Tentability with that of the Incarnation ? Perhaps the following obser- vations of Olshausen bring us to the utmost limits to which we can press the enquiry. " The very idea of the Redeemer compels us to admit along with it the possibility of falling (parallel with the posse non pec- care of Adam), because without this possibility merit is inconceivable. Moreover all the consolation, which poor wretched man, striving with sin, derives from the thought, that the Redeemer Himself tasted the bit- terness of this conflict in all its forms (Hebr. ii. 17, 18), would be annihilated, if the objective possibility of falling were denied in the case of Christ. This pos- sibility, however, (we must allow) can only be under- stood as purely objective ; for so far as in the Person of Christ God became Man, so far we must ascribe to Him also the non jmsse peccare. This blending together of the possibility of falling and the necessity of being victorious over evil, is a mystery which is one with the very idea of the God-man^" As S. Chry- sostom has observed on another occasion : to e/c7^A^>- Tov eKeli'o rjv, to Qeov optu povKi^Qtjvai yeveaOai avOpcoirov' TO. ce aWa Xoiirov kutu Xoyov eTreroi airavTa. S. Matthew (iv. 2) and S. Luke (iv. 2) inform us, that for the space of forty days our Lord ate nothing. We are at once reminded of Elijah's preternatural " Commentar. Vol. i. p. 181. See Dr. Mill's second Sermon, in which he treats on the suhject of our Divine Lord's Tentahility, together with the notes. THE LORD JESUS. 77 fast (1 Kings xix. 8); and of the more strikingly analogous case of Moses, when he received the Law from God in the solitude of the mountain-top (Exod. xxxiv. 28). In each case, there seems to have been a miraculous state of communion with the invisible world, during the continuance of which there was a suspension of the ordinary corporeal sensations. " He continues in the wilderness," observes Bp. Taylor {Life of Christ, i. ad Sect. ix. 9), " forty days and forty nights, without meat or drink, attending to the im- mediate addresses and colloquies with God ; — His conversation being, in this interval, but a resemblance of angelical perfection, and His fasts not an instru- ment of mortification, for He needed none : He had contracted no stain from His own nor His parents' acts ; neither do we find that He was at all hungry or afflicted with His abstinence, till after the expi- ration of forty days. He was afterwards an-hungred, said the Evangelist. And His abstinence from meat might be a defecation of His faculties, and an oppor- tunity of prayer, but we are not sure it intended any- thing else." In this way, we can understand the emphasis with which both S. Matthew and S. Luke state, that it was not till after the expiration of the forty days that our Redeemer felt hunger". Bengel has noticed, that as forty days elapsed between the Baptism of our Lord and His coming "^ This would not be affected by the omission of va-repou from the text of S. Luke, if it be supposed to have been introduced by- transcribers from S. Matthew. It is stated to be wanting in MSS. B. D. L. 78 THE TEMPTATION OF forth to the world, so also forty days elapsed between His Resurrection, as if in preparation, and His Ascen- sion into heaven. S. Matthew (iv. 3) says that the Devil came to Him^. It seems to be utterly idle to conjecture in what form Satan appeared, or even to inquire whether he appeared at alP. It is enough that we may be certain both that his presence was real, and also that it was external to our Divine Lord. The Devil said unto Him, If thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become a loaf of hread (Luke iv. 3). Command that these stones become loaves of bread (Matth. iv. 3). Not that the speaker meant that Jesus was thus to verify llis claim to be the Son of God, and silence or satisfy the doubts which he, i.e. Satan, affected to entertain^"; nor that Q Tempus captavit Tentator. Eo videlicet anni tempore in deserto degebat Jesus, quo nox longior, ferarum rapacitas excitatior, tempestas inclementior, neque frugum aliqua vel in arboribus vel alicubi fuit copia. Bengeh I am not precisely aware on what date Bengel builds this determination of the season of the year, or why the Church celebrates the Baptism of our Lord at the Epiphany. But the hypothesis agrees with the circumstance, that our Lord appears to have gone up to celebrate the Passover at Jerusalem not long after He commenced His public ministry (John ii. 13); as it also explains more completely the apparent absence in the wilderness of any means of relieving hunger. ^ See on this subject Bp. Taylor's Life of Christ, i. ix. 7* ^° A view which (I venture to think) Dr. Mill makes too promi- nent in his paraphrase of Satan's words (Sermons, p. 70). So like- wise Bengel. Calvin justly argues from the tenor of our Lord's reply : Satanam recta aggressum fuisse Christi fidem, ut, ea extincta, Christum ad illicitos et perversos victus quairendi modos impellcret. Maldonatus agrees in the same exposition, paraphrasing Satan's words thus ; Quandoquidem Filius Dei cs, no famem patiare, sed THE LORD JESUS. 79 he openly sneered at His accepting such a title. The purport of the words is rather to seduce Him to mis- use the power which, as the Son of God, he allows Him to possess. The conjunction ^f (ei) does not here express doubt, but only logical connexion, as in the Greek of Matth. vi. 30; John vii. 23 ; xiii. 17,32. The omission of the article before v\6) oXmvtxevr] the Holy Land"", and then supposes that the sensuous prospect from some high hill, the Mons Quarantania to wit, over the countries belonging to Pilate, Herod Antipas, &c., was all that was intended. To speak of nothing fur- ther, the words in a point of time irrefragably refuse to be understood of any merely sensuous prospect. The paraphrase of Bp. Taylor, or something very '* 2)Ti7/u»7 is used in the Septuagint without j^povov to translate ynS in Isaiah xxix. 5. So also 2 Mace. ix. 11. 2" It appears to me that there is no passage in ■which the term can be shewn to have such a signification. Acts xi. 28, Xi/jlov fxeyav fxeXXeiv ecreadai €(p' oXtjv Tt]i/ oiKovfxevtjv, and Josephus, Antiq. viii. 13. 4, the king [^Ahab] sent Trepi Trao-ai/ Ttjv olKov/xevtjv tou? ^t]Tt'j(ToiiTa<; mov '!rpo(pt]Ttii> 'Hxiai;, are most especially relied upon for establish- ing this sense of the word ; but in them the word seems to be used in an indefinite and hyperbolical manner. The passage in Josephus is made clear by Obadiah's saying: As the Lord thy God Uveth, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee, 1 Kings xviii. 10. For the use of olKovjievri by S. Luke, see Acts xi. 28 ; xvii. 6 ; xix. 27 ; xxiv. 5. In ii. 1 of his Gospel, the reference immediately preceding, to Augustus the Emperor of the Orbis Terrarum, makes such a restricted interpretation of oiKov/jLevt] particularly unseasonable. THE LORD JESUS. 85 much like it, is absolutely demanded by the text of the narrative, " By an angelical power, he draws into one centre species and ideas from all the kingdoms and glories of the world {(paivo/meva ev tw aepi (pavTOL- ofxara aarara ovra Kal d^ej3aia), and makes an admirable map of beauties, and represents it to the eyes of Jesus." Luke iv. 6, 7. Matth. iv. 9. A?id the Devil said, Unto thee will I give all this power and the glory of them; for unto me it hath been delivered, and to whomsoever I will I give it; if therefore thou wilt do worship before me, it shall all be thine. Satan here openly avows himself, soliciting the homage (see 2 Cor. iv. 4, the god of this world) due to the true supreme God alone, and asserting the power to dis- pose of worldly dominion as he pleases. And yet he refers his power as world-lord {nocrixoKpaTCDp, Ephes. vi. 12) to a Divine appointment or permission ; for the words efxoL TrapaSeSorai SUppOSe 6 irapaSov^. If it be thought that this representation was not only false, but so inconsistent with itself, that Satan would never have ventured to seek to impose it upon any man; we may recollect, that all reasoning which persuades to sin, must ever be similarly self-inconsistent as well as false ; whilst, on the other hand, the fallacious view here given might be most speciously connected with actual facts. For while it is true that God is Supreme Ruler, experience also sadly illustrates the frequency with which ambition is made successful by crimes, i. e. by acts of virtual homage to the Devil. And we know also that there does exist a kingdom of Dark- ness, of which Satan is the king and head (John xii. 31. Ephes. ii. 2. 1 John v. 19). 80 THE TEMPTATION OF There might have appeared to our crafty Arch- enemy no great improbability in the expectation, that the enchanting vision which his spells had presented to our blessed Redeemer's Spirit, might prevail with Ilim so far as to beguile Him literally to render him the homage^' which he here requires. His experience of mankind would too sadly corroborate such a view. Only one act of worship ; and all should be His ! How often have visions of glory, far less vivid and near, hurried men forward into seas of crime ! Luke iv. 8. Matth. iv. 10 'I The Lord Jesus puts aside this solicitation likewise by the words of Holy Writ. He quotes the command, given in Deut. vi. 21 UpoaKvveTv is to kiss the hand (Herod, ii. 80) or the ground, in token of respect to any one. In the New Testament it is con- structed sometimes with e'l/wVioi/, as in Rev. xv. 4 (compare Gen, xxiii. 12, S ^^^7 nirintJ'n)? which is the construction here em- ployed by S. Luke ; sometimes, after the Classical form, with the accusative; but most commonly with the simple dative, as here in S. Matthew. In Luke iv. 7, for the Travra of the textus receptus all later critics prefer Tratra sc. i^ova-ia or hd^a, to which the avTi^v of the previous verse is to be referred. ^^ The words uVaye ottio-w /ioi/, "^.aTava, which in the textiis receptus of S. Luke preface the citation from the Old Testament, are not of certain authority. They are wanting in the MSS. B. D. L., and in the Syriac and Vulgate versions. They were possibly interpolated from S. Matthew. If genuine, they do not prove that this was the last of the three temptations ; for S. Luke evi- dently did not regard them as a final command to Satan to depart and leave our Lord ; since, in that case, he would not have arranged the temptations as he has done. They must be taken in S. Mat- thew, as well as in S. Luke, as an indignant bidding away of the Tempter in respect to that particular temptation. Compare Matth. xvi. 23. THE LORD JESUS. 87 13,^' and likewise in Deut. x. 20 : Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. The precept, to confine religious worship to God, was a direct answer to Satan's solicitation, and made compliance with it, for a devout mind, impossible. If we enquire into the bearing of this solicitation upon the work of the Lord Jesus, it would seem to have been intended to pourtray the fact, that power and kinglv authority in this world would only be gained by Him in the way of doing homage to Satan. By the conditions of His Kingdom, the acquisition of the sovereignty destined for the Christ, was to be the result of God's Spirit and God's truth acting as a leaven w^ithin the souls of men, and was not to be arrived at in this world by any force overwhelm- ing the opposition of enemies, and setting the crown upon His head by the exercise of merely physical power. Vast miraculous powers had been committed to Jesus. There consequently lay at every moment within His reach that royal and imperial sovereignty, which human nature is so apt to covet. If at any moment He had willed to break through the moral limits prescribed by His Father s will. He might have been the king of such an empire, as the most magnifi- cent dreams of worldly ambition have never pour- trayed. But such a step w^ould have been the renun- ciation of the supreme worship of God, and a submission to the rule of Satan ; and the whole soul of our Lord -3 Tlie Septuagint, however, in Deuteronomy has : Ki/piov rov Qcov (Tov (poftriOtjcrt] (Hebr. tij"!^^) «ot\ avria fxovM \aTpev/<; ->/? e7rje<»ce(0? ttciXii/ cItto twv jpacbwv avTtp diaXeycTai Xeywv ovk €K7r€tpd(rei<; K.vpiov tov Qeov (tov, irai- ccvuiv rjfxa