Thou dash not Thy foot against a stone."

And we shall see

nothing can be spoken more comfortable; as first, in that it

is said, that "the Angels have charge over us in all our ways." "Behold, I send My Angel before thee, to guide thee in the Ex. 23. 20. way;" and to comfort, and confirm us (as when Jacob was

in fear of his brother Esau, the Angels "met him") and to Gen. 32. 1. defend us in all dangers, and succour us in all necessities,

spreading their wings over us, and pitching their tents Ps. 34. 7. about us.

Secondly, this charge not only concerneth our head and

principal members, but also our feet; yea, God's providence reacheth even to "the hairs of our head," for they "are Mat. 10.30. numbered."

Thirdly, this charge of theirs is not only to admonish us when danger cometh, but they are actually to help us, as it were putting their hands between the ground and us. They shall take the rubs and offences out of the

way.

Fourthly, this do they not of courtesy, as being creatures given by nature to love mankind; but by special mandate and charge they are bound to it, and have a Præcipe for it, yea, the very beasts and stones shall be in league with us.

This Psalm, and these verses, containing such comfort, hath the devil culled to persuade men, that being such sweet children of God they may venture whither and upon what they will; for the Angels attend them at an inch. He bids. them put the matter in adventure, and then but whistle for an Angel, and they will come at first. He carrieth them up to the top of the pinnacle, and shews them their own case in Annas and Herod, and tells them God will require no more of them than He did at their hands; and all the way as they go up, he singeth them a Psalm of the mercies of God; he carrieth them up with a song, that "God's mercy is above Ps. 145. 9. all His works." And with Psalm the one hundred and third, [Ps. 103. 8, 10.] and eighth verse, "How gracious and long-suffering God is, Who rewardeth us not according to our deserts;" and Psalm the one hundred and thirty-sixth, "That His mercy endureth [Ps. 136. for ever." God therefore, being so full of mercy, will take all passim ] things in good part. But this mercy the devil tells them of, differeth from the mercy David meant. speaketh of, is coupled with judgment.

For the mercy David.

"I will sing mercy Ps. 101. 1.

IV.

Ps. 85. 10.

SERM. and judgment to Thee, O Lord;" and, "Mercy and truth are met together, justice and peace have kissed each other." Thus, I say, they shall have music all the way, and if any at the height think it a great way down, No, saith the devil, you need but a jump from your baptism into heaven, you shall need no stairs at all.

SEVEN SERMONS

UPON THE

TEMPTATION OF CHRIST IN THE

WILDERNESS.

SERMON V.

MATTHEW iv. 7.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

[Ait illi Jesus, Rursum scriptum est, Non tentabis Dominum Deum tuum. Lat. Vulg.]

[Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Eng. Trans.]

12.

CONSIDERING that St. James saith, "The Scripture speaketh Jas. 4. 5. nothing in vain," and that as our Saviour Christ saith, "No Joh.10.35. Scripture can be disappointed," it may seem strange that the devil coming armed with "the sword of the Spirit”—for so Eph. 6. 17. is the word of God termed-Christ gives not place, but opposeth Himself to answer. We see that a message coming in the name of the Lord, this very name abashed Nehemias at Neh. 6.10, the first hearing, till he perceived it was contrary to the law of God, and so came not from Him. Which here we see to be the cause, why Christ doth not yield by and by upon the hearing of the word, but sets Himself to make answer; forsomuch as the word is not of force quia dicitur only, but quia creditur, as Augustine noteth. If there be not the mixture of "faith" with it, whereof Paul speaketh, it is nothing worth. Heb. 4. 2. And therefore the bad spirit was nothing abashed or daunted at the hearing of the bare names of Jesus and Paul, but an

SERM. swered, "I know them, but who are ye?" They did not V. believe, and therefore could do them no good, but were wounded themselves; glorious names would not serve the So was it here used without faith.

Acts 19.15.

turn.

When the Scripture is here urged against one, a man would think it were not to be answered by citing another place of Mark 7. 3. Scripture, but by some "tradition of the elders," or some gloss or other shift: but we see our Saviour answereth here, no way but by Scripture.

Because the wolf comes sometimes disguised in a sheep's skin, it is no reason that therefore the very sheep should lay away their fleeces. So here, because the devil useth the word 2 Cor. 3. 6. as "the slaying letter," or as the sword to kill men with, it is no reason why Christ may not therefore use it in His own defence. Why then, will some say, one of these two inconveniences will follow, that hereby we shall think the Scripture is of the devil's side, as well as of Christ's side, and so divided; as in like sort

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1 Cor. 1. they make a division of Christ, when one holds with Paul, another with Apollos. No, it is not so, Christ allegeth not this Scripture in that sort, as one nail to drive out another; but by way of harmony and exposition, that the one may make plain the meaning of the other. For, albeit the devil sheweth himself to be the devil in citing that text so as might best serve for his purpose, in that whereas the Psalm whereout he taketh it hath it thus, "That He might keep Him in all His ways;" which words he leaveth out. For if he had cited that, he could not thereby have enforced any casting down. For the Angels have no charge over a man, but in his ways; and from the top of the pinnacle there was no way, but down the stairs on his feet. He was not, relying on the Angels, to cast himself down with his head forward. But the devil hath a wrest to make the string sound high or low as he list; or if that will not serve, he hath a rack to stretch them out, as some did St. Paul's Epistles. He can set them on the tenters, to prove that down the stairs or over the battlements all is one, the Angels shall safeguard him.

2 Pet. 3. 16.

Though this, I say, be the devil's corruption, which the late writers have well spied, yet Christ we see is not willing to take advantage of that, but useth a wiser course (for so are we to think that He went the best way to work) that is, the

conference of Scripture with Scripture, which Christ here practiseth, and commendeth unto us.

In every art all propositions are not of a like certainty, but some be grounds and principles so certain as that no exception is to be taken against them. From them are others derived by a consequence called deduction, not so certain as the other from these again others, to the twentieth hand. So is it in divinity. Christ here reduceth the devil's argument and place to a place most plain to be confessed. For the Jews, valuing of the means, had to consider that God "fed them with manna which they knew not," to teach them that "Man liveth not by bread only," contemning the same; and Deu. §. 3. in Deuteronomy the sixth chapter and sixteenth verse bade them, "they should not tempt the Lord their God, as in Massah," when they cried for bread. The Lord curseth him Jer. 17. 5. that "maketh flesh his arm, and withdraweth his heart from God." They "sacrificed unto their yarn, because their portion Habak. 1. was plentiful." Job condemneth the making "gold our hope,” or "the wedge of gold our confidence." As then we must not Job 31. 24. deify the means, attributing all-sufficiency to them, so we may not nullify them and think too basely of them, but use them that we tempt not God according to His word.

Out of these two grounds may every question be resolved, for every proposition must be proved out of the ground. So that, as we may not think the arm of God to be so shortened that He cannot help without means, so are we not to think basely of God for ordaining means.

Secondly, we heard that the devil's allegation was taken out of the Psalm, and one of the most comfortable places of all the Psalm. Christ, by not standing in disputation about the words and meaning of the text, commendeth to us the safest and wisest way to make answer in such like cases. Our Saviour would warn us, that the ninety-first Psalm is not fit matter for us to study on when we are on the top of the pinnacle; He therefore chooseth a place of a contrary kind, to counterpoise Himself standing in that fickle place.

The Law, we know, is a great cooler to presumption. If one tamper much with the Psalms, being in case of confidence, he may make the fire too big. Faith is the fire which Christ came to put on the earth, and it is seated between two

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