yourselves in his power, let your straits be ever so great. Have an eye to your pattern.

3. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

As if he had said, "Do this, or perish; for there is no bread to be had here in the wilderness without a miracle." The devil wished our Lord to forget by whose power he fasted forty days and forty nights.

4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Bread cannot support us without him, and he can as well support us without it. Christ would not distrust his Father, who had brought him into these straits, but left the time and manner of his relief to him.

5. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

By casting himself down, he would have made an unwarrantable, presumptuous trial of the will of God to keep him unhurt, and therefore would have gone beyond what is written.

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

By doubting of his power and goodness, and putting him upon any unnecessary proof of them. So the Israelites frequently tempted God; and we have the same distrust and unbelief lurking in our hearts, when we do not rest satisfied with the evidences we already have of his fatherly care

over us.

8. 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;

Satan could take him nowhere from himself. In every place he kept close to God.

9. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

This all was but the world; in Christ's eye, nothing. Let each one observe whether a very little of the world is not a dead weight upon the soul.

10. 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.

Now he calls him by his proper name, adversary, the hater of God and man. provocation and required a stout answer.

Satan, the grand
It was a horrid

"For it is written," not only in the book, but in the heart. There he had it written, and thence we must fetch it, to be our help in time of need.

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." As thy only and all-sufficient good, with all thy heart, mind, and soul, with all thy powers and affections, and with the utmost strength of them all. If the temptation is to serve our lusts, learn of Christ to say, "Get thee hence, Satan;" for he gains his ends, and draws us from the service of God as effectually by them, as if we fell down and worshipped him.

11. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

The scripture drove Satan away. You know how to be safe. We are upon a right ground, when " it is written," is a full answer to all temptations, and all objections.

God now sent him a supply for his hunger, and there

was comfort in it; for, "behold, angels came and ministered unto him."

12. Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

From the wilderness of Judæa, where he had been tempted. John's imprisonment was so far from discouraging him, that it was the signal for his entering upon action.

13. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

A place of great resort, and a populous part of the country. But there was a further reason for it, namely, to show us how a prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled.

14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

15. The land of Zabulou, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Let us believe it against the world, and against all the suggestions of our own hearts. Christ is a great light, and without it we are in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death. We have no light of our own to guide us into the knowledge and love of God, his pardon and peace here, or glory hereafter. And if this is not darkness, what is? Away with your vain excuses! Search the Scriptures, with prayer for a blessing. Christ's light is sweet now, is wanted by all, and freely offered to all; but it will be terrible to our souls, if we never see it till we come to be judged by it.

17. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

VOL. I.

"From that time, Jesus!" the great Preacher from heaven! He could not be mistaken in what he says. Be all attention. Begin with him, and follow him throughout this gospel. And may he be with us in the grace and power of his Spirit!

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." So Christ's forerunner, John Baptist, said; so Christ himself says; and so all his faithful ministers must and will say to the world's end. The kingdom of heaven, the grace and pardon of it, as they are not offered, so they cannot be welcome, to any but those who are so convinced of the deadly nature of sin, and of the reality of their own, as to long for deliverance from it. Have we no desire of Christ and his blessings, from a sense of our undone state? Let us talk no more of our baptism and christian name, our good deeds, or shining accomplishments; the kingdom of heaven is not yet come to us.

18. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers.

19. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

If they followed him, not else. He can make me so to you. The very words, if it pleases God, may catch you. Think for yourselves; think what they imply: if you are not caught in the net of the gospel, you perish. Are you in it ?-doubtless many of you think so ;-but ask yourselves why you think so, and whether you have been brought into it by the free consent of your wills? And this, with the help of God, may bring on a discovery of your state.

20. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

And so will I, says the awakened man, though with the loss of all; and I pray God stir me up to it effectually.

21. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren,

James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

22. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

The ready obedience of these two disciples, is an important lesson to all who hear the invitations of the gospel, to follow Christ without delay; and to leave all, in heart and affection, in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.-Ed.

23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

What Jesus taught was not confined to that time and place. Blessed be God, we have it here before us, and he is now present with us in his word and the power of his Spirit. He preached the way and means of being received into God's kingdom of grace here, and heaven hereafter. O! let Christ preach us into it. God forbid that death should find us out of it. We know that we must repent, upon the peril of our souls. But this is not the gospel,

If you should ask, What

or glad tidings of the kingdom. then? I answer, God's peace to perishing sinners, and love to us in Christ Jesus.

Christ healed all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease. Is not this the very person we want? We shall hear in this gospel of many of his miraculous cures : but to what end, if they do not convince us of his power and will to heal us, and bring us to him for help in our own case? Let not, therefore, any be deceived. All are by nature sick of a deadly distemper. Sin is a worse plague than any that can befall the body; and the removal of that was the great business for which the Son of God came into the world.

24. And his faine went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those