ARTICLE V.

THE TEMPTATION.

BY REV. LEMUEL S. POTWIN, NORTH GREENWICH, CONN.

"THOU hast had much to say of Paradise lost," said Thomas Ellwood to Milton, "but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?" The poet soon found something to say. The title of his poem was "Paradise Regained," but his real theme was the Temptation of Christ.

"I, who erewhile the happy garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience, fully tried
Through all temptation, and the tempter foiled

In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,

And Eden raised in the waste wilderness."- Bk. I.

According to this poem the primary design of Satan was to ascertain whether Jesus was in a pre-eminent sense the Son of God:

"Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born, —

-

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt:
Of the Messiah I had heard, foretold
By all the prophets; of thy birth, at length
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,
And of the angelic, song, in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till, at the ford of Jordan, whither all
Flock to the Baptist, I, among the rest

(Though not to be baptized), by voice from heaven,
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art called
The Son of God, which bears no single sense:

The Son of God I also am, or was;

And if I was, I am — relation stands :

All men are sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declared;

Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,

And followed thee still on to this waste wild."— Bk. IV.

To accomplish his object Satan subjects Jesus to a twofold series of tests, the one designed to try his human virtue, the other to try his absolute divinity. In the first temptation, unable to learn his divinity (the miracle of turning stones to bread being declined), the tempter assails the appetite of Jesus with "pompous delicacies":

"Alas, how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!"

He then tempts him with the offer of riches:

"Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap;
Not difficult, if thou hearken to me."

Then he tries to awaken a love of glory:

"Think not so slight of glory; therein least
Resembling thy great Father."

Thus, in the view of the poet, the first temptation exhausted the power of Satan to lead Jesus into self-indulgence. The second temptation (following the order of Luke) has regard to the future kingdom. Satan urges Jesus to commence to reign immediately :

"Think'st thou to regain

Thy right by sitting still, or thus retiring?"

Then, showing him all the kingdoms of the world, he advises him to attempt a martial kingdom, like the Parthians, commencing with an alliance with them:

"It shall be my task

To render thee the Parthian at dispose."

Then he recommends a kingdom of outward magnificence and luxury, and promises to secure to him the Roman throne.

Finally he recommends a life of study and and contemplation and special devotion to heathen lore, as fitting him for the highest kingdom:

"These rules will render thee a king complete

Within thyself, much more with empire joined."

The price at which Satan holds his assistance in establishing the kingdom is, that Jesus shall render him homage. The indignant rejection of his offer leaves him still in doubt as to Jesus's higher nature; but he has found him, by this and the previous trial,

To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,—

Not more."

The third trial was to settle the question of his divinity:

"Therefore to know what more thou art than man

Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven,
Another method I must now begin."

This method was to place Jesus on the highest pinnacle of the temple where he could not stand without a miracle: "Now show thy progeny; if not to stand,

Cast thyself down; safely, if Son of God."

Jesus stood safely, and Satan, convinced of his divinity, abandons the temptation.

Had Jesus turned the stones into bread at the outset, it would seem that the temptation must then have ended; for the miracle which the poet imagines on the pinnacle of the temple was not more decisive. But it was the design of God that Jesus' absolute deity should not be at once. revealed to the tempter, that he might be emboldened to try his utmost power, and thus experience a heavier defeat. Satan must be vanquished, not by a mere miracle, but first by moral forces - by the power of a perfect human character. Thus Jesus, in his entire nature, becomes the "Queller of Satan."

"Hail, Son of the Most High! heir of both worlds!
Queller of Satan! on thy glorious work

Now enter, and begin to save mankind.

The theory of the temptation given by the great poet of theology, though we cannot justify its wanderings from the evangelic narrative, is worthy of high regard, from the sublime prominence which it gives, in the system of redemption, to the great trial of the Second Adam.

Let us present briefly a few other opinions, before we examine the narrative itself. In the enumeration of the temptations, the order of Matthew is observed, except in the quotation from Ellicott, who, with Milton, follows the order of Luke, and places the temptation of the "pinnacle" last. Neander (in "Life of Christ") says on the first temptation and our Lord's answer: "The principle involved in the reply [Man shall not live by bread alone, etc.] was, that he had no wish to free himself from the sense of human weakness and dependence; that he would work no miracle for that purpose."

On the second he says: "These words [Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God] involve the principle that a miracle may not be wrought except for wise ends and with adequate motives; never with no other aim than to display the power of working wonders."

On the third: "Herein was the temptation, that the Messiah should not develop his kingdom gradually and in its pure spirituality from within, but should establish it at once as an outward dominion; and that, although this will not be accomplished without the use of an evil agency, the end would justify the means."

Of the temptation as a whole he says: "The whole temptation taken together presents us one idea; a contrast, namely, between the founding of God's kingdom as pure, spiritual, and tried by many forms of self-denial, in the slow development ordained for it by its head; and the sudden establishment of that kingdom before men as visible and earthly."

Olshausen characterizes each temptation thus: "The point of the first temptation is very justly regarded to lie in the thought of employing the higher powers bestowed. upon him for satisfying his own wants."

"The point of the second temptation lies in the thought of parading the gift of working miracles."

"In this last temptation proud lust of dominion appears to be the point."

Ellicott finds in the three temptations "three spiritual assaults, directed against the three portions of our composite nature. To the body is presented the temptation of satisfying its wants by a display of power, which would have tacitly abjured its dependence on the Father and its perfect submission to his heavenly will. To the soul, the longing appetitive soul, was addressed the temptation of Messianic dominion over all the kingdoms of the world, and of accomplishing in a moment of time all for which the incense of the one sacrifice on Calvary is still rising up on the altar of God. To the spirit, the temptation of using that power which belonged to him as God to vindicate his own eternal nature, and to display by one dazzling miracle the true relation in which Jesus of Nazareth stood to men and to angels and to God."

If we add to the foregoing the remark of Alford on the second temptation, that it was "one not of ambition, but of presumption," we shall have before us the principal opinions as to the nature of our Lord's temptation.

It will be seen that the first opinion makes especially prominent the desire of Satan

"To understand [his] adversary, who

And what he is."

The second emphasizes the relation of the temptation to the future kingdom.

The others emphasize the effort to corrupt Jesus, by leading him to adopt wrong principles of action.

In other words, the prominent thought in Milton is the conflict itself with Satan; with Neander, it is the right development of God's kingdom; with the others, the rectitude of the Redeemer. With the poet it is a question of championship; with the church historian, a question of the principles of redemption; with the others, more a question of personal principles.