In  this  wild  anddreary  situation  the  great  Redeem-
er, as  Moses  and  Elijah  had  done  before  him,
fasted  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  maintained  an
incessant  communion  with  his  heavenly  Father,
digested  the  doctrine  he  was  about  to  deliver,
and  the  obedience  he  came  to  perform;  and  by  a
total  abstinence  from  food  for  forty  days  and
forty  nights,  evinced  the  divinity  of  his  mission ;
or,  in  other  words,  proved  that  he  was  a  teacher
from  God.  But  the  melancholy  solitude  of  a  de-
sert, and  the  extremes  of  hunger  and  thirst,  were
but  a  small  part  of  our  Saviour's  sufferings  in  the
wilderness  :  Satan,  that  implacable  foe  to  man-
kind, was  permitted  to  buffet  him  with  the  most
insinuating  wiles,  and  assail  him  with  the  most
alluring  temptations,  in  order  to  attempt  the  de-
feat of  Heaven's  most  gracious  designs,  and  keep
mankind  under  the  dreadful  dominion  of  sin  and
death.
The  enemies  of  revelation  have  not  failed  to  re-
present this  event  in  a  most  ludicrous  manner :  if
any,  therefore,  should  demand  why  God  per-
mitted his  only  Son,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  to  be
tempted  by  the  devil,  whose  power  was  deemed
to  be  restrained,  we  reply  as  follows: — One  cause
of  the  Redeemer's  being  suffered  to  be  tempted


26

was,  that  he,  being  personally  acquainted  with
the  wiles  of  Satan,  might  become  a  faithful  and
compassionate  high  priest,  know  how  to  succour
Kis  people  in  time  of  adversity,  and  pity  them
when  they  fell  into   temptations.
