e not
things offered to the imagination, but that the body did verily remain
in the wilderness among beasts, and after forty days did hunger and
faint for lack of food; so the external ear did hear the tempting words
of Satan, which entered into the knowledge of the soul, and which,
repelling the venom of such temptations, caused the tongue to speak and
confute Satan, to our unspeakable comfort and consolation. It appears
also that the body of Christ Jesus was carried by Satan from the
wilderness unto the temple of Jerusalem, and that it was placed upon
the pinnacle of the same temple, from whence it was carried to a high
mountain and there tempted. If any man can show to the contrary hereof
by the plain Scriptures of God, with all submission and thanksgiving I
will prefer his judgment to my own; but if the matter stand only in
probability and opinion of men, then it is lawful for me to believe as
the Scripture here speaks; that is, that Satan spake and Christ
answered, and Satan took Him and carried Him from one place to another.
Besides the evidence of the text affirming that Satan was permitted to
carry the body of Christ from place to place, and yet was not permitted
to execute any further tyranny against it, is most singular comfort to
such as are afflicted or troubled in body or spirit. The weak and feeble
conscience of man under such temptations, commonly gathers and collects
a false consequence. For man reasons thus: The body or the spirit is
vexed by assaults and temptations of Satan, and he troubles or molests
it, therefore God is angry with it, and takes no care of it. I answer,
tribulations or grievous vexations of body or of mind are never signs of
God's displeasure against the sufferer, neither yet does it follow that
God has cast away the care of His creatures because He permits them to
be molested and vexed for a time. For if any sort of tribulation were
the infallible sign of God's displeasure, then should we condemn the
best beloved children of God. But of this we may speak hereafter. Now to
the temptation.

Verse 2. "And when he fasteth forty days and forty nights, He was
afterwards an hungered." Verse 3. 'Then came to Him the tempter,' and
said, 'If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread,' etc. Why Christ fasted forty days and would not exceed the same,
without sense and feeling of hunger, is before touched upon, that is, He
would provoke the devil to battle by the wilderness