and long abstinence,
but He would not usurp or arrogate any more to Himself in that case than
God had wrought with others, His servants and messengers before. But
Christ Jesus (as St. Augustine more amply declares), without feeling of
hunger, might have endured the whole year, or to time without end, as
well as He did endure the space of forty days. For the nature of mankind
was sustained those forty days by the invisible power of God, which is
at all times of equal power. But Christ, willing to offer further
occasion to Satan to proceed in tempting of Him, permitted the human
nature to crave earnestly that which it lacked, that is to say,
refreshing of meat; which Satan perceiving took occasion, as before, to
tempt and assault. Some judge that Satan tempted Christ to gluttony, but
this appears little to agree with the purpose of the Holy Ghost; who
shows us this history to let us understand that Satan never ceases to
oppugn the children of God, but continually, by one mean or other,
drives or provokes them to some wicked opinions of their God; and to
have them desire stones to be converted into bread, or to desire hunger
to be satisfied, has never been sin, nor yet a wicked opinion of God.
And therefore I doubt not but the temptation was more spiritual, more
subtle, and more dangerous. Satan had respect to the voice of God, which
had pronounced Christ to be His well-beloved Son, etc. Against this
voice he fights, as his nature is ever to do against the assured and
immutable Word of God; for such is his malice against God, and against
His chosen children, that where and to whom God pronounces love and
mercy, to these he threatens displeasures and damnation; and where God
threatens death, there is he bold to pronounce life; and for this course
is Satan called a liar from the beginning. And so the purpose of Satan
was to drive Christ into desperation, that he should not believe the
former voice of God His Father; which appears to be the meaning of this
temptation: "Thou hast heard," would Satan say, "a voice proclaimed in
the air, that Thou wast the beloved Son of God, in whom His soul was
pleased; but mayst Thou not be judged more than mad, and weaker than the
brainless fool if Thou believest any such promise? Where are the signs
of His love? Art Thou not cast out from comfort of all creatures? Thou
art in worse case than the brute beasts, for every day they hunt for
their prey, and the earth produces grass and herbs for t