Commentary on Matthew 4:1-11, Sermon 2
CHRISTS First Temptation to DESPAIRE. SERMON II.
MATTH. 4.2.
And when he had fasted fourty days and fourty nights, he was afterwards an hungry.
IT was the constant practice of our Saviour, after some eminent act was performed by him, or extraordinary honour conferred on him, presently to cloud himself in obscurity. He had in such cases, three general retreating places. 1. A Mountaine. 2. A Ship. 3. A wilderness. When he had fed five thousand with five loaves, Mat. 14.23. he went up into a mountain alone to pray. When he had fed four thousand with seven loaves, Mat. 15.39. then he sent away the multitude and took ship. When he had raised Lazarus to life, Ioh. 9.54. he went thence into a country neer to the wilderness. If importunate popularity would press after Christ, it should clamber up a Mountaine with paines, or saile on the Sea with peril, or seek him in a Wilderness with difficulty.
How contrary is this to the practice of most men! when they have done any thing which they conceive fine and gallant, above the standard of ordinary men, then they love to appear in publike, and present themselves to the view of others.
As to eclipse himself was Christ's custome, when any eminent act was done by him; the same was his practice when any extraordinary honor was conferred on him: thus lately dignified to the eys & ears of the beholders with a sight and voice from heaven, he pr…sen…ly retreated into the wilderness, Where when he had fasted fourty dayes and fourty nights, he was afterward an hungry.
The words containe the through-fast of Christ.
Wherein observe,
1. The depth thereof, a total abstinence: Luke saith he eat nothing. Some criticks will carp hereat, How could a negative terminate an act? But the meaning thereof is this; he eat not at all.
2. The bredth thereof; he fasted Daies and nights: hence we gather Christ watched all night; otherwise it is senseless to say those fast that sleep, seeing none can eat and sleep together. And no wonder if Christ watched by night, being to do with the Divel, who, R…v. 12.10. accuseth us before God day and night.
3. The length of his fasting, fourty dayes and nights, in imitation of Moses and Elias fasting as long; the one at the institution, the other at the restitution of the Law, as Christ at the beginning of the Gospel.
Four principal Reasons may be assigned of Christs fasting.
First, Because he was in a solitary place, where no food was afforded.
Secondly, Because as Adam began mans ruine with eating, Christ would begin mans repairing with abstinence. Physitians commonly cure by the contraries, and prescribe fasting to surfets.
Thirdly, Because Christ was immediately to begin his Ministery; and fasting was the solemn initiation into that Office. Thus when Paul and Barnabas were separated for the work of preaching, Then fasted they, and prayed, and laid their hands on them, and let them go, Act. 13.3. And I understand, so much the Presbyters retaine of the primitive customs, That they observe a fast on their day of ordination of Ministers.
Fourthly, Because Christ was to cope with and encounter one of the subtillest, sullenest, and stubbornest of all devils; Whereof there is a kinde, Matth. 17.21. A kinde that goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.
Whether is the Popish Lent fitly founded on the imitation of Christs fasting forty days?Quest.
No:Answ. Christs actions as God, and as God-man (such was this his fasting) are for our instruction, not imitation; only his example as meer man, must be followed by us: Thus, Mat. 11.29. Learn of me (not to still the winds and waves with a Word, not to cure diseases and cast out devils, not to fast forty days, but) to be meek and lowly in heart.
2. Christs fast was a total abstinence from meat; The Popish Lent is only an Exchange of the shambles for the fish-market; They abstaine from flesh, and feed on fish; which fish is also termed flesh in the Language of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15.37. Another flesh of fishes. And be it reported to palate-men, whether such fishes which approximate most unto a carneous matter, be not more pro…ocative to wantonness then flesh it self.
3. Christ's fasting was done in all humility, whilst the proud opinion of Merit is annexed to their Lent: which Lent how it first came and afterward encreased, is worth our observation.
First, The Primitive Church kept but one day in commemoration of Christs fasting.
Secondly, The Montanists, being hereticks, first mounted it to full fourteen dayes fast.
Thirdly, The Orthodox Christians (disdaining that they should out-do them in point of abstinence) brought it up to fourty dayes.
Fourthly, the Clergy afterwards, to reach a note above the rest, hightned it to fifty dayes.
Fifthly, The Monks, to have a querk above their fellows, swelled it to sixty.
Sixthly, The Fryers, to appear above all, made it seventy.
Lastly, there was a designe of some to make it eighty, (such would not follow Christs example, but out-run him) had not the Pope in policie retrenched them, and fixed it on fourty days.
However, though the Popish Lent be not justly founded on Christs example, yet on this occasion we may naturally raise this Doctrine;
Christians ought to set aside some seasons for Fasting.Doct.
Physicians, by rules of Health, will perswade a natural fast: Politicians, by reasons from Wealth, a civil fast: Divines, by arguments from Piety, a religious fast. And if a threefold cable will not hold you, what will prevail on your practice?
First, the Physician. Tell me, ye Londoners, since Suppers have generally been disused in this City, I mean with such whose work onelyonly is to over-see, (otherwise the hard labourer is worthy as of his hire, so of his supper) cannot you ride as fast, run as far? Are not your faces as clear, your feet as strong, your whole body as able and active for all purposes and intents, as ever before?
Secondly, the Politician. Consider the situation of our Country: Zebulun's blessing agreeth unto it; It is a haven for ships. Mariners and Fisher-men must be maintained as well as others. Indeed, one Scripture saith, The earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof: but another saith also, The sea is his, and he made it; and we may and must feed on what it affords. Besides, Statists by such Fasts preserve the stock of Flesh. By the Levitical Law, in a birds nest the young ones were not to be killed with the dam: But, should not some such Fasts be seasonably observed in England, Pigs would be killed with Swine; Calves with Kine; Lambs with Sheep; the new Store destroyed with the old Stock; to the great loss of the Commonwealth.
Thirdly, The Divine perswades a religious Fast; that men with S. Paul, 1 Cor. 9.27. may beat their bodies down, and keep them in subjection; that so the body being subject to the soul, soul and body may the better be subject unto God in religious duties.
But in the great variety of Ages, Climates, and Constitutions, it is impossible to give Rules how long men should fast. Take this general Direction: So diet the Steed, that it may neither kick and cast the Rider, nor tire under him in going his journey. Rom. 13.14, Take no thought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof; but take order to fulfil the labour thereof.
Now let thy Fasting have these three Qualities;
Sincerity, Humility, and Moderation.
1. Sincerity,
It is a Mock-fast, to abstain from Meat, and not from Sin; to scruple the eating of a crust, and in the mean time (Psal. 14.4.) by oppression to eat up Gods people as if they were bread: Arrant hypocrisie, to be squeamish to swallow a crum, and in the mean time to devour widows houses: Not to taste a drop of wine, and yet in the mean time (Rev. 17.2.) to be drunk with the wine of fornication.
Secondly, Humility; otherwise Popish superstitious Fasts are good onelyonly to fill the bowels with winde, and the heart with pride.
Lastly, Moderation. This (will some say) might well be spared; seeing you have seen amongst Protestants as few fair faces spoiled with over-much Fasting, as silk Stockings worn out at the knees with Praying.
I confess the accident rare, but sometimes it happeneth; and I could name a noble Lady, whose religious life is lately printed, who some hours before her death, being in perfect minde and memory, called for a cup of wine, and spake to her kinswoman, If God (said she) restore me to my health again, I will never mascerate my body so much, to disable it, as I have done with my fasting. Moderation therefore must be used therein.
Before we come to Christs being an hungred, observe a second Miracle in the text: As it was a wonder that for fourty days Christ eat nothing; so was it, that during that time nothing eat Christ, considering the company he had, Mark 1.13. And was tempted of Satan; he was also with the wilde beasts. Now what was it kept Christ from their violence? even his Innocence, and that character of Soveraignty which God had stamped on him: Bucephalus could be back'd by none but by Alexander, to whom the horse willingly submitted himself, and whence Philip his father presageth that his son would become Monarch of the world.
The wilde beasts owned Christ for their Lord and Master, Dominum cognoscite vestrum; and therefore offered no injury to him. Thus afterwards, the ass-colt whereon never man sate before, Luke 19.30. quietly carried our Saviour.
If therefore the creatures start from their wonted obedience unto thee, reflect on thine own sins as the principal causes thereof.
One who had been undutiful to his father, complained of the badness of his own son: None (saith he) hath had so graceless a childe as my self. To whom his son, with more truth then wit, more wit then grace, replied, Yes, my grandfather had.
When thou complainest that never master had such undutiful servants in the creatures as thou hast, such barren earth, such unwholesome air, such curst kine, such resty horses; might not these dumb creatures (if borrowing a mans voice) return unto thee, Yes, thy Master hath? God hath as rebellious a servant in thy sinful self.
Sure I am, Christs innocence commanded the wilde beasts into obedience; muzled the Bears mouth, brake the Tygers teeth, blunted the Boars tusks, pared the Lions paws; onelyonly the Devil, that lion, after fourty days fasting, adventured to seize on him.
And afterwards he was an hungred.
Three principal reasons may be alleadged for Christs hunger.
First, because he was now to leave the Wilderness, and come into a Country that afforded plenty of food: God therefore, who had formerly tied up his appetite, now let it loose again.
The second Reason, to shew you the truth of his Humility. His fasting so long, spake him God; his being hungry afterwards, spake him Man: His fasting, and being an hungry afterwards, spake him God-man, and a fit Mediator.
The third Reason, to toll on the devil to tempt Christ with some hope of success, that so Satans shame and confusion might be the more, when overcome. Christs being an hungry in some sort tempted the devil to tempt him, and inspirited Satan with some probability of conquest: for Satan before was almost out of heart at the long miraculous fasting of Christ; onelyonly one thing comforted him, that Moses and Elias fasted as long, and yet were but meer men, Iam. 5.17. subject to like passions as we are. This, I say, kept Satan in heart, that notwithstanding Christ's long fasting, he might be subject to sin; and when he found him an hungry, his hope was doubled, that all was his own; which made him tempt Christ with the more confidence.
From Christ's hunger at last, after so long fasting, we conclude,
Doct.Men cannot conclude the constant tenure and continuance of their souls, from some extraordinary acts by them performed.
Men sometimes are enabled by God to go beyond themselves, and are raised in some kinde of performances to so high a pitch, that they can never reach it afterwards. But if this good temper should stay with them some terme of time, he cannot thence truely infer a perpetuity of that condition. One may be chaste fourty days together, and not feele the least motion to lust; yet afterwards be wanton. One may be patient fourty days together, and not finde the least provocation to passion; yet afterwards be immoderately angrie. God's Spirit may vigorously quicken thee for a time, and then leave thee to thy self: I say, He may then leave thee to thy Natural and Moral, as here he left Christ to his Natural infirmity; who, after fourty days fasting, was afterwards an hungrie.