Of Tempting Christ, Section 9
SECT. IX.
Of Tempting God, and Chriſt with reſpect to his Providence, in ſeveral Inſtances.
Fourthly. ANOTHER Inſtance of a criminal Tempting of God, is with reſpect to his Providence. All Power and Authority being now in the Hands of Chriſt, we may tempt him in this Particular, either,
1. BY diſtruſting his Care, Protection, and Aſſiſtance, when we have ſufficient Ground for our Dependance, and Confidence that he will not fail us. While we keep in the way of our Duty, he has promiſed to be with us, and never to forſake us. Now tho the ordinary way of Relief for the preſent be not in view, it is to tempt God, to diſtruſt him; as if our Hope were periſhed, and he had forgotten us. It is true, in ſome Caſes we may not poſitively conclude either way, but ſay with David, Let the Lord do what ſeemeth him good: But in others, we ſhould truſt him for the particular Mercy, when all Means ſeem to fail in an ordinary way: As when Mercies are expreſly, and particularly promiſed, as a Son was to Abraham, and the Kingdom unto David. The like when God leads us into Straits by ingaging us in his Service; as when Iſrael followed him in the Wilderneſs, in order to the Poſſeſſion of the promiſed Land. When they had no Water to drink, nor Food to eat, and ſo no poſſibility of Supply in the Wilderneſs, they ought poſitively to have expected Supplies from God, in an extraordinary way: And it is reckoned as their Sin, that they did not believe. Thus when Chriſt was led by the Spirit into the Wilderneſs, and there was no Bread there to ſatisfy his Hunger, he refuſes to work a Miracle for his Supply, and leans upon an Extraordinary Providence *Gilpin of Satan's Temptatious, Part 3. c. 11..
MOREOVER, when the things we want are common and univerſal Bleſſings, and ſuch without which we cannot ſubſiſt. Such Supplies from Providence we muſt poſitively expect, tho we ſee not the way, whence they ſhould ariſe to us: becauſe God is ingaged to preſerve his Creatures in their ſeveral Stations, to clothe the Graſs of the Field, and to feed the Birds of the Air, &c. †Mat. 6.30.Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little Faith? Hence the Prophet Habakkuk reſolves upon a rejoicing Confidence in God, when neither Field, nor Tree, nor Flock could yield any Relief in an ordinary way. The like may be ſaid, when God is eminently ingaged for our Help, becauſe his Honour lies at ſtake in that very matter; ſo that whether he will help or no, or whether he is able, is become the Controverſy, upon which Religion in its Truth, or the Honour of God, is to be tried. In ſuch a Caſe, we are ingaged to a certain Belief of Help. The three Children upon this Ground, did not only aſſert that God was able to deliver them, but that he would deliver them, that the Fire ſhould not burn them. On the like Ground Chriſt rebukes his Diſciples for Unbelief, in their Fears of Shipwrack in a great Storm, becauſe he was with them; and conſequently it had unavoidably contradicted his Deſign, and reflected upon his Honour, if he had ſuffered his Diſciples at that time to be drowned. But,
2. WE Tempt him as to his Providence, if we pretend to truſt it, and yet neglect the common and ordinary Means, which he hath appointed, and may be had. Thus the Devil would have Chriſt to caſt himſelf down from the Pinacle of the Temple, when there was an eaſy way of going down ſafely by the Stairs and Steps. We may expect God's Bleſſing upon our Diligence, in the uſe of lawful Means, but muſt not pretend to truſt him with the neglect of what is in our Power to be done. We muſt not look that Water ſhould be fetched out of a Rock for us by Miracle, when there is hope we may find a Spring, if we will but dig for it; or that we ſhould be able to ſwim croſs an Arm of the Sea, when we may have a Veſſel to tranſport us. We muſt not look for Bread from Heaven, as the Iſraelites had it, if the Ground will bear Corn, and we will not plough or ſow. It is to Tempt God, to expect Recovery from Sickneſs, without the uſe of Means, when they may be had; or Supplies of Poverty, without Diligence to ſeek Relief; or Deliverance in Danger, if we ſit ſtill and will do nothing that is within our reach. When our Lord was in the Wilderneſs, and Proviſion could not be had for the Multitude that followed him; he then made uſe of his Almighty Power to multiply a few Loaves, and two or three little Fiſhes, into ſufficient Proviſions for thouſands: But at other times, when he was near a Town, we find that he ſent his Diſciples to buy Food, Joh. 4. To expect the End, without uſing the Means that are within our Power, is a Tempting of God.
BUT it is more common in Spiritual and Religious Matters, than in Civil and Temporal Ones. How many do hope for Divine Acceptance, without fearing God, and working Righteouſneſs; and that they ſhall die the Death of the Righteous, tho they continue all their Days to be Workers of Iniquity?
3. WHEN we repine, and murmur at his Diſpoſal of us and ours. When we are diſſatisfied with our State and Condition in the World; when the Station he has put us in, and the Proviſion he has made for us, doth not content and pleaſe us; tho it may be we have ſuch Fruits of his Wiſdom, Care and Love, as to theſe things, that many of our Betters have not. Herein did the Iſraelites ſin in the Wilderneſs: This Diſſatisfaction occaſioned all their Murmurings, and Complaints; upon the account whereof they are ſo often ſaid to Tempt God, and to provoke him.
4. IT is a tempting of God as to his Providence, when we venture upon Ʋnneceſſary, Avoidable Dangers, and expect that God ſhould interpoſe to preſerve us. He that will give his Angels charge to preſerve us, while we keep in his way, hath not promiſed to bring us off in Safety when we expoſe our ſelves to Danger, without his Warrant. Thus our Lord replies to Satan, that it is to Tempt God for any one to fall from the Pinacle of the Temple, upon a falſe Aſſurance, that the Angels would be at hand to prevent his Danger.
MANY have paid dear for their Preſumption in this reſpect, and too late bethought themſelves, Where was my Call? What did I here? What a raſh Adventure did I make? St. Paul would not have had the Centurion put to Sea in ſtormy Weather; and it coſt them the loſs of all that they had, but their Lives, that they did not hearken to him: ſo much was God diſpleaſed with ſuch bold adventurous Enterprizes. A wiſe Man feareth, and departeth from evil, (ſaith Solomon) but a Fool rageth and is confident: Prov. 14.16. When David had raſhly ſent three of his Captains, to fetch him Water from the Well of Bethlehem by the Gate, with the extreme hazard of their Lives; as ſoon as he reflects, his Heart ſmote him, and he would not drink it, ſaying, *2 Sam. 23.17.Is not this the Blood of the Men, that went in Jeopardy of their Lives? God commanded the Leper ſhould dwell alone without the Camp, and that no clean Perſon ſhould come near him, becauſe of the Contagion. They who are in Health, are not obliged to accompany with the Sick in infectious Diſeaſes, unleſs to give them neceſſary Succour in a Spiritual or Temporal Way, and therein we may expect Divine Preſervation.
IT is obſervable, that, when the Plague was great in Iſrael, David would not go up to offer Sacrifice at Gibeon, where was the Tabernacle of the Lord that Moſes had made in the Wilderneſs, and the Altar of Burnt-Offering, becauſe he was afraid of the Sword of the Angel of the Lord, that is, of the Peſtilence, 1 Chron. 21.30. And the Apoſtle Paul, tho he deſired to be diſſolved, and to be with Chriſt; yet when his Life was ſought after, he fled away from his Enemies, becauſe he would not Tempt the Providence of God.