And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Ver. 6. And he saith unto him] The devil usually tempteth by speech, inward or outward. Senarclaeus (Epist. ad Bucerum) telleth of a plain countryman at Friburg in Germany, that lying on his deathbed, the devil came to him in the shape of a tall terrible man, and claimed his soul, saying, "Thou hast been a notorious sinner, and I am come to set down all thy sins;" and therewith he drew out paper and ink, and sat down at a table that stood by, and began to write. The sick man answered, "My soul is God's, and all my sins are nailed to the cross of Christ. But if thou desire to set down my sins, write thus, ‘All our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag,'" &c. The devil set down that, and bid him say on. He did: "but thou, Lord, hast promised, for thine own sake, to blot out our iniquities, and to make our scarlet sins white as snow." The devil passed by those words, and was earnest with him to go on in his former argument. The sick man said with great cheerfulness, "The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil." With that the devil vanished, and the sick man departed.
If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself, &c.] This is the devil's logic, to argue from mercy to liberty, to do wickedly with both hands earnestly, Micah 7:3. Whereas the heathen could say, In maxima libertate, minima licentia. And the father, Ideo deteriores sumus, quia meliores esse debemus: therefore are we worse, because we ought to be better. (Salvian.) Remember but this, that thou art son to a king (said one to Antigonus), and that will keep thee from base courses. Take thou those spoils to thyself, Ανελου σαυτω (said Themistocles to his friend that followed him), συ γαρ ουκ ει θεμιστοκλης, for thou art not Themistocles, as I am: they are poor things, far below me. Shall such a man as I flee? Nehemiah 6:11. Shall I do anything to the dishonour of my heavenly Father? and therefore sin, because grace hath abounded?Romans 8:1; that is not the guise of any of God's children. They walk honestly, bravely, gallantly, worthy of God, who hath done so great things for them. καλως, ευσχημονως, αξιως του θεου. The more privileges, the more engagements. Scipio, when a harlot was offered unto him, said, Vellem, si non essem imperator. It was an aggravation of the fall of Solomon, that God had appeared unto him twice; and of Saul, that he fell as if he had not been anointed,1 Kings 11:9; 2 Samuel 1:21. So it is of any of God's saints to sin, as if they had not been adopted.
Cast thyself down] Here our Saviour is tempted to suicide, by an old manslayer. And when Moses, Elias, Jonah, and others of the best sort of saints, were in a fit of discontent, and grew weary of their lives, wishing for death, divines doubt not but Satan gave a push at them with his ten horns, to despatch and ease themselves of the present trouble by cutting off their own days. A dangerous and hideous temptation; yet such as may befall the best, and few escape it that live out their time. But in all the book of God we read not of any of the generation of the just that ever did it, Psalms 37:28. That God who kept them, will (if we look up to him) do as much for us. Only we must set against this bloody temptation with God's arm and with God's armour. The word and prayer are the ordinances and power of God, and, by his might, do extinguish all the fiery darts of the devil. Oppose the commination to the temptation. Herein Eve faltered (in her lest ye die, though she held the precept), and so fell.
for it is written] A vile abase of sacred Scripture, to persuade thereby to sin or plead for it; yet what more ordinary with men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith, 2 Timothy 3:8. Qui caedem Scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam, as Tertullian speaketh (De Praescript, advers. Haeret.), who murder the Scriptures to serve their own purposes? But of this more elsewhere.
He shall give his angels charge over thee] Hitherto the old liar speaketh truth. But, Satan et si semel videatur verax, millies est mendax, et semper fallax, saith Bucholcer: Satan, though he may sometimes seem a true speaker, yet he is a thousand times for it a liar, and always a deceiver. Because our Saviour had alleged Scripture, he also would do the like in a perverse, apish imitation, but mars the masculine sense by clipping off that clause, "they shall keep thee in all thy ways;" that is, in those courses that are appointed thee by God. In viis nostris, non in praecipitiis. (Bern.) But as the Israelites in the wilderness, when they went out of God's precincts were out of his protection, so are all others. "As a bird that wandereth from the nest, so is a man that wandereth from his own place," saith Solomon,Proverbs 27:8. God made a law that none should molest a bird upon her nest,Deuteronomy 22:6. Doth God take care of birds? A king undertaketh the safety of his subjects while they travel within due hours and keep the king's highway; else not. So doth God. He hath given his angels charge over us while we hold his way, which is like Jacob's ladder, where the angels were ascending and descending. Oh the dignity and safety of a saint, in a guard so full of state and strength! Well might David (after he had said, "the angel of the Lord pitcheth his tent round about them that fear him") presently subjoin, Taste and see bow gracious the Lord is, in allowing his children so glorious an attendance, Psalms 34:7,8 .
And with their hands they shall lift thee up, &c.] As parents use to lift their little ones over rough and foul ways; or as servants in a house love to get up into their arms their young master. επι χειρων, in manus: ducta ab iis, significationis origine, qui onus aliquod gestaturi attollunt in humeros. (Beza.) In Christ and for Christ, they count it their greatest glory to do us any good office for soul or body; they save us from the foul fiends that else would worry us. These walk about as lions to devour us while alive, and to hinder our passage to heaven when we die; the other, as guardians, to keep us here, and to convey and conduct us through the devil's territories (who is prince of the air) when we go hence to heaven, Luke 16:22, in despite of the evil angels that would intercept us, Daniel 10:21 .
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone] Oh the tender care of our heavenly Father; he is so kind, and, in the best sense, fond over his little ones, that he cannot abide the cold wind should blow upon them, as we say, and hath therefore commanded "that the sun shall not smite them by day, nor the moon by night,"Psalms 121:6; yea, which way soever the wind fit, it must blow good to his; "Arise, O north, and blow, O south, upon any beloved, that her spices may flow forth," Song of Solomon 4:16. What so contrary as north and south wind, cold and hot, moist and dry? &c. Yet both must blow good to God's beloved. Well might God exalt his love above that of natural parents, which yet is wondrous great, saith the psalmist, Psalms 103:13 .