4. That if Christ endured temptation, no man must expect to escape it.
5. That if Christ suffered Satan to approach Him with temptation, He will not reject us drawing nigh unto Him in prayer.
6. That temptations come to us in disguise: the evil one seldom presenting himself to us in his naked deformity.
If Thou art the Son of God. Here note—
Satan had heard the voice from Heaven, proclaiming Christ to be the beloved Son of God; but he may have considered Him as a son in some sense as Adam, who was called a son of God. That he could have grasped the mystery of the hypostatic union is impossible. Sin produces blindness, and Satan could not have seen and comprehended God’s purposes. Had he believed Christ to be very and eternal God, it is inconceivable that he should have thought it possible to tempt Him into sin, unless the eyes of his understanding were so obscured by his pride that he had lost belief in all good, that he actually could imagine the God-head to be peccable, just as a prostitute disbelieves in the purity of the most spotless virgin.
If Thou art. Note—
I. That Satan tempts even by that little word if; implying a doubt whether God had meant what He said when the voice came from
