The combat between Christ and the Devil displayedThe combat betvveene Christ and the Diuell displayed

IV. Circumstance. Whither was Christ led to be tempted? namely, into the wilderness, that is the place chosen of God for this combat. There be divers opinions touching this place; some think it was a little wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho; some the desert of Palestine; others, the great desert of Arabia, where Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights; and where the Israelites wandered forty years. But seeing the Holy-ghost doth not define what wilderness this was, we are not curiously to inquire after it,¹ but only know it was a desert and solitary place. Let us rather search into the reasons wherefore he chose a desert place for this combat; and they are divers: First, because he §1was to work our redemption in great humility, even in the base and low estate of a servant, for the satisfying of Gods justice in that nature which had sinned, therefore he would not go to Jerusalem there to show his glory and Godhead, as a little before he was proclaimed in his baptism; but he gets himself to a desert place void of all pomp and glory, where he meant to begin this great work for us by encountering with our chiefest adversary. Secondly, he §2chose this place for the more easy encountering with our adversary Satan, whom he was to overcome for us: for if Christ after his baptism should have showed the glory of his Godhead, Satan durst not have meddled with him; therefore as the fisher hides the hook and shows the bait to entice the fish, so our Saviour CHRIST with the veil of his flesh in this base estate and solitary place did cover the glory of his Godhead, that Satan seeing him only in this low degree, might be the more eager and bold to set upon him. Thirdly, Christ §3was willing to give unto his adversary the advantage of the place, that therewithal he might give him the greater overthrow; for the Devil delights^a in desert and forlorn places, and there he would choose to practise his temptations, because in such places men want those helps and comforts which in society they may find: hence Solomon saith,^d Woe be to him that is alone: yea, God himself said of man in the state of his innocency,