Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

4. The time and occasion of the Devils Onset; it was at the end of forty days Fast, and when he was an hungered. Some say (as you have heard) that all those forty days, when Christ was in the Wilderness, he was tempted only invisibly: for Satan during that time, assumed not any visible or conspicuous shape, which it the end of forty days, (say they) he did: my meaning is not to controvert these points. Howsoever for his tempting, yet for his fasting forty days and forty nights, there is no controversy; and of that we had some Types before Christ came into the World; thus Moses fasted forty days at the delivery of the Law; and Elijah fasted forty days at the restitution of the Law; and to fulfil the time of both these Types, Christ thinks it fit to fast forty days at the accomplishment of the Law, and the promulgation of the Gospel. In fasting so long, Christ manifests his Almighty Power; and in fasting no longer, Christ manifests the truth of his Manhood, and of his weakness: that he might approve that there was no difference betwixt him and us, but sin, he both fasted, and was an ⟨p. 176⟩hungered; we know well enough, that Christ could have lived without meat, and he could have fasted without hunger; it had been an easy matter for him to have supported his Body without any means of nourishment or Life; but to show that he was man, as well as God, and so fit a Mediator betwixt God and Man, he would both feed and fast; make use of the Creature, and withal suffer hunger.—And now our Saviour is an hungered; this gives occasion to Satan to set upon him with his fierce and violent temptations; he knows well what baits to fish withal, and when and how to lay them; he hath Temptations of all sorts; he hath Apples to cozen Children, and Gold for Men; he hath the Vanities of the World for the intemperate, and the Kingdoms of the world for the ambitious; he considers the temper and constitution of the Person he is to tempt; and he observes all our exterior Accidents, Occasions, and Opportunities; but of this hereafter.

4. The time and occasion of the Devils Onset; it was at the end of forty dayes Fast, and when he was an hungred. Some say (as you have heard) that all those forty dayes, when Christ was in the Wilderness, he was tempted only invisibly: for Satan during that time, assumed not any visible or conspicious shape, which it the end of forty dayes, (say they) he did: my meaning is not to controvert these points. Howsoever for his tempting, yet for his fasting forty dayes and forty nights, there is no controversy; and of that we had some Types before Christ came into the World; thus Moses fasted forty dayes at the delivery of the Law; and Elias fasted forty dayes at the restitution of the Law; and to fulfil the time of both these Types, Christ thinks it fit to fast forty dayes at the accomplishment of the Law, and the promulgation of the Gospel. In fasting so long, Christ manifests his Almighty Power; and in fasting no longer, Christ manifests the truth of his Manhood, and of his weakness: that he might approve that there was no difference betwixt him and us, but sin, he both fasted, and was an