LETTER VI. TO DR. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. CHAP. IV. Verse 1. "Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil: and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungered." Both Matthew and Luke make this excursion into the wilderness, the next occurrence in their history of Jesus after his baptism. Mark says expressly that it was immediately:1 whilst John, who knew all things from the beginning, 2 takes no notice of it; but says, that the next day, after his baptism, he invited two disciples to spend the day with him; and the day following he walked forth into Galilee, where he found Philip and Nathaniel.3 The third day he went with his mother to a marriage feast at Cana. 4 After which, he went home and staid some time at Capernaum, until the passover, when he went up to Jerusalem, making no mention of either the devil or wilderness. How the priests will get over this blunder I. cannot tell; for, according to John, (and we have as much right to believe him as any of the others,) instead of fasting in a wilderness along with a devil, for forty days, he was feasting with his friends at Cana! 5 And what manner of Spirit was that which could lead Jesus into such a dreary place, in order that he might be tempted of the devil? It surely could not be a good spirit, for James says (i. 13,) that God tempteth no man; but that every man is tempted when he is 6 drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Though Mark says that the spirit drove him into the wilderness if this were the case, Jesus cannot be blamed for going there, as we all know that there is a great difference between leading and driving. Yet I cannot tell how it was possible for a bad spirit, or, as James calls it, his own lust, to lead or drive the Son of God about, when we are told that he was filled with the Holy Ghost, except this Holy Ghost signifies the Spirit of the Lord, which Jesus seems to insinuate as being upon him. If so, it is then easily accounted for; as we all know that the Spirit of the Lord was a cruel and malignant spirit, or it never would have caused Jephtha to make that rash vow, through which his daughter lost her life. Neither would it have led Samson to gamble, and afterwards to rob and murder thirty men, in order to make good his loss. But what employment were the Devil and Jesus engaged in among the wild beasts, that should require a space of forty days to perform? as we find that the three temptations did not commence until those forty days had expired, when the Devil first asked Jesus to make bread out of stones; a thing less difficult, I should think, for him to do, than making bread and fish out of nothing; especially as he found himself an hungered. And the other two temptations were evidently not made in the wilderness; the one being on a pinnacle in the city, and the other on an exceedingly high mountain, whence Jesus could see all the Kingdoms of the round world! which mountain, we are well assured, could not have been in the wilderness, or it would be there still; having no account handed down to us of any natural mountain being brought low by John the Baptist. Moreover, what had become of all the locusts and wild honey? Surely, if that food could support John for so many years in the wilderness, it might very well have supported Jesus for forty days! This being the first passage throughout the book wherein we read of such an animal as a Devil, it is necessary to inquire into his nature, as he seems to have been a very powerful being, by his carrying Jesus 11 whithersoever he thought proper. The Jews, we find, charged Jesus with being a friend to the Prince of Devils; 10 10 which accusation does not appear to be entirely groundless, as we always find that he was remarkably civil to those Devils whenever he met with any of them, always granting them any favour which they requested; which complaisance, probably, might have been one of the conditions made between Jesus and the Devil while they were together in the wilderness, (for we find by Isaiah xxviii. 15, that an agreement may be made with hell) for the instructions which Jesus might have received in the art and mystery of magic. I cannot imagine what else could employ their time together in a wilderness, during a space of forty days. Though, if what the priests say be true concerning this Devil, I am sure it would have done him more credit, and been much more to his honour and glory, if he had, like St. Dunstan, taken the Devil by his nose, or even by his collar, if he had and cast him into some of the lowermost dungeons in hell, or some other such dismal place; he would then have preserved his own life, by preventing him from getting into Judas Iscariot, besides the many evils and troubles which he has since brought upon mankind. But I suppose that if he had done so, the priests would have grumbled, for without a Devil they could not so easily frighten the people out of their money. one, Besides, is it not curious that no one ever saw or heard of a Devil before they saw Jesus? And that as soon as he left them, away went the Devils! for no Devil has ever been seen since. Though John said that they were only to be for a short time:12 and as he is the only one among them all that has attempted to describe a Devil, let us read what he says about them in his Revelations; for in his Gospel he takes no more notice of them than if there never were such animals. In the 12th chapter of Revelations, he informs us that it was a great red Dragon, (by which it appears that the Devil is not so black as he is painted!) having seven heads and ten horns. If God made the Devil, why did he make him with seven heads, when he himself has but one, if man be made in the image of God? Besides he had a very long tail, and a mouth large enough to contain a flood of water! He was considered as being one of the wonders in heaven, a woman being the other! (1) But this red Dragon, or Devil, or Satan, or Old Serpent, as he is called, having a quarrel with one Mr. Michael, they and their angels or soldiers fought together, when Mr. Devil got the worst of the battle, and was cast out of heaven into the earth, whereto he fell like lightning, as Jesus says, 13 with all his army. In consequence of which, he became very wroth with the inhabitants of the earth, and went about to and fro seeking whom he might devour. 1 4 I think, Doctor, that if Mr. Michael had cast him into some other world, the inhabitants of this would have been under greater obligations to him: for we find that he soon got into Peter, 15 upon whom the Church of Christ is built, 16 and has kept his station ever since! 17 If this Dragon, or Devil, be the Satan which is spoken of in the book of Job, we find, that in Job's days he and the bible God were very friendly and sociable with each other; inasmuch, that God refused Satan nothing which he requested; although it might distress and torment his own upright and faithful servants; yea, even to the death of some of those creatures, which he had been at the trouble of making and rearing up to the age of maturity. By which, I somehow suspect, that this Satan was the most potent of the two; at least, that he "held divided empire with heaven's high King." Or why should a God of love, who doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of man, 18 suffer such an adversary to walk up and down to and fro throughout the earth, distressing and destroying those creatures which he had made for his glory, 19 without either opposing him or making any resistance? Moreover, if we examine every transaction of those two conspicuous characters, namely, God and the Devil, as related in this book, we shall find, that the Devil succeeds in almost every thing, except in the battle with Captain Michael and his army, whilst poor God and his plans are continually frustrated by this Devil; some of |