Luke 4:9-13 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you be the Son of God… Reasons of this policy are — 1. The avoiding of one extreme gives the soul such a swing, if care be not used to prevent it, that they are cast more than half way upon the other. 2. While men avoid one extreme by running into another, they carry with them such strong impressions of the evil they would avoid, and such fierce prejudices, that it is not an ordinary conviction will bring them right, but they are apt to be confident of the goodness of the way they take, and so are the more bold and fixed in their miscarriage. That as distrust on the one hand, so presumption on the other, is one of his grand designs.Show what presumption is. It is in the general a confidence without a ground. 1. It is made up of audacity — which is a bold and daring undertaking of a thing — and security. 2. The ground of it is an error of judgment. A blind or a misled judgment doth always nourish it. 3. In its way of working it is directly opposite to distrust, and is a kind of excessive though irregular hope. 1. Then it is presumption, when from external or subordinate means men expect that for which they were never designed nor appointed of God. 2. When men do expect those fruits and effects from anything unto which it is appointed, in neglect or opposition to the supreme cause, without whose concurrent influence they cannot reach their proper ends — that is, our hopes are wholly centred upon means, when in the meantime our eye is not upon God. 3. It is a presumption to expect things above the reach of our present state and condition. 4. When men expect things contrary to the rules that God hath set for His dispensations of mercy, they boldly presume upon His will. 5. It is also a presumption to expect any mercy, though common and usual, without the ordinary means by which God in providence hath settled the usual dispensations of such favours. 6. When ordinary or extraordinary mercies are expected for an unlawful end.Having thus proved that presumption is one of the great things he aims at, I shall next discover the reasons of his earnestness and industry in his design, which are these — 1. It is a sin very natural, in which he hath the advantage of our own readiness and inclination. 2. As it is easy for Satan's attempt, so it is remote from conviction, and not rooted out without great difficulty. 3. The greatness of the sin when it is committed, is another reason of his diligence in the pursuit of it. 4. The dangerous issues and consequences of this way of tinning, do not a little animate Satan to tempt to it. It was no small piece of Satan's craft to take this advantage, while the impression of trust in the want of outward means was warm upon the heart of Christ. He hoped thereby the more easily to draw Him to an excess. For he knows that a zealous earnestness to avoid a sin, and to keep to a duty, doth often too much incline us to an extreme, and he well hoped that when Christ had declared Himself so positively to depend upon God, he might have prevailed to have stretched that dependence beyond its due bounds, taking the opportunity of His sway that way, which, as a ship before wind and tide, might soon be over-driven. (R. Gilpin.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: |
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