Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles." What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased, Chose to impart to thy apparent need, Why shouldst thou not accept it? but I see Of these things others quickly will dispose, Whose pains have earn'd the far-fet spoil." With that Both table and provision vanish'd quite, With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard: Only the importune tempter still remain'd, And with these words his temptation pursued: 66 "By hunger, that each other creature tames, Thou art not to be harm'd, therefore not moved; For no allurement yields to appetite; And all thy heart is set on high designs, High actions; but wherewith to be achieved? Which way, or from what hope, dost thou aspire Or at thy heels the dizzy multitude, Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost? Money brings honour, friends, conquest, and realms : What raised Antipater the Edomite, And his son Herod placed on Judah's throne, For I esteem those names of men so poor, Who could do mighty things, and could contemn Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more? The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare: more apt To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise. Riches and realms? yet not, for that a crown, Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, When on his shoulders each man's burden lies; For therein stands the office of a king, His honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise, Or lawless passions in him, which he serves. THE ARGUMENT. Satan endeavours to awaken in Jesus a passion for glory, by particularizing various great actions performed by persons at an early period of life. Our Lord replies, by showing the vanity of worldly fame, and contrasts with it the true glory of religious patience and virtuous wisdom. Satan justifies the love of glory from the example of God himself, who requires it from all his creatures. Jesus detects the fallacy of this argument, by showing that, as goodness is the true ground on which glory is due to the great Creator, sinful man can have no right to it. Satan then urges our Lord respecting his claim to the throne of David; he tells him, that the kingdom of Judea, being at that time a province of Rome, cannot be got possession of without much personal exertion on his part, and presses him to lose no time in beginning to reign. Jesus refers him to the time allotted for this, as for all other things; and, after intimating somewhat respecting his own previous sufferings, asks Satan why he should be solicitous for the exaltation of one whose rising was destined to be his fall? Satan replies, that his own desperate state, by excluding all hope, leaves little room for fear; and that, as his own punishment was equally doomed, he is not interested in preventing the reign of one, from whose apparent benevolence he might rather hope for some interference in his favour. Satan, still supposing that the seeming reluctance of Jesus to be thus advanced, might arise from his being unacquainted with the world and its glories, conveys him to the summit of a high mountain, and from thence shows him most of the kingdoms of Asia, pointing out to his notice some extraordinary military preparations of the Parthians to resist the incursions of the Scythians. He then informs our Lord, that he showed him this purposely that he might see how necessary military exertions are to retain the possession of kingdoms, as well as to subdue them at first; and advises him to consider how impossible it was to maintain Judea against two such powerful neighbours as the Romans and Parthians, and how necessary it would be to form an alliance with one or other of them. At the same time, he recommends, and engages to secure to him that of the Parthians; and tells him that, by this means, his power will be defended from anything that Rome or Cæsar might attempt against it; and that he will be able to extend his glory wide, and especially to accomplish what was particularly necessary to make the throne of Judea really the throne of David, the deliverance and restoration of the ten tribes, still in a state of captivity. Jesus, having briefly noticed the vanity of military efforts, and the weakness of the arm of flesh, says that, when the time comes for ascending his allotted throne, he shall not be slack: he remarks on Satan's extraordinary zeal for the deliverance of the Israelites, to whom he had always shown himself an enemy, and declares their servitude to be the consequence of their idolatry; but adds that, at a future time, it may, perhaps, please God to recall them, and restore them to their liberty and native land. |