therefore, it is reasonable to suppose the devil could not understand our
Lord. If He be the Son of God, so might Satan argue, He has all the more
reason to be proud; and, therefore, it is all the more easy to tempt Him
into shewing His pride, into proving Himself a conceited, self-willed,
rebellious being--in one word, an evil spirit.

And therefore (as you will see at first sight) the first two temptations
were clearly meant to tempt our Lord to pride; for would they not tempt
you and me to pride? If we could feed ourselves by making bread of
stones, would not that make us proud enough? So proud, I fear, that we
should soon fancy that we could do without God and His providence, and
were masters of nature and all her secrets. If you and I could make the
whole city worship and obey us, by casting ourselves off this cathedral
unhurt, would not that make us proud enough? So proud, I fear, that we
should end in committing some great folly, or great crime in our conceit
and vainglory.

Now, whether our Lord could or could not have done these wonderful deeds,
one thing is plain--that He would not do them; and, therefore, we may
presume that He ought not to have done them. It seems as if He did not
wish to be a wonderful man: but only a perfectly good man, and He would
do nothing to help Himself but what any other man could do. He answered
the evil spirit simply out of Scripture, as any other pious man might
have done. When He was bidden to make the stones into bread, He answers
not as the Eternal Son of God, but simply as a man. "It is written:"--it
is the belief of Moses and the old prophets of my people that man doth
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God:--as much as to say, If I am to be delivered out of this
need, God will deliver me by some means or other, just as He delivers
other men out of their needs. When He was bidden cast Himself from the