Page:Post-Mediaeval Preachers.djvu/225

 4. Christ endured temptation from the devil—

α. That He might prove the force of every temptation by which we are assailed.

β. That He might show us how to meet temptation.

γ. That He might break the force of temptation.

δ. That He might teach us to expect temptation.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights.

Note that Christ fasted, though there was no need for Him to mortify His body, in that His body was free from sin.

Forty days and forty nights. Here note—

1. That forty represents the law as amplified by the Gospel, 10×4.

α. Forty days did the rain descend to flood the world. (Gen. vii. 4.)

β. Forty days were corpses dressed with aromatic herbs before consigning them to the grave. (Gen. l. 3.)

γ. Forty years did Israel wander in the wilderness.

δ. Forty days did Moses spend, on two occasions, in the mount. (Exod. xxiv. 18; xxxiv. 28.)

ε. Forty days did Goliath defy the armies of the living God. (1 Sam. xvii. 16.)

ζ. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniquities of the children of Israel. (Ezek. iv. 6.)