Him, he said, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."[1] But the Lord repulsed him by the commandment of the law, saying, "It is written, Man doth not live by bread alone."[2] As to those words [of His enemy,] "If thou be the Son of God," [the Lord] made no remark; but by thus acknowledging His human nature He baffled His adversary, and exhausted the force of his first attack by means of His Father's word. The corruption of man, therefore, which occurred in paradise by both [of our first parents] eating, was done away with by [the Lord's] want of food in this world.[3] But he, being thus vanquished by the law, endeavoured again to make an assault by himself quoting a commandment of the law. For, bringing Him to the highest pinnacle of the temple, he said to Him, "If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, That God shall give His angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest perchance thou dash thy foot against a stone;"[4] thus concealing a falsehood under the guise of Scripture, as is done by all the heretics. For that was indeed written, [namely], "That He hath given His angels charge concerning Him;" but "cast thyself down from hence" no Scripture said in reference to Him: this kind of persuasion the devil produced from himself. The Lord therefore confuted him out of the law, when He said, "It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;"[5] pointing out by the word contained in the law that which is the duty of man, that he should not tempt God; and in regard to Himself, since He appeared in human form, [declaring] that He would not tempt the Lord his God.[6] The pride of reason, therefore, which was in the serpent, was put to nought by the humility
- ↑ Matt. iv. 3.
- ↑ Deut. viii. 3.
- ↑ The Latin of this obscure sentence is: Quæ ergo fuit in Paradiso repletio hominis per duplicem gustationem, dissoluta est per eam, quæ fuit in hoc mundo, indigentiam. Harvey thinks that repletio is an error of the translation reading ἀναπλήρωσις for ἀναπήρωσις. This conjecture is adopted above.
- ↑ Ps. lxxxix. 11.
- ↑ Deut. vi. 16.
- ↑ This sentence is one of great obscurity.
