The audio and .pdf outlines are available here.

Allow me to engage in some practical reflections. These observations have far reaching consequences for the human race. All faith ultimately rests upon the testimony of another rather than upon bare evidence. This is the primary point of John Owen’s (1616–1683) book, The Reason of Faith (Works, 3:1ff). Owen argued that it is the nature of faith to rest upon the authority of testimony.  For this reason, the primary reason why believers have faith in the divine authority of Scripture is that God Himself has spoken. In light of a Brakel’s comments, it is interesting that Adam and Eve accepted the word of the serpent without prior evidence. Their true trial was considering whether they would rest upon the authority of God alone, or upon the authority of a creature. This accurately describes the history of faith in the Triune God versus unbelief ever since man’s Fall into sin. Those who reject the Word of God act as though they do so upon evidence, but they have unknowingly believed the lie of Satan by faith. The ultimate lie of Satan is that man’s reason and judgment rather than God determines the nature of reality, truth and falsehood, and right and wrong. Was this not the sin of our first parents?

Today, people trust in the authority of scholars who assure them that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist, or that Christianity has perverted the story of the “real Jesus.” People rest upon the authority of scientists to tell them about the origins of the universe rather than the Word of God. When individuals consider the diversity of religious opinions among humanity, many conclude that no one can know “the meaning of life” or that all truth is relative, otherwise all human beings would agree over these questions. The thread that ties all of these thought together is faith in the creature rather than faith in the creature. If man cannot determine truth by himself, then there must be no such thing as truth. Conversely, what man has determined to be “true” is true, regardless of what God or anyone else says to the contrary.

At the bottom of our thinking, we all rest upon the testimony of someone by faith. What a Brakel illustrates is that, like Adam and Eve, our faith either rests upon the Word of God or the word of a creature. Fallen human beings have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, by believing Satan’s original lie to our first parents. The question that continues to confront the human race continues to be, “Whose authority shall you receive by faith: God’s or the creatures?” Do not be devieved when the non-Christian tells you that you rest upon faith and that they rest upon reason and evidence. As with Adam and Eve, all reason and evidence begins with faith in some authority. Just as we receive justification by faith in Christ, our first parents received damnation by faith in the serpent.

(ADDENDUM: In another place, one friend has criticized me of reading Van Tillian presuppositionalism into Protestant Scholasticism. This is not a “scholarly” post, but a meditation, yet let me say here that I by no means impute Van Tillianism into the Protestant Scholastics such as a Brakel. There are significant differences between them. I will simply say this, let us hold to our differing positions on apologetics, yet be sure to read Richard Muller (PRRD vol. 1) on the manner in which the use of reason and natural theology shifted substantially in Reformed Orthodoxy following the Enlightenment. I fear that many modern discussions of apologetics do not adequately taken into account the diversity of views in the history of the Reformed tradition on this point.)

The Wednesday Study in Theology here at the Oceanside United Reformed Church continued through Thomas Manton’s sermons, “The Temptation of Christ,” this week. Manton’s second sermon deals with the first temptation of Christ’s by the Devil. Here is the link to part 1 of the lecture (which also includes a .pdf of the outline) and part 2.

This is a particularly insightful and practical sermon on the role of Satan and angels in Christ’s temptations and ours.

In dealing with Satan’s use of Psalm 91:11–12, Manton described “the devil’s cunning in citing Scripture” (Works 1, 278). Just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and just as he “took the habit [clothing] and guise of a prophet,” in this account he “cometh like a divine [theologian], with a Bible in his hand, and turneth to the place; here the enemy of God cometh with the word of God, and disguiseth the worst of actions with the best of words, opposeth God to God, and turneth his truth to countenance it” (Works 1, 278). Manton applied this with a general principle: “Christians, you have not to do with a foolish devil, who will appear in his own colours and ugly shape but with a devout devil, who, for his own turn, can pretend to be godly” (Works 1, 278).

In the second half of the sermon Manton offered several observations. The first was that although Christ rejected Satan’s first temptation he continued “like a troublesome fly that is often beaten off” since “Satan is incessant in his attempts against the saints, and is ready to assault afresh upon every occasion” (Works 1, 280). Because of this Christian must incessantly watch for him.

The third observation is an allegorical one. Since Satan took Christ up to the pinnacle of the temple and tempted him to cast himself down, Manton observed: “If Satan lead us up, it is to throw us down” (Works 1, 282). This observation has spoken most to me as I pray I do not allow my head to be lifted up so high in pride by Satan that I come crashing down to the destruction of myself and everyone around me.

Observation six is the longest and deals in two parts with the ministry of angels. Manton speaks of them not as ministers of conversion and sanctification but of preservation (Works 1, 284). He then digresses into the age-old question of whether each believer has a guardian angel. Manton’s answer? “It is enough for us to believe that all the angels are our guardians” (Works 1, 285). He went on to say that their ministry was not cura animarum, the care of souls, but ministerium externi auxilii, the service of outward help, which he further describes as custodia corporis, custodians/guardians of the body (Works 1, 285). Why did the Lord choose to work through angels? For four reasons: 1. to manifest the great love and care which God hath over his people, 2. we understand the operation of finite agents better tan infinite, 3. to counterwork the devil, and 4. to begin our acquaintance, which in heaven shall be perfected (Works 1, 285).

What use is this ministry of the angels towards us in our temptations? This shows us our happy state as God’s people, since “no heirs fo a crown have such guards as they have” (Works 1, 285). This breeds confidence and comfort in difficulities when all visible help seems at an end (Works 1, 286). This should cause us to live holily because they are among us (Works 1, 286).

Sermon 2 treats Matthew 4:2–4. As with sermon 1, Manton follows the classic Puritan plain style of preaching, opening with the basic scope of the text, structuring his sermon along the lines of the text itself, deriving doctrines, and offering uses of those doctrines for his hearers’ souls’ sake.

Under the heading, “The Occasion,” Manton delves into the depths of catholic Christology in dealing with Christ’s forty days and nights of fasting. This reveals his true humanity, since Christ “submitted to all our sinless infirmities,” and his divinity, since it “enabled him to continue . . . without eating or drinking anything” (Works 1, 267). Here Manton shows us how we can preach the intricacies of Chalcedonian Christology all the while doing so in a way that is understandable and experiential. Not only this, Manton shows us that it is necessary to know our theology and to preach that theology when it arises from the text.

Under the heading, The Temptation Itself,” Manton exposits the devious ways of Satan so well, but all the while doing so to highlight the true sufferings of our Savior as well as our need to be on guard for his wiles. For example, Manton gives a general proverbial statement concerning the Devil’s work in tempting Christ when he was hungry: “Satan fits his temptations to men’s present case and condition” (Works 1, 268). One of the wonderful things Manton points out is that this temptation of Satan was intended “to weaken his [Christ's] confidence in the care and love of God’s fatherly providence” (Works 1, 270). We don’t think enough of the fact that as our truly human elder brother, Jesus needed to trust in the Lord. In doing so, he lays a foundation for our doing so as well!

Under the heading, “Christ’s Answer,” Manton may sound moralistic to our overly-sensitive biblical-theological/redemptive-historical ears, when he speaks of Christ’s answering Satan with Scripture: “This answer is not given for the tempter’s sake, but ours, that we may know how to answer in like cases, and repel such kind of temptations” (Works 1, 272). But is it not the point of the biblical-theological movement that because of our union with Christ we live out of Christ? If Christ answered the Devil with Scripture, we who are in union with him need to do as he did: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

In conclusion, Manton offers five “observations” from the text that are theological and practical in nature. Again, here is where Manton is so good. He exposits the text and he applies the text.

1. “God may leave his children and servants to great straits” (Works 1, 273).
2. “The devil maketh an advantage of our necessities” in order to tempt us “to unlawful means to satisfy our hunger . . . to question our adoption . . . to draw us to a diffidence and distrust of God’s providence” (Works 1, 273–274).
3. “In tempting, Satan pretendeth to help the tempted party to a better condition” (Works 1, 274–275).
4. “Satan’s first temptations are more plausible,” meaning, he tempts us with little things that don’t sound so bad at first (Works 1, 275).
5. “There is no way to defeat Satan’s temptations but by a sound belief of God’s all-sufficiency, and the nothingness of the creature” (Works 1, 275).

Among his expositions of Scripture are “Christ’s Temptation and Transfiguration Practically Explained and Improved in Several Sermons” (Works 1, 258–336). In Sermon 1 on Matthew 4:1, Manton followed the classic Puritan plain style of preaching, opening with the scope of the text, structuring his sermon along the lines of the text itself, deriving doctrines, and offering uses of those doctrines for his hearers’ souls’ sake. This sermon is full of biblical imagery, doctrine and comfort. Listen to this line as Manton expounded the lesson that temptations come not by chance but from God himself: “If tempted, when we are in Satan’s hand, remember Satan is in God’s hand” (Works 1, 259). Beautiful! Sounds like Luther’s famous line, “The devil is God’s devil.”

In expositing the point that Christ’s temptation occurred immediately before he entered his prophetical office, Manton offers the following lesson: “Experience of temptations fits for the ministry” (Works 1, 261). Manton did not merely moralilze this principle out of thin air to perk up his congregations’ attention, but he derived it from the Christology of the text itself. His point was that we as ministers are prepared for the ministry just as Christ was prepared for his prophetic office by means of temptation. Why? What was the purpose of Christ’s being tempted first, and congruously, what is our purpose in undergoing temptations? God’s purpose for Christ as for us was “for the recovery of poor souls out of their bondage into the liberty of the children of God” (Works 1, 261). In a word, Christ was tempted that he might help those who are tempted. And the same is true of us as ministers of the gospel. We cannot help those in bondage to sin unless we ourselves know what it is to be filthy, depraved sinners who constantly feel the Devil’s breath upon the back of our necks. Manton went on to say that God gave his Son to temptation by the Devil that “he should experimentally feel the power of the tempter” that assaults and endangers our souls (Works 1, 261).

Have we as ministers come to grips with just how depraved our sinful nature is? Are we in a constant and conscious war with Satan? We must for we minister best what we know and need ourselves. As Manton concluded:

Ministers should not only be men of science, but of experience.

You can find these sermons in Manton’s Works, volume 1.

Reformation Heritage Books sells the reprinted twenty-two volume set for an amazing price of only $250.

Google Books has the complete set. For volume 1 click here.