III. Christ met and overcame Satan with his own weapon. Thus did David slay Goliath with his own sword; thus was Haman hanged on his own gallows; thus did Christ triumph at the last over Satan by a tree, wherewith Satan had ruined man. IV. We tempt the Lord our God, whenever— 1. Presumptuously we require Him to alter the course of nature on our behalf. 2. We rush needlessly into danger. 3. We thoughtlessly cast ourselves into prayer, without having prepared our minds as to what we shall ask. (Eccles. xviii. 23.) 4. We persevere in sin that grace may abound, postponing repentance, stopping our ears to the calls of God. 5. We tie God down to means, as the princes of Bethulia tempted God, when they said that they would give up the city in five days. (Judith viii. 11.) 6. We attempt to excogitate the meaning of Scripture, with regard to doctrine, for ourselves, without following the direction of our divinely-constituted and infallible guide, the Church. 7. We stifle the promptings of conscience. 8. We neglect the appointed means of grace for those of our own choosing. _Again the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them_; and St. Luke adds, _in a moment of time_. I. Whereas St. John was shown the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ, in ecstatic vision, here in vision are the kingdoms of the world shown to Christ as bowing under the rule of Satan. II. Note also, how that— 1. Satan exhibited all the kingdoms to tempt Christ, whilst to tempt us one jug of wine, one fair woman, one handful of gold, are deemed quite sufficient. 2. Satan showed the _glory_ of the kingdoms of earth, but not their emptiness, their troubles, their fleetingness. 3. Satan spreads the net of ambition before those who are leading a life of high spirituality. Thus the Apostles, who had forsaken all for Christ, yet strove amongst themselves as to which of them should be the greatest. (Luke xxii. 24. 2 Kings xxiv. 2.) 4. Satan showed the glories of earth, not of Heaven, trying by this temptation also to withdraw Christ’s mind from things above to things below. 5. Satan did not show the real kingdoms, but only a semblance of them. So he offers us, not those things which will satisfy, but things which have no substance. (James iv. 14.)