out the
provision of man. He preserved Jonah in the whale's belly; and
maintained and kept the bodies of the three children in the furnace of
fire. Reason and the natural man could have seen nothing in these cases
but destruction and death, and could have judged nothing but that God
had cast away the care of these, His creatures, and yet His providence
was most vigilant toward them in the extremity of their dangers, from
which He did so deliver them, and in the midst of them did so assist
them, that His glory, which is His mercy and goodness, did more appear
and shine after their troubles than it could have done if they had
fallen in them. And therefore I measure not the truth and favor of God
by having or by lacking of bodily necessities, but by the promise which
He has made to me. As He Himself is immutable, so is His word and
promise constant, which I believe, and to which I will adhere, and so
cleave, whatever can come to the body outwardly."

In this answer of Christ we may perceive what weapons are to be used
against our adversary the devil, and how we may confute his arguments,
which craftily, and of malice, he makes against God's elect. Christ
might have repulsed Satan with a word, or by commanding him to silence,
as He to whom all power was given in heaven and earth; but it pleased
His mercy to teach us how to use the sword of the Holy Ghost, which is
the word of God, in battle against our spiritual enemy. The Scripture
which Christ brings is written in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. It
was spoken by Moses a little before His death, to establish the people
in God's merciful providence. For in the same chapter, and in certain
others that go before, He reckons the great travail and divers dangers
with the extreme necessities that they had sustained in the desert the
space of forty years, and yet, notwithstanding how constant God had been
in keeping and performing His promise, for throughout all perils He had
conducted them to the sight and borders of the promised land. And so
this Scripture more directly answers to the temptation of Satan; for
thus does Satan reason, as before is said, "Thou art in poverty and hast
no provision to sustain thy life. Therefore God takes no regard nor care
of Thee, as He doth over His chosen children." Christ Jesus answered:
"Thy argument is false and vain; for poverty or necessity precludes not
the providence or care of God; which is easy to be proved by the people
of God, Isra