2819. As regards the Lord’s temptations in general, some were more external and some more internal; and the more internal they were, the more grievous. The inmost ones are described by the Evangelists (Matthew 26:37-39, 42, 44; 27:46; Mark 14:33-36; 15:34; Luke 22:42-44); but see what has been said before respecting the Lord’s temptations, namely: That the Lord first contended from goods and truths which appeared as goods and truths (n. 1661); That He contended against the evils of the love of self and the world from Divine Love toward the whole human race (n. 1690, 1691 at the end, 1789, 1812-1813, 1820); That He alone contended from the Divine Love (n. 1812, 1813): That all the hells fought against the Lord’s love, which was for the salvation of the whole human race (n. 1820): That the Lord endured the most grievous temptations of all (n. 1663, 1668, 1787): That the Lord became righteousness from His own power by means of temptations and victories (n. 1813, 2025): That the union of His Human Essence with His Divine Essence was effected by the Lord by means of temptations and victories (n. 1737, 1813, 1921, 2025, 2026). See also what has been said before concerning temptations in general (n. 59, 63, 227, 847): That temptation is a combat concerning power, as to whether good or evil, truth or falsity, is to reign supreme (n. 1923): That in temptations there are indignations, and many other affections (n. 1917): That temptations are celestial, spiritual, and natural (n. 847): That in temptations the evil genii and spirits assail the things of the love, and thus the things of the man’s life (n. 847, 1820): What temptations effect (n. 1692 at the beginning, 1717, 1740): That temptation is for the purpose that corporeal things may be subdued (n. 857): That the evils and falsities in a man who is being regenerated are subdued by temptations, not abolished (n. 868): That truth has the first place in combat (n. 1685): That man combats from the goods and truths which he has acquired by knowledges, though they be not in themselves goods and truths (n. 1661): That evil spirits and genii excite the falsities and evils in a man, and hence come temptations (n. 741, 751, 761).

That in temptations man thinks that the Lord is absent, whereas He is then more present (n. 840): That man can by no means sustain the combats of temptations of himself, because they are against all the hells (n. 1692 the end): That the Lord alone combats in man (n. 1661, 1692): That by means of temptations evil genii and spirits are deprived of the power of doing evil and inspiring falsity in man (n. 1695, 1717): That temptations come with those who have conscience, and more acute ones with those who have perception (n. 1668): That temptations rarely exist at this day, but in their place anxieties, which are of another character and from another source (n. 762): That men spiritually dead cannot sustain the combats of temptations (n. 270): That all temptations are attended with despair respecting the end (n. 1787, 1820): That after temptations there is fluctuation (n. 848, 857): That the good learn by temptations that they are nothing but evil, and that all things are of mercy (n. 2334): That by temptations goods are conjoined more closely with truths (n. 2272): That men are not saved by temptations if they yield in them, nor if they think that they have merited by them (n. 2273): That in every temptation there is freedom, and stronger than out of temptations (n. 1937).

1789. Thy great reward. That this signifies the end and purpose of the victories, is evident from the signification of “reward,” as being the prize after the combats of temptations; here the end and purpose of the victories, because the Lord never looked for any prize of victory for Himself. His prize of victories was the salvation of the whole human race; and it was from love toward the entire human race that He fought. He who fights from this love demands for himself no prize, because this love is such that it wills to give and transfer all its own to others, and to have nothing for itself; so that it is the salvation of the whole human race that is here signified by the “reward.”