The Third Temptation

Sed jam tertio tota diabolicae potestatis commovetur ambitio. Constituto igitur Domino in monte excelso, universa orbis terrarum regna, eorumque gloriam obtulit, si modo adoraretur ipse. Jam gemina responsione opinionem suspicionis excesserat. Cibo Adam pellexerat, et de paradisi gloria in peccati locum, id est, in regionem vetitiae arboris deduxerat: tertio divini nominis ambitione corruperat, diis futurum similem pollicendo. Igitur adversus Dominum tota jam saeculi potestate pugnatur, et Creatori suo possessio hujus universitatis offertur: ut tenens ordinem fraudis antiquae, quem neque cibo pellexerat, nec loco moverat, nunc vel ambitione corrumperet. Sed responsio Domini dignum de superioribus gradum fecit. Ait enim: Vade satana. Scriptum est enim, Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies. Temeritatis tantae congruum exitum tulit, cum et criminum suorum in satana nomen audivit, et Dominum Deum suum adorandum in homine cognovit. Praebuit etiam hujus responsionis effectu magnum nobis Dominus exemplum: ut contempta humanae potestatis gloria, et saeculi ambitione postposita, solum meminissemus Deum et Dominum adorandum; quia omnis saeculi honor diaboli sit negotium. Post hanc ergo diaboli fugam, Angeli Christo ministrant; ostendentes, a nobis victo calcatoque diaboli capite, et Angelorum ministeria, et Virtutum in nos coelestium officia non defutura. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, In Evangelium Matthaei Commentarius, Cap VI

But now for the third time all the ambition of the diabolical power is shaken. Thus having set the Lord on a high mountain, all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them he offers, if only He would adore him. 1 Already with two replies He has fortified the suspicion. With food he seduced Adam, and from the glory of paradise into a place of sin he led him, that is, into the region of the forbidden tree; with his third effort he would corrupt with ambition for the Divine name, as with that promise that in the future they shall be like gods. 2 Thus against the Lord with all the power of the world he fights, offering to his own Creator  the possession of everything, and so he holds to the order of the old deceit, but here he neither seduces with bread, nor with place moves, nor with ambition does he corrupt. But the response of the Lord matches what has gone before. He says, 'Begone, Satan; for it is written the Lord your God you shall adore and Him alone you will serve.' A fitting end He brought to such temerity, and when he heard the name of Satan for his own crimes, he knew that the Lord his God would be worshipped in man. He gave, then, with His answers a great example to us, that by having contempt for the glory of human power and by placing beneath us worldly ambition, we be mindful that we should adore our Lord and God alone, because the business of every age is to give honour to the Devil. And after the flight of the devil, the angels ministered to God, showing that with our victory and crushing of the devil's head, we shall not lack the ministry of angels and the attentions of the celestial powers. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, from the Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 3 1 Mt 4.8-10 2 Gen 3.5