Realizing, however, that this task is far greater than the one he undertook centuries before,--when he winged his way through chaos to discover the new world and tempt our first parents,--he volunteers to undertake it in person, and all the evil spirits applaud him.

This settled, Satan departs to carry out the second temptation.
Meantime another assembly has been held in heaven, where, addressing the archangel Gabriel, the Almighty informs him he will soon see the fulfilment of the message he bore some thirty years previously to Mary.

He adds that his Son, whom he has publicly recognized, is about to be tempted by Satan, who, although he failed in the case of Job, is undertaking this new task confident of success.

The Almighty also predicts that Satan will again be defeated, but declares Christ is as free to yield or resist as Adam when first created, and that before sending him out to encounter Sin and Death he means to strengthen him by a sojourn in the desert.

On hearing that Satan's evil plans will be frustrated, the angels burst into a hymn of triumph with which heaven resounds.
So spake the eternal Father, and all Heaven Admiring stood a space; then into hymns Burst forth, and in celestial measures moved, Circling the throne and singing, while the hand Sung with the voice; and this the argument: "Victory and triumph to the Son of God Now entering his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure Ventures his filial virtue, though untried, Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce, Allure, or terrify, or undermine.
Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, And devilish machinations come to nought." During this time the Son of God, after lingering three days by the Jordan, is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where he spends his time meditating upon the great office he had undertaken as Saviour of mankind.