Annotations Upon the New Testament, Matthew · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Verse 1. IOhn] signifieth the grace of God, for he did preach the grace of God in Christ then exhibited. The Baptist] so named to distinguish him from Iohn the Apostle, and because He first administred baptisme the Sacrament of the new Testament.Vel quòd primus baptizare coepit, vel quòd Christū baptizaverit. Maldonatus, vide Bezam. In the wildernesse] A place wherein wee find six Cities with their villages, Iohn 15.61. but called a wildernesse because thinly inhabited.
Vers. 2. For the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand] That is the Church of the Old Testament is now abolished, and the Church of the New Testament is ready to take place by Christs coming, and therefore repent and amend.
Vers. 3. The voyce of one crying] or, bellowing like an Oxe. Rollock observeth, that Iohn Baptist entred upon his calling in the yeare of Jubilee, which used to bee proclamed by a Cryer with the sound of a trumpet, and he is called the voyce of a cryer in allusion thereunto.
Illud observatu non indignum, factum divina providentia ut qui veniebat in Spiritu Eliae, Elias propterea à Prophetis nominatus, etiam habitu exteriori Eliam referret. Grotius in loc. vide Sculter. exercit Evangel. li. 1. c. 15.Vers. 4. Locusts] have their name in Greeke (foreign) from the tops of the eares of Corne which they fed upon as they fled. The question needes not to bee whether these be mans meate or no? it is certaine that the Jewes might eat them by the law of Moses, Levit. 11.22. Plinie l. 1. c. 29. speakes of them, Matthiolus upon Dioscorides saith, this was the reason, why John Baptist made use of them, as a strict observer of the Law; they are eaten in the East and else where.
Vers. 4. aIn regionibus Calidioribus tanta apum Copia esse solet, ut cum alvearibus Capi non possint in sylvas avolent, & aut in arborum truncis, aut in rupium fissuris mellificent, vidi ego in Boetica homines pauperes, qui hoc ex sylvis colligendo, vendendóque melle quaestum factitarent. Id in Palaestina multum fuisse credendum est, & quia calida & fertilis erat regio, & quia Deus saepe vocat terram lacte & melle manantem, & quia ex facto Ionathae, manifestum est mel à rupibus revera fluxisse. Maldonatus. Vide Scult. Delit. Evang. c. 9.Wild honey]
Vers. 6. Confessing their sins] The confession of the Converts was voluntary, not constrained. 2. In general, not of every particular sin. 3 Publike, not into the eares of a Priest.
Vers. 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadduces come to his baptisme] Two kinds of men which were of great authority among the Jewes, with whom Christ had perpetuall enmity, as also with the Scribes, 5 Cha. 20. and 16.21. & 22.23. & 23.13.
Generation of Vipers] The whole body and corporation of them was full of deadly poison. It is an allusion (say some) to Gen. 3.15.Progeniem viperarum nominat potiùs quam viperas ut toti ordini exprobret virulentam malitiam, ne que enim paucos tantum illos qui aderant sed totum corpus damnari voluit, ac si diceret, utramque factionem non nisi serpentes gignere. Calvin. Chrysost. Opere imperfecto. Vide Spanhem. Dub. Evang. parte 3. Dub. 30. Viperae venenum in lingua, pellis speciosa. Alluditur simul ad locum Geneseos, ubi diabolus serpens Grotius. Where the wicked are called the seed of the Serpent, Chemnit. Others alleadge many properties of the Vipers. 1. He hath his Teeth covered and buried in his gummes, so that one would think it a harmlesse Beast and that it could not bite. Viperae dentes gingivis conduntur, Pliny. l. 11. c. 37. So also have these deceitfull Hypocrites their conveiances wherein they so cunningly couch their wickednesse, that one would take them of all others to be most innocent, and to this appertaines the similitude of our Saviour, Luke 11.44.
Secondly, The nature of Vipers is such, that when they have bitten a man, they presently run to the water, but if they find not the water they die: so Hee calls them Vipers who committing deadly sinnes did run to baptisme, as Vipers to the water to avoyde the danger of death.
Thirdly, it is the nature of Vipers to make themselves a passage through their mothers bowels, (though some denie this) and therefore they are called Viperae, quasi vi partae; so the Jewes daily persecuting the Prophets did breake through their mother the Synagogue, Cant. 1.6.
Fourthly, The Viper is very specious and beautifull without, as it were painted, but full of poyson within; so the Pharisees made a shew and ostentation of holinesse, but had the poyson of malice in their hearts.
Vers. 8. Meete for repentance] It is a metaphor taken from trees transplanted or grafted into other stocks, they must bring forth a new fruite.
Vers. 9. God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.]Spanhem. Dub. Evang. parte. 3. Dub. 35. The Baptist mentioned stones either because there was plentie of them in that place where he taught and baptized, as the similies and examples that Christ brings are often fetcht from things obvious, or he puts a definite thing, for a thing indefinite, stones, that is, things unfit for such a matter, as Luke 19.40. or else alludes to Esay 51.2.
Vers. 10. Now] That light is come into the world, also] this implies something before of the same kind, axe,] some would have that to be Gods own immediate hand, but it is here an instrument, the Roman Empire.
Laid] A metaphor taken from the custome of men which cut with an axe, they usually lay the axe at the place where they would strike, to guide their stroke; God to prevent his.
The roote] Some would have Abrah. to be the root, others Christ, rather the Jewish State & Church, some say Gods presence in his ordinances, the civill government, and saints.
Therefore] After so many warnings and convictions. Tree] The Nations of the Jewes.
Every tree which bringeth not forth] Not that hath or will bring forth, but which doth not bring forth, that is, is not in a growing, bearing, thriving way;Fructus à fruor. it is not enough to bud or blossome, but must make it out to the use of the husbandman. Fruite,] not leaves or blossoms. Good] Answerable to the soile, the purpose God hath ordained it for, and his care and cost bestowed on it. Is cut down] As sure to be as if it were done already.Pareas. Exo. 3.5. Iosh. 5.15. Maldonate hath both those expositions. Vide Drusij. Adag. Class. l. 3. Solvere calceū vilissimum ac maximè despicax est ministerium. Aug. & Theoph. vide Bezam. Cut downe] by Gods hand, judiciously, & efficatiously, though they deserve it meritoriously. Cast into the fire,] which is proper for a barren tree, never to be pluckt out againe.
Vers. 11. Whose shooes I am not worthy to beare] That phrase is taken from the custome of the Hebrewes, who being to enter into the more holy place laid by their shooes as the Turkes and Africans doe now; those which were more noble, had a boy who carried their shooes when they laid them by. The other Evangelists have exprest it in a different phrase, Marke 1.7. Luke 3.16. Iohn 1.26, 27. And they all allude to the forme of the shooe, for in the hotter countries, the shooes had soles onelyonly below, they were tyed above, so that they were to be loosed in their bonds, before they could be pulled off.
Vers. 11. Baptize] That is, drowne you all over, dip you into the ocean of his grace, opposite to the sprinckling which was in the Law, with the Holy Ghost, and with fire] That is with the Holy Ghost, which is fire, et is taken not copulativè, but exegeticè. The Aethiopians (which we call Abisseni) take this word properly,See Gen. 3.16. Hoc est Spiritu sancto igneo, Spiritu Sancto qui est ignis, id est, qui est similis igni. est Hendyadis. Cornel. a Lap. Vide Scultet. Exercit. evang. l. 1. c. 35. and marke their children as we doe our beasts with an hot yron when they baptize them. It must bee expounded metaphorically, or rather prophetically with reference (say some aCameron and Mr. Bedford on the Sac. part. 1. ch. 2.) to the History of the fiery cloven tongues, the visible representation of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Act. 2.2, 3. or to Esay 6.6, 7. (saith bSpicileg. in. loc.Capellus) where one of the Seraphims is said to have taken a burning coale from the Altar, and with it to have touched the lips of the Prophet, by which coal the Holy Ghost was signified, or his most efficacious force of purging, and by those words thy iniquity is taken away, inward baptisme (which wholly consists in the purgation and expiation of sinnes) is noted.
Glass. Rhe. Sac. Tract. 1. c. 11.Vers. 12. In which Allegoricall speech by the floore, the Church of Christ dispersed through Iudaea and the whole world is understood; by the fanne the meanes by which Christ separates beleevers from the hypocrites and wicked, which are preaching of the Gospel, afflictions, and the last judgement; by the purging of the floore, the action of separating; by the wheate, the beleevers; by the chaffe, *Impij & damnandi vocantur paleae, quia ut paleae sunt levissimi, vilissimi & ad nihil fere utiles nisi ad ignem. a Lapidethe wicked; by the garner, the kingdome of heaven and eternall life; by unquenchable fire, the torments of hell, Winnowing signifies the temptations of Satan, Luk. 12.31.
Here the errour of Origen is condemned, who thought that the torments of hell would not be pepetuall, but should end after the great yeare of Plato, in which all things shall be renewed, it is unquenchable fire. He alludes to the 66 of Esay 24. and 33.14.
Vers. 14. But Iohn forbad him,] He earnestly forbad him, as the cforeign, Obnixè prohibuit. foreign in compositione intendit significationem.Geeke word signifies.
Vers. 16. dApertio caelorum pro manifestatione gloriae Coelestis interdum accipitur, hic verò etiam significat visibilis Coeli cissuram ita ut perspicere potuit Iohannes aliquid planetis & astris superius; neque …. alius potest esse sensus verborum Marci cum dicit eum vidisse diffindi coelos. Calvinus. Videtur respicere atque alludere ad locum qui est Proverb. 8.30.It is most likely it was a reall body, and corporall dove, for Luke addeth in a bodily shape. The word likenesse is not to be referred to the Dove, but to the Spirit, which manifested his presence in this likenesse. Secondly, that phrase doth not alwaies note likenesse and similitude onelyonly, but verity and identity, Iohn 1.14. Phil. 2.7. Mahomet, that wicked impostor, and ape of Christ, imitated this. For that he might perswade his followers that the Holy Ghost was familiar with him, he by often feeding a Dove brought her to fly over his head, and to picke graines of corne out of his eare.
Vers. 17. In whom] Not with, or by, or through whom; but a larger preposition than them all, which signifieth two things: first, that God is well pleased with Christ. Secondly, in and through him with others.