Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX.
Verse 1. And came into the coasts of Judaea.]
VPonUpon the news of Lazarus his friends sicknesse: with the…. hazard of his life, he came far on foot to the help of his friend:foreign. Much water cannot quench love. And this was our Saviours last journey toward Jerusalem: to the which he steeled his face…. with fortitude, and was even …, or pained, till it were accomplished.…. So was that Martyr, who (because he seemed at hisforeign. lodging to be somewhat troubled, and was therefore asked by…. …. one how he did?) answered, In very deed I am in prison, till I be in … 1, ….prison.
Verse 2. And great multitudes followed him]
Though he were then to die. For all that follows from this 19 to Chap. 26.foreign. … to be a relation of the acts of the last three moneths of his …. Follow God, was a morall precept of the Heathen Sages;… …. who therein placed the safety and happinesse of a man, Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit, saith Seneca. He is a brave man that follows God thorow thick and thin, thorow whatsoever hardship.
Verse 3. Is it lawfull for a man &c.]
A captious question, purposely to put him to shame or perill afore the people. For if he liked divorce, the better sort would be offended and displeased: if he disliked it, the common sort (those that followed him,) for denying them that liberty that Moses had allowed them. One thing that created Jeremy so much trouble among the people of his time was, that he … them to the yeelding up of the City to the …, which Isaiah had so earnestly disswaded them, not long before in the dayes of King ….
Verse 4. And he answered and said unto them]
Our SaviourLuk. …. …. would not divide the inheritance, when required to it; but he would decide controversies touching divorces: for in marriagematters many cases of conscience fall out fit to be determined by the …, whose lips should both preserve and … knowledge to the people, whose house for this cause should be alwayes …, as the Ediles house in Rome was to all comers.
Verse 5. And said, For this cause &c.]
Dixit, …, …, … three things are said by Moses to have been done by God in the institution, and for the honour of marriage: to the which still (saith a Divine,) God beareth so great respect, as that… on 1 … 3. 2. pag. 44. he is pleased to bear with, cover, and not impute the many frailties, follies, vanities, weaknesses and wickednesses, that are found betwixt man and wife.
For this cause shall a man leave father]
viz, In regard of cohabitation, not of sustentation: Relinquet cubile patris & matris, as the Chaldee rightly interprets it, Gen. 2. 24. And this was the first Prophecy that was ever uttered in the world (saith … and Beda,) venerable therefore for its antiquity: like as isAlsted Chron. …. 468. also that first Hexameter, made by Phemonoe, in the year of the world, 2580;
foreign.
And shall cleave to his wife]
Gr. Be glued to her. A table willforeign. often cleave in the whole wood, before it will part asunder, where it is glued. A husband ought to be as firm to his wife as to himself. See my Notes on Gen. 2. 24.
And they twain shall be one flesh]
This is point-blank against polygamy, which yet Anabaptists would bring in again, and Turks allow of. They learned it of Lamech, qui primus unam costam in duas divisit, saith Hierom, but had soon enough of it. So had Jacob, Elkanah, and other holy men of old, who lived and died in this sin of polygamy, and meerly through mistake, as it is thought, of that text, Lev. 18. 16. Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her: i. e. Thou shalt not superinduce one wife to another. Now the Fathers took the word (sister) for one so by blood, … was spoken of a sister by Nation, as those clauses (to vex her) and (during her life) doe evince.
Verse 6. They are no more twain]
A mans wife is himself, Eph. 5. 28. (as is likewise a mans country, Luk 4 23. to cure his countreyforeign. is to cure …) and they twain, saith our Saviour in the former verse, shall be foreign, into one flesh. The man misseth his rib, and the woman would be in her old place again, under the mans arm or wing: Hence no rest, till they be … and concorporated, Ruth. 3. 1. My daughter, said Naaman to Ruth, … I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Why then should there be divorces for light matters? why should there … of wives, and laying upon them (as some) with their unmanly fists? Did ever any man hate his own flesh, Ephes. 5. 29. or but hide his eyes from it, Isa. 58. 7? how much lesse tear it with his teeth, and pull it away piece-meal, unlesse it were mad demoniacks and rash divorcers? Christ, the best husband, hates putting away, Mal. 2. 16. yea though never so much provoked to it ( …. 3. 1. Ioh. 13. 1.) he will not doe it.
Verse 7. Why did Moses then command &c.]
Sophister-like they oppose Moses to God, Scripture to Scripture, as if God were … himself. This is still the guise of … hereticks; … also to mingle and jumble together truths with falshoods, that falshoods may passe the more …. See it in these Pharisees. It was true that Moses commanded (for the honour of the woman, and disgrace of the man,) that he should give her an Abscessionale, a bill of divorcement. But it was not true that Moses commanded to put her away. He permitted such a thing indeed as a civil Magistrate by divine dispensation (better an inconvenience then a mischief) but that makes little for its lawfullnesse.
Verse 8. Moses, because of the hardnesse of your hearts]
Ob duricordiam …, saith …. For the reliefe of the …, questionlesse, was this permitted by Moses, not as a Prophet, but as a Law-giver; so he suffered them to exercise usury upon strangers. And, at this day, they are by the States where they liveS. …. … Spec. Eur permitted, to strain up their usury to 18. in the hundred upon the Christians: And so they are used, as the Friers, to suck from the meanest, and to be sucked by the greatest. But what saith ourStatut … … 8. Statute? … as all usury, being forbidden by the Law of God, is a sin and …, &c. And what … Homilybook? Verily so many as increase themselves by usury— they have…. l. …. …. their goods of the devils gift, &c. And what saith blinde Nature?… 17. … 2. Aristotle in one page … both foreign and foreign, the…. in …. … and the Dicer. And Agis the Athenian Generall, set fire upon all the usurers books and bonds in the market-place: then which fire Agesilaus was wont to say, he never saw a fairer. But to return to the …: Moses noteth the hatred of a mans wife to be the cause of much mischief, …. 22. 13, 14. Hence a divorce … in that case, Chapt. 24. 3. lest the husbands hatred, should work the wives ruth or ruin, in case he should be … to … her. He might put her away therefore, but not without a double … to himself. 1. By his writing of divorce, he should give … to her honesty, and that she was put away meetly … his hard-heartednesse toward her. 2. If she were again … by a second husband, the first might not take her to wife …, as having once sor ever judg'd himself … of her surther fellowship. Husbands should be gentle to their wives, because of their weaknesse: glasses are not hardly handled; a small knock soon breaks them. But here are a number of Nabals, a brood of Caldeans, a bitter and furious nation that have little … in their … but wormwood; they have a true gall of bitternesse in them, Col. 3. 20. whereas the very heathens at their weddings, pulled the gall out of all their good chear, and castforeign. …. it away; teaching thereby the married couples what to doe. And God Almighty professeth that he hates putting away: threatning … cut off such unkinde husbands, as by their harshnesse caused … wives when they should have been chearfull in Gods services,Malach. 2. 13. … cover the Altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with crying out, so that he regarded not the offering any more. Picus … mariti, saith Melancthon. The Pyanit is an emblem of an unkinde husband: for in autumn he casts off his …, lest he should be forced to keep her in winter: afterwards, in the spring, he allures her to him again, and makes much of her.
Verst 9. Except it be for ….]
This sin dissolves the marriage-knot, and directly fights against humane society. See the … on …. 15. 32. and on Joh. 8. 5. The Apostle adds the… 117. v. 9. … of wilfull desertion, 1 Cor 7. 15. The civil Laws of the Empire permitted divorce for divers other causes. In Turky the woman may sue a divorce only then, when her husband would abuseBlounts … Levant. her … nature, which she doth, by taking off her shooe before the Judges, and holding it the sole upward, but speaking nothing for … of the fact.
Verse 10. If the case of a man be so with his wife]
viz. That … may not rid his hands of her when he will; better be married to a … ague then to a bad wife, said Simonides.
It is not good to marry]
It is not evil to marry, but good toBern de bon. …. be wary; to look ere one leap. Alioqui saliens … videat, … est antequàm debeat, as Bernard hath it. Most men, as … Disciples look not to the commodities but discommodities of wedlock, and other things, and are discontented. But as there be two kindes of antidotes against poison, viz. hot and cold: so against the troubles of life, whether single or married, viz. … and Patience, the one hot, the other cold, the one quenching, the other quickning.
Verse 11. All men cannot receive this saying]
Nor may we simply pray for the gift of continency, but with submission, sith it … not simply necessary to salvation: but only of expediency: inasmuch … he that can keep himself unmarried, hath little else to care for but how he may please the Lord, and attend upon his1 … 7 …. …. work without distraction, sitting close at it (as the Greek wordforeign. signifies) and not taken off by other …. An instance whereof was clearly to be seen in George Prince of Anhalt, whose family is said to … been …, Academia, Curia, a Church, an University and a Court; whose sanctity and chastity in the single … to his dying day was such, that Melancthon publikely delivered it of him, that he was the man, that of any then alive, might most certainly expect the promised reward of eternall life: ButEx … boc …. …. this is not every mans happinesse: and where it is, the pride of virginity, is no … foul a sin then impurity, … Augustin. And … a single man and a … in the Primitive Church …, that the marriage-bed undefiled was true chastity.Congressum …. … …. …. lib …. Those Popish votaries, that boasted so much of the gift of continency in themselves, and exacted it of others, have (for a punishment of … arrogance and violence) been oft given up to notorious filthinesse: as the Cardinall of Cremona, after his stout replying in the Councel of London against Priests marriage, was…. 11. shamely taken, the night following, with a notable whore. … …. … Mon. 1065.… Canterbury, a great enemy to Priests marriage, for all his gay shew of Monkish virginity and single life, had…. 1062. a son called … Monachus Cadonensis, whom he so gladly preferred to be Abbot of St Albons. Dr Weston (… in theIbid 1326. disputation at Oxford against Cranmer, … and Ridly, who also … upon them, inveighing against Cranmer, forIbid. …. that he had been, sometimes a married man,) was not long after taken in adultery, and for the same was by Cardinall Poole put from … his spirituall livings.
Save they to whom it is given]
Maldonate the Jesuite saith, it is given to any one that is but willing to have it, and asketh it of God: and that, because Marriage is given to all that are willing to it. But this is 1 False for our Saviour excepts Eunuchs. …. Inconsequent,1 Cor. 7. because the gift of Marriage proceeds … a principle of nature, but continency from a speciall indulgence: which they that … not, are required to marry for a remedy, And yet … most injuriously … some to marry at any time, as there Clergy, all at some times: and that, not … a … of conveniency, but … and ….
Verse 12. Which were so born]
Of a frigid constitution of body and unapt for generation. This is not continency but …, …, a defect in nature.
Which were made Eunuches of men]
Evirati … of manhood, as in the Court of Persia of old, and of Turky at this day; where Christans children are not gelded only, but deprived of all their …, … the … of nature with a silver quill: which … custome was brought in among them by Selymus the …, out of jealousie lest his Eunuches were not so chaste as they … have been, in keeping their Ladies beds. For, though made … by men, yet are they not without their fleshly …, yea they are magni amatores mulierum, as she in Terence ….
Which have made themselves Eunuches.]
Not gelded themselves, as Origen and some others in the Primitive times, by mistake of this text. (So Tertullian tells of Democritus, that he pulled outIn …. his own eyes, because he could not look upon women and not lust … them: wherein he did but publish his extreme folly to theIoseph. lib. 2. de …, cap. 6. whole City, saith he) Nor yet tyed themselves by vow to perpetuall continency, out of a superstitious opinion of meriting heaven thereby, as the … of old, and the … Clergy now: But live single, that they may serve God with more freedom, fighting against fleshly lusts (that fight against the soul) with … spirituall weapons, Meditation, Prayer, Abstinence, &c. which are … through God to the pulling down of Satans strong holds set up in the heart. Hence the Hebrew, Syriack, Chaldee and Arabick render this text, Qui castr ârunt animam suam, which have gelded their …. And the truth is, there they must begin, that will doe any thing in this kinde to purpose. Incesta est, & fine stupro, … stuprum cupit, … Seneca. And S. Pauls virgin must be holy both in body, and in spirit, 1 Cor. 7. 34.
Verse 13. Then … there brought unto him little ones]
By their parents carefull of their … good. We must also … ours, as we can, to Christ. And 1. By praying for them before, at, and after their birth. 2. By timely bringing them to the ordinance of baptisme with faith, and much joy in such a priviledge. 3. By training them up in Gods holy fear; … God to perswade their hearts, as Noah did for his son Iapheth. We may speak perswasively, but God only …: as Rebekah might cook the …, but it was Isaac only, … gave the ….
And the Disciples rebuked them]
They held it a … below their-Lord to look upon little ones. But it is not with our God,Non … ex … a. l. … lovi as with their Idol that had no leisure to attend smaller matters. Christian Children are the Churches nursery: the devil seeks to destroy them, as he did the babes of Bethlehem: but Christ hath a gracious respect unto them, and sets them on a rock that is higher then they.
Verse 14. For of such is the Kingdom]
That is, all the blessings of heaven and earth comprized in the covenant, belong both to these and such as these, Matth. 18. 3. Let them therefore have free recourse to me, who will both own them, and crown them with life eternall.
Verse 15. And he laid his hands on them]
So putting upon them his fathers blessing, as Iacob did upon Iosephs sons, whom by this symbol he adopted for his own. And albeit our Saviour baptized not these infants (as neither did he those that were bigger,) yet for asmuch as they were confessedly capable of Christs gifts, they were doubtlesse capable of the signes and seals of those gifts: if capable of imposition of Christs hands, of his benediction, and kingdom, then capable also of baptisme, which saveth us, … St Peter, in the time present, because the use thereof is permanent… Pet. 3. 21. (though the act transient) so long as one liveth. Whensoever a sinner repents and beleeves on the promises, Baptisme (the seal thereof) is as powerfull and effectuall, as if it were then presently administred. The …, and book of sentences say, thatLib. 4 …. 7. cap. 1, …. Confirmation is of more value then Baptisme, and gives the holy Ghost more plentifully and …. And the Papists generally … this text, to establish their Sacrament of Confirmation, or … of children. But 1. These were little infants, not led but brought in their mothers arms. 2. …, as they use it, was never commanded to Christs Ministers, nor … by his ….
Verse 16. And be hold one came]
One of good rank, a Ruler, Luk. 18. 18. of good estate, for he was rich, and had great revenue (foreign, saith Luke, foreign, saith Matthew, he had a good title to that he had, and he lived not beside it.) He was also aMatth 19. 22. foreign … young man, in the prime and pride of his age, and had been well bred; both for point and civility, he came congeeing to our Saviour, Mark. 10. 17. And for matter of piety, he was no Sadducee, for he … after eternall life, which they denied. And although but young, he hearkens after heaven: and though he were rich, he comes running to Christ, thorow desire of information: whereas great men … not to run, but to walk leisurely, so to maintain their authority. Lastly, he knew much of Gods Law, and had done much: so that he seemed to himself to want work, to be aforehand with God. Christ also looked upon him and loved him, as he was a tame creature, a morall man, and fit to live in a common-wealth.
What good thing shall I doe?]
A most needfull and difficult question, rarely moved, by rich men especially, whose hearts are … upon their half-peny, as they say, whose mouthes utter no … language but the horse leeches, Give, give. Who will shew us any good, &c? a good purchase, a good peny-worth, &c? Howbeit, by the manner of his expressing himself, this Gallant seems to…. tract. have been a Pharisee and of that sort of Pharisees (for there were…. …. 3. seven sorts of them, saith the Talmud,) which was named Quid … facere, & faciam illud: Tell me what I should doe and I will doe it. They that know not Christ, would go to heaven by their good meanings and good doings: this is a piece of naturall Popery, that must be utterly abandoned, ere eternall life can be obtained.
That I may have eternall life]
He had a good minde to heaven, and cheapens it, but was not willing to go to the price of it, that thorow-sale of all: Good desires may be found in hellmouth, as in Balaam, some short-winded wishes at least. The Spyes praised the land as pleasant and plenteous, but they held the … impossible, and thereby discouraged the people. Many like well of Abrahams bosom, but not so well of Dives his door. They seek to Christ, but when he saith, Take up the Crosse and follow me: they stumble at the crosse and felt backward. Their desires … heaven are lazy and sluggish, like the door that turnes upon the hinges, but yet hangs still on them: so these Wishers, and Woulders, for all their faint and weake desires after heaven, still hang fast on the hinges of their sinnes: they will not be wrought off… from the things of this world, they will not part with their fitnesse and sweetnesse, though it be to raigne for ever. Iudg. 9. 11. Theatinus in St Ambrose would rather loose his sight then his sinne of intemperance: so many, their soules.
Verse 17. Why callest thou me good?]
And if I be not good, much lesse art thou, what good conceits soever thou hast of thy self. Here then our Saviour learns this yonker, …, and selfannihilation.….
There is none good but one, that is God]
He both is good originall,…. 119. …. (others are good by participation only) and doth good abundantly, freely, constantly, for thou Lord art good, and ready to for give, saith David, Psal. 86. 5. And let the power of my LordNumb. 14 17. be great, saith Moses, in pardoning this rebellious people. In the Originall there is a letter greater then ordinary in the word jigdal foreign …. &c.(be great) to shew, say the Hebrew-doctours, that though … people should have tempted God, or murmured against him ten times more then they did, yet their perversnesse should not interrupt…. Tiberias …. the course of his ever-flowing overflowing ….
If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments]
That is (saith Luther) Morero, die out of hand: for there is no man lives that sinnes not. It … storied of Charles the fourth, King of France, that being one time affected with the sense of his many and great sinnes, he fetcht a deep sigh and said to his wife, now, by the help of God, I will so carry my self all my life long, that I neverS. …. …. Christ. …. offend him more: which word he had no sooner uttered, but he presently fell down and died. It is not our Saviours … here to teach, that heaven may be had or earned by keeping the law: for Adam in his innocency, if he had so continued, could not have merited heaven, neither do the Angels, nor could Christ himself, had he been no more then a man. None but a proud Luciferian would have said, as Vega the Popish Perfectionary did, Coelum gratis non accipiam, I will not go to heaven for nought or on free-cost. But our Saviour here shapes this young Pharisee an answer, according to his question. He would … be saved by doing, Christ sets him that to do, which no man living can do, and so … him his errour. He sets him to school to the law, that hard schoolmaster, that sets us such lessons as we are never able to learn, (… Christ our elder-brother teach us, and do our exercise for us) yea brings us forth to God, as that schoolmaster in Livy did all his scholars (the flower of the Romane Nobility) to Hannibal: who if he had not been more mercifull then otherwise, they had all perished.
Verse 18. Thou shalt do no murther]
Our Saviour instancethPrimo …. …. M Ley his …. …. P 99. the Commandments of the second table only, as presupposing those of the first: for the second table must be kept in the first: and the whole Law, say the Schools, is but one copulative. The two tables of the law (saith a Reverend Divine) are, in their object answerable to the two natures of Christ: For God is the object of one, man of the other. And as they meet together in the person of Christ, so must they be united in the affections and endeavours of a Christian.
Verse 19. Thou shalt love thy neighbour, &c.]
Which because thou doest not (as appears because thou wilt not part with thy possessions to relieve the poor,) … much lesse doest thou love God, and therefore art not the man thou takest thy self forCivil men overween themselves, and boast of their morall …: yet make no conscience of the lesser breaches of the second table, nor yet of contemplative wickednesse, which yet angreth God, Gen 6. 6. and lets in the devil, 2 Cor. 10. And these are the worlds very honest men, for lack of better: as a cab of doves-dung was dear meat in the famine of Samaria, where better could not be come by.
Verse 20. All these things have I kept]
Lie and all: as now… mendacium nemo bominum de se dixit. Pareus … bypocritam se gloiatur. …. the Popish Pharisees dream and brag that they can keep the Law, and spare. They can do more then, then any that ever went before them, Psal. 143. 3. Job 15. 14. Jam. 3. 2. Oecolampadius saith, that none of the … lived out a full thousand years (which is a number of perfection) to teach us, that here is no perfection of …. Davids heart smote him for doing that which … highly r commended him for.
What … I yet?]
Gr. Wherein am I yet behinde with God? foreign.He thought himself somewhat aforehand, and that God, belike, was in his debt. Truely many now-a daies grow crooked and aged with over-good opinions of themselves, and can hardly ever beset right again. They stand upon their comparisons, I am as good as thou: nay upon their disparisons, I am not as this Publican. No, for thou art worse; yea for this, because thou thinkest thy self better. This arrogant youth makes good that of Aristotle, who, differencing between age and youth, makes it a propertyforeign. of young men, to think they know all things, and to affirm lustily their own placits. He secretly insults over our Saviour…. 1. as a triviall teacher, and calls for a lecture beyond the …, worthy therefore to have been sent to Anticyra: surely as when Drusus in his defence against a nimble Jesuite that called him …, alledged that … must be in sundament is fidei, the … replied that even that assertion was heresie: So when this young man affirmed that he had ever kept the Commandments, and asked what lack I yet? Christ might well have said, thou art therefore guilty of the breach of all the Commandments, because thou takest thy self to be keeper of all: and thou therefore lackest every thing, because thou thinkest thou lackest nothing.
Verse 21. If thou … be perfect]
As thou boastest and aimest: and which never yet any man was, nor can be here. The … of this text made some of the Ancients count and call it consilium perfectionis, a counsell of perfection: such as whosoever did observe should do something more then the law required: and so merit for themselves an higher degree of glory in heaven then others had. Hence Bernard writeth, that this sentence of our Saviour filled the Monasteries with Monks, and the deserts with Anchorites.
Goe sell all, &c.]
A personall command (for triall and discovery) as was that of God to Abraham, Go kill thy sonne …. Christians may possesse; but yet as if they possessed not, they must … loose to all outward things, and be ready to forgoe them, when called to loose them for Christ.
And give to the poor]
So shalt thou clear thy self from allforeign quod ad pedes …. … to …. suspition of coveteousnesse; which properly consists in pinching and saving: and so is distinguished by the Apostle from extortion, which stands … immoderate getting, 1 Cor. 6 10. 1 Tim. 3. 3.
And … have treasure in heaven]
Far beyond the … of Egypt, which yet is called Rahab, Psal. 89. 10. because of the riches power and pride thereof. Oh get a Patriarchs eie to see the wealth and worth of heaven: and then we shall soon make Moses his choice. In the year of grace 759, certain Persian … fell into that madnesse, that they perswaded themselves…. and sundry others, that if they sold all they had, and gave it to the poor, and then afterwards threw themselves naked from off the walls into the river, they should presently be admitted into …. … hac insaniâ …, saith mine Author. … cast away by this mad enterprize. How much better (if without superstition and opinion of merit) Amadeus Duke of … ) who … asked by certain Embassadours that came to…. his court, what hounds he had, for they desired to see them? shewed them the … day a pack of poor people feeding at his table, and said, these are the hounds wherewith I hunt after heaven.
Verse 22. He went away sorrowfull]
That … should require that, which he was not willing to perform. If heaven be to be had upon no other terms, Christ may keep his heaven to himself; hee'l have none. How many have we now …, that must be gainers by their religion, which must be another Diana to the …. They are resolved howsoever to loose nothing, suffer nothing, but rather kick up all: Jeroboamo gravior … regionis quam religionis. The King of Navarre told …, that in the cause of Religion he would launch no further into the sea, then he might be sure to return safe to the haven. A number of such Politick professours we have, that come to Christ (as this young man did) hastily, but depart heavily, when once it comes to a whole-sale of all for Christ, which yet is the first lesson, the removens prohibens.
Verse 23. A rich man shall hardly enter]
With that burden of thick clay, that camels-bunch on his back: heaven is a stately… est opibus non …. Et … … pallace with a narrow portall; there must be both stripping and …, ere one can get through this strait gate. The greatest wealth is ordinarily tumoured up with the greatest swelth of rebellion against God. Vermis divitiarum est superbia, saith Augustine, Pride breeds in wealth, as the worm doth in the apple, and he is a great rich man indeed, and greater then his riches, that doth not think himself great, because he is rich. Charge those 1 Tim. 6. 17.that are rich that they be not high-minded (for the devil will soon blow up such a blab in them, if they watch not) and that they trust not in uncertain riches, so as to make their gold their God, as all worldlings do, and worse: for could we but rip up such mens hearts we should finde written in them The God of this present world. They that minde earthly things have destruction for their …, Philip. 3. Have them we may and use them too, but minde them we may not, nor love them, 1 John 2. 15. that's spirituall …, such as Gods soul hateth, and he smiteth his hands at, … 22. 13.
Verse 24 It is easier for a camell, &c.]
Or, cable. rope, as some render it. Either serves; for it is a proverbiall speech, settingforeign …. forth the difficulty of the thing. Difficile est, saith St Hierom, ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur & futuris, ut … ventrem … mentem …, ut de … ad delicias transeat, ut in coelo & in terrâ gloriosus appareat. Pope Adrian the sixth said thatAdrian …. nothing befell him more unhappy in all his life, then that he had been head of the Church, and Monarch of the Christian commonwealth. When I first entered into orders, said another Pope, I…. had some good … of my salvation; when I became a Cardinall,…. a Lap i. … com. in Numb. 11. 11. …. 1. …. I doubted of it: but since I came to be Pope, I do even almost despair. And well he might, as long as he sate in that chair of pestilence, being that man of sinne, that sonne of perdition, 2 Thes. …. ….2. 3. Ad hunc statum venit Romana Ecclesia, said Petrus Aliacus long since, ut non esset dignareginisi per reprobos. The Popes, like the devils, are then thought to do well, when they cease to doIn …. hurt, saith Johan. Sarisburiensis. They have had so much grace left we see (some of them howsoever,) as to acknowledge, that their good and their blood rose together, that honours changed their manners, and that they were the worse men for their great wealth: and that as Shimei seeking his servants lost himself; so they, by reaching after riches and honours, lost their souls. Let rich men often … this terrible text, and take heed. Let them untwist their cables, that is, their heart, by humiliation, James 5. 1. & 1. 10. till it be made like small threeds as it must be, before they can enter into the eye of a needle, that is, eternall life.
Verse 25. They were exceedingly amazed]
Because they knew that all men either are or would be rich; and that of rich man, scarce any but trusted in their riches. Therefore, though our Saviour told them, Mark. 10 24. that he meant it of those only that relied upon their riches, yet they remained as much unsatisfied as before, and held it an hard case that so many should misse of heaven. We have much ado to make men beleeve that the way is half so hard as Ministers make it.
Verse 26. With men this is impossible]
Because rich mens … are ordinarily so wedded and wedged to the world, that…. 11. 41. they will not be loosned, but by a powerfull touch from the hand… 2. of heaven. Think not therefore, as many do, that there is no other hell but poverty, no better heaven then abundance. Of rich … they say, What should such a man ail? The Irish ask, what they mean to die, &c. The gold ring and gay clothing carried it in St James his time. But he utterly … ked … partiality: and … us that God hath chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith to be heirs of his kingdome; In which respect he bids the brother … low degree, … in that he is exalted in Christ.
But with God all things are possible]
He can quickly root out confidence in the creature, and rivet rich men to himself. He can do more then he will: but whatsoever he willeth, that he doeth, without stop or hinderance. Men may want of their will for want of power. Nature may be interrupted in her course, as it was when the fire burnt not the three Worthies, the water drowned not Peter walking upon it, &c. Satan may be crossed and chained up: But who hath resisted the Almighty? who ever waxed fierce…. 9 4. against God and prospered? Nature could say, All things are … foreign. Linus Poeta.to God, and nothing impossible: howbeit for a finite creature to beleeve the infinite Attributes of God, he is not able to do it throughly, without supernaturall grace.
Verse 27. Behold we have for saken all, &c.]
A great All sure, a few broken boats, nets, houshold stuffe: and Christ maintained…. Pareus. them too: and yet they ask, what shall we have? Neither is it without an emphasis, that they begin with a Behold. Behold we have forsaken all, as if Christ were therefore greatly beholden to them, and if the young man were promised treasure in heaven, doing so, and so, then they might challenge it, they might say with the Prodigall Give me the portion that pertains unto me.
Verse 28. Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration]
As if our Saviour should have said, to forsake all is not enough … ye be regenerate: So some sense it. Others by Regeneration understand the estate of the Gospel, called elswhere a new heaven, and a new earth, 2 Pet. 3. 13. the world to come, Heb. 2. 5. for God plants the heavens, and laies the foundation of the earth, that he may say to Zion, thou art my people. There are that understand by regeneration the generall resurrection (of which … some think Plato had heard, and therefore held, that in the revolution of so many years men should be just in the same estate, wherein they were before.) These that follow this latter sense, read the text thus by an alteration of points, Ye which have followed me, shall, in the regeneration (when the Son of man shall sit in his glory) fit upon twelve thrones, &c.
Ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones]
As so many Kings. Kings they are here but somewhat obscure ones, as Melchisedech was; but shall then appear with Christ in glory, far outshiningColos. 3. 4. the Sunne in his strength, higher then all the Kings of the earth. Psal …. 27.When Daniel had … the greatnesse and glory of all the four Monarchies of the world, at last he comes to speak of a Kingdome, which is the greatest and mightiest under the whole heaven,Dan. 7. 18. and that is the Kingdom of the Saints of the most high. So glorious is their estate even here: what … it be then at that great day? And if the Saints (every of them) shall judge the Angells; What shall the Apostles do? surely as they … or … men in this world, so shall it fare with them at the generall Judgement.
Verse 29. Shall receive an hundred sold]
In reference to Isaacks hundred-fold increase of his seed. Gen. 26. 12. or that best of. grounds. Mat. 13, Those that do pillage us they do but husband us, sow for us, when they make long forrowes on our backs Psal. 126. and ride over our heads. Psal. 66, 12, Gordius the Mattyr said; It is to my losse, if you bate me any thing in my suffrings. Crudelitas vestra nostra gloria, said they in Tertullian, your cruelty is our glory: and the harder we are put to it, the greater shall be…. …. our reward in heaven. Nay on earth too; the Saints shall have their losses for Christ recompensed, either in mony or monies-worth either in the same, or a better thing. Iob had all doubled to him, Valentinian, for his tribuneship, the Empire cast upon him, … … the Apostate, who had put him out of office, for his religion.Qu pro Christi … accepit …. …. Q. Elizabeth (whose life … a long while had been like a ship in the midst of an Irish sea) after long restraint was exalted from misery to …, from a prisoner to a …. Optanda nimirum est jactura quae lucro majore pensatur, saith Agricola. It is, … a lovely losse, that is made up with so great gain. … Q. Elizabeth forknown, whiles she was in prison, what a glorious raign she should have had for 44 years, she would never have wished her self a milk maid. So, did but the Saints understand what great things abide them both here and hereafter, they would bear any thing chearfully. An hundred … here, and … life hereafter: On who would not then turn spirituall purchaser? Well might St Paul say, godlines is profitable to all things. Well might the Psalmist say, In doing (in suffering) thy will, there is great reward. Not for doing it only, but in doing it: for Righteousnes is its own reward. St Mark hath it thus, He that leaveth house, brethren, sisters, father, &c. shall receive the same in kinde: house, brethren, …, father, &c. That is, 1. He shall have communion with God and his consolations, which areNe … better then them all; as … that Italian Marquesse that left all for Christ avowed them: and as …, when his City was taken by the Barbarians, … us to God, Lord let me not be troubled at the losse of my gold and silver, for thou art all in all unto me. 2. He many times gives his suffering servants here such supplies of their outward losses, in raising them up other friends and means, as … abundantly countervail what they have parted with. Thus, though David was driven from his wife, and she was given to another, God gave him a friend Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1.whose love was beyond the love of women. So though Naomi lost her husband and children; Boaz, …, and Obed became to her instead of all. The Apostles left their houses, and housholdstuffe to follow Christ: but then they had the houses of all godly people open to them and free for them: and happy was that Lydia, that could entertain them: so that having nothing, they2 Cor. 6. 10. yet possessed all things. They left a few friends, but they found … more where ever they came. Wherefore it was a … sarcasme of Iulian the Apostate, when reading this text, he jearingly demanded, whether they should have an hundred wives also, for that one they had parted with? 3. God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil they suffer for him: as Ioseph of a slave became a ruler: as Christ that was judged by men, is Judge of all men. The first thing that Caius did, after he came to the Empire, was to … Agrippa, who had been imprisoned for wishing him Emperour. Constantine embraced Paphnutius, and kissed his lost eye. The King of Poland sent … his enerall, who had lost his hand in his warres, a golden hand instead thereof. God is far more liberall to those that serve him, suffer for him. Can any son of Iesse doe for us as he can?
Verse 30. But many that are first, &c]
Because Peter and the rest had called for their pay, (almost afore they had been at any pains for Chtist) he therefore quickeneth them in these words: bidding them bestir themselves better, left others, that are now hindermost, should get beyond them, and carry the crown. Lay1 Tim. 6. hold on eternall life, saith Paul: intimating that it is hanged on high as a garland, so that we must reach after it, strain to, it. So run that ye may obtain; Look you to your work, God will take care of your wages: you need never trouble your selves about that matter.