Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 2 – Verse 3
Verse 2. Therefore when thou doest thine … ]
Unlesse thou set light by thy reward, as Esau did by his birth-right: unlesse thou holdest … hardly worth having, and art of that carnallCard. Burbon. Cardinals minde, who preferred his part in Paris, before his part in Paradise.
Doe not sound a trumpet before thee]
As the Pharisees did, under a shew of assembling the poor to take doal, but indeed to… continent, minùs …. Sen. notifie … liberality. If they had been truly liberall, they had made no … of it: Those vessels yeeld most sound, that have least liquor.
As the … doe]
From whom as the Saints differ in …, so … should in practice: We should have nothing … with them, no more then a chaste matron desires to have with a …, …. 27. The spouse desireth to know where Christ feedeth, that she may … to him: for why should I …, …, as one that turneth aside (or, that is covered and veiled, which was the habit of harlots, Gen. 38. 15, 15?) why should I be reputed a light houswife, whilest I turn aside by the flocks of thy …? she would shun, and be shie of all appearance of dishonesty; so should we of hypocrisie. Those Christians of Corinth, are much condemned by the Apostle, that carried themselves so carnally, that a man could hardly discern them from other men.
That they … have glory of men]
As Iehu, Come, see what a … I have for the Lord of hosts. Is thine heart upright as …?Hos …, qui omnia ostentant & …. &c. A gracious heart is not a blab of his tongue, but rests and … in the conscience of a secret goodnes. Not … the hypocrite, the …, the stage-player, for so the word (hypocrite) properly signifieth; such as though little better then rogues,Sic Roscius …, … AEneae … personam, cum … non …, … AEneas. …. yet sometimes represent the persons of Princes, and carry themselves with other faces then their own, that they may have glory of men, that they may get a …. And here with agree all the former expressions; whatsoever these men doe is meerly theatricall (foreign) hypocriticall, histrionicall. They sound a trumpet, as is usuall on stages: they doe their devoir in the Synagogues, publike assemblies and streets, as stage-players act in open places, and by drums and outcries get as much company together as they can. And as they can act to the life those whom they personate, yea out-strip them in outward actions, so doe hypocrites, the true Christian. Doth the Publican fix his eyes on the ground? those hypocrites in Isaiah will hang down their heads like bullrushes. Doth Timothy weaken his constitution with abstinence? the false Pharisee will not only weaken his constitution, but wither his complexion with fasting. Doth Zacheus give1 Cor. 13 …. half of that he hath to the poor? the pretender to piety and charity will bestow all his goods to feed the poor, and besides give his body to be burned, as Servetus did at Geneva, Anno 1555. And…. all for a name, for a little glory among men, which is but a breath, and yet not able to blow so much as one cold blast upon hypocrites, when they shall be cast into …, when God … wash off their varnish … rivers of brimstone. No naturall face hath so clear a … and red, as the painted. No rush is … green and …, as the bullrush. He is curious to a miracle…. …, 58. 5. that can finde a knot in it: yet within is nothing but a uselesse and spongy pith. Over fair shews are a just argument of unsoundnesse.
Verily I say unto you]
q. d. You would little thinke it, and themselves will hardly beleeve it: for they are an impudent kinde of people, and will not soon be said. But I assevere and assure you of it, in the word of Amen, the faithfull and true witnes, Rev. 3 14.…. …. 5. all the words of whose mouth are in righteousnesse, there is nothing …, …. … in Discor.froward or perverse in them, Prov. 8. 8. that this is the very truth, and time will prove it so. … that have fed on hemlock, are so stupified thereby, that they lye for dead, and feel not till half their hides be hileded off: then they rise, and run away with a … noise. So ….foreign, They … it as their full pay: whence foreign an ….
They have their reward]
Paid them down upon the nail in ready money, and have given their acquittance. They take up all their wages afore the years-end, they receive it now, and leave none till hereafter. Its all they are ever like to have, and let them make them merry with it. Egregiam verò laudem, & spolia ampla refertis. … 6. ….A poor reward, God wot; but 'tis that they would have.Virgil. 'Tis their own reward, not Gods, saith S. Hierom. As Judas went…, non …, Hier. to his own place, a place of his own providing; so these have their own reward; much good may it doe them: Here they have theirAct. 1. 25. consolation with Dives: Let them look for no further reward in the day of refreshing: if they do, they are like to be disappointed, … the Judge. To themselves they bore fruit, Hos. 10. 1. and shall therefore be turned off as empty vines, ib. when the faithfull Spouse that laies up her fruit for Christ, Cant. 7. ult. shall hear,Hos. 14 8. Thou art like a green firre-tree, from me is thy fruit found. And albeit in her works of charity in …, and without hope of reward from men, he may seem to cast her bread upon the waters, … 11. 1.down the river (as we say) or on the sea to feed fishes; yet after many daies he shall be sure to finde it. That labour of love cannot be lost that we resolve to cast away (as the world accounts it) upon Christ.
Verse 3. But thou, when thou dost thine alms.]
The godly… …. …. Christian must walk in a divers way to a world of wicked people, as Noah did, really reproving their darknesse by his …, their pride by his …, their vain-glory by his …, their ostentation by his … devotion: not only (planet-like) keeping a constant counter motion to the corrupt manners of the most, but also shining forth fair with a singularity of heavenly light, spirituall goodnesse, and Gods sincerer …, in the … mid night of … impiety.
Let not thy left-hand know, &c.]
A proverbiall speech, q. d. … thy self as much as may be, cast away the vain affectation of humane …. Let not thy left-hand (if it had so much skill) understand what thou givest, and to whom, how much, how oft, at what time, &c. God sets down every circumstance in his book …. …. 18.of remembrance; as our Saviour (that true Arch-deacon, as well1 …. 5. 4. as Arch-shepherd) sate and viewed the estate, minde and gift of…. … 41. every one that cast money into the treasury: and as he took … observation of those that came to hear him, how farre they had come, how long they had been there, how little opportunity they had of providing for themselves, and how soon they mightMat 15. 32. faint, if sent away empty, &c. In pugillaribus suis omnia notat. Revel. 2.I know thy work, and thy …, saith Christ to that Church, so to us; I know thine alms and thy privacy. Many give much, and are little noted or noticed. It matters not, saith our Saviour,… captabat …, & … AEgyptū, …. though thy left-hand should not know what thy right-hand doth: there's no losse in that. Some talents are best improved by being laid up. A treasure that is hid is safer from theeves. Steal we therefore benefits upon men, as Joseph did the money into the sacks. And as he made a gain of the …, and bought AEgypt: so… foreign. may we of the poor we relieve, and buy heaven, Luke 46. 9. Rom. 2. 10.