Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 7 · Verse 23
Verse 23. And then will I professe unto them, I never knew you]
No not when you professed most love to me, and did me (to see to) greatest service, I knew you well enough for black sheep, or rather for reprobate goats, I knew you for hirelings and hypocrites, but I never knew you with a speciall knowledge of love, delight and complacency. I never acknowledged, approved and accepted of your persons and performances, see Psal. 1. 6. Rom. 11. 2. Gods sharp nose doth easily discern, and is offended with the stinking breath of the hypocrites rotten lungs, though his words be never so sented and perfumed, though his deeds be never so mantled and masked, with shews of holinesse. God utterly disowns and disavows all such, for if any man have not the spirit of God saith Paul Rom. 8. 9.the same is none of his; be he whose he wil be. And whereas he naturally delights in mercy, yet he will by no means clear the guilty;Pro. 1. 26. yea he will … at their destruction, and laugh when their … deus loquitur cum … legas cum fletu, Aug.fear cometh. He will spue them out of his mouth. Ah he will ease him of his adversaries: and be as well apaid thereof, as a man is that hath rid his stomack of the surfet or sick matter thatReve. 3. 16. clogg'd it.…. 1. 24.
Depart from me]
Oh direfull and dreadfull … such as… reprobis, Ite, venite, probis. shall make their very heartstrings crack (not their earest ngle onelyonly) and their hearts fall asunder in their bosomes, like drops of water. Surely if the gentle voice of God in the coole of … day wereIn aura diei. Gen. 3. so terrible to our first parents: And if his sweet voice in the preaching of the Gospel of grace be so formidable to the wicked, that Felix trembled, and the stoutest are quailed, the edge of their fury is rebated, their hearts often ake and quake within them: what will they do when the Lion of the tribe of Judah shall roar out upon them, this fearfull Discedite that breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone, stings and horrors, woe and alas, seas of vengeance and the worm that never dieth, torments without end, and past imagination? The desperate souldiers (that would not have dreaded to dare the devil to a duell) fell before him to the ground, when in the state of his humility, he said but, I am He: how will the wicked stand before him in his Majesty? If Gideons torches and trumpets so daunted the proud …, how shall these abide the terrour of the last day?
Ye workers of iniquity]
Ye that make it your trade and taske;… me licinan … dicunt …. that do wickedly with both hands earnestly, that are wittily wicked, and can art out iniquity; that dig in the devils mines, row in his gallies, grinde in his mill, and are not wearied: that live by your sinnes, as the labourer doth by his trade; and esteem it as the means of an happy life. Ye that, although ye cannot be charged with any crying crime, but have Lord Lord in your mouthes, and a shew of holinesse in your lives, yet regard iniquity in your hearts: and when you … most of all high-flowen have a leering eie upon some beloved sinne, as the Eagle hath upon her prey below, when she soreth highest. Your very preaching in Christs NameOur … must be … of God, wrought from God, for God, in God, according to God, … are but shining … … at Pauls crosse. (if not for his name) is, with God a work of iniquity, and shall have the wages of sinne, which is death, when Christ comes to judgement. Then they that would not obey those sweet commands, Repent, for the kingdome of heaven is at hand, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy houshold, &c. shall have no other commandment left them to obey, but this horrible Depart ye: which imports an utter separation from the beatificall vision and fruition of God, and this is the very hell of hell, &c.