theWord Commentaries

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Excerpt #1 John 3:3

Ver. 3. Except a man be born again] E supernis, Out of heaven, Erasm. Except a man be first unmade (as St Peter expounds our Saviour) and newly made up again, ταις αμαρτιαις απογενομενοι, 1 Peter 2:24; except the whole frame of the old conversation be dissolved, and a better erected, there is no heaven to be had. Heaven is too hot to hold unregenerate persons; no such dirty dog ever trampled on that golden pavement, it is an undefiled inheritance, 2 Peter 1:3.

Excerpt #2 John 3:5

Ver. 5. Be born of water, and the Holy Ghost] That is, of the Holy Ghost working like water, cooling, cleansing, &c. In allusion, belike, to that first washing of a newly born babe from his blood, Ezekiel 16:4. Or else to those Levitical washings, and not without some reference to Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees, who placed a great part of their piety in external washings, as do also the Mahometans at this day. Every time they ease nature (saith one that had been among them) they wash those parts, little regarding who stands by. If a dog chance to touch their hands, they wash presently; before prayer, they wash both face and hands, sometimes the head and privates, &c.

Excerpt #3 John 14:6

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Ver. 6. I am the way, and the truth, &c.] As if he should say, Thou hast no whither to go but to me, nor which way to go but by me, that thou mayest attain eternal life. Which made Bernard say, Sequemur, Domine, te, per te, ad te: Te quia Veritas, per te quia Via, ad te quia Vita. God, we will follow you, through you, to you: because you are the truth, through you because you are the way, to you because you are the life. And this was one of those sweet sayings that old Beza had much in his mouth a little before his death. (Melch. Adam. in Vitis exter.)

No man cometh unto the Father, but by me] Christ hath paved us a new and living way to God, with his own meritorious blood: and his flesh stands as a screen between us and those everlasting burnings, Isaiah 33:14. Let Papists say of their saints, Per hunc itur ad Deum, sed magis per hunc. Through him is the way to God, but greater through him. Let us say of all their he and she saints, as that heathen, Contemno minutos istos Deos, modo Iovem (Iesum) propitium habeam. I despise such petty gods, but let us have the propious Jesus.

Excerpt #4 Romans 10:14

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Ver. 14. How shall they hear, &c.] The word read is of divine use and efficacy; but of preaching we may say as David did of Goliath’s sword, “There is none to that.” Milk warmed is fitter for nourishment; and the rain from heaven hath a fatness with it, and a special influence, more than standing waters; so there is not that life, operation, and blessing in the word read as preached.

And how shall they preach unless they be sent] Here you have that scala caeli, ladder of heaven, as a good old martyr called it; and we must not presume to alter the rounds of this ladder. The apostle holds it for impossible that any should preach that are not sent. Let such look to it, as run before they are sent, press into the pulpit without a call thereunto. Let them remember Nadab and Abihu with their strange fire, Korah and his complices with their dismal usurpations, Uzzah and Uzziah with their exemplary punishmeats, &c. God hanged these up in gibbets, as it were to warn others.

Excerpt #5 Gen 19:8 Lot offers his daughters to mob

Genesis 19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as [is] good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

Ver. 8. Behold now, I have two daughters.] This was an inconsiderate motion, such as the best minds easily yield, when once troubled, it was proper to the Lord Christ to be subject to natural passions and perturbations, “yet without sin”; as a crystal glass full of clear water remains still pure, howsoever it be shaken. The Hebrews think that for this sinful offering to prostitute his daughters, he was given up by God to commit incest with his daughters.

Excerpt #6 2Ki 2:23-24

2 Kings 2:23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

Ver. 23. And he went from thence unto Bethel.] Which was now a place of strange composition; for there was at once the golden calf of Jeroboam, and the school of God. Physicians are of most use where diseases abound.

There came forth little children.] Nuzzled up by their wicked parents in idolatry and contempt of a faithful ministry.

Go up, thou bald head.] Or, Ascend, as they say – but who can think it? – thy master Elijah did. Thus these mistaught brats, and, because they had nothing worse to upbraid him with, they twit him with his baldness: loading that head with scorn which God had crowned with honour.

2 Kings 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

Ver. 24. And cursed them.] By his spirit of prayer and prophecy: not out of private revenge.

And there came forth two she bears.] So Dr Whittington returning from martyring a good woman at Chipping Sadbury, was gored by a bull. {a} Dr Story, who vaunted that he had burnt so many earwigs – heretics he meant, – was hanged at Tyburn for treason. Hemingius telleth of a lewd fellow in Denmark, who showing great contempt against a preacher, as he passed out of the Church was brained with a tile. Luther {b} telleth of such another, who going into the fields to look to his sheep, after he had railed most bitterly against a godly minister, was found dead: his body being burnt as black as a coal. “Be not ye mockers, lest your bands be increased.”

{a} Mr Clark’s Martyrol., fol. 58.

{b} Luth., in Coll.

Observation: Difficult Verses with no comment

Mark 13:32 [KJV] But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

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