"A horse is a deceitful thing for safety:" he is deceived, who thinks either that through men he gains salvation received among men, or that by the impetuosity of his own courage he is defended from destruction. "In the abundance of his strength shall he not be saved" [Psalm 33:17].

God gives witness and says, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Were there not other patriarchs? Was not Noah a holy man before these, who alone in the whole human race together with his whole house deserved to be delivered from the flood, in whom and in his sons the church is represented? They escape the flood, with wood…

What did the Lord answer to these things? Then saith Jesus to them: "My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready." What is this? Had not Christ's time yet come? Why then was Christ come, if His time had not yet come? Have we not heard the apostle say, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son"? If, therefore, He was sent in the…

(Tr. xxviii. 5) They gave Him advice to pursue glory, and not allow Himself to remain in concealment and obscurity; appealing altogether to worldly and secular motives. But our Lord was laying down another road to that very exaltation, viz. humility: My time, He says, i. e. the time of My glory, when I shall come to judge on high, is not yet come; but…

(Tr. cxvi) But Pilate is at last overcome by fear: Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. For it would be taking part openly against Caesar, if when the Jews declared that they had no king but Caesar, he wished to put another king over them, as he would appear to do if he let go unpunished a Man whom they had delivered to him for…

Now then, such security received, what say they? "Therefore will not we fear, when the earth shall be confounded" [Psalm 46:2]. Just before anxious, suddenly secure; out of too great tribulations set in great tranquillity. For in them Christ was sleeping, therefore were they tossed: Christ awoke (as but now we heard out of the Gospel), He commanded the…

Blessed Elijah typified our Lord and Savior. Just as Elijah suffered persecution by the Jews, so our Lord, the true Elijah, was condemned and despised by the Jews. Elijah left his own people, and Christ deserted the synagogue; Elijah departed into the wilderness, and Christ came into the world. Elijah was fed in the desert by ministering ravens, while…

"Judge me, O Lord, and separate my cause from the ungodly nation." I do not dread Thy judgment, because I know Thy mercy. "Judge me, O God," he cries. Now, meanwhile, in this state of pilgrimage, Thou dost not yet separate my place, because I am to live together with the "tares" even to the time of the "harvest:" Thou dost not as yet separate my rain from…

Sometimes judgment means punishment, sometimes it means discrimination. According to that mode of speech in which judgment means discrimination, "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that" a man "may there receive what things he has done in the body, whether it be good or ill." For this same is a discrimination, to distribute good things…

"They kept me in on every side, they kept me in, I say, on every side; but in the Name of the Lord have I taken vengeance on them." As if the question were asked how she could have overcome so great evils, he looks back to the example, and declares what she had first suffered in her Head, by adding what follows, "They kept me in on every side:" and the…

(Tr. liv. 4) Whereby it is evident, that He found all in darkness. In which darkness if they wish not to remain, they must believe in the light which is come into the world. He says in one place to His disciples, Ye are the light of the world; but He did not say to them, Ye are come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on you should not abide…

Attend to what follows: "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." He said in a certain place to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; that it may give light to all that…