A commentary or exposition, upon the five first chapters of the Epistle to the…A commentarie or exposition, vpon the fiue first chapters of the Epistle to the…

The other is so short with his 12 volumes upon the Evangelists, that he might well have contracted leaves into lines, and lines into letters. Which tedious discourses, and impertinent excursions from the text, serve for no other end but to cast a mist before the eyes of the reader, and draw (as it were) the veil of Moses over his face, so that ¹he cannot see the meaning of the holy Ghost. Others on the contrary are too short, and compendious, offending as much in brevity, as the former in prolixity: by name, Emanuel Sa the Jesuit, whose Commentaries upon the Bible are shorter then the text it self, like to those of Apollinaris, of whom Jerome ²writeth, that a man which readeth them, would think he red Contents of chapters, rather then Commentaries. But as for the manner: the literal sense (which our author here followeth) is the only sense intended by the Spirit of God: the Allegorical, Tropological, Anagogical, being but several uses and applications thereof: For the Scripture (consisting in the sense not in the letters) is profitable to teach, and improve, as Paul ³saith: whereas from the Allegorical sense no necessary argument ⁴can be taken (as their own doctors confess) either to confirm or confute any point of doctrine: & therefore much less from the Tropological, or Anagogical. And as for the ⟨image 5⟩measure, in regard of brevity or prolixity, the golden mean hath alway been judged by the learned to be the best, which is not only to give the bare meaning paraphrastically, but to make collection of doctrine and application of uses; yet briefly, rather pointing at the chief heads, then dwelling long upon any point. Some are of opinion that a Commentor is only to give the literal sense of the place, without making further use of application, or instruction: To which I could easily subscribe, if all the Lords people could prophesy, or if all were able to handle the word of God, the sword of the spirit: For as to an expert Musician who is acquainted with the concords or rules of discant, it is as good a direction to have only the ground as if he had every point pricked out unto him, being inured to the division upon every point, as it falleth out in the ground: So to him that is acquainted with the word of God, a short and concise handling of the Scripture, may be as good a direction as if every point were discoursed at large.