I find some (and I confess not▪ 1without some probability) understand all these of the true Prophets,2 and then the sense will run thus; You accounted the Prophets of the Lord, who declared the mind of the Lord faithfully to you, to be no other than fools and mad-men, but you shall know that they were no fools, that they were no madmen;3 so I find in 2 King 9. 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow in? saith the Captain of Jehu, and in 2 Chron 36. 16. They mocked the Prophets and Messengers of God. 4Here it is thought Ezekiels friends and acquaintance bound him, as thinking him mad, chap. 3. 5. And so we read in the Gospel of Christs kins-folks, they laid hands upon him as thinking him to be mad; and so Paul in 2 Cor. 5. 13. Whether we be besides our selves, it is to God. The true Prophets were thought to be as fools and mad-men, and they were scorned and contemned as those that were spiritual madmen; but saith the Lord, they shall know in the time of their visitation whether they were thus or no: you shall find by your woeful experience that these were no such mad-men as you thought them to be. And in time of affliction men have more honourable esteem of the true Prophets of God than at other times, those that were jeered at before, Oh! they were so wise, so precise and holy, and such tender consciences! Now they shall know how vain their thoughts were of them, when Gods hand is upon such men as jeer at the Ministers of God for being so holy and the like, yet when the hand of God hath been upon them, they have sent for these men to pray for them above any men.5 So we read of the people of Antioch, though many of them did give their hands for the banishment of Chrysostom, yet being terrified by an Earthquake, immediately sent for him again. And so in Job, 33. 23. speaking of the time of affliction, If there be a messenger with him, an Interpreter one among a thousand to show unto man his uprightness. But further,
I find some (and I confess not▪ 1without som probability) understand all these of the true Prophets,2 and then the sense will run thus; You accounted the Prophets of the Lord, who declared the mind of the Lord faithfully to you, to be no other than fools and mad-men, but you shall know that they were no fools, that they were no madmen;3 so I find in 2 King 9. 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow in? saith the Captain of Jehu, and in 2 Chron 36. 16. They mocked the Prophets and Messengers of God. 4Here it is thought Ezekiels friends and acquaintance bound him, as thinking him mad, chap. 3. 5. And so we reade in the Gospel of Christs kins-folks, they laid hands upon him as thinking him to be mad; and so Paul in 2 Cor. 5. 13. Whether we be besides our selves, it is to God. The true Prophets were thought to be as fools and mad-men, and they were scorned and contemned as those that were spiritual madmen; but saith the Lord, they shall know in the time of their visitation whether they were thus or no: you shall find by your woful experience that these were no such mad-men as you thought them to be. And in time of affliction men have more honorable esteem of the true Prophets of God than at other times, those that were jeered at before, Oh! they were so wise, so precise and holy, and such tender consciences! Now they shall know how vain their thoughts were of them, when Gods hand is upon such men as jeer at the Ministers of God for being so holy and the like, yet when the hand of God hath been upon them, they have sent for these men to pray for them above any men.5 So we reade of the people of Antioch, though many of them did give their hands for the banishment of Chrysostom, yet being terrified by an Earthquake, immediately sent for him again. And so in Job, 33. 23. speaking of the time of affliction, If there be a messenger with him, an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness. But further,
- 1Answ.
- 2Expos. 1.
- 32 King. 19▪ 11.
- 42 Chron. 36. 16.
- 5Chrysostom▪ Theodoret. lib. 5. cap. 34.
