Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
Ver. 10. Prating against us] One would wonder what he could prate against St John, and yet he did, and that maliciously. True it is, he did but trifle and play the fool (as the Greek word φλυαρων signifies) in that he prated; but he showed his malice nevertheless. So do the Jesuits, as in many other their practices, so in this, that in their writings against us they confirm that with glorious words and arguments which we stick not at; to make the world believe that we deny all that which they so busily and so bravely prove, and so to make us odious; whereas they leave the main matter in controversy utterly unproven, thinking to carry it away with outfacing and great words. The word signifieth pompose sed nugaciter loqui, to talk big bubbles of words, saith Aretius; who also telleth us that it is a metaphor taken from over-seething pots, that send forth a foam; or (as others will have it) from overcharged stomachs, that must needs belch.
Forbiddeth them that would] Such as Gaius was; that himself only might have the prick and the praise. This is the property of envy, as we see in Saul, in the Pharisees, in Tiberius Caesar, who, tiger-like, laid hold with his teeth on all the excellent spirits of his times. Nero etiam omnium erat aemulus, &c. He forbad Lucan the poet to make verses, only because he could do it very excellently.