Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.
Ver. 28. Crying, Men of Israel, help, this is the man, &c.] An admirable and graphic description of this tumult; every circumstance set forth to the life as it were. No poet could have done it with more skill and artifice. There is as good rhetoric in the Bible as in any heathen orator whatsoever. It was therefore a foolish and profane fear of Politian, Longolius, Bonamicus, and other Logodaedali, that if they should read the Scriptures, they should mar the purity of their style. "This is the man that teacheth," &c. There is not a true word in all this outcry. So Elias was called a troubler, Luther a trumpeter of rebellion, Melancthon a blasphemer of God and his saints, Calvin a Mahometan, Zanchius an Anabaptist, a Swenckfeldian, Novatian, and what not? Arminius paved his way first by aspersing and sugillating the fame and authority of Calvin, Zuinglius, Beza, Martyr, and other champions of the truth. The Papists reported the Waldenses (those ancient Protestants) to be Manichees, Arians, Catharists, &c., as they do us to be libertines, enthusiasts, atheists, &c. Contra sycophantae morsum non est remedium. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongue walketh through the earth, Psalms 73:9. But God will cut out such false tongues, Psalms 12:3, and broil them upon coals of juniper, Psalms 120:4 .