Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Ver. 18. Let no man beguile you] Gr. βραβευετω, brave it over you. Confer Exodus 8:9; "Glory over me," Gloriam assume supra me, as thou hast done over thy sorcerers; I give thee this liberty. See also Judges 7:2; Isaiah 10:15 .
In a voluntary humility] A proud humility. They would not dare to worship God, but angels, &c., yet were vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. And something like this was that of the Baptist in refusing to wash Christ, and of Peter in refusing to be washed by him, John 13:8 .
And worshipping of angels] Setting them up, as Papists do, for mediators of intercession. Let not us acknowledge any other master of requests in heaven but Christ alone, 1 John 2:1. But what a piece of knavery is that in Surius and Caranza, who rendering that passage of the Laodicean Council, chap. xxxv., ου δει χριστιανους αγγελους ονομαζειν, Christians may not pray to angels; they make the words to be, Non oportet Christianos ad angulos congregationes facere, Christians may not be corner creepers; and the title they make, De iis qui angulos colunt, of those that worship (not angels, but) corners; against all sense. What! will they put out the eyes of God's people? as he said, Numbers 16:14. Or do they not rather, Festucam quaerere unde oculos sibi eruant, as Bernard hath it, seek straws to put out their own eyes also?
Intruding into those things] εμβατευων, or invading those things, blind and bold, busy about such matters, as whereof there is neither proof nor profit. Of this sort of seducers was that daring Dionysius, that writeth so confidently of the heavenly hierarchy; the schoolmen also with their curious speculations and new niceties, as Scotellus and others.
Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind] Corruption is the mother of pride, as the devil the father. "He is the king of all the children of pride," Job 41:34 .