And [some] of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make [them] white, [even] to the time of the end: because [it is] yet for a time appointed.
Ver. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall.] Depth of divine knowledge, and height of holiness, is no target against persecution; the best fall under it soonest. None out of hell have ever suffered more than saints.
To try them.] As hard weather tries what health: hang heavy weights on rotten boughs, and they suddenly break. Withered leaves fall off in a strong wind; not so the green, that have sap.
And to purge, and to make them white.] As foul and stained clothes are whitened by lying abroad in cold frosty nights. Black soap maketh white clothes; so, said that martyr, doth the black cross help us to more whiteness, if God strike with his battledores. a b You know the vessel, before it be made bright, said John Charles the martyr, in a letter to Mr Philpot, another martyr, is soiled with oil and other things, that it may scour the better. Oh happy be you, that you be now in this scouring house, for shortly you shall be set upon the celestial shelf as bright as angels, c &c. Refiners of sugar, saith another author, d taking sugar out of the same chest, some thereof they melt but once, other again and again; not that it hath more dross in it, but because they would have it more refined: so dealeth the Lord with his best children, &c.
a Acts and Mon.
b A beetle or wooden ‘bat' used in washing, also (when made cylindrical) for smoothing out or ‘mangling' linen clothes; hence also applied to similarly shaped instruments, e.g. the paddle of a canoe, a utensil for inserting loaves into an oven, or glassware into the kiln, etc. ŒD
c Acts and Mon., 1743.
d Dr Goodwin.