A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ver. 5. A time to cast away stones.] As when King Henry VIII pulled down the abbeys and other religious houses (as they called them), saying, Corvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos, ne iterum ab cohabitandum convolent, that the crows' nests were to be pulled in pieces, that they might never nestle there any more. a And herein he did but as Cardinal Wolsey did before him for he, by the Pope's own license, had a little before pulled down forty monasteries, and taken their stones and revenues to build and endow his two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. b Elapidation is a piece of the Church's happiness. Isa 5:2
And a time to gather stones together.] As in building forts, castles, colleges, bridges, causeys, such as was that in 1Ch 26:16; 1 Chronicles 26:18 1 Kings 10:5 2Ch 9:11; 2 Chronicles 16:6 .
A time to embrace.] With honest conjugal embracements (as the Chaldee paraphrast interprets it), not with those libidinous embracings of the bosom of a stranger c Pro 5:20 No time for such. 1Pe 4:3 Diabolus capite blanditur, ventre oblectat, cauda ligat.
And a time to refrain.] As in times of common calamity; for should we then make mirth? Eze 21:10 Should not the bridegroom come forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet? Joe 2:16 Some of the ancients d do very much note the manner of Noah's going into the ark, and how the father and the sons went together, the mother and her daughters-in-law went together, God himself dividing at that time those whom himself had joined together. Others tell us that et bruta ipsa intra arcam quamdiu diluvium duravit, continuerint, the very brute creatures bred not in the ark during the deluge. There is both an intemperate and intempestive abuse of the marriage bed, which ought to be kept undefiled, Heb 13:3 and not stained and dishonoured with either unseasonable or sensual excesses and uncleannesses, which God will certainly plague (though they lie without the walk of human censure) without true and timely repentance. Lutheri nuptias amici etiam improbabant, e &c. Luther's marrying a wife, then, when all Germany was in a hurly burly, and all Saxony in heaviness for the death of their good Elector Frederick, Luther's greatest friend, was no small grief to his best friends; and afterward also to himself, as Melanchthon testifieth in an epistle to Camerarius. f
a Sander. Schism. Ang., lib. i.
b Acts and Mon.
c Rupertus.
d Ambros., De Noe et Arca, cap. 21.
e Scultet. Annal.
f Quoniam vero ipsum Lutherum quodammodo tristierem esse cerno et perturbatum ob vitae mutationem, omni studio et benevolentia consolari eum cupio.