Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
Ver. 1. Son of man, eat that thou findest.] Eat this roll or volume, without equivocation, or so much as questioning; yield simple obedience to the heavenly vision. It was in vision doubtless that the prophet did eat the roll, and not in very deed, as the foolish patient did the physician's recipe, or as Mr Lewis of Manchester made the bishop's summoner eat the citation which he brought for his wife, a martyr in Queen Mary's days, by setring a dagger to his heart, and to drink to it when he had done. a It was non reipsa, sed spiritu, saith an interpreter. See Ezekiel 3:10 .
Eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.] First learn, and then teach others, that thou mayest utter my mind readily, dexterously, and affectionately, speaking a corde ad cor - ex intimo cordis affectu - and digging thy discourses out of thine own bosom, as it is said of Origen, and after him of Petrus Comestor, who merited that title, because, by his often allegations of the holy Scripture, he seemed to have eaten it up and digested it.
a Acts and Mon.