I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up [that which was] broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
Ver. 16. I will seek that which was lost, &c.] As he did Peter, Paul, the good thief, Matthew, Zaccheus, the disciples after their shameful flight, Augustine, all us who, like sheep, were gone astray, &c.
But I will destroy the fat.] Pinguem et petulcam; such as in whom fulness breedeth forgetfulness, as in Jeshurun. Deu 32:15 Queen Elizabeth was told, in a sermon by Mr Deering, that once she was tanquam ovis, like a meek sheep, but now tanquam indomita iuvenca, as an untamed heifer; and therefore wished her to meet God by repentance. Here good Oecolampadius complaineth, and cause enough he had, of some of Christ's fatter sheep who were too too haunty and troublesome to their fellows. The Lutherans of Suevia he might well mean, who, in their Syngramma, used him very coarsely; and Luther himself, in his book of private mass, set forth A.D. 1533, passeth a very uncharitable censure upon his disease and death.
And I will feed them with judgment.] Putting a difference, and dealing with them as it is fit.