And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Ver. 3. And they said one to another.] One broached this counsel, and the rest soon consented. Let us consider one another to whet on to love and good works. Heb 10:24 One live coal may set a whole stack on fire. When Silas came, Paul "burned in spirit," Act 18:5 a and preached lustily.
Let us make brick, &c.] Thus, wanting stones, they devised matter for their cursed building. b Good cause hath the Church to be as ingenious and sedulous in building staircases for heaven, as the devil and his imps in digging descents to hell.
And they had brick for stone, and slime for mortar.] And yet though the walls were high and huge, this city was taken first by Cyrus, afterwards by Alexander, and plundered at several times by many other enemies. Shusa in Persia was first built by Tithonus and his son Memnon, who was so exceeding prodigal, that, as Cassiodorus writes, he joined the stones together with gold; so rich it was that Aristagoras thus cheered up his soldiers that besieged it. This city if you can take, you may vie with Jove himself for wealth and riches. c Here Alexander found 50,000 talents of gold, besides silver. But what is all this to the heavenly Jerusalem, whose pavement is pure gold, and her walls garnished with all precious stones? Rev 21:19 Why do we then labour in the fire, to "load ourselves with thick clay"? Hab 2:6 Why doth not this "kingdom of heaven suffer violence by us, sith the violent take it by force," Mat 11:12 or make a prey, a prize of it (so Hilany d rendereth it) as soldiers do of a city they have taken? Oh that we could say of heaven, as Sextus Ruffus doth of Cyprus, Cyprus famosa divitiis paupertatem populi Rom. ut occuparetur sollicitavit ! This island was anciently called Macaria: Heaven more truly.
a συνειχετο. Intus et apud se aestuabat praezeli ardore .
b Apud Babylone Traianus Imp. vidit lacum bituminis, ex quo moenia Babylonis aedificata fuerant, cuius tanta vis est, ut permixtum cum lateribus, quovis saxo sit aut ferro potentius. - Dio in Vita Trajan.
c Iam cum Iove de divitiis licet certetis. - Cassiod., lib. vii.; Var., epist. xv.
d Diripiunt metaph. a castris aut arce quapiam, quae irrumpentibus hostibus diripitur. - Hilar.