Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither [shall] fruit [be] in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and [there shall be] no herd in the stalls:
Ver. 17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom] Here the prophet showeth a well settled and a sedate mind indeed; that he had attained, and, by prayer, waded unto a blessed composedness and sabbath of spirit, such as the cock on the dunghill meddled not with, neither knoweth the worth of; it being the most precious and peerless jewel that ever the heart of man came acquainted with. It hath been before noted, that the prophet here taketh out his own lesson of living by faith in the fail of outward comforts. Origen's teaching and living were said to be both alike. Habakkuk's were so. Divinity is practical: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them; as lessons of music must be practised, and a copy not read only, but imitated, so is it here. It is a blushful thing, quando dicta factis erubescant, as Tertullian hath it; when men's lives put their words to the blush, when Sanctiores sunt aures plebis quam corda sacerdotum, there are more heavenly doctrines in the people's ears than ever were in the preacher's heart, as Hilary hath it; when, as one said of Erasmus's Enchiridion, there is more holiness in an author's book than in his bosom (Plus sanctimoniae conspicitur in ipso libello, quam in libelli Authore):
“ Exemplis sane qui docet, ille docet. ”
Aristotle requireth in a teacher that he show himself a pattern of his own rules; and it is a good thing to teach (saith Ignatius), εαν λεγεις ποιης, if thou practise the same that thou teachest. That is an excellent commendation indeed that is given to a late eminent divine among us, that his life was but one continued commentary upon his doctrine, and an exemplary sermon, consisting of living words, or of words translated into works. "The just shall llve by faith," saith Habakkuk; and that I do so, it shall well appear by my living upon God when I have nothing else to subsist with; by believing him upon his bare word, and that against sense in things invisible, and against reason in things incredible.
Although the fig tree, &c.] q.d. Let war come on, and with war famine; as it befell Jerusalem at the last siege in the days of Zedekiah, 2Ki 25:8 Jeremiah 52:6 Lamentations 2:11,12, there was no relief left for the people, the enemy had eaten up all, as Joel 1:4, and made clean work, so that faithless men were woebegone, and ready to run mad for the sight of their eyes, Deuteronomy 28:24; Deuteronomy 28:51, and to devour their own fingers, as Pope Boniface VIII did, when shut up close prisoner in St Angelo and sorely straitened.