Then answered Haggai, and said, So [is] this people, and so [is] this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so [is] every work of their hands; and that which they offer there [is] unclean.
Ver. 14. So is this people, and so is this nation before me] Though pure in their own eyes, Proverbs 30:12, and to the world-ward unrebukeable, as Paul the Pharisees, Philippians 2:14,15, and those self-justiciaries, Luke 16:14,15 "Ye are those that justify yourselves" (and have the world's good word for you), "but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Sordet in conspectu iudicis quod fulget in conspectu operantis. Filthy in the sight of the judge who glisten in the sight of their works. Wicked men's services are but glistering sins (splendida peccata), they rejoice in a thing of nought, as Amos hath it, Amos 6:13, like as Leah rejoiced in that whereof she had cause to repent, and said, "God hath given me my hire," when she had more cause to say, God, I fear, will give me my hire, my payment, "because I have given my maiden to my husband," Genesis 30:18. But she was in the common error of measuring and judging of things by the success; as if God were not many times angry with men, though they outwardly prosper; or as if there were not here one event to the clean and to the unclean, Ecclesiastes 9:2. Until the day that God shall separate the sheep from the goats, whom for the glory of his name and the good of his people he suffers for present to go one among another, to make his own to stick the faster together and to their principles. Shepherds say that it is wholesome for a flock of sheep to have some goats to feed among them; their bad scent being good medicine for the sheep, to keep them from the shakings. a Only let God's sheep take heed that they contract no corruption by conversing with goats; which is soon done, for sin is catching, and ill company is contagious. Nemo errat sibi ipsi; sed dementiam spargit in proxiruos, saith Seneca, No man errs out of the right way alone, but draws others along. And multos sollicitat societas nefauda, saith Chrysostom, evil company soliciteth many to sin. Virtue is oft overcome by vice, saith Nazianzen, as a little wormwood sooner embittereth a great deal of honey than twice so much honey can sweeten a small deal of wormwood; or as one spoonful of vinegar will soon sour a great deal of sweet milk; but a great deal of milk will not so soon allay one spoonful of vinegar. Remove but one stone, and the whole river will rush downward; but you can hardly stop the stream again with a strong dam. Touch pitch and you shall presently be defiled, but touch soap and you shall not presently be made clean without much rubbing and rinsing. Mezentius the tyrant, Corpora a corporibus iungebat mortua vivis, tied living men to dead carcasses; but the dead did not revive the living, the living rather putrefied by reason of the dead. He that bore consecrated flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt touched bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food, he made it not thereby holy. But if an unclean person touched any of these he made it unclean. The Donatists abused this text, to prove that baptism was defiled and vacated if administrated by an unregenerate minister; but Augustine again, against Fulgentius the Donatist, vindicateth the text from their false glosses, and asserteth from it the contrary truth. May not clean grain be sowed with foul hands, and grow nevertheless? May not a trumpet be well sounded by an impure breath? And is not the water in baptism, that cleanseth the child, cast afterwards into the draught? saith Gregory, Aqua baptismatis baptizatos ad regnum caelestis mittit, et ipsa postea in cloacam descendit.
So is this people, and so is that nation before me, and so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer, &c.] Note the order of the induction. First, themselves were unclean, both people and nation; there was a general defection and defilement ran through all sorts and sexes, as the woof runs through the warp; so that they were all together but one continued web of wickedness, as it were, spun out and made up by the hands of the devil, and the flesh, an evil spinner, and a worse weaver; both root and fruit were nought, as Isaiah 5:4, both head, heart, and foot were out of order, Isaiah 1:5,6, and they are barely and boldly told of it by the prophets. Secondly, the works of their hands were unclean; for not only the praying, but "the plowing of the wicked, is sin," Proverbs 21:4, all their natural and civil actions also are abominable. Whether they plough, or play, or eat, or sleep: corruption is like copperas, b which will turn wine or milk into ink; or leaven, which turns a very passover into pollution; or as the sanies of a plague sore, which will render the richest robe infectious. Thirdly, that which they offer there, their sacrifices and all their religious performances, were likewise unclean; not in respect of God, who commanded them; nor of the matter, for they offered clean beasts; but of the manner of offering (which makes or mars the action), and of the men, who were unregenerate, and rested in the work done, and drew near to God with their lips, thinking to put God off with an external worship only; Ludenies cum Deo tanquam pueri cum suis puppis, as Calvin hath it, that is, playing with God, as children do with their babies. The poets declaimed against this foppery, as Persius; and another, Non bene caelestes impia dextra colit.
a A disease in sheep and swine. Also the ague. ŒD
b A name given from early times to the protosulphates of copper, iron, and zinc (distinguished as blue, green, and white copperas respectively). ŒD