The silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 8. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts] Whereas the Jews might object that it was not likely the second temple should be more glorious than the first, since they wanted that wealth wherewith Solomon abounded; God answereth in like sort, as once he did Moses, alleging the slowness of his speech, "Who hath made man's mouth?" Exodus 4:10,11, so here, whose is the silver and the gold? Am not I the true proprietor and chief Lord of all? cannot I furnish you out of my great purse, the earth, and the fulness thereof? Psalms 24:1 (Terra est marsupium Domini). What is silver and gold but white and red earth, the guts and garbage of the earth, as one phraseth it? things that I have no need of, Psalms 50:13. They lie furthest from heaven; the best of them are in Ophir (perhaps the same with Peru), furthest from the Church. Adam had them in the first paradise, Genesis 2:11,12, in the second you shall not need them, Job 26:2,3, &c. In defect of other, I myself will be your gold, and you shall have plenty of silver, Job 22:25. Christ, girt about the paps (that seat of love) with a golden girdle, shall walk in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks, Revelation 1:12,13, with a golden censer in his hand, perfuming and presenting the prayers of his people upon the golden altar, Revelation 8:3, and measuring that city of pearl, his Church, with a golden reed, Revelation 21:15. Ribera and some others think that God, as of old he had stirred up Cyrus and Darius (both of them heathens) to contribute to the building of the temple, so afterwards he stirred up Herod, a wealthy king, not long before Christ came, to bestow abundance of cost upon the same temple; and that this was here afore prophesied. But I should rather incline to Calvin, who doubteth not but that the devil stirred up Herod to do as he did; that the Jews, doting upon the splendour of that brave structure (the disciples did no less, Mat 24:1-2), might cease looking for Christ or trusting in him. And who knows (saith be) whether Herod himself might not have such a fetch in his head. Howsoever, the devil was in it, doubtless, to take off their minds from the expectation of Christ's coming, which was now at hand, by those external pomps; and to withdraw the spirits of the godly from the furniture and gaiety of the spiritual temple. We know how the disciples (who, leavened with the leaven of the Pharisees, dreamt of an earthly kingdom) were taken with the beauty and bravery of Herod's temple, showing the same to our Saviour, and fondly conceiting that by that goodly sight he might be moved to moderate the severity of that former sentence of his, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," Matthew 23:38; Matthew 24:1. But his thoughts were not as their thoughts. The bramble reckoned it a great matter to reign over the trees; so did not the vine and olive. The Papists hold that God is delighted with golden and silver vessels in the administration of the eucharist, and offended with the contrary. But the primitive Christians celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's supper in vessels first of wood, and afterwards of glass. That saying also of Ambrose is well known, Aurum sacramenta non quaerunt, nec auro placent, quae auro non emuntur. It was grown to a proverb soon after Constantine's time, Once we had golden ministers and wooden vessels, now we have wooden ministers and golden vessels. Religion brought forth wealth; and the mother devoured the daughter.