Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
Ver. 5. Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble, &c.] Here is a word of comfort for you, who, being lowly and meek spirited, are more apt to be trampled on and abused by the fat bulls of Bashan: where the hedge is lowest, those beasts will leap over; and every crow will be pulling off wool from a sheep's sides.
Your brethren.] By race and place, but not by grace.
That hated you.] For like cause as Cain hated Abel, 1Jn 3:12 for trembling at God's judgments while they do yet hang in the threatenings.
And cast you out.] Either out of their company, as not fit to be conversed with, Isa 65:5 or out of their synagogue by excommunications, as fit to be cut off: see 1 Thessalonians 2:14. Papists at this day do the like; whence that proverb, In nomine Domini incipit omne malum. Ye begin in a wrong name, said that martyr, when they began the sentence of death against him with "In the name of God. Amen."
Let the Lord be glorified.] With suchlike goodly words and specious pretences did those odious hypocrites palliate and varnish over their abominations: they would persecute godly men, and molest them with Church censures, and say, "Let the Lord be glorified." So do Papists and other sectaries deal by the orthodox. Becket offered, but subdolously, to submit to his sovereign salvo honore Dei, so far as might stand with God's glory. a The conspirators in King Richard II's time endorsed all their letters with "Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, good-will towards men." The Swenckfeldians styled themselves, The Confessors of the glory of Christ; and Gentiles, the Anti-Trinitarian, when he was called to answer, said that he was drawn to maintain his cause through touch of conscience and when he was to die for his blasphemy, he said that he did suffer for the glory of the most high God; so easy a matter it is to draw a fair glove upon a foul hand. Some for "Let the Lord be glorified," render it, Gravis est Dominus, The Lord is burdensome, or heavy; and they parallel it with those sayings in the Gospel, "This is a hard saying": "Thou art an austere man"; "We will not have this man to reign over us," &c.
But he shall appear to your joy.] Parallel to that, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." How did some of the martyrs rejoice when excommunicated, degraded, &c.
a Speed, 508, A.D. 1386.