(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Ver. 35. Yea, a sword shall pierce, &c.] This confutes that of Plautus: Mulier nulla cordicitis dolet ex animo. The word here rendered sword properly signifies a long Thracian dart, entering into her soul. So that she was, I doubt not (as other mothers are), ante partum onerosa, in partu dolorosa, post partum laborosa; yet so, as that she made misery itself amiable by her gracious deportment, as one saith of the Lady Jane Grey.
That the thoughts of many hearts] As they are also now in these discriminating, shedding times. Affliction trieth men who are crocodiles, spunges, chameleons, &c. Before these days came (said Master Bradford, martyr) how many thought of themselves, that they had been in God's bosom, and so were taken, and would be taken in the world? But now we see whose they are; for to whom we obey, his servants we are, &c. In the Palatinate scarcely one man in twenty stood out; but fell to Popery, as fast as leaves in autumn.