For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he [is] the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge] How else should he be instant in lip feeding? how should his lips present it unless they preserve it? How should he make others wise, unless he be wise himself? Daniel 12:3. The Pope brags of an infallibility, and pleads this text for it; avouching that he knows all things knowable, and hath all wisdom and skill locked up in scrinio pectoris, in the cabinet of his breast. But what will they say of sundry of their popes that have been manifest heretics? John XXIII was accused, in the Council of Constance, for denying the resurrection of the body and everlasting life. And of all their popes we may safely say, as the Venetian ambassadors did; when the Pope laid his hand upon his breast and said, Hic est arca Noae, Lo, here is Noah's ark (meaning that he was the Church virtual, and was enriched in all knowledge and in all utterance), one of them presently replied, that in Noah's ark there were unclean beasts as well as clean; and so left him further to apply. The priest's lips indeed should keep knowledge. But those of Malachi's times had forsaken the way, and caused many to stumble, Malachi 2:8. How this was we shall see when we come to it. Meanwhile, we may take notice, that non libro sacerdotis, sed labro; non codice, sed corde, conservatur scientia; knowledge should be kept, not in the priest's book, but in his bosom, as a storehouse; neither should it lie low or long there, but sit upon his lips, that all may have benefit by it. For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit also, 1 Corinthians 12:7. And it was death for the priest to enter into the sanctuary without his golden bells about him, that he might be heard by all. A minister must be both able and apt to teach (διδακτικος, Greg. Pastor.). Praedicationis officium suscipit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit, saith Gregory. He is no minister that is no preacher. Nor can he be a preacher that is not stored with knowledge of God's will and people's duty. See Matthew 13:32. See Trapp on " Mat 13:32 " Walter, surnamed Malclerk, was surely no fit man to be Bishop of Carlisle; as he was by evil and corrupt means, A. D. 1223. "If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch," Matthew 15:14; but the blind guides will lie lowermost, and have the worst of it. Varro complained of the Roman priests, that they were ignorant of many things about their own rites and religions. Mucius Scaevola (being their high priest) derived Pontifex of Posse and facere to be able to do. This derivation pleased not Varro; but it intimated that such should both be able and active to teach the people knowledge. It was a witty observation of a bishop, who was called in his time the gulf of learning, that Doceo, to teach, governs two accusative cases; according to that Isaiah 28:9 "Whom shall I teach knowledge?" Ministers, saith he, must have whom to teach and what to teach, viz. knowledge; and must, therefore, give attendance to reading, that they may the better to exhortation and doctrine, 1 Timothy 4:13, that they may feed the people with knowledge and understanding, Jeremiah 3:15 .
And they should seek the law at his mouth] As at an oracle; they should depend upon the ministry, as the people hung upon our Saviour's lips, Luke 19:48; as David went into the sanctuary to be resolved of his doubt, Psalms 73:17, though himself were a prophet; and as Cornelius was appointed by the angel to send for Peter for further information. But what must men seek at the minister's mouth? The law, the sincere milk of God's word, the mind of Christ, the testimony of Jesus, 1Pe 2:2 1 Corinthians 2:16 non nugas et fabulas, saith Bernard, not trifles and fables, not strong lines and strains of wit, but the simple and plain words of God. Non Oratorum filii sumus sed Piscatorum, We are not speakers to men but fishermen, said Nazianzen. Ministers are not to study so much to please as to profit, to tickle men's ears as to work upon their hearts. They must not so paint the window, as to keep out the light; nor so put the sword of the Spirit into a velvet scabbard, that it cannot prick and pierce the heart. Let them handle and set out the law as skilfully and adornedly as they can; but still remember that it must be dispensed, sancte magis quam scite, solide potius quam floride, with fear and reverence, rather than with wit and dalliance. If in King Edward IV's days a citizen in Cheapside was executed as a traitor for saying he would make his son heir to the crown (though he only meant his own house, having a crown for the sign), more dangerous it must needs be to wit wanton it with the majesty of God. Loquamur verba scripturae, utamur sermone Spiritus Sancti, &c. Let us speak Scripture language, let us use the speech of the Holy Spirit, and not go about to correct the Divine wisdom and eloquence with our sophistry and vain babbling. To the ears of that which St Peter calls the hidden man of the heart, the plain song always makes the best music, 1 Peter 3:4. If heaven's door may be opened to it by a key of iron, it cares not for a key of gold. A sermon works not upon the heart as it is thus elegant or admirable, but as well fraught with testimonies of Holy Scripture (that most powerful rhetoric), it is an instrument of God appointed to such an end. Let the people hear often, This is the law, this is ipsum Dei verbum, the very word of God; show Scripture for what you deliver, and that will carry it. But ut drachmam auri sine imagine principis, sic verba hortantis sine authoritate Dei contemnunt homines (Lipsius). The law carrieth a majesty in it; and if Cicero dares to say that the law of the twelve tables did exceed all the libraries of philosophers, both in weight of authority and worth of matter, how much rather is this true of the law of God! Wherefore as Aeschines said of an orator's, so let a minister's discourse and the law be unisons; and let the people ask the priests concerning the law, as they did, Haggai 2:11, and not be like tidlings, a that will not eat their milk unless it be in a silver dish; but account it a singular happiness to live under those lips (however thick, a thin lip is a sign of eloquence, Job 12:20), which both keep knowledge and utter it (χρη το αυτο φθεγγεσθαι τον ρητορα και τον νομον).
For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts] Heb. the angel, See Trapp on " Mal 1:1 " and so the Septuagint and Vulgate render it. His office is as to stand before God and praise him, so to carry messages from him to his people, and to be in his stead, 2 Corinthians 5:20. Knowest thou not, saith Chrysostom, who the minister is? He is God's angel; he speaketh not of himself; if thou despisest, thou despisest not him, but God that sent him. And to the same purpose Ambrose: The minister is God's angel, to set forth the kingdom of Christ and eternal life: non specie tibi aestimandus sed munere; he is not, therefore, to be judged of by his outside, but by his office. Those Sodomites that sought to abuse the angels are thrown forth for an example (προκεινται), suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Judges 1:7. Behold, Christ himself hath assured us that Sodomy itself is not a heavier sin, nor more severely punished in hell, than the despising or abusing of a minister in the faithful discharge of his duty. We should, therefore, welcome such with trembling, as the men of Bethlehem did Samuel, and as Cornelius did Peter. "Comest thou peaceably?" said the Bethlemites, as suspecting the purpose of some judgment. "Now therefore are we all here present before God" (not only before thee, said Cornelius), "to hear all things that are commanded thee of God," Acts 10:33. If Ahab had been like well affected as these good souls, he would never have asked Elijah that absurd question, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Alas, what had the righteous prophet done more than what by his office (as God's ambassador or messenger) he was bound to do? he taxed their sin, he foretold the judgment; he deserved it not, he inflicted it not; yet he smarts, and they are guilty. As if some fond people should accuse the herald or the trumpet as the cause of their war; or as some ignorant peasant, when he sees his fowls bathing in his pond, should cry out of them, as the causes of foul weather. Saith a divine, It is a good thing to stand in awe of God's angels, and with reverence to receive their message, howsoever distasteful unto us; considering they are but messengers.
a A pampered or spoiled child; a darling, pet; a young, delicate, or puny child or animal, needing special care; a weakling, ‘dilling'. ŒD