Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
Ver. 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet] Not Elijah the Tishbite, as the Septuagint corruptly read; and the Popish expositors make no small use of it, to prove that the Pope is not antichrist, because Enoch and Elijah are not yet come, and yet are to come in his time, before the day of judgment (as they fondly fable), to preserve the elect in the faith of Christ, and to convert the Jews. But we have better interpreters of this text. 1. An angel, who applies it to John Baptist, Luke 1:17 Luke 1:2. Christ, that angel of the covenant, Matthew 17:10,11; Matthew 11:14. Hear ye him, against all antichrist's agitators. St Mark begins his Gospel with these very words of Malachi, to let us know that this Elias is the Baptist, who is called Elijah the prophet, because of the like gifts, calling, and ministry, office of reforming habit, people with whom they dealt, &c. The like almost may be said of Luther, a third Elias for boldness, courage, zeal, knowledge, success, &c. But yet we see no footing in this text for Lucas Osiander's conceit, viz. that the prophet here pointed at Luther as well as at John Baptist; and that men must receive his doctrine, or else look to be smitten with a curse. Howbeit this is more passable and possible than that of the Jesuits, who presume to control Christ's own exposition; and infer, that as the devil stirred up Luther to call the Pope antichrist, so God raised up them to resist Luther. But what a mad fellow was that Spaniard (of whom Severus Sulpitius writeth) that professed himself, first, to be the prophet Elias, and afterward, when he had gained authority, to be the Christ; carrying himself so cunningly in his collusion, that Bishop Ruffus was led away with the error, believing in him, and adoring him as God; for which he was justly deprived of his dignity! Had we not need receive the truth in the love of it, lest God give us up to the efficacy of error, 2Th 2:10 ? lest being first infatuated, we be seduced, and then being seduced, we be damned, as Austin glosseth on that text?
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord] Great, in respect of the good, and dreadful, or horrible, in respect of the wicked, as Montanus interprets it, paralleling it with Matthew 3:12. Or great, because it shall be a beginning of great changes, both to the godly and the ungodly; and dreadful to the bad, yea, and to the best also at first, till they have recollected and better bethought themselves, as another senseth it; as taking it of the last day, which is the general mistake of Popish expositors, and that upon this ground, because Christ's first coming was an acceptable time, and a day of salvation. But though it be so to God's people, yet to others it was terrible, as hath been shown: See Trapp on " Mal 3:2 " and is so described, Luke 2:34; Luke 3:9; Luke 3:17; Luke 19:44; Matthew 21:44; Isaiah 11:4. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with his two-edged sword he shall slay the wicked. See the like, Revelation 2:16. And by his ministers he doth it still, 2Th 2:8 2 Corinthians 2:15,16 2 Corinthians 10:6. Vengeance is as ready in Christ's hand as in the minister's mouth, for the disobedient. Some read the words thus, Before the day of the great and dreadful Lord come: like as others read that, James 2:1, Have not the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons. Both readings are good, and the text will bear both.