And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Ver. 1. And when he had called the twelve] He had set them to pray, Matthew 9:38, and now he sets them to work. Ora et labora, pary and work, is an old proverb, and Admota manu invocanda est Minerva said the heathens. To pray to pray, is to mock God and lose one's labour. Solomon saith, we must as well dig as beg for knowledge, Proverbs 2:2; Proverbs 2:4, else to beg is bootless. The talk of the lips only brings want, Proverbs 14:23. Christ seemed here to say to his praying disciples, as once he did to Moses, "Why criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward," Exodus 14:15; or as afterwards he did to Joshua, Jos 7:10 "Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?"