Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Ver. 16. Behold, I send you forth, &c.] This might seem incredible to the disciples, since they were sent among the "lost sheep of Israel." But strange though it seem, it is not so strange as true. Look for it therefore. "Behold:" Christ was in no such danger from Herod, that fox, as from those wolves the Pharisees.
As sheep in the midst of wolves] Who would make it their work to worry the flock and suck their blood: as did Saul, that wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, and the primitive persecutors. Under Diocletian 17,000 Christians are said to have been slain in one month, among whom also was Serena the empress. Those ten persecutions were so cruel, that St Jerome writes in one of his epistles, that for every day in the year were murdered 5000, excepting only the first day of January. St Paul fell into the hands of that lion Nero, qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit, as Tertullian hath it, who therefore also calleth him, Dedicatorem damnationis Christianorum. All the rest of the apostles are reported to have died by the hands of tyrants, save only St John; who, in contempt of Christianity and of Christ (that is, by interpretation, God's anointed), a was cast by Domitian into a vessel of scalding oil, but came forth fresh and unhurt, by a miracle. After this the Arian heretics raged extremely, and made great havoc of the innocent lambs of Christ. Giezerichus, an Arian, king of Vandals, is said to have exceeded all that went afore him in cruelty towards the orthodox side, of both sexes. In that Laniena Parisiensis 30,000 Protestants were basely butchered in one month, 300,000 in one year. Stokesly, Bishop of London, boasted upon his deathbed that he had been the death of 50 heretics in his time. His successor, Bonner, was called the common cut-throat, and slaughter slave general to all the bishops of England. b "And therefore" (said a good woman, that told him so in a letter) "it is wisdom for me, and all other simple sheep of the Lord, to keep us out of your butchery stall as long as we can. Especially, seeing you have such store already, that you are not able to drink all their blood, lest you should break your belly, and therefore let them lie still and die for hunger." Thus she. But that above all is most horrid and hateful, that is related of the Christians in Calabria, A.D. 1560. For being all thrust up in one house together (saith Mr Fox) as in a sheepfold, the executioner comes in, and among them takes one and blindfolds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down. Which being so done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaveth him half dead. Then, taking his butcher's knife and muffler all of gore blood, he cometh again to the rest, and so leadeth them one after another and despatcheth them all, to the number of 88. All the aged went to death more cheerfully, the younger were more timorous. I tremble and shake (saith a Romanist, out of whose letter to his lord all this is transcribed) even to remember how the executioner held his bloody knife between his teeth, with the bloody muffler in his hand and his arms all in gore blood up to the elbows, going to the fold, and taking every one of them, one after another, by the hand, and so despatching them all, no otherwise than doth a butcher kill his calves and sheep. In fine, would any man take the Church's picture? saith Luther; then let him take a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and with all manner of cruel and harmful beasts; and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute; for this is her condition in the world.
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, &c.] Let meekness be mixed with wariness, saith Nazianzen, that it may be the "meekness of wisdom," James 3:13. c We must be neither foxes, nor yet asses. Meekness many times brings on injuries: a crow will stand upon a sheep's back, pulling off wool from her side. Now, therefore, as we must labour for dove-like simplicity, and be no horned beasts to pelt or gore others (as the word ακεραιος here signifies), so for serpentine subtlety too, that we cast not ourselves upon needless dangers. The Roman rule was, nec fugere, nec sequi, neither flee nor follow, Christianity calleth us not to a weak simplicity; but allows us as much of the serpent as of the dove. The dove without the serpent is easily caught; the serpent without the dove stings deadly. Religion without policy is too simple to be safe; policy without religion is too subtle to be good. Their match makes themselves secure, and many happy. A serpent's eye is a singular ornament in a dove's head. For,
" Sit licet in partes circumspectissimus omnes,
Nemo tamen vulpes, nemo cavere potest. "
Harmless as doves] That neither provoke the hawk nor project revenge, but when pursued they save themselves, if they can, by flight, not by fight.
" Felle columba caret, rostro non caedit, et ungues
Possidet innocuos, puraque grana legit. "
Sometimes they sit in their dove cotes, and see their nests destroyed, their young ones taken away and killed before their eyes; neither ever do they offer to rescue or revenge, which all other fowls do seem in some sort to do.
a In dolum olei immissum ferunt ludibrii causa, quia Christiani a Christo, et Christus απο του χριεσθαι .
b In less than four years they sacrificed the lives of 800 innocents here, to their idols in Queen Mary's days.
c χρηστοτης συνεσει κεκραμμενη. Nazianzen.