And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Ver. 24. It is easier for a camel, &c.] Or cable rope, as some render it, καμηλον, καμιλον funem nauticum. Either serves, for it is a proverbial speech, setting forth the difficulty of the thing. Difficile est, saith St Jerome, ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur et futuris, ut hic ventrem istic mentem reficiat, ut de deliciis transeat, ut in coelo et in terra gloriosus appareat. Pope Adrian VI said that nothing befell him more unhappy in all his life than that he had been head of the Church and monarch of the Christian commonwealth. "When I first entered into orders," saith another pope (Plus Quintus), "I had some good hopes of my salvation; when I became a cardinal, I doubted it; but since I came to be a pope I do even almost despair." And well he might, as long as he sat in that chair of pestilence, being that man of sin, that son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Ad hunc statum venit Romana Ecclesia, said Petrus Aliacus, long since, ut non esset digna regi nisi per reprobos (Cornel. a Lapide, Com. in Num 11:11). The popes, like the devils, are then thought to do well when they cease to do hurt, saith Johan. Sarisburiensis. They have had so much grace left, we see (some of them, however), as to acknowledge that their good and their blood rose together, that honours changed their manners, and that they were the worse men for their great wealth; and that as Shimei, seeking his servants, lost himself, so they, by reaching after riches and honours, lost their souls. Let rich men often ruminate this terrible text, and take heed. Let them untwist their cables, that is, their heart, by humiliation, James 5:1; James 1:10, till it be made like small threads, as it must be, before they can enter into the eye of a needle, that is, eternal life.