All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Ver. 3. All therefore whatsoever] Not their traditions, superstitions, and corrupt glosses upon the law, but whatsoever they teach that is agreeable to truth; so long as they sit close to Moses' chair, and keep it warm, as it were, hearken to them. God's good gifts are to be acknowledged and improved even in the worst, as David made Saul's epitaph, 2 Samuel 1:19,27, though the devil preached his funeral, 1 Samuel 28:19 .
But do not ye after their works] Saith Chrysostom, Si pastores bene vivunt, eorum lucrum est, si bene dicunt, tuum. Accipe quod tuum est, omitte alienum. If ministers do well, it is their own gain; if they say well, it is thine. Take thou what thine own is, and let alone what is another man's. Sulla and King Richard III commanded others, under great penalties, to be virtuous and modest, when themselves walked the clean contrary way. A deformed painter may draw a goodly picture; a stinking breath sound a mighty blast; and he that hath but a bad voice, show cunning in descant. A blind man may bear a torch in a dark night, and a harp make music to others, which itself is not sensible of. Posts set for direction of passengers by the highway side do point out the way which themselves go not: and sign posts tell the traveller there is wholesome diet or warm lodging within, when themselves remain in the storms without. Leud preachers are like steeple spires, or high pinnacles, which point up to heaven, but press down to the centre.
For they say, and do not] They had tongues which spake by the talent, but their hands scarcely wrought by the ounce; like that ridiculous actor at Smyrna, who pronouncing O coelum, O heaven, pointed with his finger toward the ground: a so these Pharisees had the heaven commonly at their tongues' end, but the earth continually at their fingers' end. In a certain battle against the Turks, there was a bishop that thus encouraged the army: Play the men, fellow soldiers, today: and I dare promise you, that if ye die fighting, ye shall sup tonight with God in heaven. Now after the battle was begun the bishop withdrew himself; and when some of the soldiers inquired among themselves what was become of the bishop, and why he would not take a supper with them that night in heaven, others answered, Hodie sibi ieiunium indixit, ideoque non vult nobiscum in coelo caenare. This is fasting day with him, and therefore he will eat no supper, no, not in heaven. Epictetus was wont to say that there were many philosophers (we may say divines) ανευ του πραττειν, μεχοι του λεγειν, as far as a few words would go. But ω τλημων, αρετη λογος αρ ησθα, &c., is religion now become a word? goodness a name? as Brutus once cried out. Should it be said of holiness, as it was once in another place, audivimus famam; we have heard the fame thereof with our ears, and that is all? Job 28:22. The foolish virgins were found with their sic dicentes, so talking but the good servants shall be found with their sic facientes, so doing. Christ was full of grace as well as truth. John Baptist was both a burning and shining light. Origen's teaching and living were said to be both one. b That is the best sermon surely, that is dug out of a man's own breast, when he practiseth what he preacheth, non verbis solum praedicans sed exemplis, not by words only by by example, as Eusebius testifieth of Origen, and Mr Gataker of Mr Stock. As the want hereof occasioned Campian to write ministris eorum nihil vilius, their ministers are most base.
a Of this actor, Polemo, chaffing, said, ουτος τη χειρι σολοικεζει.
b Spectemur agendo. John 1:16. Και εδειξε και εδιδαξε. Basil. Quod iussit et gessit. Bern. Eph 41.