Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
Ver. 26. Behold, he is in the desert] In such a hermitage, or blind chapel, built in a by-place to the honour of such a saint, as our Lady of Loretto, Hall, or Sichem (Lipsius' last dotages). "Behold, he is in the secret chambers," or conclaves, εν τοις ταμειοις (scil. of cardinals, &c.), or cupboards, as the breaden god borne up and down in a box, or on an altar, and worshipped by the common people. The rebels of Norfolk in Edward VI's time, brought with them into the battle the pyx a under his canopy, as the Israelites brought the ark, 1 Samuel 4:3, and said it should save them. But as then the ark, so now the consecrated god, with all the trumpery about him, was taken in a cart, which was then instead of an altar, and there lay all in the dust. Believe them not therefore in any of these their fopperies and forgeries. "The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going." b He is a slave to good reason, but not easily swayed by every new opinion.
a The vessel in which the host or consecrated bread of the sacrament is reserved. ŒD
b Fatuus, פתא faluellus. Lips. Proverbs 14:15 .