Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Ver. 34. Come, ye blessed of my Father] Paterne alloquitur. As who should say, Where have ye been, my darlings, all this while of my long absence? Come, come, now into my bosom, which is now wide open to receive you, as the most welcome guests that ever accosted me, &c. And surely if Jacob's and Joseph's meetings were so unspeakably comfortable: if Mary and Elisabeth did so greet and congratulate, oh what shall be the joy of that last day!
Inherit the kingdom prepared] Here (as in the Turk's court) every man is aut Caesar aut nullus, either Caesar or nothing, as he said, either a king or a captive; as the sultan's children, if they reign not, they die without mercy, either by the sword or halter.
From the foundation of the world] Their heads were destined long since to the diadem, as Tertullian hath it. King James was crowned in his cradle; Sapores, king of Persia, before he was born (for his father dying, the nobles set the crown on his mother's belly); but the saints were crowned in God's eternal counsel, before the world was founded.