Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
Ver. 13. Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed.] Bishop Banner's chaplain called the Bible, in scorn, his little pretty God's book. Gifford and Rainold said it contained doctrinam peregrinam, strange doctrine - yea, some things profane and apocryphal. The more modest Papists account traditions the touchstone of doctrine and foundation of faith; and repute the Scriptures to be rather a kind of storehouse for advice in matters of religion. a We account them the divine beam and most exact balance, cor et animam Dei, the heart and soul of God, as Gregory calleth them; the best fortress against errors, as Augustine, though some of our sublimated sectaries blaspheme that blessed book as a dead letter and a beggarly element.
But he that feareth the commandment.] That honoureth the Scriptures, and trembleth at the word preached, as King Edward VI did, that second Josiah, and as Queen Elizabeth, his sweet sister Temperance, as he used to call her, who, when the Bible was presented to her as she rode triumphantly through London after her coronation, received the same with both her hands, and kissing it, laid it to her breast, saying that it had ever been her delight, and should be her rule of government.
a Lindan. Panoplia Evangelica, lib. i. cap. 9. Commonitorium, Bell.