Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift [is like] clouds and wind without rain.
Ver. 14. Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift] As Ptolemy, surnamed Dωσων, from his fair promises, slack performances; as Sertorius, the Roman, that fed his creditors and clients wlth fair words, but did nothing for them, Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest; as that pope and his nephew, of whom it is recorded that the one never spoke as he thought, the other never performed what he spoke; lastly, as the devil who promised Christ excelsa in excelsis, mountains on a mountain, and said, "All this will I give thee," Mat 4:9 whenas that all was just nothing more than a show, a representation, a semblance, or if it had been something, yet it was not his to give; for "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Physicians call their drugs Dοσεις, gifts, and yet we pay dear for them. Apothecaries set fair titles upon their boxes and gaily pots, but there is oftentimes aliud in titulo, aliud in pyxide, nothing but a bare title. Such are vain boasters, pompous preachers, painted hypocrites, Popish priests, such as was Tecelius [Tetzel], that sold iudulgences in Germany, and those other mass mongers in Gerson's time that preached publicly to the people, that if any man would hear a mass he should not on that day be smitten with blindness, nor die a sudden death, nor want sufficient sustenance, &c. These were clouds without rain, that answer not expectation. Jdg 1:12