Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.
Ver. 15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes,] i.e., The heretics and schismatics. For as fox cubs will be foxes one day, and of little will become great; so schismatics, if not timely taken, will turn heretics. Whence it is that the apostle, in 1 Corinthians 11:18,19, having said, "I hear that there be divisions, or schisms, among you," he presently subjoins, "For there must be also heresies among you," God having so foreappointed and foretold it, "that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Now these heretics and schismatics are fitly called foxes, both here and Ezekiel 13:4. Herod is also called a fox, Luk 13:32 as being a sect master, Mat 22:16 and as it is thought, to still the noise of his conscience, a Sadducee - first, For their craft; secondly, For their cruelty. Foxes are famous for their craftiness, even to a proverb - ‘As subtle as a fox' -
“ Astutam vapido servans sub pectore vulpem. ” - Persius
They are passing cunning to deceive those that hunt them, feigning themselves simple when there is nothing more subtle, and looking pitifully when taken in a snare, but it is only that they may get out; there is no trusting to their looks, for Vulpes pellem murat; non naturam, saith the proverb, The fox may alter his countenance, but not his condition. And for cruelty, besides the harm foxes do among lambs and fowls - for, lacking meat, they feign themselves dead, and so the birds, hasting down as to a carcase, volucres rapiunt et devorant, saith Isidore, a they seize upon the birds and devour them - they are noted here to mar the vineyards, Vulpes vitibus maxime nocivae, saith one. And for grapes, the fox loves them exceedingly - yea, though they be but tender and unripe. Hence the Latins call him Legulus, a gatherer - namely, of grapes; and we ironcally say of a man, the fox loves no grapes, he will not eat them, but it is because he cannot get them; howbeit, by his leering one may know he loves them. Heretics and schismatics are therefore to be taken by the vinedressers - that is, detected, refuted, and if need be, "delivered up to Satan," 1Ti 1:20 by the ministers, chased out of the vineyard, and pursued to death, if incorrigible, by the magistrate, as Jehu dealt by the Baalites, and after him Josiah. The sword is put into their hands for such a purpose, Rom 13:4 and our Saviour with a civil whip expelled those Church foxes, the money merchants, giving therein a taste of that civil authority which he naturally derived from David, as one observeth. The apostles, being convented before civil authority about matters of religion, never pleaded, You have no power to meddle with us in these things that belong to Jesus Christ. No; their plea was only the justness of their cause, their obedience to God, &c. This heretics can never make good. Well they may pretend that they suffer for righteousness sake, and style themselves, as the Swenckfeldians did, the confessors of the glory of Christ! Well they may cry out, as that heretic Dioscorus did in the Council of Chalcedon, ‘I am cast out with the fathers, I defend the doctrine of the fathers, I transgress them not in any point! Well they may seem to be ambitious of wearing a Tyburn tippet, as Campian, and cry out with Gentilis, the Anti-trinitarian, that he suffered death for the glory of the most high God! b "He that hateth dissembleth with his lips," saith Solomon of such subtle foxes, "and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart." Pro 26:24-25 Heretics are notably cunning and no less cruel, as the Arians and Donatists were of old, the Papists, Socinians, and others of the same brand to this day. These "foxes have holes"; Mat 8:20 they cunningly creep, or shoot themselves into houses by their pithanology and counterfeit humility, they "lead captive silly women," 2Ti 3:6 and by them their husbands; they take them prisoners, as the word signifies, and then make prize of them; 2Pe 2:3 they bring them into bondage and devour them, as St Paul saith of those deceitful workers, the foxes of his time; 2 Corinthians 11:13 ; 2Co 11:20 they fraudulently foist in false doctrines, 2Pe 2:1 heresies of perdition, and so corrupt the vineyard as the master of the vineyard complains, Jer 12:10 "shipwreck the faith," 1Ti 1:19 "subvert whole houses," Tit 1:11 and are therefore to be taken, or clubbed down as pests and common mischiefs to mankind - to the younger sort especially, those tender grapes which they chiefly covet and catch at. And here, in hunting of these cruel crafties, that counsel would be taken that Saul gave the Ziphites concerning an innocent man that deserved it not: "Go, I pray you, prepare ye and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there, for it is told me that he dealeth very subtlely. See, therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself." 1Sa 23:22-23
a Isidor. Etym., lib, xii. 1.
b Se pro gloria Altissimi Dei pati.