Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if [a] man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Ver. 7. Many waters cannot quench love.] Water was proven long since to be above fire, in that ancient contest between those two nations about the precedence and precellence of their gods, the one worshipping fire and the other water. But though there be "gods many," and "lords many," yet to the Church there is but "one Lord," and to him she will go through thick and thin, through fire and water. Her love to him is such as no good can match it, no evil overmatch it; it cannot be quenched with any calamity; nay, it is much kindled by it, as fire in the smith's forge, or as lime that is the hotter for the water that is cast upon it. Elias would have water poured on the sacrifice (covered therewith), that the power of God might the more appear in the fire from heaven. Similarily Christ suffers the ship of his Church to be covered sometimes with waves of persecutions and afflictions, that the strength of their love to him may be the more manifested, and the "thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Luk 2:35 It is easy to swim in a warm bath, and every bird can sing in a summer's day, but to swim to heaven (as Queen Elizabeth did to her throne) through a sea of sorrows, to sing (as some birds will do in the spring) most sweetly, then when it rains most sadly, that is a true trial indeed. Many will embark themselves in the Church's cause in a calm, that, with the mariners in the Acts, will flee out of the ship in a storm. Many will own a prospering truth, a blessing ark, but he is an Obed Edom indeed that will own a persecuted, tossed, banished ark, an ark that brings the plague with it. God sets a high price on their love that stick to him in affliction, as David did on those men that were with him at Gath, those Cherethites and Pelethites that stuck to him when Absalom was up. 2Sa 15:18 And notwithstanding their recent rebellion at Ziklag, he takes them to Hebron with him (where he was to be crowned), that as they had shared with him in his misery, so they might partake of his prosperity. Lo, thus likewise deals our heavenly David with all his fellow sufferers. He removes them at length from the ashes of their forlorn Ziklag to the Hebron of heaven. And at the general judgment, in that great amphitheatre of men and angels, Christ will stand forth and say, "Ye are they that continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom," &c. Luk 22:28-29
Neither can the floods drown it.] Surgit hic afflictio Neh 1:9 This is not a vain repetition; but serves to show that no persecution, tribulation, anguish, though never so grievous - though the devil should cast out of his mouth water enough to carry us down the stream a as Rev 12:15 - shall be able to separate the saints from the love of Christ. Rom 8:35
If a man would give all the substance of his house, &c., ] i.e., To buy this love of me, or to get it from me, I should cry out with Peter, "Thy money perish with thee," or with Luther, " Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, I care neither for Rome's favour nor fury. When they offered to make him a cardinal if he would be quiet, he replied, No, not if I might be Pope. And when they consulted about stopping his mouth with money, one wiser than the rest cried out, Hem! Germana illa bestia non carat aurum, Alack! that German beast cares not for money. Galiacius Caracciolus, b that noble Italian convert, left all for the love of Christ, and went to live a poor obscure life at Geneva. Where, when he was tempted to defect for money, he cried out, Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one day's society with Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit. And cursed be that religion for ever, that by such baits of profit, pleasure, and preferment, seeks to draw men aside from the way of truth and holiness. The Papists propose rewards to such as shall relinquish the Protestant religion and turn to theirs: as in Augsburg, where they say there is a known price for it of ten florins per year, and in France, where the clergy have made contributions for the maintenance of apostate ministers. c Stratagema nunc est Pontificum ditare multos ut pii esse desinant, saith one d that was no stranger to them: It is a cunning trick that the popes have taken up to enrich men, that they may rob them of their religion. And though Luther would not swallow that hook, yet there are those that will, not a few. Tell men a tale of utile, usefulness, promise them preferment, and you may persuade them to anything. Fac me Pontificem et ero Christianus, said one Pammachius, a heathen, once to the Pope: Make me a bishop, and I'll turn Christian. But, as one said of Papists, that they must have two conversions ere they come to heaven - one from Popery and another from profaneness (like as grain must be first threshed and then winnowed) - so this money merchant, this preferment proselyte might have been a Christian at large, had he had his desired bishopric; but Christ never favoured any such self-seeking followers; Mat 8:20 Joh 6:26 their love he knows to be no better than meretricious and mercenary. It is a sad thing that any Augustine should have cause to comphdn, Vix diligitur Iesus propter Iesum, that scarce any man loves Christ but for his rewards; like the mixed multitude that came up with Israel out of Egypt, for a better fortune; or those Persians that, in Mordecai's days, for self-respect became Jews. All God's people should be like those Medes in Isaiah that "regarded not silver, and as for gold they delighted not in it." Isa 13:17 Christ's love should be "better to them than wine" Son 1:2 and when in exchange for it, the devil doth offer them this world's good, they should answer him as the witch of Endor did Saul, "Wherefore layest thou a snare for my soul to cause me to die?" 1Sa 28:9 or, as the vine and fig tree in Jotham's parable answered the rest of the trees, "Should I leave my fatness and sweetness," Jdg 9:11 derived unto me from Christ, and so go out of God's blessing into the world's warm sun? God forbid that I should part with my patrimony, as Naboth said; take an apple for paradise, as Adam did; lose the love of Christ for the world's blandishments, &c.
a ποταμαφορητον .
b His life, by Mr. Crashaw.
c Spec. Europ.
d Joh. Bapt. Gell., dial. 5.