Ver. 1. At the same time] When he by paying tribute had been teaching them humility and modesty, they most unseasonably discover their folly and ambition: so another time, after he had been washing their feet, and giving them the sacrament, Luke 22:15-20 See in them the depravity, the canker of our natures, and what cause God had to complain, Hosea 7:1 “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered,” as if it had been on purpose to spite me, and spit venom in my face. Came the disciples] Peter also with the rest, Matthew 18:21, though Bellarmine will needs have it otherwise (as if he were now at sea), because he shall bear no part of the blame: take heed of that that were sin, Hosea 12:8. Who is the greatest] Quaerunt non quaerenda, saith Aretius: they should rather have inquired how to get into heaven than who should be highest in heaven. Ridiculum illud est, initia ignorare, et ultima rimari. But they dreamed of a distribution of honours and offices (as once in the days of David and Solomon), a worldly monarchy, like the kingdoms of the earth; as afterwards the Church was, and still is, transformed by antichrist into the image of the beast, that is, of the Roman Empire: yet they call it the kingdom of heaven, because they had heard Christ many times call it so. In the kingdom of heaven] i.e. In the state and condition of the Church Christian. So to this day among the Jews the kingdom of the Messiah is called Malcuth hashamajim, the kingdom of heaven; and rightly so: for, 1. The King is heavenly. 2. He hath heaven for his throne, whence he puts forth his power. 3. His subjects are heavenly minded, and trade for heavenly commodities. 4. Their country is heaven though their commoration be a while upon earth, where they are pilgrims and strangers. 5. The government of this kingdom is wholly heavenly and spiritual. (Cameron.)
Ver. 2. And Jesus called a little child] Nicephorus saith this was Ignatius, who was afterwards Bishop of Antioch; but I am not bound to believe him. It is well known that he is full of fictions. Christ calling for a little child, who neither thinks great things of himself nor seeks great things for himself, rightly and really confutes their preposterous ambition and affectation of primacy, and gives them such a dumb answer as Tarquin did his son, when walking in the garden he struck off the heads of the poppies in the sight of the messenger: and as Periander the Corinthian did Thrasybulus the tyrant of Athens, when pulling off the upper ears of grain, he made all the standing grain equal, intimating thereby what a tyrant must do that would live safely and quietly.
Ver. 3. Except ye be converted] i.e. Except ye turn over a new leaf, and cast away these fond conceits and crotchets, these golden dreams of an earthly kingdom, and your high preferments therein, which like bullets of lead fastened to the eyelids of your minds, make you that you cannot look upwards. And become as little children] In simplicity, humility, innocence, ignoscence, &c., not in childishness, peevishness, pragmaticalness, talkativeness, open heartedness, &c. Non praecipitur Apostolis ut habeant aetatem parvulorum, sed ut innocentiam, &c. (Jerome.) How absurd was that Anabaptist Aurifaber, who understanding this text Nicodemically, as one saith, stirreth up people wherever he came to carry themselves childishly, if ever they would have heaven. (Scultet. Annal.) Upon whose persuasion you might have seen ridiculous imitations of boys and girls; women especially, skipping up and down, clapping their hands together, sitting naked on the ground, tickling, toying, apishly imitating one while Christ, another while antichrist, &c., pretending this text for their authority. So did Massaeus the Franciscan, who is famous among his fellow friars, for that, at the command of his superior, St Francis, he wallowed on the ground as a little one, and showed all, in obedience to this text, as Sedulius testifieth, Ridiculum caput, a laughable person! Many such like examples may be met with in the legends of the Fathers, of such as were voluntaries in humility (as the apostle styles them), or rather in hypocrisy, Colossians 2:18, θελων εν ταπεινοφροσυνη. For, huius virtutis postea homines Christiani adeo studiosi et aemuli fuere, ut tota in hypocrisin vere abierit, saith Aretius, here. Humility in many of the ancients degenerated into hypocrisy. Ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven] One sin allowed excludes out of the kingdom, be it but ambition or some such inward evil, such as the world takes no notice of, makes no matter of. Inward bleeding killeth many times, and God by killing Jezebel’s children with death (i.e. throwing them to hell) will make all the Churches know that he searcheth the inwards, Revelation 2:23. A whimsical fancy; a perverse conceit; a peculiar notion on some point (usually considered unimportant) held by an individual in opposition to common opinion. ŒD