Ver. 1. Then he brought me back.] From the east gate, which was found shut, to the north gate, where the prophet received large instructions. (Ezekiel 44:4) Christ must be followed, though he seem to lead us in and out, backward and forward, as if we were treading a maze.
Ver. 2. This gate shall be shut.] Is, and shall be, save only to Messiah the Prince, and to whomsoever he, as having the keys of David, shall open it. “This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter” (Psalms 118:20) -sc., By that “new and living way,” which Christ, their forerunner, (Hebrews 6:20) hath prepared and paved for them with his own blood. (Hebrews 10:20) See Hebrews 7:8,9,11,12,24 9:11,12. And no man shall enter in it.] No mere man, no man unless it be Emmanuel. See John 3:13.
Ver. 3. It is for the prince.] For “Messiah the Prince”; so Christ is called in Daniel 9:25; or for the chief priest, who, as he had a singular privilege herein above other priests, so hath Christ, the high priest of the Church Christian, singular privileges above all his brethren. He shall sit in it to eat bread.] He shall sit at the right hand of the majesty on high, and enjoy heaven’s happiness, which is oft compared to a feast, as Matthew 8:11 22:1,2 Isa 53:11. He shall ascend up into heaven, and therehence come again to judge the quick and the dead. (Acts 1:11 Hebrews 9:28) Some by “prince” here understand the ruler of the people, [see Ezekiel 46:1,2] who is peculiarly licensed to enter in at the east gate, and there to sit, and eat and drink his part of the peace offering. Compare Exodus 24:11. It is not meant of Peter the apostle, to be sure, much less of the Pope, his pretended successor, as some of his parasites would have it.
Ver. 4. Then brought he me.] See on Ezekiel 44:1. The glory of the Lord.] See Ezekiel 43:2,5. And fell upon my face.] See Ezekiel 43:3 1:28.
Ver. 5. Mark well, and behold with thine eyes.] Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment. See Ezekiel 40:4. The refining of the ministry and discipline of the Church, with the same charge in regard of the excellency of the matter repeated for attention, to Ezekiel 44:17, and laws prescribed to that purpose, Ezekiel 44:17-31.
Ver. 6. And thou shalt say to the rebellious.] Heb., To rebellion. Vulgate, To the exasperating house. Let it suffice you.] Ye have sinned enough, and more than enough. (1 Peter 4:3) Now that I have set you up a new temple, turn over a new leaf for shame; [as Ezekiel 43:10] when shall it once be? (Jeremiah 13:27)
Ver. 7. Strangers.] Yourselves are no better; (Amos 9:7) strangers from the covenants; (Ephesians 2:12) degenerate children, (Isaiah 1:4) alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you, (Ephesians 4:18) and through your blind leaders of the blind, priests of your own making, &c. Uncircumcised in heart.] Erroneous in judgment. Uncircumcised in flesh.] Enormous in practice. When ye offer my bread,] i.e., The fat and the blood, as it followeth, which I seem to feed upon as a man doth upon bread. Because of all your abominations.] Or, Besides all your abominations mentioned. (Ezekiel 44:6)
Ver. 8. For yourselves.] Pro vestro arbitratu, non pro mea voluntate; as best suited with your own ends, and fitted to your own humours.
Ver. 9. Shall enter into my sanctuary.] See a like prohibition in 1 Timothy 3:3,8 Tit 1:7. Such as were the scribes and Pharisees, the Arian bishops, the Popish priests, the cleri (ut vocant)—dehonestamenta among us, till cast out.
Ver. 10. And the Levites.] The apostate priests, that for fear or favour have comported with idolaters: such as were the posterity of Ithamar, those time servers in Ezra; (Ezra 2:61,63) those in the books of Maccabees, Demas (if Dorotheus may be believed), Paulus Diaconus, Pendleton, Pflugius and Sidonius, authors of the “Interim” in Germany, &c. They shall even bear their iniquity,] i.e., Degradation, as a punishment of their iniquity.
Ver. 11. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary.] Though lapsed, they shall not be altogether discarded, [see 2 Kings 23:9 Nehemiah 13:28] partly for the honour of the priesthood, but principally for the encouragement of such as, having fallen by infirmity, rise again by repentance. Capite minuuntur, sed non penitus efficiuntur.
Ver. 12. Because they ministered unto them before their idols.] Being carried down the stream of the times, and hurried away by violent temptation, which they afterwards regretted and repented of. So did not those Popish bishops and priests at the coming in of Queen Elizabeth, who were therefore worthily turned out, even fourteen bishops, six abbots, twelve deans, as many archdeacons, fifty prebendaries, fifteen presidents of colleges, many parsons, and other stiff mass priests. Camden’s Elisabeth.
Ver. 13. And they shall not come near unto me.] How great then was the love of the Lord Jesus to Peter and the rest of his disciples after his resurrection, as in sending them that sweet message, (Mark 16:7) so in readmitting them to the work of the ministry after so foul a revolt. (John 20:21-23) And doth he not the very same still for his poor sinful servants, who desire indeed to fear his name, but are often overtaken in a fault through infirmity of the flesh? Surely, Father Traves, said Mr Bradford, martyr, in a letter to him, I have clean forgotten God; I am all secure, idle, proud hearted, utterly void of brotherly love; I am envious, and disdain others; I am a very stark hypocrite, &c. Thus he, and much more to like purpose, in his heavenly letters. Acts and Mon., 1511.
Ver. 14. But I will make them keepers.] Which was one of the meanest offices.
Ver. 15. But the priests, the sons of Zadok.] Who follow their father’s footsteps, and are careful to fulfil the ministry that they have received in the Lord; to be best in the worst times as right heirs of Moses’s benediction. (Deuteronomy 33:9, &c.) Saith the Lord God.] “Them that honour me I will honour.” (1 Samuel 2:20) This is a bargain of God’s own making. Huius rei fides penes Deum tota est; we may trust to it. Oecolamp.
Ver. 16. To my table,] i.e., To mine altar, (Ezekiel 41:22 Malachi 1:7,12) which as often as they do, they receive a double pledge of the pardon of their own sins. (John 20:23)
Ver. 17. They shall be clothed with linen garments.] As so many earthly angels, (Matthew 28:3 Revelation 4:4 7:13) for innocence and victory over their corruptions. And no wool shall come upon them.] No brutish and sensual lusts and practices shall be found in them. Ex brutorum lana vestes contexuntur. Lavat.
Ver. 18. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads.] In token of constant subjection to God. (1 Corinthians 11:6,7,10) They shall have linen breeches.] For honesty sake; and to admonish them to procure and “provide for things honest not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men.” (2 Corinthians 8:21) With anything that causeth sweat.] That they may not have an ill savour, or seem to do God’s work to their own trouble: the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.
Ver. 19. They shall put off their garments.] See Ezekiel 42:14. They shall not sanctify the people with their garments,] i.e., By the touch of their garments. See Exodus 29:37 30:29 Eze 46:20. To “sanctify the people,” in this text, is to persuade them that they are sanctified by the touch or sight of the priestly vestments. The monks at this day make the silly people believe that they cannot be damned when they die if they be buried in a Franciscan’s cowl.
Ver. 20. Neither shall they shave their heads.] What can the Popish shavelings say to this, qui ne pilum ullum viri bona habere videntur, as Cicero saith of Fannins Chaereas? noting it to be a sign of crafty malice to be shaven. And indeed is so bald and heathenish a ceremony that some priests in France are ashamed of the mark, and few of them have it that can handsomely avoid it. Nor suffer their locks to grow long.] As women’s: some heathen priests nourished their hair to a great length. A shag-haired minister is an ugly sight: bushes of vanity become not such, of any men. They shall only poll their heads.] Or, Round them. Certainly, saith one, the devil had forgotten this text when he raised up that reproach of Roundheads. To have hairy scalps is the garb of God’s enemies. (Psalms 68:21) In Orat. pro Rosc. Comaedo. Spec. Eur. Mr Burroughs.
Ver. 21. Neither shall any priest drink wine.] Wherein is excess. (Ephesians 5:18 Leviticus 10:9)
Ver. 22. Neither shall they take for their wives.] Ministers, of all men, should be careful whom they wed, for many reasons. Hear what good counsel one minister of mine acquaintance gave another: “ Quaere tibi uxorem quae sit Pia, Pulchra, Pudica, Provida, verborum Parca, et Parere parata.” “Seek for yourself a wife who is pius, beautiful, chaste, has forsight, of few words, and prepared to have children.” Mr Thomas Dugard.
Ver. 23. And they shall teach.] Ministers must be able and “apt to teach.” (1 Timothy 3:2 Titus 1:9 Acts 20:28)
Ver. 24. They shall stand in judgment,] i.e., Stand to the right, and not stir from it; in matters of religion especially, accounting every parcel of truth precious. They shall keep my laws.] Not observe them only, but preserve them from the violations of others.
Ver. 25. And they shall come at no dead person.] Not defile their consciences with dead works. They may defile themselves.] So they keep a mean. Something they may yield to nature, nothing to impatience. Mens e luctu eluctetur, the mind surmounts difficulties from grief.
Ver. 26. And after he is cleansed.] This is a new sanction in the new temple, as Vatablus observeth.
Ver. 27. He shall offer his sin offering.] Because we do easily overshoot ourselves in things permitted. Licitis perimus omnes. We perish in permitting all things.
Ver. 28. And it shall be, &c.] This that followeth shall be their inheritance, (Ezekiel 44:29-31) and whatsoever they want more shall be made up in me.
Ver. 29. They shall eat.] See on Ezekiel 44:28.
Ver. 30. That he may cause the blessing.] Tithe and be rich. See Malachi 3:10. [See Trapp on “Mal 3:10”]
Ver. 31. The priests shall not eat, &c.] They shall not be greedy of filthy lucre, nor oppressive. Popish priests made so much gain of the dead, and so “devoured widows’ houses,” under a pretence of dirges, trentals, masses for the dead, &c., that there was a necessity in, this kingdom of a statute of mortmain to restrain them. The figurative use is often based on the notion that the ‘dead hand’ means the posthumous control exercised by the testator over the uses to which the property is to be applied. ŒD