Ezekiel 10, ver. 14. The face of a cherub.
There are those who tell us, that in the Syriac tongue, the word cherub is taken from a word which signifieth drawing the plough, which is the bullock’s proper labour.
We must believe therefore, say they, that cherub signifieth properly the figure of a bullock, under which hieroglyphically was represented an angel.
The laborious preacher’s face shall once shine as an angel’s.
John 19:18: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
For our sins were the nails and ourselves the traitors that fastened him to the tree.
Pilate and his soldiers, Judas and the Jews, were all set to work by us.
Learn to lay the blame on thyself, and say:
It was my gluttony that reached a cup of gall and vinegar to his mouth;
mine incontinence that provided stripes for his back;
mine arrogance that platted a crown of thorns upon his head;
mine inconstance that put a reed into his hand;
my treachery that nailed his hands and feet;
my vanity that grieved his soul to the death;
my self-love that thrust a spear into his side, &c.
Adsum ego qui feci. (Virgil.)
Nunquam confusi, Deo confisi.
Never preplexed, having trusted in God.
John 18, Ver. 7. Then asked he them again.
Though struck to the earth they desist not: so the Sodomites, smitten with blindness, grope for the door.
Pharaoh, in that palpable darkness, rageth against God, and menaceth Moses.
Monoceros interimi potest, capi non potest:
the unicorn is able to be killed but not able to be captured;
stubborn men will sooner break than bend.
John 17, Ver. 26. … the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Claritas in intellecta parit ardorem in affectu. Ignoti nulla cupido.
Clarity of mind gives birth to zeal in devotion.
The unlearned desire nothing.
John 10, Ver. 41. John did no miracle.
Lest he should be mistaken for the Messiah.
But how got he then so much credit?
By his mortified conversation especially.
“Holy and reverend is God’s name,” saith the Psalmist; therefore reverend, because holy. Holiness hath honour in the consciences of the very worst.
The painting: The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
John 16: 33 In the world ye shall have tribulation.
There is no avoiding it; it is not a paradise, but a purgatory to the saints.
It may be compared to the Straits of Magellan, which is said to be a place of that nature, that which way soever a man set his course, he shall be sure to have the wind against him. (Heyl. Geog.)
John 16:33 I have overcome the world.
Therefore we are more than conquerors, because sure to overcome beforehand, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.“, #Ro 8:37.
We are triumphers, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.“, #2Co 2:14.
We need do no more, then, as those in Joshua, but set our feet on the necks of our enemies, already subdued unto us by our Jesus.
