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At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

Jesus went on the Sabbath day — St Luke calleth it "the second Sabbath after the first," Matthew 6:1 , that is, the second anniversary or solemn feast from the first ( δευτεροπρωτον ), to wit, from the passover Sabbath, and this was Pentecost.

And his disciples were an hungred — Hereby he hardened and inured them to further and future trials: teaching them also to depend upon God’s good providence for their necessary maintenance. The martyrs had their bread made of meal half mixed with sawdust.

To pluck the ears of corn and to eat — This was their best Sabbath day’s dinner: may not we be glad of mean fare on any day, when our betters fared no better on so high a day? See my Common Place of Abstinence.

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But when the Pharisees saw it , they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful — This was as the proverb is, Sus Minervam, a pig is Minerva, when blind Pharisees will be teaching Christ how the Sabbath is to be sanctified. Not Hebrews only, but also Greeks and barbarians rested from work on the seventh day: witness Josephus, Clement Alexander, and Eusebius. Howbeit, to the Hebrews at Mount Sinai, God, for a special favour, made known his holy Sabbath, Nehemiah 9:14 , commanding them to do no servile work therein, Leviticus 23:7-8 . This excludes not works of piety, charity, and necessity, such as was this of the disciples in the text. The Jews in their superstition would not fight on the Sabbath, and therefore lost their chief city to the Romans, under the command of Pompey, who took the advantage of the day to do his utmost then against them. a In later times they grew more rigid in this point: for on the Sabbath they would not spit, ease nature, get out of an outhouse, if by mishap they had fallen into it, as that Jew of Tewkesbury. This ever was and is the guise of hypocrites, to strain at gnats and swallow camels. Witness our modern Pharisees, the monks and Jesuits, who stumble at straws and leap over mountains. Their schoolmen determined that it was a less crime to kill a thousand men than for a poor man to mend his shoe on the Sabbath day. b

a Romani quoties dies huiusmodi rediissent fortissime percutiebant.

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But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

But he said unto them — They had not proved a breach of the Sabbath, neither could they. A breach it had been, had not the disciples been hungry, and he denies it not, but confutes their present cavils by clear syllogisms, one in the neck of another, such as they could not answer, nor abide, Manifestis syllogismis adversarios redarguit. Gualt. and therefore sought to destroy him,Matthew 12:14; Matthew 12:14 . See here the lawful use of logic in divinity, and mistake not St Jerome, Qui syllogizandi artem, applicatam Theologiae, comparat plagis Aegypti: understand him of that false sophistry, which the apostle calleth vain philosophy, Col. ii.

David did when he was an hungred — Note here, that our Saviour excuseth David from his necessity, not from his dignity, which in point of sin God regards not; Potentes potenter torquebuntur. And yet how many are there who think, that when they have gotten an office, they may oppress at pleasure, swear by authority, drink and swill without control? But height of place ever adds two wings to sin, example and scandal. And ill accidents ever attend such great ones, as, being absolute in power, will be too resolute in will and dissolute in life. Queen Elizabeth said that princes owe a double duty to God: 1. As men. 2. As princes. Sedes prima et vita ima, is as unsuitable as for those that are clothed in scarlet to embrace the dunghill, Lamentations 4:5 .

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How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?

And did eat the shewbread — The bread of proposition, αρτους προθεσεως, ενωπιους προκειμενους . as the Greek text hath it; the face bread, as the Septuagint call it; or that which was daily set before the Lord, to remind him, as it were, of the twelve tribes by those twelve loaves; and to teach us to labour every day in the week (and not on the Sabbath only) for the bread that endureth to everlasting life; which the Son of man will give to every hungry David, John 6:27 .

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Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?

Profane the Sabbath — As ye count profaning of it: or they profane it by divine dispensation, while they do servile works in slaying sacrifices, and other things tending to the service of God, such as is now the ringing of the sermon bell among us, as among the Protestants in France the letting off of a harquebus The early type of portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket, which on account of its weight was, when used in the field, supported upon a tripod, trestle, or other ‘carriage’, and afterwards upon a forked ‘rest’. The name in German and Flemish meant literally ‘hook-gun’, from the hook cast along with the piece, by which it was fastened to the ‘carriage’; but the name became generic for portable fire-arms generally in the 16th century, so that the type with the hook was subsequently distinguished as arquebuse à croc. ŒD or pistol, whereby they congregate.

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But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.

But I say unto you — q.d. Whereas you will here object, that that was done in the temple; I tell you I am greater than the temple: for in me the Godhead dwelleth bodily, Colossians 1:19 ; as in the temple was the ark, where the glory of God appeared, so that it filled the temple sometimes. Take notice here, by the way, how good it is to have some grave and godly man to be a beholder and judge of our actions, to whom we may approve them, whatever other ill-affected think of them- Equitem mihi plaudere curo, saith the heathen poet. And Libanius (though an atheist) could say, Βασιλειου με επαινησαντος κατα παντων εχω τα νικητηρια (ad Basil). If Basil commend me, I care not what all others say of me. Christ’s white stone will comfort a Christian against the black coals of the world’s censures. If Demetrius have a good report of the truth, and such a one as St John to bear record for him, he need not care though Diotrephes prate as fast against them both with malicious words,3 John 1:9-12; 3 John 1:9-12 , as the Pharisees did here against the disciples, when Christ defended them.

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But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

But if ye had known — And it was a foul shame for them not to know. "Who is blind as my servant?" …, Isaiah 42:19 . Varro justly upbraided the Roman priests, that there were many matters in their own rites and religions that they understand not. a What kind of men they were, Cicero (2, de Finib. ) gives us to know in these words of his, Ut maiores nostri Cincinnatum illum ab aratro abduxerunt, ut Dictator esset, sic vos de Pelasgis omnibus colligitis bonos illos quidem viros, sed certe non pereruditos, good honest men, but not guilty of much learning.

I will have mercy, and not sacrifice — q.d. I prefer the marrow and pith of the second table before the ceremony and surface of the first. See Trapp on " Matthew 9:14 "

Ye would not have condemned the guiltless — Ignorance is the mother of misprision: the wisdom from above is without judging, James 3:17 . And as any man is more wise, he is more sparing of his censures. Zanchy wonders that Lutherans, who profess to eat Christ corporally, should censure so bitterly. b

a Aug. Civit. Dei, iv, 1.

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For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath — q.d. Say they were not innocent, yet have you no cause to condemn them for Sabbath breach; since I am Lord of the Sabbath, and may do with mine own as to me seems best. True it is that Christ hates sin by nature, not by precept only; and therefore cannot dispense with the breach of his own laws, those that be moral in themselves, such as are all the ten, but the fourth. The fourth commandment is moral, not by nature, but by precept, saith one, and so the Lord of the Sabbath may dispense with the literal breach of the Sabbath.

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