dissolute in life: when we therefore see them such: when we see tyrants who will
CHAPTER 1: The Calling and Preparation of the Twelve
dissolute in life: when we therefore see them such: when we see tyrants who will only plunder, and even pillage and devour the poor people, does this mean that the office must be diminished, and that the dignity and glory that God has placed in it, must therefore be obscured? No: but we must distinguish human corruption from God's ordinance, which remains whole and inviolate. As it is with the Ministers of the Word, we will see some wicked wretches, some of whom will only be flatterers, and who will make merchandise of the word of God (so to speak): others will only be mercenaries, and will preach only for gain; others, full of ambition and pride, who will only ask to show off: the others will be full of avarice.
We will also see some dissolute ones, some debauched, others drunkards and people of such a manner: but all this does not prevent the word of God from always having its reverence between us, and from the name and title of Pastor always being sacred to us, knowing that it is founded in God, and does not depend upon men, who change, and are more inclined to evil than to good. So this is what we have to remember in short, while waiting for the rest to be treated more fully.
Now let us bow before the majesty of our good God, acknowledging our sins and praying that he would so govern us by his Holy Spirit that we may remain steadfast in his truth. Amen.
C H A P T E R 2 BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
AND THOSE WHO MOURN
Matthew 5:1-4. Jesus therefore, seeing the crowd, went up into a mountain: and when he was seated, his disciples came unto him: 2. And he, having opened his mouth, taught them, saying, 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4. Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted.
Luke 6:20-21. Then lifting up his eyes to his disciples, he said, Blessed are you who are poor: for the kingdom of God is yours. 21. Blessed are you who are now hungry: for you will be satisfied.
There is no doubt that the Evangelists did not on occasion want to note as a summary of the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ: because they did not undertake to record every word: but it was enough for them to show in brief how our Lord Jesus Christ gathered his little church from the beginning, and what teachings he gave to his disciples. - It is said here that having retired into the mountain, and casting his eyes on the disciples, he showed them where the true blessedness of human beings lies. As for what Matthew expresses, which he opened his mouth, it is a way of speaking of the Hebrew language. It is true that he did not write in Hebrew, like. this can easily be judged: but however much they all wrote in Greek, they always retained the idiom of their native language. And we will see this in all other nations. For if a Frenchman or a German is not thoroughly trained in Latin, he will always have traits of what he learned in his childhood: and God willed that this should be so that we know the truth that this was not written by strange people: but by those who had been brought up in the country, who were plain and uneducated men, and who knew nothing more than their language, and what their mothers or nurses had taught them: that is to say who had not been to learned schools to pursue advanced studies. Thus it is as much as if it were said that our Lord Jesus Christ began to speak.