Poole says, " The best opinion seems to be the opinion of those who think oar Saviour saw Mary too fond, as if she thought He had been raised up to such a converse with them as He liad before His death. This error is all He tasks her of, not forbidding any kind of touching, so as to satisfy herself He was truly risen, but restraining any gross conception. — He re- minded Mary that He was about to ascend to His Father, though He had not yet ascended, and was therefore not to be enjoyed by them with so much freedom and familiarity as be- fore."
Bishop Hall says, " There may be a kind of carnality in spir- itual notions. " If I have known Christ after the flesh, from henceforth I know Him no more.' That Thou livedst here, my Saviour, in this shape, that color, this stature, that habit, I should be glad to know : nothing that concerns Thee can be unusef ul. Could I say, here Thou safest, here Thou layest, here Thou wast crucified, here Thou wast buried, I should with much content see and recount those ceremonials of Thy presence. But if I shall so fasten my thoughts on them, as not to look higher, to the spiritual part of these achievements, to the power and issue of Thy resurrection, 1 am none the bet- ter.' "
Rollock says, " The meaning in effect is this. It is not time for thee to touch Me now, till that time I be in glory, and then touch Me by the arm of faith as much as thou canst or may est. Ye must consider, that she was too much addicted to His bodily presence. She thought He should have remained and dwelt on earth as He did before. Therefore He would not let her come near Him, until He instructed her of a spiritual touching, and that He was not to stay here, but to dwell with His Father in heaven.
" Mark this lesson. Some men love the Lord entirely, and yet when they come to His service they fail : for such is the grossness of our nature that we cannot incline to that spiritual service which He chiefly requires. Popery is full of this gross- ness. They can do nothing if they have not His carnal pres- ence, either in Himself, or in a stock or stone, or in a piece of bread, and therefore they draw a bodily presence of Him in the sacrament. All their religion is earthly, — no grace, no spirit in it. But did the Lord accept that gross service that Mary offered? I am certain He loved Mary better than the Pope and all his priests ; yet well as He liked Mary, He liked not her service. He says to her, Touch Me not ! The Lord keep us from gross service, and make us touch Him by faith."
Andrews says, " The most we can make is that here Mary failed in somewhat. Not that she did it in any immodest or indecent manner. God forbid ! Never think of that. But she was only a little too forward, it may be : not with the due re- spect that was meet." — " I tell you plainly I do not like her Kabboni. It was no Easter-day salutation ; it should have