been some better term, expressing more reverence." — "The touch was not the riglit touch, and all for want of expressing more regard ; not for want of reverence at all, but of reverence enough." — " It is no excuse to say it was all out of love. Nev- er lay it upon that. Love, Christ loves well. But love, if it be right, doth nothing uncomely, keeps decorum, forgets not what belongs to duty and decency, carries itself accordingly."
" A strange kind of love, when for very love to Christ we
care not how we use Him, or carry ourselves toward Him. Which, being Mary's case, she heard and heard quickly. Touch Me not, — you are not now in case till you shall have learned to touch after a more regardful manner.
Sibbes says, " Mary was too much addicted to Christ's bodily presence. It is this that men have labored for from the begin- ning of the world, — to be too much addicted to present things and to sense. They will worship Christ ; but they must have a picture before them. They will adore Christ ; but they must bring His body down to a piece of bread : they must have a presence. And so instead of raising their hearts to God and Christ in a heavenly manner, they pull down God and Christ to them. And, therefore, saith Christ, ' Touch Me not in that manner : it is not with Me as it was before.' We must take heed of mean and base conceits of Christ."
Sherlock, in his " Trial of the Witnesses," says, " The natural sense of this place is this : Mary Magdalene, upon seeing Jesus fell at His feet and laid hold on them, and held them as if she never meant to let them go. Then Christ said to her, " Touch Me not, or hang not about Me now. You will have other op- portunities of seeing Me, for I go not yet to my Father. Lose no time then, but go quickly with my message to my brethren."
West, on the Resurrection, says, " I take Christ's forbidding Mary to touch Him, to have been meant as a signification of His intention to see her and the disciples again ; just as in or- dinary life, when one friend says to another, ' Do not take leave for I am not going yet,' he means to let him know that he pur- poses to see him again before he sets out on his journey."
Lampe mentions a strange view of "Touch Me not" main- tained by Bauldry, a German professor. He would put a full stop at " not," and place it first in the sentence, rendering it thuj, " No ! I am not the gardener. Touch Me, and see that I am Thy Saviour risen." He also mentions a view held by many, that it means, " Do not try whether I am risen by touch- ing Sle. It is 1 myself." Both views, however, seem very im- probable.
Paul us, the German theologian, maintains the monstrous no- tion that our I-.ord meant, " Do not lay a fing(ir on Me, because my wounds still smart." This is simply ridiculous, to say the least.