((f) P. 309. — ' God would have the very snufi'ers in the tabernacle pi<re gold.^ (See Exodus xxxvii. 23.) For a very effective enlargement of this thought, cf. ' The Golden Snufi'ers : or Christian Eeprovers and Reformers characterised, cautioned, and encouraged. By Daniel Burgess.' 12mo. 1697.
(e) P. 315. — ' You know there was a primitive light ; lux primogenita, as Basil calls it.' The reference is as follows : — ' Lux primogenita. ToD '::^oi-oyovov furhg sxs/vou.' Basil in Hexaem, Horn. ii. § 8, torn. i. p. 20. Ben. Ed. Milton translates this phrase in his invocation to Light at beginning of Book III. of Paradise Lost.
' Hail, holy Light, offspring of heaven first born. Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam. May I express thee uublam'd ? since God is light, And never but in uuapproached light. Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence uncreate.'
(/) P. 316. — ' Therefore Ambrose calleth it, L^iz jurwia gratia mundi.' See Ambrose Hexaem, lib. i. c. ix.
(g) P. 323. — ' Therefore Saint Ambrose saith well, Christus umbra in Lege, imago in Kvangelio, Veritas in co?l6' This will be found in Ambrose, in Fsalin xxxviii. § 25. For 'in ctoIo' he has 'in ccBlestibus.'
(h) P. 331. — ' He is the first-fruits of God's predestination, as Austin observeth.' See Exposit. Epist. ad Rom. luchoat lib. i., ' Ergo ille tanquam Filius Dei uni- genitus, etiam primogenitus ex mortuis predestinatus est, ex resurrectione mor- tuorum.'
{i) P. 341.-^' As Lactantius saith well, " All morality without piety is as a goodly statue without a head." See Div. Inst. lib. vi. c. ix. ' Omnis enim justitia ejus similis erit humano corpori caput non habenti.*
(/) P. 355. — ' As candles that have thieves in them.' That is, little bits of the wick that have got into the body of the candle, causing sputtering and waste. In nearly every country, the oddest superstitions are linked with such ' thieves ; ' e. g., a large one that has melted a considerable portion, was in Scotland called a 'shroud,' and foretokened death.
(/c) P. 361. — ' The fishermen cast their great nets into the great world, as Austin saith, and got in whole nations.' The following is the passage : — ' Accepeiunt (Apostoli) ab eo retia verbi Dei, miserunt in mundum tanquam in mare profundum, ceperunt quantam multitudinera Christianorum cernimus et miramvir.' Serm. de temp., c. xviii. Fer. 4 Paschre, Serm. i.
{I) P. 367. — ' It [the sword of the Spirit, = the Bible] is no leaden dagger, as the papists blasphemously term it.' A commonplace of the popish controversy.
(to) p. 368. — ' It is diflicult as for a camel, so for a cable too.' The word Ka/A/Xoi', which signifies a cable-rope to which sailors attach the ship's anchor, is supposed by many to be the proper reading in Mat. six. 24, and to have been changed by an error of transcription into Kd/J^yjXog, a camel. Sibbes refers to both readings. For erudite and elaborate annotation upon the passage with special reference to Ka/x/Xov
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV. 487
and KdfxrjXo;, consult Nicolaidcs' Evangelical and Exngetical Commentary npon Select portions of the New Testament, founded on tho writings of Niccplioros Theo- toces, vol. i. pp. 181-186, London, 18G0.
(w) P. 379. — ' Nolo hanc gratiam. I will not this grace (saith one of the ancients), that Icaveth the will to be Uoxiblo, and at liberty.' Augustine has this sentiment in every variety of expression in his great Controversies with tho Donatists.
(o) P. 380. — ' Tiierefore, as they say very well, he worketh suaviter et fortiteT ; siiaviler, by entreaty, agreeable to the nature of man ; and fortiter, powerfully.' Sibbes probably has reference to the Latin proverbial saying — ' Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.'
{p ) P. 380 ' The birth of thy womb is as the dew of tho morning.' So the best
translators have it. For the different renderings as well as interpretations of this obscure verse consult Dr Joseph Addison Alexander on the Psalms in loc. Sibbes's seems rather an exegesis of the words than a translation.
(q) P. 385. — ' As Augustine saith well, Volentern hominem salvum facere, when God will save a man, no stubbornness of his will shall withstand,' &c. The often- repeated adoring acknowledgment of this illustrious father in reverting to his own conversion after obstinate resistance. Cf. ' The Confessions ' throughout.
(r) P. 392. — ' And therefore it is true that is usually spoken, that where God will defend a city and country, a cobweb may be the walls thereof; but where God will not defend a city or country, a wall is but a cobweb.' The allusion here is to an incident in the history of St Felix of Nola. The legend runs, that this saint, being hotly pursued at the close of the Decian persecution, took refuge behind a ruinous old wall, the aperture through which he passed being almost immediately covered with a large spider's web. His enemies not imagining that any person could have entered a spot which was so closely covered by a tender fabric which ordinarily requires much time for its completion, missed their prey ; and the saint, reflecting upon the mode of his escape from his blood-thirsty pursuers, observed, that ' with Christ's presence a spider's web becomes a wall ; if he be absent, a wall is no better than a spider's web. FrcBsenie Christo, aranea fit mums : ahsente Christo, mums fit aranea. The circumstances are recorded by Paulinus (a. d. 398) in a poem, I)e Sancto Felice Marti/re, Natalis V., of which the following lines refer to the event already mentioned : —