4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?



Ver. 4. Fell to the earth] Christ unhorsed him, but did not destroy him. He is not such a monarch as loves to get authority by sternness, as Rehoboam, but by gentleness. And though gone to heaven, yet hath he not changed his nature with change of honour; but together with beams of glory, there are still in him the same bowels of pity that he had here upon earth.



Why persecutest thou me?] As unskilful hunters, shooting at wild beasts, may kill a man? so those that shoot at the saints, hit Christ. Their sufferings are held his, Col_1:24; their reproach his, Heb_13:13. God is more provoked than Nehemiah, Neh_4:3; Neh_4:5. Christ retaineth still compassion, though freed from personal passion; and, though freed from feeling, he hath still yet a fellow feeling. {a} Let such among us take heed what they do, who, while they pronounce our Church antichristian, &c., strike at the beast, but wound the Lamb.



{a} Manet compassio etiam cum impassibilitate. Bernard.