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Hos_4:4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people [are] as they that strive with the priest.
Ver. 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another] Let him not lose so much good labour, and spill so many sweet words upon this people; for they are grown uncounsellable, incurable, incorrigible. They have rejected the counsel of God within, or against, themselves, Luk_7:30, corripiuntur sed non corriguntur; it is because the Lord intendeth to destroy them, 1Sa_2:25, yea, he hath determined it, 2Ch_25:16. Hence as dying men lose their hearing and other senses by degrees, so those that are destined to destruction grow stupid and stubborn, and will neither hear good counsel, nor see the things that concern their peace, but spurn at admonition and scorn at reproof.
“ Tunc etiam docta plus valet arte malum. ”
And therefore God forbids to reprove such, as deplored and desperate; to cast pearls of good counsel before such dogs, who prefer loathsome carrion before sweet odours; yea, rage at them as tigers do, and fly in the faces of such as present them; or, at best, grunt and go their ways, as swine; leave good counsel where they find it, not putting it in practice. Now, as dogs and swine were counted unclean creatures, and unfit for sacrifice, so are such for admonition. Let a man be never so able and apt to teach, let him be vir praestans, eximius, insignis, a gallant man (as the word àåשׁ here used sometimes signifieth), and one that can do his work never so well, yet the wisdom of his words shall be despised, Pro_23:9. Let him strive till his heart aches, et disputatos arguere, as St Jude speaketh ( åëåã÷åôå äéáêñéíïìåíïé , Jdg_1:22), he shall but strive against the stream, and by reproving a scorner get him a blot, Pro_9:7. The Pharisees denied our Saviour, and blew their noses at him ( åîåìõêôçñéæïí ), Luk_16:14. Let them alone, therefore, saith our Saviour to his disciples, they be blind leaders of the blind, Mat_15:14; there is no good to be done of them: therefore "let him that is filthy be filthy still," Rev_22:11, and he that is ignorant let him be ignorant, since he will needs be so, 1Co_14:38. Let him "pine away in his iniquity," Lev_26:38. Let him pine and perish, go on, despair, die, and be damned. My spirit shall no longer strive with him, unless it be by furious rebukes, Eze_5:15, and by fire, Amo_7:4. Oecolampadius upon this text doubts not to say that the sin of such as reject admonition is the sin against the Holy Ghost: certainly it is worse than all the forementioned, swearing, lying, &c. Blind nature could see and say as much. Hesiod saith that there are three sorts of men: the first and best are those that live so well as not to need reproof ( ïõôïò ìåí ðáíáñéóôïò . Hesiod. Oper. et Dier. V 29). The second (and those not bad) are such as do not so well, but can be content to hear of it. The third and worst are they that will neither do as they ought, nor be advised to do better. Plutarch saith those that are troubled with tooth ache will go to the physician; those that have a fever will send for him; but he that is frantic or stark mad will do neither, but reject the remedy and strike at the physician. So doth the scorner. See my commonplace of admonition.
For this people are as they that strive with the priest] Though God’s officer, and in his stead, 2Co_5:20, though the people’s oracle to preserve and present knowledge to them, Mal_2:7, and though to strive with such be to invert God’s order, who hath appointed the people to hear and obey their teacher, and not to prescribe to them; to follow their guides, and not to run before them, Heb_13:7; Heb_13:17 1Ti_1:20 2Ti_1:15 Num_16:1-3. From which texts and 1Co_11:2-3, a grave divine argueth thus. It is a vile sin to vex our ministers by our obstinace, yea, though they were not able to make so full demonstration; yet when they reprove such and such things out of a spiritual jealousy and fear they corrupt their hearts, they are to he heard; how much more when they come "in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power?" 1Co_2:4. And yet how full is the Church and ever hath been of such Vitilitigatores as contend with the best ministers, quarrel at God’s word, and take up arms against it! snuffing at it, Mal_1:13, chatting at it, Rom_9:19-20, casting reproaches upon it, Jer_20:8-9, enviously swelling at it, Act_13:45. The more you touch these toads the more they swell; the more you meddle with these serpents the more they gather poison to spit at you. Go about to cool them with fair words, you shall but add to their heat; as the smith’s forge fries when cold water is cast upon it; and as hot water, if stirred, casteth up the more fume. Vultures unguento irritantur et scaraboni rosa: vultures cannot endure sweet odours (Plin. Elian.). Tigers, if they hear the sound of a drum, will rage and tear themselves. Ahab cannot abide Micaiah; nor Herod, John Baptist. The people contested with Jeremiah and cursed him, Jer_15:10, though he were concionator admirabilis, as Keckerman hath it, an admirable preacher; yet they sought his life, saying, "Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hands," Jer_11:21 (Rhet. Eclesiast. cap. ult.), yea, they told him, flat and plain, "The word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hear," Jer_44:16. O lewd losels (as that martyr in like case exclaimed), O faithless hard hearts, O Jezebel’s guests, rocked and laid asleep in her bed! O sorrowless sinners and shameless harlots! (Bradford). Ministers are lights, offensive to sore eyes; the salt of the earth, which is bitter to wounds. Among the Athenians, if the comedians (which were their teachers, such as they had) pleased not the people, they were overwhelmed with stones. "Once was I stoned," saith Paul, 2Co_11:25. And Jeremiah is said to have met with the like death from his flagitious countrymen in Egypt, among whom he was ever a man of strife, and his service was (in that behalf) like that of Manlius Torquatus among the Romans, who gave it over, saying, Neither can I bear their manners, nor they my government.