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Mic_3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for [there is] no answer of God.
Ver. 7. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded] They shall be hissed and hooted at for impostors and falsaries; shame shall be the promotion of these fools, as it is at this day of the heathen philosophers, of the Jewish Rabbis, of the Popish doctors and schoolmen, who once carried the hell for most acute and accurate divines, but now appear to be great triflers; a rotten generation of dunghilldivines, as one styleth them: in detestation of whose vain jangling and noting about questions, 1Ti_6:4, Luther saith, Prope est ut iurem, &c., I could swear almost that there was not a schoolman that understood one chapter of the Gospel (Luth. tom. 1, oper. lat. eph 47). Latimer professed that by hearing Bilney’s confession he learned more than before in many years. So from that time forward, saith he, I began to smell the word of God, and forsake the school doctors and such fooleries.
Yea, they shall all cover their lips] And stand aloof, as lepers. See Lev_13:45 Eze_24:17; Eze_24:22. Or they shall leave off their lying; for I will stop their mouths, that they shall not hereafter so much as mute any more, Ego illis os claudam (Calv.). The Septuagint render it, All men shall abhor them, shall open their lips against them. Montanus, involvent mystacem suam, they shall wrap up their moustaches, which (saith a Lapide) the false prophets wore upon their upper lip, et incedebant comptuli, and went neatly trimmed, as do now the Calvinistic ministers. But if some do so, yet this is better than the Popish priests shaving, which is a ceremony so bald, that some priests in France are ashamed of the mark; and few of them have it that can handsomely avoid it.
For there is no answer of God] He comes not at them, as sometimes he did to Abimelech, Laban, Balaam; neither speak they according to his word, for what reaons? "there is no light in them," Isa_8:20. The philosophers "professing themselves to be wise" (but wanting the wisdom from above) "became fools," Rom_1:22. The Pharisees, had they known anything aright and as they ought, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, 1Co_2:8. Oracles they had, and miracles enough; but they "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized," Luk_7:30; or if they were, yet remained they a viperous brood, Mat_3:7, and never attained to that answer of a good conscience toward God, 1Pe_3:21. The schoolmen often cite the philosophers, seldom the apostles; they count the authority of Fathers as good as that of Scriptures: neither doubt they to call the writings of the Fathers by the name of Scripture ( Lombard passim). Was not this to set "men’s threshold by God’s threshold; and their posts by his posts," Eze_43:8. What marvel therefore though they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, while they taught for doctrines men’s traditions? What marvel though Popish fopperies, once so admired, be now so much slighted, since the world seeth further into them than formerly? Notable is that passage in King Henry VIII’s protestation against the Pope: England is no more a babe; there is no man here but now he knows that they do foolishly that part with gold for lead. Surely, except God take away our right wits, not only the Pope’s authority shall be driven out for ever, but his name also shortly shall be forgotten in England. We will from henceforth ask counsel of him and his, when we list to be deceived, when we covet to be in error, when we desire to offend God, truth, and honesty.