Philippians 3:5

206. And when is that fulfilled, you will say, which the Lord declares, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service"? At any rate neither can this be said of the heathen, who persecuted Christians, not for the sake of God, but for the sake of their idols. You do not see that if this had been said of these emperors who rejoice in the name of Christian, their chief command would certainly have been this, that you should have been put to death; and this command they never gave at all. But the men of your party, by opposing the laws in hostile fashion, bring deserved punishment on themselves; and their own voluntary deaths, so long as they think that they bring odium on us, they consider in no wise ruinous to themselves. …

6. Now I know what you are waiting for; I understand what you would hear from me. This too will I briefly declare, as the Lord enableth me; “ascending and descending unto the Son of Man.” How, if they descend to Him, He is here; if they ascend to Him, He is above. But if they ascend to Him, and descend toHim, He is at once above and here. It cannot any way possibly be, that they should ascend to Him, and descend to Him, unless He be both there whither they ascend, and here whither they descend, How do we prove that He is both there, and that He is here? Let Paul, who was first Saul, answer us. He found it by experience, when he was first a persecutor, and afterwards became a preacher; first Jacob, afterwards Israel; who was himself too “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.” In him let us see Christ above, Christ below. …

33. “There is Benjamin the younger in a trance” ( ver. 27 ). There is Paul the last of the Apostles, who saith, “For even I am an Israelite, out of the seed of Abraham, out of the tribe of Benjamin.” But evidently “in a trance,” all men being amazed at a miracle so great as that of his calling. For a trance is the mind’s going out: which thing sometimes chanceth through fear; but sometimes through some revelation, the mind suffering separation from the corporal senses, in order that that which is to be represented may be represented to the spirit. …

26. “Who sendeth His crystal like morsels of bread” ( ver. 17 ). We need not spend our toil again in saying what crystal is. We have already said it, and I do not think that ye, beloved, have forgotten it. What is then, “He sendeth His crystal like morsels of bread”? What is “crystal”? It is very hard, it is very tightly congealed; it can not, like snow, be easily melted. Snow, hardened by many years’ duration, and by the succession of ages, is called “crystal,” and this “He send eth like morsels of bread.” What meaneth this? They were too hard, no longer fit to be compared to snow, but to crystal; but they too are predestinated and called, and some of them even so as to feed others, to be useful to others also. …

And this he doth also in another place intending, namely, to take away the advantages of Judaism and to show that henceforth they are nothing, he begins by declaring that himself had been endowed with them, yea, and that in very great excess; and then he calls them “loss,” thus saying, “If any man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal, persecuting the Church; as touching the righteousness which is the law, found blameless.” ( Philip. iii. 4-7 .) And then, having signified himself to have the advantage of all, he saith, “Howbeit what things were gain to me, those have I counted loss for Christ.” So also he doth here, saying, “I speak with tongues more than ye all.” Do not ye therefore glory as though ye only had the gift. …