Psalms 104:18

3. “Nevertheless, mine honour they have thought to drive back” ( ver. 4 ). Conquered while they slay men yielding, by the blood of the slain multiplying the faithful, yielding to these and no longer being able to kill; “Nevertheless, mine honour they have thought to drive back.” Now because a Christian cannot be killed, pains are taken that a Christian should be dishonoured. For now by the honour of Christians the hearts of ungodly men are tortured: now that spiritual Joseph, after his selling by his brethren, after his removal from his home into Egypt as though into the Gentiles, after the humiliation of a prison, after the made-up tale of a false witness, after that there had come to pass that which of him was said, “Iron passed through the soul of him:” now he is honoured, now he is not made subject to brethren selling him, but corn he supplieth to them hungering. …

12. Next he doth relate the story, mentioning what Joseph suffered in his low estate, and how he was raised on high. “His feet they hurt in the stocks: the iron entered into his soul, until his word came” ( ver. 18 ). That Joseph was put in irons, we do not indeed read; but we ought no ways to doubt that it was so. For some things might be passed over in that history, which nevertheless would not escape the Holy Spirit, who speaketh in these Psalms. …

Shall I mention, in passing, a thought, which just at this moment occurs to me? The blessed martyr Babylas was bound, and he too for the very same cause as John also was, because he reproved a king in his transgression. This man when he was dying gave charge that his bonds should be laid with his body, and that the body should be buried bound; and to this day the fetters lie mingled with his ashes, so devoted was his affection for the bonds he had worn for Christ’s sake. “He was laid in chains of iron” as the Prophet saith of Joseph. ( Ps. cv. 18 .) And even women have before now had trial of these bonds.

If, however, they rely on the passage, The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and because of this erase the noblest part of Man (as cobblers do the thicker part of skins) that they may join together God and Flesh, it is time for them to say that God is God only of flesh, and not of souls, because it is written, “As Thou hast given Him power over all Flesh,” and “Unto Thee shall all Flesh come;” and “Let all Flesh bless His holy Name,” meaning every Man. Or, again, they must suppose that our fathers went down into Egypt without bodies and invisible, and that only the Soul of Joseph was imprisoned by Pharaoh, because it is written, “They went down into Egypt with threescore and fifteen Souls,” and “The iron entered into his Soul,” a thing which could not be bound. …