Matthew 8:22

But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Ver. 22. Follow me] Let go things less necessary, and mind the main. Thy task is long, thy time is short; opportunities are headlong, and must be quickly caught, as the echo catcheth the voice. There is no use of after wit.

" Praecipitat tempus, mors atra impendet agenti. "

(Sil. Italic.)

Let the dead bury their dead] The dead in sin, their dead in nature. Ungodly men are no better than breathing ghosts, walking sepulchres of themselves. Their bodies are but living coffins to carry a dead soul up and down in. The saints only are heirs of life,1 Peter 3:7, and all others are dead, stark dead in sins and trespasses, as the wanton widow, 1 Timothy 5:6; as Terence saith the same: Sane hercle homo voluptati obsequens fuit dum vixit. And of such dead corpses (as once in Egypt, Exo 12:30) there is no house wherein there is not one, nay, many.