Verse 24. It is an honour to be invited to the feast of an earthly prince; how much more to be bidden unto the banquet of the King of kings! And as the desiring of any to dinner or supper is a sign of love and goodwill in him that offereth this courtesy, so it is a point of great ungentleness and sullenness for a man, without just cause, to refuse so kind a proffer; for, in so doing, he sheweth that he maketh none account at all of him, who not only hath borne toward him a loving affection, but he made declaration thereof in some sort, and gone about to seal it by certain pledges of friendship; yea, that which is yet more, he causeth him to lose the cost which he hath bestowed about provisions and entertainment, and his messengers to lose their pains and their travail. Then, when those who are bidden to the kingdom of God (Luke xiv. 18) desire to be excused, how can this be but a great sin? but, when God shall not only call with His hand to a rebellious people, continuing His Word preached with all means pertaining thereunto; as the grace offered in this respect is doubled, so the sin of not profiting thereby is mightily increased.--_Muffet._ God called for a famine on the land, and was not refused; God called for a drought upon the land, and was not refused; and, no doubt, should God call any other of His creatures, they would not refuse to come unto Him, seeing those things which are not, when they are called, do come to God. Only man refuseth. Surely hence it is that the prophets of God do so often speak unto insensible things, as: "Hear, O heavens; give ear, O earth." For it is not seldom that God calleth to men and is refused.--_Jermin._ Verse 26. There is not in the Lord any such affection or disposition of mocking as in man; but when in the course of His providence He so worketh that He leaves the wicked to his misery, or maketh him a mocking stock to the world, He is said in the Scripture to scorn, or have them in derision (Ps. ii.), because He dealeth as a man which scorneth.--_Muffet._ If God laugh, thou hast good cause to cry.--_Trapp._ There is, as has been said, a Divine irony in the Nemesis of history. It is, however, significant that in the fuller revelation of the mind and will of the Father in the person of the Son, no such language meets us. Sadness, sternness, severity there may be, but from first to last no word of mere derision.--_Plumptre._ _Even I,_ not, "I also," _I,_ who have warned you so often, so tenderly, so earnestly.--_Stuart._ Verse 27. Cataline was wont to be afraid at any sudden noise, as being haunted with the furies of his own evil conscience. So was our Richard the Third after the murder of his two innocent nephews, and Charles the Ninth of France after the Parisian massacre. These tyrants became more terrible to themselves than ever they had been to others.--_Trapp._