Joel 3:5

Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

Ver. 5. Because ye have taken my silver, &c.] Sacrilege is a second sin they here stand charged with. Ye have taken, that is, taken away (by which observation, ye shall easily reconcile the Psalmist, Psalms 68:19, with the apostle, Ephesians 4:8, saith Tarnovius here), my silver and my gold; vessels consecrated to my use and service; or mine, that is, my people's, whom ye have robbed; but it shall not thrive with you; it shall prove as the gold of Toulouse (Aurum Tholosanum), fatal to them that had any part of it, or as Achan's wedge, that cleft his body and soul asunder.

These ye have carried into your temples Or palaces, even my goodly pleasant things] My desirable goods, either to adorn your houses or your idols, to your own bane, as Belshazzar. It is surely a snare to a man who devoureth dedicated things, Proverbs 20:25, that bowseth in the bowls of the sanctuary. And it was a sad complaint of Luther, that even in the reformed Churches, parishes and schools were robbed of their due maintenance; as if they meant to starve us all. The like saith Gualther in his homily upon this text: Non desunt pseudo-evangelici, saith he, There want not such false gospellers among us, who restore not the Church her wealth, pulled out of the Papists' fingers; but make good that saying of one, Possidebant Papistae, possident Rapistae, Papists had Church livings, and now Rapists have gotten them; like as a good author observeth upon the battle of Montlecherye, that some lost their livings by running away, and they were given to those that ran ten miles farther.