Matthew 8:12

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Ver. 12. But the children of the kingdom] Those that had made a covenant with God by sacrifice,Psalms 50:5; and therefore held their heads on high, as already destined to the diadem. Lo, these, in the height of their hopes and expectancies, shall be excluded; a foul and fearful disappointment. Surely the tears of hell cannot sufficiently bewail the loss of heaven. John of Valois was son, brother, uncle, father to a king, yet himself never was a king; so here.

Into outer darkness] Into a darkness beyond a darkness; into a dungeon beyond and beneath the prison. In tenebras ex tenebris, infeliciter exclusi, infelicius excludendi, saith Augustine. God shall surely say to these unhappy children of the kingdom, when he casts them into condemnation, as Aulus Fulvius said to his traitorous son when he slew him with his own hands, Non Catiline te genui sed patriae. I begat you not to be a Catiline but a patriot. I called you not but to glory and virtue, neither to glory but by virtue, 2 Peter 1:3. As you liked not the latter, so never look for the former. Every man is either a king or a captive; and shall either reign with Christ, or rue it for ever with the devil. a Aut Caesar aut nullus, Either Caesar or nothing, as he said to his mother: and as those in the Turk's court, that are born of the blood royal, but come not to the kingdom; they must die either by the sword or halter; so here.

a Omnis homo aut est cum Christo regnaturus, aut cum diabolo cruciandus. Aug.