Matthew Poole and continuators on Luke 12:49

49 I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Some of the ancients here by Fire, understood the Holy Ghost, or the Preaching of the Gospel, with those Flames of Love, and holy affections which that causeth in the hearts of good People, but this Interpretation cannot but be looked upon as strained to those who compare this verse with v. 51, 52, 53. and the Parallel Text in Matth. 10.34, 35, 36. by Fire here therefore is to be understood the dissension, or division mentioned v. 15. with all those Persecutions, Wars, &c. which are the effects of it. A Prediction, or threatning of Persecutions, or Wars, or any kind of troubled State of things is often expressed in Holy Writ under the notion of Fire, and Water, or a Flood, for though Fire and Water are opposite in their qualities, yet they both agree in the common effect of consumption, wasting and desolation. Christ saith, he came to find it, because he foresaw this would be a certain consequent, tho not a proper and natural effect of the Preaching of the Gospel. Christ may be said to come to send a Fire in the same sense, as he that is imployed in the removal of a filthy Dunghill, may be said to come to send a stench, his design is to carry the muck away, and in a due time he will have done it, but in the mean time it sends out a much greater stench then before it was stirred. And what will I? if it be already kindled? not to take notice of what critical Authors say, about the signification of the Particles, or the Phrase here used, I take the true sense to be, I desire nothing more then that it were already kindled, nor was this anymore inconsistent with the Goodness and Holiness of Christ, then for a Gold-Smith to wish the Fire was kindled that should separate the dross from the pure Mettal, or then for Christ to desire that his floor were throughly Purged. Christ doth not desire the Fire for the Fires sake, but for the sake of that effect it would have, in separating in his Church the good from the bad; it was a thing he saw would be through the opposition the World would give to the Preaching of the Gospel, before his Gospel would obtain in the World; I would, saith he, that what they do, they would do quickly, that they would spit their Venome, that my Father might make their Wrath to praise him, whereas some interprete it indicatively, as if the Fire were already begun [non-Latin text not transcribed] can hardly be so Interpreted.