John Trapp on Matthew 11:17

Verse 17. We have piped unto you &c.] It is probable that children, in those daies, were wont to solace themselves with songs in this sort: And thence our Saviour seeks to represse the pride, and set forth the sin of his untoward hearers. Fit similies doe excellently illustrate: And hee's the best Preacher, saith Luther, that delivereth himself vulgarly, plainly, trivially: not speaking in a Roman, English, or other lofty language, that the hearers are nothing the wiser for: nor yet puzzling them with scholasticall craggy disquisitions, that breed winde, and not nourishment. But so attempering their discourses to the hearers capacities, that their desires and endeavours may answer his: as it was between S. Paul and the Elders of Ephesus, Acts 20. 31—37. He tells them of his tears, and they answer him with tears: O happy compliance! But most of our hearers are like these in the text, which whether piped to, or mourned to, are nothing at all affected.