John Trapp on Matthew 11:18

Verse 18. For John came neither eating, &c.] So froward men are and frample, that no preacher can please them. If he preach plainly, it will seem [illegible: 1 word] slubbering: if elaborately, curious affectation. And for his life; Austere John hath a devil, sociable Christ is a winebibber. And it was the worse, because from Scribes and Pharisees, whose word must carry such credit with it, as alone to condemn Christ; and whose life must be a rule to others. Doe any of the Pharisees beleeve in him? In this case duty must be done, however it be construed. Evil men, when they learn to think well will learn to report well. Let our lives, and labours in the Lords work confute them: and though they should by their reproaches bury our good names in their throats, those open sepulchres, yet at utmost, when Christ comes to judgement, there shall be a resurrection of names as well as of bodies. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord, Iames 5. 7. And they say he hath a devil] So Staphylus and Surius said, that Luther learned his Divinity of the devil. The Jesuites affirm, that he was stirred up by the devil, and they were sent out by God to resist him. Himself knew all this, and took it well a worth. Prorsùs satan est Lutherus (saith he in an Epistle to Spalatinus) [illegible: 1 word] Christus vivit & regnat: Amen; he adds his Amen to it.