John Trapp on Matthew 19:24

Verse 24 It is easier for a camell, &c.] Or, cable. rope, as some render it. Either serves; for it is a proverbiall speech, setting [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 3 words]. forth the difficulty of the thing. Difficile est, saith St Hierom, ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur & futuris, ut [illegible: 1 word] ventrem [illegible: 1 word] mentem [illegible: 1 word], ut de [illegible: 1 word] ad delicias transeat, ut in coelo & in terrâ gloriosus appareat. Pope Adrian the sixth said thatAdrian [illegible: 1 word]. nothing befell him more unhappy in all his life, then that he had been head of the Church, and Monarch of the Christian commonwealth. When I first entered into orders, said another Pope, I [illegible: 2 words]. had some good [illegible: 1 word] of my salvation; when I became a Cardinall, [illegible: 1 word]. a Lap i. [illegible: 1 word] com. in Numb. 11. 11. [illegible: 2 words]. 1. [illegible: 1 word]. I doubted of it: but since I came to be Pope, I do even almost despair. And well he might, as long as he sate in that chair of pestilence, being that man of sinne, that sonne of perdition, 2 Thes. [illegible: 2 words]. [illegible: 1 word]. 2. 3. Ad hunc statum venit Romana Ecclesia, said Petrus Aliacus long since, ut non esset dignareginisi per reprobos. The Popes, like the devils, are then thought to do well, when they cease to doIn [illegible: 1 word]. hurt, saith Johan. Sarisburiensis. They have had so much grace left we see (some of them howsoever,) as to acknowledge, that their good and their blood rose together, that honours changed their manners, and that they were the worse men for their great wealth: and that as Shimei seeking his servants lost himself; so they, by reaching after riches and honours, lost their souls. Let rich men often [illegible: 1 word] this terrible text, and take heed. Let them untwist their cables, that is, their heart, by humiliation, James 5. 1. & 1. 10. till it be made like small threeds as it must be, before they can enter into the eye of a needle, that is, eternall life.