Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 11
Verse 11. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old]
Antiquityforeign 'tis venerable: and of witnesses, Aristotle witnesseth, that the more ancient they are, the more to be credited, as lesse corrupt.…. …. …. foreign New things are vain things, saith the Greek proverb. And the Historian condemneth his countrymen, as despisers of old customs,…. …, foreign, non sine …. and carried after new. But as old age is a crown, if it be found in the way of righteousnesse, Prov. 16. 31. and not otherwise: So may it be said of these Kadmônin or the old Rabbins, later then Ezra, whom our Saviour here confuteth. Much might have been attributed to their authority, had they not rested upon the bare letter of… Priscorum … porticus tempti, at cor … men acus. …. the Law, and wrested it sometimes to another meaning. Antiquity disjoyned from verity, is but filthy hoarinesse: and deserveth no more reverence then an old leacher; which is so much the more odious, because old. And as Manna, the longer it was kept, against the command of God, the more it stanke; so do errours and enormities. Laban pretendeth antiquity for his god, in his oath to… apists … much of …, as once the Gibeonites did of old … and mouldy …. Jacob, The God of Abraham, saith he, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judge between us. Bu Jacob sware by the … of his father Isaac. He riseth not higher … his father; and yet doubts not, but he worshipped God aright. It's no good … to say, wee'l be of the same religion with our forefathers; … we can approve it right by the holy Scriptures. Plus valet malum Gen …. …. foreign ….inolitum quam bonum insolitum: And that Tyrannus, trium literarum mos, too often carries it against truth: The image that fell down from Iupiter (for which there was so much adoe at …, foreign Act. ….Acts 19.) … said by the Town-clarke, to be … as could not be spoken against with any reason. And why? because it was wonderfull ancient (as Pliny telleth us.) For whereas the Temple… lib 16. of Diana had been seven severall times reedified, this image wascap. 40. never changed: and thence grew the … great superstition, by the… quissnunquam …. … of the Priests: as likewise the Ancilia among the Romanes, and … among the Asians. But what saith a Noble writer? Antiquity must have no more authority then what it can maintain. Did not our predecessours hold the torrid Zone …? did they not confine the world in the Ark of Europe, Asia and Africa, till Noah's dove Columbus discovered land, &c?
Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever killeth shall be in danger of judgement]
That is, it shall be questioned whether it be fit he … put to death or not. Thus as Eve dallied with the command, saying, Ye shall not eat thereof, lest ye die (when God had said, Ye shall surely die, whensoever ye eat) and so fell into the devils danger: In like sort, these Jew-doctours had corrupted the very letter of the Law, and made that doubtfull and questionable, which God had plainly and peremptorily pronounced to be present death. Before the floud indeed, some doe ghesse and gather out of Gen. 9. that the punishment of murther, and such like hainous offences, was only excommunication from the holy assemblies, and exclusion out of their fathers families, as Cain was cast out from the presence of the Lord, that is, from his fathers house, where God was sincerely served. Sure it is, that no sooner was the world repaired, then thisGen. 9. 6. Law was established; Who so sheddeth mans bloud, by man shall his bloud be shed. And this reason is rendered; for in the image of God made he him. That image (its true) is by the fall defaced and abolished; yet are there some reliques thereof still abiding, which God will not have destroyed. If any object, Why then should theObject. murtherer be destroid, sith he also is made in the image of God? The answer is easie, because the murtherer hath destroyed theAnsw. image of God in his neighbour, and turned himself into the image of the devil. Besides, God hath indispensably and peremptorily commanded it. He that sheddeth the bloud of any person, hasteneth Prov. 28. 17.to the grave, let no man hinder him. Say he … the stroke of humane justice, yet the Barbarians could say (as of Paul, whom they took for a murtherer) that divine vengeance will not sufferActs 28. 4. him to live. Bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out half theirPsal. …. 23. daies. Usually either God executeth them with his own immediate hand, as it might be easie to instance in many bloudy persecutours and others: or he maketh them their own deathsmen, as Pilate: or setteth some other aworke to doe it for them. As (among other examples of Gods dealing in this kinde) … 1586. Walsh Bishop of Osserey in Ireland, a man of honest life, with his two servants, were stabbed to death by one Dulland an Irish old souldier, whilest he gravely admonished him of his foul adulteries: And the wicked murtherer escaped away, who had now committed 45 murthers with his own hand. At length, revenge pursuing him, he was by another bloudy fellow Donald Spaman, shortlyCamdens Elizab. fol. 191. after slain himself, and his head presented to the Lord Deputy. Neither can I here omit (that which I had almost forgotten) the just hand of God upon that villanous parricide Alphonsus Diazius the Spaniard, who (after he had, like another Cain, killed his own1 Joh. 3. …. naturall brother Iohn Diazius, meerly because he had renouncedSenarclaeus de morte loan. Popery, and became a professour of the Reformed Religion, and…. was not only not punished, but highly commended of the RomanistsAnno. 1551. for his heroicall atchievements) desperately hang'd himself atSeipsum desperabundus Tridenti de collo … suspendit. …. Theatr. bist. p. 414. Trent, upon the neck of his own mule, being haunted and hunted by the furies of his own conscience.