That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
Ver. 21. That make a man an offender for a word.] When he meant no hurt, or by perverting and misconstruing his speeches. Thus they sought to trap Christ in his speeches; and thus they dealt by many of the martyrs and confessors. To say, the Lord, and not our Lord, is called by Stephen Gardner symbolum haereticorum, a note of a heretic. a Dr Storie's rule to know a heretic was, they will say, the Lord, and we praise God, and, the living God. b Robert Cook was abjured for saying that the blessing with a shoe sole was as good as the bishop's blessing. c Another for saying that alms should not be given until it did sweat in a man's hand. d Mrs Catismore for saying that when men go to offer to images, they did it to show their new gear; and that images were but carpenters' chips; and that folks go on pilgrimage more for the green way than for devotion. e Philip Brasier for saying that when any miracle is done, the priests anoint the images, and make men believe these images sweat in labouring for them, &c. f "Every day they wrest my words," saith David of his enemies. Psa 56:5 As the spleen is subservient to the liver, to take from it only the most putrid and feculent blood; so do detractors pick out the worst of everything, to lay it in a man's dish, or allege it against him.
And lay a snare for him that reproveth.] See Trapp on " Amo 5:10 " Freedom of speech used by the Waldenses in blaming and reproving the vices and errors of great ones, effecit ut plures nefariae affingerentur eis opiniones, a quibus ornnino fuerant alieni, made them hardly thought and spoken of. g
a Acts and Mon,. fol. 1116.
b Ibid., 1803.
c Ibid., 952.
d Ibid., 765.
e Ibid., 763.
f Ibid., 952.
g Girard.