Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
Ver. 16. Ye blind guides which say] His watchmen are blind, was an old complaint, Isaiah 56:10. Which that it is a foul fault, the Rabbis have there noted from one letter (in the original) a of the word rendered watchmen, bigger than his fellows. How many are there that thrust into the ministry, wanting both heart and art to teach the people? These lead their flocks to the pit's brink, wherein if they perish, themselves lie lowermost.
Whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple] So by the gift on the altar, Matthew 23:18, these, they taught, were tied; the other might for a sum be dispensed with, that swore by the temple or the altar. Not so those that swore by the gold of the temple, that is, dedicated to the temple, or by the gift on the altar; for these oaths brought these blind guides in commodity, which the swearer was forced presently to pay down. The people also were hereby made more free and forward to offer gold for the temple, sacrifices for the altar; because they were made to believe that those presents were more precious than either temple or altar. Pretty devices these were to get money; and are they not still practised by Papists? Philip Brasier was abjured in Henry VIII's time for saying, that when any cure is done the priests do anoint the images, and make men believe the images do sweat in labouring for them. The rood (falaciousness) of grace and blood of Hales is notorious. Our Lady of Loretto hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, that they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. They teach the people that as they may sooner go to Christ by St Dominick than by St Paul, so to swear by holy relics, and in swearing, to lay hand on them, is a more binding oath than to swear by God, laying hand on the Bible.
a צפיו Ubi Tsaddi est maiusculum. Buxtorf. Tiber.