A righteous [man] regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked [are] cruel.
Ver. 10. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.] There be beasts ad usum, et ad esum. Some are profitable alive, not dead, as the dog, horse, &c.; some dead, not alive, as the hog; some both, as the ox. There is a mercy to be shewed to these dumb creatures, as we see in Eleazar; Gen 24:32 and the contrary in Balaam, who spurred his ass till she spake. Num 22:27-28 Otherwise we shall make them "groan under the bondage of our corruption," Rom 8:21 and he that hears the young ravens, may hear them, for "he is gracious." Exo 22:27 The restraint that was of eating the blood of dead beasts, declared that he would not have tyranny exercised on them while they are alive.
But the tender mercies of the wicked.] If any such thing there were; but they have no such bowels left, with Judas; no such tenderness, scarce common humanity; cannibal-like, they "eat up God's people as they eat bread," feeding upon them alive, and by degrees; and dealing by them as the cruel Spaniards do by the Indians. They suppose they shew the wretches great favour when they do not for their pleasure whip them with cords, and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon, which is one of the least cruelties that they exercise toward them. a In the sixth Council of Toledo, it was enacted that the king of Spain should suffer none to live within his dominions that profess not the Roman Catholic religion. In pursuance of which decree, Philip, king of Spain, said, he had rather have no subjects than Protestants; and, out of a bloody zeal, suffered his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition, because he seemed to favour that profession. When the Spaniards took Heidelberg, they took Monsieur Mylius, an old minister; and, after they had abused his daughter before his eyes, tied a small cord about his head, which, with truncheons, they wreathed about till they squeezed out his brains. What should I speak of the French massacres, and late Irish immane and monstrous murders, equalling, if not exceeding that at Athens, taken by Sulla, which yet, saith Appian, was ανελεης σφαγη, a merciless massacre; or that of Ptolomy Lathurus, king of Egypt, who slew thirty thousand Jews at once, and forced the rest to feed upon the flesh of their slain fellows; or, lastly, that of the Jews committed upon the inhabitants of Cyrene, whom they not only basely butchered, but afterwards ate their flesh, drank their blood, and clothed themselves with their skins, as Dio relates in the life of Trajan, the emperor!
a Sir Francis Drake's World Encompass.