John Trapp on Amos 2:1

CHAP. II.

Verſe 1. FOr three tranſgreſſions &c.] Or Malicious wickedneſſes with an high hand committed, and heaped up to that height. See chap. 1.3.

becauſe he burnt the bones of the king if Edom] A wicked man, but yet a man: [non-Latin text not transcribed]. and God (who is a lover of mankind) ſhewes himſelf ſenſible of the injuries and indignities done but to his dead body: ſuch an enemy he is to cruelty to his creatures. That Meſa king of Moab bore a ſpeciall edge againſt the king of Edom, ſought to break thorough the army to him but could not, and afterwards ſacrificed his ſon and heir whom he had taken in that ſally made upon the king of Edoms quarters, we read 2 King. 3.26, 27. There are ſome that think that at another time, overcomming the Edomites, he dig'd up the bones of that king out of his ſepulcher, he burnt them to lime, that is prorſus, perfectiſſimè & abſolutiſſimè as ſome ſenſe it, to aſhes and cinders as Eſay. 33.12. or (for greater revenge, and contempt,)Targnm. be whitelimed the walles of his pallace therewith, as Gen. 11.3. Pſal. 69.23. Eſay. 22.21. Thus, in that horrid maſſacre of Paris, they cut of the Admirall's head (whom before they had murthered) and preſented it to the Q. mother;Speed. 1161. who, balming it, ſent it for a preſent to the Pope, who thereupon cauſed the Maſſacre to be pictured in the Vatican hall: under one ſide is Colignij & ſociorum caedes, On the other, Rex Colignij caedem probat. Il Mercuri[illegible: 1 letter] Italico 92. The king himſelf (viz Charles 9.) beholding the bloody bodyes of thoſe then maſſacred: and feeding his eye on ſo wofull a ſpectacle, breathed out this bloody ſpeech Quam bonus eſt odor hoſtis mortui. How ſweet is the ſmell of a ſlain enemy:Spec: belli ſacri. another hel-hag ſaid upon a like occaſion, that ſhe never beheld ſo goodly a peece of tapeſſtry, as the faces of thoſe butchered Saints. This inſulting over the dead is, that peece of cruelty which the church complaineth of Pſal. 79.2. Cornelius a Lapide upon this text cryes out of it as an inhumane and ſhamefull thing both becauſe the honour of ſepulture is the laſt dues of the dead; and alſo becauſe this is to fight with dead carcaſſes. [non-Latin text not transcribed], Juſta de functorum. Yet this hath been practiſed by one Pope againſt another, and by many of the Popes Champions here in England, who unburied and burnt the bodies of Paulus Phagius, Peter Martyrs wife, and many others: Cardinal Wolſey had a purpoſe (had he not been prevented by death) to have taken up King Henries body at Windſor, Act. & Mon. 1905. and to have burnt it. How much better Charles the fifth (yet no friend to the Reformation, but a prudent Prince) who entring Wittenberg as a Conquerour, and being importuned to dig up the dead bodies of Luther, and other Reformers, refuſed to violate their graves, and ſent away Melancthon, Pomeran, and ſome other eminent Preachers unhurt, not ſo much as once forbidding them to publiſh openly the doctrine that they profeſſed?Act. & Mon. 1784. Cambyſes heareth ill among all men for his digging up the dead body of Amaſis King of Egypt, and cauſing it to be whipt and brickt; and Sylla for the like cruelty to C. Marius. Of all fowl we moſt hate and deteſt the Crowes;Herodot. lib. 3. Plin. l. 7. c. 50. and of all beaſts, the Jackal's (a kinde of [illegible: 1 letter]oxes in Barbarie) becauſe the one digs up the graves, and devours the fleſh, and the other picks out the eyes of the dead. Hinc moraliter diſce, ſaith a Lapide, Learn hence alſo what a baſeneſſe it is to tear and deface the good names of thoſe that are dead: to fly-blow their names is worſe then to burn their bones to lime. And yet among many other men of mark that might bee inſtanced, Melancthon mortuus tantùm non ut blaſphemus in Deum cruci a[illegible: 2 letters]igitur, ſaith Zanchius: not Papiſts, but Lutherans laid blaſphemy to his charge after his death, whom all Chriſtendome worthily honoured for his learning and piety.Zanch. Miſcell.