John Trapp on Matthew 23:35

Verse 35. From the bloud of righteous Abel] God reckons of men by their righteousnesse, Rom. 10. The righteous (let him dwell where he will, and by whom) is better then his neighbour, saith Solomon. This was Cains grief, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother: And wherefore slew he him, but because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous? So Alphonsus Diazius, that Cain the second, slew his brother John, because he could not win him to Popery. And I would1 [illegible: 1 word]. 3. [illegible: 1 word]. this patriarch of the devil (as one cals Cain) did not still live in his sons and successours, who carry about his club that is red with Abels bloud, Imò ut [illegible: 1 word] sacram adorans & venerantur, think they do a goodly act in killing up the poor lambs of Christ. Caesar Quòd melior vir erat quam esse quenquam [illegible: 1 word] expediret. Senec. 2 [illegible: 1 word] benefic. [illegible: 1 word] said to have slain Grecinus Julius for this reason alone, for that he was a better man, then that it was for the tyrants behoof, to suffer him to live. Unto the bloud of Zacharias] Most unworthily slain by his pupill Joas (as Linus likewise was by his scholar Hereules for a2 Chron 24. 20, [illegible: 1 word]. few sharp words that he gave him, as he was teaching him.) OurCum ille Herculem verbulo asperiore inter [illegible: 2 words] esset, &c. Saviour instanceth in this Zacharias as the last Prophet mentioned in the Scripture to have been slain by them, though they slew many more, not elsewhere mentioned, unlesse it be in that little Book of Martyrs, as one fitly calleth the eleventh to the Hebrews. Bucholc. [illegible: 1 word].