John Trapp on Proverbs 12:10

Verſ. 10. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beaſt] There bee beaſts ad uſum, & ad eſum. Some are profitable alive, not dead, as the Dogge, Horſe, &c. Some dead, not alive, as the Hogge: ſome both, as the Oxe. There is a mercy to be ſhewed to theſe dumb Creatures, as wee ſee in Eleazar, Gen. 24.32. And the contrary in Balaam, who ſpurred his Aſſe till ſhe ſpake, Numb. 22.27. 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. Exod. 22. The reſtraint that was of eating the bloud of dead beaſts, declared, that hee would not have tyranny exerciſed on them whiles 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 tenderneſſe, ſcarce common humanity: Cannibal-like, they eat up Gods people as they eat bread, feeding upon them alive, and by degrees; and dealing by them as the cruel Spaniards doe by the Indians; S. Fran. Drakes World encompaſs. They ſuppoſe they ſhew the wretches great favour, when they doe 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. 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 Catholick Religion. In purſuance of which Decree, Philip King of Spain ſaid, he had rather have no Subjects than Proteſtants: And out of a bloudy zeal ſuffered his eldeſt Son Charls to be murdered by the cruel Inquiſition, becauſe he ſeemed to favour that profeſſion. When the Spaniards took Heidelberg, they took Monſieur Mylius an ancient 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 murthers, equalling it not, exceeding that at Athens, taken by Sylla, which yet, ſaith Appian, was [non-Latin text not transcribed], a mercileſs Maſſacre: Or that of Prolomeus, Lathurus King of Aegypt, 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 bloud, and cloathed themſelves with their Skins, as Dio relates in the Life of Trajan the Emperour?