15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.



Ver. 15. For without are dogs] In outer darkness. The Irish air will sooner brook a toad or snake to live therein, than heaven will brook a sinner. It was not permitted to a dog to enter into the Acropolis or tower at Athens, äéá ôïõ áêïëáóôïõ êáé äõóùäïõò for his heat in venery and ill savour, saith Plutarch. Goats, likewise, saith Varro, come not there (unless for necessary sacrifice once a year) lest they should hurt the olive. No filthy dogs or nasty goats get into heaven’s tower, &c. The panther smells well among beasts (whom thereby she draweth about her), not so among men. God and the saints loathe what the wicked love and delight in, as the panther doth in man’s excrements.



And whosoever loveth] Though he maketh it not. Some will not coin a false tale, that yet will spread it; these are equally guilty, and excluded God’s kingdom, Psa_52:3.