CAIN and ABEL PARALLEL'D With King CHARLES and his Murderers IN A SERMON Preached in S. Thomas Church in Salisbury Jan. 30. 1663. Being the Anniversary Day of the Martyrdom of King CHARLES I. of Blessed Memory By HENRY GLOVER Rector of Shroton in the County of Dorset 2 King 9. 31. Had Zimri peace who slew his Master LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane 1664. PErlegi hanc Concionem cui Titulus Cain and Abel parallel'd with King Charles and his Murderers in quâ nihil occurrit Doctrinae Disciplinaeve Ecclesiae Anglicanae aut bonis moribus contrarium Joh. Hall R. P. D. Episc Lond. à Sac. Domest Mar. 29. 1664. To my Reverend Brother THOMAS HIDE D. D. and Chanter of the Cathedral Church in SALISBURY I Am not solicitous to give the World any other account of the publishing of this Sermon but only this That it was Preached at your Motion and is now printed at your Request which was it seems animated by others of my then Auditors who desired to see what they had heard and to have that in their hands which otherwise was too apt to slip through their ears What Censures I may undergo for this my compliance with your and their desires I am not able to divine if it be from Wise men remember you are either to bear the Blame or to make my Apology if from others I hope I shall be able to bear the weight of their displeasure my self and to requite their censures with neglect For the Sermon I have only this to say of it That it was intended to upbraid none but the guilty and among them none but the impenitent and even to them the onely harm intended was but this to set before them as in a Glass the heinousness of their sin that it might be a means with Gods blessing to accelerate their conversion and rouze them up from that Lethargy of a dead and dedolent disposition of heart in which the most of them lie yet sleeping If God per adventure will give Eph. 4. 19. them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Of the Principals I must confess I think there is but little hope but for the Accessaries I hope they have not all sinned the sin unto death and therefore for them I shall put up S. Austines prayer upon that passage of the Psalmist Let them be ashamed and confounded c. Ps 70. 2. Sic confundantur Aug. Enarr in Psal 69. ut convertantur quia converti non possunt nisi confusi fuerint let them so be ashamed and confounded that they may be amended and converted because they cannot be converted unless they be so confounded If this Sermon should prove instrumental to do any such good upon any one of their souls I should look upon it as a great blessing both to them and me But leaving the success of that to God I shall content my self at present with this demonstration of my readiness to serve you and so remain Sir Your loving Brother Henry Glover CAIN and ABEL PARALLEL'D With King CHARLES and his Murderers GEN. 4. 10 11. And he said What hast thou done The voice of thy Brothers bloud crieth unto me from the ground And now art thou cursed from the Earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy Brothers bloud from thy hand IF I had the Liberty of choosing a Text this day not onely out of the Sacred Bible but out of any other History in the world I suppose it would be impossible to find a Parallel for that Tragedy which England this day saw acted there never having been such a piece of Villany acted in the World before It is storied of Conradinus the son of Conrade the fourth the last of the Noble Family of the Barbarossae that being taken Prisoner in Battel by Charles King of Naples and Sicily he was by the Instigation of Pope Clement the fourth publiquely beheaded at Naples Here was a King beheaded but then he had the honour to be beheaded by a King not by a Tumultuous Rabble of his own Rebellious Subjects and which is more the Headsman who did the Execution was presently beheaded by another Ne extaret qui diceret tam generosum sanguinem à se effusum that there might not be one able to boast that he shed that Noble blood Here was some respect had to Majesty but not so with our Regicides The sacred blood which they shed was vilely cast away as if the Person whose blood it was had not been anointed with Oyl 2 Sam. 1. 21. It being then impossible to find a Text that should represent this days Villany to the Life we must be content with one that will do it although in fainter colours And truly I think this of Cain the oldest Murderer in the World except onely his Father the Devil who was a Murderer from the Beginning will come closest home to our English Cainites or rather Canibals who were the greatest Murderers in the World the Devil himself not excepted Wo unto them for they have followed the way of Cain Jude 11. And then the sufferings of Abel the first Martyr will best express the sufferings of King Charles the greatest Martyr in the World Thus the day is a day of blood and the Text is a Text of blood Innocent blood both crying blood and both accompanied with a Curse upon the Shedders The Lord said unto Cain What hast thou done the voice of thy Brothers blood crieth unto me from the ground And now thou art cursed c. We will observe in the Text but these two general Parts a Cry and a Curse a great Cry and a great Curse the cry of Blood and the curse of the Blood shedder Both these we shall see exactly fulfilled as well in King Charles and his Murderers as in Abel and his Where they run parallel I shall endeavour to compare them and where they out-go Cain in Impudence and Villany I shall as I pass along take notice of it And so I begin with the first part of my Text a Cry a great Cry The voice of thy Brothers blood crieth unto me from the ground There be four sorts of sins especially that are said in Scripture to have a Voice and though men do not hear the Voice of these sins yet God doth They are 1. The cry of bloud here in this Text. Murther hath a Voice and a shrill Voice though it be but the blood of the meanest innocent Subject it never leaves clamouring till expiation is made by the blood of the Murtherer And God hath a Court of Inquisition for such bloody sins Psal 9. 12. When he maketh Inquisition for blood he remembreth them and forgetteth not the Cry of the humble 2. The cry of that filthy unnatural sin of Sodomy Men with men working that
which is unseemly as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 27. And this is a very crying sin Gen. 18. 20. The cry of Sodome and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grievous Those lustful Benjamites which we read of Judg. 19. 22. were unnatural Sodomites Bring forth the Man say they that came unto thee that we may know him And there went up a cry from Gibeah for that nights work that was never appeased till almost the whole Tribe was destroyed 3. The Cry of the oppressed groaning by reason of their Affliction under the Bondage of their Tyrannical Task-masters and God hears the cry of such afflicated oppressed souls Exod. 2. 23. The children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage and they cried and their cry came up unto God Thus when men by oppression and rapine do set their Nests on high there is a cry of the very Stones and Timber against the unjust Builder The stone cries out of the wall and the beam out of the timber doth answer it Hab. 2. 11. 4. The Cry of the poor Labourers hire detained from him by fraud or violence and that cry entereth into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth Jam. 5. 4. When the poor man is defrauded of his wages on Earth he sues for it in Heaven in forma pauperis and God will surely hear his cry and punish thee for not paying of him Prov. 22. 22 23. Rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the Gate For the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them This denotes the grievousness of these four sins that they have every one of them a voice crying in the ears of the Lord for vengeance This in the Text is the first of these The voice of blood Innocent blood you may be sure for Guilty blood hath no voice The blood of a Malefactor let out by the hand of Justice for the preservation of the Body Politique makes no more noise in the ears of God then the bloud that is let out of a vein by the hand of a skilful Physician for the preservation of the Body Natural So when a Murtherers blood is shed by the Magistrate it hath no voice its dumb blood because God hath commanded it to be shed Gen. 9. 6. Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his bloud be shed This then is Innocent blood we are sure because it hath a voice And was not the blood that was shed this day such Yes certainly If Abels blood had a voice this could not be still The same ground of quarrel that Cain had against his innocent brother these Regicides had against their King what that was S. John will tell you 1 Joh. 3. 12. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous This was it and this made them both not onely innocent Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 15 c. 7. Sufferers but eminent Martyrs Facibus invidiae inflammabatur in Fratrem saith S. Aug. of Cain quem debuerat imitari cupiebat auferre Cain envied his brother because he was more righteous then himself and so thirsted for his bloud whose vertues he ought to have imitated Had these Murtherers but lookt with a Christian eye upon the vertues of the Royal Martyr his eminent Patience and Meekness and Charity his constant Courage and Resolution rather to dye then do any thing unbeseeming a Christian and a King they had had a fair Copy to have written after and had never left their Names with such a curse upon them to Posterity But the Devil of Envy and Discontent was entered into their hearts as he did into the heart of Judas and that together with those other Fiends of Covetousness Ambition and Sacriledge set them upon this Hellish Project Thus Esau being discontented because his brother had the Blessing vowed his death Thus Cain being discontented because his Brothers Offering was more acceptable to God shed his bloud Thus Ahabs discontent because he could not have his Neighbours Vineyard cost innocent Naboth his life and when he had killed he took possession Thus Judas being discontented as it is conceived because he could not get money for the Oyntment that anointed our Saviours feet Joh. 12. 5. went away to the Priests and betrayed his Master And lastly thus the Devil not being contented with his place in Heaven rebelled against his Maker and thereupon procured for himself a place in Hell Now put all these together Cain Esau Ahab Judas and the Devil make up if you can one compound of their several sins Envy Malice Discontent Pride Ambition and Sacriledge beat them all together till they are become one great sin and you have the very Picture of these wretched Regicides who acted over all their sins in this one Murder No wonder then to hear of a Voice when Innocence is assaulted with such a legion of Fiends together what voice it is you have in the next words viz. 2. The Voice of Bloud Of Bloud that 's not all It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original The voice of blouds What is the meaning of that 1. Junius is of opinion that it was put in the Plural Number because it was shed abroad upon the earth and so ran here and there in streams as if it had been seeking out of new veins to disperse it self in And so though it were but Bloud in the body yet now it was shed it became Blouds Vox sanguinum i. e. sanguinis caede fusi huc illuc dissilientis ex ictu And then this expression will serve to aggravate the sin of Murder and to shew the cruelty of shedding Innocent Bloud The Bloud-thirsty man is usually in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of blouds so Psal 5. 6. And if it be so in the murder of a private person if that be a sin of such a deep die that nothing but blouds will serve to express the guilt of it what shall we say of Rebellious Subjects shedding the bloud of their lawful Soveraign and letting it out like water upon the Earth Surely this is Blouds indeed and more then so if we had more then a Plural to express it by As when you break a Looking-Glass in pietes every little bit of it will shew you your face and so there is not one face but many when the Glass is broken so when that Royal bloud was shed every drop of it had a several voice and so it was not a Voice but Voices not onely a Voice of bloud but a Voice of blouds 2. The Chaldee Paraphrase reads it Vox sanguinis seminum the voice of the bloud of seeds or vox sanguinis familiarum the voice of the bloud of Families or vox sanguinis generationum as it is variously rendered the voice of the bloud of Generations Because it was not Abels bloud onely that was shed but
other note but onely the bloud of Jesus Christ That is indeed better bloud then that of Abel and so speaketh better things then that of Abel Heb. 12. 24. It cried for Mercy and for Mercy to the very Murtherers whose souls some of them at least were washed with that very bloud which their hands had shed Act. 2. 23. with 38. The efficacie and vertue of that Prayer of our blessed Saviour Father forgive them for they know not what they do made that pretious innocent bloud a soveraign bath to cleanse their souls who had shed it And so the bloud of Christ did out-crie even the bloud of Christ that is The voice of Christs bloud as Mediator did crie louder for Mercy then the voice of Christs bloud as an innocent Sufferer did cry for vengeance Thus that bloud cried and still doth crie for Mercy but all other innocent bloud having no merit in it self to cleanse souls doth cry for vengeance and will never leave crying till it be revenged The souls of those that lay under the Altar Rev. 6. 9. who were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth Not as if those blessed souls were Vindictae Cupidi or had the least malice or desire of revenge against their Murderers Such an opinion will not suit with that happy state of bliss in which they are But as the bloud of the Sacrifice saith Grotius which was poured at the foot of the Altar did Grot. in Apoc. 6. 9. as it were mind God of the Sacrifice which was offered up to him upon the Altar So the souls of thâ—se Martyrs which are said to lie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Altar do as it were continually put God in mind of their innocent sufferings and stir up his justice to take vengeance on their Murderers So did the bloud of our Royal Martyr crie and that under the Altar too being slain for the Testimony which he held and it cried so loud that all his Kingdoms heard it from one end to the other and shook at the noise and could never have rest till God heard the crie of it and avenged it 5. Once more and I have done with the first part of my Text. A voice a voice of bloud of brothers bloud and that crying bloud not whispering but olamouring for vengeance Now lastly From whence doth it cry Why clamat de terra it crieth from the ground which had received it from the Murderers hand As if the Earth it self had shewed some compassion in drinking of it in when the Murderer shewed so much cruelty in the letting of it out Or rather as if the Earth would have hid the bloud or Cain would fain have hid it in the earth but yet it could not be for when it was covered in the earth yet still it did crie and when it could not be seen yet still it was heard Thus vengeance pursues Murderers and as the Poet could tell us Raro antecedentem scelestum Horat. deseruit pede poena claudo when such bloudy sins do march in the Front vengeance will not fail to bring up the Rear The very Barbarians themselves had it either from Experience or from Natural Light that Murderers could not go unpunished which made them say one to another when they saw the Viper hanging on S. Pauls hand Act. 28. 4. No doubt this man is a Murderer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet vengeance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Goddess of Justice saith Vatablus suffereth not to live They acknowledged that there was a Nemesis a Vindictive power somewhere that would not fail to execute vengeance upon men of bloud the bloud wil cry still when the man is dead and buried that owned it And thus it is here Vox de Terra a voice out of the earth but yet a voice that like the crie of Sodoms sin reacheth up to Heaven and a voice that pursues the Murderer down to Hell John Baptist was the voice of one crying in the Wilderness Isa 40. 3. but this is the voice of one crying in the earth and crying out of the earth That voice out of the Wilderness called for Repentance but this voice out of the Earth calls for Justice We read of the Wizards in Isa 8. 19. that they did peep and mutter out of the earth Forerius saith that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there rendred Familiar Spirits Forer in Isa 8. 19. were spiritus in sepulchris mortuorum locis subterraneis qui Rogati voce stridula respondebant some subterranean spirits lying in the sepulchres of the dead which gave answers to those that consulted them in a strange kind of hissing voice But now as if Necromancie and Witchcraft were but a petty sin to this the bloud of the Innocent doth not peep and mutter but cry and roar out of the earth And when the Murtherers think 't is safe covered and there shall be no more tidings of it when they have hid it and buried it and hope it is forgotten even then there is spiritus in sepulchris mortuorum a spirit in the sepulchres of the dead that lifts up its voice afresh and cries out in the words of Job O earth cover not thou my bloud Job 16. 18. And thus we have found it true by experience there was spiritus in sepulchrâ— Regis a spirit of vengeance that cried out of the Kings Grave and never left crying till the curse came a dozen years after upon the shedders of it Which brings me from the Cry to the Curse the second part of my Text And now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers bloud from thy hand Cain was cursed presently though the curse did not presently overtake him in all the parts of it so are all Murderers so especially were these No sooner is the stroke given but the curse falls as the Bullet is at the Mark in the very instant that the Powder fires so saith God Nunc maledictus es Now at this very instant thou art cursed c. But before I come to take notice of the Curse it self and to compare the curse of Cain with the curse of King-killers I shall crave leave a little further to compare the Persons and Dispositions of these men with the Person and Disposition of Cain that when we have seen how well they agree in their Qualities we may the more admire the justice of God who hath made them to agree so well together in their Curse 1. It is observed by the Jews that Cain was grown upon the matter an Atheist before he slew his brother There is in the Jerusalem Targum a Dialogue of what passed between Cain and Abel in the field Cain said to Abel There is no judgment nor Judge nor any other World after
upon his Possessions One single curse is not enough for such Murderers they are followed with curse upon curse Cursed in their Basket and in their Store Cursed in the City and in the Field So was Cain he built a City but it seems stayed not long in it the furies of his Conscience as 't is thought drove him out into the Field again and the City was called by his Sons name ver 17. And lastly Cursed in the fruit of their Body and in the fruit of their Ground and in the fruit of their Cattel Deut. 28. 16 c. All this came home upon Cain And the heaviest of all temporal curses is when God who often visiteth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children doth curse the fruit of a wicked mans body and gives him cursed children for his cursed sins Cain was cursed in his soul and cursed in his substance and cursed in his posterity His children were cursed children not one of them came to good Their wickedness infected the whole world and brought the Floud and that Floud swept all the posterity of Cain away not one left I do not wish this curse upon the children of our King-killers rather let them live to see all their Fathers sins which they have done and consider and do not such like that they may not die in the iniquity of their Fathers Ezek. 18 14 17. And now let us consider how God hath brought home the rest of Cains curse upon the children of Cain those men of bloud that murdered the King and by the dreadfulness of the curse learn for ever to detest and abhor the sin The cry of that Royal bloud you have heard already and all the Land heard it and groaned under it for many years but now the Curse hath overtaken the Cry We will pursue it step by step that we may see and admire the justice of God in the exemplary punishment of that enormous sin 1. That the earth was cursed that received the bloud of Abel ver 12. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield her increase We are told that bloud defileth a Land Num. 35. 33. that it doth ever and the Land cannot be cleansed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it Therefore there was no satisfaction to be taken for the life of a Murderer because the Land could not otherwise be purged ver 31. so saith Solomon Prov. 28. 17. A man that doth violence to the bloud of any person shall flee to the pit let no man stay him that is let him die without Mercy let no man mediate for him But beside this A bloudy Land being thus defiled is sometimes in Gods judgment made a barren Land and the soaking of an Estate in bloud is equivalent to the sowing of it with salt Psal 107. 34. A fruitful land turneth he into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein The Country of Sodom and Gomorrah was turned into a salt Lake for the wickedness of the Inhabitants Thus doth Gods curse many times get into wicked mens estates so that they crumble away without any other reason to be given further then that the Flying Rowl is consuming the beams and the timber Zach. 5. 4. Let them look to that who have built their houses in bloud This is certain That the curse for this Murder did hover a long time like an Eagle over the whole Kingdom which hath been by reason of it for many years a Land of Nod that is a Land of trembling There was a cup of trembling put into our hands and we were made to drink the wine of astonishment and were never quiet till this bloud was revenged The voice of it shook the whole kingdom and shattered it in pieces And so part of the Curse fell upon the Earth 2. Cain himself was cursed that shed this bloud And this is one great part of his curse that he should be a Fugitive and Vagabond upon the earth ver 12. that is That he should be pursued hither and thither by the Furies of his own Conscience driven up and down the world as one that is pursued with a Hue and Cry by the Ministers of Justice so that he should never find a quiet Habitation more as long as he lived So Junius expounds this part of the Curse that by it is meant Corporis animi instabilitas ex diris conscientiae the unsettledness both of his body and mind through the terrours of his Conscience And thus Euripides brings in Orestes after he had slain his mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 running up and down Greece having his Conscience stung like a Beast that is pricked with a Fly â—nd so never able to be quiet any where This punishment was very exemplary in the Jews after they had crucified the Lord of Life Dispersi Tertul. Apol. c. 21. palabundi coeli soli sui extâ—rres vagantur per orbem sine homine sine Deo Rege saith Tertullian They had never a certain abiding place since but as banished men they put in where they may be permitted to live never a Temple nor publique Sacrifice never a King to govern them nor a God to take care of them Insomuch that Nicephorus calls them Theatrum Vindicta Divinae the Theatre of Divine Vengeance And this was Cains punishment He was not yet in Hell but Hell was got into him and that made him restless endeavouring if it had been possible to flee from himself as carrying his own Tormentor in his own bosome The Guilt of his soul set Spurs as it were to his body and made him continually to be in a restless motion And this if you consider it is the very Curse that is fallen upon the Regicides those of them especially that have hitherto escaped the Sword of Justice They are in the Land of Nod Mobilis Vagâ— frighted with the Noise of the Fetters of their own Consciences and still afraid lest they hear the feet of the Revenger of bloud behind them Thus is that Curse fallen upon them then which David by the Spirit of Prophesie could not imprecate a greater upon the enemies of God and his Church Psal 109. 10. Let them be continually Vagabonds and seek their bread out of desolate places Indeed we read in Scripture of a company of holy Vagabonds that did wander about in Sheeps-skins and Goats-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in Desarts and in Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the earth Heb. 11. 37 38. This was not their curse because not for any crime nor their misery but their happiness The world was not worthy of them though they were not thought worthy to live in the world But to wander as Cain did with a guilty conscience up and down the world this is a Curse indeed the very curse that the remaining Regicides are now under 3. Cain despaired when he heard his sentence
the bloud of all his Posterity of all the Families and Generations that should have come out of his Loins if he had not been murdered The bloud of Abel should have run in the veins of many others that were to descend from him so that it was the bloud of families the bloud of Generations the bloud of seeds which now by being shed lost its prolifical vertue God it seems takes notice of this and in this respect Cain was a Murderer not onely of one but of many You may see this more clearly in 2 King 9. 26. Surely I have seen yesterday the bloud of Naboth and the bloud of his sons saith the Lord and I will requite thee in this plat saith the Lord. We read of none but Naboth that was put to death no mention of his sons being murdered with him in all the history of his Trial and condemnation and execution 1 King 21. 13 14. How then was it the bloud of Naboth and the bloud of his sons I suppose they are in the right who do understand it De filiis nondum ab eo natis sed qui geniti fuissent si diutiùs Vide Munsterum in 2 Reg 9 26. vixisset Not of those sons which he had but of those which he might have had if he had lived longer And so though his sons were not murthered with him yet they were murthered in him And God calls Ahabs family to account not only for Naboths bloud but for the bloud of his sons too which he might have had had he not been murthered To bring home this to our present purpose The Murderers of his late Majesty shed more bloud then they were aware of blessed be God not the bloud of all his seed so far the Divine Providence would not permit them to go He hath been pleased to preserve the sacred branches of that Royal Root and to make them flourish again to keep alive that great Name in his Posterity And yet for ought we know the bloud of some of his Posterity was shed in his This we may truly say That one unhappy stroke let almost all the bloud of his three Kingdoms out of his veins and 't was Gods great Mercy that the whole Land which in his fall was left almost lifeless and bloudless and spiritless had not bled it self to death which would surely have come to pass had not God himself been pleased to stop the issue of that blond with his own hand in the Restauration of our Gracious Soveraign So 't was vox sanguinum the voice of blouds But whose bloud was it that is the next thing 3. Vox sanguinum fratris tui the voice of thy brothers bloud That was an horrid act of inhumanity indeed To kill a stranger is a savage act to destroy the Image of God in any person living without just cause is a grievous sin but to kill a brother this dies the sin of Murder of a deeper bloud-colour then ordinary and leaves a double guilt upon the soul To kill a brother is as it were to let the bloud out of a mans own veins when as it is the self same bloud that runs in his brothers A brother in the Greek Tongue is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because brethren do lye all in one Womb in one Belly And how inhumane is it for those that drew bloud and breath from the same Parents to take away that bloud and breath one from another so to kill a brother is hainous but to kill a pious innocent brother more hainous yet When a man is persecuted for his Piety and murthered for his Innocencie and slain for Righteousness sake this is not onely to strike at the Image of God and destroy that in the man as every Murderer doth but it is to strike at God himself in the man When a Christian is thus wounded Jesus Christ bleeds Act. 9. 4. The bloud of Innocents doth cry but the bloud of Martyrs doth shrick in the ears of the Almighty And thus was Cains sin aggravated in the person whom he slew But alas Cain was a Saint to these men we are now speaking of He shed the bloud of his brother these of their Father even the Common Father of their Country If we should alter the words a little and in stead of fratris tui say patris tui in stead of thy brothers blood say thy fathers blood we should make the matter a little worse but it would still fall short of the savage barbarity of these Tragical Murtherers Had they with Romulus killed their own brother or with Oedipus their own father had they with Medea chopt their children in pieces or kickt the child out of their wives bellies with Nero or ript up their Mothers bowels to see the place they lay in before they were born all this had been a sort of Piety to what these Monsters did To be short Fratricide is a hainous sin but Regicide is far more hainous then that To kill a man is homicide to kill a father is parricide but to kill a King is Deicide that 's but Manslaughter but this is a sort of God-slaughter God himself calls them Gods and man is forbid to curse them much more to kill them he must not use his tongue to their dishonour much less is he permitted to take up a sword for their destruction Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the Ruler of thy people Exod. 22. 28. You see then in respect of the person whom they slew how far these men have out-gone Cain in villany and you shall see the same in other respects by and by Thus we have seen bloud and we have heard bloud The sight of bloud is no pleasant sight and the voice of bloud is no pleasant hearing especially if you consider to whom it cries and for what purpose which is the fourth particular 4. Clamat ad me saith God it crieth unto me The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used doth signifie exclamare vociferari to whoop or hollow to cry out with abundance of earnestness and violence as one that is in any great danger would do for help and that generally not with any articulate significative voice that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but onely with a great noise as if the voice of bloud were that which would even fill the ears of God that he should hearken to nothing else till that were avenged So then it is not a small still voice but a loud fearful shricking voice and clamat ad me saith God it crieth unto me that is it is a voice crying for Justice to the Judge of all the World a voice crying for vengeance to him to whom vengeance belongeth 'T is a voice of bloud calling and crying out for bloud that they who have shed bloud may have bloud to drink Rev. 16. 6. Thus doth all innocent bloud cry and shriek in the ears of the Almighty No other innocent bloud that ever was shed in the world hath any
this there shall no Reward be given to the Just nor revenge taken of the Wicked the World was not created by the Mercy of God nor is it governed by his Mercy why else was thy offering accepted and not mine And Abel answered There is a judgment and there is a Judge and a World to come and a Reward for the Just and vengeance for the wicked The World was created by the Mercy of God and is governed by his Mercy because my works were better then thine therefore my offering was accepted and thine not Thus they contended together in the field and then Cain rose up against his brother and slew him Jonathan Ben Uzâ—el adds Fixit lapidem in fronte ejus interfecit eum He beat out his brains with a stone So that I say taking it upon the Authority of these ancient Paraphrasts it appears to be at least their Opinion that the Devil had first tempted Cain to Atheism to a disbelief of judgment and the World to come before he could tempt him to Murder And truly I think our King killers were of Cains Religion that is of none as arrand Atheists as he It seems to me impossible that such a sin should have been committed by men that did believe a judgment to come or had any thing of Faith or of the fear of God left in them So that as S. Bernard saith of Cain Nec dum fratricida fideicida fuit he had Bern Ser. 25. super Cant. cut the Throat of his own Faith before he killed his brother We may say the same of these men They were fideicidae before they were Regicidae Men of no Religion before they could act a Villany that was so contrary to all Religion 2. Cain talked with Abel his brother before he slew him ver 8. Some understand it thus That Cain for the present dissembled his Anger and gave his brother good words that he might get him out into the field and have the fitter oportunity to kill him And then here is in Cain a notable example of a bloudy hypocrite who fawns and flatters that he may kill and destroy So Joab took Abner aside in the gate to speak with him quietly and smote him there under the fifth rib that he died 2 Sam. 3. 27. And as if our King-killers had learned this craft from their Father Cain himself they held the King with pretended Parlees and Treaties and a seeming desire of accord even when the hearts of many of them were fully set to murther him God deliver us and the Kingdom from such Crocodiles who weep over the head when they have a mind to feed upon the brain from such Judas's who have oyl upon their tongues whilest they have murder in their hearts whose words are smoother then butter and yet they are drawn swords Psal 55. 21. 3. Josephus tells us That Cain after he had killed his Joseph Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 3. brother and was gone out from the presence of the Lord turned Robber and so became the first Robber as well as the first Murtherer in the world And here certainly our King-killers have out-gone him As the whole world cannot match them in bloud-guiltiness so neither can it equal them in Robbery The Tartars themselves among whom Theevery is tolerated by a Law were never so great Theeves as these They Robbed three Kingdoms of their lawful Soveraign and they robbed the lawful heir of his Kingdoms and they robbed the Church of its Revenues and in doing so they robbed God Mal. 3. 8. They robbed the People of their Pastors and they robbed the Pastors of their maintenance they robbed the Nation of infinite summs of Money and they robbed hundreds of Families of their whole Estates And which was worse they did what they could to rob us all of that which is dearest to us our Religion and Christianity Never were there such Robbers in the world as these here Cain himself lies behind and cannot come near them 4. And as they were more Notorious Robbers so they were more impudent Murderers then ever Cain was He drew his brother out into the field a private place his Conscience being it seems so startled at the Guilt of his sin that though the World was so thinly peopled that there were none but his near Relations on earth yet he durst not commit it openly but drew him into a secret place thinking to conceal the Murder and probably to have made such an excuse to his Father as Josephs brethren did to their Father Jacob That some evil beast had torn him in pieces Gen. 37. 33. so hainous a sin is Murder in the eyes even of wicked men that it is ashamed to walk bare-faced though the sword of Humane Vengeance be not drawn to pursue it But these wretches acted their villany in the most publique place of the Kingdom as if Murder were now become Meritorious and the greatest of Crimes durst impudently proclaim it self to be a Vertue They poured out this sacred bloud upon the top of a Rock and poured it not upon the Ground to cover it with dust that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance Ezek. 24. 7 8. so that Cain was a modest shame-fac'd Murderer compared with these men S. Hierom tells us from the Tradition Hieron in Ezek. 27. of the Hebrews that the place in which Cain slew his brother was the Field of Damasous which thence took its name Sanguinem Bibens Drinking Bloud And there was as much reason that the place where this sacred bloud was shed should have been called Aceldama The field of Bloud had there not been some kinde of Expiation made by shedding the bloud of some of the Murderers near the same place And so the curse fell upon them in a most exemplary way as if God had said to every one of them in particular as he did here to Cain And now thou art cursed from the Earth from that very same Earth which hath opened her mouth to receive c. which brings me about again to a more particular survey of the Curse it self and the correspondence that may be observed as well in the Punishment as in the Sin of Cain and these Murderers Maledictus tu à Terrâ that 's a heavy Curse You may observe the difference between Adams curse and Cains Adams was Maledicta Terra propter te Gen. 3. 17. the curse lighted mainly upon the earth but Cains curse came home and lighted upon his own person Maledictus tu à terra cursed art thou from the earth That was Cursed be the earth for thy sake but this is Cursed be thou for the earths sake When God curseth a mans Goods and Possessions it is not half so much as when he curseth himself his soul and body But Cains was both a double curse he was cursed and the earth too Cursed art thou there 's the curse upon his Person and the earth shall not yield her increase there 's the curse