Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	holy_a	know_v	scripture_n	1,758	5	5.8907	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46815	Cain's mark and murder, K. Charls the I his martyrdom delivered in a sermon on January the thirtieth / by David Jenner, B.D. ...	Jenner, David, d. 1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing J659; ESTC R16585	20,487	39

Isaac and here a Cain before an Abel by his fond Mother Eva. Whereas God Almighty looks not at the outward Features and Beauty of the Body but at the inward accomplishments and Rectitude of Mind at the Sincerity Uprightness and Integrity of Heart And upon this account it was as Justin Martyr well expresseth it that God rather accepted of Abel's than Cain's Offering Scil Because Abel gave God of the Best but Cain Offered the very worst of his Flock and Fruits Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And thought to put God off with any small present whereas Devout Abel thought nothing too Good too Rich or too Costly for that God who had been the bountiful Doner and Bestower of all that he enjoyed Cain was willing to live upon and pardon the expression to Farme Gods Earth but very unwilling to pay him the least Moyety Duty or Tyth justly due for the same And therefore God the searcher of Hearts does most righteously reject Cain's Person and Oblation the which unexpected accident Cain enviously observing does immediately boyl with anger and swell with indignation for the Context v. 5. assures us that Cain was exceeding wrath and his Countenance fell Where by the way we may again take notice that Hypocrites such as was this Cain cannot endure to be called reputed or adjudged such no though they are truly conscious to themselves that they are no other nor are they willing to be served in their own kind nay they will not give God himself leave to deal with them according to their own Rule nor as they deserve for Cain will fret and fume if his false heart and Hypocritical Sacrisice be detected and rejected by God Nor does his Rage stop here but presently in despite and Revenge to God the Discoverer of his Hypocrisie he Plots the Felonious Murther and Slaughter of one of his Innocent and chiefest Creatures Nor is he ever satisfied untill he has imbrued his Hands in his Brothers Vermilion Blood And this should caution us all not to Retain the least Envy and Malice in our Breasts against any Person whatever but especially not against our Brethren Friends and Relations least that these Embers and Sparks break forth at last into an unquenchable Flame It is an Ancient but true saying that Old Anger proves Cursed and irreconcileable Malice For Malice seldom gives over until it has effected the ruin and destruction of the party it Opposes Wherefore as the Apostle adviseth Let not the Sun go down upon our Wrath Ephes 4.26 But stop we evil beginnings in a Pious Zeal and prevent we such Malicious Designs and purposes by a Godly Care Thus much for the occasion of these Words The Lord set a Mark upon Cain 2. In the next place we are to enquire into the nature of this Mark which God affixed upon Cain and truly here we are at a loss not having any certain Rule to guide us the Holy Scriptures for Reasons best known to the Omniscient Spirit being wholly silent in this particular So that what we have concerning it we must borrow from Tradition which at the best is but fallible in as much as 't is humane But yet not to be despised but rather owned and reverenced as long as such Traditions deliver nothing contrary to the revealed Word of God but are consistent with the same as also with the Rule of Faith and good manners This being premised I shall give you a brief Account of this Mark as we have it in the best and most Authentick Writers for to name the fancies of all Authors as to this matter would be endless and some of them fruitless being little else but the extravagant fancy and incredible product of a wild Brain such as that which the great Antiquary Selden mentions in his Synedria veterum Hebraeorum when speaking of Adams punishment for eating the forbidden fruit he tells us that it was a Tradition that Adam sat many years some say an 130 before he begat Seth in Water up to his Nostrils in aquâ sederit usque ad nares ob peccatum illud quod de Arbare vitae comedendo commisisset c. And from hence rose many Superstitious Customs and Ceremonies used by the Jewish PENITENTIARIES as Buxtorf has noted to our hand And 't is believed by some that Cain being accursed Banished or rather excommunicated from the Society of the Church of God for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Vagabond and Wanderer do signifie as hereafter more at large Did in the like manner do Pennance in Water for his notorious Fratricid But to let pass this fabulous Story and to come nearer to the business in hand some affix this Mark unto Cain's whole Body Others confine it only to some particular part and Member thereof Of the first sort are those who make this Mark to consist in a Paralytical fearful trembling of all his joynts Head Hands and whole Body especially at the sight and occurrency of any living Creature whether Man or Beast such being his dreadful reflections upon his horrid Guilt as that he feared every Creature he met with would prove the Harbinger of Death unto him notwithstanding God had to the contrary passed his word and promise for his preservation Fagius confirms this opinion with the following Reason Scil. Because God said to Cain v. 12. Thou shalt be a Fugitive and Vagabond in the Earth that is as the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thou shalt go sobbing and sighing trembling and quaking on the Earth Which is the just reward of Murther Others are of opinion that God did not set on Cain any other visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark or Sign for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oth signifies but what did appear unto the view of every one in his Physiognomy frightful gashly look and dejected countenance For that his Countenance did thus look strange and gashly is evident from the question God put to him when he was a Murtherer only in intention as v. 6. God said to Cain why art thou wroth and why is thy Countenance fillen if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lyeth at the door I know by thy knitted Browe and frowning Countenance that thou hast not done well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy mad hellish look discovers the naughtiness of thy heart thy very Fore-head speaks thy guilt therefore tell me the truth hast thou not plotted some mischief such as the Murthering of thy dear Brother Surely if Cain looked thus rufully discontented before he had Slain his innocent Brother we may be consident that after the perpetration of so execrable a Fact nothing but Horror and Amazement seized upon him well then might his Fore head wrinckle it self into a Thousand Furrows and his whole Face become the Scene On which you might at the first view behold the Prologue and Epilogue the first and last part of so

proved to be notoriously wicked and enormous in their Actions and Conversations they then ought to undergo the Churches Censure in order to their Amendment And therefore as soon as Cain's Murther is Revealed and proved God out of Hatred and Indignation to that his Sin turns him out of his Favor and Churches Communion and all because Virtue and Vice Light and Darkness God and Belial may not cohabit and dwell together All care then is to be used for the preserving Gods Church pure and spotless without Wrinckle or Blemish For as God Almighty at the Judgment Day will make a Separation between the Sheep and the Goats So does he Authorize his Bishops Pastors and Governors of the Church Militant here upon Earth to Separate the Notoriously Bad from the Eminently Good As for Hypocrites and such Wicked Men whose Naughtiness cannot be discovered nor proved they being Masked over with an outward Profession and Form of Religion and so lying undiscovered must be tolerated in the Church for they are the Tares which will grow up with the wheat But as for all Cain's who are openly wicked whose Villanies may be read in their Fore-heads they are not to be permitted to enjoy so transcendent a Priviledge as Church Fellowship but ought to be presented in due Course of Law Secondly From hence we may be informed of the many Dangers Ghostly and Bodily all Excommunicated Persons are exposed unto Quantis in periculis versentur illi quàm expositi sint Satanae omnibus Malis Qui extra Ecclesiam sunt constituti c. A Wicked Man Excommunicated like Cain is from under the Protection and guard of Divine Providence he is exposed to Mens Malice to the Beasts cruelty and lies open to all the fiery Darts of Satans Temptations His Sin and Guilt subjects him to the vengeance and viols of Gods wrath and he may well fear that every Creature will take up Arms against him and become the Executioner of Gods Anger and so pay unto him the Wages of his sin which is Death and that which is worst of all he being Excommunicated Gods Church and Favor is given up unto a Reprobate Mind and unto all manner of Profaness as was Cain and his whole Generation But Secondly this Mark set on Cain was not only for a punishment to him as it denoted his rejectment and Excommunication out of Gods Church and Favor but also in that it was a perpetual Brand and Mark of Infamy and Ignominy set upon him on purpose to discover unto all Persons his foul fact his horrid Murther and Guilt Yea briefly it was as the Hand-writing on the wall or as the Finger of God Pointing out and declaring to the whole world This (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Cbrys Ho 19. in Gen 3. This is the Murtherer This is that cursed Cain who so maliciously slew his pious and innocent Brother Abel As this Mark of Cain's was for his punishment so likewise was it for a special Token and Sign of Gods clemency and Mercy towards him and that first in as much as it was a Mark of Preservation St. Chryl Tom. 3. in Psal 144. p. 5.20 c. and the assurance of a Long Life God might in his rigor and Justice have cut him off in the very Act of Sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfathomable is the depth of Gods love unconceivable is the immensity of his Clemency unsearchable are the Riches of his Mercies towards the Sons of Apostolized Man he saves a live when he might justly have kill'd and suffers them to tread upon his Earth whose heavy load of guilt and sin might well have pressed and sunked them down to the centre of it Such is the Superlativeness of Gods Benignity such are the yearnings of his Bowels of Compassion towards Guilty-Cain as that he does not only here in the Text Reprieve him from the sudden Execution of the Sentence of a speedy Death according to the Tenor of the Law made against Murther but bestowed also Long life upon him which was a Mercy so great as that 't is beyond conception and expression And that Cain lived long as the premises speak is an universal Tradition and the Sacred Scriptures those infallible Oracles of Truth assure us that he lived to see his Childrens Children it was a general opinion among the Jews that Cain lived unto the Seventh Generation to this purpose they read the words immediatly before our Text. Whosoever Slayeth Cain Vengeance shall be taken on him Seven-fold c. The Hebrews read them thus Whosoever Slayeth Cain at the Seventh Generation Vengeance shall take hold on him And thus they make the words prophetical of Cain's living unto the Seventh Generation and of his being Kill'd in that Generation and who ever should then Kill him should be severely punished The same Tradition makes Lamech to be Author of Cain's Death For whilest he was lying solitary in the Woods upon the Ground Lamech an Hunter mistaking him for a wild Beast Shot and killed him for which Fact Lamech's two Wives Adah and Zillah v. 23. of this Chapter would no longer live with him but endeavored a Divorcement from him he being a Murtherer Wherefore Lamech makes his just defence and vindicates himself and takes off their Accusation of Wilful Murther alledging that he slew the Man Cain against his will unawares otherwise he had not done it and therefore if God did permit Cain a willful and malicious Murtherer to live so long as to the Seventh Generation he did not question but God would suffer Lamech who had at the worst committed only Man-slaughter unawares by mere casualty to live not only unto seven but also unto Seven times seven Generations that is unto a far greater number of years then did Cain St. Chrysostome is of opinion that Lamech was a very good and just man St. Chrysost in Gen. 4. Hem. 10. and that because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a good man is always the first accuser of himself For such an one was Lamech who as soon as ever he had accidentally Kill'd a man does not conceal it as did Cain but ingenuously Confesseth it and therefore if Cain sound mercy much more Lamech But to conclude this particular we will no longer traverse the above mentioned Tradition nor dispute its verity or falsity only this we are assured of scil That Cain lived long after the Commission of his detestable Fact and the Signature on his Fore-head was a confirmation and sealing of the lease of a Long Life to him all which was an undenyable Argument of Gods Goodness and Mercy towards him 2. This Mark was a Token of great Mercy in that God thereby did declare he would not only give Cain a longer time to live in but also a longer time to repent in For by thus delaying his Execution God primarily aimed at Teshuvah his sincere Repentance and conversion expecting that now he should redeem time expiate and wash out as much