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
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
My punishment saith he is greater then I can bear or as others read it My sin is greater then can be forgiven He that before could not be brought to Repentance with the sight of his sin is now upon the sight of his punishment driven to desparation And this S. Bernard calls the greatest Bern Ser. 3. de S. Andr. of Cains sins Grande illud scelus evomuit major est iniquitas mâ—a c. He vomited out saith he that great blasphemy My sin is greater then can be forgiven A sin that is injurious 1. To the Mercy of God for it makes God to be weaker then Sin weaker then the Devil as if his Mercy must be triumphed over and led captive by Satans malice And therefore S. Bernard having repeated those prodigious words of Cain My sin is greater then can be forgiven cries out Mentiris Latro Thou lyest Villain Major enim est Dei pietas quam quaevis iniquitas for the Mercy of God is greater then any iniquity of man 2. To the Merits of Christ For it is to charge the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ with weakness and impotency and insufficiency as if the Devil were more mighty to destroy then Christ is to save To which the same Father Bern. super Câ—â—t Ser. 61. replies again Quid tam ad mortem quod non Christi morte salvetur What sin is there so deadly that Christs bloud cannot heal Yea but Cain saith he was not a member of Christ and therefore had nothing to do with the merits of Christ He could not say Quod mihi deest usurpo mihi ex vesceribus domini I will fetch honey out of the howels of the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah quoe viscera per vulnera patent whose very bowels you may see through his bleeding wounds 3. It is utterly destructive to true Repentance and so a sin against the very Remedy For this is it which makes wretched sinners desperate when they look upon God as all Fire and Fury Wrath and Indignation Vengeance and Terrour but they apprehend nothing of Mercy and Compassion in him This was it that made Judas hang himself and Cain run from God And truly I am afraid this Curse fell upon many of the Regicides too upon some the curse of Desperation upon most of them the curse of Obduration that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hard and impenitent heart Rom. 2. 5. S. Gregory saith Greg. Mag. in Psal 51. 11. upon this speech of Cain that he committed the sin against the Holy Ghost I dare not say this was that sin but if Aug. Expos inchoat Ep. ad Rom. we may judge by S. Austins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who makes it to lie mainly in final impenitency joyned with desperation I doubt many of the Regicides came as near to it as Charing-Cross is to Whitehall None of them that ever I heard even when they came to Execution manifested any great signs of Repentance for this horrid Murder some died stupidly others justified it others excused it They that are yet alive have their hearts hard enough were their hands but strong enough to act over the same sin again So that here too is Cains Curse right The plague of an impenitent heart is fallen upon them 4. Cain was afraid that every one that met him would slay him such was the terrour of his guilty conscience that he took himself to be an Anathema an execrable devoted person an Outlaw that any one might kill that would Nay not only so but the word may be read in Fagius in loc the Neuter Gender Quicquid invenerit me c. whatsoever doth meet me will slay me And so he was afraid not only of men but of the beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air He was afraid lest God should arm the very irrational creatures to be the Revengers of this bloud As you know God sent Hornets to drive out the Canaanites Exod. 23. 28. and commanded Bears to tear in pieces those lewd children that mocked the Prophet 2 King 2. 24. And this very terrour of Cain lest every thing that met him should slay him lay upon the hearts of our King-killers too A Panick fear surprised them as it is the property of the Workers of Iniquity to be afraid where no fear is Ps 53. 5. They were scared with their own shadows and if Report lye not with their own dreams the very thoughts of their hearts were as so many Scorpions still stinging them and that in the time of their greatest Prosperity They lived in perpetual Frights and Fears as wretched Cain did And so this part of the Curse fell upon them too They were afraid that every one that met them would slay them 5. The Lord set a Mark upon Cain which was partly to secure him from his fears of being killed by the next he met and partly to warn others by his example to take heed of shedding bloud What this Mark was is very uncertain Some of the Jewish Writers have a fansie that it was a Dog which always kept him company and suffered no person to come near him A fansie that will suit well enough with our King-killers who no doubt had a Dog to wait upon them ever after they were dogged with the terrours of their guilty conscience which followed them still close at the heels till vengeance overtook them Others say it was a truculent bloudy aspect that frighted all that came near him so that they would say Fugiamus hinc iste est crudelis ille homicida qui fratrem Fag in ver 16. suum occidit let us flee hence this is that cruel Murderer who killed his Brother Others again say It was a perpetual trembling of all his members which they gather from the Septuagints Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he should go up and down the world groaning and trembling Lastly others will have it to be a continual trembling of the earth under him so that it made all persons afraid to come near him and this they gather from the Land of Nod that is the Land of Trembling in which he dwelt ver 16. Whether the earth did shake under Cain I know not sure enough the whole Kingdom shook under the Murderers of the King Be the Mark what it will it was that which made him an Example and Terrour to others and a greater terrour then his death could possibly have been Our Law condemns Notorious Murderers to be hanged on a Gibbet there to rot and this in terrorem Now suppose Cain had been served so in less then twenty years there had been no Mark nor Memory of such a Person nor perhaps of such a Sin But now that Cain was driven up and down the world for the space as 't is conceived of several hundred years with Gods Mark upon him as a living walking Monument of vengeance this was such a punishment as was most likely to effect the ends for which