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. [Page 2] 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 [Page 3] 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 Task­masters; 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 [Page 4] 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 [Page 5] 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 [Page 6] 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; [Page 7] 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 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 [Page 8] 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 'twas 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 'twas 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, [Page 9] 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.

[Page 10]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. 'Tis 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 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 [Page 11] 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 th [...]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 [Page 12] 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, [Page 13] 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 'tis 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 sepulchr [...] 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 [Page 14] 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 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 Uz [...]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 [Page 15] 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, [Page 16] 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 [Page 17] 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 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 'tis thought) drove him out into the Field again, and the City was called by his [Page 18] 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 [Page 19] 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 [Page 20] 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, [...]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 ext [...]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 & Vag [...], 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 [Page 21] 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. 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 m [...]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 1 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 2 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 C [...]t. Ser. 61. replies again, Quid tam ad mortem quod non Christi morte [Page 22] 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 3 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, [Page 23] 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 [Page 24] 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 'tis 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 God appointed it, viz. to deterr others from Murder. And surely God hath set a Mark upon these Murderers too, enough (I hope) to deterr all but themselves from the like sin. He hath set a Mark of infamy upon them and theirs; he hath made them an astonishment to themselves and the World; and (which [Page 25] is worse) he hath (as I noted before) set a mark upon the souls and consciences of many of them; he hath seared them with an hot iron, 1 Tim. 4. 2. and given them up (as it is to be feared) to a reprobate mind, Rom. 1. 28. so they have Cains Mark upon them; and in this also they share in his punishment, as well as in his sin.

6. Cain (being condemned) with his Mark upon him, went out from the presence of the Lord ver. 16. That is, Ab Ecclesia fidelium ex [...]lavit, saith Fagius, He was ba­nished from the Church and Ordinances of God; he never frequented them more, nor offered sacrifice more, after he had killed his brother. And being thus cast out of the Church, he lost the light of Gods countenance, which was so sad a part of his Curse, that Cain himself com­plains of it, ver. 14. And from thy face (saith he) shall I be hid. Gregory the great upon that passage of the Psalmist, Psal. 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence, &c. hath these words, A facie Dei projicitur, cut spies veniae post peccatum negatur; He is cast out from the presence of the Lord, who grows desperate after sin committed. Cain was now in a desperate condition, and cries out, From thy face shall I be hid; that is, I shall never approach near thy Gracious presence more, I shall be out of thy Prote­ction, and special favour. So Gods hiding of his face, sig­nifieth the withdrawing of his comforts, care, and prote­ction from a person, Psal. 13. 1. How long wilt thou for­get me, O Lord, for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Gods hiding his face from a man, is his forget­ting of him; and his forgetting of him is nothing else, out his leaving him out of his protection and special favour. It is the withdrawing of the light of his countenance from a man, which if it be for a season, is called Desertion; if for ever, it is Hell: so that when Cain was gone out from [Page 26] the presence of the Lord, he was (as it were) in Hell, while he was upon Earth. And this part of the Curse is emi­nently fulfilled upon the Regicides and their Adherents, who have voluntarily pulled down Cains curse upon their own souls; and by excluding, and separating themselves from the Church and Communion of Gods people, have gone out from the Presence of the Lord. This is re­markable, that the greatest part of them never cared to come near God in his Ordinances, in any part of his Publick Worship, since they killed the King. God indeed hid his face from Cain, but these men have hid their faces from God, and run out from his presence without driving: which is so exemplary a Curse upon them, that he that runs▪ may read it. For as Cain, after he went out from the presence of the Lord, was Mobilis▪ & Vagus, a wan­dring Runnagate, that could never be quiet in a place: so these men, after they had forsaken the Communion of our Church, were never setled in any thing, but ran from Errour to Errour, and from Delusion to Delusion till many of them had quite cast off the profession of Christianity. These were they who separated themselves, sensual, having not the spirit, which they so much gloried in, Jude 19. They went out from the presence of the Lord.

7. And lastly, It is a received Opinion among the Jews, that Cain, running about in the Woods, was killed by Lamech instead of a wild Beast, in the seventh Genera­tion; and so he met with his reward at last, though it Aug. Qu. ex Vet. Test qu 6. were long first. I know S. Augustine denies this, upon the account that Lamech was not the seventh, but the fifth Hieron. ad Da­masum. Ep. 125 from Cain; but S. Hierom so far defends it, as that it was majorum nostrorum sententia, an old Tradition that Cain was killed by Lamech, who was the seventh from Adam, though not from Cain. And this is that which we may [Page 27] rest somewhat secure of too, that as God hath given some of these wretches their reward in a great deal less time; so for those that yet remain, the Revenger of bloud will pursue them, and at last, overtake them too, though they may be suffered a while for greater terrour, as Cain was, to be Runnagates and Vagabonds upon the Earth. In Tom. 9. Hieron. Ep. 5.

I shall conclude all with a saying of S. Hierom, or who­ever was the Author of that Epistle, Ad Virginem in exi­lium missam, which is among his Works, Nullus tam crudelis homicida est, quam qui ita erga alterum saevit, ut non parcat sibi, none so desperate a Murderer, as he that will destroy himself to be revenged upon another. Cain never thought what a mischief he should do to him­self, in killing his brother. For beside all the former curses, this misery he brought upon himself, that now he was deprived of his brothers company, counsel, and assi­stance upon all occasions. And certainly, had not our King-killers been possessed with a spirit of strong delusion, they must needs have foreseen, that beside all the misery they should infallibly bring upon the Kingdom, they did but thrust a knife into their own Throats, when they killed the King. But thus it is, when God hides his face, and gives men over to an infatuated spirit. They were like the Mad-man that beat out his own Brains with his own hands; Et immemores salutis suae, propria manu seipsos interimunt, in Reges suos proprias convertendo vires, saith Concil. Tolet. 4. Can. 74. the fourth Council of Toledo; And being unmindful of their own safety, they kill themselves with their own hands, who lift up their hands against their Kings.

And thus you have seen how Cains Curse in every parti­cular is fallen upon the Regicides; that we may say of them, as S. Paul of his Countrymen the Jews, That wrath is come upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thess. 2. 16. And [Page 28] God grant that the Curse may rest there, and never flie farther abroad, and that the Land may be cleansed from that bloud. And for the Kingdoms peace and settlement, let us put up that Prayer to God, which the children of Israel were taught to pray when a man was found slain in the field, Deut. 28. 8. Be merciful, O Lord, be merciful unto thy people whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not in­nocent bloud unto their charge. O let the Guilt of this bloud be forgiven the whole Nation, and let the bloud of Christ Jesus cry louder for us, then the bloud of King Charles against us. Even so, O Father, for Christ Jesus sake, thy dear Son, our onely Saviour; to whom with thy self, and thy Eternal Spirit, Three Persons, One Glo­rious God, be all Glory, Praise, and Thanksgiving, &c.