Cain's mark and murder, K. Charls the I his martyrdom delivered in a sermon on January the thirtieth / by David Jenner, B.D. ...

THE PARALLEL, OR K. Charles the I. HIS MARTYRDOM.

HAving done with the Text, and its Con∣text: It is requisite, that we make Ap∣plication of the Premises, as far as they concern the Solemnity of the Day:

And to this purpose, we will briefly run The Parallel between them.

And consider, That, As, in the Context, We have an Holy and Innocent Abel; who is, in Sacred Writ, styled, The Beloved, or Accepted of God, as also, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Just and Righteous Man, Heb. 11.4.

So, in the Day, we have a Pious and Religious CHARLES; the Etymologie of whose very Name, if taken from the Latin and Hebrew, speaks him to be Charus-El, one Dear to, and Beloved of God: Or, if taken from the Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, one al∣ways wishing his People joy and happiness: Or else, from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

one that ever was the Grace, and Glory of his People: And which is infinitely more, he was, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Anointed of God, and represented the Divine Majesty it self. And further, that he was like Ahel also, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Just and Righteous Man, is evident in that, rather than he would be unjust and unfaithful to his Trust, he chose to exchange a Corruptible Crown on Earth, for an Immarcessible One in Glory, and rather than he would wound his own Conscience, or witting∣ly wrong and injure his People by betraying their Rights and Priviledges, he chose Death before Life, and resolved to part with all the endearments of this Life, though attended with never so great an affluence of Worldly Honor and Pleasure, then to forfeit his Interest in Heaven.

And, as in the Context, Divine Providence declared, that Virtue and Goodness being (Caelitùs Natae) Heaven born, are no proper Inhabitants of this lower sinful World; But, Astraea like, are Commissioned only for a while to View it, and then to withdraw behind the Canopy; being the proper place of their Residence was the glorious and highest Heavens. And therefore, God, in order to the Exaltation of his Devout Ser∣vant Abel, unto his promised Mansion of ever lasting kest, did permit wicked and envious Cain to give him an Exit hence, by treacherously and forcibly dislodging his Immortal Soul out of its Terrestrial and Fleshly Tabernacle.

So in the Day, The All-wise God, who superintends all Af∣fairs and Transactions, was pleased, as on this Day, to loosen the Reins of Government, and to give Liberty unto Licen∣tious Wicked Men, Sons of Belial, to vent their Spleen and Malice, in Assassinating the Sacred Person of our Dread So∣veraign King CHARLES the 1. (who was too good to Associate any longer with sinful Mortals) that so he might the sooner be Translated from these inferiour Regions of

Sin and Misery, unto a perfect state of endless Bliss and Happiness.

In the Text, You have a Notorious and Aecursed Fratricide.

In the Day, A most Malicious and Pernicious Regicide.

In the Former, You have the true Cause of Abels Death and Murther, to wit, his hearty Devotion, and sincere Piety to∣wards God. 1 John c. 3. v. 12.

In this Latter, You have the Chief (if not the only) occa∣sion of King CHARLES his being so Barbarcusly and Cruelly Murdered, to be His Pious and Heroick Resolution, to maintain the True Protestant Religion, in which he had been Educated and brought up; which highly incensed the Papists: As also, his unalterable Resolution, to preserve inviolably the wholsome Laws of the Realm; together with the just Rights and Priviledges of the Episcopal-Protestant Church; which hugely enflamed the Dissenters, and made them miscall his firm Per∣severance in true Virtue and Honesty, a Stubborness of Will, and a Pertinacious Obstinacy: This was the prime Cause, for which Jesuitical Papists, and Deluded, Furious Dissenters, so unanimously Conspired the Ruin of that so excellent a Prince.

And therefore, as Abel must die; because he would not (like Cain) dissemble with, nor be false to his Maker,* 1.1 as St. John informs us, in the fore-mention∣ed Epistle.

So must King CHARLES die, not by the hand of Justice, but of Treachery, and all Because, he would not be perjured in violating his Coronation Oath, nor become Fedisragous and false to God and his Country.

And, as faithful Abel would not (to save his Life) swerve from the Rule of Righteousness, nor from the Rubrick of Gods Word and Command, nor would he Innovate by offer∣ing

up false Fire and Incense upon the Holy Altar, nor would he present God with the Sacrifices of Fools; but gave him the best of his Flock, and did Worship him in Spirit and in Truth, and did maintain the Orthodox Religion in its Power and Purity, and for so doing, both His Person and Oblation found Acceptance with the Alenighty: Whereas on the other hand, irreligious Cain valued not the Laws of his Maker, whether Civil or Ecclesiastick, nor did he care to observe that Form and Mode of Divine Worship, which God had prescribed. But plaid the abominable Hypocrite, putting the Allmighty off with a little Lip-Service, and outward Formality; for which Dissimulation His Person and Oblation was deservedly rejected by God. And Cain being thus rejected, does imme∣diately revenge himself upon his Innocent Brother. For his Breast boyling with Choler and Anger, his Heart swelling with Envy and Malice against Abel; he does without farther Deliberation, not only Plot and Contrive, but also unhappily accomplish and effect the Murthering of him.

As thus, Abel in the Context,

So King CHARLES in the Day, is most Inhumanely Destroyed and Murthered, for his constant maintaining the True Reformed Religion, the established Episcopal Government of the Church of England, the Righteous and Equitable Laws of the Kingdom. So that, once again, with Tears and grief of Heart, let us say it, Holy CHARLES was Murthered for his Piety and Faithfulness towards God; for his Zeal to∣wards the Protestant Church, in defending her Doctrine and Discipline, her Rites and Government, in opposition unto all Jesuitical, Factious Innovators; witness his Learned Dispute with that Incomparable Scholar, the Old Earl of Worcester.

For, here we must premise, that if King CHARLES would have yielded unto the unreasonable and unconscionable De∣mands

of his Enemies both Papists and Dissenters, who joynt∣ly desired an Abolition of the known and ratified Laws of the Realm, as also, an utter Extirpation of the established Govern∣ment of the Church, and the Introduction of either the old Su∣perstitious Mode of Rome, or the new fangled Mode and Form of Geneva, in Divine Worship: If his Majesty would have con∣sented unto these their most unjust Demands, then indeed, he might have lived longer, though not without a galled and wounded heart.

But, God be praised! such was the heighth of his Faith, such the undauntedness of his courage, as that, this Blessed Prince chose rather to die Manfully, yea, Gloriously, with a good Conscience, then to live Ignominiously and Shamefully, with the stain and black spot of Guilt upon his Fore-head

And, as, Righteousness and justice towards God and Man had been the drist and design of all his Actions, so, eternal Glory and happiness for himself, was the ultimate end of all his Dusires and enterprises. And therefore, as he had not failed in the former, so, that he might not miss of the-latter, he does most meekly and patiently submit to the cruel stroke of an unjust Death, and dies a Martyr for the Reformed Pro∣testant Religion,* 1.2 a Defender of the Protestant Faith, a patron of the Episcopal-Protestant Church.

But to proceed in the Parallel;

As Abel was Murthered (according to Tradition) in his own Field, upon his own Ground; and that, not clarcarly, or privately, in a Cellar, nor covertly in a Bed: But, Auda∣ciously in the open Field, in the full view of Heaven and Earth, which cirenmstance extreamly argued the Brazen-Fore-head, the Monstrous Impudency of Cain the Murderer.

So, King CHARLES was persidiously Murthered and slain, not in a Forreign Country, nor in another Mans Territories,

but upon his own proper Ground; at his very own Pallace Gate. Nor was this done in a By-Corner of the Gate, privately or ob∣scurely, but in the sight of Thousands. For now, the Con∣spirators were so hardened in wickedness, and were grown so bold and confident, as that, they desired no cloak to cover their Villany, and therefore they, now scorning to assault His Roy∣al Person, sneakingly, in an inner Chamber, as Ehud did Fg∣glon, or in a Bed, as Hazael did Benhadad, do, with a most prodigious Audacity, erect a Stage and Scaff••ld under the o∣pen Canopie of the Heavens, on which they Act this Black and Horrid Tragedy, in the eye and view of the whole World.

And, as in the Text, God set a Mark upon Cain, which Mark was a token of the Divine Mercy and Justice, of the Di∣vine Clemency and Indigation.

First, It was a Mark of Favor and Mercy, for thereby God did assure Cain, that although his Capital and unpardonable Crime, deserved present Death, yet he should not out of hand die, but have a Reprieve, and should live many, yea, hundreds of years; and accordingly Cain did live a long tract of time and years after this his horrid Fact and Murther, and did be∣come in the World a very Great and Potent Man, and made himself an absolute Prince and Monarch. And as he was the first (we read of) who builded a City, so, he and his posterity were the first that Lorded it, and Tyrannized in the World.

So, in the Day, God set a double Mark upon the Regicides, one of Favor and Mercy, the other of Justice and Indignation. Of Faver, in that the hand of the Divine Nemesis, did not pre∣sently and immediately seize upon them according to their deserts, but benignly suffered them to live several years after the perpetration of their Hellish and Treasonable Murther.

And which is very remarkable, Many of them became great and potent; especially, as you all know, one among them

Masantello like) exalted himself up into the very Threne, and became an abiolute Monarch; making his own Will the Law and Standard of his Actions.

And further, as in the Text, God to shew his wonderful Mercy and Clemen••y, did six a Mark upon Cain, which pro∣bably was (as you have heard) the Hebrew Letter, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Tau, the first of Torah, the Law, and the first of Teshuvah, Repen∣tance, thereby mumating, that this Mark should be his Me∣mento, timely and heartily to Resent of his sin and Murther, by which he had wittingly transgressed, and broke the indi∣spensable Law of God.

So, in the Day, God out of tender Bowels of Compassion, sus∣pended and deserred the Execution of his Vengeance upon the fore mentioned Delinquents: Graciously adds, unto their Days, many years; hoping, that, as Murthering Manasses and David, so they, would at last, with a broken and bleeding heart, with a mournful and penitent eye, reflect back upon their unheard of Wickedness, and endeavor to wash away the stain and tincture of that their Crimson sin in the Tears of godly sorrow, and of Evangelical Repentance.

Secondly, as in the Text, Cain's Mark was a Token of the Divine Justice and Indignation; hinting to him, that although his Life for a while was reprieved and spared, yet his sin and Murther was not pardoned: For at last, Vengeance found him out, his sin and guilt at the long run, like a Blood-hound, as a Lyon skulking in the Highway seized upon him, for so the Word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Gen. 4.7. Signifies; at last the vindicative justice of God over-took him.

So, in the Day: Although the Divine Goodness gave the a∣bove mentioned Malefactors a long space of time to live, and Repent, in, yet that Forbearance and Indulgence did not declare them pardoned and absolved: For, at last, their sin found them

out, the impartial hand of justice laid hold upon them, and brought them all to condign punishment. For, the Court of Judicatory, after a fair and legal Tryal, gave the Sentence of Death upon them.

And as Cain, so, many of them, had a Reprieve after Sentence: For, such was the unparalel'd Clemency of our present Leige Lord and Sovereign CHARLES the second, as that several of the Regicides had the Execution of their fatal Sentence suspended, and some of them are alive unto this very Day:

But to conclude.

As Cain's Mark spake two things unto the Spectators and standers by, to wit,

First, That they and all persons which saw Cain, should mourn and pray for him, should bewail that his so great and so lamentable a Fall.

Secondly, that his miscarriage should caution them and all men from ever committing presumptuously the same, or any other, Sin:

So, in the Day, two Duties are plainly hinted to us.

First, That we all hang 〈◊〉〈◊〉 harps and Musical Instruments up∣on the Willowes, and lay our hands upon our Mouths, and our Mouthes in the dust, Lament and Mourn for the detestable wick∣edness and Murder of the Day. And pray Almighty God, of his infinite Mercy, to forget and forgive the same: For other∣wise, if we, (though possibly not born in 48, yet if we) should fail in this Duty, we shall contract to our selves the Guilt of the Day, and shall make our selves Accessory to the Murther thereof: For, by the Law of God and Man, that Man is deem∣ed an Accessory, who knows of a Murther, and does not con∣fess and discover it: Here is plainly a Murther committed, yea, the most malicious and most Barbarous one that ever was (ex∣cept that of Christs.) And it is as plain and true, that we all

know of it, But, if we in our hearts perfidiously conceal This Murther, and will not upon our bended Knees confess, and se∣riously bewail it, before God, we then make our selves co∣plotters and partakers of the Guilt of this days sin: Wherefore, be we all entreated (of what perswasion so ever we be in other Matters) herein to Unite, and with one Heart, with one Mouth, to lament the Wicked and Anti-Christian Fact of the Day, and say, Psal. 51.14. Deliver us from Blood-Guiltiness, O God, thou God of our Salvation, and our Tongues shall sing aloud of thy Righteousness.

Secondly, from hence (aliena pericula cautos) be we cau∣tioned not to Split upon the same Rock, nor to run into the like, nor into any other kind of Disloyalty whatsoever, least the same stroke of Vengeance reach us, as did Those of the Day. For Rebellion, if not timely and humbly confessed, if not heart∣ily and sincerely repented of, never went unpunished: And although some Delinquents have ended their days in peace up∣on Earth, yet Guilt has pursued them beyond the Grave, even into the confines of another World, and there is great Rea∣son for it, because, as, God sev••••ely punishes all Rebellion committed immediatly and directly against himself, So, unless he will derogate from his own Glory and Prerogative, he must also severely punish all Disloyalty and Rebellion against his proper Vice gerent the King. And the Reason of the Assertion is this, scil. Because, who ever presumptuously disobeys the King and the Higher Powers lawfully set over him, in truth and reality, Disobeys God himself: For God is struck at through the Loynes and Sides of his Representative by the Hand and Sword of Rebellion: And this is no other Doctrine than what St. Paul taught the Church of Rome to Practice, Rom. 13.1. Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Powers, for v. 3. Who∣soever resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God; and

the Apostle enforceth the Duty with a cogent Argument tak∣en, ab incommede, from the evil and direful consequence that will certainly ensue upon Presumptive Disobedience to, and au∣dacious Resisting of, the Higher Powers, to wit, no less then utter Damnation; for They that resist, shall receive to themselves Damnation. v. 2. &c.

Q. If it be asked, how far, and in what things we are to Obey our King and Prince?

Ans. In all things, that are either, in themselves Lawful; or, in themselves indifferent before Commanded.

We believe none but Enthusiasts, and Anti-Monarchical, or Fifth-Monarch-Men, will deny their Obedience as to things in themselves Lawful: The only difficulty is, as to things in∣different before Commanded. For some will plead, they have a Christian Liberty to Obey, or not to Obey, as their own Reason, and private Judgment shall direct in things indiffe∣rent.

As to this Objection, we freely grant the Assertion, to wit, that we have a Christian Liberty in things indifferent before Commanded, to do or not to do, pro re natâ, as prudence shall direct.

But the Case is altered in our present Dispute; For, nothing is any longer indifferent to be done, or not to be done, when once Lawfully Commanded.

If you demand the Reason, for which a thing indifferent before Commanded, ceases any longer to be so, after Com∣manded by Lawful Authority, it is this; because otherwise, the Regal Power and Prerogative would be Nullified, and in∣stead of it, an Unbounded and Anti-Christian Libertisme would be introduced destructive of, and pernicious to all Christian Government and Magistracy: which evil to prevent, God has given the King and Supreme Magistrate an absolute

Power to make Laws, and to impose by Law upon his Sub∣jects not only things in themselves Lawful, But also things in∣different, as in His Royal Wisdom he shall think most Con∣ducing to the Glory of God, to the Honor and Preservation of His own Person, and to the Safety and Welfare of the Church and State; Both which are (under God) immediately Com∣mitted to His (are and Protection. For otherwise, if every private Man had a Power and Liberty in things indifferent, to Obey or not to Obey, when lawfully Commanded; then (as was said before) the Kings Prerogative in matters Civil and Ecclesiastick, would be invaded, and the King would cease any longer to be, the Defender of the Faith: He would be only King in Complement, in Name and Title; but the Quarrel∣ling and Disputing Subject, will be King, in Truth and Reality.

And in our apprehension, nothing can be more Diametri∣cally opposite to Kingly Government, and to true Christianity, then this Disloyal Principle and Practice of disobeying the King in things indifferent, when once lawfully Commanded.

We are sure, Christ did not Clip the Wings of Regal Power, but strictly Commanded his Disciples, Apostles, and all Men, to give unto God the things which were Gods, and to Caesar the things which were Caesars; and to show Honor to whom Honor is due;* 1.3 Obedience to whom Obedience is due: And St. Paul and St. Peter do require our Obedience, in all things Lawful and Expedient, unto Kings, and unto all, that are put in Authority over us, and that, not only for Wrath, but for Conscience sake.

Q. And if you further Query, what you ought to do in case the Higher Powers should Command your Obedience, in things ab∣solntely unlawful?

Ans. In this Case, although you must not Actively do what is Commanded; but you must Obey God, rather than Man,

as did the Apostles. Act. 4.19. Stil, for all this, although you may not Actively Obey your Prince, by doing what is Commanded: Yet, you must not rebel, nor take up Arms against your Prince; but, in this Case, you must obey Passively, by patiently and peaceably submitting to what Punishment soever the Supreme Magistrate shall think fit to inflict upon you: Yea, though it be Death it self: For by so doing, (and by so doing only) you will suffer, as a good Christian, as a Martyr for the Truth, as a Loyal and Obedient Subject to you Prince: And, if in any case, a Frail Creature can, you in this case, will, deserve and merit, a Crown of Glory.

But, in all other Cases, when either a thing lawful in it self, or, a thing indifferent in it self is Commanded, then, if you Obey Passively, and not Actively, you render your self Rebel∣lious to your Prince: And, if your Passive Obedience should be unto Death, then you become a Self-Murderer, in that, you wilfully threw away your Life, (which you ought to have preserved) by dying, for Obeying your King only Passively, when in Conscience you ought to have Obeyed him Actively.

But, although we take this Freedom to argue with you, yet we hope better things of you, and are perswaded, that as we have diligently Preached Loyalty; so, you will, as Conscienciously practice it: And will in your Hearts, in your Words, and in all your Actions, publick and private, express your Fear of God, and your Honour of the King.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 John c. 3. v. 12.
• * 1.2

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• * 1.3

  R••. 13 7.1 Pet. 2.13.17.