[2.] Secondly, The cry of their hlood reaches as high as heaven, and this sj^eaJcs it out to he precious hlood, Gen. iv. 10, 11. The blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops, and every drop a voice to cry for vengeance, and the cry of his blood did strongly engage the
120 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
justice of God to punish it : ^ Kev. xvi. G, ' Give them blood to drink, for they arc worthy.' But,
[3.] Thirdly, God's cursing their blessings, who have shed the blood of his saints, spcal's out their blood to be pi'ccious bhod: Gen. iv. 10, il, 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened lier mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Now this is added by the way — 1. To agp^ravate the sin of Cain ; 2. To shew the fitness of the punishment : it is as if he had said the earth did, as it were, in compassion receive into her bosom that blood which thou didst cruelly and wickedly shed ; and therefore out of the earth, which hath sucked in by the pores thereof thy brother's blood, shall sprinj; a curse that shall ])lague thee for shedding that blood. The earth, which was created for thy blessing and service, shall execute this curse against thee in vengeance, not yielding thee the fruits which otherwise it would have done. As is expressed in ver. 12, ' When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength' — Hcb., 'It shall not go on to give thee its ability.' This was a second curse, whereby the earth became worse for Cain's sin than it was for Adam's. Now if this curse were not general, yet doubtless it was a particular curse ujoon Cain's portion, so that where- soever or whensoever he should till the earth as a husbandman, the earth by its barrenness should upbraid him as a murderer. But,
[4.] Fourthly, God's 'pouring oid of the blood of the wiclced as icater is poured out upo7i the ground, to prevent the effusion of his children's blood, speaks oid their blood to be p)recious blood, Isa. xliii. 4, 5. At the Red Sea, God made way not only through the sea, but also through the blood of the Egyptians, to preserve the blood and lives of his poor people, Exod. xiv. God, to preserve the lives and blood of his people, destroys a hundred fourscore and five thousand of Sen- nacherib's army by the hand of his angel in one night, Isa. xxxvii. 36. And you know in Esther's time, Estli. ix., how God made way for the preservation of the lives and blood of his people through the blood of Haman, his sons, and the rest of their enemies that hated them. I might give you twenty other scriptures to the same purpose, but enough is as good as a feast. But,
[5. J Fifthly, The strict inquisition that God has made after the blood of the just in all ages of the world, argues the precious7iess of their blood: Ps. ix. 12, 'When he maketh inquisition for blood, he re- membcrcth them, he forgettcth not the cry of the humble.' Did not Pharaoh, Ahab. Jezebel, Haman, Ilerod, Amalek, Moab, Amnion, Sen- nacherib, &c., find by woeful experience that God did make a strict inquisition after the blood of the just? And so did those men of vio- lence who shed the blood of the just in the primitive times, &c. But,
[6.] Sixthly, The speed// and. dreadfid vengeance cf God upon such as have shed the blood of the Just, speaks out their blood to be precious in his eyes : Ps. Iv. 23, ' But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction : bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;' Ps. xciv. 21, 23, 'They gather themselves together' — Heb., 'run by troops, as thieves do' — 'against the soul of the right- eous, and condemn the innocent blood. He shall brinpr u\)on them
^ Crying is ascribed to blood by a figurative speech.
IsA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE late fiery DisPENSATioisr. 121
their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness : yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.' Eichard III. and Queen Mary were cruel princes, and shed the blood of the just, and they had the shortest reign of any since the Conquest.
Charles IX. was a great shedder of the blood of the just.l He had a deej) hand in the massacre of the protestants in Paris, and in other parts of his kingdom he glutted himself with the blood of the just, and gloried greatly in their ruins. In his latter days he was sur- prised with a great debility and tormenting pains in his body ; after a great effusion of blood, which issued out by all the passages of liis body, he breathed forth his wretched soul. 2 Oh the horrid butcheries that were committed and commanded by this bloody prince his reign, throughout his whole realm ! But at last divine vengeance overtook him, and he died wallowing in his own blood, &c.
The Duke of Gruise, next to the king,3 had the greatest hand in the massacre of the protestants. He was a most barbarous prince, and at last he falls by barbarous hands; for he being called by [Louis] Eevol, secretary to Henry III., to come to the king into his cabinet, as he lifted up the tapestry with one hand to enter, he was charged with swords, daggers, and partisans,^ and so died by the hands of mur- derers. ^ He that had murdered many thousands of the protestants was at last murdered by men of his own religion.^
Henry III., king of France, was a most cruel enemy to the pro- testants, and he was by James Clemmont, a monk, stabbed in the same chamber, and on the same day wherein he had helped to contrive the French massacre,^ Doubtless God will one day reckon with France for all that protestant blood that they have shed.
Maximinus was a great persecutor of the people of God ; he set forth a proclamation, engraven in brass, for the utter abolishing of Christ and his religion ; he was at last eaten up of lice.7 The same judgment befell Philip king of Spain, who swore he had rather have no subjects than Lutheran subjects ; and when he had narrowly escaped drowning in a shipwreck, he said he was delivered of God to rout off Lutheranism, which he presently began to do, but God soon cut him off.
Thomas Blavar,8 one of the privy counsellors of the king of Scots, was a sore persecutor of the people of God in that land ; when he lay on his dying-bed he fell into despair, and cried out that he was damned, he was damned : and when the monks came about him to comfort him, he cried out upon them, saying, ' that their masses and other trash would do him no good ; for he never believed them, but all that he did was for love of money, and not of religion, not respecting or believing that there was either a God or a devil, a hell or a heaven ; and therefore he was damned, there was no remedy but
1 History of France, pp. 791-798. "- Ibid., pp. 808, 809,
^ Ihid., pp. 793, 794. [The Duke of Guise here referred to was Louis de Lorraine, ■who was Ueutenant-general of the kingdom under Charles IX. He was murdered at the door of the closet of Henry HI. in 1588. Anquetil, Hist, de France, vii. 193. — G.]