Doct 3. That murder is a crying sin.
32 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. XX.
It will out one way or other, God cannot want witnesses. We have seen in providence strange ways for the discovering of murder. Re- member that is God's office, to be inquisitive for blood : Ps. ix. 12, * When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them,'
Use 1. It is terror to them that are secretly guilty of murder. Many times wicked men act at a distance, nobody can tell who hath done the harm, yet God will find them out. Or if men should occasion public changes or confusions merely to promote their private interest, to build up a name to themselves, ' the stone out of the wall shall cry, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it,' Hab. ii. 11. Or if a man hath plotted the death of any merely to enrich himself, the Lord takes notice of it.
Secondly, Or look upon it as holy blood that was shed, as the blood of a martyr. The note is —
Doct. 4. The blood of a martyr hath a loud voice in the ears of God.
It implies two things — God's love to his oppressed children, and a certainty of vengeance to the oppressors.
1. God's love to his oppressed children. Vengeance is quick-sighted on their behalf. Though the children of God are dumb, like sheep before their shearers, yet their blood cries. Christ spake no words of revenge, but rather prayed for his enemies; yet for shedding his blood, 'Wrath came to the uttermost upon the Jews,' 1 Thes. ii. 16 ; Gen. iv. 10, it is, ' The voice of thy brother's blood cries unto me.' Every drop was precious, and every wound hath a mouth open to God : Ps. cxvi. 15, ^ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' God hath a precious account of them after death. God's love lasteth after death. He is in covenant with their blood and with their dust when it is in their grave, therefore he will know what is become of them. Nay, he doth not only take notice of their blood but of their tears : Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle : are they not in thy book ? ' Men may burn their bodies, but they cannot blot their blood and tears out of God's register.
Use, This is comfort to the children of God. He doth not only take notice after their death of the cry of their blood, to avenge it on their enemies, but to recompense the innocent, to reward them ; for that is one effect of its crying. God doth not only take notice of Cain, but vindicates innocent Abel ; therefore is he slain, that he may live for ever ; slain, that God may bestow upon him a happy life. When your blood is shed for the testimony of God, treasure up this comfort ; God will not be wanting to reward it. The two first martyrs in the old testament and the new were Abel and Stephen. What doth Abel signify, but vanity and mourning ? and Stephen signifies a crown. Your mourning in the world doth but make way for a crown of glory : James i. 12 ; ' Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life.'
2. It implies certainty of vengeance to the oppressors; when the parents did not accuse, yet the blood cried. The children of God may not know who harms them, yet their wrongs cry loud in the ears of God. Abel's blood did not only cry in God's ears, Gen. iv. 10, but cried in Cain's conscience, ver. 13. How many cries are there ? The affliction itself that cries ; God hath an ear for affliction. He heard the affliction
VkR. 5.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 33
of Hagar, Gen. xvi. 11. Then your teais have a voice: Lam. ii. 18, ' Their heart cried unto the Lord, Let tears run down like a river day and night : give thyself no rest ; let not the apple of thine eye cease.' Then the prayers of saints have a voice : Luke xviii. 7, ' Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him ? ' The martyrs under the altar cry : Eev. vi. 9, ' The souls under the altar cried with a loud voice, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' Per- secutors' consciences, they cry, 0 thou bloody Julian ! thou hast mur- dered the children of God, and hast been guilty of oppression ! As is storied of the king of France, that was author of that bloody massacre, he could never sleep afterward, but was haunted with terrors in his conscience, and at his death blood issued out at all the pores of his body.
Use. What terror and astonishment should this be to the enemies of the church, be they secret or open ! Oppressed innocency will cry aloud ; they may forgive, but the Lord forgets not. The Lord will not only take notice' of their blood, but bottle their tears: Ps. Ivi. 8, " Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle : are they not in thy book ? ' God kept a register of David's sutFerings ; every weary step was recorded in God's book ; it is but folly and madness to think to hide your practices, or to escape punishment.