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The result was, the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. The one was probably consumed by fire from heaven: the other not so. This we know was afterwards a common token of the divine acceptance.* The order of things is worthy of notice. God first accepted Abel, and then his offering. If he had been justified on the ground of his good deeds, the order should have been reversed: but believing in the Messiah, he was accepted for his sake; and being so, his works were well-pleasing in the sight of God. And as Abel was accepted as a believer; so Cain was rejected as an unbeliever. Being such, the Lord had no respect to him: he was under the curse, and all he did was abhorred in his eyes.

The rejection of Cain and his offering operated upon him very powerfully. If the love of God had been in him, he would have fallen before him, as Joshua and his brethren did when Israel was driven back; and have pleaded, Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me? But he was wroth, and his countenance fell. This is just what might be expected from a self-righteous, proud spirit, who thought so highly of his offering as to imagine that God must needs be pleased with it, and with him on account of it. He was very wroth; and that no doubt against God himself, as well as against his brother. He went in high spirits, like the Pharisee to the temple; but came away dejected, and full of foul passions, of which his fallen countenance was but the index.

Ver. 6, 7. Cain having returned home, the Lord, perhaps in a dream or vision of the night, expostulated with him. Why art thou wroth? What cause is there for this enmity against thy Maker, and envy against thy brother?" Doubtless he thought that he had a cause; but when interrogated of God, he found none. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. By doing well he means doing as Abel did, offering in faith, which is the only well-doing among sinful creatures. If Cain had believed in the Messiah, there was forgiveness for him, no less than for his brother; and he should also have had the excellency attached to the first-born, which he

*Lev. ix. 24. Psa. xx. 3. margin.

reckoned he had a right to, and the loss of which galled him. If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door ;* unforgiven, to go down with thee to the grave, and to rise with thee, and appear against thee in judgment.

Observe how things are ordered in the dealings of God with men. Abel was not accepted of God for his well-doing; neither faith nor obedience was that on account of which he was justified; but the righteousness of him in whom he believed. Yet it was in well-doing that he obtained eternal life. Though faith was not the cause of the Lord's having respect to him, nor his having offered in faith the cause of his having respect to his works; yet each was a necessary concomitant. And this, while it secures the interests of righteousness in the righteous, serves to silence the wicked, and make them feel the justice of their condemnation. Thus, at the last judgment, though every one who is saved will be saved by grace only, yet all will be judged according to their works. Things will be so ordered that the righteous will have nothing to boast of, and the wicked nothing to complain of, inasmuch as the decision in both cases will proceed according to character.

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But though Cain was silenced by the Almighty, yet his malice was not subdued, but rather inflamed. If the life of God had been within his reach, he would have killed him but this he could not do. From that time threfore his dark soul meditated revenge upon Abel, as being God's favourite, his own rival, and the only object within his power. This is the first instance of the enmity of the Seed of the Serpent breaking out against the Seed of the Woman; but not the last! Observe the subtlety and treachery with which it was accomplished: Cain talked with Abel his bɛ other. He talked with him, probably in a very familiar manner, as though he had quite forgotten the affair which had lately hurt his mind; and when they were engaged in conversation, persuaded him to take a walk with him into his field; and having got him away from the family, he murdered him! Oh Adam! Thou didst murder an

*This clause, which is in the middle of verse 7, I suppose should be in a parenthesis. I have therefore placed the first and last in connexion, and introduced this after them, by which the sense is clear.

+ Ro mii. 17.

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unborn world; and now thou shalt see some of the fruits of it in thine own family! Thou hast never before witnessed a human death go, see the first victim of the king of terrors in the mangled corpse of Abel thy son!-Poor Abel! Shall we pity him? In one view we must, but in others he is an object of envy. was the first of the noble army of martyrs, the first of human kind who entered the abodes of the blessed, and the first instance of death being subservient to Christ. When the serpent had drawn man into sin, and exposed him to its threatened penalty, he seemed to have obtained the power of death: and had man been left under the ruins of the fall, he would have been continually walking through the earth, arm in arm, as it were, with the monster, the one taking the bodies and the other the souls of men. But the Woman's Seed is destined to overcome him. By death he destroyed him who had the power of death, and delivered them who must otherwise through fear of death, have been all their life-time subject to bondage. Heb. ii. 14, 15.

DISCOURSE VIII.

CAIN'S PUNIShment and pOSTERITY.

Gen. iv. 9-24.

VER. 9. We have seen the tragical end of righteous Abel; but what becomes of the murderer? Probably he had hid the dead body of his brother, to elude detection: but God will find him out. Jehovah said to Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? What a cutting question! The words thy brother would remind him of the tender ties of flesh and blood which he had broken; and if he had any feeling of conscience left in him, must pierce him to the quick. But Oh, how black, how hardened is the state of his mind! Mark his answer. First, the falsehood of it I know not. We feel astonished that a man can dare to lie in the presence of his Maker: yet how many lies are uttered before him by formalists and hypocrites! Secondly, The insolence of it-Am I my brother's keeper? This man had no fear of God before his eyes and where this is wanting, regard to man will be wanting also. Even natural affection will be swallowed up in selfishness. Supposing he had not known where his brother was, it did not follow that he had no interest in his preservation: but he did know, and instead of being his keeper, had been his murderer!

Ver. 10. And he said, What hast thou done? Ah, what indeed! This was the question put to Eve and sooner or later it will be put to every sinner, and conscience must answer to it too! But Cain refuses to speak: be it so; there needs no confession to substantiate his guilt. His brother's blood had already done this! Blood has a voice that will speak; yea, and that will cry to heaven from the ground for vengeance on him who sheds it; and a brother's blood especially. What a scene will open to view at the last judg

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