countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted; and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."

How hard must have been that heart which this mild remonstrance could not melt: but Cain continued insensible. No motives, however tender, no barriers, however sacred, can restrain the ungodly man when his passions are once excited. Burning with rage, corroded with envy, desirous of acquiring a pre-eminence without any competitor on earth, Cain became the murderer of his brother; of a brother to whom his heart ought to have been open, for whom he ought to have felt the tenderest love, but whom he could not endure, because the holiness of his life was a perpetual reproach to himself, and because he had received special marks of the divine approbation. Then Death secured his first victim among mortals; then a more painful wound than that of Abel was inflicted on the hearts of our first parents, when they considered that by them death came into the world: then were all those hopes of happiness from Cain which they had so fondly indulged, prostrated in the dust; then was the first redeemed sinner admitted into heaven: whilst the everlasting doors were opened and the eternal gates expanded to receive this son of Adam, this first-fruits of the sacrifice of Jesus, this leader of the "noble army of martyrs," new hallelujahs, louder accents of praise, of adoring wonder, and joy, fell from the harps of the heavenly hosts.

Christians, why should we tremble at death? it is converted into a friend, and it came first to visit the favourite of heaven. Believers, let the bleeding body of Abel teach you not to expect your happi

ness below; you are members of that church whose symbol is the cross; you are followers of that Saviour who was the man of sorrows; you are tending to that world where "those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, have come out of great tribulation." Persecutions you will meet with: be careful that, like Abel, religion be your only crime. Persecutors of the cause or children of God, whether by open violence, by secret insinuations, by reproaches or by scoffs, behold in Cain your archetype: his mark is fixed upon your forehead, his disposition rankles in your hearts.

The Lord saw and came to punish this murder: this blood cried to him for vengeance, and its voice was heard. To the question which he proposes to the murderer, "Where is Abel, thy brother," Cain, hardened by sin, replies with impiety, with insolence and falsehood. But in vain is the attempt to deceive the Omniscient, and foolish is the expectation of impunity with the holy God, for those sins of which we have not repented. The Lord displays to him the horror of his crime, and represents all nature as ready to become the instrument of divine vengeance against him. The ground which Cain cultivates is cursed with a new degree of barrenness : he is obliged to depart from the society of his friends and parents, and from the place where God more immediately manifested his presence, and to wander upon the earth, forlorn and detested by men, and abandoned by God. So surely is sin, by the wise appointment of God, inseparably linked to sorrow, both in this world and that which is to come.

Not softened to repentance, but full of terror, he eries out, "My punishment is greater than I can

bear." How frequent are these horrors of soul in those who are still impenitent, and how awfully are they deceived, who suppose that they are the children of God, because they have felt them in a high degree. Read the history of the Old Testament and the New, and you will find that they have been experienced by the greatest enemies of God. What could exceed the anguish of Cain; what the quakings of the soul of Ahab; what the agony of Judas, which was so intolerable as "to make him flee to hell as a release, and embrace damnation as a refuge ?" And in the world of torments, how awful are the terrors of the Lord which rest upon the souls of the accursed; how painful the "arrows of the Almighty which drink up their spirits." Wo then, I repeat it, to those who are resting in security, because they have been agitated and alarmed at the view of their sins and of the punishment which awaited them. How different are these exercises from those of real believers. They regard principally the guilt of their sin, and not the weight of that ́misery which will follow them. While Cain cries,

My punishment," not my guilt, "is greater than I can bear;" while Pharaoh exclaims, " Remove this plague," not this hard-heartedness, "from me;" the penitent David cries, " My sin," not thy vengeance, "is ever before me;" the returning prodigal says, "I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight," not, I have been starving in a distant land. Real penitence drives the soul to God; these slavish terrors cause it to flee from him. Peter's hearers, when truly alarmed, turn to the Redeemer; Cain seeks, by employing himself in earthly occupations, to lose these painful impressions.

Cain expresses his apprehension that every one

that meeteth him will kill him as a common pest,

But he was to be

others of God's and of his reso

dangerous and unworthy to live. preserved alive as a memorial to knowledge of our most secret sins, lution to punish them, and as a monument of that misery which must ever attend guilt. The Lord therefore gave him a token that his life should not be taken from him by violence. "He went out from the presence of the Lord," from the place where he manifested himself, and retired to the land of Nod; where, neglecting all the ordinances of religion, he became probably more and more corrupt. As his descendants increased, he built a city, which, from his son, he called Enoch. Here his posterity resided till the flood. They were celebrated for the useful, ingenious, and elegant arts: instruments of violence were in their hands; the harp and the pipe were at their feasts: abroad they were rapacious and violent; at home they were luxurious and depraved. In reading the list of them, we in vain seek to discover an individual who was a faithful servant of God. How poor, how miserable were they, notwithstanding their arts and pleasures!

We have, in the prosecution of this discourse, presented to you most of the practical lessons connected with this history-Let us, however, before we conclude, remark,

1. How inconceivably great may be the effect of an unholy parent's example. Who can calculate how many of the descendants of Cain were lost through his impiety! Criminal father, ungodly mother, who can tell how many thousand souls may in the day of judgment execrate thee as the author of their perdition, and imprecate the vengeance of the Almighty upon thee! Corrupting by thine example

thine immediate descendants, they may communicate the infection to theirs, and they again to others through a long succession of ages. Their united curses shall at last gather round thee, and sink thee deep into despair.

2. Let us inquire which character we bear, that of Cain or Abel. I have already said that if our worship of God be merely formal and outward, attended by no holy affections and sanctified desires; if we be possessed with a self-righteous spirit, and only cry with the Pharisee, "Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men;" refusing to lie in the dust, and with the unfeigned humility of the publican, exclaim, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" if we present our offerings in any other name than that of Jesus, and look for acceptance in any other mode than through his atonement and intercession; if we despise, envy, hate, reproach, vilify, or persecute the people of God, we bear the image of Cain. My brethren, are there no persons of this description within the sound of my voice? Let those whose consciences declare that they bear some traits of this character, instead of further imitating Cain, by denying their crime, by attempting to conceal it from God, by quarrelling with the divine justice, by employing the time of God's forbearance in building cities, or earthly pursuits, in business or in pleasure-instead of this, let them instantly turn to the Lord; otherwise they shall find that "it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God;" they shall sink under his curse; and, thoughtless and insensible as they now may be, shall hereafter cause the regions of despair to resound with that agonized cry, "My punishment is greater than I can bear."

Are there on the contrary any, who feel that they