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the heel by which she held him; and here, it is said, he received his deathwound. Thus the Captain of our salvation consented to become mortal, and a sufferer, that He might thereby 'bring many sons unto glory.'-L.

The gospel is a rich piece of arras, rolled up. This God hath been unfolding ever since the first promise was here made to Adam, opening it still every age wider than before; but the world shall sooner be at an end than this mystery be fully known. Indeed, as a river grows broader as it approaches nearer the sea, so the knowledge of this mystery spreadeth every age more and more. The gospel ap

peared but a little spring in Adam's time, whose whole Bible was bound up in a single promise; this increased to a rivulet in Abraham's time; and this rivulet enlarged itself into a river in the days of the prophets. But when Christ came in the flesh, then knowledge flowed in amain; the least under the gospel dispensation is said to be greater than the greatest before Christ appeared; so that, in comparison of the darker times of the law, the knowledge Christians now have is great; but, compared with the knowledge they shall have in heaven, it is little.Gurnall.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

This punishment, Mr. Locke observes, is sufficiently fulfilled upon the sex, as no females, it is asserted, experience so much sorrow and anguish during the time of conception and parturition as the human species.-L.

It may be well for us to reflect how reasonable and righteous it is, that the conceptions and births of human creatures should ordinarily be attended, from age to age, with such dolours as we find they are. For it ought to be considered what the productions are. What is the production when a human creature is brought forth into this world? Why, a thing shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin; and, abstractly considered, and antecedently

to supervening grace, it is a monstrous production. Any such production is a monstrous thing. A reasonable, intelligent creature, produced into being with a radical enmity against the Supreme Good, the Fountain of all excellency and perfection! That such sickness, such pangs, such agonies, should constantly attend human conception and birth; we are not to repine at it as if it were an unreasonable, an unrighteous thing; but we are to consider the reason of this and that. God will have a continual memorandum kept up for the putting us in mind from age to age, what the nature is that is descending and running down in this world from age to age.-Howe.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Thus men's frivolous pleas will, in the day of God's judgment, not only be overruled but turned against them,

and made the ground of their sentence. (Luke xix. 22.)-M. Henry.

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

V. 19. The earth is thy mother that brought thee forth when thou wast not; a stage that carries thee whilst thou art; a tomb that receives thee when thou art no more. It gives thee original, a harbour, and a sepulchre. Like a kind mother, she bears her offspring on her back; and her brood is her perpetual burden, till she receive them again into the same womb from whence she delivered them. She shall do thee a still greater kindness, if her baseness can teach thee humility, and keep thee from being more proud of other things than thou canst (with any reason) be of thy parentage. Few are proud of their souls; and none but fools are proud of their bodies; seeing all the difference between him that walks and the floor he walks on is, that living earth treads upon dead earth.-Rev. Thos. Adams.

'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' How humiliating an allotment is this to the pride of man! When the conqueror, returned from the slaughter of millions, enters his capital in triumph; when the trumpet of fame proclaims his approach, and the shouts of millions announce his victories, surrounded by the spoils of subjugated nations, and followed by trains of vanquished kings and heroes, how must his haughty spirit be lowered to the dust by the remembrance, that within a few days himself shall become the food of a worm reigning over him with a more absolute control than he ever exercised over his slaves! Yet this will be the real end of all his achievements. To this humble level must descend the tenant of the throne, as well as of the cottage. Here wisdom and folly, learn

ing and ignorance, refinement and vulgarity, will lie down together. But we are not yet at the end of the progress. The next stage in our humiliation is, to be changed into dust. This was our origin; this is our end. The very clods on which we tread were once, not improbably, parts, to a greater or lesser extent, of living beings like ourselves. Not a small part of the surface of this world has, in all probability, been animated and inhabited by human minds; and the remains of man are daily, perhaps, as well as insensibly, turned up by the plough and the spade.-Dwight.

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Go again to the burying-ground, and walk over its dark and solemn recesses. On whom do you tread? On the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.' What are they now? A mass of dust. What have they been? The food of worms. Is it possible that beings destined to this end should be proud? It is possible. You and I are proud, as were once these wretched tenants of the grave, and are destined to the same humble, deplorable end. When, therefore, you contemplate with high selfcomplacency the advantages of person which you possess, or the endowments of the mind; when you look down from superiority of birth, riches, character, or influence, on those below you, and your bosoms swell with the consciousness of distinction, remember your end, and be proud no more! -Ibid.

20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

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than of a scarf about the arm when it is put out of joint, or a pair of spectacles to help the dimness of the sight. -Caryl.

ries with it a character of reproach to him that wears it, and an implicit confession of guilt and shame; whereof we have no more cause to be proud 22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Man was expelled from Eden lest he should take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.' Immortality under his then circumstances would have been the direst curse. Redemption from sin and its penalty was de

creed from eternity, but was to be through the death of Christ. The mortality of man, therefore, gloomy and sad in itself, was, under the moral circumstances of the case, the greatest blessing. Dr. Leask.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Every man has a paradise around him till he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden. And even then there are holy hours, when this angel sleeps, and man comes back, and with the innocent eyes of a child looks into his paradise again-into the broad gates and rural solitudes of nature.-Longfellow.

As God set a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life, so He continually sets a flaming word, that is a

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threatening, to keep the way of the tree of death, that is sin. Thus He always meets sinful men in the way of their lusts (as the angel met Balaam) with a drawn sword to stop them in their way. The Lord hath set many drawn swords in the way of every sin; and He hath left the prints of His wrath upon the backs of many sinners, that we should take heed of sinning.-Caryl.

CHAP. IV.

ND Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. Many of our most distinguished Hebrew scholars render the latter clause 'I have begotten a man, Jehovah !' It is true Eve was mistaken in the opinion she had formed of her firstborn; yet we may fairly regard her exclamation as expressive of her belief in the unique Person of the promised Deliverer;

while its transmission from one generation to another in the families of the faithful, and its final insertion in the records of inspiration, may have been intended, on the part of Divine Providence, to answer the purposes of a prophetical enunciation.-Rev. Timothy East.

2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

The two sons of the first man carried in their names a memorandum of what they and their posterity were to expect. Cain signifies possession; and Abel signifies vanity or emptiness.

All worldly possessions are at once empty and vanishing; unsatisfactory while they continue, and liable to a speedy decay.-Anon.

* And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

Thus the Jews consecrated the first fruits of their oil, their wine, and their wheat; and by Divine institution whatsoever opened the womb, whether of man or beast, was sacred to the Lord. This same custom prevailed among the Gentiles, who, when they had gathered in their fruits, offered solemn sacrifices with thanks to God for his blessings. According to Porphyry, an ancient festival was annually celebrated at

Athens to the honour of the sun, in which the simplicity of the offerings resembled the practice of the first ages. Consecrated grass was carried about, in which the kernels of olives were wrapped up, together with figs, all kinds of pulse, oak leaves with acorns, and cakes composed of the meal of wheat and barley, heaped up in a pyramidal form, allusive to the beams which ripened the grain.-Anon.

4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

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Cain's offering was just what a selfrighteous heart would offer; it proceeded on the principle that there was no breach between him and his Creator, so as to require any confession of sin or respect to an atonement. Such offerings abound among us; but they are without faith,' and therefore it is impossible they should please God. The offering of Abel was the reverse of Cain's. It was the best of the kind, and included an expiatory sacrifice.-A. Fuller.

Abel is very choice in the matter of his sacrifice; not any of the flock that comes first to hand, but the firstlings. Neither did he offer the lean of them to God, and save the fat for himself, but gives God the best of the best. But of Cain's offering no such care is recorded to be taken by him: it is only said, that he brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord,' but not a word that it was the first fruit or best fruit.

Again, Abel did not put God off with a beast or two for a sacrifice, but with them gives his heart also. Heb. xi. 4: 'By faith,' &c.; he gave God the inward worship of his soul; and for this he obtained a testimony from God himself that he was righteous. Whereas

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Cain thought it enough, if not too much, to give him a little of the fruit of the ground. He showed thereby what base and unworthy thoughts he had of God, and accordingly he dealt with him. O Christian! remember when you engage in any duty of religion, that you go to do your homage to God, who will be worshipped like Himself. 'Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing; for I am a great king, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.' (Mal. i. 14.)— Gurnall.

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. -A. Fuller.

" And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy 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.

V. 7. Sin lieth at the door.' 1. The charge or imputation of sin lies against thee. 2. You are in danger of adding to your crime. 3. Punishment

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is near at hand, and will soon overtake thee. 4. The propitiation is not far to seek.-M. Henry.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

Death was denounced to man as a curse; yet behold, it first lights upon a saint! How soon was it altered by the mercy of that just hand which inflicted it! If death had been an evil,

and life good, Cain had been slain, and Abel had survived. Now that it begins with him that God loves, we may exultingly ask, 'O Death! where is thy sting?'-Bp. Hall.

9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? It is not enough that we confine ourselves to the mere duties of our respective calling or profession. Chris

tian charity is to be on the largest possible scale.-L.

10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

V. 10. What hast thou done?' The Rev. Rowland Hill, preaching on one occasion from this text at Cowes, began his sermon as follows: In my way to your island, I visited the county jail at Winchester, and there I saw many who were accused of heavy crimes, but who seemed careless and indifferent, and to have but little sense of their awful situation. But one young man attracted my attention; he kept separate from the rest, and his countenance

betrayed deep emotion. I went up to him, and said, 'And what have you done, young man?' 'O, Sir,' said he, deeply affected, I have done that which I cannot undo, and which has undone me.' This, my dear friends,' said the venerable minister, 'is the situation of every one of you. You have each of you done that which has undone you, and which you cannot undo.' (Hosea xiii. 9.)-Anecdotes.

13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold here a finished picture of to the fifty-first Psalm!-A. Fuller. impenitent misery! What a contrast

14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. 15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on

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