taken; for though that was the way once, yet now it is so no more. There are no hopes of getting to heaven without a mediator; and if a mediator had not been appointed, we must certainly have fallen short of that happiness. But the Lord Jesus hath been pleased to lay open for us, a new and living way unto the Father; (Heb. x. 20;) nay, to show us the way to the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Rev. ii. 7. xxii. 14. Indeed he himself is the true and living way; and no man comes to the Father, to the love and favour, to the kingdom and glory, of the Father,-but by him. John xiv. 6.

96

CHAPTER IV.

The story of this chapter divides itself into eight parts: I. The birth and calling of Cain and Abel, who were the two sons,―'tis supposed the two eldest sons, of Adam and Eve; II. Their religious devotion, with the different success and acceptance of it; III. Cain's angry resentment of God's different acceptance of their services; IV. God's reproof of Cain for this anger; V. The progress of Cain's wrath in Abel's murder; VI. The proceedings against Cain for this murder; VII. An account of Cain's posterity; VIII. The birth of a son and grandson of Adam.

ND Adam knew his wife; and

AN

she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

It is supposed by some that Cain and Abel were twins; and if so, they did somewhat resemble Esau and Jacob, another pair of twin brothers;-the two

younger loved and accepted, the two elder hated and rejected. The name given to Cain by his mother signifies possession or getting. I have gotten,-'tis an expression of her gladness; for though she bore him in sorrow, according to the threatening chap. iii. 16, yet the sorrow was not remembered for joy that a man was born into the world.

A man from the Lord; some read it, a man before the Lord; that is, one that may stand up to serve God in his generation, when we are dead and gone.

Others read it, a man, the Lord; as if she thought this was the promised seed that was to bruise the serpent's head. But she lived to see herself mistaken, when this son proved the first-born of the devil himself. 1 John iii. 12. See how often God suffers us to be disappointed in our expectations from creatures; to find trouble and sorrow in that from which we promised ourselves the greatest joy and comfort. Therefore cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. Isa. ii. 22.

We read it, a man from the Lord; that is, from the goodness and mercy of the Lord; Gen. xxx. 24. xxxiii. 5; and then it speaks Eve's thankfulness for this son. She returned the praise to him from whom she had him, for children are the heritage of the Lord. Psa. cxxvii. 3.

K

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

When Eve had Cain, the promised seed, as she thought him, she called her next son Abel, which signifies vanity. Those that have Christ for theirs, see every thing else in the world to be but vanity. A cup of water is but a vain thing to him that hath

an ocean.

Or it may be that Eve, having missed of the comfort she hoped for in Cain, and seeing that he did not prove to be the promised seed, did therefore call her next son vanity. And 'twere well if we could, as she did, from the disappointment of our expectations from creatures, learn more and more the vanity of them. Though all experience, yet how few are there that believe, the vanity, emptiness, nothingness, of present things.

From the joining of these two names together, Cain-possession, and Abel-vanity, we learn that all our possessions in this world are vanity. Children, which are to be ranked amongst the chiefest of earthly blessings, are at best but vanity,—very uncertain things to trust to. Parents promise themselves that their children will be arrows in their hands; (Ps. cxxvii. 4;) their safety and honour:

but, alas! how often do they prove arrows in their

hearts, their grief and sorrow.

every thing else under the sun.

And 'tis so with

How justly then

may we write Abel upon all our creature-comforts, for vanity of vanities, all is vanity; Eccles. i. 2 : nay, man himself at his best state is altogether vanity. Ps. xxxix. 5.

Abel, from whom it should seem, by his name, Eve promised herself little comfort, proved a child of God, a favourite of heaven, and an heir of glory; and, no question, was upon that account a great comfort to her whilst Cain, in whom she expected so much joy, proved a wicked man, a hater of God, and a murderer of his brother; and doubtless was, upon that account, a great affliction to her. Thus did God cross her expectations both ways, to show that he seeth not as man seeth,-judgeth not as man judgeth. 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

Abel was a keeper of sheep,-Cain, a tiller of the ground. Though they were the eldest sons of Adam, and heirs to all the world, yet they were not without callings. A calling God had given Adam, and callings he would give his children. Their callings were mean callings; the one a grazier's, and the other a ploughman's; and yet they did not think these so far below them as many now-a-days do, that have not the tithe of their estate. But they were neces