punishments in this world, and in the world to come, to an everlafting feparation from the comfortable presence of God, the most "grievous torments in foul and body without intermiffion in hell-fire " for ever."

This is an affair of the most dreadful importance, and requires to be examined with all poffible care and impartiality; for an error in this point will affect the whole fcheme of Chriftianity, pervert and abuse our confciences, and give us very wrong notions of God and of ourfelves. Upon this article I have examined the Scriptures, with diligence and impartiality, in the treatife entitled The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, propofed to free and candid Examination in the ftudy of which this is a proper place to exercise your thoughts and judg

ments.

[* Adam having tranfgreffed the law, not only loft a claim to life, but became obnoxious to death, which was death in law, or eternal death. And had the law been immediately executed, his pofterity, then included in his loins, muft have been extinct, or could have had no existence at all; for, the covenant of innocence being broken, there was no covenant or conftitution fubfifting upon which Adam could have the leaft hope of the continuance of his own life, and confequently, could have no profpect of any pofterity. Thus in Adam all die. While things were in this ftate, under broken law, and before a promise of favour, or grace, in this interval, for any thing Adam could know, he, and the whole world in him, were utterly loft and undone for ever. our merciful God and Father had quite different views; he graciously intended to make Adam's fin, and his being expofed to eternal death, an occafion of erecting a new difpenfation, a difpenfation of grace in the hands of a Mediator. According to which, Adam was affured that he fhould not immediately die, but fhould live to have a pofterity by his wife. So Adam understood what the Lord God faid, ver. 15. upon this he gave his wife a new name, (ver. 20.) mm Life, or Lifegiving, for joy that mankind were to be propagated from her, when he expected nothing but immediate death in confequence of his tranfgreffion.]

But

And

[† God graciously intended, after Adam's Tranfgreffion, to erect a difpenfation of grace, for the redemption of mankind; which grace was declared, and, confequently, which difpenfation was established, (Gen. iii. 15. And I will put enmity, &c.) before the fentence of death was pronounced upon Adam (ver. 19. Dust thou art, and to duft thou balt return). Death therefore, in that fentence, ftands under the new difpenfation, or the difpenfation of grace, and for that reason cannot be Death in LAW, or eternal death; but death in DISPENSATION, or death appointed for wife and good purposes, and to be continued only fo long as God fhould think fit. And thus alfo all die in Adam; thus by man came death; thus by one man fin entered into the world, and death by, or in confe quence

Take this in, as a note, p. 18 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at

the paragraph, 1. Whereas Adam had before, &c.

Take this in, as a note, p. 66 of Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin, at No. Immediately upon the annulling the first covenant, &c.

quence of, his fin. But it was the high and glorious purpofe of God, that his beloved Son, the feed of the woman, having, in our flefh, performed the most perfect and complete obedience, fhould be invested with dominion and power to raife all men from the dead, and to give eternal life to all them that tread in the steps of his obedience. Thus, as by man came death, by man came alfo the refurrection from the dead; for, as in Adam all die, fo in Chrift fball all be made alive. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. Thus, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even fo, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto juftification. For as by one man's difobedience the many were made finners, fo by the obedience of one fball the many be made righteous. Rom. v. 18, 19.]

ERE Cain and Abel perform an act of religious devotion, by way of Oblation or Sacrifice. The question is, whether this kind of worship was of divine or human inftitution. They who are of the latter opinion alledge, "that we read of no command from "God for facrificing; therefore men did it of their own heads, out of a grateful inclination to return unto God fome of his own bleffings, and to acknowledge him the abfolute proprietor of all their "enjoyments; though they had no directions from him about it." Anfwer. This feems highly improbable. For how came Abel to offer his Sacrifice in faith of God's acceptance, (Heb. xi. 4.) if his faith had nothing to warrant it but his own imagination? Human imagination, or opinion, never was, or ever can be, either the ground or object of faith. It is faid, Gen. iv. 4. that God had refpect to, or fhewed his approbation of, both Abel and his offering; or in the Apoftle's words, he obtained witness, that himself was righteous, God teftifying of his gifts, that they were right, and offered in a right manner. On the other hand, he cenfured Cain as having prefented his Oblation in fuch a manner as was not pleafing to God; which evidently fuppofes a previous inftitution, and a rule which Cain was, or might have been, acquainted with. For, had there not been fuch a rule given, how could he have been blamed for not obferving it? It is abfurd to fay, he tranfgreffed a rule of his own imagination and, invention.

The inftitution not being mentioned in a history so concife, argues nothing. Other things are alfo omitted, as religious affemblies, Enoch's prophecy, Noah's preaching, the peopling of the world, or the increase of Adam's family. Things well known, or generally fuppofed, when

the

the hiftorian wrote, needed not to be mentioned, but might be taken for granted. The only proper and conclufive argument would be to prove,

that in those early days they had no communication with, or revela"tion from God; and therefore, having no way of knowing what the "mind of the Lord was, were under a neceffity of inventing fomething "of their own." But this is far from being the cafe. God, in fome vifible form, frequently appeared, and made his mind known to Adam, and to all the fucceeding Patriarchs mentioned in the book of Genefis, for the space of 2315 years; yea, he converfed and reafoned with and inftructed Cain himfelf. When therefore Adam, and all the other Patriarchs, had the fulleft opportunity of knowing from God himself, what kind of worship was moft acceptable to him, there was no need of their own invention; and it is abfurd to fuppofe that they followed no other guide.

In the infancy of the church they wanted direction, and without doubt were directed in every thing relating to religion especially, fo far as was agreeable to that difpenfation. Doubtlefs Adam was inftructed by God to facrifice; and it is not improbable that those beafts, with the skins of which Adam and Eve were clothed, Gen. iii. 21. were flain as Sacrifices. God certainly inftructed our first parents in the faith and worship which the alteration in their circumstances required. Having made a moft gracious covenant with them, (ver. 15) it is not unreafonable to fuppofe, that he alfo fignified to them, that they fhould, for a perpetual ratification and affurance of it to their faith, offer to him Sacrifices; for by the blood of Sacrifices covenants were ratified in aftertimes. The eating of the tree of life, was a covenanting action, (affuring immortality to their continued obedience) fuitable to a ftate of innocence. But the mactation of a living creature, (expreffing the deadly nature of fin, at the fame time that it affured them of eternal life through a facrificed Redeemer) was more fuitable to a state of guilt.

Ver. 3. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, &c. ver. 4. And Abel alfo brought of the firflings of the flock, &c. "As there were fome "folemn times of making their devout acknowledgments to God; fo, "I doubt not, there was fome fet place, where they affembled for that "purpose. For the Hebrew word for brought, is never ufed in rela"tion to domeftic, or private Sacrifices; but always in relation to "thofe public Sacrifices which were brought to the door of the taber"nacle of the congregation. As Lev. iv. 4. He fhall bring m "the bullock to the door, &c. Which occurs all along, especially in "the ninth chapter of that book.

"And therefore, I fuppofe, they brought thefe Sacrifices, here men❝tioned, to fome fixed [public] place, where the Shechinah, or glorious "prefence of God appeared. For, as they must have fome fettled place, "where they [publicly] performed facred offices, it is most reasonable "to think it had, in thofe early days, refpect to the Shechinah, or Di"vine prefence, as well as afterwards under the Mofaic difpenfation, [when the Divine Prefence refided] in the tabernacle and temple. "And therefore they are faid to appear before God, [Exod. xxiii. 17. ❝ xxxiv. 24.

"xxxiv. 24. Pfal. xlii. 2, &c. or to prefent themselves before the Lord, "Job. i. 6."*]

That fome vifible token of the prefence of God appeared in their religious affemblies in thofe earliest days of the church, and fpake and converfed with them, as occafion required, is evident enough. So the Lord God appeared frequently and familiarly to Adam. He held a conference with Cain in fuch a manner as plainly fhews it was no extraordinary thing. And when the fons, or children, of God came together to prefent themselves before the Lord, the Lord is reprefented as difcourfing with Satan about the character and circumftances of Job. Job i. 6-12. ii. 1-7.

While men were not fo numerous, but that they might all affemble together at one place, probably the Shechinah ftatedly appeared among them every fabbath. But when they were fo numerous, that they could not ordinarily meet together once a week, and therefore were under a neceffity of performing their worship in feparate and remote places; yet the Shechinah, or token of the Divine Prefence, might fill remain and appear as ufual in that original place, where Adam and his immediate descendents had firft attended upon divine fervice, and where the Patriarchs, in a right line defcended from Adam, had their place of refidence. There, probably, Noah builded his altar, and there the Lord converfed with him. Gen. viii. 20, &c. ix. 1— 18. There Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord, Gen. xxv. 22, 23; and the received an answer, probably, from the Shechinah or Divine Prefence.

From all this it feems not unlikely, that Cain and Abel's Offerings were performed before the whole affembly of Adam's family (which then must have been confiderably increased), and that the divine acceptance of the one, and rejection of the other, was fignified by fome vifible mark, which appeared and was observed by the whole congregation. It would add very much to Cain's difgult to find himself fo openly difparaged, and funk fo much in the favour of God, and the efteem of the whole family, below his younger brother; over whom, on that fole account, as he was the first-born, he claimed pre-eminence, and expected, whatever his character was, pious or impious, to have been preferred before him.

The mark by which the Lord God teftified his acceptance of Abel and his Sacrifice, was, probably, a ftream of fire iffuing from the Shechinch, which confumed his Sacrifice. So Gen. xv. 17. A fmoking furnace and burning lamp, i. e. the Shechinah, passed between the pieces of the Sacrifice, and confumed them, in confirmation of the covenant. And we have many other examples of this kind in facred Hiftory; as when Mofes offered the firft great burnt-offering, Lev. ix. 24; when Gideon offered upon the rock, Judg. vi. 21; when David ftayed the plague, 1 Chron. xxi. 26; and Solomon confecrated the temple, 2 Chron. vii. 13; and when Elijah contended with the Baalites, Kings xviii. 38, &c. whence the Ifraelites, Pfal. xx. 3. wifhing all profperity to their king, pray that God would accept [ turn into afbes] his burnt-offering.

Bishop Patrick's Comment. in loco.

Ver. 6,7,

Ver. 6, 7. The Lord God reproved Cain for the difguft and indignation he had conceived against his brother, inftructing him in terms of divine acceptance. If thou doft well, shalt thou not be accepted? Moft certainly -For I have an impartial regard to true piety, wherefoever I find it. But if thou dost not well, fin (i. e. the punishment of fin, as ver. 13, and chap. xix. 15, and feveral other places,) lieth couching at the door, ready to fall upon thee; and unto thee fhall be bis defire, and thou fhalt rule over him. Three things are here suggested to appeafe his refentment. 1. That the reason of his not being refpected was not in his brother, but in himself; for, if he had done well, he would have been as much respected. 2. That, if he did ill, he had no reafon to expect the Divine favour, but the reverfe. 3. That this fhould not alter his civil right, nor give Abel any authority over him, but he should ftill retain the privilege of his birth-right. Note This fhews, that the pri vileges of his birth-right had been previously settled, either by divine appointment, or approbation.

But the rancour of Cain's mind could not thus be cured. Being of the Wicked One, the murtherer, who had lately attempted to destroy all mankind, he took an opportunity, and flew his brother. Poffibly the next fabbath, Abel's place being empty in the affembly of Adam's family, the Lord addreffed himself to Cain, charged him with his crime, and, in punishment of it, banished him from the country where Adam and his family refided; by rendering the ground barren to him, infomuch that, notwithstanding all his endeavours, it should not yield him any increase. This would neceffarily oblige him to go feek a fubfiftence in fome other place. To this fentence Cain remonftrates as too fevere, [and by the bye, his familiar, indeed too familiar, manner of answering the Shechinah, fhews, that fuch appearances of the Divine Prefence were common and cuftomary] apprehending he should thereby be bid from the face of the Lord, (ver. 14.) or deprived of his care and inspection, and confidered by all mankind as a ftrolling brute, expofed to their hatred, and in contínual danger of being deftroyed. But God, who for wife and holy ends often protects and prolongs the lives even of very wicked men, intended that Cain fhould live; either that he might have space to repent, or, being impenitent, might remain a monument of Divine Juftice; and therefore, before the whole affembly, threatened a worse punishment than Cain's to the man who fhould, by killing him, de feat the divine fentence, or fruftrate his grace.

And the Lord fet a mark upon Cain, &c. In the Hebrew it is, And the Lord fet, or exhibited, a true token to Cain, that no one who met him, fhould kill him; i. e. gave him fome pledge or affurance, declared either in words, as by an oath, or by fome outward token, that his life fhould be preferved. So the fpies gave Rahab a token, no, that her life, and the lives of all her relations, fhould be preferved. Joshua ii. 12-14. This token to Rabab feems to have been a folemn oath; for the fearlet cord was not a token to Rabab, but to the fpies, to diftin guish her house. N. B. I do not find in Scripture, that is ever fig nifies a mark, or brand, impreffed upon a man's body, but always fome external affurance, or pledge given by God. Gen. ix. 13. xvii 11.