the perversity of such a temper. Let them cultivate dispositions of humanity and benevolence, by seeking occasions of doing kind offices to others. Let them associate with good-tempered and cheerful, not with peevish and irritating company. Under this management, the temper will relax, the heart soften, and the mind acquire a mild turn...God will bless their endeavours, and crown them with success.

2. Envy and jealousy seem to have been the destruction of Cain. Let us be careful never to indulge them; for envy corrodes like poison, and jealousy burns like fire; nor is it easy to assuage the one, or quench the other. Particularly we should habituate ourselves to think with reverence, and speak with respect of all worthy characters, especially of such as are eminent for piety. The excellencies of others are a proper pattern for our imitation, and ought to excite our endeavours to become equally eminent. But, to envy those who are good; to be jealous lest God should have more regard for them than for us, will destroy, not only the peace of our minds, but that love which we ought to bear to all men, and especially to those who worthily fill their station in the household of God. Besides,

God has declared himself to be "righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works;" not respecting the persons of men, but treating them as they are, for which reason, his eyes are particularly over the righteous. If we wish to be in their number, it cannot be by envying and hating his servants, but by doing his will. Then shall we be dear to God and to all good men; and they will be dear to us. Envy, and jealousy, and wrath, and hatred will give place to love, and peace, and kindness...God will accept our offerings and prayers, and his loving kindness shall be our reward.

3. The example of Cain ought to caution us against resisting or neglecting the admonitions of God. When God expostulated with Cain, on account of his resentment against his brother, instead of humbly submitting

*Psalm cxiv. 17, + John viii. 44.

to the reproof, he hardened his heart, and gave himself up to the inspirations of him who "was a murderer from the beginning."* God indeed does not personally expostulate with us, as he did with Cain: but he has a Vicegerent within us, who will not fail to admonish and reprove us, when we have done amiss. His Holy Spirit also joins his calls to repentance with the admonitions of Conscience. If we reject this voice of God within us, and harden our hearts against the motions of his Spirit, Conscience will cease to do his office, nor will his Spirit always strive with us. Should the voice of Conscience cease, and the solicitations of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn, because the callous state of our hearts renders us insensible, where shall we stop in the steep descent to perdition? or what security can we have against falling into the foulest crimes ? Cain found none; and the murder of his brother became practicable to him, when he had rejected the admonitions of his God.

4. From the example of Cain, we may be taught another lesson---not to despise or neglect the ordinances of religion. That the institutions of the Christian Church are in a great degree disregarded by people of all ranks, cannot be doubted by those who attend to the subject. That many disregard them, because they think there is no reason for them, and that they may be as well saved without them, will be equally evident to all who will be at the pains to inquire into the matter. But, supposing we cannot see the reason of them, it will not follow that there is no reason in them, because we do not perceive it. Our inattention to them may be more in fault than any thing else. God has commanded them; and he certainly can see further, and knows better what is right for us than we do. We believe that he is good---He will not, therefore, command needless sacraments, and ineffectual institutions, without reason in their appointment, or benefit in their use. Here then is a proper field for the exercise of faith. To do a

thing because it is right, and we see the reason of it is a just and proper conduct; but it is not the fruit of faith; it is only acting according to our reason and judgment. But to do it because God has commanded it, though we do not fully comprehend the reason of it, is an act of that faith which is highly agreeable to God, and without which it is impossible to please him.* That we might have been saved without the use of sacraments, had God so pleased, I have no inclination to deny. But the question is not about what God might have done, but what he has done. If he hath appointed the sacraments of his Church, that you may in the use of them obtain remission of your sins, and the grace of his Holy Spirit; your neglect of them is the neglect of your great privilege, and looks more like copying the example of Cain, than being deterred by it. He neglected the sacrifice God had appointed for the remission of his sins, because he had no penitent sense of them, or because he could not see the reason of the appointment-.-how the sacrificing of a lamb should take away his sins, or do him any good. You cannot suppose that you have no sins to be forgiven; and God forbid, you should be willing to die with the whole weight of them on your heads.

5. Consider the example of righteous Abel, and from him learn to apply to God, for the forgiveness of your sins, in the way he hath commanded..-through his Son, the Mediator of the new covenant; and by the ordinances of his Church, which he hath appointed for that very purpose. And be assured, that if, with righteous Abel," thou doest well"...with penitent heart and lively faith, bringest the offering that God requires; and, in unity with his Church, commemorate the death and satisfaction of Christ, for the sin of the world, looking for pardon, and reconciliation with God, through him--thou shalt be accepted, as Abel was; and, through the word of God, shalt "obtain witness that thou art right

*Heb. xi. 6.

cous"--that thy sins are forgiven thee..." God will testify of," will accept "your gifts," as he did his.

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But if with, reprobate Cain," thou doest not well"refusest to apply for the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, in the way God hath appointed---in the ordinances of his Church, the instituted means of his grace and heavenly benediction..." sin lieth at the door" thy sins will remain unforgiven, and aggravated by thy disregard of the means appointed for the pardon of them.

My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that be also is flesh: Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

T

HE Text acquaints us with the determination of God, to give up the old world to destruction. That is the meaning of the phrase, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man," The next words give the reason of this determination, "For that he also is flesh." The import of which expression must be, that man was become altogether fleshly-sensual in his tempers and pursuits, regarding only the gratification of his bodily appetites, and giving himself up to the indulgence of his passions and lusts.

To be long-suffering toward sinners, and to bear with their perverseness; to wait for their amendment, and to do every thing to effect it, is the property of God, and his character from one end of the Bible to the other. We must, therefore, suppose, that the wickedness of the old world was become incorrigible, and past remedy. The appetites of the body had gained such an ascendency over them, that the divine grace made no impression on them.

It may not be easy precisely to determine in what their degeneracy consisted. Unrestrained bodily appetites seem to have been the foundation of it; and it