murder of Abel by Cain, and what occasioned it, immediately adds, Marvel not, my brethren, if the wORLD hate YOU *. And let every Christian take care that he fall not after the similitude of their transgression. It is a determined case, that he who hateth his brother, is a murderer †. it is an unquestionable truth, that he who envieth his brother, will soon hate him: and it is no less certain, that the spirit which dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. How earnestly and fervently, then, ought we to pray, as our excellent Church enjoins us to do, that from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, our good Lord would vouchsafe to deliver us!

The blood of Abel cried from the ground for vengeance against Cain. No cry pierceth the heavens like that of blood, a brother's blood more especially. How long has the blood of that Just One been crying, and they who shed it will not yet acknowledge, as the brethren of Joseph were made to do in the day of their calamity, that they are verily guilty concerning their brother §. As the crime of the Jews bears so near an affinity to that of Cain, the stubborn sullenness, and inveterate hardness of heart, which it has produced in them, seem to be, in an extraordinary manner, portrayed in his character; and his answer to his Maker, when demanding his brother at his hands, has all the marks of Jewish insolence and contumacy strongly impressed upon it. The Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; am I my brother's keeper? Again: who can help thus applying to them the expostulation of God with the murderer-What have ye done? the voice of your brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And hath not the very sentence inflicted on Cain been executed upon them likewise in every particular? They are cursed from the earth which opened her mouth to receive their brother's blood from their hand. The ground, that once rich and fertile ground, no longer yields to them its strength, but is become a barren and desolate wilderness, sympathizing, as it were, with their ungodly hearts, which are barren of every good thought, word, and work, and bring forth no fruits of repentance and faith. Upon them, as upon the mountains of Gilboa, there has been no

* 1 John iii. 13. † 1 John iii. 15.

Jam. iv. 5. § Gen. xlii. 21.

rain, neither dew from above. The heaven over their heads, according to the prediction of Moses, has been brass, and the earth under them iron *. Thorns only and thistles, infidelity and blasphemy, covetousness and extortion, have appeared as yet. Seventeen hundred years have passed, since they were driven out from the presence of Jehovah, and the light of his countenance; dispersed, like chaff, to the four winds; fugitives and vagabonds upon the earth, without priest, or temple, city, or habitation; every attempt to settle them has been blasted; and yet, an indelible mark is set upon them by the hand of the Almighty, that none should extirpate them: so wonderfully punished, so wonderfully preserved for punishment; and we hope, at last, for mercy; since, if they abide not still in unbelief, God is able to graff them in again. While, therefore, we pray, as we all ought to do frequently and devoutly, for the coming of that blessed and festal hour, when returning Israel shall acknowledge Jehovah their Redeemer, and look on him whom they have pierced : let us not fail, in the mean season, to behold, in these striking examples of the divine vengeance, the sad and forlorn estate of that soul, from which the faith and the love of Christ are departed. Driven out from the presence of Jehovah, and deprived of the cheering and enlivening beams of the Sun of righteousness, it is doomed to be wretched and disconsolate, in the body, for a few days, upon the earth; soon to pass from thence into the undiscerned regions of darkness and despair; far removed from the paradise of God, the gates of which are shut against it for ever. It will then, alas, perceive itself to be a banished fugitive and vagabond, void of every ray of hope and comfort, wishing for death, but sentenced to immortality, amongst horrid ghastly forms of accursed spirits, tormenting it with fearful preludes of its approaching condemnation.-Blessed, therefore, is the man, who, yielding up his heart to the obedience of faith, suffers the Spirit of the Holy One to new model his crooked and perverse affections, and to reduce them, as nearly as may be, to that standard of all perfection, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, by changing his pride into humility, his envy into love, his wrath into meekness, and

* Deut. xxviii. 23. ↑ Rom. xi. 23.

Zech. xii. 10.

his malice into mercy, Blessed is he who remembers the faith and the patience of Abel; who so remembers, as to imitate them: for though his sorrow may be great, it shall introduce him to joy; though his sufferings be heavy, they shall terminate in glory; and when the few and evil days of his pilgrimage are ended, he who is greater than Abel shall give him Abel's reward.

CONSIDERATIONS

ON THE

LIFE AND TRANSLATION OF ENOCH.

Nec morti esse locum, sed viva volare

Sideris in numerum, atque alto succedere cœlo.

GEORG. IV. 226.

1. THE CASE OF ENOCH AND ELIJAH.

It is appointed unto all men once to die. This is the general rule: but we meet with an exception to it in the case of Enoch, who was transported from the earthly to the heavenly Sion, without passing the valley of the shadow of death interposed between them. The Scripture affords us one more instance of the same kind, that of the prophet Elijah, for whom a chariot and horses of fire were sent down from the city of the great King, and who instantly exchanged his prophetic mantle for a robe of glory. Thus it pleased God to vouchsafe the world two rehearsals of the ascension of the holy Jesus; one for the building up of those before the law, the other of those under the law, in the faith of that great and important article: and both, that we of these latter days might admire the wisdom of God in fore-showing what hath been accomplished, and adore his mercy and power in the accomplishment of what was fore-showed.

2. ENOCH'S FAITH.

If we ask, what it was in Enoch that could merit an exemption from the common lot of mortality, the author

of the Epistle to the Hebrews will tell us-By FAITH Enoch was translated from earth to heaven. His faith then was in heaven, whither he was translated, and in that blessed Person who only could translate him thither: he was a believer in him who, after having made atonement on the cross for the sins of the world, appeared before the everlasting gates of heaven, and commanded them to be thrown open, for the righteous nation to enter into them, and give thanks unto the Lord their God. The righteousness of the Redeemer, like light from the sun, looked always and reached upwards, to save those who lived by faith before and under the law, as well as downwards, to justify and sanctify believers to the end of time, and nothing was, is, or shall be hid from the influence thereof. Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, by faith in him who, because he was to overcome the sharpness of death, could therefore open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

3. HIS PROPHECY.

But did there a doubt remain as to the object of Enoch's faith, the prophecy delivered by him to the old world, and recorded by St. Jude, were sufficient to dispel it. The subject of the prophecy is, the second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to take vengeance on the deniers and blasphemers of his holy name. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. This prophecy of the coming of our Lord to judgement, which is to be his last act, and to close all the dispensations of God to man through a Mediator, necessarily supposes in the person who uttered it, an acquaintance with the steps leading to that awful and final catastrophe, such as the incarnation, life, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, inauguration, and kingdom of our Lord, as well as the glorious state of the saints departed, who are to come with him in the clouds of heaven. On