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merciful Manner of God's Dealing with the rebellious Children of Men! Heinous and unprovoked as Cain's Offence is, he does not inftantly cut him off, and fend him down, with his Sins full blown, into the Pit, but allows him Time for Repentance. And indeed even the wicked Cain feems, in some measure, moved thereat; for he cries out directly, My Punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold thou haft driven me out this Day from the Face of the Earth; and from thy Face ball I be bid, and I fhall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond in the Earth; and it fall come to pass, that every one that findeth me fhall flay me.

In this Speech of Cain, we have a lively Picture of the deceitful and defperately wicked Heart of Man! When it comes to his own Turn to fuffer, though his Life is fpared, he complains, his Pu⚫nishment is intolerable': And why? • Because he

is driven from the Face of the Earth.' Now this is all Self; it was not Sorrow for his Sin, but on account of his Sentence. But then again the next Complaint promifes fomething like Contrition,

And from thy Face fhall I be hid.' But, alas! how fhort is this godly Fit! He returns again to his own Sufferings, and what his own guilty Confcience fuggefted unto him, namely, That be fhould be a Fugitive and Vagabond, and should be flain by the first that met him.*

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The latter Part of his Fears GOD condefcends

graciously to remove : And the LORD faid unto him, therefore, whofoever flayeth Cain, Vengeance fhall be taken on him feven-fold. And the LORD fet a Mark upon Cain, left any finding him fhould kill him. Well, and what is the Effect of all this unmerited, Mercy of Heaven upon this wicked Murderer ? Why, we find it in the very next Verfe: And Cain went out from the Prefence of the LORD, and dwelled in the Land of Nod, on the East of Eden.

No

No fooner is his Life, as he thinks, fecured to him, for fome Time, and the Rod removed from over his Head for the prefent, but the firft Ufe he makes of this Bleffing, is to fly from the Face of his merciful Creator, inftead of endeavouring to regain his Favour and Pardon by a timely and hearty Repentance. It is therefore no Wonder, that he is tranfmitted down to us in the Gospel by the Title of CAIN, that wicked one, as of a Perfon who was not to be reclaimed, and of whofe Salvation therefore there was no room to hope.

Equally guilty of tranfgreffing this Commandment, were the Sons of Jacob, who bore an irrecoileable Hatred to their Brother Jofeph, because their Father fhewed moft Love to him, (for which, however, he was not to be commended,) and becaufe of his Dreams, which portended his having a Superiority over them. Now, on thefe two Ac counts, though it does not appear that he fought any way to fupplant his Brethren in the Favour of his Father, and though he was not refponfible for his Dreams, as not having it in his Power either to procure, or avoid them, they envied him greatly; even fo far, that, to prevent the Accomplishment of his Dreams, they confpired his Death, and had actually murdered him, had not Reuben diverted them from it. Thus were they, at leaft intentionally, guilty of the fame Sin with Cain; and tho' Heaven in its unfearchable Wisdom, thought proper to bring Good out of Evil, and by its overruling Providence, caufed this their Sin to be productive of fignal Happinefs; yet, as the Ways of GoD are never unequal, we may be well affured, unless they prevented it by timely Repentance, it would have involved them in the fame endless Perdition; but as we find them afterwards twice acknowledging their Guilt, and as they were all bleffed by their Father on his Death-Bed, there is Reafon to prefume the bett of them.

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Again, even Aaron and Miriam were guilty of the fame Sin, in envying and murmuring againft Mofes; and had not the Lord interpofed in Time, by punishing Miriam with the Leprofy, Heaven alone knows what might have been the Confequence; whether it might not have occafioned an Infurrection amongst the People, which might have caufed them all to be cut off. As it was, we find her truck with an incurable Difeafe, from which the had never been delivered, but for the Interceffion of Mofes.

But Korab, and Dathan, and Abiram, who were guilty of the fame Offence, in tranfgreffing this Commandment, as they carried it much farther, efcaped not fo well: On the contrary, to fhew how heinous the Sin of Envy is in the Sight of Heaven, and to deter all fucceeding Ages from it, the Almighty thought proper to make a moft dreadful Example of them, by caufing the Earth to open and fwallow them all up, together with their Wives, Families, and Adherents, to the Number of two Hundred and fifty: Nor was this all, for no lefs than fourteen Thousand and feven Hundred perished next Day on the fame Account.

The next Inftance, we fhall produce of the melancholy Confequences of violating this Law, fhall be the wicked Saul, the firft King of Ifrael: This unhappy Man, was not fatisfied that the Lord had chofen him from amongst the Children of Ifrael, though of the fmallest Tribe, and the leaft Family of that Tribe, to fet him over the whole People; but becaufe, after David's having in Goliab, the Ifraeliti Women came out to meet him, and faid, SAUL hath flain his Thousands, and DAVID his ten Thousands, he fought, by all means imaginable, to compafs his Death: So naturally does Envy produce Murder! In vain, however, were all his Contrivances and Attempts to that Purpose; for he

whom

whom the Lord keeps, is always furely kept: This, nevertheless, made not the the Sin of Saul the lefs ; and accordingly it was grievously vifited upon him; for, not only he is left of the Lord in his greatest Diftrefs, fo that, in the Agony of Defpair, he is tempted to have recourfe to a Witch, that is, in other Words, to the Devil; but it was plainly foretold him, that both he and his Sons should fall next Day, as they did accordingly, his three Sons by the Hands of the Philiftines, and himself by his own Sword. Such, and to dreadful was the Punishment of the envious Saul, for the Breach of this Commandment !

But was not even David himfelt guilty of violating the fame Law, though in a different manner? Undoubtedly he was in the Cafe of Bathsheba, which was productive both of Adultery and Murder; and though GoD, in his infinite Wifdom and Mercy; was pleafed to pardon these complicated Sins, fo far as related to his eternal State, yet did he vifit them upon him in this Life, in fuch a manner as was more grievous than even Death itself. If David then, who is called a Man after God's own Heart, could offend fo foully, we need not wonder if we find the wicked Ahab guilty of the fame Crime, as he was with refpect to Naboth: And what was the dreadful Confequence? Why, no less than the total Extermination of his whole Family (as hath been obferved before under another Article,) and that in the moft fhocking Manner.

To pafs on now from facred to prophane Hif-tory, we fhall there find the Breach of this' Law to have been attended with the fame il Confequences; whereof the wicked Perfeus, Son and Succeffor to Philip, King of Macedon, was an eminent Inflance. This inhuman Profligate, who was tainted with all manner of Vices, had a younger

Brother,

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Brother, named Demetrius, of a quite contrary Character, being endued with many Virtues, and every way accomplished. It was no Wonder, therefore, that the one being a Prince of fuch great Hopes, whilft the other was abfolutely the reverfe, it fhould gain the former the Love and Efteem of ali the Macedonians, who were Admirers of Virtue, ard defirous of the Welfare of their Country, and that their Eyes fhould be fixed upon him, as upon one whom they wished their future Sovereigns might resemble.

Perfeus was no Stranger to this; and not finding himself difpofed to attract the Good-will and Affection of the Public, by treading in the Steps of his Brother, it naturally created in him a Dread and Jealousy of that young Prince, as of one whom they might poffibly, one Day, raife to the Throne to his Prejudice. It was equally natural to a wicked Mind, prepoffeffed with this Thought, to endeavour to prevent this, by any means, lawful or otherwife: Accordingly, not being able to reft, whilft Demetrius was alive, he refolved to leave no Methods uneffayed to compaís his Death; which, at laft, by the vileft Calumnies, and moft notorioufly falfe Accufations, he cruelly and infa. mously effected.

But it was not long before the Divine Juftice overtook this inhuman and envious Fratricide: For King Philip, their common Parent, (whofe Affections he had alienated from his youngest and beft deferving Son; by inftilling into his Breaft, groundlefs Sufpicions of that unhappy Youth, as if he had concerted Measures to betray both his Father and the Kingdom into the Flands of the Romans, in order to advance himself to the Throne;) Philip, we fay, dying foon after, through Excess of Grief, on being informed, though too late, of the Innocency of Demetrius, and villanous Forgeries of Perfeus;

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