24. Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25. "As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved."

No earthly crime was imputed to Esau in the Old Testament, which leaves us to the conclusion that it was his original nature that was offensive to God. He is, indeed, called the profane Esau, in Hebrews, chap. xii. 16; but his irreverence to God was the result of his original profanity; and his posterity, under the deeply branded name of Edom, are said, by Malachi, to be a people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever; which confirms that his origin was bad. But the further proofs of that must be deferred till his own particular history comes under discussion; it only being mentioned here, to show that the New Testament proves that two seeds, as different as those of wheat and tares, may be produced by the same father and mother.

After the doom of the multiplied conception, the two first children of Eve were of natures so different,

that, without any alleged fault, God would not accept the offering of Cain, while, at the same time, he was favourable to that of Abel; upon which Cain, in pure enmity, slew him. And that Abel was true, good seed, and the intended seed of the woman, is proved by the 25th verse of the 4th chapter; where Eve, upon the birth of Seth, exclaims, "God hath appointed me ANOTHER SEED instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."

This is direct information; and does it not show that Cain and Abel were insomuch different seeds, that when righteous Abel was slain, another seed was necessary to supply his place, while Cain, from every inference that can be drawn, was bad seed? He was unacceptable to God from the first; he was a murderer from enmity; he was banished from the presence of the Lord, and excluded from Adam's genealogy. He also goes forth from the land where his parents dwelt, and enters a strange land, where he fears to be slain; but having a mark set upon him, as it were, to preserve him from the horrors of his brother's fate, he settles in that land; and building a city, called after his son Enoch, becomes

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the head of a perfectly distinct line of people, whose genealogy, commencing with himself, is given in this chapter.

Thus it appears, that we have great reason to suppose that from the beginning of the worldbut after the curse of the earth and the denunciation of the multiplied conception-both bad and good seed have been born upon the earth, and from the same two parents.

The form and circumstance of Cain's being omitted in Adam's genealogy, is so far conclusive against him as good seed, that I cannot but produce it here for consideration.

Chap. v. 1. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

2." Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3. "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth."

Cain's affinity, congeniality of mind, and like

ness in his deeds to Satan, is thus marked in the New Testament: 1 John, chap. iii. 12. «Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother."

And our Saviour, when addressing those Jews who sought his life, says, John, chap. viii. 44. « Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the be ginning." Again, in Jude, Cain is thus alluded to: verse 11. "Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain."

All further mention of the serpent's seed seems to cease from the third chapter; but in the very next there succeeds this remarkable history of Cain and Abel, which (except for their being examples of good and bad seed) seems of so little consequence to the general scheme, that the question has been asked, why it was ever introduced into the concise system of Scripture history? Abel ceases to be, without leaving any posterity, and Cain is omitted in Adam's genealogy; he also is banished from the presence of the Lord, and goes forth from his parents into another land; while the

production of good seed again takes place in the person of Seth.

It therefore does seem a matter of surprise, that Cain and Abel, two persons of such little relative consequence, should have been made so prominent at the commencement of this otherwise concise outline of heavenly communication, if neither of them were to be of any particular account in it. But can the peculiar narrative of Cain and Abel be merely an episode in the work of the Deity? is it not rather (according to the method and latitude which the language of Scripture assumes) an obscured or varied link of the same chain of narration which first announced the course of Satan's seed upon earth? a course so important to our own, as to cause a perpetual warfare, which renders it bable that we are to have further information concerning it; and would not such information follow with regularity and consistency in the next chapter (the fourth) where Cain's birth, history, and accursed state are revealed?

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The ancient Eastern writers, both Jews and Arabians, affirm, from tradition, that Seth and his