declaration who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil, it is equally decisive. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. It cannot be; he that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. It cannot be, because the message, or commandment we received from the beginning, was that we should love another; which love is not to be with such dissimulation as Cain, the first reprobate of the human race, exercised towards Abel, whom he slew. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Thus we have the words in part opened and explained. In going through them, I am thus to proceed.

1. To take notice of the message, doctrine, or command, which they whom the apostle here addresses, had received from the beginning, concerning loving one another.

He had been on this subject in the former chapter. He used the word message in the first chapter, saying, This then is the message which we have heard from the beginning, or of him, that is of Christ, which was from the beginning. This was, That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. The apostle, speaking of the doctrine delivered by Christ, from the beginning unto them, says in Chapter 2, "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." v. 7, 8. And here upon the same subject, the apostle says, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. From their very first hearing of Christ, so soon as they were brought under his most heavenly ministry, it pleased him to instil this heavenly principle and truth on their minds, that they should love one another as he had loved them. This was a commandment which he gave them. They heard him pronounce it. This precept was received into their minds. It was inscribed on their hearts. They could not cease to remember it. He spoke it out with such grace and majesty they could by no means forget the same. He had said, a very little while before his Passion, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John xiii. 34, 35. This therefore the apostle again and again inculcates: he being himself most remarkably filled with this grace; and very singular in the display and exercise of the same; insomuch as it is said by some, he lived so long, that when in his extreme old age, when he came into church assemblies, all he could say, or did, was only this, Little children, love one another. I confess I cannot think, our Lord Jesus Christ would keep such a saint as John out of heaven, to be of no more use to the church, than merely to pronounce this. It is the message of Christ, delivered by this apostle from him, to the church, that we should love one the other the apostle lays a mighty emphasis on it; he does so, because it was from the very first delivery of the gospel unto them. All the apostles had heard and received it: so had all the primitive believers, who heard Christ from the beginning; neither was it a doctrine which might be dropped. It was a commandment which was to be received,

and universally practised. It was that which made it evident who were the children of God. All under a profession of the gospel, who were destitute of it, were children of the devil. To love one another, and to manifest the same, in, and by all sort, and kind of ways, was their bounden duty and service: so says the holy apostle in the words before

us.

Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. None of us, no, not one of the true disciples of Christ, is excluded from this. It is equally obligatory on each, and all of them alike. It is a spiritual act and affection of the mind, wrought in the renewed by the Spirit of God. is the real fruit of love to Christ himself. It originates and springs from it. The command of Christ which enforces it, is the very means of exciting, and increasing it. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

It

2. What this love should be, is suggested to them, whom the apostle is addressing, from what it should not be; and the distinction between the children of God, and the children of the devil, further kept up, and explained. Love to the saints, and the love of saints towards each other, is not to be like Cain's love to his brother Abel. No; the wretch

is expressly declared to be of the devil-one of his children. He manifested this. He slew his brother, who was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason why Cain slew Abel was so exceeding clear and plain, that a question is asked concerning it; to the intent it might be so noticed as never to be forgotten: No, not by the godly, in all ages, and throughout all generations. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

We are not to love him we style brother in Christ, and church relationship, as Cain did his brother, which is here expressed by a negation. Not as Cain. The verse here before us is a very solemn one; it being the introduction to the following ones, in which he that hateth his brother is called a murderer, and it is declared of him, that he hath not eternal life abiding in him. I could therefore wish for very clear light into the real meaning of all this; so as that no part of these assertions might be invalidated, nor any unjustifiable censure laid upon the truly godly. As it cannot be conceived every degree of coldness and indifference one to another, as brothers in Christ, can prove we have not eternal life abiding in us; I do think, the true interpretation of this verse, will be a most complete clue, to open, and guide clearly into the reality of what the apostle means; which may serve to ease our minds, and may save us from very many perplexities. If our faith, in its actings on Christ, is not perfect, nor any other of our graces in their actings are; then surely our love to the brethren for our Lord's sake, is not; nor are we to expect it to be so, in any one instance, or act of it, whilst we remain in a time state. Therefore it cannot be, the simple deficiency of the same which the apostle is here treating on; he would never instance in a son of reprobation, if this was his subject. Whilst no one is more free to speak out what should be expressed, and give proper terms to the same, as hath been before noticed, than our John, yet he is here very particular in expressing himself on this subject, now before him. Cain's hatred to his brother, is here, not positively, it is

negatively expressed. "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." He who loveth not his brother, cannot act righteously, because he must be a transgressor of a positive precept. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love another. And this is binding upon all; it should be so extensive, to all the holy brethren; it should not be cramped; it should consist in acts and expressions of positive love; it should not be like Cain's. It was wholly and altogether of a negative kind: he had no positive love in his mind towards his brother Abel; so far from it, his mind was towards him for evil, and not for good. He was of that wicked one. The devil was his father. He was one of the children of the devil: and as he was a murderer from the beginning, so it might be said of this his son. Such in our world, also, as belong to Cain, are of the same murderous disposition with him. The apostle here gives an account of, and makes a recital of him: it is a most melancholy one. He was the first man who was born into our world. He was a non-elect. He had a name given him by his mother, which signified Possession. She said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. Or, I have gotten the man, the very Jehovah: expressing her faith in the promised seed, who was to bruise the serpent's head: she was a real saint: a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; but she was mistaken here: yet I confess, I incline to conceive, she did not so much refer to the child born, as to her having, by being permitted to be a mother, a full proof of the continuance of the world, and of a succession of men on the earth: which was full evidence to her faith, that in the fulness of time, Messiah would be incarnate. At the same birth it is conceived, she also bore Abel. Which name signifies Vanity. We have the following account of this. Gen. iv. 1, 2. "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel." Together with these, it is generally apprehended were daughters born; which when grown up were wives to Cain and Abel: as most assuredly it must have been the case, they must have had their own sisters. The employment of these two men is expressed. The one was a keeper of sheep; the other was a tiller of the ground: thus they had different employments. Abel was a type and figure of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great Shepherd of the flock of God. He hath them all in his eye: on his heart. He encircles them all in his arms of everlasting mercy. He values them at a very high rate. He loves them with an infinite degree of affection. He hath washed them clean from all sin in his own blood. He heals all their wounds with his own stripes. He warms them with his own love. He clothes them in his own robe of righteousness. He is their Feeder: and he nourishes them with his own body and blood: with his own word and the doctrine of free and sovereign grace.

Abel was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; one of the first: he was instructed into the nature of instituted worship: he was led into an acquaintance with what was represented and expressed in the symbol and figure of the Cherubim he was well acquainted with it as representatitive of the Great Ones-That it most clearly expressed both the material, and immaterial Trinity; both in nature and grace-Fire, Light, and Air, the three great agents in nature and Father, Son, and Spirit, the Three in the One Incomprehensible Jehovah, who had willed the salvation of an

innumerable company of sinners, of Adam's posterity in the covenant of grace. The flaming sword, or fire, revolving in upon itself, was a solemn evidence, that the wrath and curse due to the sins of the elect would be executed upon the man of God's right hand, on the son of man whom he had made strong for himself. This was afterwards more fully testified of in these words, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd." Zech. xiii. 7. That Abel was a believer, we have the apostle Paul's testimony unto. He refers to what is recorded of him, in the 4th chapter of Genesis, where we read as follows. "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." v. 3, 4, 5. This is the comment given on it. " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh :" or " is yet spoken of." Heb. xi. 4. As the record of the covenant of the Eternal Three, was in the Sacred Figure of the Great Ones expressed; so how it was to be executed, was set forth in the sacrifices, ordained by the Lord immediately upon the fall. The nature, use, end, and design, Abel well knew: this he must have received from his father Adam. He came with a lamb, a type of Christ, the Lamb of God: he offered it before the Lord, in the full belief of the future oblation of the Lamb of God: he did this before the faces of the Cherubic Figure, which was the seat of divine worship. Jehovah had "placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Gen. iii. 24. Or rather, the flaming sword, turned every way to point to Christ the tree of life. Abel presented his offering. The Lord gave an outward evidence of his acceptance of it. It is probable this was by sending fire to consume it: this being the way in which the divine majesty was pleased in after times to express his acceptance of sacrificial services; as at the consecration of Aaron and his sons; Lev. ix. 24: and at the dedication of the temple; 2 Chron. vii. 1. The token God had given of his having accepted Abel's sacrifice being visible, and his rejection of Cain's oblation being equally as evident, Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. He was under the covenant of works: he became sullen because the Lord had preferred his brother unto him. The Lord interrogated him upon the subject; yet the doctrine of divine sovereignty he could not, it may be added he would not admit of, No; not he he talks with his brother, when he had a suited opportunity. "And Cain talked with Abel his brother." v. 8. The learned tell us there is here a remarkable pause in the Hebrew text, which the Jews are disposed to supply: suggesting how Cain says to this effect; there is no judgment to come, &c. &c.: which Abel insists on there is, &c. &c. : which drew out the malice and envy of his brother, and so filled him with rage, that he murdered his brother, and was the first murderer in our world of the human race: this is supposed to have been in the year of the world from the creation 128. This will lead me further to observe what is said of this murderer in my text: Cain was of that wicked one. This the apostle declares, without the least hesitation. The title he gives

the devil here, is, that wicked one. He had before called him the wicked one. chap. ii. 13. "I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one." He calls him by the same term in the next verse. "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." The next title he gives him is devil; which is the same with Apollyon; and signifies a destroyer. "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning." He is all wickedness. He is emphatically the wicked one. He is the devil, who sinneth continually; unceasingly; without the least abatement, or intermission. Cain was of this wicked one. Nothing worse could be said of him. He was of that wicked one. In whom all sin and wickedness hath its fullest existence: who was the first sinner; who is the chiefest of all sinners; who acts with energy in all the children of disobedience; who hates Christ and all his beloved with an invincible hatred; who stirred up Cain to kill Abel; who is the fomenter of strife as much as in him lieth, amongst real saints. How awful to say of any one, what is here said of Cain, he was, or he is of that wicked one! As it comes from the apostle, it is designed for our instruction. It not only declares the state and wickedness of Cain, but it expresses what all the children of the devil are. Whilst they are not all alike and equal in every act of sin, yet they all hate Christ, and they all hate the real disciples of Christ. It is to give us to know this, the instance of Cain's killing his brother Abel, is here mentioned. To set clear what the apostle had further to say on the subject of the hatred and contempt cast on the children of God, this was expressed. It seems as if the apostle had in immediate view and remembrance, what he records of Christ, in the 8th chapter of his gospel; when he said to the Jews: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. he speaketh a lie, he speaketh it of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." v. 44. Cain was of the wicked one, and slew his brother. All the children of the devil, who are Cain's brethren, are of the same spirit with him. They would do the same; they do the same, so far as it is in their power. He was of that wicked one; this is the proof of it: He slew his brother. The ties of nature, the relation he stood in to him according to to the flesh, did not prevent him from this most desperate act. He must have known the law of God; yet he was not restrained thereby. No one of the human race had ever perpetrated such a crime before; yet he leaps above all bounds, and deprives Abel of his life. His blood cries for vengeance on him; yet his heart is most desperately hardened he only cries out in the language of despair. "My punishment is greater than I can bear." or "mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven." Gen. iv. 14. It was in the cause of religion, Abel was the first martyr for Christ. It was almost as soon as there could be any public profession made of Christ, except by Adam and his wife: it was shed in the cause of Christ, and Truth. Our Lord calls it on this account, righteous blood. And says to the Jews, "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." Matt. xxiii. 35, 36.

When