t on this account he was rebuked. It should
be noticed that the terms of the rebuke have no reference to the choice
of offering, but to "doing well," implying that Cain's conduct was not
"righteous" like that of Abel. To quiet his troubled spirit, he is
told that it is God's pleasure that he should stand towards his brother
in the relation of protector and ruler. Cain repudiated this relation
{23} and slew his brother, acting thus as the unrighteous world, of
whom he may be regarded as the representative, have always acted
towards God's elect, whom Abel typified. These remarks will afterwards
be seen to bear on the general argument.

The distinction which God made between the offerings of Cain and Abel,
and His express approval of Abel's offering, might serve to make known,
at the time and in succeeding generations, the purport of the promise
made originally to Adam, and the ordained conditions of its fulfilment.
In fact, the special acceptance by God of Abel's offering may be looked
upon as the primary institution of _sacrifice_. The researches of men
of learning have abundantly shown that the sacrificing of animals was a
very ancient and wide-spread religious practice, but have left
altogether unexplained how it _originated_, and whence arose the custom
of ratifying a covenant between man and man by _killing_ animals; for
what reason also the slaying of _innocuous_ and _helpless_ victims came
to be the principal act of religious worship among the Jews, and why it
was thought among the Gentiles that such sacrifices _pleased_ the gods.
These questions do not appear to admit of answers apart from
information derived from Scripture. The answers will, I think, be
found to be given by what, in reliance on such aid, has been already
said, and by what remains to be said, {24} respecting the covenant of
immortality. It is quite possible that, as has happened with respect
to other practices, that of sacrificing animals was continued long
after its original signification ceased to be understood. This may be
affirmed of the ratifying of covenants by killing victims (which no
sane person nowadays would think of doing), and generally of the
sacrifices offered by Gentile nations in honour of their gods, which
eventually became mere matters of _custom_, without any distinct
appreciation of their intrinsic meaning. In such cases all clue from
tradition or history fails, and the explanation of the sources of the
practices can