If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Ver. 7. Sin lies at the door.] Like a great bandog, ready to pull out the throat of thy soul, if thou but look over the hatch. Say this dog lie asleep for a while, yet the door is for continual pass and repass, and so no fit place for any long sleep. Your sin will surely find you out, saith Moses, as a bloodhound, and haunt you like a hell hag, as the heathen could say, Nemo crimen gerit in pectore, qui non idem Nemesin a in tergo. A late divine b by sin here understandeth a sin offering, and telleth us, that as God had read the first lecture of faith to Adam, Gen 3:15 so here he reads the first lecture of repentance to Cain, under the doctrine of a sin offering; telling him, that if he did well, he should certainly be accepted; and though he did not well, yet a sin offering lies at the door; if he repented, there was hope of pardon. c
a Nemesis dicitur Aδπαστεια , quod nemo eam effugere possit .
b D. Lightfoot.
c Resipiscenti remissio, pertinaci supplicium imminet, idque proximum et praesentissimum. - Jun .