Matthew 23:34-36

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: (35) 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. (36) Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

These verses very properly follow here, in confirmation of the former. For as Cain, the first murderer, began to shew this bitterness of spirit against Abel; so every persecution and bloodshed, the cause of Christ had suffered, from his days to the end of the holy war, will be requited of the serpent generation. Hence John expressly saith, in so many words, the reason wherefore Cain killed his brother Abel, was, because he belonged, to that serpent family. Not as Cain, (saith he) who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. 1 John 3:12. To the same purport Jesus said, to some which were in his day: Ye are of your Father the Devil, and the lusts of your Father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. John 8:44.