and this the apostle intimates in the particles, (ELG TO, i. e. wolɛ) so that; by faith alone we understand that the worlds were made, so as "that the things which are seen were not made of things that appear." §5. Hence we may observe,

1. Those who firmly assent to divine revelation, understand the creation of the world as to its truth, season, cause, manner, and end; it was never determined among the ancient sages of the world, the pretended priests of the mysteries of reason; some said one thing, and some another; some said it had a beginning, some said it had none, and some assigned it such a beginning, as it had better never had any; nothing but an assent to divine revelation can give us a clear understanding of it. And,

2. Then doth faith put forth its power in our minds in a due manner, when it gives us clear and distinct apprehensions of the things believed; faith that gives not understanding is but fancy.

3. As God's first work was perfect, so all his works shall be; he undertakes nothing, but what he will finand order; and not only the original production of all things out of nothing, but also the framing of them into their present order, is a demonstration of this eternal power of God.

ish and complete in beauty

4. The aids of reason, with the due consideration of the nature, use, and end of all things, ought to be admitted for confirming our minds in the persuasion of the original creation of all things; yet they are not to be rested in, but we must betake ourselves to faith fixed on divine revelation; for if they are alone, they will be shaken with a contrary maxim, (ex nihilo nihil fit) of nothing nothing comes; and they can give us no light into the way and manner of the creation of all things, which faith discovers.

VERSE 4.

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.

$1, Connexion.

$2, 3. (1.) Exposition. 4. Abel's sacrifice better than Cain's. $5. The testimony given it. §6. How he yet speaketh. $7, 8. (II.) Observations.

$1. FROM the nature of faith in general, and its efficacy with respect to things believed, the apostle proceeds to give instances of its power and efficacy in particular persons, whose example in believing he proposeth to the Hebrews for their encouragement; and he begins with Abel; the first whose faith is expressly recorded, and the first that suffered in the cause of Christ, by shedding his blood, which the Hebrews had not yet experienced; wherefore on all accounts this was the meetest instance to begin with.

$2. (I.) "By faith Abel," who without example, without any outward encouragement, without any witness of his sufferings to transmit them to others, but God alone, was the first in the world that suffered death in the cause of Christ and his worship, and that even from his own brother, who joined with him in the outward acts of divine worship; which is an example of the two churches, the suffering, and the persecuting to the end of the world; and this hath made him famous in all generations; which, as Chrysostom thinks, is intended in the close of the words, (εlı xarɛılar) he is yet spoken of, that is, with fame and renown. Note, Every circumstance in suffering shall add to the glory of the sufferer; and those who suffer here for Christ without witness, as many have done to death in prisons and dungeons, have yet an all-seeing Witness to give them testimony in due season.

"The

righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance;" and nothing that is done or suffered for God shall be lost for ever.

§3. "By faith Abel offered unto God." The original account is more particular; (Gen. iv, 3—5; DIDIM rpp) after the expiration of some time, or days; after he and Cain were settled in their distinct callings, (ver. 3;) they had been until then under the instruction of their parents; but now being fixed in their own peculiar stations and callings, they made their distinct solemn profession of the worship of God; which is the sense of the place, though not observed by expositors. The matter of his offering was the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; it was of living creatures, and therefore was made by mactation, or the shedding of blood; whence the apostle calls it (via) a sacrifice by mactation;-it was of the best; it was an holocaust, wherein after the blood was shed on the altar, and offered unto God, the fat was burned on the altar, and the whole body at a distance from it; therefore it appears, that Abel's was, as to the matter of it, both in itself, and in God's esteem, of the most precious and valuable things in the whole creation, subject to man and his use; and even hence it may be called (TOVA θυσια παρα Κάϊν) a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain, which was only of the fruit of the ground that might be gathered (raptim) without choice of what was most meet to be offered.

And he offered this sacrifice unto God, (TEW, 199744 ver. 3;) this was, from the first institution of it, the highest and most peculiar way of paying homage to the Divine Being; for to whomsoever sacrifice is offered, he is owned as God; and therefore when the Gentiles sacrificed to the devils, as they did, 1 Cor. x, 20,

they owned him thereby as the "God of the world," 2 Cor. iv, 4.

He offered it (olei) by faith. Now faith herein respects; the institution of the worship; and the heart or mind of the worshippers. He did it by faith, because he had respect in what he did to God's institution, which consists of a command and a promise; had he himself invented the service he could not have performed it in faith, which in its very nature respects a divine command and a promise; again, he did it in faith, and that he did it in the exercise of saving faith in God; for he did it not hypocritically, nor in a mere attendance to the outward duty; but it was kindled in his own heart by the Holy Spirit, before it was fired on the altar from heaven.

$4. "A better sacrifice than Cain;" a choicer, a more excellent sacrifice (Tapa Káïv) than Cain; we observed before, that as to the matter of it, it was better, more valuable and precious than that of Cain; but this is not a sufficient cause of ascribing such an excellency and preference to it, as that, on account of it, Abel should obtain such acceptance with God, and receive a testimony from him; besides, the design of the apostle is to declare the efficacy and prevalency of faith, and not of any special kind of sacrifices; wherefore, (di ns) for which, or whereby, in the next words, is to be referred to (i) faith, and not to (Ovolav) sacrifice; this difference therefore was from his faith; and two things depended thereon; that his person was justified in the sight of God antecedently to his sacrifice; and, that on account thereof his sacrifice was acceptable, as is commonly observed from the order of the words; "the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering;" but yet it is not so evident where the great difference lay; for Cain also, no doubt, brought his offering in faith;

for he believed the being of God, his omnipotent pow er in the creation of the world, as also his government of it with rewards and punishments; for all this he professed in the sacred offering that he brought unto the Lord; wherefore it is certain that the faith of Abel and Cain differed in their objects, and—in their special nature and acts.

1. Cain considered God only as a creator and preserver, whereon he offered the fruits of the earth, as an acknowledgment that all these things were made, preserved, and bestowed on man by him; but he had no regard to sin, or the way of deliverance from it revealed in the first promise; but the faith of Abel was fixed on God, not only as a creator, but as a redeemer also; as he who, in infinite wisdom and grace, had appointed the way of redemption by sacrifice and atonement intimated in the first promise; wherefore, his faith was accompanied with a sense of sin and guilt, with his lost condition by the fall, and a trust in the way of redemption and recovery which God had provided; which he testified in the kind of his sacrifice, which was by death and blood; in the one, owning the death which he himself by reason of sin was obnoxious to; and in the other, the way of atonement, which was to be blood-the blood of the promised seed.

2. They differed in their special nature and acts; for the faith of Abel was saving, justifying, a principle of holy obedience, an effect of the Holy Spirit in his mind and heart; but that of Cain was a naked barren assent to the truths before mentioned, which is usually described under the name of a common and temporary faith; which is evident from the event, in that God never accepted his person, nor his offering.

And these are the things that still make the hidden difference between the professors of the same faith and