Abel's Faith

_VERSE 4._By Faith, Abel offered unto God a greater sacrifice than Cain: by which he obtained witness that he was righteous; God testifying of his gifts: By which faith he also being dead yet speaks.

The second part of the Chapter, contains an illustration and proof of the former description, by a rehearsal of the most excellent patterns and examples of faith, which flourished in the Church of the old Testament.

These examples be of two sorts: 1. Such as are set down severally one by one, from the fourth verse to the 32nd. 2. Such as are set down jointly many together, from thence to the end.

The examples set down severally are of two sorts: 1. Such as were natural Israelites, and born members of the Church visible. 2. Such as were not naturally members, but strangers from the Church of God, till they were called extraordinarily.

Examples of such as were members of the visible church, are also of two sorts: 1. Such as lived about the flood: or 2. After the flood.

First, of such as lived before, or about the time of the flood, there be three faithful men, whose faith is here recorded: 1. Abel before; and 2. Enoch before. 3. Noah, both before and after.

All these three in order.

These excellent and most worthy examples, are all grounded on some place of the old testament, and are continued from the beginning of the world almost to Christ's incarnation: for he begins with Abel, which is so near the beginning, that he was the second good man that lived in the world: yea, and the first of all that had this true faith, as the only means of his salvation. For, as for Adam, he before his fall had not this faith, neither should it have saved him: but when the first means failed him, then came this faith as the second and more effectual means of his salvation: But Abel was never in possibility to be saved by any thing, but by this faith. And therefore Abel's faith has the first place of commendation: and that in this verse.

Abel's faith is here commended for three things: 1. In that he offered by it a greater sacrifice than Cain. 2. By it he obtained testimony with God. 3. By it dead Abel yet speaks. The first effect of Abel's faith, is thus set down by the Holy Ghost.

By faith, Abel offered unto God a greater sacrifice than Cain.

The ordinary Exposition of those words, is this: that Cain and Abel coming to offer, there was no difference in the matter of their sacrifice, but only in the manner of offering: in that Abel offered by faith, and so did not Cain.

This Exposition though it be good, yet it fits not the scope of this place, nor the fourth of Genesis. The right sense therefore seems to be this; Abel having faith, this faith moved him to testify his thankful heart to God. This he did by offering unto God the best and costliest sacrifice that he could: namely, the first fruits and fattest of his sheep; Whereas unbelieving Cain, having no love to testify unto God, brought only of the fruit of his ground: not of the best as Abel did: but whatsoever came first to hand. This being the true meaning of the whole, let us come to the particular points laid down in this effect, and they are three.

- 1. That Cain and Abel offered, that is, served God. - 2. That they offered Sacrifices. - 3. That Abel offered a better than Cain.

The first point contains their service in general: the second, their service in particular: the third, the difference of their service, wherein especially will appear the excellency of Abel's faith.

First, Abel and Cain, the two first brethren in the world, offered sacrifice to the true God. How learned they this? For they had no Scripture, it was penned many years after: namely, by Moses first of all. I answer; When their Parents Adam and Eve had fallen, God gave them (of his infinite goodness) a covenant of grace, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head: Genesis 3:15. We doubt not but our first Parents received this covenant, and believed the promise: and this their faith, taught them how to worship the true God aright.

You will say: thus Adam and Eve learned of God; but how came this to Cain and Abel? I answer: When they had been thus instructed of God, Adam as a faithful servant of God, taught the same religion, and delivered the same doctrine to his children: and by it they were taught, what, to whom, and in what manner to offer sacrifice. And thus they did it neither by Scripture, nor revelation, nor their own invention, but by the instruction of their Parents.

Hence let all Parents learn a lesson of Adam, the first parent that was in the world: namely, to procure the good of their children: he nurtured his children excellently: 1. He provided for them till they came to age. 2. Then he left them not, but appointed them their callings: For one was a husbandman, and the other a Shepherd. 3. Not thus only, but he taught them to worship the true God, both in their callings, and in the practice of religion: and therefore he taught them to offer sacrifice in way of thankfulness unto God: all this did Adam.

So must you do with the children which God has given you. 1. Provide for them carefully till they be of age, take heed they miscarry not any way for want of things needful. 2. So bring them up, as that they may be apt to live in some godly calling whereby to serve God, and to do good in his Church: and that calling you must appoint him, according to the fitness of his gifts. Adam appointed them not both one calling but diverse callings, according to the diversity of their gifts: and you must see it be a lawful and honest calling; for so are both these. Then 3. (the greatest matter of all these) teach them religion, and the true manner of fearing and worshipping God; that as by the two first, your child may live well in this world, so by this he may be made an heir of the kingdom of heaven.

Adam was the first father, and father of us all; let all then follow him in this practice: and if we follow him in one, follow him in both. Diverse will be as careful for their bodies and for their callings as Adam was: but how few are as careful to teach them religion for the preferment of their souls to life eternal? But parents must have care of both these: else they shall answer for their child at the day of judgement: and though he perish in his own sin, yet his blood will God require at the Father's hands. For God made him a father in his room, and he discharged not the duty of a father unto their child.

Secondly, in that Cain offered as well as Abel; Hence we learn diverse instructions.

1. It is a common opinion, that if a man walk duly and truly in his calling, doing no man harm, but giving every man his own, and so do all his life long, God will receive him, and save his soul: but the truth is this; If men do thus it is good and commendable, and they must be exhorted to continue: but if they stand upon this for salvation, they cast away their souls: For mark here, Cain was a man that walked in an honest calling: and more than that, he took pains, and labored in it (which all men do not which have honest callings): And more than all these, when Abel offered, he came and worshipped God also; and he did outwardly in such sort, as no man could blame him, but only God that saw his heart: And for all this, yet is he a wicked Cain, and that is all that the word of God gives him, 1 John 3:12. Then it is manifest, that to walk in a man's calling justly and uprightly, doing no man harm, will not serve the turn. Cain did it, and yet was cursed: we must then go further than Cain, else we shall go with Cain to the place where he is.

Reason not with yourself, I work hard and follow my calling, I hurt no man: thus could Cain reason, and yet but cursed Cain. You must then beside these, get that that Cain did not; Learn in your conscience to see and feel your sin, to be grieved for it, so as you may say: My sickness, my poverty, my crosses grieve me: but nothing so much as my own sins, these trouble me above all, and this grief swallows up all the rest. And there is another thing which I seek above all: not gold, silver, or promotion; but reconciliation with my God, and his favor in Jesus Christ: If you have these two, then you go beyond Cain, then shall you stand before God with Abel, and be accepted. Remember these two; humiliation for sin, and desire of reconciliation: these two is the sum of religion. If you have these, you are blessed with Abel; if not, cursed with Cain, howsoever you live in the world. If you say Cain killed his brother, and so would not I do for all the world, I will do no man hurt in body or goods; This will not serve: for it is said that God had no respect to Cain before he killed his brother, even when he offered his sacrifice: and therefore this duty is most necessary, and there is no shifting it off.

2. Cain offered as well as Abel: yea, Cain offered before Abel, as it is manifest in Genesis, 4:3. And yet Abel's sacrifice was better when it came to the proof, and was accepted, and not Cain's which came first. Hence we learn, that a man may be more forward than many other in many outward duties of religion, and yet not be accepted of God: Another may be not so forward to the duty, and yet when he comes, be better accepted. Whence comes this? What? Is forwardness in good duties a fault? Nothing less: but hence it is, he that outwardly is most forward, may come in hypocrisy and without faith; the want whereof makes his forwardness nothing worth. Many such have we in our Church: great frequenters of places and exercises of religion; and yet they come but as Cain did, or it may be in worse intents. Your forwardness is to be commended, but take this with you also; Care not so much to be first at the Sermon, or to be there oftener than other, as to go with true faith, repentance and a heart hungering for grace: if not, boast not in your forwardness: Cain offered before Abel, and yet not accepted: and so there may come an Abel after you, and bring faith with him, and be accepted when you with your hypocritical forwardness shall be rejected as Cain was.

Thirdly, did Cain offer as well as Abel? Hence we learn that the Church militant is a mixed and compounded company of men: not of one sort; but true believers and hypocrites mingled together: as here in the very infancy of the Church, here was a Cain worshipping in show, as well as Abel that worshipped in truth. So was it in the infancy, so in her perpetual growth, and so shall it be in the last age of the church: the good shall never be quite separated from the bad, until Christ himself do it at the last judgement. Goats shall always be mingled amongst the sheep, till Christ the great shepherd do separate them himself, Matthew 25:34. And he that imagines a perfect separation till then, imagines a fancy in his brain, and such a Church, as cannot be found upon the earth.

This being so, let no man therefore be afraid to join himself to the visible Church: neither let any that are in it go out of it, because the bad are mingled with the good; for so it has been always, and ever will be: he then that will go out of a Church, because there be hypocrites in it, must go out of the world, for such a Church is not found, but triumphant in heaven.

Fourthly, that Cain and Abel offered, hence we learn, that the Church of God, which truly professes his name, has been ever since the beginning of the world. For this Church was in the household of Adam, when there was no more but it in the world: for sacrifice to God is a sign of the Church: yea, and beside the sacrifice, they had a place appointed where Adam and his family came together to worship God. For, so much Cain intimates, Genesis 4:14 and 16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, that is, not only out of his favor and protection, but from the place of his solemn service, and where he wonted to manifest his special presence to his children serving him: and therefore Cain, as being excommunicated, complains (verse 14) because he must leave it. Thus the Church has been from the beginning, and therefore is truly called Catholic.

The Papists abuse this place notoriously: for whereas the Church has been so ancient, they argue therefore it is above the Scripture: yea, and that we could not know it to be Scripture, but by the ancient testimony of the Church.

We must know the Scripture is two ways to be considered. 1. As it was written and penned by holy men, and so it is later than the Church: for Moses was the first penman of Scripture: but secondly, as it is the word of God, the substance, sense, and truth thereof is much more ancient than the Church: yea, without the word of God, there can be no Church. For, without faith is no Church (because the Church is a company of believers) and without the word it is no faith: therefore no word, no faith: no faith, no Church. So then the Scripture was before the Church, but penned after.

Thus we see that Cain and Abel offered.

Now secondly, what offered they? Sacrifices. Sacrifices were used in the worship of God for two ends. 1. When a sacrifice was offered, especially of beasts, when a man saw the blood of the beasts poured out it put him in mind of his own sins, and the desert of them, and taught him to say thus: Even as this creature is here slain, and his blood distills and drops away, so my sins deserve that my blood should be shed, and my soul be drenched in hell for ever. This creature can die but one death, for it sins not; but my sins deserve both the first and second death.

Secondly, sacrifices served to put them in mind of the Messiah to come: and the slaying of the beasts showed them how the Messiah should shed his blood, and give his life for the sins of the people. These are the two principal ends of sacrifices, and for these two ends did Cain and Abel offer; Cain in hypocrisy and for fashion sake: Abel in truth, conscience, and sincerity.

As it was in the old sacrifices, so is it in our Sacraments of the New Testament: whereof, the sacrifices were all types: 1. In baptism, sprinkling of the water, serves to show us how filthily we are defiled with our own sins.

2. It signifies the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon the heart of a sinner, for his sanctification from sin.

2. In the supper, the breaking of the bread signifies, 1. how we should be broken in humiliation for our sin: and the pouring out of the wine, how our blood and life should be shed, and poured out for our sins, if we had that that we deserve. And secondly, they represent unto us how the body of Christ was broken, and his blood poured out for our sins, which he was content to suffer under the wrath of his Father, for our sakes: so that we see, both the sacrifices and sacraments of the old, as also of the New Testament, all aimed at these two ends; to show us our sins, and our misery by sin: and to foretell or represent our reconciliation by Christ. Which being so, our lesson is this.

We have all received those two Sacraments: the first once, the second often. Now if they have been duly received of us, they ought to have this double use unto us: 1. To cause us to make a search of our own sins, and of our misery by sin: and seeing it, to be cast down and humbled, considering how corrupt our hearts are, and how wicked our lives. And secondly, when this is so, then to make us seek for reconciliation with God by faith in Christ, to make us desire it, love it, and pray for it above all things in the world. Abel not only offered, but offered so, as that it put him in mind of his sin, and of his redemption, by the death of the Messiah to come. So, we must not only outwardly receive the Sacraments; but so receive, as that we may see and be humbled for our sin: and seek to be reconciled to God in Christ.

Such use also ought we to make of hearing the word, and not to be content with bare hearing of it, or to get a general knowledge out of it: but it must give us a special sight of our own estate by sin: and urge us forward to seek the favor of God in Christ. Religion stands not in hearing the word, and receiving the Sacraments with the congregation: though it be done never so often, and never so formally: But so to hear and so to receive, as that they may work in us those two things: and that is the pith and life of religion. And whosoever he be that professes religion, and shows not the fruit of it in these two, that man's profession is in vain, and it will go for no payment at the day of judgment.

Thus we see they offered, and what they offered.

It follows; A greater sacrifice than Cain.

The third and last point, is the difference of these sacrifices. For although Cain offered as well as Abel: and offered sacrifice as well as Abel: yet was there a difference in their sacrifices: for Abel's was better than Cain's. This is the chief point: for this sets down what was that excellency of his faith, for which he is here commended. Abel is not commended for offering, by his faith: for so did Cain that had no faith: nor for offering sacrifice, by his faith: for so did Cain that had no faith: but because that by his faith he offered a better sacrifice than Cain could.

The Holy Ghost calls Abel's a better or greater sacrifice: because Abel brought the best and fattest of his sheep, and so bestowed the most cost he could; as signifying that he would have bestowed more cost, had he known how to have done it. For, he that gives as he has, would give more if he had it. And he that does the best he can in any thing, it is certain he would do better if he could. Cain contrariwise brought not the best of his fruits, but either the worst, or whatsoever came first to hand; as thinking that whatsoever he brought, was good enough: therefore worthily is Abel said to have offered a better sacrifice than Cain.

And further, this holy practice of Abel, came to be a law written, even one of the commandments of the Ceremonial law; namely, that the first born should be offered to God, Exodus 34:19. And the first fruits of the corn, Leviticus 23:10 etc. And that nothing that was lame, blind, maimed, or had any blemish in it, should be offered to the Lord. Deuteronomy 15:21. Abel here did even that which these laws commanded: and these laws commanded the same that he did. Thus God vouchsafed to honor his servant Abel, for his obedient and honest heart; even to make his practice the ground and beginning of one of his own laws: that so the Israelites in all their generations, might in their daily practices, remember this worthy deed of holy Abel to his perpetual honor.

Now for us the truth is, this law binds us not: for it was a ceremony, and is ended in Christ. Yet the equity and use of it reaches even to us: namely it teaches us when we will give any thing unto God, to give the best we have. This is the equity of all those laws ceremonial, which commanded them to give to the Lord their first born, and their first fruits, and the fattest of their cattle: and so much of them do still bind us. Now, from this rule, are taught divers duties:

1. To the Parent. Have you many children, and will give some to the Lord? Namely, to serve him in the ministry? The practice of the world, is to make the eldest a Gentleman, the next a Lawyer, the next a Merchant: he that is youngest, or least regarded, or that has some infirmity in wit, or deformity in body, set him to school, let him be a Minister. But Abel's sacrifice controls this profane course of the world. Learn therefore by him, whomsoever of all your children you find fittest in gifts and graces of body and mind; whom you love best, and most esteem, he is fittest for the Lord, and the Lord is most worthy of him: consecrate him to the Lord, for his service in the ministry.

2. To the young man. He being in the strength and ripeness of wit, senses, memory, capacity, and in the best of his age: he says, I will take my pleasure now I am fittest for it: I will repent at the end of my days, and that is a fitter time. This is a vile policy of the devil, to dishonor God, and to cast away their souls. What a grief is it to give the devil his young years, the strength of his body and wit, and to bring his withered old age unto God? Nay, be sure, God will not accept your rotten sacrifice of old age, but rather give you up to the devil, that he may have you altogether which has had the best: then follow rather Solomon's counsel, Ecclesiastes 12:1. Who bids you remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Remember Abel's sacrifice, it was of the best. So, you have no sacrifice but yourself to offer: offer then the best: your young years is the best time, give them unto God.

3. To all Christians. Abel offered the best: it teaches us all, if we will profess and serve God, not to do it by the halves; or for show and fashion sake, or negligently as not caring how. Thus to do, is but to offer the sacrifice of Cain, and that makes the most professors go away with their service unaccepted as Cain's was: for God will have all or none, he is worthy to have no partner: he must be served with all the heart, with soul and body, so that a man must consecrate himself wholly unto him. 2 Kings 23:25, It is the special commendation of good King Josiah, That he turned unto the Lord with all his heart, and soul, and might: and for that, he is preferred before all Kings before or after him: not that Josiah could fulfill the law perfectly, as it required; but it is meant of the endeavor of his heart and life, by which he strove with all his might to serve God as well as he could: his example is ours.

We profess religion, we must look that our hearts affect it: we profess a turning from sin, we must take heed it be not formal, and from the lips, but from the heart. So, when we practice any duty of religion, whether we pray or hear the word, or receive the Sacrament (this is the sacrifice that we can offer) we must not do them coldly and carelessly; but with zealous affection and resolution from the heart. Otherwise, if we serve God for fashion sake, and our hearts are on the world, and our own lusts: we offer the sacrifice of cursed Cain, and we with our formal religion shall go to him. But let us offer the sacrifice of Abel: that is, though it be never so little; yet let it be the best we can, and all we can, and God will accept us as he did Abel. And thus the Parent should give God his best child: the young man his best years: every man his best part, which is his heart. And thus we follow the steps of holy Abel, who offered to God the best sacrifice he had. This was the fruit of his faith: even so that Parent, that young man, that professor that has true faith, will do so likewise.

Hitherto of the first effect of Abel's faith: It follows;

By the which he obtained witness that he was righteous.

This is the second effect of Abels faith, whereby it is commended. First, for the meaning. By faith he means saving faith, which makes a man just before God, and no other. For, whereas he had said before, that by faith our Elders had obtained a good report: He proves that general, by this example of Abell; therefore that saving faith which was meant there, is also meant here.

These words set down two benefits which Abell had by his saving faith: First, he was just by it. Secondly, God testified that he was so.

For the first: Abels faith made him just and righteous, not because his faith was an excellent quality of that virtue in itself, as to make him just; but because it was an instrument whereby he apprehended and applied to himself the righteousness of the Messiah to come, whereby he might stand just before God. This was his righteousness, which he had by faith: for he trusted not to any holiness of his own, though (it is out of question) he knew he was the son of that man who once was perfectly righteous: but the trust and confidence of his heart was in the righteousness of that blessed seed, which, God had promised, should break the serpents head. This Promise he knowing, believed it, applied it to himself, and this faith made him righteous.

Here we learn a worthy lesson of Christianity; namely, that the true and the undoubted way to heaven, is a holy and lively faith in Jesus Christ: for, this faith makes a man righteous, and that righteousness opens him the gate of heaven. To this end (says the Apostle) Being justified by faith, we have peace with God: but by whom? through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the use of this doctrine, we must renew our former exhortation, which indeed cannot be too often pressed to the conscience. There is none of us so vile, none so profane, but we desire salvation. If we do, then we must tread the beaten way to it. For, we are not born heirs of it; neither can we come thither by chance: but there is a way that must be taken, and that way is but one: all other are misleading by-ways. Again, that way must be taken in this life; else, it is too late. Now, this way is to be a just and righteous man. With this, never man failed: and without this, never man attained to salvation; for, No unclean thing can come into the kingdom of heaven. Never was man justified there, which was not just before: and that must be here begun, which in heaven is to be perfected. In this life therefore, we must seek to be just. Now, our own good works will not serve to make us just: for, they are all unable to endure the trial of Gods justice. And if we stand to them, and they prove not able to satisfy Gods justice; then, instead of saving us, they will condemn us. Therefore, with Abell, let us go out of ourselves, deny ourselves, and cleave only to Christ's righteousness, in life and death: this is the way that never will deceive us.

But some will say, We walk in this way. I answer; He, that walks in a way, may be traced by his steps: so then, show your steps of holiness, of devotion, of charity, etcetera these must show your faith: leave these steps behind you, and then your faith is good. Thus did holy Abell: believe you it, acknowledge it, and follow you after him: and renounce all by paths which the Papists, or your own brain imagines. Let this one doctrine sink into your heart instead of many, and let not the devil strike it out. For, if you walk in this way, my soul for yours it will bring you to heaven: if not, at the last day this doctrine will condemn you, because it showed you this way, and you would not walk in it.

Secondly, observe: He says, Abell was approved and accepted of God. How proves he that? Because his works pleased God: as who say, his works cannot please God, unless his person do: therefore in that his works do, thence he concludes that his person did: it is the reason of the holy Ghost, and therefore infallible.

In the framing of this reason, the holy Ghost teaches us a great point of our religion: namely, that first a man's person must please God before his actions can: And after the person, then the actions. This is plain in these words: for it is said, he first obtained witness that he was righteous himself, and then God testified of his gifts: So likewise more plainly, Genesis 4.4, God had respect first to Abell, and then to his offering: So that the truth is manifest, No work pleases God before the worker do. This, being so, hath excellent uses.

First, it overthrows a main pillar of Romish religion: Justification by works: For how can a man be justified by his works, when he himself must be just before the works can be? Unless he be just, his works be wicked: if they be wicked before his person be just, how can they then justify him. And if the person be once just, what needs it then to be again justified by works? Good works make not a man good: but a good man makes a work good? and shall that work that a man made good, return again and make the man good? First, That is absurd in reason: And secondly, It is needless. For, the man is good already: else the work could not have been good. We may therefore say, works are rather justified by the person of a man, than his person by the works: and it is a most vain thing to look for Justification from that which you yourself must first justify before it be just: if we had no other reasons against justification by works but this, this were sufficient.

Secondly, hence we learn, that till a man be called, and his person justified and sanctified, all that ever he does is sin. First, His common actions, his eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, talking, are all sins. Yea secondly, The works of his calling, and his labor in the same, though never so just, equal, and upright. Thirdly, Further, his civil actions, namely the practice of civil virtues: his outward gravity, meekness, sobriety, temperance, quietness, uprightness, and all outward conformity, are all sins. Yea more than all this, his best actions, namely his practicing of the parts of Gods worship, or his deeds of charity, his prayer, his hearing the word, his receiving the sacraments, his giving of alms; they are all sins unto him, if he have not a believing and penitent heart: yea such sins as shall condemn him, if he had no other. Objection. This should seem strange divinity, that the most holy actions, as prayer, etcetera should be damnable sins. I answer, they are in themselves holy and good, and as far forth as God hath commanded them; yet in the doer they are sins, because he does them from a foul and unholy heart: for the same action may be holy in itself and in regard of God the author of it, and yet a sin in him that is the doer of it. As clear water, pure in the fountain, is corrupted or poisoned by running through a filthy and polluted channel; so are even the best actions, sins: as even the preaching of the word to a minister, whose heart is not cleansed by faith, and his person accepted of God; it is a sin unto him, and (if he repent not) shall be his condemnation. Cain sinned not only in hating and murdering his brother, in lying and dissembling with God; but Cain sinned also even in offering sacrifice. And Abels sacrifice had been a damnable sin, but that his person was justified before God. And the reason of all this is good: for nothing in the work is able to make an action acceptable to God, but only the acceptance of the person by Christ. This being so, it stands us every one in hand to look to ourselves; and to labor above all things for faith and repentance: that so our persons may be accepted righteous before God, and thereby our actions accepted also. If it be a miserable thing, that all your actions, even holy actions should be sins, then labor to be justified; for that only can make your works accepted: if not, then though you labor never so much to be approved in the world, and set never so glorious a show upon your works to the eyes of men, they are all abominable sins in the sight of God: and at the day of judgment they shall go for no better. Preach, and teach all your life long; nay, give your life to die for religion: Give all your goods to the poor, deprive your flesh of all delights: build Churches, Colleges, Bridges, High-ways, etcetera and there may come a poor shepherd, and for his keeping of his sheep be accepted, when you with all this pomp of outward holiness, may be rejected. And why this? only because he had faith, and you have none; his person was justified before God, and yours is not. Therefore let this be my counsel, from Abell: Labor not so much to work glorious works; as that which you do, do it in faith. Faith makes the meanest work accepted; and want of faith makes the most glorious work rejected: for so says the Text. Abell must be accepted, else his sacrifice is not. Thus we see Abell was just, and God so accounted him. The second point is, That God gave testimony he was so: In these words.

God giving testimony

What testimony it was that God gave of Abell and his gift, it is not expressed in the word; and so it is not certain: but it is very likely that when he and Cain offered, God in special mercy sent fire from heaven, and burnt up Abels sacrifice, but not Cains: for so it pleased the Lord often afterward when he would show that he accepted any man, or his work, he answered them by fire from heaven. So he burnt up the first sacrifice that Aaron offered Leviticus 9.24. So he answered Solomon, Second Chronicles 7.1. And so Elias. Second Kings, 18.28. And so it is likely that he gave this testimony that he accepted Abell and his offering. This was a great prerogative that Abell and the Fathers in the old testament had. We have not this, but we have a greater; for we have that that is the substance, and truth, and body of this: For we have also the fire of God, that is, his spirit comes down into our hearts every day: not visibly, but spiritually, and burns up, in the heart of a believer his sins and corruptions, and lights the light of true faith, that shall never be put out.

The use hereof is this; As no sacrifice in the old law pleased God, but such as was burnt by fire from heaven, sent down either then or before: so our sacrifices of the new Testament (that is, our invocation of Gods name, our sacrifice of praise, our duties of religion, our works of mercy and love) never please God, unless they proceed from a heart purged by the fire of Gods spirit, that is from a believing and repentant heart: both which are kindled and lighted, and daily continued by that fire of Gods spirit. Therefore it is, that Paul says, First Timothy 1.4, That love must come out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned. The duties of religion, and works of love coming from this purged heart, ascend into the presence of God, as a smoke of most acceptable sacrifices, and are as a sweet perfume in the nostrils of the Lord.

Now, of what did God thus testify? Of his gift.

It may here be asked at the first: how can Abell give a gift to God: hath the Lord need of anything? and are not all things his? I answer. God is sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and all creatures: yet hath he so given his creatures unto man to use, as that they become mans own, and so he may esteem and use them: and being mans, a man may in token of his thankfulness return them again to God; especially seeing God accepts them, being so offered, as most free gifts.

This shows us, first, the wonderful mercy of God, that whereas we can offer him nothing but his own, he vouchsafes to accept a gift offered of his own, even as though we had of our own to offer.

Secondly, See here a difference between the sacrifices of the old, and Sacraments of the new Testament. In their sacrifices they gave something to God, and therefore they are called gifts: in our Sacraments we receive daily grace from God.

3. In that the sacrifices of the old Law are called gifts, we must know that it is typical, and hath excellent significations unto us.

1. It signifies, that the Messias should be given of God freely, for the salvation of his elect: and that Christ the Messias should willingly give himself to be a redeemer.

2. It signifies, that every man that looks for salvation by Christ, must give himself to God, and all that is in him. So Paul exhorts, Romans 6:13. Give yourselves unto God, and your members weapons of righteousness. When we give any thing to a man, we make him Lord of it. If we then give our souls and bodies to the Lord, we must give them so, as that they may obey and serve him, and be ruled by him, and serve for his glory, howsoever he shall use them. We profess religion, and make great shows; but to give ourselves in obedience to God, is the life of religion: But contrary is the course of the world. For, most professors are given up to sin and Satan: their bodies given to drinking, gaming, uncleanness, injustice: their souls to envying, hatred, malice, revenge, lust, pride, self-love: God hath nothing except it be a face: but that will not serve the turn: he will have all, body and soul: for he made all, and he hath redeemed all. We go against equity. Christ gave his body and soul for us: why should not we give ours again to him? Again, this gift is not as other gifts; for here all the profit redounds to the giver: the glory indeed is his; but the gain and profit is our own. Why then should we withhold ourselves from God? It argues, we know nor feel not, what Christ hath given us: for if we did, if we had ten thousand lives, we would think them all too little for him.

And thus much of the first and second effect of Abel's faith; the third follows.

By which Abel being dead, yet speaks.

The third effect, whereby Abel's faith is commended, is laid down in these words. Concerning the meaning whereof there is some difference, which is briefly to be examined. Some think the words should be thus translated: By which also Abel being dead, is yet spoke of; making the meaning to be, that by his faith he obtained a good name to all posterities: but it seems this cannot stand, for two causes: First, because that is already affirmed of Abel and all the rest, in the second verse, that through faith they had obtained a good report: which therefore might seem needless so soon to be repeated again. Secondly, for that afterward Christ's blood and Abel's being compared together, it is not said that Christ's blood is better spoken of than Abel's: but that it speaks better things than Abel's did. Therefore the words are rightly translated.

Now for the true sense of them, it is likely the Holy Ghost here hath relation to the story whence it is taken; where, upon Cain's murder, God saith to him, The voice of thy brother's blood cries to me from the earth: and why cries it? Namely for vengeance against so monstrous a murder; and cries to all men to behold it, and to abhor the like: and so after a sort he continues to speak, to this day. So that the words, in the true and full sense of them, do import these two points; 1. That Abel spoke when he was dead. 2. That in a sort Abel still speaks.

For the first: Abel spoke and cried when he was dead: but how? Not with a vocal speech: but the phrase is figurative, and imports thus much, as if the Lord had said to Cain: you have killed your brother closely, and it may be have hid him in the sand, or buried him, and think no man knows of it: but you must know, Cain, this your fact is as evident to me, as if Abel had told me: I know you killed him: and if you wonder how I know, I tell you his blood told me; for it cried in my ears, and yet it cries out against you: for though Abel be dead, his blood yet speaks. As this is true of Abel's, so of all men's blood: and as of blood, so of all other oppressions, though done by never so great men. Murders, oppressions, and all wrongs done to God's children, they cry to God against the oppressors, though the poor oppressed men dare scarce name them: they need not, for their blood doth, yea even their very tears cannot be shed, but God takes them up,and puts them in his bottle, and will know who shed them. Thus blood cries against them that shed it, yea tears cry against them that cause them. This affords us a double instruction. First here it is apparent that God sees and knows the sins of men, though the men be never so mighty, or their sins never so secret. For though men convey them never so closely, and labor to hide them with all the means that wit of man can devise: yet the very dead creatures cry out, and do proclaim the sins and sinners in the ears of God, as fully as the voices of living men, can discover any thing unto men. Privy oppressions, and goods gotten by deep deceit, lie hid to the world: But the stone out of the wall shall cry,and the beam out of the timber shall answer it; Woe be to him that builds his house with blood, and erects a City by iniquity: as though he had said, God knows every stone and every piece of timber in their stately houses, which they have gotten by deceit or oppressing of the poor. Privy conspiracies, and plots of treason are laid against Princes and Magistrates; and often in so secret manner, as in man's reason is not possible to be discovered. But God hath many ways to find them out, and they never escape his privy search: and therefore the Holy Ghost advises; Curse not the King, no not in your thought, nor the great ones in your bedchamber: for the fowl of the heaven shall carry your voice, and that which hath wings shall declare the matter. So that whatsoever is plotted never so privily, or conspired in the secret closets of ungodly men, God knows it, and hath means enough to disclose it to the world. And in our daily experience God magnifies himself mightily in revealing murders. For, bring the murderer before the dead corpse, and usually it bleeds, or gives some other testimony, whereby it speaks even as Abel's blood did, This is the murderer. Nay more: for, Abel's blood spoke to God, but here even to men also.

And of this it is hard to give any reason at all, but the secret and immediate hand of God, thereby showing himself to know all secret sins, and to be able to disclose them by strange means.

The use of this doctrine is, to fear all men from sinning, though they think it possible to conceal their sins from the world: for this is one of the strongest and commonest encouragements that men take, to live in a sin, If they think it likely to be concealed. But here they see how false a ground that is. For if they can conceal it from men, yet can they not from God: and if God know it, then can he reveal it to the world when it pleases him.

Again, whereas Abel's blood cried when he was dead; It teaches us, that God had a care of Abel both living and dead: for it were nothing to say his blood cried, if God heard not that cry. But it is apparent he heard it, for he revenged it, and punished Cain when Abel was dead, and could not revenge it himself. And this care God hath not over Abel alone, but over all his children: and as the Psalmist saith, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints: that which is vile, and of no regard in the world, is precious with God. Tyrants make havoc of the Church, and kill them up by heaps; but God records up every one, and will not fail to revenge it, when they are dead: For if God have bottles for the tears of his servants, surely much more hath he bottles for their blood.

The use whereof is to teach us in all extremities of danger or distress; to learn patience: yea, though we be sure to die, yet (as Christ saith) To possess our souls with patience: For we have one, will hear the cause, and revenge our quarrel when we are gone: So that if we be patient we lose nothing; but if we be impatient we get nothing. Let us therefore hold our tongues: for, the wrong done to us cries loud enough to God for revenge, who will hear it as assuredly as he did Abel's. And thus we see how Abel spoke then, even after he was dead.

The second point is, He speaks also yet: and that three ways.

First, his faith yet speaks, because it admonishes all men everywhere, who either hear or read this story, to become such as Abel was, namely, true worshippers of the true God: for, in Abel's example, it provokes all men to be like him, because it assures them of the same regard and reward with God that Abel had: and so Abel's faith is a never dying Preacher to all Ages of the Church.

Here we learn, that the holy Examples of God's children are real teaching, and loud preaching to other men.

For there is a double teaching, namely, in word or deed.

It belongs to the Minister to teach in word; and to all men to teach by their deeds, and good examples. And if the Minister teach not thus also, it is the worse both for him and his hearers.

It suffices not for him to teach by vocal Sermons, that is, by good doctrine; but withal by real Sermons, that is, by good life: His faith, his zeal, his patience, his mercy and all other his virtues must speak, and cry, and call to other men to be like unto him: which if he practice carefully in his life as Abel did, then shall his virtues speak for him to all posterities when he is dead.

Again, Abel though dead, may be said to speak, because howsoever his body be dead, yet in soul and spirit he lives with God in heaven. And thus the word speaks may be understood, because it is here opposed to death: by which he being dead, yet speaks: that is, being dead in body, yet lives in soul: which life with God, was obtained unto by his true and saving faith.

Thirdly, he may be said to speak yet, as all other God's Martyrs are said to cry in the Revelation, from under the altar, How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth! As this is true of all Martyrs, so specially of Abel the first Martyr of all: which words are not spoken, neither by him nor them vocally with utterance of voice: but it is so said, to signify what fervent desire the servants of God have in heaven, of the full manifestation of God's glory in their bodies, and of an utter abolishment of sin in the whole world. Which their desire, they doubtless utter to God in a more excellent manner, than in this world we can utter any thing with our voice: and thus Abel speaks yet, and shall speak till the world's end.

Hitherto of the first Example, the Example of Abel.

Verse 4. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.

The second part of the chapter contains an illustration and proof of the earlier description of faith, through a recounting of the most excellent examples and patterns of faith that flourished in the church of the Old Testament.

These examples are of two kinds: 1. Those presented individually, one by one, from verse four through verse thirty-one. 2. Those presented collectively in groups, from there to the end.

The individually presented examples are also of two kinds: 1. Those who were natural Israelites and born members of the visible church. 2. Those who were not naturally members, but strangers to the church of God until they were called in an extraordinary way.

The examples of those who were members of the visible church are further divided into two groups: 1. Those who lived around the time of the flood. 2. Those who lived after the flood.

Among those who lived before or around the time of the flood, three faithful men have their faith recorded here: 1. Abel, before the flood. 2. Enoch, before the flood. 3. Noah, both before and after.

We will take all three in order.

These excellent and most worthy examples are all grounded in specific passages of the Old Testament, and they span from the beginning of the world almost to Christ's incarnation. The author begins with Abel, who is so near the beginning of history that he was only the second righteous man who ever lived — and in fact the first of all who had this true faith as the only means of his salvation. As for Adam, before his fall he did not have this faith, nor would it have saved him in that condition. But when the first means of his standing failed him, faith became the second and more effectual means of his salvation. Abel, however, was never in a position to be saved by anything other than this faith. For that reason, Abel's faith receives the first place of commendation, and it is treated in this verse.

Abel's faith is commended here for three things: 1. He offered by it a greater sacrifice than Cain. 2. By it he obtained testimony with God. 3. By it, dead Abel still speaks. The first effect of Abel's faith is stated this way by the Holy Spirit:

By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain.

The common interpretation of these words is that when Cain and Abel came to offer, there was no difference in the substance of their sacrifice, only in the manner of offering — Abel offered by faith, and Cain did not.

Although this interpretation has merit, it does not fit the purpose of this passage, nor the account in Genesis 4. The correct sense therefore seems to be this: Abel, having faith, was moved by that faith to express a grateful heart toward God. He did this by offering to God the best and costliest sacrifice he could — namely, the firstborn and fattest of his sheep. Unbelieving Cain, having no love to express toward God, brought only fruit from the ground — not the best, as Abel did, but whatever came first to hand. This being the true meaning of the whole, let us come to the specific points contained in this first effect, of which there are three.

- 1. That Cain and Abel offered — that is, that they both served God. - 2. That they offered sacrifices. - 3. That Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain.

The first point concerns their worship in general. The second concerns their worship in particular. The third concerns the difference in their worship, which most clearly reveals the excellence of Abel's faith.

First, Abel and Cain — the two first brothers in the world — offered sacrifice to the true God. How did they learn to do this? They had no Scripture; it would not be written for many years — not until Moses. The answer is this: when Adam and Eve had fallen, God in His infinite goodness gave them a covenant of grace: that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). We have no doubt that our first parents received this covenant and believed the promise, and this faith taught them how to worship the true God rightly.

You may ask: very well, Adam and Eve learned from God — but how did this come to Cain and Abel? When Adam had been taught by God, he faithfully passed on the same religion and delivered the same teaching to his children. Through it they were taught what to offer, to whom, and in what manner. So they did not come to this through Scripture, nor through personal revelation, nor through their own ideas, but through the instruction of their parents.

Let all parents take a lesson from Adam, the first parent who ever lived — specifically, how to promote the good of their children. He raised his children well in three ways: first, he provided for them until they came of age. Second, he did not simply leave them then, but appointed them their callings — one was a farmer, the other a shepherd. Third, beyond all this, he taught them to worship the true God in both their callings and in the practice of religion. For this purpose he taught them to offer sacrifices as an act of thankfulness to God. All this Adam did.

You must do the same with the children God has given you. First, provide for them carefully until they come of age, and make sure they suffer no harm through lack of what is needed. Second, raise them in such a way that they are prepared to live in some godly calling by which they may serve God and do good in His church — and assign that calling according to how their abilities and gifts fit them. Adam did not give both sons the same calling, but different ones according to their different abilities. You must ensure it is a lawful and honest calling, as both of theirs were. Third — and this is the most important of all — teach them true religion and the proper way to fear and worship God. By the first two, your child may live well in this world; by this third, he may be made an heir of the kingdom of heaven.

Adam was the first father, and the father of us all. Let all follow his example — and if we follow him in one duty, let us follow him in both. Many parents will be as careful for their children's bodies and callings as Adam was, but how few are as careful to teach them religion for the eternal good of their souls? Parents must take care of both. Otherwise they will have to answer for their child on the day of judgment. Even if the child perishes through his own sin, God will require his blood at the father's hands — for God placed him in the role of father, and he did not discharge that duty.

Second, because Cain offered just as Abel did, we learn several lessons from this.

First, it is a common belief that if a person lives honestly in his work, harming no one and giving everyone their due throughout his entire life, God will receive him and save his soul. The truth is this: if people live that way, it is good and praiseworthy, and they should be encouraged to continue. But if they stand before God on that basis for salvation, they throw away their souls. Notice: Cain was a man who walked in an honest calling. More than that, he worked hard at it — which not everyone with an honest calling actually does. And beyond all that, when Abel offered, Cain came and worshipped God as well. He did so outwardly in a way no one could fault, except God alone who saw his heart. And for all of this, he is still simply "wicked Cain" — which is all God's word gives him (1 John 3:12). It is therefore clear that walking honestly in one's calling and doing no one harm is not enough. Cain did it and was still cursed. We must go further than Cain, or we will go with Cain to where he is.

Do not reason with yourself: "I work hard, I follow my calling, I hurt no one." Cain could say the same thing, and he was still cursed Cain. You must go beyond these things and obtain what Cain never had. Learn to see and feel your sin in your conscience, and to be genuinely grieved over it, to the point where you can say: my illness, my poverty, my trials trouble me — but nothing grieves me so much as my own sins. These trouble me above all else, and this grief swallows up all the others. And there is something else I seek above all things — not gold, silver, or advancement, but reconciliation with God and His favor in Jesus Christ. If you have these two things, then you go beyond Cain, and you will stand before God with Abel and be accepted. Remember these two: humility over sin and desire for reconciliation. These two are the heart of true religion. If you have them, you are blessed with Abel. If not, you are cursed with Cain, however you may live in the world. You may say: Cain killed his brother, and I would never do that for anything in the world — I would harm no one in body or property. But that is not enough. It is stated that God had no regard for Cain before he killed his brother, even when he was offering his sacrifice. This duty is absolutely necessary, and there is no getting around it.

Second, Cain offered just as Abel did — in fact, Cain offered before Abel, as Genesis 4:3 plainly shows. And yet Abel's sacrifice was better when put to the test. It was accepted, while Cain's — which came first — was not. Here we learn that a person may be more outwardly eager than many others in the external duties of religion, and yet not be accepted by God. Another person may be less eager in attending to the duty, and yet when he comes, be better accepted. Where does this come from? Is eagerness in good duties a fault? Not at all. The point is this: the one who is most outwardly eager may come in hypocrisy and without faith, and the lack of faith makes his eagerness worthless. We have many such people in our church — frequent attenders of religious services and activities — and yet they come just as Cain did, or perhaps with even worse motives. Your eagerness to attend is commendable, but take this with you as well: care less about being first to the sermon or attending more often than others, and care more about coming with true faith, genuine repentance, and a heart hungering for grace. If not, do not boast of your eagerness. Cain offered before Abel and was not accepted. In the same way, an Abel may come after you, bringing faith with him, and be accepted while you — with your hypocritical eagerness — are rejected as Cain was.

Third, because Cain offered just as Abel did, we learn that the church on earth is a mixed and compound gathering — not made up of one kind of person, but of true believers and hypocrites together. Even in the very infancy of the church, there was a Cain worshipping in outward show, alongside an Abel who worshipped in truth. So it was in her earliest days, so it has continued throughout her history, and so it will be in the last age of the church. The good will never be fully separated from the bad until Christ Himself does it at the last judgment. Goats will always be mixed among the sheep until Christ the great shepherd separates them Himself (Matthew 25:32). Anyone who imagines a perfect separation before then is imagining something that exists nowhere on earth.

This being so, let no one be afraid to join the visible church, and let no one who is in it leave because the bad are mixed with the good. It has always been this way and always will be. The person who would leave a church because of the presence of hypocrites would have to leave the world — for no such pure church is found anywhere but in the triumphant church in heaven.

Fourth, because Cain and Abel offered, we learn that the church of God, which truly professes His name, has existed since the very beginning of the world. This church was in Adam's household when there was nothing else in the world — for the offering of sacrifice to God is a mark of the church. Beyond the sacrifice, they had an appointed place where Adam and his family gathered to worship God, as Cain makes clear in Genesis 4:14 and 16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord — meaning not only from His favor and protection, but from the place of His solemn worship, where He was accustomed to manifest His special presence to His children who served Him. Cain, as one excommunicated, complains in verse 14 that he must leave this place. So the church has existed from the beginning, and is therefore rightly called Catholic.

The Roman Catholics badly misuse this point. Because the church has such ancient roots, they argue that it therefore ranks above Scripture — and that we could not even know Scripture to be Scripture without the ancient testimony of the church.

We must understand that Scripture can be considered in two ways. First, as a written text penned by holy men — in which sense it is later than the church, since Moses was the first to put it in writing. But second, as the word of God — in which sense its substance, meaning, and truth are far more ancient than the church. In fact, without the word of God there can be no church. Without faith there is no church, since the church is a company of believers. Without the word there is no faith. Therefore: no word, no faith; no faith, no church. So the Scripture in substance preceded the church, even though it was written down afterward.

So we have seen that Cain and Abel both offered.

Now, second, what did they offer? Sacrifices. Sacrifices were used in the worship of God for two purposes. First, when a sacrifice was offered — especially an animal — the sight of its blood being poured out reminded a person of his own sins and what they deserved. It taught him to say: just as this creature is slain here and its blood drips away, so my sins deserve that my blood be shed and my soul be cast into hell forever. This creature can only die once, because it has no sin. But my sins deserve both the first death and the second death.

Second, sacrifices served to remind the worshippers of the coming Messiah. The slaying of the animals showed them how the Messiah would shed His blood and give His life for the sins of the people. These are the two principal purposes of sacrifices, and for these two purposes Cain and Abel both offered — Cain in hypocrisy and for the sake of form; Abel in truth, sincerity, and genuine conscience.

As it was with the old sacrifices, so it is with our New Testament sacraments — of which those sacrifices were all types. First, in baptism, the sprinkling of water serves to show us how deeply we are defiled by our own sins.

Second, it signifies the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon the heart of a sinner for his cleansing from sin.

Second, in the Lord's Supper, the breaking of the bread signifies: first, how we should be broken in humility over our sin; and the pouring out of the wine, how our blood and life would rightly be shed and poured out for our sins, if we received what we deserve. Second, these actions represent to us how the body of Christ was broken and His blood poured out for our sins — which He willingly endured under the wrath of His Father for our sakes. We see, then, that both the sacrifices and sacraments of the Old Testament, and those of the New, all point toward these two ends: to show us our sins and our misery because of sin, and to foretell and represent our reconciliation through Christ. This being so, our lesson is this.

We have all received those two sacraments — the first once, the second many times. If we have received them rightly, they should have this double effect on us: first, they should cause us to examine our own sins and our misery because of sin, and seeing it, to be cast down and humbled, recognizing how corrupt our hearts are and how wicked our lives. Second, when this is so, they should move us to seek reconciliation with God through faith in Christ — to desire it, love it, and pray for it above all things in the world. Abel not only offered, but offered in such a way that it reminded him of his sin and of his redemption through the coming Messiah's death. So we must not only outwardly receive the sacraments, but receive them in such a way that we see and are humbled for our sin, and seek to be reconciled to God through Christ.

The same use we ought to make of hearing the word, and not be content with merely hearing it or gaining general knowledge from it. It must give us a specific sight of our own condition in sin, and press us forward to seek God's favor in Christ. True religion does not consist merely in hearing the word and receiving the sacraments with the congregation, however often or how formally this is done. Rather, we must hear and receive in such a way that these things produce in us those two effects — and that is the heart and life of religion. Whoever professes religion and shows none of these fruits in his life — that person's profession is empty, and it will count for nothing on the day of judgment.

So we have seen that they offered, and what they offered.

It follows: a better sacrifice than Cain.

The third and final point is the difference between these sacrifices. Although Cain offered as well as Abel, and offered sacrifices as well as Abel, there was a difference between their sacrifices — for Abel's was better than Cain's. This is the central point, for it identifies what was so excellent about Abel's faith that he is commended for it here. Abel is not commended for offering by his faith, because Cain also offered — and he had no faith. He is not commended for offering a sacrifice by his faith, because Cain also offered a sacrifice — without faith. He is commended specifically because his faith moved him to offer a better sacrifice than Cain could.

The Holy Spirit calls Abel's sacrifice better or greater because Abel brought the best and fattest of his sheep, offering the greatest cost he could — as if to say he would have given more if he knew how. For a person who gives what he has would give more if he had it, and a person who does the best he can would do better if he could. Cain, on the contrary, did not bring the best of his crops but either the worst or whatever came to hand first, apparently thinking that whatever he brought was good enough. It is therefore rightly said that Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain.

Furthermore, this holy practice of Abel eventually became written law — one of the commandments of the ceremonial law — specifically, that the firstborn must be offered to God (Exodus 34:19), and the first fruits of the grain (Leviticus 23:10), and that nothing lame, blind, injured, or blemished should be offered to the Lord (Deuteronomy 15:21). Abel did exactly what these laws later commanded, and those laws commanded exactly what he had already done. God thus honored His servant Abel for his obedient and sincere heart — by making his practice the foundation and beginning of one of His own laws, so that the Israelites in every generation might, through their daily practices, remember this worthy deed of holy Abel, to his perpetual honor.

Now for us, this law is not binding, since it was a ceremony that ended in Christ. Yet its principle and application do reach us: when we give anything to God, we should give the best we have. This is the practical truth of all those ceremonial laws commanding them to give the Lord their firstborn, their first fruits, and the fattest of their livestock — and this much still applies to us. From this rule, several duties are taught.

First, to the parent. Do you have many children and wish to give one to the Lord — that is, to serve Him in ministry? The common practice of the world is to make the eldest a gentleman, the next a lawyer, the next a merchant. The youngest, the least regarded, or the one with some weakness of mind or body — send him to school, let him be a minister. But Abel's sacrifice rebukes this worldly and irreverent approach. Learn from him: whichever of your children you find most gifted and graced in body and mind — the one you love most and value most highly — he is the most fitting for the Lord, and the Lord is most worthy of him. Consecrate him to the Lord for service in the ministry.

Second, to the young person. Being in the full strength and ripeness of mind, senses, memory, capacity, and in the best years of his life, he says: I will take my pleasures now while I am most fit for them. I will repent at the end of my days — that is a more fitting time. This is a vile scheme of the devil, to dishonor God and throw away souls. What a grief it is to give the devil one's young years — the full strength of body and mind — and then bring only a withered old age to God? Be sure of this: God will not accept the rotten sacrifice of old age, but will rather give you over to the devil, who may then have you completely since he had you at your best. Follow instead Solomon's counsel in Ecclesiastes 12:1, which tells you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Remember Abel's sacrifice — it was of the best. You have nothing to offer but yourself. Offer then the best: your young years are your best time. Give them to God.

Third, to all Christians. Abel offered the best — and this teaches us all that if we will profess and serve God, we must not do it halfway, or for show, or negligently, as though it does not matter how. To do so is to offer Cain's sacrifice, and that is why most professors go away with their service unaccepted, as Cain's was. God will have all or nothing. He is worthy to have no rival partner. He must be served with the whole heart, soul, and body, so that a person consecrates himself entirely to Him. 2 Kings 23:25 especially commends good King Josiah because he turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, and on that account he is ranked above all kings before and after him. This does not mean Josiah kept the law perfectly, as it required, but it refers to the resolve of his heart and the effort of his life, by which he strove with everything he had to serve God as well as he could. His example is ours.

We profess religion — we must be sure our hearts actually embrace it. We profess to turn from sin — we must make sure this is not merely formal and from the lips, but from the heart. Whenever we practice any duty of religion — whether prayer, hearing the word, or receiving the sacrament, which is the sacrifice we are able to offer — we must not do it coldly and carelessly, but with genuine passion and wholehearted resolve. Otherwise, if we serve God for the sake of form, while our hearts are on the world and our own desires, we are offering the sacrifice of cursed Cain — and with our formal religion we will go where he went. Let us instead offer the sacrifice of Abel: though it may be little, let it be the best we can give and all we can give, and God will accept us as He accepted Abel. The parent should give God his best child. The young person should give his best years. Every person should give his best part — his heart. This is how we follow the steps of holy Abel, who offered to God the best sacrifice he had. This was the fruit of his faith — and likewise, the parent, the young person, and the believer who has true faith will do the same.

So much for the first effect of Abel's faith. The second follows.

Through which he obtained testimony that he was righteous.

This is the second effect of Abel's faith, which commends it to us. First, regarding the meaning: by faith here is meant saving faith, the faith that makes a person righteous before God, and no other. For, having already said that through faith the elders obtained a good testimony, he now proves that general statement by the specific example of Abel. Therefore the saving faith meant in that general statement is the same faith meant here.

These words set out two benefits Abel received through his saving faith: first, he was made righteous by it. Second, God testified that he was so.

As to the first: Abel's faith made him just and righteous — not because faith was itself such an excellent quality as to constitute his righteousness, but because faith was the instrument by which he laid hold of and applied to himself the righteousness of the coming Messiah, through which he could stand righteous before God. This was his righteousness, obtained by faith. He did not trust in any holiness of his own — though without question he knew he was the son of the man who had once been perfectly righteous. Rather, the trust and confidence of his heart was in the righteousness of that blessed seed whom God had promised would crush the serpent's head. Knowing this promise, he believed it and applied it to himself, and this faith made him righteous.

Here we learn an essential lesson of Christianity: the true and certain way to heaven is a living and genuine faith in Jesus Christ. This faith makes a person righteous, and that righteousness opens the gate of heaven to him. For this reason the apostle says, "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God" — but through whom? "Through our Lord Jesus Christ."

For the application of this teaching, we must repeat our earlier exhortation, which truly cannot be pressed on the conscience too often. There is no one among us so vile, none so irreverent, who does not desire salvation. If we desire it, we must walk the well-worn road to it. We are not born heirs of it, nor can we stumble into it by chance. There is a way that must be taken, and that way is only one — all others are misleading side roads. Furthermore, that way must be taken in this life, or it is too late. This way is to be a just and righteous person. No one who has walked it has ever failed to reach the destination, and no one who has avoided it has ever attained salvation — for no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven. No person was ever declared righteous there who was not first made righteous here. What is perfected in heaven must begin here. Therefore in this life we must seek to be made just. Our own good works will not accomplish this, for they are all unable to stand up under God's perfect justice. If we place our hope in them and they prove unable to satisfy God's justice, instead of saving us they will condemn us. Therefore, with Abel, let us go outside of ourselves, deny ourselves, and cling only to Christ's righteousness in life and in death. This is the way that will never disappoint us.

Some will say: we are walking in this way. The answer is: a person who walks in a way can be traced by his footsteps. Show your steps of holiness, devotion, and love — these must demonstrate your faith. Leave these marks behind you, and then your faith is genuine. Holy Abel did this. Believe it, acknowledge it, and follow after him. Renounce all the side roads that Rome or your own imagination devises. Let this one teaching sink deep into your heart in place of many, and do not let the devil drive it out. For if you walk in this way, I stake my soul on yours that it will bring you to heaven. If not, on the last day this teaching will condemn you, because it showed you this way and you refused to walk in it.

Second, observe: the text says Abel was approved and accepted by God. How is this proved? Because his works pleased God. The logic is: a person's works cannot please God unless the person himself pleases God first. Therefore the fact that his works pleased God proves that his person pleased God first. This is the reasoning of the Holy Spirit, and therefore infallible.

In framing this argument, the Holy Spirit teaches us a major principle of our religion: a person's person must please God before his actions can. The person first — then the actions. This is plain in the words of the text: it is said that Abel first obtained testimony that he was righteous himself, and then God testified of his gifts. Likewise, more explicitly in Genesis 4:4, God had regard first to Abel and then to his offering. The truth is clear: no work pleases God before the worker does. This has excellent practical implications.

First, it overturns a main pillar of Roman religion: justification by works. How can a person be justified by his works when he himself must be just before his works can be? Unless he is just, his works are wicked. If they are wicked before his person is made just, how can they possibly justify him? And if the person is already just, why would he need to be justified again by works? Good works do not make a person good — a good person makes a work good. Can the work that a person made good then turn around and make the person good again? First, this is absurd to reason. Second, it is unnecessary — the person is already good, or else the work could not have been good. We may therefore say that works are justified by the person rather than the person being justified by his works. It is a completely vain thing to look for justification from something you yourself must first justify before it becomes just. If we had no other argument against justification by works than this one, it would be sufficient.

Second, we learn here that until a person is called and his person justified and sanctified, everything he does is sin. First, his common actions — eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, talking — are all sins. Second, the works of his calling and his labor in it, however just, fair, and upright they may be. Third, his civil actions — the practice of civil virtues such as outward dignity, meekness, sobriety, temperance, peaceableness, uprightness, and all outward conformity — are all sins. And more than all this: even his best actions — practicing the elements of God's worship, deeds of charity, prayer, hearing the word, receiving the sacraments, giving to the poor — are all sins if he does not have a believing and penitent heart. Yes, such sins as will condemn him if he had no others. Objection: This would seem to be strange teaching — that the most holy actions, such as prayer, should be damnable sins. The answer is: they are in themselves holy and good, and as far as God has commanded them, good. Yet in the doer they are sins, because he does them from a foul and unholy heart. The same action may be holy in itself and in regard to God who ordained it, and yet be a sin in the person who performs it. Just as clean water, pure in the spring, becomes contaminated by running through a filthy and polluted channel, so even the best actions become sins. Even the preaching of the word, to a minister whose heart has not been cleansed by faith and whose person is not accepted by God, is a sin — and if he does not repent, will be his condemnation. Cain sinned not only by hating and murdering his brother, by lying and deceiving God, but Cain sinned even in offering sacrifice. And Abel's sacrifice would have been a damnable sin had his person not been justified before God. The reason is sound: nothing in the act itself can make an action acceptable to God — only the acceptance of the person through Christ. This being so, every one of us must look carefully to ourselves and labor above all things for faith and repentance, so that our persons may be accepted as righteous before God, and thereby our actions accepted as well. If it is a miserable thing to have all your actions — even your holy actions — be sins before God, then labor to be justified, for that alone can make your works acceptable. If not, then however hard you work to be approved in the world, and however glorious a show you put on your works to the eyes of others, they are all an abomination before God, and on the day of judgment they will be counted no better. Preach and teach all your life long. Die for religion. Give all your goods to the poor. Deprive your body of every pleasure. Build churches, colleges, bridges, highways — and there may come a poor shepherd who, simply by faithfully keeping his sheep, is accepted before God while you, with all your outward show of holiness, are rejected. Why? Simply because he had faith and you had none. His person was justified before God, and yours was not. Let this be my counsel from Abel: labor less to perform impressive works, and more to do what you do in faith. Faith makes the humblest work acceptable. The lack of faith makes the most glorious work rejected. As the text implies: Abel must be accepted, or else his sacrifice will not be. So we have seen that Abel was just, and that God counted him so. The second point is that God gave testimony to this fact, in these words:

God giving testimony —

What specific testimony God gave of Abel and his gift is not stated in the text, so it cannot be known for certain. But it is very likely that when Abel and Cain offered, God in special mercy sent fire from heaven and consumed Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's. The Lord often afterward, when He wished to show that He accepted a person or his work, answered by fire from heaven. He consumed the first sacrifice Aaron offered (Leviticus 9:24). He answered Solomon this way (2 Chronicles 7:1). He answered Elijah the same way (1 Kings 18:38). It is therefore likely that God gave this same testimony — that He accepted Abel and his offering. This was a great privilege that Abel and the fathers of the Old Testament possessed. We do not have this today, but we have something greater — the substance and truth of which this was a picture. We also have the fire of God: His Spirit descends into our hearts every day — not visibly, but spiritually — and burns up in the heart of a believer his sins and corruptions, and kindles the light of true faith, which shall never be extinguished.

The application is this: just as no sacrifice in the old law pleased God except those consumed by fire from heaven, whether sent then or previously, so our New Testament sacrifices — our calling on God's name, our sacrifice of praise, our duties of religion, our works of love and mercy — never please God unless they come from a heart purified by the fire of God's Spirit, that is, from a believing and repentant heart. Both faith and repentance are kindled, sustained, and daily renewed by that fire of God's Spirit. This is why Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:5 that love must come out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. The duties of religion and works of love flowing from this purified heart ascend into God's presence like the smoke of most acceptable sacrifices, and are a sweet perfume in the nostrils of the Lord.

Now, of what did God testify? Of his gift.

One might ask at first how Abel could give a gift to God — does the Lord need anything? And are not all things already His? The answer is this: God is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth and all creatures. Yet He has so given His creatures to humanity to use that they become truly ours, and we may rightly regard and use them as such. And being ours, a person may in token of his gratitude return them to God — especially since God accepts them, when so offered, as the most freely given gifts.

This shows us, first, the remarkable mercy of God: that whereas we can offer Him nothing but what is already His own, He graciously accepts a gift offered from what is His own, just as though we had something of our own to give.

Second, see here a difference between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the sacraments of the New Testament. In their sacrifices, they gave something to God — and for that reason those offerings are called gifts. In our sacraments, we receive grace daily from God.

Third, because the sacrifices of the old law are called gifts, we should know that this is a symbol carrying excellent significance for us.

First, it signifies that the Messiah would be given by God freely for the salvation of His elect, and that Christ the Messiah would willingly give Himself to be a redeemer.

Second, it signifies that every person who looks for salvation through Christ must give himself to God and all that is in him. Paul urges this in Romans 6:13: present yourselves to God, and your members as instruments of righteousness. When we give something to a person, we make him lord of it. If we then give our souls and bodies to the Lord, we must give them so completely that they obey and serve Him, are ruled by Him, and serve for His glory in whatever way He chooses to use them. We profess religion and make great displays, but giving ourselves in obedience to God is the very life of religion. Yet the common practice of the world is the opposite. Most professors are given over to sin and to Satan — their bodies given to drinking, gambling, immorality, and injustice; their souls to envy, hatred, malice, revenge, lust, pride, and self-love. God gets nothing from them except perhaps a face — a mere outward appearance. But that is not enough. He will have all: body and soul. He made both and He has redeemed both. We are acting against all justice. Christ gave His body and soul for us — why should we not give ours back to Him? Besides, this gift is unlike other gifts: all the profit flows back to the giver. The glory is His, but the gain and benefit are our own. Why then should we withhold ourselves from God? It shows that we neither know nor feel what Christ has given us — for if we did, we would think ten thousand lives too few to give back to Him.

So much for the first and second effect of Abel's faith. The third follows.

Through which Abel, being dead, yet speaks.

The third effect by which Abel's faith is commended is contained in these words. There is some disagreement about the meaning, which should be briefly examined. Some think the verse should be translated: "through which also Abel, being dead, is yet spoken of" — meaning that through his faith he obtained a good reputation with all posterity. But this interpretation seems wrong for two reasons. First, that point has already been made for Abel and all the others in verse two, that through faith they obtained a good testimony. It would therefore seem unnecessary to repeat it so quickly. Second, later in the epistle where Christ's blood and Abel's blood are compared, it does not say that Christ's blood is spoken of better than Abel's, but that it speaks better things than Abel's blood did. Therefore the standard translation is correct.

As to the true meaning: the Holy Spirit here likely refers back to the story from which this is drawn, where upon Cain's murder God said to him, "The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground." Why does it cry? For vengeance against so monstrous a murder — and to cry to all people to behold it and be horrified at any like deed. In that sense, Abel continues to speak even to this day. So the words, in their full and true sense, contain two points: 1. That Abel spoke when he was dead. 2. That Abel in some sense still speaks.

As to the first: Abel spoke and cried when he was dead — but how? Not with an audible voice. The phrase is figurative, and means this: God's words to Cain amounted to saying: you have killed your brother secretly, and perhaps buried him or hidden him in the sand, thinking no one knows. But understand, Cain — what you have done is as plain to me as if Abel had told Me himself. I know you killed him. If you wonder how I know, I tell you his blood told Me. It cried in My ears and still cries out against you. Though Abel is dead, his blood yet speaks. What is true of Abel's blood is true of all people's blood — and what is true of blood is true of all other kinds of oppression, however great the oppressor may be. Murders, acts of oppression, and all wrongs done to God's children cry out to God against the oppressors, even when the poor oppressed people dare not name them. They need not name them. Their blood does it for them. Indeed, even their very tears cannot be shed without God catching them and putting them in His bottle, knowing who shed them. So blood cries against those who shed it, and tears cry against those who cause them. This gives us a double lesson. First, it is clear that God sees and knows the sins of people, however powerful they are or however secret their sins. For though people conceal them as cleverly as human ingenuity allows, the very dead things cry out and proclaim those sins and sinners in God's ears as clearly as the voices of living witnesses could disclose anything to other people. Private acts of oppression and goods gained through deep deception may be hidden from the world. But as Habakkuk 2:11-12 says, the stone in the wall will cry out and the beam in the timber will answer it: "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence." God knows every stone and piece of timber in the grand houses built through deception or the oppression of the poor. Secret conspiracies and plots of treason are laid against princes and rulers, often in ways that seem to human reasoning impossible to discover. But God has many ways to find them out, and they never escape His private searching. Therefore the Holy Spirit advises: do not curse the king, even in your thoughts, nor the powerful in your bedroom — for the birds of the air will carry your voice, and what has wings will declare the matter. So whatever is planned in secret, or conspired in the hidden rooms of wicked people, God knows it and has ample means to disclose it to the world. And in our everyday experience, God powerfully displays Himself in revealing murders. Bring the murderer before the dead body, and typically it bleeds or gives some other sign, speaking just as Abel's blood did: "This is the murderer." More than this: for Abel's blood spoke to God, but here it speaks even to people as well.

Of this it is difficult to give any explanation other than the secret and immediate hand of God, who thereby shows that He knows all secret sins and can expose them by extraordinary means.

The application of this teaching is to deter everyone from sinning, even those who think it possible to keep their sins hidden from the world — for that belief is one of the strongest and most common encouragements people have to go on living in sin. But here they see how false a foundation that is. If they can hide their sin from people, they cannot hide it from God. And if God knows it, He can reveal it to the world whenever He pleases.

Again, because Abel's blood cried out when he was dead, we learn that God cared for Abel both in life and in death. For it would mean nothing to say his blood cried if God did not hear that cry. But it is evident He heard it, for He avenged it and punished Cain after Abel was dead and could no longer avenge it himself. And this care God has not for Abel alone, but for all His children. As the psalmist says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. What the world treats as worthless and beneath notice is precious to God. Tyrants ravage the church and kill its members in great numbers, but God records every one of them and will not fail to avenge it after they are dead. For if God keeps bottles for the tears of His servants, He surely keeps far more for their blood.

The lesson from this is to teach us patience in all extremities of danger or distress. Even if we are certain to die, we should, as Christ said, possess our souls in patience. We have One who will hear our cause and avenge our wrong after we are gone. If we are patient, we lose nothing. If we are impatient, we gain nothing. Let us therefore hold our tongues, for the wrong done to us cries loudly enough to God for vengeance — and He will hear it as surely as He heard Abel's. And so we have seen how Abel spoke, even after he was dead.

The second point is that he still speaks — and in three ways.

First, his faith still speaks, because it calls on all people everywhere who hear or read this story to become what Abel was — true worshippers of the true God. Through Abel's example, it urges all people to be like him, by assuring them of the same regard and reward from God that Abel received. In this way, Abel's faith is an undying preacher to every age of the church.

Here we learn that the holy examples of God's children are genuine and powerful teaching for other people.

There is a twofold teaching: by word and by deed.

It belongs to the minister to teach in word, and to all people to teach by their deeds and good example. If the minister does not do this also, it is the worse both for him and for those who hear him.

It is not enough for him to teach by spoken sermons — that is, by good doctrine — but also by real sermons, that is, by a good life. His faith, his zeal, his patience, his mercy, and all his other virtues must speak and cry out to other people, calling them to be like him. If he lives this out carefully, as Abel did, then his virtues will speak for him to all posterity when he is gone.

Abel, though dead, may also be said to speak because, however dead his body may be, in soul and spirit he lives with God in heaven. The word speaks may therefore be understood this way, since it is set in contrast with death: "being dead, yet he speaks" — that is, being dead in body, he yet lives in soul. This life with God was obtained through his true and saving faith.

Third, he may be said to still speak in the same way as all of God's martyrs are said to cry out in Revelation from under the altar: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" As this is true of all martyrs, so it is especially true of Abel, the very first martyr of all. These words are not spoken by him or them aloud with a literal voice, but the expression signifies the intense longing that God's servants in heaven have for the full display of God's glory in their bodies and for the complete abolishment of sin throughout the whole world. This longing they doubtless express to God in a manner far more excellent than anything we can express in words in this world. And in this way Abel speaks still, and will speak until the end of the world.

So much for the first example: the example of Abel.