He was the second son of Adam and Eve, and born probably in the
second or third year of the world; though some will have it that he and
Cain were twins. His name signifies _vapour_, _vanity_, and might be
given either because our first parents now began so to feel the
emptiness and vanity of all earthly things, that the birth of another
son reminded them painfully of it, although in itself a matter of joy;
or it was imposed under prophetic impulse, and obscurely referred to his
premature death. His employment was that of a shepherd; Cain followed
the occupation of his father, and was a tiller of the ground. Whether
they remained in their father’s family at the time when they brought
their offerings to the Lord, or had establishments separate from that of
Adam, does not clearly appear. Abel was probably unmarried, or had no
children; but Cain’s wife is mentioned. “At the end of the days,”--which
is a more literal rendering than “in process of time,” as in our
translation, that is, on the Sabbath,--both brothers brought an offering
to the Lord. Cain “brought of the fruit of the ground;” Abel “the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” “And the Lord had
respect to Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he
had not respect.” As Cain afterward complains that “he should be hid
from the _face_ or _presence_ of the Lord,” it is probable that the
worship of the first family was performed before some visible
manifestation of the glory of God, which thus consecrated a particular
place for their services. Some have thought that this was at the east
gate of Eden, where “Cherubim and a flaming sword were placed;” but this
was a vengeful manifestation, and could only have inspired a dread of
God inconsistent with the confidence and hope with which men through the
promise of redemption were now encouraged to draw nigh to him. The
respect which God was pleased to show to Abel’s offering, appears from
the account to have been sensibly declared; for Cain must have known by
some token that the sacrifice of Abel was accepted, the absence of which
sign, as to his own offering, showed that it was rejected. Whether this
was by fire going forth from “the presence of the Lord,” to consume the
sacrifice, as in later instances recorded in the Old Testament, or in
some other way, it is in vain to inquire;--that the token of acceptance
was a sensible one is however an almost certain inference. The effect of
this upon Cain was not to humble him before God, but to excite anger
against his brother; and, being in the field with him, or, as the old
versions have it, having said to him, “Let us go out into the field,”
“he rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him;” and for that crime,
by which the first blood of man was shed by man upon the earth,--a
murder aggravated by the relationship and the “righteous” character of
the sufferer, and having in it also the nature of religious
persecution,--he was pronounced by the Lord “cursed from the earth.”
2. As the sacrifice of Abel is the first on record, and has given rise
to some controversy, it demands particular attention. It was offered,
says St. Paul, “in faith,” and it was “a more excellent sacrifice” than
that of Cain. Both these expressions intimate that it was EXPIATORY and
PREFIGURATIVE.
As to the matter of the sacrifice, it was an _animal_ offering. “Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground; and Abel also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof;” or, more literally,
“the fat of them,” that is, according to the Hebrew idiom, the fattest
or best of his flock; and in this circumstance consisted its specific
character as an act of _faith_. This is supported by the import of the
phrase, ϖλείονα θυσίαν, used by the Apostle in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, when speaking of the sacrifice of Abel. Our translators have
rendered it, “a more excellent sacrifice.” Wickliffe translates it, as
Archbishop Magee observes, uncouthly, but in the full sense of the
original, “a much more sacrifice;” and the controversy which has arisen
on this point is, whether this epithet of “much more,” or “fuller,”
refers to quantity or quality; whether it is to be understood in the
sense of a _more abundant_, or of a _better_, a _more excellent_
sacrifice. Dr. Kennicott takes it in the sense of measure and quantity,
as well as quality; and supposes that Abel brought a double offering of
the firstlings of his flock, and of the fruit of the ground _also_. His
criticism has been very satisfactorily refuted by Archbishop Magee. The
sacrifice of Abel was that of animal victims, and it was indicative not
of gratitude but of “faith:” a quality not to be made manifest by the
_quantity_ of an offering, for the one has no relation to the other.
3. This will more fully appear if we consider the import of the words of
the Apostle,--“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.” Now
what is the meaning of the Apostle, when he says that it was witnessed
or testified to Abel that he was _righteous_? His doctrine is, that men
are sinners; that all, consequently, need pardon; and _to be declared_,
_witnessed_, and _accounted righteous_, are, according to his style of
writing, the same as “to be justified, pardoned, and dealt with as
righteous.” Thus he argues that Abraham believed God, “and it was
accounted to him for righteousness,”--“that faith was reckoned to
Abraham for righteousness,”--“that he received the sign of circumcision,
a _seal_,” a visible confirmatory, declaratory, and witnessing mark “of
the righteousness which he had by faith.” In these cases we have a
similarity so striking, that they can scarcely fail to explain each
other. In both, sinful men are placed in the condition of _righteous_
men; the instrument, in both cases, is _faith_; and the transaction is,
in both cases also, publicly and sensibly _witnessed_,--as to Abraham,
by the sign of circumcision; as to Abel, by a visible acceptance of his
sacrifice, and the rejection of that of Cain.
Abel had faith, and he expressed that faith by the kind of sacrifice he
offered. It was in this way that his faith “pleased God;” it pleased him
as a principle, and by the act to which it led, which act was the
offering of a sacrifice to God different from that of Cain. Cain had not
this faith, whatever might be its object; and Cain, accordingly, did not
bring an offering to which God had “respect.” That which vitiated the
offering of Cain was the want of this faith; for his offering was not
significant of faith: that which “pleased God,” in the case of Abel, was
his faith; and he had “respect” to his offering, because it was the
expression of that faith; and upon his faith so expressing itself, God
witnessed to him “that he was righteous.” So forcibly do the words of
St. Paul, when commenting upon this transaction, show, that Abel’s
sacrifice was accepted, because of its immediate connection with his
_faith_, for by faith he is said to have offered it; and whatever it
might be, which made Abel’s offering differ from that of Cain, whether
_abundance_, or _kind_, or both, this was the result of his faith. So
evident also is it from the Apostle, that Abel was witnessed to be
“righteous,” not with reference to any previous “habit of a religious
life,” as some say, but with reference to his _faith_; and to this faith
as expressing itself by his offering “a more excellent sacrifice.”
4. If, then, the faith of Abel had an immediate connection with his
sacrifice, and both with his being accepted as “righteous,”--that is,
_justified_, in St. Paul’s use of the term,--to what had his faith
respect? The particular object of the faith of the elders, celebrated in
Hebrews xi, is to be deduced from the circumstances mentioned as
illustrative of the existence and operation of this great principle, and
by which it manifested itself in them. Let us explain this, and then
ascertain the object of Abel’s faith also from the manner of its
manifestation,--from the acts in which it embodied and rendered itself
conspicuous.
Faith, in this chapter, is taken in the sense of _affiance_ in God, and,
as such, it can only be exercised toward God, as to all its particular
acts, in those respects in which we have some warrant to confide in him.
This supposes revelation, and, in particular, promises or declarations
on his part, as the ground of every act of affiance. When, therefore, it
is said that “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death,” it must be supposed that he had some promise or intimation to
this effect, on which, improbable as the event was, he nobly relied; and
in the result God honoured his faith in the sight of all men. The faith
of Noah had immediate respect to the threatened flood, and to the
promise of God to preserve him in the ark which he was commanded to
prepare. The chapter is filled with other instances, expressed or
implied; and from the whole, as well as from the nature of things, it
will appear, that, when the Apostle speaks of the faith of the elders in
its particular acts, he represents it as having respect to some promise,
declaration, or revelation of God.
This revelation was necessarily antecedent to the faith; but it is also
to be observed, that the acts by which the faith was represented,
whenever it was represented by particular acts, and when the case
admitted it, had a natural and striking conformity and correspondence to
the previous revelation. So Noah built the ark, which indicated that he
had heard the threat of the world’s destruction by water, and had
received the promise of his own preservation, and that of his family, as
well as that of a part of the beasts of the earth. When Abraham went
into Canaan at the command of God, and upon the promise that that
country should become the inheritance of his decendants, he showed his
faith by taking possession of it for them in anticipation, and his
residence there indicated the kind of promise which he had received.
Thus these instances show, that when the faith which the Apostle
commends exhibited itself in some particular act, that act had a
correspondency to the previous promise or revelation which was the
ground of faith. We must therefore interpret the acts of Abel’s faith so
as to make them also correspond with an antecedent revelation. His faith
had respect to some previous revelation, and the nature of the
revelation is to be collected from the significant manner in which he
declared his faith in it.
Now that which Abel did “by faith,” was, _generally_, to perform an act
of solemn worship, in the confidence that it would be acceptable to God.
This supposes a revelation, immediate or by tradition, that such acts of
worship were acceptable to God, or his faith could have had no warrant,
and would not have been faith, but fancy. But the case must be
considered more particularly. His faith led him to offer “a more
excellent sacrifice” than that of Cain; but this as necessarily implies,
that there was some antecedent revelation to which his faith, as thus
expressed, had respect, and on which that peculiarity of his offering,
which distinguished it from the offering of Cain, was founded; a
revelation which indicated that the way in which God would be approached
acceptably, in solemn worship, was by animal sacrifices. Without this,
the faith to which his offering, which was an offering of the firstlings
of his flock, had a special fitness and adaptation, could have had no
warrant in Divine authority. But this revelation must have included, in
order to its being the ground of faith, as “the substance of things
hoped for,” a promise of a benefit to be conferred, in which promise
Abel might _confide_. But if so, then this promise must have been
connected, not with the worship of God in general, or performed in any
way whatever indifferently, but with his worship by animal oblations;
for it was in this way that the faith of Abel specially and
distinctively indicated itself. The antecedent revelation was,
therefore, a promise of a benefit to be conferred, by means of animal
sacrifice; and we are taught what this benefit was, by that which was
actually received by the offerer,--“He obtained witness that he was
_righteous_;” which must be interpreted in the sense of a declaration of
his personal justification, and acceptance as righteous, by the
forgiveness of his sins. The reason of Abel’s acceptance and of Cain’s
rejection is hereby made manifest; the one, in seeking the Divine
favour, conformed to his established and appointed method of being
approached by guilty men, and the other not only neglected this, but
profanely and presumptuously substituted his own inventions.
5. It is impossible, then, to allow the sacrifice of Abel, in this
instance, to have been an act of FAITH, without supposing that it had
respect to a previous revelation, which agreed with all the parts of
that sacrificial action by which he expressed his faith in it. Had
Abel’s sacrifice been eucharistic merely, it would have expressed
gratitude, but not faith; or if faith in the general sense of confidence
in God that he would receive an act of grateful worship, and reward the
worshippers, it did not more express faith than the offering of Cain,
who surely believed these two points, or he would not have brought an
offering of any kind. The offering of Abel expressed a faith which Cain
had not; and the doctrinal principles which Abel’s faith respected were
such as his sacrifice visibly embodied. If it was not an eucharistic
sacrifice, it was an expiatory one; and, in fact, it is only in a
sacrifice of this kind, that it is possible to see that faith exhibited
which Abel had, and Cain had not. If then we refer to the subsequent
sacrifices of expiation appointed by Divine authority, and their
explanation in the New Testament, it will be obvious to what doctrines
and principles of an antecedent revelation the faith of Abel had
respect, and which his sacrifice, the exhibition of his faith,
proclaimed: confession of the fact of being a sinner,--acknowledgment
that the demerit and penalty of sin is death,--submission to an
appointed mode of expiation,--animal sacrifice offered _vicariously_,
but in itself a mere type of a better sacrifice, “the Seed of the
woman,” appointed to be offered at some future period,--and the efficacy
of this appointed method of expiation to obtain forgiveness, and to
admit the guilty into the Divine favour.
“Abel,” Dr. Magee justly says, “in firm reliance on the promise of God,
and in obedience to his command, offered that sacrifice which had been
enjoined as the religious expression of his faith; whilst Cain,
disregarding the gracious assurances that had been vouchsafed, or at
least disdaining to adopt the prescribed mode of manifesting his belief,
possibly as not appearing to _his reason_ to possess any efficacy or
natural fitness, thought he had sufficiently acquitted himself of his
duty in acknowledging the general superintendence of God, and expressing
his gratitude to the Supreme Benefactor, by presenting some of those
good things which he thereby confessed to have been derived from his
bounty. In short, Cain, the first-born of the fall, exhibits the first
fruits of his parents’ disobedience, in the arrogance and
self-sufficiency of reason rejecting the aids of revelation, because
they fell not within its apprehension of right. He takes the first place
in the annals of Deism, and displays, in his proud rejection of the
ordinance of sacrifice, the same spirit which, in later days, has
actuated his _enlightened_ followers, in rejecting the sacrifice of
Christ.”
Abel was killed about the year of the world, 130.
second or third year of the world; though some will have it that he and
Cain were twins. His name signifies _vapour_, _vanity_, and might be
given either because our first parents now began so to feel the
emptiness and vanity of all earthly things, that the birth of another
son reminded them painfully of it, although in itself a matter of joy;
or it was imposed under prophetic impulse, and obscurely referred to his
premature death. His employment was that of a shepherd; Cain followed
the occupation of his father, and was a tiller of the ground. Whether
they remained in their father’s family at the time when they brought
their offerings to the Lord, or had establishments separate from that of
Adam, does not clearly appear. Abel was probably unmarried, or had no
children; but Cain’s wife is mentioned. “At the end of the days,”--which
is a more literal rendering than “in process of time,” as in our
translation, that is, on the Sabbath,--both brothers brought an offering
to the Lord. Cain “brought of the fruit of the ground;” Abel “the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.” “And the Lord had
respect to Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he
had not respect.” As Cain afterward complains that “he should be hid
from the _face_ or _presence_ of the Lord,” it is probable that the
worship of the first family was performed before some visible
manifestation of the glory of God, which thus consecrated a particular
place for their services. Some have thought that this was at the east
gate of Eden, where “Cherubim and a flaming sword were placed;” but this
was a vengeful manifestation, and could only have inspired a dread of
God inconsistent with the confidence and hope with which men through the
promise of redemption were now encouraged to draw nigh to him. The
respect which God was pleased to show to Abel’s offering, appears from
the account to have been sensibly declared; for Cain must have known by
some token that the sacrifice of Abel was accepted, the absence of which
sign, as to his own offering, showed that it was rejected. Whether this
was by fire going forth from “the presence of the Lord,” to consume the
sacrifice, as in later instances recorded in the Old Testament, or in
some other way, it is in vain to inquire;--that the token of acceptance
was a sensible one is however an almost certain inference. The effect of
this upon Cain was not to humble him before God, but to excite anger
against his brother; and, being in the field with him, or, as the old
versions have it, having said to him, “Let us go out into the field,”
“he rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him;” and for that crime,
by which the first blood of man was shed by man upon the earth,--a
murder aggravated by the relationship and the “righteous” character of
the sufferer, and having in it also the nature of religious
persecution,--he was pronounced by the Lord “cursed from the earth.”
2. As the sacrifice of Abel is the first on record, and has given rise
to some controversy, it demands particular attention. It was offered,
says St. Paul, “in faith,” and it was “a more excellent sacrifice” than
that of Cain. Both these expressions intimate that it was EXPIATORY and
PREFIGURATIVE.
As to the matter of the sacrifice, it was an _animal_ offering. “Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground; and Abel also brought of the
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof;” or, more literally,
“the fat of them,” that is, according to the Hebrew idiom, the fattest
or best of his flock; and in this circumstance consisted its specific
character as an act of _faith_. This is supported by the import of the
phrase, ϖλείονα θυσίαν, used by the Apostle in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, when speaking of the sacrifice of Abel. Our translators have
rendered it, “a more excellent sacrifice.” Wickliffe translates it, as
Archbishop Magee observes, uncouthly, but in the full sense of the
original, “a much more sacrifice;” and the controversy which has arisen
on this point is, whether this epithet of “much more,” or “fuller,”
refers to quantity or quality; whether it is to be understood in the
sense of a _more abundant_, or of a _better_, a _more excellent_
sacrifice. Dr. Kennicott takes it in the sense of measure and quantity,
as well as quality; and supposes that Abel brought a double offering of
the firstlings of his flock, and of the fruit of the ground _also_. His
criticism has been very satisfactorily refuted by Archbishop Magee. The
sacrifice of Abel was that of animal victims, and it was indicative not
of gratitude but of “faith:” a quality not to be made manifest by the
_quantity_ of an offering, for the one has no relation to the other.
3. This will more fully appear if we consider the import of the words of
the Apostle,--“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.” Now
what is the meaning of the Apostle, when he says that it was witnessed
or testified to Abel that he was _righteous_? His doctrine is, that men
are sinners; that all, consequently, need pardon; and _to be declared_,
_witnessed_, and _accounted righteous_, are, according to his style of
writing, the same as “to be justified, pardoned, and dealt with as
righteous.” Thus he argues that Abraham believed God, “and it was
accounted to him for righteousness,”--“that faith was reckoned to
Abraham for righteousness,”--“that he received the sign of circumcision,
a _seal_,” a visible confirmatory, declaratory, and witnessing mark “of
the righteousness which he had by faith.” In these cases we have a
similarity so striking, that they can scarcely fail to explain each
other. In both, sinful men are placed in the condition of _righteous_
men; the instrument, in both cases, is _faith_; and the transaction is,
in both cases also, publicly and sensibly _witnessed_,--as to Abraham,
by the sign of circumcision; as to Abel, by a visible acceptance of his
sacrifice, and the rejection of that of Cain.
Abel had faith, and he expressed that faith by the kind of sacrifice he
offered. It was in this way that his faith “pleased God;” it pleased him
as a principle, and by the act to which it led, which act was the
offering of a sacrifice to God different from that of Cain. Cain had not
this faith, whatever might be its object; and Cain, accordingly, did not
bring an offering to which God had “respect.” That which vitiated the
offering of Cain was the want of this faith; for his offering was not
significant of faith: that which “pleased God,” in the case of Abel, was
his faith; and he had “respect” to his offering, because it was the
expression of that faith; and upon his faith so expressing itself, God
witnessed to him “that he was righteous.” So forcibly do the words of
St. Paul, when commenting upon this transaction, show, that Abel’s
sacrifice was accepted, because of its immediate connection with his
_faith_, for by faith he is said to have offered it; and whatever it
might be, which made Abel’s offering differ from that of Cain, whether
_abundance_, or _kind_, or both, this was the result of his faith. So
evident also is it from the Apostle, that Abel was witnessed to be
“righteous,” not with reference to any previous “habit of a religious
life,” as some say, but with reference to his _faith_; and to this faith
as expressing itself by his offering “a more excellent sacrifice.”
4. If, then, the faith of Abel had an immediate connection with his
sacrifice, and both with his being accepted as “righteous,”--that is,
_justified_, in St. Paul’s use of the term,--to what had his faith
respect? The particular object of the faith of the elders, celebrated in
Hebrews xi, is to be deduced from the circumstances mentioned as
illustrative of the existence and operation of this great principle, and
by which it manifested itself in them. Let us explain this, and then
ascertain the object of Abel’s faith also from the manner of its
manifestation,--from the acts in which it embodied and rendered itself
conspicuous.
Faith, in this chapter, is taken in the sense of _affiance_ in God, and,
as such, it can only be exercised toward God, as to all its particular
acts, in those respects in which we have some warrant to confide in him.
This supposes revelation, and, in particular, promises or declarations
on his part, as the ground of every act of affiance. When, therefore, it
is said that “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death,” it must be supposed that he had some promise or intimation to
this effect, on which, improbable as the event was, he nobly relied; and
in the result God honoured his faith in the sight of all men. The faith
of Noah had immediate respect to the threatened flood, and to the
promise of God to preserve him in the ark which he was commanded to
prepare. The chapter is filled with other instances, expressed or
implied; and from the whole, as well as from the nature of things, it
will appear, that, when the Apostle speaks of the faith of the elders in
its particular acts, he represents it as having respect to some promise,
declaration, or revelation of God.
This revelation was necessarily antecedent to the faith; but it is also
to be observed, that the acts by which the faith was represented,
whenever it was represented by particular acts, and when the case
admitted it, had a natural and striking conformity and correspondence to
the previous revelation. So Noah built the ark, which indicated that he
had heard the threat of the world’s destruction by water, and had
received the promise of his own preservation, and that of his family, as
well as that of a part of the beasts of the earth. When Abraham went
into Canaan at the command of God, and upon the promise that that
country should become the inheritance of his decendants, he showed his
faith by taking possession of it for them in anticipation, and his
residence there indicated the kind of promise which he had received.
Thus these instances show, that when the faith which the Apostle
commends exhibited itself in some particular act, that act had a
correspondency to the previous promise or revelation which was the
ground of faith. We must therefore interpret the acts of Abel’s faith so
as to make them also correspond with an antecedent revelation. His faith
had respect to some previous revelation, and the nature of the
revelation is to be collected from the significant manner in which he
declared his faith in it.
Now that which Abel did “by faith,” was, _generally_, to perform an act
of solemn worship, in the confidence that it would be acceptable to God.
This supposes a revelation, immediate or by tradition, that such acts of
worship were acceptable to God, or his faith could have had no warrant,
and would not have been faith, but fancy. But the case must be
considered more particularly. His faith led him to offer “a more
excellent sacrifice” than that of Cain; but this as necessarily implies,
that there was some antecedent revelation to which his faith, as thus
expressed, had respect, and on which that peculiarity of his offering,
which distinguished it from the offering of Cain, was founded; a
revelation which indicated that the way in which God would be approached
acceptably, in solemn worship, was by animal sacrifices. Without this,
the faith to which his offering, which was an offering of the firstlings
of his flock, had a special fitness and adaptation, could have had no
warrant in Divine authority. But this revelation must have included, in
order to its being the ground of faith, as “the substance of things
hoped for,” a promise of a benefit to be conferred, in which promise
Abel might _confide_. But if so, then this promise must have been
connected, not with the worship of God in general, or performed in any
way whatever indifferently, but with his worship by animal oblations;
for it was in this way that the faith of Abel specially and
distinctively indicated itself. The antecedent revelation was,
therefore, a promise of a benefit to be conferred, by means of animal
sacrifice; and we are taught what this benefit was, by that which was
actually received by the offerer,--“He obtained witness that he was
_righteous_;” which must be interpreted in the sense of a declaration of
his personal justification, and acceptance as righteous, by the
forgiveness of his sins. The reason of Abel’s acceptance and of Cain’s
rejection is hereby made manifest; the one, in seeking the Divine
favour, conformed to his established and appointed method of being
approached by guilty men, and the other not only neglected this, but
profanely and presumptuously substituted his own inventions.
5. It is impossible, then, to allow the sacrifice of Abel, in this
instance, to have been an act of FAITH, without supposing that it had
respect to a previous revelation, which agreed with all the parts of
that sacrificial action by which he expressed his faith in it. Had
Abel’s sacrifice been eucharistic merely, it would have expressed
gratitude, but not faith; or if faith in the general sense of confidence
in God that he would receive an act of grateful worship, and reward the
worshippers, it did not more express faith than the offering of Cain,
who surely believed these two points, or he would not have brought an
offering of any kind. The offering of Abel expressed a faith which Cain
had not; and the doctrinal principles which Abel’s faith respected were
such as his sacrifice visibly embodied. If it was not an eucharistic
sacrifice, it was an expiatory one; and, in fact, it is only in a
sacrifice of this kind, that it is possible to see that faith exhibited
which Abel had, and Cain had not. If then we refer to the subsequent
sacrifices of expiation appointed by Divine authority, and their
explanation in the New Testament, it will be obvious to what doctrines
and principles of an antecedent revelation the faith of Abel had
respect, and which his sacrifice, the exhibition of his faith,
proclaimed: confession of the fact of being a sinner,--acknowledgment
that the demerit and penalty of sin is death,--submission to an
appointed mode of expiation,--animal sacrifice offered _vicariously_,
but in itself a mere type of a better sacrifice, “the Seed of the
woman,” appointed to be offered at some future period,--and the efficacy
of this appointed method of expiation to obtain forgiveness, and to
admit the guilty into the Divine favour.
“Abel,” Dr. Magee justly says, “in firm reliance on the promise of God,
and in obedience to his command, offered that sacrifice which had been
enjoined as the religious expression of his faith; whilst Cain,
disregarding the gracious assurances that had been vouchsafed, or at
least disdaining to adopt the prescribed mode of manifesting his belief,
possibly as not appearing to _his reason_ to possess any efficacy or
natural fitness, thought he had sufficiently acquitted himself of his
duty in acknowledging the general superintendence of God, and expressing
his gratitude to the Supreme Benefactor, by presenting some of those
good things which he thereby confessed to have been derived from his
bounty. In short, Cain, the first-born of the fall, exhibits the first
fruits of his parents’ disobedience, in the arrogance and
self-sufficiency of reason rejecting the aids of revelation, because
they fell not within its apprehension of right. He takes the first place
in the annals of Deism, and displays, in his proud rejection of the
ordinance of sacrifice, the same spirit which, in later days, has
actuated his _enlightened_ followers, in rejecting the sacrifice of
Christ.”
Abel was killed about the year of the world, 130.