DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9552#0368
24
FINAL APPEAL
they all having been " of the same catalogue." I,
therefore, should hope to be informed whether there be
any authority justifying this reference. On the contrary,
■we find verse fourth of the same chapter of 'Genesis
points out, that Abel, having been accustomed to do
well, in obedience to the will of God, contrary to the
practice of his brother, righteous Jehovah accepted his
offering, and rejected that of Cain ; to which Paul thus
alludes,—" By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacri-
fice than Cain," (Hebrew xi. 4,) without leaving us
doubtful as to the sense in which that apostle used the
word " faith " in the above verse.
" By faith Abel offered unto God," &c. " By faith
Enoch was translated that he should not see death," &c.
" But without faith it is impossible to please him ; for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is
a reivarder of them who diligently seek him." Here St.
Paul gives us to understand that the " faith " which
procured for Abel, Enoch, Noah, and all the other
patriarchs, the grace of God, was their belief in the
■existence of God, and in his being their reivarder, and
not in any sacrifice, personal or vicarious. What could
prophetic anticipation by Abraham, of the divine com-
mission of Jesus, have to do with Abel's conduct, in
rendering his sacrifices acceptable to God, that any one
can esteem the one as the necessary consequence of the
other ? Moses having called himself a Jew, gave pre-
ference to the term " anointed," or " Israelite," a term
of reproach among the Egyptians in those days, over all
the riches and honour of Egypt, which he might have
obtained by declaring himself an Egyptian instead of a
Jew; or Moses esteemed (according to the English ver-
FINAL APPEAL
they all having been " of the same catalogue." I,
therefore, should hope to be informed whether there be
any authority justifying this reference. On the contrary,
■we find verse fourth of the same chapter of 'Genesis
points out, that Abel, having been accustomed to do
well, in obedience to the will of God, contrary to the
practice of his brother, righteous Jehovah accepted his
offering, and rejected that of Cain ; to which Paul thus
alludes,—" By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacri-
fice than Cain," (Hebrew xi. 4,) without leaving us
doubtful as to the sense in which that apostle used the
word " faith " in the above verse.
" By faith Abel offered unto God," &c. " By faith
Enoch was translated that he should not see death," &c.
" But without faith it is impossible to please him ; for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is
a reivarder of them who diligently seek him." Here St.
Paul gives us to understand that the " faith " which
procured for Abel, Enoch, Noah, and all the other
patriarchs, the grace of God, was their belief in the
■existence of God, and in his being their reivarder, and
not in any sacrifice, personal or vicarious. What could
prophetic anticipation by Abraham, of the divine com-
mission of Jesus, have to do with Abel's conduct, in
rendering his sacrifices acceptable to God, that any one
can esteem the one as the necessary consequence of the
other ? Moses having called himself a Jew, gave pre-
ference to the term " anointed," or " Israelite," a term
of reproach among the Egyptians in those days, over all
the riches and honour of Egypt, which he might have
obtained by declaring himself an Egyptian instead of a
Jew; or Moses esteemed (according to the English ver-