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.”