At the close of Job’s temptation, the Lord said to His three friends that they should take seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to Job, and offer up burnt-offerings, and Job would pray for them, “for him will I accept” (Job xlii. 8). Of the patriarchal religion we are told but little. The Apostle Paul says, in Rom. v. 14, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses”; in Rom. i. 20, that “God’s eternal power and Godhead were clearly seen in the works of creation,” so that they were without excuse; and in Rom. ii. 14, 15, that though without law they had a conscience bearing witness to the law written in their hearts, accusing or excusing their thoughts. In the earliest days, the power of God manifested in the works of creation spoke to men more clearly than it may now speak to heathen nations who know not God. They spoke to Adam and Eve of the God whom _they knew_, and had had intimate acquaintance with. The glory of Eden and the events of their life there, with their disastrous fall and expulsion, must have made an indelible impression on _their_ minds. Knowing their Creator they would have no disposition to worship the sun, moon, or stars, as His works. It would be contrary to all the subsequent history of the dealings of God with His creatures to suppose our first parents were driven out and left to their own devices as to the means of reconciliation with Him; and though we are not expressly told that sacrifice was offered by Adam, many think that the first instruction in utilising skins for clothing, referred to the skins of animals offered in sacrifice. {12} At probably no very distant period from the Fall (described as, “In process of time,” or “in the end of days”), we find Abel offering the firstling of his flock, an acceptable sacrifice to God; the same that was commanded by the law of Moses. When we take into account the length of Adam’s life and that of his sons, there is no difficulty in concluding that those indelible impressions would be handed down to his posterity, with the history of the Lord’s dealings with him, and what had been revealed to him as the means of propitiation, or being reconciled to Him. That there was a revelation before the Flood is evident, for Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice, but Cain’s was not accepted; while the words addressed by the Lord to Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door” (Gen. iv. 7), clearly indicate that Cain knew what was pleasing or displeasing to Him. Enoch and Noah also walked with God so faithfully that the one was translated, and the other, by his act of faith, condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is of faith; very clearly showing that faith, rather than works, was in those days the basis of salvation.