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But though God made use of this very mode of address which we have
been endeavoring to explain, and spoke to Cain in that form by which
He was wont to accommodate Himself to our first parents and converse
with them as a companion, what good influence had it on Cain? Did he
not fulfill his wicked intention of killing his brother even after he
was warned by God's voice? For when God had made a distinction
between their sacrifices, neglecting Cain's, regarding Abel's,
which was doubtless intimated by some visible sign to that effect; and
when God had done so because the works of the one were evil but those
of his brother good, Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
For thus it is written: "And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are
thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou offerest
rightly, but dost not rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned?
Fret not thyself, for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt
rule over him." In this admonition administered by God to Cain,
that clause indeed, "If thou offerest rightly, but dost not rightly
distinguish, hast thou not sinned?" is obscure, inasmuch as it is
not apparent for what reason or purpose it was spoken, and many
meanings have been put upon it, as each one who discusses it attempts
to interpret it according to the rule of faith. The truth is, that a
sacrifice is "rightly offered" when it is offered to the true God,
to whom alone we must sacrifice. And it is "not rightly
distinguished" when we do not rightly distinguish the places or seasons
or materials of the offering, or the person offering, or the person to
whom it is presented, or those to whom it is distributed for food after
the oblation. Distinguishing is here used for discriminating, whether
when an offering is made in a place where it ought not or of a material
which ought to be offered not there but elsewhere; or when an offering
is made at a wrong time, or of a material suitable not then but at some
other time; or when that is offered which in no place nor any time
ought to be offered; or when a man keeps to himself choicer specimens
of the same kind than he offers to God; or when he or any other who
may not lawfully partake profanely eats of the oblation. In which of
these particulars Cain displeased God, it is difficult to determine.
But the Apostle John, speaking of these brothers, says, "Not as
Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And
wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his
brother's righteous." He thus gives us to understand that God did
not respect his offering because it was not rightly "distinguished" in
this, that he gave to God something of his own but kept himself to
himself. For this all do who follow not God's will but their own,
who live not with an upright but a crooked heart, and yet offer to God
such gifts as they suppose will procure from Him that He aid them not
by healing but by gratifying their evil passions. And this is the
characteristic of the earthly city, that it worships God or gods who
may aid it in reigning victoriously and peacefully on earth not through
love of doing good, but through lust of rule. The good use the world
that they may enjoy God: the wicked, on the contrary, that they may
enjoy the world would fain use God, those of them, at least, who
have attained to the belief that He is and takes an interest in human
affairs. For they who have not yet attained even to this belief are
still at a much lower level. Cain, then, when he saw that God had
respect to his brother's sacrifice, but not to his own, should have
humbly chosen his good brother as his example, and not proudly counted
him his rival.
But he was wroth, and his countenance fell. This angry regret for
another person's goodness, even his brother's, was charged upon him
by God as a great sin. And He accused him of it in the
interrogation, "Why are thou wroth, and why is thy countenance
fallen?" For God saw that he envied his brother, and of this He
accused him. For to men, from whom the heart of their fellow is hid,
it might be doubtful and quite uncertain whether that sadness bewailed
his own wickedness by which, as he had learned, he had displeased
God, or his brother's goodness, which had pleased God, and won
His favorable regard to his sacrifice. But God, in giving the
reason why He refused to accept Cain's offering and why Cain should
rather have been displeased at himself than at his brother, shows him
that though he was unjust in "not rightly distinguishing," that is,
not rightly living and being unworthy to have his offering received, he
was more unjust by far in hating his just brother without a cause.
Yet He does not dismiss him without counsel, holy, just, and good.
"Fret not thyself," He says, "for unto thee shall be his
turning, and thou shall rule over him." Over his brother, does He
mean? Most certainly not. Over what, then, but sin? For He had
said, "Thou hast sinned," and then He added, "Fret not
thyself, for to thee shall be its turning, and thou shall rule over
it." And the "turning" of sin to the man can be understood of his
conviction that the guilt of sin can be laid at no other man's door but
his own. For this is the health-giving medicine of penitence, and
the fit plea for pardon; so that, when it is said, "To thee its
turning," we must not supply "shall be," but we must read, "To
thee let its turning be," understanding it as a command, not as a
prediction. For then shall a man rule over his sin when he does not
prefer it to himself and defend it, but subjects it by repentance;
otherwise he that becomes protector of it shall surely become its
prisoner. But if we understand this sin to be that carnal
concupiscence of which the apostle says, "The flesh lusteth against
the spirit," among the fruits of which lust he names envy, by which
assuredly Cain was stung and excited to destroy his brother, then we
may properly supply the words "shall be," and read, "To thee shall
be its turning, and thou shalt rule over it." For when the carnal
part which the apostle calls sin, in that place where he says, "It
is not I who do it, but sin that dwelleth in me," that part which
the philosophers also call vicious, and which ought not to lead the
mind, but which the mind ought to rule and restrain by reason from
illicit motions, when, then, this part has been moved to perpetrate
any wickedness, if it be curbed and if it obey the word of the
apostle, "Yield not your members instruments of unrighteousness unto
sin," it is turned towards the mind and subdued and conquered by it,
so that reason rules over it as a subject. It was this which God
enjoined on him who was kindled with the fire of envy against his
brother, so that he sought to put out of the way him whom he should
have set as an example. "Fret not thyself," or compose thyself,
He says: withhold thy hand from crime; let not sin reign in your
mortal body to fulfill it in the lusts thereof, nor yield your members
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. "For to thee shall be its
turning," so long as you do not encourage it by giving it the rein,
but bridle it by quenching its fire. "And thou shall rule over it;"
for when it is not allowed any external actings, it yields itself to
the rule of the governing mind and righteous will, and ceases from even
internal motions. There is something similar said in the same divine
book of the woman, when God questioned and judged them after their
sin, and pronounced sentence on them all, the devil in the form of the
serpent, the woman and her husband in their own persons. For when He
had said to her, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy
conception; in sorrow shall thou bring forth children," then He
added, "and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule
over thee." What is said to Cain about his sin, or about the
vicious concupiscence of his flesh, is here said of the woman who had
sinned; and we are to understand that the husband is to rule his wife
as the soul rules the flesh. And therefore, says the apostle, "He
that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man ever yet hated his
own flesh."
This flesh, then, is to be healed, because it belongs to ourselves:
is not to be abandoned to destruction as if it were alien to our
nature. But Cain received that counsel of God in the spirit of one
who did not wish to amend.
In fact, the vice of envy grew stronger in him; and, having
entrapped his brother, he slew him. Such was the founder of the
earthly city. He was also a figure of the Jews who slew Christ the
Shepherd of the flock of men, prefigured by Abel the shepherd of
sheep: but as this is an allegorical and prophetical matter, I
forbear to explain it now; besides, I remember that I have made some
remarks upon it in writing against Faustus the Manichaean.
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