{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But though God made use of this very mode of address\r\nwhich we have been endeavouring to explain, and spoke to\r\nCain in that form by which He was wont to accommodate\r\nHimself to our first parents and converse with them as a\r\ncompanion, what good influence had it on Cain? Did he not\r\nfulfil his wicked intention of killing his brother even after\r\nhe was warned by God's voice? For when God had made a\r\ndistinction between their sacrifices, neglecting Cain's, regarding\r\nAbel's, which was doubtless intimated by some visible\r\nsign to that effect; and when God had done so because the\r\nworks of the one were evil but those of his brother good, Cain\r\nwas very wroth, and his countenance fell. For thus it is\r\nwritten: \"And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth,\r\nand why is thy countenance fallen? If thou offerest rightly,\r\nbut dost not rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned? Fret\r\nnot thyself, for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt\r\nrule over him.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_148_148\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_148_148\">[148]</a> In this admonition administered by God to\r\nCain, that clause indeed, \"If thou offerest rightly, but dost\r\nnot rightly distinguish, hast thou not sinned?\" is obscure, inasmuch\r\nas it is not apparent for what reason or purpose it was\r\nspoken, and many meanings have been put upon it, as each\r\none who discusses it attempts to interpret it according to the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_58\">[Pg 58]</a></span>\r\nrule of faith. The truth is, that a sacrifice is \"rightly offered\"\r\nwhen it is offered to the true God, to whom alone we must\r\nsacrifice. And it is \"not rightly distinguished\" when we do\r\nnot rightly distinguish the places or seasons or materials of\r\nthe offering, or the person offering, or the person to whom it\r\nis presented, or those to whom it is distributed for food after\r\nthe oblation. Distinguishing<a id=\"FNanchor_149_149\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_149_149\">[149]</a> is here used for discriminating,—whether\r\nwhen an offering is made in a place where it ought\r\nnot or of a material which ought to be offered not there but\r\nelsewhere; or when an offering is made at a wrong time, or\r\nof a material suitable not then but at some other time; or when\r\nthat is offered which in no place nor any time ought to be\r\noffered; or when a man keeps to himself choicer specimens\r\nof the same kind than he offers to God; or when he or any\r\nother who may not lawfully partake profanely eats of the oblation.\r\nIn which of these particulars Cain displeased God, it is\r\ndifficult to determine. But the Apostle John, speaking of\r\nthese brothers, says, \"Not as Cain, who was of that wicked\r\none, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because\r\nhis own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_150_150\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_150_150\">[150]</a>\r\nHe thus gives us to understand that God did not respect his\r\noffering because it was not rightly \"distinguished\" in this, that\r\nhe gave to God something of his own but kept himself to himself.\r\nFor this all do who follow not God's will but their\r\nown, who live not with an upright but a crooked heart, and\r\nyet offer to God such gifts as they suppose will procure from\r\nHim that He aid them not by healing but by gratifying their\r\nevil passions. And this is the characteristic of the earthly\r\ncity, that it worships God or gods who may aid it in reigning\r\nvictoriously and peacefully on earth not through love of doing\r\ngood, but through lust of rule. The good use the world that\r\nthey may enjoy God: the wicked, on the contrary, that they\r\nmay enjoy the world would fain use God,—those of them, at\r\nleast, who have attained to the belief that He is and takes an\r\ninterest in human affairs. For they who have not yet attained\r\neven to this belief are still at a much lower level. Cain, then,\r\nwhen he saw that God had respect to his brother's sacrifice,\r\nbut not to his own, should have humbly chosen his good<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_59\">[Pg 59]</a></span>\r\nbrother as his example, and not proudly counted him his\r\nrival. But he was wroth, and his countenance fell. This angry\r\nregret for another person's goodness, even his brother's, was\r\ncharged upon him by God as a great sin. And He accused him\r\nof it in the interrogation, \"Why art thou wroth, and why is thy\r\ncountenance fallen?\" For God saw that he envied his brother,\r\nand of this He accused him. For to men, from whom the\r\nheart of their fellow is hid, it might be doubtful and quite\r\nuncertain whether that sadness bewailed his own wickedness\r\nby which, as he had learned, he had displeased God, or his\r\nbrother's goodness, which had pleased God, and won His\r\nfavourable regard to his sacrifice. But God, in giving the\r\nreason why He refused to accept Cain's offering and why\r\nCain should rather have been displeased at himself than at\r\nhis brother, shows him that though he was unjust in \"not\r\nrightly distinguishing,\" that is, not rightly living and being\r\nunworthy to have his offering received, he was more unjust by\r\nfar in hating his just brother without a cause.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-109"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b169418f023511b74aabb9081c7e9ed3bd7d33c45779e30cc9b2d7fdf5d16ba1","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"1JN","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"1 John iii. 12","verse":12,"verse_end":12}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_150_150","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_150_150","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_150_150\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_150_150\"><span class=\"label\">[150]</span></a> 1 John iii. 12.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_150_150","text_sha256":"599f8859e198d633dc6e7f71dfb9a9aa5d2423823bafc1a7cd5c1c138d53b1ee","verified":false,"work_id":null}