{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Yet He does not dismiss him without counsel, holy, just,\r\nand good. \"Fret not thyself,\" He says, \"for unto thee shall\r\nbe his turning, and thou shalt rule over him.\" Over his\r\nbrother, does He mean? Most certainly not. Over what, then,\r\nbut sin? For He had said, \"Thou hast sinned,\" and then\r\nHe added, \"Fret not thyself, for to thee shall be its turning,\r\nand thou shalt rule over it.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_151_151\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_151_151\">[151]</a> And the \"turning\" of sin to\r\nthe man can be understood of his conviction that the guilt of\r\nsin can be laid at no other man's door but his own. For this\r\nis the health-giving medicine of penitence, and the fit plea\r\nfor pardon; so that, when it is said, \"To thee its turning,\" we\r\nmust not supply \"shall be,\" but we must read, \"To thee let its\r\nturning be,\" understanding it as a command, not as a prediction.\r\nFor then shall a man rule over his sin when he does\r\nnot prefer it to himself and defend it, but subjects it by repentance;\r\notherwise he that becomes protector of it shall surely\r\nbecome its prisoner. But if we understand this sin to be that\r\ncarnal concupiscence of which the apostle says, \"The flesh\r\nlusteth against the spirit,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_152_152\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_152_152\">[152]</a> among the fruits of which lust he<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_60\">[Pg 60]</a></span>\r\nnames envy, by which assuredly Cain was stung and excited\r\nto destroy his brother, then we may properly supply the\r\nwords \"shall be,\" and read, \"To thee shall be its turning, and\r\nthou shalt rule over it.\" For when the carnal part which the\r\napostle calls sin, in that place where he says, \"It is not I who\r\ndo it, but sin that dwelleth in me,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_153_153\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_153_153\">[153]</a> that part which the\r\nphilosophers also call vicious, and which ought not to lead the\r\nmind, but which the mind ought to rule and restrain by reason\r\nfrom illicit motions,—when, then, this part has been moved to\r\nperpetrate any wickedness, if it be curbed and if it obey the\r\nword of the apostle, \"Yield not your members instruments of\r\nunrighteousness unto sin,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_154_154\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_154_154\">[154]</a> it is turned towards the mind and\r\nsubdued and conquered by it, so that reason rules over it as\r\na subject. It was this which God enjoined on him who was\r\nkindled with the fire of envy against his brother, so that he\r\nsought to put out of the way him whom he should have set\r\nas an example. \"Fret not thyself,\" or compose thyself, He\r\nsays: withhold thy hand from crime; let not sin reign in\r\nyour mortal body to fulfil it in the lusts thereof, nor yield\r\nyour members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. \"For\r\nto thee shall be its turning,\" so long as you do not encourage\r\nit by giving it the rein, but bridle it by quenching its fire.\r\n\"And thou shalt rule over it;\" for when it is not allowed any\r\nexternal actings, it yields itself to the rule of the governing\r\nmind and righteous will, and ceases from even internal motions.\r\nThere is something similar said in the same divine\r\nbook of the woman, when God questioned and judged them\r\nafter their sin, and pronounced sentence on them all,—the devil\r\nin the form of the serpent, the woman and her husband in\r\ntheir own persons. For when He had said to her, \"I will\r\ngreatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow\r\nshalt thou bring forth children,\" then He added, \"and thy\r\nturning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_155_155\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_155_155\">[155]</a>\r\nWhat is said to Cain about his sin, or about the vicious concupiscence\r\nof his flesh, is here said of the woman who had\r\nsinned; and we are to understand that the husband is to rule\r\nhis wife as the soul rules the flesh. And therefore, says the\r\napostle, \"He that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_61\">[Pg 61]</a></span>\r\never yet hated his own flesh.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_156_156\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_156_156\">[156]</a> This flesh, then, is to be\r\nhealed, because it belongs to ourselves: is not to be abandoned\r\nto destruction as if it were alien to our nature. But Cain received\r\nthat counsel of God in the spirit of one who did not\r\nwish to amend. In fact, the vice of envy grew stronger in him;\r\nand, having entrapped his brother, he slew him. Such was\r\nthe founder of the earthly city. He was also a figure of the\r\nJews who slew Christ the Shepherd of the flock of men, prefigured\r\nby Abel the shepherd of sheep: but as this is an allegorical\r\nand prophetical matter, I forbear to explain it now;\r\nbesides, I remember that I have made some remarks upon it\r\nin writing against Faustus the Manichæan.<a id=\"FNanchor_157_157\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_157_157\">[157]</a></p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-110"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e99f707fbefa13a24ea95c6884ccbf5c98d345fde801231fdc74112b2c426177","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"EPH","chapter":5,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Eph. v. 28","verse":28,"verse_end":28}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_156_156","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_156_156","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_156_156\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_156_156\"><span class=\"label\">[156]</span></a> Eph. v. 28, 29.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_156_156","text_sha256":"ff9d3d21b506983c561d023bb6ce738b71e21b4b0f0e07cc00d1bde03715c59e","verified":false,"work_id":null}