Chapter 45 [XXXVIII.]—Why Cain Has Been by Some Thought to Have Had Children by His Mother Eve. The Sins of Righteous Men. Who Can Be Both Righteous, and Yet Not Without Sin.

When he says this, he forgets what he had himself said not long before: “After the human race had multiplied, it was possible that in the crowd the Scripture may have neglected to notice the sins of all men.” If indeed he had borne this well in mind, he would have seen that even in one man there was such a crowd and so vast a number of slight sins, that it would have been impossible (or, even if possible, not desirable) to describe them. For only such are recorded as the due bounds allowed, and as would, by few examples, serve for instructing the reader in the many cases where he needed warning. Scripture has indeed omitted to mention concerning the few persons who were then in existence, either how many or who they were,—in other words, how many sons and daughters Adam and Eve begat, and what names they gave them; and from this circumstance some, not considering how many things are quietly passed over in Scripture, have gone so far as to suppose that Cain cohabited with his mother, and by her had the children which are mentioned, thinking that Adam’s sons had no sisters, because Scripture failed to mention them in the particular place, although it afterwards, in the way of recapitulation, implied what it had previously omitted,—that “Adam begat sons and daughters,”115    Gen. v. 4. without, however, dropping a syllable to intimate either their number or the time when they were born. In like manner it was unnecessary to state whether Abel, notwithstanding that he is rightly styled “righteous,” ever indulged in immoderate laughter, or was ever jocose in moments of relaxation, or ever looked at an object with a covetous eye, or ever plucked fruit to extravagance, or ever suffered indigestion from too much eating, or ever in the midst of his prayers permitted his thoughts to wander and call him away from the purpose of his devotion; as well as how frequently these and many other similar failings stealthily crept over his mind. And are not these failings sins, about which the apostle’s precept gives us a general admonition that we should avoid and restrain them, when he says: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof?”116    Rom. vi. 12. To escape from such an obedience, we have to struggle in a constant and daily conflict against unlawful and unseemly inclinations. Only let the eye be directed, or rather abandoned, to an object which it ought to avoid, and let the mischief strengthen and get the mastery, and adultery is consummated in the body, which is committed in the heart only so much more quickly as thought is more rapid than action and there is no impediment to retard and delay it. They who in a great degree have curbed this sin, that is, this appetite of a corrupt affection, so as not to obey its desires, nor to “yield their members to it as instruments of unrighteousness,”117    Rom. vi. 13. have fairly deserved to be called righteous persons, and this by the help of the grace of God. Since, however, sin often stole over them in very small matters, and when they were off their guard, they were both righteous, and at the same time not sinless. To conclude, if there was in righteous Abel that love of God whereby alone he is truly righteous who is righteous, to enable him, and to lay him under a moral obligation, to advance in holiness, still in whatever degree he fell short therein was of sin. And who indeed can help thus falling short, until he come to that mighty power thereof, in which man’s entire infirmity shall be swallowed up?

CAPUT XXXVIII.

45. Cain ex Eva matre genuisse cur putatum a quibusdam fuerit. Peccata justorum; et justus quis esse et sine peccato non esse potest. Si quid minus est charitatis, ex vitio est. Haec dicens, parum attendit quod paulo ante ipse dixerat, «jam exorta multitudine generis humani, turbae numerositate potuisse Scripturam dissimulare omnium peccata contexere.» Hoc enim si satis attendisset, videret etiam in uno homine turbam et multitudinem peccatorum levium, vel non potuisse, vel si etiam potuit, non debuisse conscribi. Ea quippe scripta sunt, quibus et modus adhibendus fuit, et paucis exemplis ad multa necessaria lector instruendus. Nam cum ipsos tunc homines, licet adhuc paucos, quot vel qui fuerint, id est, Adam et Eva quot filios et filias procreaverint, et quae illis nomina imposuerint Scriptura commemorare noluerit (unde 0269 nonnulli parum considerantes quam multa Scriptura tacite praetereat, ipsum Cain cum matre concubuisse putaverunt, unde prolem quae commemorata est procrearet, putantes illis filiis Adam sorores non fuisse, quia eas Scriptura tunc tacuit, postea recapitulando inferens quod praetermiserat, Adam filios et filias procreasse (Gen. V, 4), nec tempus quo nati sunt, nec numerum, nec vocabula ostendens): ita nec commemorandum fuit, si Abel, quamvis merito justus appellatus est, paulo immoderatius aliquando risit, vel animi remissione jocatus est, vel vidit aliquid ad concupiscendum, vel aliquanto immoderatius poma decerpsit, vel plusculo cibo crudior fuit, vel cum oraret cogitavit aliquid unde ejus in aliud avocaretur intentio, et quoties illi ista ac similia multa subrepserint. An forte peccata non sunt, de quibus generaliter cavendis atque cohibendis admonemur praecepto apostolico, ubi dicit, Non ergo regnet peccatum in vestro mortali corpore ad obediendum desideriis ejus (Rom. VI, 12)? His quippe ne obediamus ad ea quae non licent, vel minus decent, quotidiana et perpetua conflictatione certandum est. Nam utique ex hoc vitio mittitur, vel dimittitur oculus, quo non oportet: quod vitium si convaluerit et praevaluerit, etiam adulterium perpetratur in corpore, quod in corde tanto fit citius, quanto est cogitatio celerior, et nullum impedimentum morarum. Hoc peccatum, id est, hunc vitiosae affectionis appetitum qui magna ex parte frenarunt, ut non obedirent desideriis ejus, nec exhiberent ei membra sua arma iniquitatis, etiam justi appellari meruerunt; et hoc, adjutorio gratiae Dei. Verum quia saepe in levissimis et aliquando incautis obrepit peccatum; et justi fuerunt, et sine peccato non fuerunt. Postremo si in Abel justo charitas Dei, qua una vere justus est quicumque justus est, adhuc erat quo posset et deberet augeri , quidquid minus erat, ex vitio erat. Et cui non minus sit, donec ad illam ejus fortitudinem veniatur, ubi tota hominis absorbeatur infirmitas?