Chapter XXV.—God’s Dealings with Adam at the Fall, and with Cain After His Crime, Admirably Explained and Defended.

It is now high time that I should, in order to meet all695    Ut omnia expediam. objections of this kind, proceed to the explanation and clearing up696    Purgandas. of the other trifles,697    Pusillitates. weak points, and inconsistencies, as you deemed them. God calls out to Adam,698    Gen. iii. 9, 11. Where art thou? as if ignorant where he was; and when he alleged that the shame of his nakedness was the cause (of his hiding himself), He inquired whether he had eaten of the tree, as if He were in doubt.  By no means;699    Immo. God was neither uncertain about the commission of the sin, nor ignorant of Adam’s whereabouts. It was certainly proper to summon the offender, who was concealing himself from the consciousness of his sin, and to bring him forth into the presence of his Lord, not merely by the calling out of his name, but with a home-thrust blow700    Sugillatione. at the sin which he had at that moment committed. For the question ought not to be read in a merely interrogative tone, Where art thou, Adam? but with an impressive and earnest voice, and with an air of imputation, Oh, Adam, where art thou?—as much as to intimate: thou art no longer here, thou art in perdition—so that the voice is the utterance of One who is at once rebuking and sorrowing.701    Dolendi. But of course some part of paradise had escaped the eye of Him who holds the universe in His hand as if it were a bird’s nest, and to whom heaven is a throne and earth a footstool; so that He could not see, before He summoned him forth, where Adam was, both while lurking and when eating of the forbidden fruit!  The wolf or the paltry thief escapes not the notice of the keeper of your vineyard or your garden! And God, I suppose, with His keener vision,702    Oculatiorem. from on high was unable to miss the sight of703    Præterire. aught which lay beneath Him! Foolish heretic, who treat with scorn704    Naso. so fine an argument of God’s greatness and man’s instruction! God put the question with an appearance of uncertainty, in order that even here He might prove man to be the subject of a free will in the alternative of either a denial or a confession, and give to him the opportunity of freely acknowledging his transgression, and, so far,705    Hoc nomine. of lightening it.706    Relevandi. In like manner He inquires of Cain where his brother was, just as if He had not yet heard the blood of Abel crying from the ground, in order that he too might have the opportunity from the same power of the will of spontaneously denying, and to this degree aggravating, his crime; and that thus there might be supplied to us examples of confessing sins rather than of denying them: so that even then was initiated the evangelic doctrine, “By thy words707    Ex ore tuo, “out of thine own mouth.” thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”708    Matt. xii. 37. Now, although Adam was by reason of his condition under law709    Propter statum legis. subject to death, yet was hope preserved to him by the Lord’s saying, “Behold, Adam is become as one of us;”710    Gen. iii. 22. [II. Peter, i. 4.] that is, in consequence of the future taking of the man into the divine nature. Then what follows? “And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, (and eat), and live for ever.” Inserting thus the particle of present time, “And now,” He shows that He had made for a time, and at present, a prolongation of man’s life. Therefore He did not actually711    Ipsum. [Comp. Heb. ix. 8, and Rev. xxii. 14.] curse Adam and Eve, for they were candidates for restoration, and they had been relieved712    Relevatos. by confession. Cain, however, He not only cursed; but when he wished to atone for his sin by death, He even prohibited his dying, so that he had to bear the load of this prohibition in addition to his crime. This, then, will prove to be the ignorance of our God, which was simulated on this account, that delinquent man should not be unaware of what he ought to do. Coming down to the case of Sodom and Gomorrha, he says: “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.”713    Gen. xviii. 21. [Marcion’s god also “comes down.” p. 284, supra.] Well, was He in this instance also uncertain through ignorance, and desiring to know?  Or was this a necessary tone of utterance, as expressive of a minatory and not a dubious sense, under the colour of an inquiry? If you make merry at God’s “going down,” as if He could not except by the descent have accomplished His judgment, take care that you do not strike your own God with as hard a blow. For He also came down to accomplish what He wished.

CAPUT XXV.

Jam nunc ut omnia ejusmodi expediam, ad caeteras pusillitates, et infirmitates, et incongruentias (ut putatis) interpretandas purgandasque pertendam. Inclamat Deus (Gen. III): Adam, ubi es? scilicet ignorans ubi esset? et caussato nuditatis pudore, an de arbore gustasset interrogat, scilicet incertus? Imo nec incertus admissi, nec ignorans loci. Enimvero oportebat conscientia peccati delitescentem, evocatum prodire in conspectum Domini, non sola 0314B nominis inclamatione, sed cum aliqua jam tunc admissi suggillationem. Nec enim simplici modo, id est, interrogatorio sono legendum est, Adam ubi es ? sed impresso et incusso, et imputativo, Adam, ubi es? id est, in perditione es; id est, jam hic non es; ut et increpandi et dolendi exitus vox sit. Caeterum, qui totum orbem comprehendit manu velut nidum, cujus coelum thronus, et terra scabellum, nimirum hujus oculos aliqua paradisi portio evaserat, quo minus illi ubicumque Adam ante evocationem viseretur, tam latens, quam de interdicta fruge sumens? Speculatorem vineae vel horti tui lupus aut furunculus non latet. Deum puto de sublimioribus oculatiorem aliquid subjecti praeterire non posse. Stulte qui tantum argumentum divinae majestatis, et 0314C humanae instructionis, naso agis. Interrogabat Deus quasi incertus, ut et hinc liberi arbitrii probans hominem, in caussa aut negationis aut confessionis daret ei locum sponte confitendi delictum, et hoc nomine relevandi , sicut de Cain sciscitatur, ubinam frater ejus; quasi non jam vociferatum a terra sanguinem Abelis audisset: sed ut et ille haberet potestatem ex eadem arbitrii potestate sponte negandi delicti, et hoc nomine gravandi; atque ita nobis conderentur exempla confitendorum potius delictorum, quam negandorum: ut jam tunc initiaretur evangeliea doctrina (Matth. XII, 37): Ex ore tuo justificaberis , et ex ore tuo damnaberis . 0315A Nam etsi Adam propter statum legis deditus morti est, sed spes ei salva est, dicente Domino (Gen. III, 22): Ecce Adam factus est tanquam unus ex nobis: de futura scilicet allectione hominis in divinitatem. Denique, quid sequitur? Et nunc, ne quando extendat manum, et sumat de ligno vitae, et vivat in aevum. Interponens enim et nunc, praesentis temporis verbum, temporalem et ad praesens dilationem vitae fecisse se ostendit. Ideoque nec maledixit ipsum Adam, nec Evam, ut restitutionis candidatos, ut confessione relevatos. Cain vero et maledixit, et cupidum morte luere delictum, mori interim vetuit, ut praeter admissum, etiam negationis ejus oneratum. Haec erit ignorantia Dei nostri, quae ideo simulabitur, ne delinquens homo, quid sibi agendum 0315B sit, ignoret . Sed ad Sodomam et Gomorrham descendens: Videbo, ait (Gen., XVIII, 21), si secundum clamorem pervenientem ad me consumment , si vero non, ut agnoscam. Et hic, videlicet, ex ignorantia incertus et scire cupidus? an hic sonus pronuntiationis necessarius, non dubitativum, sed comminativum exprimens sensum sub sciscitationis obtentu? Quod si descensum quoque Dei irrides, quasi aliter non potuerit perficere judicium, nisi descendisset; vide ne tuum aeque Deum pulses. Nam et ille descendit, ut quod vellet, efficeret.