On the Sacrifice of Abel and Cain (116-119)

So too let those athletes who are not able to gain the victory but who are invariably defeated, condemn their trade; and if any merchant or captain of a ship in all his voyages meets with incessant disasters, let him turn away from the business and rest. And those men who, having devoted themselves to the intermediate arts, have nevertheless through the ruggedness of their nature been unable to acquire any learning, are to be praised for abandoning them: for such studies are not practised for the sake of the practise, but for the sake of the object towards which the labourer is borne.

If therefore nature hinders one’s improvement for the better, let us not strive against her in an unprofitable way, but if she co-operates with us then let us honour the Deity with first fruits and honours, which are the ransom of our soul, emancipating it from subjection to cruel masters, and elevating it to freedom.

For Moses confesses that the Levites who being taken in exchange for the first-born, were appointed ministers of him who alone is worthy to be ministered unto, were the ransom of all the rest of the Israelites. "For I," says God, "behold, I have chosen the Levites out of the midst of the children of Israel, instead of every first-born that openeth the womb from among the children of Israel; they shall be their ransom and the Levites shall belong to me: for every first-born is mine; from that day in which I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I dedicated to myself all the first-born of Israel." [*]

Reason which fled to God and became his suppliant, is what is here called the Levite; God having taken this from the most central and dominant part of the soul, that is to say, having taken it to himself and appropriated it as his own share, thought it worthy of the honour due to the first-born. So that from these it is plain that Reuben is the first-born of Jacob, but [*]