NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To Optimus the bishop.death is a gain, because it brings relief from their pain. But thy life shall be prolonged, thatthy punishment may be made commensurate with thy sins. Since then the wordἐκδικούμενον may be understood in two senses; both the sin for which vengeance was taken,and the manner of the punishment, let us now examine whether the criminal suffered asevenfold torment.4. The seven sins of Cain have been enumerated in what has been already said. Now Iask if the punishments inflicted on him were seven, and I state as follows. The Lord enquired‘Where is Abel thy brother?’ not because he wished for information, but in order to giveCain an opportunity for repentance, as is proved by the words themselves, for on his denialthe Lord immediately convicts him saying, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth untome.” So the enquiry, “Where is Abel thy brother?” was not made with a view to God’s information,but to give Cain an opportunity of perceiving his sin. But for God’s having visitedhim he might have pleaded that he was left alone and had no opportunity given him for repentance.Now the physician appeared that the patient might flee to him for help. Cain,however, not only fails to hide his sore, but makes another one in adding the lie to themurder. “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Now from this point begin to reckonthe punishments. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” one punishment. “Thou shalt tillthe ground.” This is the second punishment. Some secret necessity was imposed upon himforcing him to the tillage of the earth, so that it should never be permitted him to take restwhen he might wish, but ever to suffer pain with the earth, his enemy, which, by pollutingit with his brother’s blood, he had made accursed. “Thou shalt till the ground.” Terriblepunishment, to live with those that hate one, to have for a companion an enemy, an implacablefoe. “Thou shalt till the earth,” that is, Thou shalt toil at the labours of the field, neverresting, never released from thy work, day or night, bound down by secret necessity whichis harder than any savage master, and continually urged on to labour. “And it shall not yieldunto thee her strength.” Although the ceaseless toil had some fruit, the labour itself wereno little torture to one forced never to relax it. But the toil is ceaseless, and the labours atthe earth are fruitless (for “she did not yield her strength”) and this fruitlessness of labouris the third punishment. “Groaning and trembling shalt thou be on the earth.” Here twomore are added to the three; continual groaning, and tremblings of the body, the limbs beingdeprived of the steadiness that comes of strength. Cain had made a bad use of the strengthof his body, and so its vigour was destroyed, and it tottered and shook, and it was hard forhim to lift meat and drink to his mouth, for after his impious conduct, his wicked hand wasno longer allowed to minister to his body’s needs. Another punishment is that which Caindisclosed when he said, “Thou hast driven me out from the face of the earth, and from thyface shall I be hid.” What is the meaning of this driving out from the face of the earth? Itmeans deprivation of the benefits which are derived from the earth. He was not transferredto another place, but he was made a stranger to all the good things of earth. “And from thy298815