We have it indeed on the authority of Moses that the Levites, who in place of the first-born were appointed to the service of Him who alone is worthy of service, were a ransom for all the others. “And behold I have taken,” he says, “the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel, in place of every first-born that opens the womb from among the sons of Israel. They shall be their ransom and the Levites shall be mine, for every first-born is mine. On the day when I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt, I hallowed to myself every first-born in Israel” (Numb. 3:12, 13). It is Reason, who has taken refuge with God and become His suppliant, that is here given the name of Levite. This Reason God took from the midmost and most sovereign part of the soul, that is He drew it and allotted it to Himself and adjudged to it the portion of the eldest son. And thus it is clear from this that, while Reuben is the first-born of Jacob, Levi is the first-born of Israel. The former has the precedence in years, the latter in honour and value. For labour and progress of which Jacob is the symbol have their source in natural ability which gives Reuben his name, but the fountain of that devout contemplation of the only wise being, on which Israel’s rank is based, is the habit of service to God, and this service is symbolized by Levi. So then, just as Jacob appears as inheritor of the birthright of Esau, when labour striving for the good was victorious over the craving that pursues evil, so too Reuben the man of natural gifts must yield the rights of the elder to Levi, whose life is one of perfect virtue. And this perfection is shown most clearly in that he makes God his refuge and forsakes all dealing with the world of created things.
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 36
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