Prayers And Thanks

Et factum est, post dies obtulit Cain ex fructibus terrae munus Domino. Duplex culpa: una quod post dies obtulit, altera quod ex fructibus, non ex primis fructibus. Sacrificium autem et celeritate commendatur et gratia. Unde praeceptum est: Si voveris votum, non faciasmoram reddere illud. Melius est enim non vovere votum, quam vovere, et non reddere. Cum enim moram facis, non reddis. Votum est autem postulatio bonorum a Deo cum solvendi muneris promissione. Et ideo cum impetraveris quod petisti, ingrati est tardare promissum. Sed interdum aut negligentibus irrepit oblivio impetratorum, aut tumidis et elatis. Arrogare eventus sibi hebetis cordis est, et bonum quod agit vel quod a Deo consequitur, propriis virtutibus vindicare, nec auctoris deputare gratiae, sed ipsum se suorum bonorum auctorem ducere. Tertium genus est peccati quidem minoris, sed supparis arrogantiae eorum scilicet qui datorem bonorum Deum non negant: sed quae acciderint, ea sibi propter prudentiam suam, caeterarumque merita virtutum jure delata arbitrantur. Propterea etiam divina dignos habitos gratia, quod nequaquam viderentur indigni quibus talia divinis beneficiis provenirent. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Cain et Abel, Liber I, Caput VII

And it was that after some days Cain brought from the fruits of the earth as a gift for the Lord. 1   A double fault: one, that he brought after some days, the another that it is was from fruits and not the first fruits. A sacrifice and thanks is commendable when quickly given, whence the command says, 'If you make a vow, do not delay to make it good. Better it is not to make a vow at all, than to make a vow and not to make it good.' 2 For when you delay you do not do. A vow is a request of goods from God with the promise of the performance of a gift. And therefore when you have asked for what you seek, ungrateful it is to be tardy in what you promised. But sometimes either forgetfulness inclines the one who has asked to negligence, or it comes about by pride and elation. But to claim success for oneself is of the foolish heart, when the good which happens, which comes from God, a man claims is through his own strength, not giving thanks to the author of it but accounting himself the author of his own goods. The third class is a lesser sin, it is the arrogance of those who do not deny that God is a giver of good things, but that things have happened on account of his own prudence, and among other things the merit of virtues they judge to be nothing. Because the Divine grace which the worthy have, never appears in the unworthy, by which grace such things from the Divine good are provided. Saint Ambrose, Cain and Abel, Book 1, Chap 7 1 Gen 4.3 2 Eccl 5 3-4