or thinks he has attained, to a higher grade of spiritual life,
G ox CnPJSTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III.
" Let him lose his life"—that is, let him destroy and lose that perverted and unnatural use which he now makes of his life, and througli which his desires are fixed on temporal things so that he gives no heed to eternal. It is written : *' Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner." ^ The latter clause of this sentence seems to forbid benevolence ; for it says, " help not a sinner." Understand, therefore, that " sinner" is put figuratively for sin, so that it is his sin you are not to help.
Chap. xvii. Some commands are given to all in common, others to particular classes.
25. Again, it often happens that a man who has attained, or thinks he has attained, to a higher grade of spiritual life, thinks that the commands given to those who are still in the lower grades are figurative ; for example, if he has embraced a life of celibacy and made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake, he contends that the commands given in Scripture about loving and ruling a wife are not to be taken literally, but figuratively ; and if he has determined to keep his virgin unmarried, he tries to put a figurative interpretation on the passage where it is said, " Marry thy daughter, and so shalt thou have performed a weighty matter.""'^ Accordingly, another of our rules for understanding the Scriptures will be as follows,—to recognise that |some commands are given to all in common, others to particular classes of persons^ that the y ]iiedicine may act not only upon the state of health as a whole,
1 »ut also upon the special weakness of each member. For that which cannot be raised to a higher state must be cared for in its own state./
Cii.vr. XVIII.— ire must take i7ito consideration the time at ichich anything was enjoined or allowed.
must also be on our guard against supposing that what in the Old Testament, making allowance for the condition of those times, is not a crime or a vice even if we take it literally and not figuratively, can be transferred to the_present time as a habit of life. N For no one will do this except lust has dominion over hii?i, and endeavours to find support for itself in the very Scriptures which were intended to overthrow
' Ecdus. xii. 4. Comp. ToLit iv. 17.
'Ecclus. vii. -7.