he may be able to see and to trace out in them a figure of
100 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [cOOK III.
adultery alone. And hence Ave may understand with what temperance he possessed a number of wives when he was forced to punish himself for transgressing in regard to one woman. But in his case the immoderate desire did not take up its abode with him, but was only a passing guest. On this account the unlawful appetite is called even by the accusing prophet, a guest. For he did not say that he took the poor man's ewe-lamb to make a feast for his king, but for his guest.
In the case of his son Solomon, however, this lust did not come and pass away like ^^.^lest, but reigned as a king. And about him Scripture is nqt^silent, but accuses him of being a lover of strange women ; for in the beginning of his reign he was inflamed with a desire for wisdom, but after he had attained it through spiritual love, he lost it through carnal lust.^
Chap. xxii.—Rule regarding passages ofScripture in which approval is expressed of actions u'hich are now condemned hy good men.
32. Therefore, although all, or nearly all, the transactions recorded in the Old Testament are to be taken not literally only, but figuratively as well, nevertheless even in the case of those which the reader has taken literally, and which, though the authors of them are praised, are repugnant to the habits of the crood men who since our Lord's advent are the custodians of the divine commands, let him refer the figure to its interpretation^ but let him not transfer the act to his habits of life.
For many things which were done as duties at that time, cannot now be done except through lust.
CiiAr. XXIII. Rule regarding tJie narrative of sins of great men.
33. And when he reads of the sins of great men, although he may be able to see and to trace out in them a figure of things to come, let him yet put the literal fact to this use also, to teach him not to dare to vaunt himself in his own good deeds, and in comparison witli his own righteousness, to despise others as sinners, wlien he sees in the case of men so eminent both the storms that are to be avoided and the shipwrecks that are to be wept over. For the sins of these men were recorded to this end, that men might everywhere and always
[tremble at that saying of tlie apostle : " Wherefore let him