For things that signify now one thing and now another, signify
CHAP. XXV.] DIFFERENT USES OF THE SAME FIGURE. 101 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."-^ For there is hardly a page of Scripture on which it is not clearly written that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.^
Chap. xxiv.—The character of the expressions used is above all to have iceight.
34. The chief thing to be inquired into, therefore, in regard to any expression that we are trying to understand is, whether it is literal or figurative. For when it is ascertained to be figurative, it is easy, by an application of the laws of things which we discussed in the first book, to turn it in every way until we arrive at a true interpretation, especially when we bring to our aid experience strengthened by the exercise of piety. JSTow we find out whether an expression is literal or figurative by attending to the considerations indicated above.
Chap. xxv.— The same word does not always signify the same thing. And when it is shown to be figurative, the w^ords in which it is expressed will be found to be drawn^ either from like objects or from objects having some affinity.
35. But as there are many ways in which things show a likeness to each other, we are not to suppose there is any rule that what a thing signifies by similitude in one place it is to be taken to signify in all other places. For our Lord used leaven both in a bad sense, as when He said, " Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,"^ and in a good sense, as when He said, " The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." *
36. Now the rule in regard to this variation has two forms. For things that signify now one thing and now another, signify either things that are contrary, or things that are only different. They signify contraries, for example, when they are used metaphorically at one time in a good sense, at another in a bad, as in the case of the leaven mentioned above. Another example of the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is said, " The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed ;" ^ and again, stands for the devil where it is written,
» 1 Cor. X. 12. 2 Comp. Jas. iv. 6 and 1 Tot. v. 6.
3 Matt. xvi. 6 ; Luke xii. 1. -* Luke xiii. 2L ^ liev. v. 5.