Chapter 17.—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 shall
thou have performed a weighty matter.” Accordingly, another of our
rules for understanding the Scriptures will be as follows,—to
recognize that some commands are given to all in common, others to
particular classes of persons, that the medicine may act not only
upon the state of health as a whole, but 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.