Chapter IV.
By praising the repentance of David in a more detailed manner, he openly declares that no one is found to be immune from falling through the example of the most holy men.
We have distinguished valid allegations, as we believe, and have shown in detail the text of this history: now let us repeat what has been said before, and let us examine the error as if it were stripped of its spiritual clothing. David sinned, as kings often do: but he repented, he wept, he groaned, which kings do not usually do. He confessed his fault, begged for forgiveness, lay prostrate on the ground lamenting his misery, fasted, prayed, and transmitted the testimony of his confession through eternal ages with the publication of his pain. What private individuals are ashamed to do, the king is not ashamed to confess. Those who are bound by laws dare to deny their own sin, disdain to ask for forgiveness, which he who is bound by no human laws sought. What he sinned, belongs to his condition: what he begged for, belongs to his correction. A common, but special confession. Therefore, it is the nature to have committed fault: it is the virtue to have washed it away. Who boasts, he says, to have a clean heart? The world is declared to be no more than a day old, according to the testimony of Scripture (Job 14:5).
Give me someone without the fault of sin. Samson is read as the strongest of all (Judges 14 and following), who even strangled a lion with his own hands; but if only he could have suffocated his love. He set fire to the harvests of the Allophylians, and he himself burned with the spark of a single woman. Jephthah returned as the victor from the enemy: but carrying back triumphal flags, he was defeated by his own oath, considering that he should reward the piety of his daughter who met him with the act of a parricide. First of all, what need was there to swear so easily, and to make uncertain vows in place of certain ones, of which the outcome was not known? And then, why does he render sad sacraments to the Lord God, in order to fulfill his bloody vows with funerals?
Nor do I think we should remain silent about the priests, lest it seem that we are concealing our own crimes. Aaron himself, the high priest (under the leadership of Moses, when the Hebrew people crossed the Red Sea on foot), when asked by the people to make gods for them to worship, demanded gold, threw it into the fire, and a carved calf's head was formed, to which sacrifices were offered. By this indication, it became clear that the desire for gold is the source of treachery, and that sacrilege is accustomed to be produced by the greed for wealth. Once again, such a priest encounters a place of offense with his sister Miriam. For while both of them slander their brother because he had taken a foreign wife, immediately Miriam broke out in the contagion of blemished flesh.
It was in this visible place that there was a representation of the mystery, which that priestly people of the fathers belittled in later times to the brotherly people, unaware of that Ethiopian's sacrament. For if he had known, he would not have criticized it, because it was in agreement with the ancient mystery. Therefore, when the Jew declares him who believed from the Gentiles to be common, and desires to separate him from the Law, he has leprosy, which he will not be able to escape unless the spiritual recognition of the law has secured pardon for him.
Therefore even David, who knew himself to be born for the fall, sought forgiveness; but he did not despair of the Lord's mercy.