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FOR so we read that Abraham went beyond the requirement of the law
which was afterwards to be given, when after his victory over the four
kings, he would not touch any of the spoils of Sodom, which were fairly due
to him as the conqueror, and which indeed the king himself, whose spoils he
had rescued, offered him; and with an oath by the Divine name he exclaimed:
"I lift up my hand to the Lord Most High, who made heaven and earth, that I
will not take from a thread to a shoe's latchet of all that is thine."
So we know that David went beyond the requirement of the law, as, though
Moses commanded that vengeance should be taken on enemies, he not only
did not do this, but actually embraced his persecutors with love, and
piously entreated the Lord for them, and wept bitterly and avenged them
when they were slain. So we are sure that Elijah and Jeremiah were not
under the law, as though they might without blame have taken advantage of
lawful matrimony, yet they preferred to remain virgins. So we read that
Elisha and others of the same mode of life went beyond the commands of
Moses, as of them the Apostle speaks as follows: "They went about in
sheepskins and in goatskins, they were oppressed, afflicted, in want, of
whom the world was not worthy, they wandered about in deserts and in
mountains, and in caves and in dens of the earth," What shall I say of
the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab, of whom we are told that, when at
the Lord's bidding the prophet Jeremiah offered them wine, they replied:
"We drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us,
saying: Ye shall drink no wine, ye and your sons forever: and ye shall
build no house, nor sow any seed, nor plant vineyards nor possess them: but
ye shall dwell in tents all your days"? Wherefore also they were permitted
to hear from the same prophet these words: "Thus saith the Lord God of
hosts, the God of Israel: there shall not fail a man from the stock of
Jonadab the son of Rechab to stand in My sight all the days;" as all of
them were not satisfied with merely offering tithes of their possessions,
but actually refused property, and offered the rather to God themselves and
their souls, for which no redemption can be made by man, as the Lord
testifies in the gospel: "For what shall a man give in exchange for his own
soul?"
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