13. Thou seest that it is good to make
confession. Thou seest that there is salvation for them that
repent. Solomon also fell but what saith he? Afterwards
I repented Prov. xxiv. 32, Sept. Heb. “Set my
heart.” The passage has no reference to repentance:
it means, “I considered the field of the slothful.”
Hilary, Ps. lii.; Ambrose, Apolog. 1, Prophetæ
David, c. iii. and other Fathers affirm the repentance of
Solomon. Augustine (c. Faustum, Lib. xxii. c. 88)
maintains that Scripture says nothing of his repentance or
forgiveness. See Dante, Paradiso, Canto x. 109.. Ahab, too, the
King of Samaria, became a most wicked idolater, an outrageous man, the
murderer of the Prophets 1 Kings xviii. 4., a stranger to
godliness, a coveter of other men’s fields and vineyards.
Yet when by Jezebel’s means he had slain Naboth, and the Prophet
Elias came and merely threatened him, he rent his garments, and put on
sackcloth. And what saith the merciful God to Elias?
Hast than seen how Ahab is pricked in the heart before
Me Ib. xxi.
29.? as if almost He would persuade the fiery
zeal of the Prophet to condescend to the penitent. For He saith,
I will not bring the evil in his days. And though after
this forgiveness he was sure not to depart from his wickedness,
nevertheless the forgiving God forgave him, not as being ignorant of
the future, but as granting a forgiveness corresponding to his present
season of repentance. For it is the part of a righteous judge to
give sentence according to each case that has occurred.