9. Come with me now to the other class,
those who were saved by repentance. But perhaps even among women
some one will say, I have committed fornication, and adultery, I have
defiled my body by excesses of all kinds: is there salvation for
me? Turn thine eyes, O woman, upon Rahab, and look thou also for
salvation; for if she who had been openly and publicly a harlot was
saved by repentance, is not she who on some one occasion before
receiving grace committed fornication to be saved by repentance and
fasting? For inquire how she was saved: this only she
said: For your God is God in heaven and upon
earth Josh. ii. 11.. Your
God; for her own she did not dare to say, because of her wanton
life. And if you wish to receive Scriptural testimony of her
having been saved, you have it written in the Psalms: I will
make mention of Rahab and Babylon among them that know me Ps. lxxxvii. 4. “Rahab” is there a
poetical name of Egypt, and the passage has nothing to do with Rahab
the harlot. The Benedictine Editor rightly disregards S.
Jerome’s suggestion, that Rahab is, like Egypt, a type of the
Gentile Church.. O the
greatness of God’s loving-kindness, making mention even of
harlots in the Scriptures: nay, not simply I will make mention
of Rahab and Babylon, but with the addition, among them that
know me. There is then in the case both of men and of women
alike the salvation which is ushered in by repentance.