Whoever looks into this text without understanding the spirit of sacred discourse will not so much instruct himself with knowledge as confuse himself with ambiguity, because sometimes the words of the literal text contradict each other. But when they disagree and oppose each other, they send the reader in pursuit of true understanding. How is it, for example, that Solomon says, "Better to eat and drink," and shortly after adds, "Better to go to the house of grief than to the house of feasting"? Why does he prefer grief to feasting here when just before he had praised eating and drinking? For if by choice it is good to eat and drink, clearly it would be better to hasten to a house full of rejoicing than to a house full of lamentation. This is why he says again, "Rejoice, young man, in your adolescence," and a little later adds, "Adolescence and pleasure are empty and vain." Why does he either first suggest reprehensible things or later reprehend what he has suggested, if not because he uses the words of the literal sense to suggest that whoever experiences difficulty with the surface should look to the inner meaning of truth to follow?
To seek this understanding of truth we need humility of heart: to find it, diligent reading. We see the faces of strangers and know nothing of their hearts, but if we converse with them, we discover their minds in their ordinary conversation. So when we find only the surface story in scripture, we see nothing but the face; but if we cling to this, we can reach its mind as if in ordinary conversation. We gather various impressions from various directions, but we can readily recognize in scripture's words that it says one thing, but suggests another meaning. If we are tied to the surface meaning, we will not be admitted to true knowledge of scripture.
