Chapter X.—Application of the Subject.  Advantages of Widowhood.

Renounce we things carnal, that we may at length bear fruits spiritual.  Seize the opportunity—albeit not earnestly desired, yet favourable—of not having any one to whom to pay a debt, and by whom to be (yourself) repaid!  You have ceased to be a debtor.  Happy man!  You have released49    Dimisisti, al. amisisti ="you have lost.” your debtor; sustain the loss.  What if you come to feel that what we have called a loss is a gain?  For continence will be a mean whereby you will traffic in50    Or, “amass”—negotiaberis.  See Luke xix. 15. a mighty substance of sanctity; by parsimony of the flesh you will gain the Spirit.  For let us ponder over our conscience itself, (to see) how different a man feels himself when he chances to be deprived of his wife.  He savours spiritually.  If he is making prayer to the Lord, he is near heaven.  If he is bending over the Scriptures, he is “wholly in them.”51    Comp. 1 Tim. iv. 15.  If he is singing a psalm, he satisfies himself.52    Placet sibi.  If he is adjuring a demon, he is confident in himself.  Accordingly, the apostle added (the recommendation of) a temporary abstinence for the sake of adding an efficacy to prayers,53    See 1 Cor. vii. 5. that we might know that what is profitable “for a time” should be always practised by us, that it may be always profitable.  Daily, every moment, prayer is necessary to men; of course continence (is so) too, since prayer is necessary.  Prayer proceeds from conscience.  If the conscience blush, prayer blushes.  It is the spirit which conducts prayer to God.  If the spirit be self-accused of a blushing54    i.e., guilty. conscience, how will it have the hardihood to conduct prayer to the altar; seeing that, if prayer blush, the holy minister (of prayer) itself is suffused too?  For there is a prophetic utterance of the Old Testament:  “Holy shall ye be, because God is holy;”55    See Lev. xi. 44, 45; xix. 2; xx. 7, LXX. and Vulg. and again:  “With the holy thou shalt be sanctified; and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent; and with the elect, elect.”56    See Ps. xviii. 25, 26, esp. in Vulg. and LXX., where it is xvii. 26, 27.  For it is our duty so to walk in the Lord’s discipline as is “worthy,”57    See Eph. iv. 1; Col. i. 10; 1 Thess. ii. 12. not according to the filthy concupiscences of the flesh.  For so, too, does the apostle say, that “to savour according to the flesh is death, but to savour according to the spirit is life eternal in Jesus Christ our Lord.”58    See Rom. viii. 5, 6, esp. in Vulg.  Again, through the holy prophetess Prisca59    A Marcionite prophetess, also called Priscilla. the Gospel is thus preached:  that “the holy minister knows how to minister sanctity.”  “For purity,” says she, “is harmonious, and they see visions; and, turning their face downward, they even hear manifest voices, as salutary as they are withal secret.”  If this dulling (of the spiritual faculties), even when the carnal nature is allowed room for exercise in first marriage, averts the Holy Spirit; how much more when it is brought into play in second marriage!

CAPUT X.

Renuntiemus carnalibus, ut aliquando spiritalia retractemus . Rape occasionem, etsi non exoptatissimam, 0925C attamen opportunam, non habere cui debitum solveres, et a quo exsolvereris: desiisti esse debitor. O te felicem! dimisisti debitorem; sustine damnum . Quid si, quod diximus damnum, lucrum sentias? Per continentiam enim negotiaberis magnam substantiam sanctitatis; parcimonia carnis, spiritum adquires. Recogitemus enim ipsam conscientiam nostram, quam alium se homo sentiat: cum forte a sua foemina cessat, spiritaliter sapit. Si 0926A orationem facit ad Dominum, prope est coelo. Si scripturis incumbit, totus illic est. Si psalmum canit, placet sibi. Si daemonem adjurat, confidit sibi. Ideo Apostolus temporalem purificationem orationum commendandarum caussa adjecit; ut sciremus, quod ad tempus prodest semper nobis exercendum esse, ut semper prosit. Quotidie , imo omni momento oratio hominibus necessaria est, utique et continentia, postquam oratio necessaria est. Oratio de conscientia procedit. Si conscientia erubescat , erubescit oratio. Spiritus deducit orationem ad Deum. Si spiritus reus apud se sit conscientiae erubescentis, quomodo audebit orationem ducere ab illa , de qua erubescente et ipse suffunditur sanctus minister? Etenim est prophetica vox veteris Testamenti: 0926BSancti eritis, quia Deus sanctus (Lev., XI, 44, sq.; XIX, 2; I Petr., I, 16); et rursus: Cum sancto sanctificaberis, et cum viro innocente innocens eris, et cum electo electus (Ps., XVIII, 26). Debemus enim ita ingredi in disciplina Domini, ut dignum est, non secundum carnis calentes concupiscentias . Ita enim et Apostolus dicit, quod sapere secundum carnem mors sit; secundum spiritum vero sapere vita aeterna sit in Christo Jesu Domino nostro. Si haec obfusio , etiam cum in unis nuptiis res carnis exercetur, Spiritum Sanctum avertit, quanto magis cum in secundo matrimonio agitur?