On the Good of Widowhood.

 Augustin the Bishop, servant of Christ, and of the servants of Christ, unto the religious handmaiden of God, Juliana, in the Lord of lords health.

 2. Whereas, therefore, in every question, which relates to life and conduct, not only teaching, but exhortation also is necessary in order that by te

 3. Therefore (thus) saith the Apostle, the teacher of the Gentiles, the vessel of election, “But I say unto the unmarried and the widows, that it is g

 4. Lo, there is your good compared to that good, which the Apostle calls his own, if faith be present: yea, rather, because faith is present. Short is

 5. Wherefore also when he was advising married persons not to defraud one another of the due of carnal intercourse lest, by this means, the one of th

 6. Wherefore this in the first place you ought to know, that by the good, which you have chosen, second marriages are not condemned, but are set in lo

 7. But whereas the Apostle, when commending the fruit of unmarried men and women, in that they have thought of the things of the Lord, how to please G

 8. Whence, also, what the Apostle Paul said of the unmarried woman, “that she may be holy both in body and spirit ” we are not so to understand, as th

 9. Learn, therefore, that thy good, yea, rather, remember what thou hast learned, that thy good is more praised, because there is another good than wh

 10. Nor, because I called Ruth blessed, Anna more blessed, in that the former married twice, the latter, being soon widowed of her one husband, so liv

 11. But thou who both hast sons, and livest in that end of the world, wherein now is the time not of casting stones, but of gathering not of embracin

 12. But since, as the Lord saith, “Not all receive this word ” therefore let her who can receive it, receive it and let her, who containeth not, marr

 13. Wherefore they who say that the marriages of such are not marriages, but rather adulteries, seem not to me to consider with sufficient acuteness a

 14. Wherefore I cannot indeed say, of females who have fallen away from a better purpose, in case they shall have married, that they are adulteries, n

 15. Men are wont to move a question concerning a third or fourth marriage, and even more numerous marriages than this. On which to make answer strictl

 16. For that also is no foolish question which is wont to be proposed, that whoso can may say, which widow is to be preferred in desert whether one w

 17. Let us therefore set before our eyes three widows, each having one of the things, the whole of which were in her: let us suppose one who had had o

 18. No one indeed of these six widows could come up to your standard. For you, in case that you shall have maintained this vow even unto old age, maye

 19. These discussions, therefore, concerning the different deserts of married women, and of different widows, I would not in this work enter upon, if,

 20. Wherefore, forasmuch as in the beginning of this little work I had proposed certain two necessary matters, and had undertaken to follow them out

 21. These things I am compelled to admonish by reason of certain little discourses of some men, that are to be shunned and avoided, which have begun t

 22. Now it has been my wish on this account to say something on this subject, by reason of certain of our brethren most friendly and dear to us, and w

 23. If, therefore, you had not as yet vowed unto God widowed continence, we would assuredly exhort you to vow it but, in that you have already vowed

 24. Let the inner ear of the virgin also, thy holy child, hear these things. I shall see how far she goes before you in the Kingdom of That King: it i

 25. The past day returns not hereafter, and after yesterday proceeds to-day, and after to-day will proceed to-morrow and, lo, all times and the thing

 26. Therefore let spiritual delights succeed to the place of carnal delights in holy chastity reading, prayer, psalm, good thought, frequency in good

 27. Indeed in all spiritual delights, which unmarried women enjoy, their holy conversation ought also to be with caution lest haply, though their lif

 28. Go on therefore in your course, and run with perseverance, in order that ye may obtain and by pattern of life, and discourse of exhortation, carr

 29. Next I entreat you, by Him, from Whom ye have both received this gift, and hope for the rewards of this gift, that ye be mindful to set me also in

8. Whence, also, what the Apostle Paul said of the unmarried woman, “that she may be holy both in body and spirit;”18    1 Cor. vii. 34 we are not so to understand, as though a faithful woman being married and chaste, and according to the Scriptures subject unto her husband, be not holy in body, but only in spirit. For it cannot come to pass, that when the spirit is sanctified, the body also be not holy, of which the sanctified spirit maketh use: but, that we seem not to any to argue rather than to prove this by divine saying; since the Apostle Peter, making mention of Sarah, saith only “holy women,” and saith not, “and in body;” let us consider that saying of the same Paul, where forbidding fornication he saith, “Know ye not, that your bodies are members of Christ? Taking, therefore, members of Christ, shall I make them members of an harlot? Far be it.”19    1 Cor. vi. 15. [See R.V.] Therefore let any one dare to say that the members of Christ are not holy; or let him not dare to separate from the members of Christ the bodies of the faithful that are married. Whence, also, a little after he saith, “Your body is the temple within you of the Holy Spirit, Whom ye have from God; and ye are not your own; for ye have been bought with a great price.”20    1 Cor. vi. 19, 20 He saith that the body of the faithful is both members of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit, wherein assuredly the faithful of both sexes are understood. There therefore are married women, there unmarried women also; but distinct in their deserts, and as members preferred to members, whilst yet neither are separated from the body. Whereas, therefore, he saith, speaking of an unmarried woman, “that she may be holy both in body and spirit,” he would have understood a fuller sanctification both in body and in spirit, and hath not deprived the body of married women of all sanctification.

CAPUT VI.

8. Nuptas etiam corpore sanctas esse, licet minus quam innuptas. Bonum viduitatis non minuitur laudato bono conjugii, sed augetur. An beatior Anna vidua, quam Ruth bis nupta. Unde et illud quod de innupta Paulus apostolus dixit, Ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu (I Cor. VII, 34), non sic accipiendum est, quasi nupta fidelis et casta, et secundum Scripturas subdita viro, non sit sancta corpore, sed tantummodo 0435 spiritu. Fieri enim non potest ut sanctificato spiritu, non sit sanctum etiam corpus, quo sanctificatus utitur spiritus. Sed ne cuiquam nos potius argumentari, quam hoc divino eloquio probare videamur; quoniam Petrus Saram commemorans, Sanctae, inquit, mulieres tantummodo; non ait, et corpore: illud ejusdem Pauli consideremus, ubi prohibens fornicationes ait, Nescitis quia corpora vestra membra sunt Christi? Tollens ergo membra Christi, faciam membra meretricis? Absit. Audeat ergo aliquis dicere membra Christi sancta non esse: aut vero audeat a membris Christi fidelium conjugatarum corpora separare. Unde etiam paulo post ait: Corpus vestrum templum in vobis est Spiritus sancti, quem habetis a Deo: et non estis vestri; empti enim estis pretio magno (I Cor. VI, 15, 19 et 20). Corpus fidelium et membra Christi esse dixit, et templum Spiritus sancti, ubi profecto utriusque sexus fideles intelliguntur. Ibi ergo sunt nuptae, ibi et innuptae; sed distinctae meritis, et tanquam membris membra praelata, quorum tamen neutra sint a corpore separata. Quod igitur de innupta loquens ait, Ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu; ampliorem innuptarum et in corpore et in spiritu sanctificationem intelligi voluit, non corpus nuptarum omni sanctificatione privavit.