test of your conduct also ye correspond with between themselves: nor have they sure de-
OF HOLY VIRGINITY. 437 as follow in lowly wise, Who thought it not a trouble to come down unto such as lay low. Commit ye His gifts unto Him to keep, ''guard through straits as being puffed up: although anxiety be unnecessary, that, where Charity glows, humility be not wanting.
ye your strength unto Him."* Whatever of evil through His guardianship ye commit not, account as forgiven unto you by Him: lest,
55. If, therefore, ye despise marriages of sons of men, from which to beget sons of men, love ye with your whole heart Him, Who is fair of form above the sons of men; ye have leisure; your heart is free from marriage bonds. Gaze on the Beauty of your Lover: think of Him equal to the Father, made subject also to His Mother: ruling even in the heavens, and serving upon the earth: creating all things, created among all things. That very thing, which in Him the proud mock at, gaze on, how fair it is: with inward eyes gaze on the wounds of Him hanging, the scars of Him rising again, the blood of Him dying, the price of him that believes, the gain of Him that redeems. Consider of how great value these are, weigh them in the scales of Charity; and whatever of love ye had to expend upon your marriages, pay back to Him.
thinking that you have little forgiven unto you, ye love little, and with ruinous boasting despise the publicans beating their breasts. Concerning that strength of yours which hath been tried beware, that ye be not puffed up, because ye have been able to bear something: but concerning that which hath been untried, pray, that ye be not tempted above that ye
are able to bear. Think that some are superior to you in secret, than whom ye are openly better. When the good things of others, haply unknown to you, are kindly believed by you, your own that are known to you are not lessened by comparison, but strengthened by love: and what haply as yet are wanting, are by so much the more easily given, by how much they are the more humbly desired. Let such among your number as persevere afford to you an example: but let such as fall
56. It is well that He seeks your beauty within, where He hath given unto you power to become daughters of God:4 He seeks not of you a fair flesh, but fair conduct, whereby to bridle also the flesh, He is not one unto Whom any one can lie concerning you, and make him rage through jealousy. See with how great security ye love Him, Whom ye fear not to offend by false suspicions. Husband and wife love each other, in that they see each other: and what they see not, that they fear between themselves: nor have they sure delight in what is visible, while in what is concealed they usually suspect what is not. Ye in Him, Whom ye see not with the eyes, and behold by faith, neither have what is real to blame, nor fear lest haply ye offend Him by what is false. If therefore ye should owe great love to husbands, Him, for Whose sake ye would not have husbands, how greatly ought ye to love? Let Him be fixed in your whole heart, Who for you was fixed on the Cross: let Him possess in your soul all that, whatever it be, that ye would not have occupied by marriage. It is not lawful for you to love little Him, for Whose sake ye have not loved even what were lawful. So loving Him Who is meek and lowly of heart, I have no fear for you of pride.
increase your fear. Love the one that ye May imitate it; mourn over the other, that ye be not puffed up. Do not ye establish your own righteousness; submit yourselves unto God Who justifies you. Pardon the sins of others, pray for your own: future sins shun by watching, past sins blot out by confessing.
54. Lo, already ye are such, as that in the test of your conduct also ye correspond with the virginity which ye have professed and kept. Lo, already not only do ye abstain from murders, devilish. sacrifices and abominations, thefts, rapines, frauds, perjuries, drunkennesses, and all luxury and avarice, hatreds, emulations, impieties, cruelties; but even those things, which either are, or are thought, lighter, are not found nor arise among you: not bold face, not wandering eyes, not unbridled tongue, not petulant laugh, not scurrilous jest, not unbecoming mien, not swelling or loose gait; already ye render not evil for evil, nor curse for curse;? already, lastly, ye fulfill that measure of love, that ye lay down your lives for your brethren.3 Lo, already ye are such, because also such ye ought to be, These, being added to virginity, set forth an angelic life unto men, and the ways of heaven
57. Thus, after our small measure, we have spoken enough both of sanctity, whereby ye are properly. called °* sanctimoniales," and of humility, whereby whatever great name ye bear is kept. But more worthily let those Three Children, unto whom He, Whom they loved with full glow of heart, afforded refreshNAAN andanL oui Si Malneenne Un tee gh S ALS te ee ee unto the earth. But, by how much ye are great, whosoever of you are so great, '' by so much humble yourselves in all things, that ye may find grace before God," that He resist you not as proud, that He humble you not as lifting up yourselves, that He lead you not
4 Johni. 12.
1 Ps. lix.9. [See R.V.] 21 Pet. iti.9. [See R.V.] 31 John iii. 16.
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
Wherefore do yealso praise Him, Who grants unto you, that in the midst of the flames of this world, although ye be not joined in marriage, yet ye be not burned: and praying also for us, "' Bless ye the Lord, ye holy and humble men of heart; utter an hymn, and exalt Him above all forever.'' * ing in the fire, admonish you concerning this our little work, much more shortly indeed in number of words, but much more greatly in weight of authority, in the Hymn wherein God is honored by them. For joining humility unto holiness in such as praise God, they have most plainly taught, that each, by how much he make any more holy profession, by so much do beware that he be not deceived by pride.
t Song of Three Children 65.
So AVORGAURSH RENE
THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD
[DE BONO VIDUITATIS.]
TRANSLATED BY
RW Gori by (CORNISH, UMA
OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD,
THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD
[DE BONO VIDUITATIS.]
This work is not mentioned in the Retractations, probably because it is a letter, and as such it is reckoned by Possidius, cap. 7.
It is also marked as St. Augustin's by its references to his other works, De Bono Conjugali, etc. cap. 15. Ep. to Proba, cap. 23. marked by the recent consecration of Demetrias, which was in 413.
The date is The admonition for which he is thanked by Juliana, Ep. 188, may be that against Pelagianism.
An objection has been raised from its disagreement with the fourth Council of Carthage, an. 398. can. 104, which excommunicates widows who marry again after consecration, and pronounces them guilty of adultery, whereas in cap. 10 and 11, the opinion that such marriages are no marriages, and that they ought to return to continence, is refuted. The two, however, are not wholly irreconcileable, as there may be a guilt similar to that of adultery incurred, and it may be visited with a censure in the form of excommunication, and yet the marriage may remain valid, The 16th Canon of Chalcedon imposes such a penalty, with power to the Bishop to relax it.— Abridged from the Benedictine Edition, are strictly necessary to give counsel unto your life, it will be your duty not on this account to judge them superfluous. Forsooth this letter, although it be addressed to you, was not to be written for you alone; but certainly it was a matter for us not to neglect, that it should profit others also through your means. Whatsoever, therefore, you shall find here, such as either hath been at no time necessary for you, or is not so now, and which yet you shall perceive to be necessary for others, grieve not either to possess or to lend to read; that your charity also may be the profit of others.
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.
Not any longer to be in debt of my promise to your request and love in Christ, I have seized the occasion as I could, amid other my very pressing engagements, to write to you somewhat concerning the profession of holy widowhood, forasmuch as, when I was present, you laded me with entreaty, and, when I had not been able to deny you this, you often by letters demanded my promise. And in this work of ours, when you shall find in reading that some things pertain not at all unto your own person, or unto the person of you, who are living together in Christ, nor
2. Whereas, therefore, in every question, which relates to life and conduct, not only teaching, but exhortation also is necessary;