good, which the Apostle calls his own, if faith sons, and is pardoned by the intervention of
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTINigayay vv present. Short is this teaching, yet not on this account to be despised, because it is short; but on this account to be retained the more easily and the more dearly, in that in shortness it is not cheap. For it is not every kind of good soever, which the Apostle would here set forth, which he hath unambiguously placed above the faith of married women. But how great good the faith of married women, that is, of Christian and religious women joined in marriage, hath, may be understood from this, that, when he was giving charge for the avoiding of fornication, wherein assuredly he was addressing married persons also, he saith, '' Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?"? So great then is the good of faithful marriage, that even the very members are (members) of Christ. But, forasmuch as the good of widowed continence is better than this good, the purpose of this profession is, not that a catholic widow be any thing more than a member of Christ, but that she have a better place, than a married woman, among the members of Christ. Forsooth the same Apostle says, '' For, as in one body we have many members, but all members have not the same course of action; so being many we are one body in Christ, and each members one of another: having gifts diverse according unto the grace, which hath been given unto us.''® in order that by teaching we may know what is to be done, and by exhortation may be incited not to think it irksome to do what we already know is to be done; what more can I teach you, than what we read in the Apostle? For holy Scripture setteth a rule to our teaching, that we dare not "be wise more than it behoveth to be wise; "'* but be wise, as himself saith, '' unto soberness, according as unto each God hath allotted the measure of faith.' Be it not therefore for me to teach you any other thing, save to expound to you the words of the Teacher, and to treat of them as the Lord shall have given to me.
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 good for them, if they shall have so continued, even as I also.''3 These words are to be so understood, as that we think not that widows ought not to be called unmarried, in that they seem to have made trial of marriage: for by the name of unmarried women he means those, who are not now bound by marriage, whether they have been, or whether they have not been so. And this in another place he opens, where he says, 'Divided is a woman unmarried and a virgin.''+ Assuredly when he adds a virgin also, what would he have understood by an unmarried woman, but a widow? Whence also, in what follows, under the one term '' unmarried '' he embraces both professions, saying,
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 them, (the due of marriage being denied to him,) being through his own incontinence tempted of Satan, should fall away into fornication, he saith, ** But this I say of leave, not of command; but I would that all men were as I myself; but each one hath his own proper gift from God; but one in this way, and another in that.''9 You see that wedded chastity also, and the marriage faith of the Christian bed, is a "' gift,' and this of God; so that, when as carnal lust exceeds somewhat the measure of sensual intercourse, beyond what is necessary for the begetting of children, this evil is not of marriage, but venial by reason of the good of marriage.
who is unmarried is careful of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord: but she who is married is careful of the things of the world, how to please her husband."' 5 Certainly by the unmarried he would have understood, not only her who hath never married, but her also, who, being by widowhood set free from the bond of marriage, hath ceased to be married; for on this account also he calleth not married, save her, who hath an husband; not her also, who hath had, and hath not. Wherefore every widow is unmarried; but, because not every unmarried woman is a widow, for there are virgins aiso; therefore he hath here set both, where he says, "' But I say unto the unmarried and the widows;'' as if he should say, What I say unto the unmarried, I say not unto them alone, who are virgins, but unto them also who are widows; '' that it is good for them, if they shall have so continued, even as also I,''°
For not concerning marriage, which is contracted for the begetting of children, and the faith of wedded chastity, and the sacrament (indissoluble, so long as both live) of matrimony, all which are good; but concerning that immoderate use of the flesh, which is recognized in the weakness of married persons, and is pardoned by the intervention of the good of marriage, the Apostle saith, ''I
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
USOaN hee 2 Rom. xii. 3. 3 Tots, Tats: x Cor, vii. 8. 4% yuvy Kat y mapbevos. 5 1 Cor. vii. 34. 6 x Cor, vii. 8. *
7x Cor: vi. 15. 8 Rom. xii. 4-6. 9 x Cor, vii. 6, 7.