We recently published a book On the Good of Marriage, in which we also reminded and admonished the virgins of Christ that, on account of the excellence of the greater gift which they have divinely received, they should not despise, in comparison with themselves, the fathers and mothers of the people of God, and those men whom the Apostle commends as it were as an olive tree—lest the wild olive grafted in should be proud—men who, by the very propagation of children, were serving Christ who was to come; nor should they judge these to be of inferior merit merely because, by divine right, continence is set above wedlock, and holy virginity above marriage. For in those men things to come were being prepared and brought to birth, things which we now behold being wondrously and effectually fulfilled, and whose very married life was prophetic:
whence not by the custom of human vows and joys, but by the very deep counsel of God, in some of them fruitfulness merited to be honored, in some even barrenness merited to be made fruitful. But in this present time, to those to whom it was said, If they do not contain themselves, let them marry, no exhortation is to be applied, but rather consolation; while those to whom it was said, He that is able to receive it, let him receive it, are to be exhorted, lest they be terrified, and are to be made to fear, lest they be lifted up. Not only, therefore, is virginity to be preached, that it may be loved, but it must also be admonished, lest it be puffed up. This we have undertaken in this discourse; may Christ help us—the Son of a virgin, and the Bridegroom of virgins, bodily born of a virginal womb, spiritually wedded in a virginal union.
Since, therefore, the whole Church herself is a virgin betrothed to one husband, Christ, as the Apostle says, how worthy of honor are those members of hers who keep in the very flesh that which the whole Church keeps in faith—the Church which imitates the mother of her Husband and her Lord! For the Church too is both mother and virgin. For whose integrity do we care, if she is not a virgin? Or whose offspring do we address, if she is not a mother? Mary bodily bore the Head of this body; the Church spiritually bears the members of that Head. In both, virginity does not hinder fruitfulness; in both, fruitfulness does not take away virginity.
Accordingly, since the whole Church is holy both in body and in spirit, and yet is not as a whole a virgin in body, but in spirit, how much holier is she in those members where she is a virgin both in body and in spirit! It is written in the Gospel that when the mother and brethren of Christ—that is, His kinsmen according to the flesh—had been announced to Him and were waiting outside, because they could not approach Him for the crowd, He answered: Who is my mother, or who are my brethren? And stretching out His hand over His disciples, He said: These are my brethren;
and whoever shall do the will of my Father, he is to me brother and mother and sister—teaching us what else but to set our spiritual kinship before the kinship of the flesh, and that men are not thereby blessed if they are joined by fleshly nearness to the just and holy, but if by obeying their teaching and imitating their manners they cleave to them? Mary, therefore, was more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For to a certain woman who said, Blessed is the womb that bore You, He Himself answered: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it. Finally, to His brethren—that is, His kinsmen according to the flesh—who did not believe in Him, of what avail was that kinship?
So too the maternal nearness would have profited Mary nothing, had she not more blessedly borne Christ in her heart than in her flesh. Her very virginity also is on that account more pleasing and more acceptable, because Christ, when conceived, did not snatch it away beforehand from a husband who would violate it, that He Himself might preserve it; but before He was conceived He chose her, already dedicated to God, as the one from whom He would be born. This is indicated by the words which Mary returned to the angel announcing to her the offspring. How, she said, shall this be, since I know not a man? Which assuredly she would not have said, unless she had before vowed herself a virgin to God. But because the manners of the Israelites still refused this, she was betrothed to a righteous man, who would not violently take away, but rather guard against the violent, that which she had already vowed.
And yet, even if she had said only, How shall this be? and had not added, since I know not a man, she would surely not have asked how a woman was to bear the son promised to her, if she were about to marry with the intention of conjugal union. She could also have been commanded to remain a virgin, in whom the Son of God should receive the form of a servant by a fitting miracle; but, as an example to virgins that were to be holy, lest she be thought to have had to be a virgin merely because she alone had merited to conceive offspring even without intercourse, she dedicated her virginity to God while she did not yet know what she was to conceive—so that in an earthly and mortal body the imitation of the heavenly life might come about by vow, not by precept; by the love of choosing, not by the necessity of serving.
Thus Christ, by being born of a virgin who, before she knew who was to be born of her, had resolved to remain a virgin, chose rather to approve holy virginity than to command it. And thus, even in the very woman in whom He received the form of a servant, He willed virginity to be free. There is no reason, therefore, why the virgins of God should be saddened that they too, keeping their virginity, cannot be mothers of the flesh; for Him alone could virginity fittingly bring forth, who in His nativity could have no equal. Nevertheless, that childbearing of the one holy virgin is the glory of all holy virgins, and they too, together with Mary, are mothers of Christ, if they do the will of His Father.
For hence Mary too is more laudably and more blessedly the mother of Christ, according to His aforementioned saying: Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is to me brother and sister and mother. All these kinships He exhibits spiritually to Himself in the people whom He redeemed: He has as brothers and sisters holy men and holy women, since they are His co-heirs in the heavenly inheritance. His mother is the whole Church, because by the grace of God she herself indeed brings forth His members, that is, His faithful. Likewise His mother is every pious soul doing the will of His Father with most fruitful charity in those whom she travails to bring forth, until He Himself be formed in them.
Mary, therefore, doing the will of God, is bodily only the mother of Christ, but spiritually both His sister and His mother. And on this account that one woman is not only in spirit, but also in body, both mother and virgin. And a mother indeed in spirit—not of our Head, who is the Savior Himself, of whom rather she was spiritually born, since all who believe in Him, among whom she also is, are rightly called sons of the Bridegroom—but plainly the mother of His members, which we are, because she cooperated by charity, that the faithful might be born in the Church, who are the members of that Head; but in body the mother of the very Head.
For it behooved our Head, on account of a signal miracle, to be born according to the flesh of a virgin, whereby He might signify that His members were to be born according to the spirit of the virgin Church. Mary alone, therefore, is in both spirit and body a mother and a virgin, both the mother of Christ and the virgin of Christ; but the Church, in the saints who shall possess the kingdom of God, is indeed in spirit wholly the mother of Christ, wholly the virgin of Christ, yet in body not wholly, but in some she is the virgin of Christ, in some a mother, but not of Christ. For both faithful married women and virgins dedicated to God, by holy manners and by charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are spiritually mothers of Christ;
but those who bring forth bodily by conjugal life do not bring forth Christ, but Adam; and therefore they run, that their offspring, imbued with the sacraments, may become members of Christ, since they know what they have brought forth. This I have said, lest perchance conjugal fruitfulness should dare to contend with virginal integrity, and to set forth Mary herself, and to say to the virgins of God: She had in her body two things to be honored, virginity and fruitfulness, because she both remained inviolate and gave birth; and since we could not, either of us, have this whole felicity, we have divided it, that you may be virgins, we may be mothers; let virginity preserved console you for what is lacking in offspring; let integrity lost be compensated to us by the gain of offspring.
This voice of the faithful married women to the holy virgins might in some way be borne with, if they bore Christians in body, so that by this alone the fruitfulness of Mary's flesh, apart from virginity, would be more excellent, namely, that she brought forth the very Head of these members, whereas they brought forth the members of that Head. But now, even if such women should contend with this voice—women who are joined and mingled with men for this only, that they may have children, and think of nothing else concerning their children except that they may gain them for Christ, and do this as soon as they are able—yet Christians are not born of their flesh, but afterward become such, the Church bringing them to birth, through the fact that she is spiritually the mother of the members of Christ, of whom she is also spiritually the virgin.
To which holy childbearing even those mothers cooperate who have not borne Christians in body, that these may become what they know they could not bring forth in body; yet through this they cooperate, wherein they too are virgins and mothers of Christ—namely, in the faith which works through love. No fruitfulness of the flesh, therefore, can be compared even to the virginity of the flesh that is holy. For virginity of the body is not honored because it is virginity, but because it is dedicated to God; and though it be preserved in the flesh, it is nevertheless preserved by the religion and devotion of the spirit. And thus even the virginity of the body is spiritual, which the continence of piety vows and preserves.
For just as no one uses his body unchastely unless wickedness has first been conceived in the spirit, so no one preserves chastity in the body unless chastity has first been implanted in the spirit. And further, if conjugal chastity, though it be guarded in the flesh, is nevertheless attributed to the mind, not to the flesh—the mind being its president and ruler, under whom the flesh itself is mingled with none save its own spouse—how much more, and how much more honorably, is that continence to be numbered among the goods of the mind, by which the integrity of the flesh is vowed, consecrated, and preserved to the very Creator of the soul and of the flesh! Neither, therefore, is the fruitfulness of the flesh of those women—who in this time seek nothing else in marriage than offspring, which they may deliver over to Christ—to be believed capable of being compensated for lost virginity.
For in former times, when Christ was to come according to the flesh, the very race of the flesh was necessary in a certain great and prophetic nation; but now, when from every race of men and from all nations the members of Christ can be gathered to the people of God and the city of the kingdom of heaven, let him who is able to receive holy virginity, receive it, and let only her who does not contain herself, marry. For what? If some rich woman should expend much money upon this good work, so as to buy slaves from diverse nations whom she might make Christians, would she not more richly and more numerously procure the begetting of members of Christ than by any fertility of the womb, however great? Nor even so would she dare to compare her money to the gift of holy virginity.
But if, for the sake of making Christians of those who shall be born, the fruitfulness of the flesh is deservedly to be compensated for lost virginity, this business would be more fruitful if virginity were lost for a great monetary price, whereby many more boys to be made Christians might be bought than would be born from one womb, however fertile. But if this is most foolishly said, let the faithful married women have their own good—concerning which we have discoursed, so far as seemed fit, in another volume—and let them the more honor, as they most rightly have been accustomed to do, in the holy virgins that better good of theirs, concerning which we discourse in this discourse. For neither ought marriages to compare themselves with the merits of the continent even in this respect, that virgins are begotten from them;
for this is not the good of marriage, but of nature, which has been so divinely instituted that, from any human intercourse of both sexes—whether ordered and honorable, or base and unlawful—no female is born except a virgin. Yet no consecrated virgin is born; so it comes about that a virgin is born even from fornication, but a consecrated virgin not even from marriage. Nor do we praise this in virgins, that they are virgins, but that they are virgins dedicated to God by pious continence. For—as I would not rashly say—a married woman seems to me happier than a virgin about to marry; for the former already has what the latter still desires, especially if the latter is not yet even betrothed to anyone. The former studies to please one, to whom she is given; the latter, many, uncertain to whom she is to be given;
by this one thing she defends the chastity of her thought from the crowd, that she seeks in the crowd not an adulterer, but a husband. That virgin, therefore, is deservedly set before the married woman, who neither offers herself to be loved by the multitude, while she seeks the love of one out of the multitude, nor composes herself now to the one found, thinking of the things of the world, how she may please her husband, but has so loved Him who is beautiful in form above the sons of men, that, because she could not conceive Him in the flesh as Mary did, having conceived Him in her heart she keeps her flesh also inviolate. This kind of virgins no bodily fruitfulness has brought forth; this is not the offspring of flesh and blood. If the mother of these is sought, it is the Church.
No one brings forth consecrated virgins except a consecrated virgin, she who was betrothed to be presented as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ. From her, not wholly a virgin in body, but wholly a virgin in spirit, are born holy virgins both in body and in spirit. Let marriages have their own good—not because they beget children, but because they beget honorably, because lawfully, because chastely, because in fellowship, and rear their begotten children together, healthfully, and diligently; because they mutually keep the fidelity of the marriage bed; because they do not violate the sacrament of wedlock. Yet all these are the gifts of human duty; but virginal integrity, and immunity from all intercourse through pious continence, is an angelic portion, and, in corruptible flesh, a meditation upon perpetual incorruption.
Let all fruitfulness of the flesh, all conjugal chastity, yield to this: the former is not within our own power, the latter is not in eternity; fruitfulness of the flesh has no free will, conjugal chastity has no place in heaven. Assuredly they will have something great above the rest in that common immortality, who have in the flesh something already not of the flesh. Whence they are wondrously foolish who think the good of this continence not to be necessary for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but for the sake of the present age—namely, because marriages are stretched out with more and closer earthly cares, from which annoyance virgins and the continent are free:
Let all fruitfulness of the flesh, all conjugal chastity, yield to this. The one is not in our power, the other is not in eternity: carnal fruitfulness hath not free choice, conjugal chastity hath not heaven. Assuredly they shall have something great above the rest in that common immortality, who have already in the flesh something that is not of the flesh. Wherefore they are marvellously foolish who think that the good of this continence is necessary not for the kingdom of heaven but for the present world — namely, because marriages are stretched by more and closer earthly cares, from which trouble virgins and the continent are free:
As though it were better not to marry only for this reason, that the straits of the present time might be eased, and not because it profits anything for the age to come. And lest they should seem to have put forward this empty opinion out of the vanity proper to their own heart, they bring in a testimony from the Apostle, where he says: 'Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel, as one that has obtained mercy of God to be faithful. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present necessity, for it is good for a man so to be.' Behold, they say, where the Apostle makes plain that this is good on account of the present necessity, not on account of the eternity to come.
As if the Apostle would take account of a present necessity, except in providing for and taking counsel for the future, seeing that his whole dispensation calls to nothing but life eternal. It is therefore a present necessity that is to be shunned, yet one which nevertheless hinders some of the goods to come: by which necessity the married life is compelled to think upon the things of the world, how a man may please his wife or a wife her husband — not that these separate them from the kingdom of God, as sins do, which for that reason are restrained by commandment and not by counsel, because to disobey the Lord who commands is damnable; but that which might be possessed more fully within that very kingdom of God, if one thought more fully how God should be pleased, will surely be less, since this very thing is thought upon less because of the necessity of marriage.
For this reason he says, 'Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord'; for whoever does not obey a commandment is guilty and liable to punishment. Accordingly, since to take a wife or to marry is not a sin — for if it were a sin, it would be forbidden by a commandment — therefore there is no commandment of the Lord concerning virgins. But since, when sins have been avoided or remitted, eternal life is to be approached, in which there is a certain surpassing glory to be granted not to all who shall live for ever, but to certain ones there; and to attain it, it is too little to have been freed from sins, unless something be also vowed to the Deliverer himself — something which it is no crime not to have vowed, but to have vowed it and paid it is praiseworthy — for this reason he says, 'I give counsel, as one that has obtained mercy of God to be faithful';
for neither ought I to grudge faithful counsel, I who am faithful not by my own merits, but by the mercy of God. 'I suppose therefore that this is good for the present necessity.' This, he says, concerning which I have no commandment of the Lord, but give counsel — this it is: I suppose that concerning virgins it is good, on account of the present necessity. For I know what the necessity of the present time, which marriages serve, compels — namely, that the things which are God's are thought upon less than suffices for the attaining of that glory which will not belong to all, however much they abide in eternal life and salvation; 'for star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.' It is good, then, for a man so to be. Then the same Apostle adds and says: 'Art thou bound to a wife?
seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.' Of these two things, the first which he laid down pertains to a commandment, against which it is not lawful to act. For it is not lawful to put away a wife except for the cause of fornication, as the Lord himself says in the Gospel. But that which he added, 'Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife,' is a sentence of counsel, not of commandment; it is therefore lawful to do it, but better not to do it. Accordingly he immediately subjoined: 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.' But when he had earlier said, 'Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed,' did he add, 'And if thou be loosed, thou hast not sinned'? For he had already said above:
'But to those who are in wedlock I command, not I, but the Lord, that a wife depart not from her husband; but if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband' — for it can happen that she depart not through her own fault, but her husband's. Then he says: 'And let not a husband put away his wife,' which likewise he set down according to the commandment of the Lord, nor did he there add: 'And if he put her away, he does not sin.' For this is a commandment, to disobey which is sin, not a counsel, by which, if you are unwilling to make use of it, you attain less of good, but perpetrate nothing of evil. Therefore, when he had said, 'Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife,' since he was not commanding lest an evil be done, but counselling that a better be done, he immediately subjoined: 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned;
and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.' Yet he added: 'But such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you' — thus exhorting to virginity and to perpetual continence, so as even to deter a little from marriage, modestly indeed, not as from a thing evil and unlawful, but as from a thing burdensome and troublesome. For it is one thing to admit the baseness of the flesh, another to have the tribulation of the flesh: the former is to commit a crime, the latter is to endure a toil, which for the most part men do not refuse even for the most honourable duties.
But to take upon oneself, for the sake of having a marriage in this present time — a time in which Christ, being now already come, is no longer served by the propagation of his own offspring through the succession of the flesh — that tribulation of the flesh which the Apostle foretells to those about to marry, and to endure it: this would be exceedingly foolish, were it not that it is feared for the incontinent, lest, Satan tempting them, they should fall into damnable sins. But as to his saying that he spares those whom he declares will have tribulation of the flesh, nothing sounder occurs to me for the present than this: that he did not wish to open up and unfold in words that same tribulation of the flesh which he foretold to those who choose marriage — a tribulation found in the suspicions of conjugal jealousy, in the begetting and rearing of children, in the fears and griefs of bereavement.
For how few there are who, when they have bound themselves with the bonds of wedlock, are not dragged and tossed about by these affections? Which affections we ourselves ought not to exaggerate, lest we fail to spare those very persons whom the Apostle judged were to be spared. Only by this which I have briefly set down was it necessary that the reader be made cautious against those who, in this which is written — 'But such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you' — slander marriage: as though that saying had condemned marriages obliquely; as though he had been unwilling to speak the condemnation itself when he said, 'But I spare you,' so that, forsooth, while he spares these, he had not spared his own soul, if by lying he said, 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.'
And those who believe this concerning holy Scripture, or wish it to be believed, are as it were paving a way for themselves to a license of lying, or to the defence of their own perverse opinion, wherever they hold anything other than what sound doctrine requires. For if anything plain be brought forward from the divine books whereby their errors are refuted, they have this ready at hand like a shield, whereby, as though defending themselves against the truth, they lay themselves bare to be wounded by the devil: so that they say the author of the book did not speak the truth — now, that he might spare the weak; now, that he might terrify the scornful — according as a cause presents itself whereby their perverse opinion may be defended.
And thus, while they prefer to defend rather than to correct the things which they opine, they attempt to break the authority of the holy Scriptures, by which alone all proud and hard necks are broken. Wherefore I admonish the followers, both men and women, of perpetual continence and of sacred virginity, that they so prefer their good to marriage as not to judge marriage an evil, and that they know it was said by the Apostle not deceitfully but plainly and truly: 'He that gives in marriage does well; and he that gives not in marriage does better. And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.' And a little after: 'But she shall be more blessed if she so remain, according to my judgment.' And lest it should be thought a human judgment, he adds: 'And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.'
This is the Lord's, this is the apostolic, this is the true, this is the sound doctrine: so to choose the greater gifts that the lesser be not condemned. Better in the Scripture of God is the truth of God than in anyone's mind or flesh the virginity of man. Let that which is chaste be so loved, that that which is true be not denied. For what evil can they not think even concerning their own flesh, who believe that the apostolic tongue, in that very place where it was commending the virginity of the body, was not virgin from the corruption of a lie? First, therefore, and above all, let those who choose the good of virginity hold most firmly that the holy Scriptures have lied in nothing, and thereby that this too is true which was said: 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.'
Nor let them think that so great a good of integrity is diminished if marriage be not an evil. Nay rather, let her the more confidently trust that from this a palm of greater glory has been prepared for her — she who feared not to be condemned if she should marry, but to be more honourably crowned because she would not marry. She has desired it. Let those, therefore, who have wished to remain without wedlock flee marriage not as a pit of sin, but pass over it as a hill of a lesser good, that they may rest upon the mountain of the greater continence. For that hill is inhabited under this law, that one may not migrate from it when one wills; 'for a woman is bound so long as her husband lives.' Nevertheless, one ascends from it, as by a step, to the continence of widowhood;
but for the sake of virginal continence, one must either turn aside from it by not consenting to suitors, or leap over it by anticipating suitors. But lest anyone should think that of the two works, the good and the better, the rewards would be equal, it was necessary for this reason to argue against those who so interpreted what the Apostle says — 'I suppose therefore that this is good for the present necessity' — as to say that virginity is useful not for the kingdom of heaven, but for the present age; as though in that eternal life those who had chosen this better part would have nothing more than the rest. And in this discussion, when we came to that which the same Apostle says:
'But such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you,' we ran into other disputants, who did not make marriage equal to perpetual continence, but condemned it altogether. For since either error exists — whether to make marriage equal to holy virginity, or to condemn it — these two errors, by fleeing each other too much, clash front to front, because they were unwilling to hold the middle course of truth: whereby, both by sure reasoning and by the authority of the holy Scriptures, we find that neither is marriage a sin, nor do we make it equal to the good either of virginal or even of widowed continence. For some, in their desire for virginity, thought that marriage was to be detested like adultery;
but others, in defending wedlock, would have it that the excellence of perpetual continence merits nothing more than conjugal chastity: as though either the good of Susanna were the humiliation of Mary, or the greater good of Mary ought to be the condemnation of Susanna. Far be it, then, that the Apostle should have said to the married or to those about to marry, 'But I spare you,' as though he had been unwilling to say what punishment is owed to the married in the age to come; far be it that Paul should send to Gehenna her whom Daniel freed from temporal judgment; far be it that the marriage-bed should be a punishment before the tribunal of Christ to her who, by keeping faith with it, chose either to be endangered or to die under a false accusation of adultery. What did that voice accomplish:
'It is better for me to fall into your hands than to sin in the sight of God' — if God was going to free her not because she was preserving her marriage-chastity, but going to condemn her because she had married? And now, as often as conjugal chastity is fortified by the truth of holy Scripture against the slanderers and accusers of marriage, so often is Susanna, together with the Holy Spirit, defended against false witnesses; so often is she freed from a false charge, and by a far greater business. For then it was for one married woman, now for all; then concerning a hidden and false adultery, now concerning a true and manifest wedlock is the charge levelled; then one woman on account of what the wicked elders said, now all husbands and wives on account of what the Apostle was unwilling to say, are accused.
'For your condemnation,' they say, 'he kept silent when he said, But I spare you.' Who said this? Surely he who had said above: 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.' Why then, in that which he modestly kept silent, do you suspect a charge against marriages, and in that which he openly said, do you not recognize a defence of marriages? Or does he silently condemn those whom by speaking he acquitted? Is not Susanna now more mildly accused, not concerning her marriage but concerning that very adultery, than apostolic teaching is accused of falsehood? What would we do in so great a danger, were it not as certain and open that chaste marriages ought not to be condemned as it is certain and open that holy Scripture cannot lie? Here someone will say:
What has this to do with sacred virginity or perpetual continence, the praise of which was undertaken in this discourse? To whom I answer, first, what I mentioned above: that from this the glory of that greater good is the greater, because for the sake of attaining it the conjugal good is transcended, not the sin of marriage avoided. Otherwise it would suffice for perpetual continence not to be specially praised, but only not to be blamed, if it were held for this reason, that to marry were a crime. Then, because it is not by human judgment but by the divine authority of Scripture that men are to be exhorted to so excellent a gift, it must not be treated slightly nor in passing, lest to anyone the divine Scripture itself should seem to have lied in anything.
For those who compel sacred virgins to remain so by the condemnation of marriage rather dissuade than exhort them. For whence should they be confident that it is true which is written — 'And he that gives not in marriage does better' — if they think it false which is nonetheless written just above — 'And he that gives his virgin does well'? But if they believe without doubt the Scripture speaking of the good of marriage, then, confirmed by the same most truthful authority of the heavenly oracle, they will run over to their own better part with fervent and confident alacrity. Wherefore we have now said enough for the business undertaken, and, as far as we could, we have demonstrated that neither is that which the Apostle says:
'I suppose therefore that this is good for the present necessity,' is not so to be taken as though in this age the sacred virgins were better than the faithful married, but in the kingdom of heaven and in the age to come they were equal; nor is that where he says of those who marry, 'But such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you,' so to be understood as though he had preferred to keep silent the sin and condemnation of marriage rather than to speak it. For each single one of these two sentences two mutually contrary errors have held by not understanding them. For the one about the present necessity is interpreted in their own favour by those who contend that the married are to be made equal to those who do not marry; but the other, where it is said:
But we, according to the faith of the holy Scriptures and sound doctrine, both say that marriage is not a sin, and yet set its good not only below virginal, but even below widowed continence; and we say that the present necessity of the married impedes their merit — not indeed with respect to eternal life, but nevertheless with respect to that surpassing glory and honour which is reserved for perpetual continence; and that at this time marriage is expedient for none save those who do not contain themselves; and that the tribulation of the flesh, coming from carnal affection, without which the marriage of the incontinent cannot exist, the Apostle neither wished to keep silent, since he was truly forewarning, nor to unfold more fully, since he was sparing the weakness of men.
Now, then, by the most evident testimonies of the divine Scriptures — as many as, according to the small measure of our memory, we shall be able to recall — let it appear more clearly that perpetual continence is to be chosen not for the sake of the present life of this age, but for the sake of the life to come, which is promised in the kingdom of heaven. And who would not notice this in that which the same Apostle says a little after: 'He that is without a wife thinks upon the things that are the Lord's, how he may please the Lord; but he that is joined in matrimony thinks upon the things that are the world's, how he may please his wife. And the unmarried woman and the virgin is divided: she that is unmarried is careful for the things that are the Lord's, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married is careful for the things that are the world's, how she may please her husband?'
He certainly does not say: 'he thinks upon the things that pertain to security in this age, that he may pass his time without graver troubles'; nor does he say that the unmarried woman and virgin is 'divided' from her that is married for this end — that is, distinguished and set apart — so that the unmarried might be secure in this life on account of avoiding the temporal troubles which the married does not lack; but he says, 'she thinks upon the things that are the Lord's, how she may please the Lord,' and, 'she is careful for the things that are the Lord's, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.' Unless perchance someone is so foolishly contentious as to attempt to assert that we wish to please the Lord not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven but for the sake of the present age, or that we are holy both in body and spirit for the sake of this life, not the eternal.
To believe this — what else is it than to be more wretched than all men? For thus the Apostle says: 'If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most wretched.' Truly, he who breaks his bread to the hungry, if he does it only for the sake of this life, is a fool; and will he be prudent who chastises his body even unto that continence whereby he does not mingle in wedlock, if it shall profit him nothing in the kingdom of heaven? Finally, let us hear the Lord himself bringing forth a most evident sentence on this matter. For when he was speaking divinely and terribly of spouses not to be separated except for the cause of fornication, the disciples said to him: 'If the case is such with a wife, it is not expedient to marry.' To whom he said, 'Not all receive this word.'
'For there are eunuchs who were so born; and there are others who were made by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.' What could be said more truly, what more lucidly? Christ says it, the Truth says it, the Virtue and Wisdom of God says it — that those who by a pious purpose have contained themselves from taking a wife make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven; and against this, human vanity contends with impious rashness that those who do this avoid only the present necessity of conjugal troubles, but in the kingdom of heaven have nothing more than the rest!
But of what eunuchs does God speak through the prophet Isaiah, to whom he says he will give in his house and within his walls a place named — much better than that of sons and daughters — save of those who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven?
For as to those in whom the male member itself is disabled, so that they cannot beget — such as are the eunuchs of the rich and of kings — it surely suffices for them, when they become Christians and keep the commandments of God, being nevertheless of such purpose that they would have wives if they could, to be made equal to the rest of the faithful married in the house of God, who rear offspring lawfully and chastely received in the fear of God, teaching their sons to set their hope in God; but not to receive a better place than is that of sons and daughters. For it is not by strength of soul but by necessity of the flesh that they do not take wives. Let anyone who will contend that the prophet foretold this of those eunuchs who are cut off in body; this error too tells in favour of the cause which we have undertaken.
For God did not prefer these eunuchs to those who have no place in his house, but assuredly to those who preserve the merit of the conjugal life in begetting children. For when he says, 'I will give them a place much better,' he shows that it is given also to the married, but far inferior. So that, though we grant that those foretold to be in the house of God are eunuchs according to the flesh, who were not among the people of Israel — for we see these too, when they do not become Jews, yet become Christians — and that the prophet did not speak of those who, by a purpose of continence, not seeking marriage, make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven:
is anyone in such great madness so opposed to the truth as to believe that eunuchs made so in the flesh have a better place in the house of God than the married, and to contend that those who are continent by a pious purpose — chastising the body even to the point of despising marriage, castrating themselves not in the body but in the very root of concupiscence, meditating the heavenly and angelic life in earthly mortality — are equal to the merits of the married; and, being a Christian, to contradict Christ, who praises those who have made themselves eunuchs not for the sake of this age but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, affirming that this is useful to the present life, not to the life to come? What else remains for such men, save to assert that the kingdom of heaven itself pertains to this temporal life in which we now are?
For why should not blind presumption also advance into this insanity? And what is more frenzied than this assertion? For although the kingdom of heaven is sometimes the name even for the Church which exists at this time, yet for this very reason is it so named, because it is being gathered for the future and everlasting life. Although, therefore, it has the promise of the present life and of the life to come, yet in all its good works it looks not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Nor indeed did the Holy Spirit keep silent that which, against those most shamelessly and most madly obstinate men, might prevail open and unshaken, and might repel their beast-like assault from his sheepfold by an impregnable fortification.
For when he had said of the eunuchs, 'I will give them in my house and within my walls a place named, much better than that of sons and daughters,' lest anyone too carnal should think that something temporal was to be hoped for in these words, he immediately subjoined: 'I will give them an eternal name, and it shall never fail' — as though he said: Why dost thou shuffle, impious blindness? — why dost thou shuffle? Why dost thou pour the mists of thy perversity over the serenity of the truth? Why, in so great a light of the Scriptures, dost thou seek out darkness from which to lay thine ambush? Why dost thou promise only a temporal usefulness to the holy continent? 'I will give them an eternal name.'
Why dost thou strive to refer to earthly advantage those who, free from all intercourse — and by that very thing whereby they abstain from it here — think upon the things that are the Lord's, how they may please the Lord? 'I will give them an eternal name.' Why dost thou contend that the kingdom of heaven, for the sake of which the holy eunuchs castrated themselves, is to be understood only in this life? 'I will give them an eternal name.' And if perchance thou strive here to take 'eternal' for 'long-lasting,' I add, I heap up, I press in: 'and it shall never fail.' What dost thou seek more? What dost thou say more? This eternal name, whatever it is, of the eunuchs of God, which surely signifies a certain glory proper and surpassing, will not be common with the many, although they are established in the same kingdom and in the same house.
For perhaps for this reason it is even called a 'name,' because it distinguishes those to whom it is given from the rest. What then, they say, does that denarius mean, which, the work of the vineyard being finished, is rendered equally to all — whether to those who came from the first hour, or to those who worked one hour? What indeed, unless it signifies something which all shall have in common, such as is eternal life itself, the kingdom of heaven itself, where all shall be whom God has predestined, called, justified, glorified? 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' This is that denarius, the wage of all; yet 'star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.' These are the diverse merits of the saints.
For if heaven were signified by that denarius, is not to be in heaven common to all the stars? And yet 'there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.' If that denarius were set for the health of the body, is not health, when we are rightly sound in all our members, common — and, if it remain even unto death, present equally and alike to all? And yet God has set the members, each single one of them in the body, as he willed, so that the whole is neither eye, nor the whole hearing, nor the whole smell, and whatever else has its own property, although it has health equally with all. So, because eternal life itself will be equally for all the saints, the equal denarius has been assigned to all;
but because in that very eternal life the lights of merits shall shine distinctly, 'in my Father's house are many mansions.' And thus, in the denarius which is not unequal, one shall not live longer than another; but in the many mansions, one is honoured more brightly than another. Go on, therefore, ye holy ones of God, boys and girls, males and females, celibate and unwedded; go on perseveringly unto the end. Praise the Lord the more sweetly, as ye think upon him the more richly; hope the more happily, as ye serve him the more urgently; love the more ardently, as ye please him the more attentively. With loins girded and lamps burning, await the Lord, when he shall come from the wedding. Ye shall bring to the marriage of the Lamb a new song, which ye shall sing on your harps.
Not, of course, such a song as all the earth sings, to which it is said, 'Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth,' but such as no one shall be able to say save you. For thus he saw you in the Apocalypse, that one beloved above the rest by the Lamb, who was wont to recline upon his breast, and who drank in and belched forth marvellous things above the heavens — the Word of God. He himself saw you, twelve times twelve thousand of the saints, harpers, of inviolate virginity in body, of unviolated truth in heart; and because 'ye follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes,' he wrote concerning you. Whither do we suppose this Lamb to go, whither no one either dares or is able to follow him save you? Whither do we suppose him to go? Into what glades and meadows? Where, I believe, the grasses are joys;
not the vain joys of this world, lying insanities, nor such joys as belong in the kingdom of God itself to the rest who are not virgins, but joys set apart from the lot of all the other joys — the joys of the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for the sake of Christ. The joys proper to the virgins of Christ are not the same as those of the non-virgins, though they too be Christ's; for there are other joys for others, but such as these for none. Go into these; follow the Lamb, for the flesh of the Lamb is surely virgin too. For this he retained in himself when grown, which he did not take away from his mother when conceived and born. Deservedly do ye follow him by the virginity of heart and of flesh, whithersoever he goes. For what is it to follow, save to imitate?
For 'Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example,' as the Apostle Peter says, 'that we should follow his footsteps.' Him each one follows in that wherein he imitates him — not insofar as he is the one Son of God, through whom all things were made, but insofar as he is the Son of man, because it behoved him to present in himself things to be imitated. And many things in him are set forth for all to imitate; but virginity of the flesh is not for all, for they have not what they may do that they should be virgins, in whom it has already been brought about that they are not virgins. Let the other faithful, therefore, who have lost the virginity of the body, follow the Lamb — not whithersoever he goes, but as far as they themselves are able. And they are able everywhere, save when he walks in the comeliness of virginity.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: imitate him who for your sake became poor, though he was rich. Blessed are the meek: imitate him who said, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' Blessed are they that mourn: imitate him who wept over Jerusalem. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: imitate him who said, 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.' Blessed are the merciful: imitate him who came to the aid of the man wounded by robbers and left lying half-dead and despaired of upon the road. Blessed are the pure in heart: imitate him who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Blessed are the peacemakers: imitate him who said on behalf of his persecutors, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness' sake: imitate him who suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Those who imitate these things follow the Lamb in them. But surely even the married can walk along these footprints, and though they do not perfectly set their foot in the very same shape, yet they tread in the same paths. But behold, that Lamb walks by the way of virginity. How shall those who have lost what they can in no wise recover walk after him? You, then, you go after him, his virgins; you go after him even thither, for on account of this one thing you follow him whithersoever he goes.
For to any other gift of holiness by which they might follow him we can exhort the married, except for this one thing which they have irrecoverably lost. You, therefore, follow him by holding fast with perseverance what you have vowed with ardour. Do it while you can, lest the good of virginity perish from us, whom you can do nothing to make it return. The rest of the multitude of the faithful will see you: that multitude which cannot follow the Lamb in this respect will see and will not envy; and by rejoicing together with you, what they do not have in themselves they will have in us. For neither will they be able to sing that new song proper to you; yet they will be able to hear it and to take delight in your so excellent good.
But you, who both will sing and will hear, since what you sing you will also hear from yourselves, will exult more happily and reign more joyfully. Yet over your greater joy there will be no grief for those who lack it. For the Lamb, whom you follow whithersoever he goes, will not desert even those who cannot follow him whither you can. We speak of the omnipotent Lamb. He will both go before you and will not depart from them, when God shall be all in all. And those who have less will not shrink from you. For where there is no envy, difference is a partnership. Take courage then, be confident, be strengthened, persevere, you who vow and render to the Lord your God the vows of perpetual continence, not for the sake of the present world, but for the kingdom of heaven.
You also who have not yet vowed this, but are able to receive it—receive it; run with perseverance that you may lay hold of it. Let each take up his own sacrifices and enter into the courts of the Lord, holding the power of your own will not out of necessity. For it cannot be said, 'Thou shalt not marry,' as it is said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill': those are demanded, this is offered. If these latter be done, they are praised; unless those former be done, they are condemned. In those things the Lord commands you a debt; in these, whatever more you shall have spent over and above, he will repay you at his return. Consider—whatever it be—the place named better within his wall, far better than that of sons and daughters; consider there an everlasting name. Who can unfold what manner of name it shall be?
Yet whatever it shall be, it shall be eternal. By believing and hoping and loving this, you have been able not to avoid marriages that are forbidden, but to fly beyond marriages that are permitted. Wherefore, by how much the greatness of this gift—to the seizing of which we have exhorted you according to our strength—is more excellent and more divine, by so much the more does it warn our solicitude to say something not only concerning most glorious chastity, but also concerning most safe humility. When therefore those who profess perpetual continence, comparing themselves with the married according to the Scriptures, have found them to be beneath themselves both in deed and in reward and in vow and in prize, let there straightway come into their mind what is written: 'By how much thou art great, so much humble thyself in all things, and before God thou shalt find grace.'
The measure of humility is given to each according to the measure of his own greatness: to whom pride is perilous, which lies in wait for the greater the more amply. Envy follows pride, as a daughter and attendant; for pride continually gives birth to it, nor is it ever without such offspring and companion. By these two evils, that is, pride and envy, the devil is the devil. And so against pride, the mother of envy, the whole of Christian discipline especially wages war. For this it is that teaches humility, by which it both acquires and guards charity. And when it had been said of charity, 'Charity envies not,' as if we were seeking the cause whence it comes that it envies not, straightway it added, 'is not puffed up,' as though it said:
It therefore has no envy, because it has no pride. And so Christ, the teacher of humility, first emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But as for his very teaching, how attentively it inculcates humility, and how vehemently it insists upon enjoining this—who could easily unfold it and heap together all the testimonies for demonstrating this matter? Let whoever wishes to write separately concerning humility attempt or accomplish this. But of the present work another purpose has been undertaken, concerning so great a matter that in it above all pride must be guarded against.
Accordingly, I recall a few testimonies which the Lord deigns to bring to mind, out of the teaching of Christ concerning humility, which may perhaps suffice for that which I have intended. His discourse, the first and more prolix which he addressed to the disciples, began thus: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'—whom without any controversy we understand to be the humble. He praised the faith of that centurion especially, and said that he had not found so great faith in Israel, because that man believed so humbly as to say, 'I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof.' Hence Matthew for no other reason said that he came to Jesus, though Luke most plainly indicates that he himself did not come to him, but sent his friends.
except that by most faithful humility he himself came rather than those whom he sent. Hence too is that prophetic word: 'The Lord is high, and looks upon the lowly; but the lofty he knows from afar'—that is, as not drawing near. Hence too he says to that Canaanite woman, 'O woman, great is thy faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt'—she whom above he had called a dog, and had answered that the children's bread was not to be cast to her. Which she humbly accepting had said, 'Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' And thus what she did not obtain by continual crying, she merited by humble confession.
Hence those two are set forth praying in the temple, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican, for the sake of those who seem to themselves righteous and despise others; and the confession of sins is preferred to the enumeration of merits. And indeed the Pharisee was giving thanks to God out of those things in which he greatly pleased himself. 'I give thanks to thee,' he says, 'that I am not as other men are, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, as also this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' But the publican stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'Be merciful to me a sinner.' There follows then the divine sentence:
'Amen I say to you, this publican went down to his house justified rather than that Pharisee.' Then the reason is shown why this is just: 'because everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' It can therefore come to pass that a man both avoids true evils and considers the true goods in himself and gives thanks for these to the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift, and yet is reproved by the vice of self-exaltation, if by pride he insults other sinners—especially those confessing their sins in prayer—even by mere thought, which is before God; to whom is owed not reproach with self-inflation, but pity without despair.
What of the fact that, when the disciples were inquiring among themselves which of them should be the greater, he set a little child before their eyes, saying, 'Unless ye be as this child, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'? Did he not most highly commend humility, and place in it the merit of greatness? Or when he thus answered the sons of Zebedee, who coveted places at his sides in the loftiness of thrones, that they should rather think of drinking the cup of his Passion—in which he humbled himself even unto death, the death of the cross—than demand with proud appetite to be preferred above the rest, what did he show but that he would be the bestower of loftiness upon those who should first follow him as the teacher of humility?
Now indeed, as to the fact that when he was about to go forth to his Passion he washed the disciples' feet, and most openly admonished them to do this to their fellow-disciples and fellow-servants which the Master and Lord had done to them—how greatly he commended humility! For commending which he even chose that time when they beheld him with great longing as soon about to die, so that they would surely retain in memory above all that the Master to be imitated had demonstrated as his last act. Yet he did this at that time which surely he could have done on other days before, when he had lived among them; when, had it been done, this very thing indeed would have been handed on, but surely would not have been received in the same way.
Since therefore humility is to be kept by all Christians, seeing that Christians are named from Christ, whose Gospel no one carefully beholds who does not find him to be the teacher of humility, then it is above all fitting that the followers and preservers of this virtue be those who excel the rest by some great good, so that they take the greatest care of that which I set forth first: 'By how much thou art great, so much humble thyself in all things, and before God thou shalt find grace.' Accordingly, since perpetual continence, and above all virginity, is a great good among the saints of God, most vigilantly must it be guarded lest it be corrupted by pride. Paul the apostle marks the curious and wordy wicked unmarried women, and says that this vice comes from idleness.
'And at the same time,' he says, 'they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but also curious and wordy, speaking things which they ought not.' Concerning these he had said above: 'But the younger widows avoid; for when they have wantoned in Christ, they wish to marry, having condemnation, because they have made void their first faith'—that is, in that which they had first vowed they did not stand. Yet he does not say, 'they marry,' but, 'they wish to marry.' For many of them are recalled from marrying not by love of the noble resolve, but by fear of open disgrace, which fear itself also comes from pride, whereby it is dreaded to displease men rather than God.
These women, therefore, who wish to marry and yet do not marry because they cannot do so with impunity—who would do better to marry than to burn, that is, than to be laid waste in their very concupiscence by the hidden flame of concupiscence—who repent of their profession and are irked by their confession: unless they direct a corrected heart and by the fear of God again conquer lust, they are to be reckoned among the dead, whether they live in wantonness (whence the apostle says, 'She that liveth in wantonness is dead while she liveth'), or in labours and fastings that are superfluous through no correction of heart, and serve ostentation rather than amendment. I do not press upon such women a great care for humility, in whom pride itself is confounded and is bloodied by the wound of conscience.
Nor upon those lying in drunkenness or avarice or any other kind of damnable disease do I impose this great solicitude of pious humility, since, though they have the profession of bodily continence, yet by their perverse morals they are discordant with their own name—unless perhaps in these evils they will even dare to make a show of themselves, for whom it is not enough that their punishments are deferred. Nor do I treat of those in whom there is a certain craving to please, either by more elegant dress than the necessity of so great a profession requires, or by a conspicuous headband, or by swelling coils of hair, or by veils so fine that the little nets placed beneath appear through them: to these are to be given precepts not yet about humility, but about chastity itself, or the integrity of modesty.
Give me a woman professing perpetual continence and free from these and all vices and stains of this kind of morals: for her I fear pride, for her, in so great a good, I dread the swelling of self-exaltation. The more she has whereby she may please herself, the more I fear lest, by pleasing herself, she displease him who resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Certainly the chief mastership and example of virginal integrity is to be beheld in Christ himself. What more, then, shall I enjoin upon the continent concerning humility than what he enjoins who says to all, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart'?
When he had mentioned his greatness above, wishing to show this very thing—how small he was made for our sake, though how great he is—he says, 'I confess to thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing before thee. All things are delivered to me by my Father, and no one knoweth the Son but the Father, and no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall be pleased to reveal him. Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'
He to whom the Father delivered all things, and whom no one knows but the Father, and who alone knows the Father and him to whom he shall be pleased to reveal him, does not say, 'Learn of me to fashion the world or to raise the dead,' but, 'for I am meek and lowly in heart.' O salutary teaching! O Master and Lord of mortals, to whom death was proffered and poured out in the cup of pride! He was unwilling to teach what he himself was not; he was unwilling to command what he himself did not do. I see thee, good Jesus, with the eyes of faith which thou hast opened for me, crying out as in an assembly of the human race and saying, 'Come to me, and learn of me.' What, I beseech thee, O Son of God, through whom all things were made, and yet made among all things, O Son of Man—what have we come to thee to learn from thee?
'For I am meek,' he says, 'and lowly in heart.' To this, then, have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in thee been reduced, that we should learn this from thee as some great thing—that thou art meek and lowly in heart? Is it then so great a thing to be small, that unless it were done by thee, who art so great, it could not be learned at all? So it is indeed. For rest is not otherwise found for the soul than by digesting the restless swelling whereby it was great to itself, when it was not sound to thee. Let those hear thee and come to thee and learn from thee to be meek and lowly, who seek thy mercy and thy truth, living to thee, to thee and not to themselves.
Let him hear this who labours and is heavy laden, oppressed by such a burden that he dares not lift his eyes to heaven—that sinner smiting his breast and drawing near from afar; let the centurion hear, not worthy that thou shouldst enter under his roof; let Zacchaeus hear, the chief of the publicans, restoring fourfold the gains of damnable sins; let the woman hear, a sinner in the city, the more tearful at thy feet the more she had been estranged from thy footsteps; let the harlots and publicans hear, who go before the scribes and Pharisees into the kingdom of heaven; let every kind of the sick hear, in whose company banquets were cast up against thee as a crime, forsooth as by the whole who did not seek the physician, since thou camest not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
All these, when they turn to thee, easily grow meek and are humbled before thee, mindful of their most iniquitous life and of thy most indulgent mercy, for where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. But look upon the ranks of virgins, of holy boys and girls: in thy Church this kind has been reared; there it sprang up for thee from a mother's breasts; unto thy name it loosed its tongue to speak; thy name, poured in, it sucked as the milk of its infancy. No one from this number can say, 'I who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief'; nay rather, thou hast set before those willing to seize it something thou didst not merely command, saying:
'He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.' They seized it, they vowed, and for the kingdom of heaven's sake they made themselves eunuchs—not because thou didst threaten, but because thou didst exhort. Cry aloud to these; let these hear thee, for thou art meek and lowly in heart. Let these, by how much they are great, so much humble themselves in all things, that before thee they may find grace. They are righteous; but is it as thou art, who justifiest the ungodly? They are chaste; but their mothers nourished them in sins within the womb. They are holy; but thou art also the Holy of holies. They are virgins; but they are not also born of virgins. They are whole both in spirit and in flesh; but they are not the Word made flesh.
And yet let them learn, not from those to whom thou forgivest sins, but from thee thyself, the Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, that thou art meek and lowly in heart. It is not thee, O pious and chaste soul, who hast relaxed carnal appetite not even to the permitted point of marriage, who hast not indulged the body destined to perish even for the propagation of a successor, who hast suspended thy earthly and flowing members into the habit of heaven—it is not thee that I send, in order to learn humility, to the publicans and sinners who nevertheless go before the proud into the kingdom of heaven; I do not send thee to these. For they are unworthy, who have been freed from the abyss of uncleanness, that unblemished virginity should be sent to imitate them:
I send thee to the King of heaven, to him through whom men were created and who was created among men for the sake of men; to him who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, and despised by the sons of men for the sake of the sons of men; to him who, ruling over the immortal angels, did not disdain to serve mortals. Him surely not iniquity but charity made humble—charity which envies not, is not puffed up, seeks not her own; for Christ also pleased not himself, but, as it is written of him, 'The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me.' Go, come to him, and learn, for he is meek and lowly in heart.
Thou shalt not go to him who dared not lift his eyes to heaven under the burden of iniquity, but to him who came down from heaven under the weight of charity; thou shalt not go to her who bathed with tears the feet of her Lord, seeking indulgence for grave sins, but thou shalt go to him who, while he was giving indulgence for all sins, washed the feet of his servants. I know the dignity of thy virginity: I do not set before thee the publican humbly accusing his own faults to be imitated, but I fear for thee the Pharisee proudly boasting his own merits. I do not say, 'Be such as she of whom it was said, Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much'; but I dread lest, when thou thinkest that little is forgiven thee, thou love little.
I fear, I say, vehemently for thee, lest, while thou gloriest that thou wilt follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, thou be unable, through the swelling of pride, to follow him through the narrow ways. It is good for thee, O virginal soul, so that, in the way thou art a virgin, so keeping wholly in thy heart that thou hast been born again, keeping in thy flesh that thou wast born, thou mayest nevertheless conceive from the fear of the Lord and bring forth the spirit of salvation. Fear indeed is not in charity, but perfect charity, as it is written, casts out fear—yet the fear of men, not of God; the fear of temporal evils, not of the divine judgment at the end. Be not high-minded, but fear; love the goodness of God, fear his severity: both suffer thee not to be proud. For in loving thou fearest lest thou grievously offend him who is loved and who loves.
For what graver offence is there than to displease by pride him who for thy sake displeased the proud? And where ought that chaste fear, which endures for ever and ever, more to be than in thee, who thinkest not on the things of the world, how thou mayest please a husband, but on the things of the Lord, how thou mayest please the Lord? That other fear is not in charity; but this chaste fear does not depart from charity. If thou lovest not, fear lest thou perish; if thou lovest, fear lest thou displease. That fear charity casts out; with this it runs in within. The apostle Paul also says, 'For we have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.'
That fear, I believe, he means which had been given in the Old Testament, lest the temporal goods should be lost which God had promised, not yet to sons under grace, but to servants still under the law. There is also the fear of eternal fire, on account of which, to serve God for the sake of avoiding it, is not yet assuredly the fear of perfect charity. For the desire of reward is one thing, the dread of punishment another. These are one set of voices: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face?' And these are another set of voices: 'One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the delight of the Lord and be protected in his temple'; and, 'Turn not away thy face from me'; and, 'My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.'
Those first voices let him have who dared not lift his eyes to heaven, and she who bathed with tears his feet to obtain pardon of grave sins; but these latter voices do thou have, who art solicitous for the things of the Lord, that thou mayest be holy both in body and in spirit. Those first voices are accompanied by the fear that has torment, which perfect charity casts out; but these latter voices are accompanied by the chaste fear of the Lord that endures for ever and ever. And to each kind it must be said, 'Be not high-minded, but fear,' so that a man extol himself neither by the defence of his own sins nor by the presumption of righteousness. For even Paul himself, who said, 'For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear,' nevertheless, with the fear that is charity's companion, says:
'I was with you in much fear and trembling'; and that sentence which I have mentioned, lest the wild olive grafted in should be proud against the broken branches of the olive, he himself used, saying, 'Be not high-minded, but fear'; he himself, admonishing all the members of Christ in general, says, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.' Lest that which is written should seem to pertain to the Old Testament: 'Serve the Lord in fear, and exult before him with trembling.' And what members of the holy body, which is the Church, ought more to take care that the Holy Spirit may rest upon them, than those who profess virginal holiness? But how does he rest, where he finds not his own place?
What else than a humbled heart, which he may fill, not from which he may recoil; which he may lift up, not which he may press down? Since it has been most plainly said, 'Upon whom shall my Spirit rest? Upon the humble and the quiet and him that trembleth at my words.' Thou already livest justly, thou already livest piously, chastely, holily, thou livest in virginal chastity; and yet thou still livest here, and art not humbled by hearing, 'Is not human life upon earth a temptation?' Does it not beat thee back from over-confident self-exaltation, 'Woe to the world because of offences'? Dost thou not tremble lest thou be reckoned among the many whose charity grows cold because iniquity abounds? Dost thou not smite thy breast when thou hearest, 'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall'?
Amid these divine warnings and human perils, do we still thus labour to persuade humility to the holy virgins? Or is it for any other reason to be believed that God permits many men and many women, who are to fall, to be mingled in the number of your profession, than that, by these falling, your fear may be increased, whereby pride may be repressed? Which pride God so hates that against this one alone the Most High so humbled himself. Unless perhaps thou wilt in truth fear the less and be the more puffed up, so as to love little him who so loved thee that he delivered himself up for thee, because he has forgiven thee little—namely, thee who from childhood hast lived religiously, chastely, in pious chastity, in unblemished virginity.
As though, forsooth, thou oughtest not far more ardently to love him who did not permit thee to fall into those things which he forgave to the wicked when they were converted to him. Or was that Pharisee, who therefore loved little because he reckoned that little was forgiven him, blinded by this error for any other reason than because, ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish his own, he was not subject to the righteousness of God? But you, a chosen generation and the more elect among the elect, choirs of virgins following the Lamb, you also have been saved by grace through faith; and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God: not of works, lest perchance anyone be exalted. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.
Will you then, the more richly you are adorned by his gifts, love him so much the less? May he himself avert so horrible a madness. Accordingly, since the Truth has spoken truly that he to whom little is forgiven loves little, in order that you may love most ardently him by loving whom you are free and at leisure from the bonds of marriages, reckon to yourselves as altogether forgiven whatever of evil has not been committed by you, he being your governor. For your eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck your feet out of the snare; and, 'Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.' And the apostle, speaking of continence itself, says, 'I would that all men were even as myself; but every one hath his proper gift from God, one after this manner, another after that.'
Who then gives these things? Who distributes to each his own as he wills? Assuredly God, with whom there is no iniquity. And on this account, by what equity he makes some after this manner and others after that, for a man to know is either impossible or altogether difficult; yet that he does it in equity, it is not lawful to doubt. What therefore hast thou that thou hast not received? Or by what perversity dost thou love less him from whom thou hast received more? Wherefore let this be the first thought of humility to be put on: that the virgin of God think not that it is from herself to herself that she is such, and not rather that this best gift descends from above from the Father of lights, with whom is no change nor shadow of turning.
For thus she will not think that little has been forgiven her, so as to love little, and, ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish her own, be not subject to the righteousness of God. In which vice was that Simon, whom the woman surpassed, to whom many sins were forgiven, because she loved much. But more cautiously and more truly she will consider that all sins are so to be reckoned as forgiven, from which God keeps that they be not committed. Witnesses are the voices of pious supplications in the holy Scriptures, by which it is shown that those very things which are commanded by God are not done except by the giving and helping of him who commanded. For they are asked for mendaciously, if we could do them without the help of his grace.
What is so generally and above all commanded as obedience, whereby the commandments of God are kept? And yet we find this to be prayed for. 'Thou,' he says, 'hast commanded thy commandments to be kept exceedingly.' Then follows: 'O that my ways may be directed to keep thy justifications; then shall I not be confounded, while I look into all thy commandments.' What he set above as God's having commanded, this he wished to be fulfilled by himself. This indeed is done, that one may not sin; but if sin has been committed, it is commanded that one repent, lest by defence and excusing of sin he who did it perish by being proud, while he is unwilling by repenting to let perish what he did. Even this is asked of God, that it may be understood not to be done except by his bestowing of whom it is asked.
'Set, O Lord,' he says, 'a watch before my mouth and a door of restraint about my lips. Incline not my heart to evil words, to make excuses in sins with men that work iniquity.' If, then, both obedience, by which we keep His commandments, and penitence, by which we do not excuse but accuse our sins, are longed for and asked from Him, it is manifest that when it comes to pass, it is had by His giving, and by His help it is fulfilled. It is said still more plainly concerning obedience: 'By the Lord are the steps of a man directed, and He shall will his way'; and of penitence the Apostle says: 'Lest perchance God grant them repentance.' Concerning continence itself, was it not said most openly:
'And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God grant it, this very thing also was of wisdom, to know whose gift it was.' But perhaps continence is a gift of God, while wisdom man supplies to himself—the wisdom by which he acknowledges that gift to be not his own but God's. Nay rather, 'the Lord maketh the wise blind,' and 'the faithful testimony of God giveth wisdom unto little ones,' and 'if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.' But virgins ought to be wise, that their lamps be not extinguished. How wise, save by not being high-minded, but consenting to lowly things? For Wisdom itself said to man: 'Behold, piety is wisdom.'
If, then, you have nothing which you have not received, be not high-minded, but fear; and love not little, as one to whom little has been forgiven, but rather love much, as one to whom much has been bestowed. For if she loves, to whom it was granted that she should not have to repay, how much more ought she to love, to whom it was granted that she might have! For whoever remains chaste from the beginning is governed by Him; and whoever from being unchaste becomes chaste is corrected by Him; and whoever unto the end remains unchaste is forsaken by Him. This, moreover, He can do by a hidden judgment, but not by an unjust one. And perhaps it lies hidden for this reason, that He may be the more feared and men be the less proud.
Then, when a person now knows that by the grace of God he is what he is, let him not fall into another snare of pride, so as, on account of the very grace of God, to exalt himself and despise others. By this vice that other man, the Pharisee, even while giving thanks to God for the good things he possessed, nevertheless exalted himself above the publican who was confessing his sins. What then shall a virgin do, what shall she think, that she may not exalt herself above those men or women who lack this so great a gift? For she ought not to feign humility, but to display it; for the feigning of humility is the greater pride. Therefore Scripture, wishing to show that humility must be truthful, when it had said, 'The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all things,' at once also added:
'and thou shalt find grace before God'—clearly, where she could not humble herself deceitfully. Accordingly, what shall we say? Is there anything which a virgin of God may truly think, whereby she should not dare to prefer herself to a faithful woman—not only to a widow, but even to one that is married? I do not say to a reprobate woman; for who does not know that an obedient woman is to be preferred to a disobedient virgin? But when both are obedient to the commandments of God, will she so tremble to prefer holy virginity even to chaste marriage, and continence to wedlock, the hundredfold fruit to the thirtyfold? Nay rather, let her not doubt to set this thing above that. Yet this or that obedient and God-fearing virgin let her not dare to set herself before this or that obedient and God-fearing woman;
otherwise she will not be humble, and 'God resisteth the proud.' What then shall she consider? Namely, the hidden gifts of God, which nothing but the questioning of temptation reveals to each one even in his own self. For, to say nothing of the rest, whence does a virgin know—however solicitous she be about the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord—that she is not perhaps, on account of some infirmity of mind unknown to herself, not yet ripe for martyrdom, while that other woman, before whom she was eager to prefer herself, is already able to drink the cup of the Lord's humility, which He set before the disciples who were lovers of loftiness as a thing to be drunk first? Whence, I say, does she know that she herself is perhaps not yet a Thecla, while the other is already a Crispina? Assuredly, unless temptation be present, no demonstration of this gift is made.
This, moreover, is so great a thing that some understand it to be the hundredfold fruit. For ecclesiastical authority bears most illustrious testimony to it, in which it is known to the faithful in what place martyrs and in what place departed consecrated women are recited at the sacraments of the altar. But what that diversity of fruitfulness may signify, let those see who understand these matters better than we: whether the virginal life be in the hundredfold fruit, the widowed in the sixtyfold, and the married in the thirtyfold; or whether the hundredfold fertility be rather reckoned to martyrdom, the sixtyfold to continence, the thirtyfold to wedlock; or whether virginity, with martyrdom added, fills up the hundredfold fruit, while alone it is in the sixtyfold, and the married who bear thirtyfold attain to the sixtyfold if they be martyrs;
or—what seems to me more probable—since the gifts of divine grace are many, and one is greater and better than another (whence the Apostle says, 'But covet the better gifts'), it is to be understood that they are more than can be distributed into three distinctions. First, let us not set widowed continence either in no fruit at all, or lower it to the merit of conjugal chastity, or make it equal to virginal glory; nor let us reckon that the crown of martyrdom—whether established in the disposition of the soul, even if the trial of temptation be lacking, or in the very experience of suffering—is added to any one of those three chastities without any increase of fruitfulness.
Next, where do we place the fact that many men and women so guard virginal continence, yet do not do what the Lord says—'If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me'—nor dare to join themselves to the community of those among whom no one calls anything his own, but they have all things in common? Do we think that nothing of fruitfulness accrues to the virgins of God when they do this? Or that the virgins of God are without any fruit, even if they do not do this? There are, then, many gifts, and some clearer and higher than others, each having its own. And sometimes one is fruitful with fewer gifts, but more excellent ones; another with lower gifts, but more numerous.
And in what manner they may be either made equal to one another or distinguished in the receiving of eternal honors, what man would dare to judge? Provided, however, it be established both that these things are many and diverse, and that the better ones profit not for the present time but for eternity. But I think the Lord willed to mention three differences of fruitfulness, leaving the rest to those who understand. For another Evangelist also mentioned only the hundredfold. Is He therefore to be thought either to have disapproved of the other two or to have been ignorant of them, and not rather to have left them to be understood?
But, as I had begun to say, whether virginity devoted to God be the hundredfold fruit, or in some other way—whether one we have mentioned or one we have not mentioned—that difference of fertility is to be understood, yet no one, so far as I think, would have dared to prefer virginity to martyrdom; and no one would doubt that this gift is hidden, if the tempting trial be absent. The virgin has therefore something to consider that may profit her in preserving humility, lest she violate that charity which surpasses all gifts, without which assuredly whatever else she may have—be it little or much, great or small—is nothing:
she has, I say, something to consider, that she be not puffed up, that she envy not—namely, so to profess her virginal good as far more abundant and better than the conjugal good, yet so that she knows not whether this or that married woman is already able to suffer for Christ, while she herself as yet cannot, and that in this she is spared, because her weakness is not put to the question by temptation. 'For God is faithful,' says the Apostle, 'who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make with the temptation also a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.' Perhaps, then, this or that man or woman holding a mode of conjugal life praiseworthy in its own kind may already be able to contend against the enemy who forces them to iniquity, even to the tearing of their flesh and the shedding of their blood;
while those men or women who from childhood are continent and have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven are not yet strong enough to endure such things, whether for justice's sake or for the sake of chastity itself. For it is one thing not to consent, for the sake of truth and a holy purpose, to one who persuades and flatters; another not to yield even to one who tortures and strikes. These things lie hidden in the faculties and powers of souls; tempted, they are laid open; by experience they are made manifest. Therefore, that no one be puffed up, from that which he perceives himself able to do, let him humbly consider that he is perhaps unable to do something more excellent which he knows not, and that some, who neither have nor profess that whereby he is gloriously known to himself, are able to do that which he himself cannot. Thus will be preserved not a deceptive but a truthful humility:
'in honor preferring one another,' and 'each esteeming others better than themselves.' What shall I now say of the very caution and vigilance in not sinning? Who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who shall boast that he is pure from sin? Holy virginity is indeed whole from the mother's womb; but 'no one,' it says, 'is clean in Thy sight, not even the infant whose life upon earth is of one day.' There is preserved also a certain virginal chastity in inviolate faith, whereby the Church is fitted to one husband as a chaste virgin;
but that one Husband taught not only the faithful who are virgins in mind and body, but absolutely all Christians, from the spiritual to the carnal, from the apostles to the last of the penitents—as it were from the heights of the heavens to their bounds—to pray, and in that very prayer admonished them to say: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,' wherein by that which we ask, He showed also what we ourselves should remember that we are. For He did not command us to pray, saying, 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,' for those debts of all our past life which we trust have been forgiven us in baptism through His peace;
otherwise catechumens rather ought to pray this prayer until baptism. But since the baptized pray it—prelates and peoples, shepherds and flocks—it is sufficiently shown that in this life, which is wholly a temptation, no one ought to boast as though he were immune from all sins. Accordingly, even the virgins of God, being indeed blameless, follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, both with the purgation of sins made perfect and with virginity preserved, which once lost would not return; but because that same Apocalypse, where such were revealed as such, also praises them on this account, that 'in their mouth was found no guile,' let them remember that they are truthful in this also, that they dare not say they have no sin.
For the same John who saw that vision said this: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.' This assuredly is said not to these or those, but to all Christians, among whom virgins also ought to recognize themselves. For thus will they be without falsehood, such as they appeared in the Apocalypse. And by this, as long as perfection is not yet in the heavenly sublimity, confession in humility makes them blameless.
But again, lest anyone, taking occasion from this sentence, should sin with deadly security and permit himself to be dragged along as though his sins were soon to be blotted out by easy confession, he immediately added: 'My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins.' Let no one, therefore, depart from sin as though intending to return, nor bind himself with iniquity by a kind of pact of fellowship, so as to delight in confessing what he delights not to avoid.
But since even to those who are diligent and watchful lest they sin, sins in some way creep in out of human frailty—slight though they be, few though they be, yet not none—those very sins become great and grievous if pride add increase and weight to them; whereas by the Priest whom we have in heaven, if they be destroyed by pious humility, they are purged with all felicity. But I do not contend with those who assert that a man can live in this life without any sin; I do not contend, I do not contradict. For perhaps out of our own misery we measure great men, and comparing ourselves with ourselves we understand not.
One thing I know: that those great men, such as we are not, such as we have not yet experienced ourselves to be—the greater they are, the more they humble themselves in all things, that they may find grace before God. For however great they be, 'the servant is not greater than his lord, nor the disciple than his master.' And assuredly He is the Lord who says, 'All things are delivered to Me by My Father,' and He is the Master who says, 'Come unto Me, all you that labor, and learn of Me.' And yet what do we learn? 'For I am meek,' He says, 'and humble of heart.' Here someone will say: 'This is now no longer about virginity, but about writing on humility.' As though any virginity whatever, and not that which is according to God, had been undertaken by us to be extolled!
The greater I see this good to be, the more I dread pride for it in the future, lest it perish. For nothing preserves the virginal good save God Himself, who gave it—and God is love. The guardian, therefore, of virginity is charity; but the dwelling-place of this guardian is humility. For there dwells He who said that His Spirit rests 'upon the humble and quiet, and him that trembles at His words.' What, then, have I done that is foreign to my purpose, if, wishing the good which I have praised to be more safely guarded, I have taken care also to prepare a dwelling for its guardian? For I confidently say—nor do I fear lest those be angry with me whom, being anxious, I admonish to fear along with me for themselves—more easily do humble married folk follow the Lamb, even if not whithersoever He goeth, at least as far as they are able, than proud virgins.
For how does one follow Him to whom he is unwilling to draw near? Or how does one draw near to Him whom he comes not to, that he may learn that He is meek and humble of heart? Those, accordingly, the Lamb, following Him whithersoever He goeth, leads—those in whom He has first found where He Himself may lay His head. For a certain proud and crafty man had said this to Him: 'Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.' To whom He answered: 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.' Under the name of foxes He reproved cunning craftiness, and under the name of birds windy pride, in which He found no pious humility whereon He might rest.
And by this he in no way at all followed the Lord, who had promised that he would follow, not up to some certain point of advancement, but altogether whithersoever He should go. Wherefore do this, O virgins of God, do this: follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. But first come to Him whom you are to follow, and learn that He is meek and humble of heart. Come humbly to the Humble One, if you love Him; and depart not from Him, lest you fall. For he who fears to depart from Him prays and says: 'Let not the foot of pride come against me.' Pursue the way of sublimity with the foot of humility. He Himself exalts those who follow humbly, He whom it did not grieve to descend to the fallen. Commit His gifts to Him to be preserved; keep your strength unto Him.
Whatever evil you commit not while He guards, reckon as remitted by Him, lest, esteeming that little has been forgiven you, you love little, and, smiting your breasts, you despise the publicans with ruinous boasting. Beware of your tested strengths, lest, because you were able to bear something, you be puffed up; but concerning untested ones, pray, lest you be tempted above what you are able to bear. Esteem some to be, in secret, superior to you, to whom you are, in the open, better. When the perhaps unknown good deeds of others are kindly believed by you, your own, known to us, are not diminished by comparison, but confirmed by love; and those things which perhaps are still lacking are given the more easily, the more humbly they are desired.
Let those who persevere in your number afford you an example; but let those who fall increase your fear. Love the former, that you may imitate them; mourn the latter, that you be not puffed up. Do not establish your own righteousness; submit yourselves to God who justifies you. Grant pardon to the sins of others; pray for your own. Avoid future sins by watching; blot out past ones by confessing. Behold, you are now such that you agree in your other conduct also with the virginity you have professed and preserved.
Behold, you now abstain not only from murders, diabolical sacrifices and abominations, thefts, robberies, frauds, perjuries, drunkennesses, and every luxury and avarice, dissimulations, envyings, impieties, cruelties, but even those things which are, or are thought to be, lighter, are neither found nor arise in you: no shameless countenance, no wandering eyes, no unbridled tongue, no wanton laughter, no scurrilous jest, no unbecoming attire, no proud or dissolute gait; you now render not evil for evil, nor cursing for cursing; you now at last fulfill that measure of love, that you lay down your souls for your brethren. Behold, you are now such, because you also ought to be such.
These things, added to virginity, exhibit to men an angelic life and to earth the manners of heaven. But the greater you are, whoever you are that are thus great, the more humble yourselves in all things, that you may find grace before God, lest He resist the proud, lest He humble those who exalt themselves, lest He fail to bring the puffed-up through the narrow places—although such solicitude be superfluous, lest, where charity is fervent, humility be lacking. If, then, you have despised the marriages of the sons of men, from whom you might have begotten sons of men, love with your whole heart Him who is beautiful in form above the sons of men: you are at leisure, your heart is free from conjugal bonds.
Behold the beauty of your Lover; consider Him equal to the Father, subject also to His mother, ruling even in the heavens and serving on earth, creating all things, created among all things. That very thing which the proud deride in Him, behold how beautiful it is; with your inward eyes behold the wounds of Him hanging, the scars of Him rising again, the blood of Him dying, the price paid by Him believing in, the exchange made by Him redeeming. Consider how much these things are worth; weigh them in the balance of charity, and whatever of love you had to expend upon your marriages, repay to Him.
It is well that He seeks your inward beauty, where He gave you power to become the sons of God: He seeks from you not beautiful flesh, but beautiful morals, by which you bridle even the flesh. There is no one who can lie about you to Him and make the jealous One rage. See with how great security you may love Him whom you fear not to displease by false suspicions. Husband and wife love each other because they see each other, and what they do not see they fear in each other; nor do they rejoice securely from that which is open, while in secret they mostly suspect what is not. You, in Him whom you see not with the eyes but behold by faith, have neither anything true which you might reprove, nor do you fear Him, lest perchance you offend Him over something false.
If, then, you would have owed a great love to husbands, how much ought you to love Him for whose sake you were unwilling to have husbands! Let Him be fixed wholly in your heart who for your sake was fixed upon the cross; let Him hold wholly in your soul all that you were unwilling to have occupied by wedlock. It is not permitted you to love but little Him for whose sake you loved not even that which was permitted. To you who thus love the One meek and humble of heart, I dread no pride. According to our small measure, then, we have spoken enough both of the sanctity by which you are properly called consecrated women, and of the humility by which is preserved whatever great thing you are called.
But more worthily may those three young men—to whom He whom they loved with a most fervent heart afforded refreshment in the fire—admonish you from this little work of our words, far briefer indeed in the number of words, but far grander in the weight of authority, in the hymn by which God is honored by them. For, joining humility to sanctity in the praisers of God, they most openly taught that each one should so much the more beware lest he be deceived by pride, the holier the thing that is uttered. Accordingly, do you also praise Him who grants you that, in the midst of the fire of this world, although you be not joined in wedlock, you nevertheless be not burned; and praying also for us, 'Bless the Lord, O holy and humble of heart; sing a hymn and exalt Him above all forever.'