but nevertheless man consists of mind and body: and assuredly God, whom He sets free, sets free the whole man. Whence the Saviour Himself also took upon Himself the whole man, deigning to set free in us the whole that He made. Those who hold opinions against this truth — what does it profit them to restrain their lusts? If indeed they restrain any. What in them can be made pure through continence, whose continence itself is so impure? Which ought not even to be called continence. For to hold the opinion which they hold is the poison of the devil; but continence is the gift of God.
But just as not everyone who suffers something, or who endures any pains whatsoever most patiently, has that virtue which is likewise the gift of God and is called patience — for many endure many torments so as not to betray, in their crimes, either those who share their guilt or themselves; many for the sake of glutting their most burning lusts and of obtaining or not relinquishing those things by which they are bound with the chain of a depraved love; many for the sake of the diverse and pernicious errors by which they are vehemently held:
all of whom far be it that we should say to have true patience — so also not everyone who restrains anything, or who even restrains the very lusts of the flesh or of the mind marvellously, is to be said to have that continence of whose usefulness and beauty we are treating. For some — which may seem astonishing to say — are continent through incontinence, as if a woman restrain herself from her husband because she has sworn this to an adulterer; some through injustice, as if a spouse does not render to the spouse the debt of intercourse of the sexes, because he or she is now able to conquer such an appetite of the body; likewise some are continent, deceived by a false faith, hoping vain things, pursuing vain things: among whom are all heretics and whosoever are deceived by some error under the name of religion.
Whose continence would be true, if their faith also were true; but since that faith is on that account not even to be called faith, because it is false, without doubt this too is unworthy of the name of continence. For are we going to say that continence — which we most truly call the gift of God — is a sin? Far be from our hearts so detestable a madness. But the blessed Apostle says: 'Everything that is not of faith is sin.' Therefore that which does not have faith is not to be called continence either. There are also those who, by openly serving malignant demons, abstain from the pleasures of the body, in order that through them they may glut nefarious pleasures, whose onslaught and ardour they do not restrain.
Hence, to say something and to pass over the rest for the sake of the length of the discourse: some do not even touch their own wives, while as if pure through magical arts they strive to attain to other men's wives. O marvellous continence — nay rather, singular wickedness and uncleanness! For if it were true continence, the concupiscence of the flesh ought to have restrained itself from the marriage-bed rather away from adultery than for the sake of perpetrating adultery.
For conjugal continence is wont to relax this concupiscence of the flesh and, up to a point, to impose measure by its bridles, so that not even in marriage itself may it flow forth in immoderate license, but a measure be kept — either that due to the infirmity of the spouse, to whom the Apostle prescribes this not by command but grants it by indulgence, or that accommodated to the procreation of children, which was the one reason for the mutual mingling of flesh both for the holy fathers of old and for the mothers.
But continence, doing this — that is, moderating and in a certain manner limiting in spouses the concupiscence of the flesh, and ordering its restless and disordered motion within certain bounds — makes good use of man's evil, which it makes and wills to perfect into good, just as God makes use even of evil men for the sake of those whom He perfects as good. Far be it therefore that we should say those also to have continence — of which the Scripture says: 'And this very thing was of wisdom, to know whose gift it was' — who by being continent either serve errors, or conquer certain lesser desires for this reason, that they may glut others by whose greatness they are conquered.
But that continence which is true, coming from above, wills not to press down some evils by other evils, but to heal all evils by goods. To embrace its action briefly: the office of continence keeps watch over the curbing and healing of absolutely all the delights of concupiscence which are opposed to the delight of wisdom. Whence without doubt they measure it too narrowly who define it as curbing the lusts of the body alone; better assuredly are those who add not 'of the body,' but say generally that lust or desire is to be governed as pertaining to continence. Which desire is set among the vices, and is not only of the body, but also of the mind.
For if the desire of the body is in fornications and drunkenness, are enmities, contentions, emulations, and finally animosities exercised in the pleasures of the body, and not rather in the motions and perturbations of the mind? Yet the Apostle called all these things works of the flesh, whether they pertained properly to the mind or to the flesh — namely calling man himself by the name of flesh. For they are works of man which are not called works of God, since the man who does these things lives according to himself, not according to God, in so far as he does these things. But there are other works of man which are rather to be called works of God. 'For it is God,' says the Apostle, 'who worketh in you both to will and to work, according to His good will.'
Thence also is that saying: 'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.' The spirit of man therefore, cleaving to the Spirit of God, lusts against the flesh — that is, against itself, but for its own sake — so that those motions, whether in the flesh or in the soul, which are according to man, not according to God, and which are still there through acquired infirmity, may be curbed by continence for the sake of acquiring health; so that man, no longer living according to man, may be able to say: 'Yet now not I, but Christ liveth in me.' For where there is 'not I,' there the 'I' is more happily, so that, when according to man some reprobate motion arises, to which he who serves the law of God with his mind does not consent, he may also say that other saying: 'Now it is no longer I that work it.'
For to such are also said those things which, as their associates and partakers, we ought to hear: 'If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, your life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory.' Let us understand — nay rather, let us more attentively hear — to whom he speaks. For what is plainer than this! What more open! Certainly he speaks to those who have risen with Christ, not yet indeed in flesh, but in mind, whom he calls both dead and rather from this alive; for 'your life,' he says, 'is hid with Christ in God.' Of such dead men is the voice:
'Yet now not I, but Christ liveth in me.' Those therefore whose life was hidden in God are admonished and exhorted to mortify their members which are upon the earth. For this follows: 'Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.' And lest anyone too dull should think that these visible members of the body are to be mortified by such men, immediately, opening up what he means, he says: 'fornication, uncleanness, disorder, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols.'
Is it then really to be believed that these men, who were already dead and whose life was hidden with Christ in God, still committed fornication, still lived in unclean morals and works, still served the perturbations of evil concupiscence and covetousness? What madman would think this of such men? What therefore does he will them to mortify — namely by the work of continence — except those very motions still living in a certain intrusion of their own, without the consent of our mind, without the operation of the bodily members?
And how are these mortified by the work of continence, except when the mind does not consent to them, nor are the members offered to them as weapons of the body, and — what is greater and to be attended to with greater watchfulness of continence — our very thought itself, although in a certain way it be touched by their suggestion and as it were whisper, nevertheless is turned away from being delighted by them and is converted to think more delightfully upon heavenly things, naming them in discourse only to this end, that one may not dwell in them but flee from them? Which comes to pass if we effectively hear, with His help who commands these things through the Apostle: 'Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.'
But when he had recalled those evils, he added and said: 'On account of which the wrath of God cometh upon the sons of unbelief.' Assuredly he wholesomely terrified them, lest the faithful should think that, on account of their faith alone, even if they lived in these evils, they could be saved — the Apostle James crying out against this notion with a most manifest voice and saying: 'If a man say he hath faith, but hath not works, can faith save him?' Whence here too the teacher of the Gentiles said that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of unbelief on account of those evils. But when he says: 'in which you also walked in time past, when you lived in them,' he sufficiently shows that they now no longer live in them. For to these they were dead, so that their life was hidden in God with Christ.
Since therefore they no longer lived in those things, they were now commanded to mortify such things. For while they themselves did not live in the same, those things lived, as I have already shown a little before, and those vices were called their members — namely because they dwelt in their members — by that mode of speech whereby the container stands for the contained, as it is said: 'the whole forum speaks thereof,' when it is the men who speak, who are in the forum. By that very mode of speech it is sung in the Psalm: 'Let all the earth adore Thee,' that is: all the men who are in the earth. 'But now,' he says, 'put you also away all these things,' and he mentions more evils of this kind. But what is it that it does not suffice him to say: 'Put you away all these things,' but with the added conjunction he said: 'you also'?
Except lest on this account they should think that they might do these evils and live in them with impunity, because their faith would free them from the wrath which comes upon the sons of unbelief who do these things and live in them without faith. 'Put away,' he says, 'you also those evils, on account of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of unbelief, and do not promise yourselves impunity for them on account of the merit of faith.' But he would not say 'Put away' to those who had already put them away in that part in which they did not consent to such vices nor gave their members to them as weapons of sin — except because it is in this deed, and is engaged in this operation still, so long as we are mortal, that the life of the saints consists.
For while the spirit lusts against the flesh, this matter is carried on with great effort: depraved delights, unclean lusts, carnal and shameful motions are resisted by the sweetness of holiness, by the love of chastity, by spiritual vigour and the beauty of continence: thus they are put away by those who are dead to them and do not live in them by consenting; thus, I say, they are put away, while, by continued continence, they are pressed down lest they rise again. Whosoever, as though secure, ceases from this putting-away of theirs, they will forthwith leap into the citadel of the mind and thence will put down that very mind and reduce it into their own service, basely and deformedly captive. Then shall sin reign in man's mortal body, to obey the desires thereof;
then shall he yield his members as weapons of iniquity unto sin, and the last state of that man shall be worse than the first. For it is much more tolerable not to have begun this kind of contest than, having begun, to have abandoned the conflict and to have been made from a good warrior, or even from a victor, a captive. Whence the Lord says not: 'He who shall have begun,' but: 'He who shall have persevered unto the end, he shall be saved.' But whether we fight fiercely lest we be conquered, or sometimes conquer even with unhoped-for or unexpected ease, let us give the glory to Him who gives us continence. Let us remember that a certain righteous man said in his abundance: 'I shall not be moved for ever,' and that it was shown him how rashly he had said this, as though attributing to his own strength what was bestowed on him from above.
But we have learned this from his own confession; for he immediately added: 'Lord, in Thy will Thou didst give strength to my beauty; but Thou didst turn away Thy face, and I became troubled.' By a medicinal providence he was for a little while deserted by his Ruler, lest through deadly pride he himself should desert his Ruler. Whether therefore here, where we contend with our vices to be subdued and diminished, or there — which shall be in the end, where we shall be free from every enemy because from every plague — this is wholesomely wrought with us, that 'he who glorieth, may glory in the Lord.'