And so anger against vice is laudable, and yet troublesome, since he reckoned that, being troubled, he had incurred some guilt. It behoves, therefore, that the lawful union of the flesh be for the cause of offspring, not of pleasure; and that the joining of flesh be for the sake of begetting children, not for the satisfaction of vices. If, then, anyone uses his own wife, not caught by the desire of pleasure but only for the sake of begetting children, he assuredly is to be left to his own judgement concerning entrance into the church, or concerning receiving the mystery of the Lord's Body and Blood; for he ought not to be forbidden by us to receive, who, placed in the fire, knows not how to burn.
But when not the love of procreating offspring, but pleasure dominates in the work of union, the spouses have, even from their own union, something to bewail. For this holy preaching concedes to them, and yet from that very concession it shakes the mind with fear. For when the apostle Paul said: He who cannot contain himself, let him have his own wife, at once he took care to add: But this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command (1 Cor. 7:6-9). For that is not indulged which is lawful and just. And what he said is indulged, he showed to be a fault. But it must be weighed with a vigilant mind, that on Mount Sinai the Lord, about to speak to the people, first commanded that same people to abstain from women.
And if there, where the Lord spoke to men through a creature subject to them, such great provision of bodily purity was required that those who received the words of God should not be mingled with women, how much more ought those who receive the Body of the almighty Lord to keep in themselves purity of flesh, lest they be over-burdened by the greatness of the inestimable mystery? Hence also it is said to David through the priest concerning his young men, that if they were clean from women, they should receive the shewbread; which they would by no means receive, unless David first declared them clean from women.
But then a man who, after intercourse with his wife, has been washed with water, is able also to receive the mystery of holy communion, since, according to the aforesaid sentence, it has been lawful for him even to enter the church. I ask also whether, after the illusion which is wont to happen through a dream, anyone may receive the Body of the Lord; or, if he be a priest, may celebrate the sacred mysteries. Him indeed the Testament of the old Law, as we have already said in the preceding chapter, calls polluted, and does not allow him to enter the church, unless washed with water, even until evening.
Yet this then applied specially to that people, but understanding it spiritually, one will take it under the same sense of which we spoke before: because he is, as it were, deluded through a dream who, tempted by uncleanness, is defiled in his thought by true images. But he is to be washed with water, so that he may wash away the faults of thought with tears. And unless the fire of temptation first departs, let him know himself to be guilty, as it were, until evening. But in the same illusion a discretion is very necessary, since it must be very subtly weighed from what cause it happens to the mind of the sleeper. For sometimes it comes from gluttony, sometimes from a superfluity or infirmity of nature, sometimes from thought.
And indeed when it has come about from a superfluity or infirmity of nature, this illusion is by no means to be feared, since the mind is rather to be pitied for having suffered it unknowingly than blamed for having done it. But when the appetite of the gullet is snatched beyond measure in taking food, and thereby the receptacles of the humours are burdened, the mind has thence some guilt — yet not so far as to prohibit the receiving of the sacred mystery, or the celebrating of the solemnities of the Mass, when perhaps either a feast day requires it, or, because another priest is lacking in the place to administer the mystery, necessity itself compels it. For if there are present others who are able to fulfil the mystery, an illusion brought about through gluttony ought not to prohibit from the reception of the sacred mystery;
but from the offering of the sacred mystery he ought, as I think, humbly to abstain; provided, however, that a foul imagining has not shaken the mind of the sleeper. For there are some to whom the illusion generally arises in such a way that their mind, even placed in the sleep of the body, is not defiled by foul imaginings. In which matter one thing is there shown: that the mind is guilty, though not then free in its own judgement, since it remembers nothing seen while the body slept, and yet in the wakefulness of the body it remembers having fallen into gluttony. But if from a foul thought of the waking man the illusion arises in the mind of the sleeper, his guilt is plain to the soul. For it sees from what root that defilement proceeded, since what he thought knowingly, that he suffered unknowingly.
But it must be weighed whether that thought came about through suggestion, or through delight, or, what is greater, through consent to the sin. For in three ways is every sin accomplished, namely by suggestion, by delight, by consent. Suggestion indeed is made through the devil, delight through the flesh, consent through the spirit; because the serpent suggested the first fault, Eve as it were the flesh was delighted, but Adam as it were the spirit consented. And great discretion is necessary, so that the mind may preside as judge over itself, between suggestion and delight, between delight and consent. For when the malignant spirit suggests a sin in the mind, if no delight in the sin follows, the sin is by no means perpetrated.
But when the flesh begins to be delighted, then the sin begins to be born. If, however, it descends by deliberation even to consent, then the sin is known to be complete. In the suggestion, therefore, is the seed of sin; in the delight is its nourishment; in the consent is its perfection. And often it happens that what the malignant spirit sows in thought, the flesh draws into delight, and yet the mind does not consent to that same delight. And since the flesh cannot be delighted without the soul, the mind itself, nevertheless struggling against the pleasures of the flesh, is in some way bound unwillingly in carnal delight, so that by reason it gainsays it and does not consent, and yet is bound by the delight, but bitterly groans that it is bound.
Whence also that pre-eminent soldier of the heavenly host groaned, saying: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive under the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom. 7:23). But if he was a captive, he was in no way fighting. Yet he did fight, wherefore he was not a captive. He fought therefore by the law of the mind, against which the law that is in the members warred. If he fought thus, he was not a captive. Behold, therefore, man is, so that I may speak thus, both captive and free: free by the justice which he loves, captive by the delight which he bears unwillingly.