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To His Wife

Chapter I.--Design of the Treatise. Disavowal of Personal Motives in Writing It.

I have thought it meet, my best beloved fellow-servant in the Lord, even from this early period, ¹ to provide for the course which you must pursue after my departure from the world, ² if I shall be called before you; (and) to entrust to your honour ³ the observance of the provision. For in things worldly ⁴ we are active enough, and we wish the good of each of us to be consulted. If we draw up wills for such matters, why ought we not much more to take forethought for our posterity ⁵ in things divine and heavenly, and in a sense to bequeath a legacy to be received before the inheritance be divided,--(the legacy, I mean, of) admonition and demonstration touching those (bequests) which are allotted ⁶ out of (our) immortal goods, and from the heritage of the heavens? Only, that you may be able to receive in its entirety ⁷ this feoffment in trust ⁸ of my admonition, may God grant; to whom be honour, glory, renown, dignity, and power, now and to the ages of the ages!

The precept, therefore, which I give you is, that, with all the constancy you may, you do, after our departure, renounce nuptials; not that you will on that score confer any benefit on me, except in that you will profit yourself. But to Christians, after their departure from the world, ⁹ no restoration of marriage is promised in the day of the resurrection, translated as they will be into the condition and sanctity of angels. ¹⁰ Therefore no solicitude arising from carnal jealousy will, in the day of the resurrection, even in the case of her whom they chose to represent as having been married to seven brothers successively, wound any one ¹¹ of her so many husbands; nor is any (husband) awaiting her to put her to confusion. ¹² The question raised by the Sadducees has yielded to the Lord's sentence. Think not that it is for the sake of preserving to the end for myself the entire devotion of your flesh, that I, suspicious of the pain of (anticipated) slight, am even at this early period ¹³ instilling into you the counsel of (perpetual) widowhood. There will at that day be no resumption of voluptuous disgrace between us. No such frivolities, no such impurities, does God promise to His (servants). But whether to you, or to any other woman whatever who pertains to God, the advice which we are giving shall be profitable, we take leave to treat of at large.

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À sa femme

I.

Je commence par vous recommander de renoncer à de secondes noces, une fois que je ne serai plus, autant du moins que le pourra votre continence. Et ne croyez pas qu'il m'en revienne quelque avantage; c'est pour vous seulement que je vous le demande. Vous le savez: la résurrection ne promet pas aux Chrétiens, après leur sortie du siècle, la réunion des époux, puisqu'ils seront transformés en la substance angélique et en auront la pureté. Par conséquent aucune de ces jalouses sollicitudes qu'éveille la concupiscence de la chair, ne réclamera au jour de la résurrection la femme de l'Evangile, qui épousa sept maris; aucun d'eux ne l'attend pour lui adresser des reproches. La difficulté des Sadducéens s'est évanouie devant la réponse du Sauveur. Ainsi, que je vous conseille la viduité pour me réserver l'intégrité de votre chair, et que ma jalousie redoute un affront, ne le pensez pas. Alors il ne sera plus question entre nous de honteux plaisirs. Dieu promettrait-il à ses élus des voluptés si frivoles et si impures? Mais puisque ces avertissements peuvent vous profiter, à vous ou à toute femme qui appartient au Seigneur, permettez-moi de les développer.