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To His Wife
Chapter VIII.--Conclusion.
For, concerning the honours which widowhood enjoys in the sight of God, there is a brief summary in one saying of His through the prophet: "Do thou 1 justly to the widow and to the orphan; and come ye, 2 let us reason, saith the Lord." These two names, left to the care of the divine mercy, in proportion as they are destitute of human aid, the Father of all undertakes to defend. Look how the widow's benefactor is put on a level with the widow herself, whose champion shall "reason with the Lord!" Not to virgins, I take it, is so great a gift given. Although in their case perfect integrity and entire sanctity shall have the nearest vision of the face of God, yet the widow has a task more toilsome, because it is easy not to crave after that which you know not, and to turn away from what you have never had to regret. 3 More glorious is the continence which is aware of its own right, which knows what it has seen. The virgin may possibly be held the happier, but the widow the more hardly tasked; the former in that she has always kept "the good," 4 the latter in that she has found "the good for herself." In the former it is grace, in the latter virtue, that is crowned. For some things there are which are of the divine liberality, some of our own working. The indulgences granted by the Lord are regulated by their own grace; the things which are objects of man's striving are attained by earnest pursuit. Pursue earnestly, therefore, the virtue of continence, which is modesty's agent; industry, which allows not women to be "wanderers;" 5 frugality, which scorns the world. 6 Follow companies and conversations worthy of God, mindful of that short verse, sanctified by the apostle's quotation of it, "Ill interviews good morals do corrupt." 7 Talkative, idle, winebibbing, curious tent-fellows, 8 do the very greatest hurt to the purpose of widow-hood. Through talkativeness there creep in words unfriendly to modesty; through idleness they seduce one from strictness; through winebibbing they insinuate any and every evil; through curiosity they convey a spirit of rivalry in lust. Not one of such women knows how to speak of the good of single-husbandhood; for their "god," as the apostle says, "is their belly;" 9 and so, too, what is neighbour to the belly.
These considerations, dearest fellow-servant, I commend to you thus early, 10 handled throughout superfluously indeed, after the apostle, but likely to prove a solace to you, in that (if so it shall turn out 11 ) you will cherish my memory in them.
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So Oehler reads, with Rhenanus and the mss. The other edd. have the plural in each case, as the LXX. in the passage referred to (Isa. i. 17, 18). ↩
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So Oehler reads, with Rhenanus and the mss. The other edd. have the plural in each case, as the LXX. in the passage referred to (Isa. i. 17, 18). ↩
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Desideraveris. Oehler reads "desideres." ↩
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Comp. c. iii. ↩
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1 Tim. v. 13. ↩
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Saeculum. ↩
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A verse said to be Menander's, quoted by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 33; quoted again, but somewhat differently rendered, by Tertullian in b. i. c. iii. ↩
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i.e., here "female companions." ↩
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Phil. iii. 19. ↩
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Comp. c. i. ↩
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i.e., if I be called before you; comp. c. i. ↩
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Ad uxorem
VIII
[1] Nam de uiduitatis honoribus apud Deum uno dicto eius per prophetam expeditum: Iuste facite uiduae et pupillo, et uenite, disputemus, dicit Dominus. Duo ista nomina, in quantum destituta auxilio humano, in tantum diuinae misericordiae exposita, suscipit tueri pater omnium. Vide, quam ex aequo habetur qui uiduae benefecerit, quanti est uidua ipsa, cuius assertor cum Domino disputabit. Non tantum uirginibus datum, opinor.
[2] Licet in illis integritas solida et tota sanctitas de proximo uisura sit faciem Dei, tamen uidua habet aliquid operosius, quia facile est non appetere quod nescias et auersari quod desideraueris numquam. Gloriosior continentia quae ius suum sentit, quae quid uiderit nouit.
[3] Poterit uirgo felicior haberi, at uidua laborosior: illa, quod bonum semper habuit, ista, quod bonum sibi inuenit. In illa gratia, in ista uirtus coronatur. Quaedam enim sunt diuinae liberalitatis, quaedam nostrae operationis. Quae a Domino indulgentur, sua gratia gubernantur; quae ab homine captantur, studio perpetrantur. Stude igitur ad uirtutem continentiae modestiae, quae pudori procurat, sedulitati, quae uagas non facit, frugalitati, quae saeculum spernit.
[4] Conuictus atque colloquia Deo digna sectare, memor illius uersiculi sanctificati per apostolum: Bonos corrumpunt mores congressus mali. Loquaces, otiosae, uinosae, curiosae contubernales uel maxime proposito uiduitatis officiunt. Per loquacitatem ingerunt uerba pudoris inimica, per otium a seueritate deducunt, per uinolentiam quiduis mali insinuant, per curiositatem aemulationem libidinis conuehunt.
[5] Nulla huiusmodi feminarum de bono uniuiratus loqui nouit. Deus enim illis, ut ait apostolus, uenter est, ita et quae uentri propinqua. Haec tibi iam hinc commendo, conserua carissima, post apostolum quidem ex abundanti retractata, sed tibi etiam solatio futura, quod meam memoriam, si ita euenerit, in illis frequentabis.