On Continence.

 1. It is difficult to treat of the virtue of the soul, which is called Continence, in a manner fully suitable and worthy but He, whose great gift thi

 2. And lest it should seem that necessary Continence was to be hoped for from the Lord only in respect of the lust of the lower parts of the flesh, it

 3. Lastly, to show more plainly the inner mouth, which by these words he meant, after having said, “Set a watch, O Lord, to my mouth, and a door of Co

 4. For which cause our Lord Himself also with His own mouth saith, “Cleanse what are within, and what are without will be clean.” And, also, in anothe

 5. And on this account that, which, the parts that beget being bridled by modesty, is most chiefly and properly to be called Continence, is violated b

 6. But it is one thing to fight well, which now is, when the strife of death is resisted another thing not to have an adversary, which will then be,

 7. This conflict none experience in themselves, save such as war on the side of the virtues, and war down the vices: nor doth any thing storm the evil

 8. Such soldiers the Apostolic trumpet enkindles for battle with that sound, “Therefore let not,” saith he, “sin reign in your mortal body to obey its

 9. And also, when he exhorts us, that we live not after the flesh, lest we die, but that by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that we may

 10. But in order that we fall not away from Continence, we ought to watch specially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil, that we pres

 11. But some one will say to me that it is one thing to live after man, another thing to live after the flesh because man forsooth is a rational crea

 12. When, therefore, you hear it said, “Sin shall not reign over you ” have not thou confidence of thyself, that sin reign not over thee, but of Him,

 13. In this so great conflict, wherein man under Grace lives, and when, being aided, he fights well, rejoices in the Lord with trembling, there yet ar

 14. And some indeed, who are used to excuse their own sins, complain that they are driven to sin by fate, as though the stars had decreed this, and he

 15. And there are also they who in excuse of their sins so accuse God, as to say that sins are pleasing to Him. For, if they were displeasing, say the

 16. But God wanted not power to make man such as that he should not be able to sin: but He chose rather to make him such, as that it should lie in his

 17. Now therefore let us return to that, wherefore we have said what we have. We have need of Continence, and we know it to be a divine gift, that our

 18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any

 19. For the flesh lusts after nothing save through the soul, but the flesh is said to lust against the spirit, when the soul with fleshly lust wrestle

 20. There are therefore in us evil desires, by consenting not unto which we live not ill: there are in us lusts of sins, by obeying not which we perfe

 21. That, therefore, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, that there dwelleth not in our flesh good, that the law in our members is opposed to the la

 22. I say not, therefore, with what error, but with what utter madness, do the Manichees attribute our flesh to some, I know not what, fabled “race of

 23. The Apostle has made known to us certain three unions, Christ and the Church, husband and wife, spirit and flesh. Of these the former consult for

 24. If what we have made mention of out of the Apostolic Epistles seem to you to fall short of an answer, hear yet others, if ye have ears. What saith

 25. But, say they, how is the flesh by a certain likeness compared unto the Church? What! doth the Church lust against Christ? whereas the same Apostl

 26. Thus much will suffice to have treated on behalf of true Continence against the Manichees deceitfully continent, lest the fruitful and glorious la

 27. There are also they who, in doing open service to evil demons, contain from pleasures of the body, that, through their means, they may satisfy unl

 28. Far be it therefore that we say of continence, of which Scripture saith. “And this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was,” that even th

 29. Thus the spirit of man, cleaving unto the Spirit of God, lusts against the flesh, that is, against itself: but for itself, in order that those mot

 30. But, after that he had made mention of these evils, he added and said, “On account of which cometh the wrath of God on the sons of unbelief.” Sure

 31. “But now do ye also,” saith he, “put down all ” and he makes mention of several more evils of that sort. But what is it, that it is not enough for

 32. But whether keenly contending, that we be not overcome, or overcoming divers times, or even with unhoped and unlooked for ease, let us give the gl

23. The Apostle has made known to us certain three unions, Christ and the Church, husband and wife, spirit and flesh. Of these the former consult for the good of the latter, the latter wait upon the former. All the things are good, when, in them, certain set over by way of pre-eminence, certain made subject in a becoming manner, observe the beauty of order. Husband and wife receive command and pattern how they ought to be one with another. The command is, “Let wives be subject unto their own husbands, as unto the Lord; because the husband is the head of the wife;”83    Eph. v. 22–28 and, “Husbands, love your wives.” But there is given a pattern, unto wives from the Church, unto husbands from Christ: “As the Church,” saith he, “is subject unto Christ, so also wives unto their own husbands in all things.” In like manner also, having given command to husbands to love their own wives, he added a pattern, “As Christ loved the Church.” But husbands he exhorted to it from a lower matter also, that is, from their own body: not only from a higher, that is, from their Lord. For he not only saith, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church,” which is from an higher: but he said also, “Husbands ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies,” which is from a lower: because both higher and lower are all good. And yet the woman received not pattern from the body, or flesh, to be so subject to the husband as the flesh to the spirit; but either the Apostle would have understood by consequence, what he omitted to state: or haply because the flesh lusteth against the spirit in the mortal and sick estate of this life, therefore he would not set the woman a pattern of subjection from it. But the men he would for this reason, because, although the spirit lusteth against the flesh, even in this it consults for the good of the flesh: not like as the flesh lusting against the spirit, by such opposition consulteth neither for the good of the spirit, nor for its own. Yet the good spirit would not consult for its good, whether by nourishing and cherishing its nature by forethought, or by resisting its faults by continence, were it not that each substance showeth God to be the Creator of each, even by the seemliness of this its order. What is it, therefore, that with true madness ye both boast yourselves to be Christians, and with so great, perverseness contend against the Christian Scriptures, with eyes closed, or rather put out, asserting both that Christ hath appeared unto mortals in false flesh, and that the Church in the soul pertains to Christ, in the body to the devil, and that the male and female sex are works of the devil, not of God, and that the flesh is joined unto the spirit, as an evil substance unto a good substance?

23. Tres quasdam copulas nobis insinuavit Apostolus, Christum et Ecclesiam, virum et uxorem, spiritum et carnem. Horum priora posterioribus consulunt, posteriora prioribus famulantur. Omnia bona sunt, cum in eis quaedam ordinis pulchritudinem excellenter praeposita, quaedam decenter subjecta custodiunt. Vir et uxor, quales secum esse debeant, praeceptum accipiunt et exemplum. Praeceptum est: Mulieres viris suis subditae sint, sicut Domino; quia vir caput mulieris est; et, Viri, diligite uxores vestras. Exemplum autem datur mulieribus de Ecclesia, viris de Christo: Sicut Ecclesia, inquit, subdita est Christo, ita et mulieres viris suis in omnibus. Similiter et viris dato praecepto, ut uxores suas diligant, adjecit exemplum, Sicut Christus dilexit Ecclesiam. Sed viros et a re inferiore adhortatus est, id est, a corpore suo; non tantum a superiore, id est, a Domino suo. Non enim solum ait, Viri, diligite uxores vestras, sicut et Christus dilexit Ecclesiam, quod est a superiore; verum etiam dixit, Viri debent diligere uxores suas sicut corpora sua (Ephes. V, 22-28), quod est ab inferiore: quia et superiora et inferiora bona sunt omnia. Nec tamen mulier a corpore vel carne accepit exemplum, ut ita esset subdita viro, sicut spiritui caro: sed aut consequenter Apostolus intelligi voluit, quod dicere praetermisit; aut forte quia caro concupiscit adversus spiritum in hujus vitae mortalitate atque languore, ideo de illa noluit mulieri exemplum subjectionis adhibere. Viris autem ideo voluit, quia etsi concupiscit spiritus adversus carnem, etiam in hoc ipso consulit carni: non sicut caro concupiscens adversus spiritum, nec spiritui consulit tali repugnatione , nec sibi. Non tamen ei spiritus bonus, sive ejus naturam per providentiam nutriendo ac fovendo, sive ejus vitiis per continentiam resistendo, 0365 consuleret, nisi utraque substantia utriusque artificem Deum, etiam decore sui hujus ordinis indicaret. Quid est ergo quod vos vera dementia et christianos esse jactatis, et contra Scripturas christianas oculis clausis, vel potius exstinctis, tanta perversitate contenditis, et Christum asserentes in falsa carne apparuisse mortalibus, et Ecclesiam in anima ad Christum, in corpore ad diabolum pertinere, et sexum virilem atque muliebrem diaboli opera esse, non Dei, et spiritui carnem tanquam malam substantiam bonae substantiae cohaerere?