Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/On Exhortation to Chastity/Chapter 1

V.

On Exhortation to Chastity.

[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]

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Chapter I.&#8212;Introduction.&#160; Virginity Classified Under Three Several Species.

not, brother, that after the premission in peace of your wife, you, being wholly bent upon the composing of your mind (to a right frame), are seriously thinking about the end of your lone life, and of course are standing in need of counsel.&#160; Although, in cases of this kind, each individual ought to hold colloquy with his own faith, and consult its strength; still, inasmuch as, in this (particular) species (of trial), the necessity of the flesh (which generally is faith&#8217;s antagonist at the bar of the same inner consciousness, to which I have alluded) sets cogitation astir, faith has need of counsel from without, as an advocate, as it were, to oppose the necessities of the flesh:&#160; which necessity, indeed, may very easily be circumscribed, if the will rather than the indulgence of God be considered.&#160; No one deserves (favour) by availing himself of the indulgence, but by rendering a prompt obedience to the will, (of his master). &#160; The will of God is our sanctification, for He wishes His &#8220;image&#8221;&#8212;us&#8212;to become likewise His &#8220;likeness;&#8221; that we may be &#8220;holy&#8221; just as Himself is &#8220;holy.&#8221; &#160; That good&#8212;sanctification, I mean&#8212;I distribute into several species, that in some one of those species we may be found.&#160; The first species is, virginity from one&#8217;s birth:&#160; the second, virginity from one&#8217;s second birth, that is, from the font; which (second virginity) either in the marriage state keeps (its subject) pure by mutual compact, or else perseveres in widowhood from choice:&#160; a third grade remains, monogamy, when, after the interception of a marriage once contracted, there is thereafter a renunciation of sexual connection.&#160; The first virginity is (the virginity) of happiness, (and consists in) total ignorance of that from which you will afterwards wish to be freed:&#160; the second, of virtue, (and consists in) contemning that the power of which you know full well:&#160; the remaining species, (that) of marrying no more after the disjunction of matrimony by death, besides being the glory of virtue, is (the glory) of moderation likewise; for moderation is the not regretting a thing which has been taken away, and taken away by the Lord God, without whose will neither does a leaf glide down from a tree, nor a sparrow of one farthing&#8217;s worth fall to the earth.