Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Heathen Examples Cry Shame Upon This “Infirmity of the Flesh.”
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XVII.—Heathen Examples Cry Shame Upon This “Infirmity of
the Flesh.”690
They will have plainly a specious privilege to
plead before Christ—the everlasting “infirmity of the
flesh!” But upon this (infirmity) will sit in judgment no
longer an Isaac, our monogamist father; or a John, a noted voluntary
celibate691
| 691 Comp. ad Ux., l.
i. cc. vi. vii.; and de Ex. Cast., c. xiii. | of Christ’s; or
a Judith, daughter of Merari; or so many other examples of
saints. Heathens are wont to be destined our judges. There
will arise a queen of Carthage, and give sentence upon the Christians,
who, refugee as she was, living on alien soil, and at that very time
the originator of so mighty a state, whereas she ought unasked to have
craved royal nuptials, yet, for fear she should experience a second
marriage, preferred on the contrary rather to “burn” than
to “marry.” Her assessor will be the Roman matron
who, having—albeit it was through noctural violence,
nevertheless—known another man, washed away with blood the stain
of her flesh, that she might avenge upon her own person (the honour of)
monogamy. There have been, too, who preferred to die for their
husbands rather than marry after their husbands’ death. To
idols, at all events, both monogamy and widowhood serve as
apparitors. On Fortuna Muliebris, as on Mother Matuta, none but a
once wedded woman hangs the wreath. Once for all do the Pontifex
Maximus and the wife of a Flamen marry. The priestesses of Ceres,
even during the lifetime and with the consent of their husbands, are
widowed by amicable separation. There are, too, who may judge us
on the ground of absolute continence: the virgins of Vesta, and
of the Achaian Juno, and of the Scythian Diana, and of the Pythian
Apollo. On the ground of continence the priests likewise of the
famous Egyptian bull will judge the “infirmity” of
Christians. Blush, O flesh, who hast “put
on”692
Christ! Suffice
it thee once for all to marry, whereto “from the beginning”
thou wast created, whereto by “the end” thou art being
recalled! Return at least to the former Adam, if to the last thou
canst not! Once for all did he taste of the tree; once for all
felt concupiscence; once for all veiled his shame; once for all blushed
in the presence of God; once for all concealed his guilty hue; once for
all was exiled from the paradise of holiness;693
once
for all thenceforward married. If you were “in
him,”694
you have your norm;
if you have passed over “into Christ,”695
you will be bound to be (yet) better. Exhibit (to us) a third
Adam, and him a digamist; and then you will be able to be what, between
the two, you cannot.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
