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,”1912
| 1912 Wisdom 8.21" id="v.i.xxviii-p2.1" parsed="|Wis|8|21|0|0" osisRef="Bible:Wis.8.21">Wisd. viii. 21 |
that even they possess it, who, by
containing, either serve errors, or overcome any lesser desires for
this purpose, that they may
fulfill others, by the greatness of
which they are overcome. But that continence which is true, coming
from above, wills not to repress some evils by other evils, but to
heal all evils by goods. And, briefly to comprehend its mode of
action, it is the place of continence to keep watch to restrain and
heal all
delights whatsoever of
lust, which are opposed to the
delight of
wisdom. Whence without doubt they set it within too
narrow bounds, who limit it to restraining the
lusts of the body
alone: certainly they speak better, who say that it pertains to
Continence to rule in general
lust or desire. Which desire is set
down as a fault, nor is it only of the body, but also of the
soul.
For, if the desire of the body be in
fornications and
drunkennesses; hard enmities, strifes, emulations, lastly, hatreds,
their
exercise in the
pleasure of the body, and not rather in the
motion and
troubled states of the
soul? Yet the
Apostle called all
these “works of the
flesh,” whether what pertained to the
soul,
or what pertained properly to the
flesh, calling forsooth the man
himself by the name of the
flesh.
1913
Forsooth they are the works of
man, whatsoever are not called works of
God; forasmuch as man, who
does these, lives after himself, not after
God, so
far as he does
these. But there are other works of man, which are rather to be
called works of
God. “For it is
God,”
1914
saith the
Apostle, “Who
worketh in you both to will and to do, according to His
good pleasure.” Whence also is that, “For as many as are led by
the spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
1915
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
