14. And not without just
cause a doubt is raised, whether he said this of all married women,
or of such as so many are, as that nearly all may be thought so to
be. For neither doth that, which he saith of unmarried women,
“She, that is unmarried, thinkest of the things of the Lord, to
be holy both in body and spirit:”1973
pertain unto all
unmarried women:
whereas there are certain
widows who are dead, who
live in
delights. However, so
far as regards a certain distinction and, as
it were, character of their own, of the
unmarried and
married; as
she deserves the excess of
hatred, who containing from
marriage,
1974
that is,
from a thing allowed, does not contain from offenses, either of
luxury, or
pride, or curiosity and prating; so the
married woman is
seldom met with, who, in the very obedience of
married life, hath
no thought
save how to please
God, by adorning herself, not with
plaited
hair, or
gold and
pearls and costly attire,
1975
but as
becometh
women making profession of
piety, through a good
conversation. Such marriages, forsooth, the
Apostle Peter also
describes by giving
commandment. “In like manner,” saith he,
“
wives obeying their own
husbands; in order that, even if any
obey not the word, they may be
gained without
discourse through the
conversation of the
wives, seeing your
fear and
chaste
conversation: that they be not they that are
adorned without with
crispings of
hair, or
clothed with
gold or with fair
raiment; but
that hidden man of your
heart, in that unbroken continuance of a
quiet and
modest spirit, which before the
Lord also is
rich. For
thus certain holy
women, who hoped in the
Lord, used to
adorn
themselves, obeying their own
husbands: as
Sarah obeyed
Abraham,
calling him
Lord: whose
daughters ye are become, when ye do well,
and
fear not with any
vain fear.
Husbands in like manner living at
peace and in chastity with your
wives, both give ye
honor as to the
weaker and subject
vessel, as with co-heirs of grace, and see that
your prayers be not hindered.”
1976
Is it indeed that such marriages
have no thought of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord?
But they are very rare: who denies this? And, being, as they are,
rare, nearly all the persons who are such, were not joined together
in order to be such, but being already joined together became
such.
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