5. Wherefore also when he was
advising married persons not to defraud one another of the due of
carnal intercourse; lest, by this means, the one of them, (the due
of marriage being denied to him,) being through his own
incontinence tempted of Satan, should fall away into fornication,
he saith, “But this I say of leave, not of command; but I would
that all men were as I myself; but each one hath his own proper
gift from God; but one in this way, and another in that.”2228
You see
that wedded chastity also, and the
marriage faith of the
Christian
bed, is a “
gift,” and this of
God; so that, when as
carnal lust
exceeds somewhat the measure of
sensual intercourse, beyond what is
necessary for the begetting of
children, this
evil is not of
marriage, but venial by reason of the good of
marriage. For not
concerning
marriage, which is contracted for the begetting of
children, and the
faith of wedded chastity, and the sacrament
(indissoluble, so long as both
live) of matrimony, all which are
good; but concerning that immoderate use of the
flesh, which is
recognized in the
weakness of
married persons, and is pardoned by
the intervention of the good of
marriage, the
Apostle saith,
“I
speak of leave, not of command.” Also, when he says, “The
woman
is bound, so long as her
husband lives: but, in case her
husband
shall have
died, she is set free: let her be
married to whom she
will, only in the
Lord: but she shall be more
blessed, if she shall
have so continued, according to my
counsel;”
2229
he shows sufficiently that a
faithful woman is
blessed in the
Lord, even when she marries a
second time after the
death of her
husband, but that a
widow is
more blessed in the same Lord; that is, to speak not only in the
words, but by instances also, of the Scriptures, that Ruth is
blessed, but that Anna is more blessed.
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