26. Therefore let spiritual
delights succeed to the place of carnal delights in holy chastity;
reading, prayer, psalm, good thought, frequency in good works, hope
of the world to come, and a heart upward; and for all these giving
of thanks unto the Father of lights, from Whom, without any doubt,
every good gift, and every perfect gift, as Scripture bears
witness, cometh down.2288
For when, in stead of the
delights
of
married women, which they have in the
flesh of their
husbands,
the use of other
carnal delights is taken, as it were to solace
them, why should I speak of the evils which follow, when the
Apostle hath said in short, that the
widow, who lives in
delights,
living is dead.
2289
But
far be
it from you, that ye be taken with
lust of
riches instead of
lust
of
marriage, or that in your
hearts money succeed to the place of
love of a
husband. For looking into men’s conversation, we have
often found by experience, that in certain persons, when
wantonness
hath been restrained, avarice hath increased. For, as, in the
senses themselves of the body, they who see not hear more keenly,
and
discern many things by touch, nor have such as have the use of
their
eyes so great
life in their touch; and in this instance it is
understood that, when the exertion of the
power of attention
2290
hath been
restrained in one approach, that is, of the
eyes, it puts itself
forth into other senses, more ready with keenness to distinguish,
as though it essayed to supply from the one what was denied in the
other; thus also often
carnal lust, being restrained from
pleasure
of
sensual intercourse, with greater
strength reaches itself forth
to desire
money, and when turned away from the one, turns itself
with more glow of passion to the other. But in you let the
love of
riches grow cold together with the
love of
marriage, and let a
pious use of what property you possess be directed to
spiritual
delights, that your liberality
wax warm rather in helping such as
are in want than in enriching covetous persons. Forsooth into the
heavenly treasury are sent not
gifts to the covetous, but
alms to
the needy, which above measure help the prayers of
widows.
Fastings, also, and watchings, so
far as they disturb not
health,
if they be spent in praying, singing psalms, reading, and
meditating in the
Law of
God, even the very things which seem
laborious are turned into
spiritual delights. For no way burdensome
are the
labors of such as
love, but even of themselves
delight, as
of such as hunt,
fowl,
fish,
gather grapes, traffic,
delight
themselves with some game. It matters therefore what be
loved.
For, in the case of what is
loved, either there is no
labor, or the
labor also is
loved. And consider how it should be matter for
shame
and
grief, if there be
pleasure in
labor, to take a
wild beast, to
fill cask and purse,
2291
to cast a ball, and there be no
pleasure in labors to win God!
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