On Exhortation to Chastity

St. Cyprian of Carthage

  1. 1. Introduction. Virginity Classified Under Three Several Species
  2. 2. The Blame of Our Misdeeds Not to Be Cast Upon God. The One Power Which Rests with Man is the Power of Volition
  3. 3. Of Indulgence and Pure Volition. The Question Illustrated.
  4. 4. Further Remarks Upon the Apostle's Language
  5. 5. Unity of Marriage Taught by Its First Institution, and by the Apostle's Application of that Primal Type to Christ and the Church
  6. 6. The Objection from the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Answered
  7. 7. Even the Old Discipline Was Not Without Precedents to Enforce Monogamy. But in This as in Other Respects, the New Has Brought in a Higher Perfection
  8. 8. If It Be Granted that Second Marriage is Lawful, Yet All Things Lawful are Not Expedient
  9. 9. Second Marriage a Species of Adultery, Marriage Itself Impugned, as Akin to Adultery
  10. 10. Application of the Subject. Advantages of Widowhood
  11. 11. The More the Wives, the Greater the Distraction of the Spirit
  12. 12. Excuses Commonly Urged in Defence of Second Marriage. Their Futility, Especially in the Case of Christians, Pointed Out
  13. 13. Examples from Among the Heathen, as Well as from the Church, to Enforce the Foregoing Exhortation

I doubt not, brother, that after the premission in peace of your wife, you, being wholly bent upon the composing of your mind (to a right frame), are seriously thinking about the end of your lone life, and of course are standing in need of counsel. Although, in cases of this kind, each individual ought to hold colloquy with his own faith, and consult its strength; still, inasmuch as, in this (particular) species (of trial), the necessity of the flesh (which generally is faith's antagonist at the bar of the same inner consciousness, to which I have alluded) sets cogitation astir, faith has need of counsel from without, as an advocate, as it were, to oppose the necessities of the flesh: which necessity, indeed, may very easily be circumscribed, if the will rather than the indulgence of God be considered. No one deserves (favour) by availing himself of the indulgence, but by rendering a prompt obedience to the will, (of his master). The will of God is our sanctification, for He wishes His image— us — to become likewise His likeness; that we may be holy just as Himself is holy. That good — sanctification, I mean — I distribute into several species, that in some one of those species we may be found. The first species is, virginity from one's birth: the second, virginity from one's second birth, that is, from the font; which (second virginity) either in the marriage state keeps (its subject) pure by mutual compact, or else perseveres in widowhood from choice: a third grade remains, monogamy, when, after the interception of a marriage once contracted, there is thereafter a renunciation of sexual connection. The first virginity is (the virginity) of happiness, (and consists in) total ignorance of that from which you will afterwards wish to be freed: the second, of virtue, (and consists in) contemning that the power of which you know full well: the remaining species, (that) of marrying no more after the disjunction of matrimony by death, besides being the glory of virtue, is (the glory) of moderation likewise; for moderation is the not regretting a thing which has been taken away, and taken away by the Lord God, without whose will neither does a leaf glide down from a tree, nor a sparrow of one farthing's worth fall to the earth.