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26. We must also be on our guard against supposing that what in the
Old Testament, making allowance for the condition of those times, is
not a crime or a vice even if we take it literally and not
figuratively, can be transferred to the present time as a habit of
life. For no one will do this except lust has dominion over him, and
endeavors to find support for itself in the very Scriptures which were
intended to overthrow it. And the wretched man does not perceive that
such matters are recorded with this useful design, that men of good
hope may learn the salutary lesson, both that the custom they spurn can
be turned to a good use, and that which they embrace can be used to
condemnation, if the use of the former be accompanied with charity,
and the use of the latter with lust.
27. For, if it was possible for one man to use many wives with
chastity, it is possible for another to use one wife with lust. And
I look with greater approval on the man who uses the fruitfulness of
many wives for the sake of an ulterior object, than on the man who
enjoys the body of one wife for its own sake. For in the former case
the man aims at a useful object suited to the circumstances of the
times; in the latter case he gratifies a lust which is engrossed in
temporal enjoyments. And those men to whom the apostle permitted as a
matter of indulgence to have one wife because of their incontinence,
were less near to God than those who, though they had each of them
numerous wives, yet just as a wise man uses food and drink only for the
sake of bodily health, used marriage only for the sake of offspring.
And, accordingly, if these last had been still alive at the advent of
our Lord, when the time not of casting stones away but of gathering
them together had come, they would have immediately made themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. For there is no difficulty
in abstaining unless when there is lust in enjoying. And assuredly
those men of whom I speak knew that wantonness even in regard to wives
is abuse and intemperance, as is proved by Tobit's prayer when he was
married to his wife. For he says: "Blessed art Thou, O God of
our fathers, and blessed is Thy holy and glorious name for ever; let
the heavens bless Thee, and all Thy creatures. Thou madest Adam,
and gavest him Eve his wife for an helper and stay . . . . And
now, O Lord, Thou knowest that I take not this my sister for
lust, but uprightly: therefore have pity on us, O Lord."
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