Exhortatio Virginitatis Liber Unus

THE EXHORTATION TO VIRGINITY OF SAINT AMBROSE, BISHOP OF MILAN,

ONE BOOK.

CHAPTER ONE.

Ambrose, coming to Bononia to those by whom he had been invited, relates that he has brought gifts, namely, the relics of the martyrs Agricola and Vitalis. Although one of these was a master and the other a slave, a comparison is nevertheless drawn; and since the latter went before the former to martyrdom, from this it is recognized that slavery is no hindrance before Christ. Then the contest of both is described, which the Saint illuminates from the presage of each one's name. Next, after recalling the burial they received in the tombs of the Jews, he relates with what great joy they were discovered and brought forth.

Those who are invited to a great banquet are accustomed to carry away gifts with them. I, invited to the banquet at Bononia, where the translation of the holy martyr was celebrated, have reserved for you gifts full of holiness and grace. Gifts are customarily named from the triumphs of princes; and these gifts are triumphal, for the palms of the martyrs are the triumphs of our prince Christ. Nor was I indeed directing my journey hither, but because I was sought by you, I ought to have brought with me the things that were being prepared for others, lest I come to you too little; but what is less in me might be found more in the martyr.

The martyr's name is Agricola, whose slave Vitalis was before him, and his partner and colleague in martyrdom. The slave went ahead to provide the place; the master followed, confident that by the faith of the little slave he would find it already prepared. We are not praising what belongs to another; for the passion of the slave is the master's instruction. The one leapt in, the other fulfilled it. Nothing is taken from him. For how can what Christ has given be diminished? And indeed that one learned excellently, by serving a man, how he might please Christ; yet this one acquired a twofold praise—in the other, of teaching; in himself, of martyrdom. Yet they strove with each other in kindnesses, after they had merited to be equals. The one sent the other ahead to martyrdom; the other summoned him to follow.

No condition, therefore, brings any impediment to a man's commendation; nor does the dignity of lineage bring merit, but faith brings it. Whether slave or free, we are all one in Christ: And whatsoever good each one shall do, this shall he receive from the Lord (Ephesians 6:8). Neither slavery detracts nor freedom helps. See, in this matter, how nothing in condition is of moment. Was anyone, he says, called as a slave? Let it not be your concern. . . . For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who was called as free is Christ's slave (1 Corinthians 7:21-22). See, I say, the force of the Apostle. He is thought to have given more to him who was called as a slave than to him who was called as free; for from a slave he becomes Christ's freedman, from a free man a slave. But he gave no more; rather he divided to both by an equal measure.

With Christ, indeed, servitude and freedom are weighed on an equal scale, and the merits of good servitude and freedom are divided by no distinction, because there is no greater dignity than to serve Christ. Finally, Paul is a servant of Christ Jesus (Rom. 1:1); for this servitude is glorious, in which even the Apostle glories. Or is it not the highest glory, when we have been valued at such a price that we were redeemed by the blood of the Lord? But let us now proceed to the rest.

And when the holy Vitalis was compelled by the persecutors to deny Christ, and he professed the Lord Jesus Christ all the more, they inflicted every kind of torture upon him, so that there was no place on his body without a wound; he poured forth a prayer to the Lord, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior and my God, now receive my spirit, for I desire to receive the crown which your holy angel has shown me.” And when the prayer was completed, he gave up his spirit.

Saint Agricola was considered gentler in character, so that he was loved even by his very enemies. And for this reason they put off his passion. But this honor from the persecutors was harsher than all cruelty, since it begrudged him martyrdom. Finally, when the holy Agricola did not comply, he was crucified, so that we may observe that those blandishments of theirs were not of diligence but of deceit. By the punishment of the servant they wished to terrify the lord. Christ turned this to grace, so that the lord might imitate the martyrdom of the servant.

The name of each was suited to martyrdom, so that they seemed by their very names to be designated for martyrdom. That one was called Vitalis, as though by contempt of this life he were acquiring for himself that true life eternal; this one Agricola, who by the honor of spiritual grace would sow and by the shedding of sacred blood would water the plantings of his own merits and of all virtues.

But their tombs were in the soil of the Jews, among their own sepulchers. The Jews, along with their servants, sought to have fellowship of burial with those whose Lord they denied. So too at one time Balaam said: Let my soul die in the souls of the just; yet while he lived he did not share in the works of those in whose souls he desired to die. And those whom they persecuted while living, they honored when dead. There, therefore, we were seeking the remains of the martyr, like one gathering a rose among thorns.

We were surrounded by the Jews when the sacred relics were being disinterred; the people of the Church were present with applause and joy. The Jews said: The flowers have appeared in our land (Cant. 2:12), when they saw the martyrs. The Christians said: The time of pruning is at hand (ibid.). Already he who reaps receives his reward (John 4:36). Others sowed, and we reap the fruit of the martyrs. Again the Jews, hearing the voices of the applauding Church, said among themselves: The voice of the turtle-dove has been heard in our land (Cant. 2:12). Hence it is well read: Day to day utters the word, and night to night shows knowledge (Ps. 19:2)—day to day, the Christian to the Christian; night to night, the Jew to the Jew. The Jews therefore were showing that they had knowledge of the martyrs, but not knowledge of the Word; that is, not according to that knowledge of the good alone and the true alone. For, ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness (Rom. 10:3).

CHAPTER II.

He first magnifies the value of the relics, then asserts that the widow Juliana, who was to be given to them, is worthy; for she is to be honored on the Apostle's authority, and is to be praised especially because she grieved over the losses of the Church more than her own.

I have therefore brought you gifts which I gathered with my own hands, that is, the trophies of the cross, whose grace you acknowledge in these works. Surely even the demons themselves confess it. Let others store up gold and silver, and dig them out from hidden veins; let them gather precious necklaces of jewels; that is a temporal treasure, and often ruinous to those who possess it: we gather the nails of the martyr, and many indeed, so that his wounds were more numerous than his limbs. You would say the martyr was crying out to the people of the Jews when we were collecting his nails: Put your hands into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing (John 20:27). We gather the triumphant blood, and the wood of the cross.

We could not deny these things to the holy widow when she asked. Receive therefore the gifts of salvation, which are now being hidden beneath the sacred altars. She is therefore a widow made holy by Saint Juliana, who prepared and offered this temple to the Lord, which we dedicate today: worthy of such an offering, who has already consecrated temples to the Lord in her offspring for chastity and integrity. While I wish to say Juliana, I have said Judaea. The tongue has not erred, but has defined; for the soul that favors Christ is Judaea. Finally, God is known in Judaea (Ps. 76:1); that is, where he was acknowledged, not where he was denied.

There is therefore a Judaea in the spirit; for you the greater portion, the understanding more sincere; because salvation is from the Jews. The tongue of the wanderer has thus found a testimony of holiness.

Let us therefore honor this widow, because it is written: Honor widows who are truly widows. Although she does not seek the honor of our words, she who has fulfilled the Apostle's command, having testimony in good works, who has raised her sons well and instructed them better.

Who did not lament her as destitute and miserable when she lost her husband? But she grieved more deeply that a minister had been snatched from the sacred altars than that she had lost a husband, or her sons a father. For even though, widowed, she was deprived of her husband's protection and comfort, yet in her pious mind the cause of the Church weighed more.

CHAPTER III.

Juliana's exhortation to her children. There at the outset she admonishes her son that he is not called Laurentius at random, but because he was conceived by the patronage of the Martyr of the same name, and was promised to him. Let him therefore pay his parents' vows. There is nothing by which he may be held back; since divine service is more excellent than all other things, while the life of men is most wretched; yet an escape from its evils lies open, provided they choose chastity for him, to whom the servitude of marriage is here opposed.

She therefore girded up the inmost parts of her mind, and seeing herself surrounded by three daughters and one son, and becoming stronger by that very thing by which other women are wont to be terrified, she addressed her children with this exhortation: My children, you have lost a father; you have a mother. That exchange would indeed have been better, if the father lived and the mother were absent. Nevertheless, weak though I am and desolate, I show myself to you, if you wish to follow, as one by whom you may judge that your father has not departed from you; for you will have a better parent from heaven. He it is who also established these fathers. For what else now remains of hope? Your father was rich in grace, not in money; wealthy in service, not in patrimony; whose inheritance is faith, rich toward God, but needy toward the world. He has left you rich enough, if you follow his purpose. Faith is undivided for either sex, the portion of men, the dowry of virgins.

And you indeed, my son, are somewhat nearer to your father; acknowledge what you owe to your mother, and what name you should give back to the household. Your age excuses you, but the inheritance calls you. Let father and mother, my son, rejoice in you. Do not despise your mother as though she were foolish. The king's admonition, he says, is that of one whom his mother taught. What of the son who keeps the words of God? Firstborn, I speak to you, my son: What is the son of my womb? What is the child of my prayers? Do not give your honor to a woman. Hear what the wise man says, what Scripture asserts.

Consider who it was that helped you to be born: you are a son of my vows rather than of my sorrows. Consider to what gift your father designated you by such a name, who called you Laurentius. There we laid down our vows, from which we took the name. The fulfillment of the vows followed; render to the martyr what you owe the martyr. He obtained you for us; you, restore what we promised concerning you by the appellation of such a name.

But what else is there, my son, that you should think ought to be chosen, except the God of your fathers? For he makes poor and rich, humble and exalted; he raises the poor from the earth, and lifts the needy from the dung heap, and makes him sit with the powerful in the tribunal of honor and inheritance. He gives a vow to the one who desires, and blesses the years of the just. What, my son, is more excellent than this? Or what is the life of man on this earth but a swift runner? Behold, we have passed by, and have seen nothing. And would that we imitated this runner, so that we might see nothing and carry no burdens! But what is more grievous, the course is empty and the burdens vain. They are indeed vain, but not light, nor free from offense; because the interest of sin is heavy. Whence holy Job cries out: Is not the life of man on earth a trial, or is his life not like that of a daily hireling? And like a servant fearing his master, who has found shade, and like a hireling awaiting his wages; so I have waited in vain, but nights of sorrows have been given to me. If I sleep, I say: When will the day come? When I have risen, again: When will evening come?

I am full of pain from evening until morning. But my life is lighter than a cinder. And it has perished in vain hope. Nothing, then, is man, unless you, Lord, look upon him, and make your visitation of him until morning, and bring him into rest. If a tree is cut down, it sprouts again and blossoms from the scent of water; when man has fallen, he is nothing, and sorrows rush in upon him.

Therefore, if you wish, sons, to avoid this trial of such great necessities, the integrity of the body must be sought by you: which I urge as counsel, not command as authority. For virginity alone is what can be urged, not commanded. It is a matter of vow rather than of precept. For what belongs to grace is not ordered but desired, and it is a matter of choice rather than of servitude. Whence also the Apostle says: Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel, as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord. For he had read that the Lord said to eunuchs: Whoever shall keep my commandments, and shall choose what I will, and embrace my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a named place, better than sons and daughters: I will give them an eternal name, and it shall not fail. A better place, he says, I will give you, he says to the eunuchs; to those, namely, who have cut off themselves with the genital part removed. They, then, are the ones who have in heaven rewards more excellent than the rest.

These the Son of God proclaims in his Gospel; for when the Apostles said, "If such is the case of a man, that it is not permitted him to put away his wife except for the sole cause of fornication, it is not expedient to marry," the Lord answered: "Not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given" (Matthew 19:10-11); that is, the weakness of human condition does not receive this, so that it may lie open to all, but it is easy to receive for those alone to whom divine grace has granted it, that they may castrate themselves, so as to obtain the kingdom of heaven.

CHAPTER IV.

Having briefly set forth the dignity of integrity, he explains what losses will come back to daughters from marriage; and that he may stir them to flee these things, he brings forward the sentence and example of the Apostle. Then, having recalled both the miseries she endured in marriage and those she will endure in widowhood, he affirms that it will come to pass that all those women will be restored by their virginity, and that she herself will hereafter need no protection.

You have heard, my sons, how great is the reward of virginity. A kingdom is acquired, and the heavenly kingdom displays the life of angels. This I urge upon you, than which nothing is more beautiful: that among men you be angels, who are bound by no nuptial union (Matthew 22:30). For those who do not marry, and those who do not take wives, are like angels on earth; so that they do not feel the tribulation of the flesh, they know not servitude, they are carried away from the contagion of worldly thought, they direct their mind to divine things; so that, as if stripped of the body's weakness, they think not the things of man but the things of God.

Consider, my daughters, if you wish to marry, how much is lacking to you, for whom a father is lacking. The richest dowry is lacking; yet even if it abounded, you would purchase servitude at a great price. But now who will not despise you, left destitute by a father? Where will you flee? From where will you seek help against the injuries of men? How many are the inconveniences in marriages themselves! How heavy for the most part are the insults! How many are the bonds!

First, marriage itself is a bond by which the bride is bound to her husband and constrained to subjection to him. It is indeed a bond of love, but still a bond, from which the bride, when she wishes to free herself, cannot, nor does she have free control of herself. Finally the Apostle says: The woman does not have power over her own body, but the man (1 Cor 7). And why wonder about the woman, when even the man does not have power over his own body, but the woman? If the stronger one does not have power over himself, how much less the weaker! Therefore common servitude does not set the woman free, but binds her more heavily.

See therefore what the Scripture says, what the Apostle urges. Who can give you better counsel than he who is a vessel of the Lord's election? Hear therefore what he says: I want all men to be as I myself am (1 Cor 7). And again he says of the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they remain as I also am (ibid., 8). I want you to be imitators of so great an Apostle, that you may follow his life, who fled the bond of marriage so that he might be bound to Christ Jesus. He could not have attained so great a grace of his apostleship if he had been bound to the companionship of marriage.

But if that man who was both most outstanding in teaching and had so great a gift of Christ judged it to be of such importance to abstain from the use of conjugal union, and for this reason remained as he was, lest the greatest part be taken from his own office—since it was not always permitted to be free for prayer, nor always to attend to the divine commandments, whom the care of marriage would call back, so that it was necessary to please a wife—what then ought you to choose, to whom virginity alone can give freedom? For she who has married is sold into slavery by her own money. Slaves are compared to marriages under a better condition: in the former, the merit of servitude is bought; in the latter, the price is added to servitude. The married woman, being for sale, is burdened by gold, is valued by gold.

I have experienced, my children, the labors of union, the indignities of marriage, and even under a good spouse—yet not under a good husband—I was not free: I served my husband, and I labored to please him. The Lord took pity, and made him a minister of the altar, and immediately he was snatched from me and from you; and perhaps, with the Lord showing mercy, he might be called a husband.

You see, my children, a mother aged by sorrows and still immature in the wages of widowhood. You see that every protection and ornament has been lost. I have neither the help of a husband nor the grace of virginity. And there is a further care, lighter than the former: I grieve for you, I have regard for you. The burdens of marriage have remained to me; its helps have departed. How much rather would I have wished that these experiences had never come upon these children!

Yet you can excuse your father and lighten your mother's burden, if what has been lost in us is represented in you. In this alone will marriage not bring us regret, if our labor has profited you. I shall regard it as next to being a mother of virgins, even as if I myself possessed virginity. Consider, my children, how the Lord Jesus, when he came into these lands, chose a mother for himself. He who was to give salvation to the world came through a virgin, and by a virgin's childbirth he loosed the fall of woman: so may your integrity also loose my errors.

Consider what a good thing virginity is. It is certain that I am destitute and in need of protection; but if you are willing to remain thus, I shall require no one's help; the crown of your integrity will abound for me unto every kind of aid. Who will not call me blessed, whom now they think wretched? Who will not honor the mother of so many virgins? Who will not revere the court of purity?

CHAPTER V.

That the palm of public salvation is attributed to virgins in both covenants, and the various praises of the mystical virgins are celebrated: and likewise the figure of the garden and the vineyard designates virginity, just as the type of vegetables designates marriage; whence he urges his sons, that having rejected the spiritual Ahab and Jezebel, they may embrace that true Naboth, accused and killed for our sake. For what reason is he foretold to have come upon a light cloud, and why did he also commend his mother to John? How, finally, is this one, who as the mystical Levi had nothing, read to have received her as his own?

Divine Scripture has brought many women into the light, yet it gave the palm of public salvation to virgins alone. In the Old Testament a virgin led the Hebrew people, shut in by land and sea, on foot through the seas (Exod. 15:20); in the Gospel a virgin gave birth to the author and redeemer of the world (Luke 1:27). The Church is a virgin (2 Cor. 11:2), whom the Apostle strove to present as a chaste virgin to Christ; the daughter of Zion is a virgin (Isa. 37:22); that city Jerusalem which is in heaven is a virgin (Apoc. 21:2), into which nothing common and unclean enters; she too is a virgin whom Jesus calls, and to whom he also said: Come hither from Lebanon, my bride, come hither from Lebanon; pass over, and you shall pass over from the beginning of faith (Cant. 4:8).

Not only has the virgin passed through, but she has passed beyond: she who hastens to the Bridegroom passes through the world, passes beyond to Christ; or because she who has dedicated herself to Christ, by passing over to heavenly things, passes beyond earthly things. For the Bridegroom himself also comes thus to his Bride, that he may leap over the mountains, and skip over the hills (Cant. 2:8).

He adds further to the praise of virginity: A garden enclosed, my sister, my Bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed (Cant. 4:12); whereby virginity, fenced about by the enclosure of modesty, brings forth better fruits, in which the unblemished seals of chastity may remain undefiled. This garden of your soul, this fountain of pure liquid, keep, so that no one may disturb it in you, no one may unseal what the origin of birth has sealed in you. Let no one carry off the vineyard of your soul, and sow the vegetables of vice. For the vineyard is a certain fruit of the virgin; marriages are like the beds of vegetables, in which there is frequent frost; and therefore, like the vegetables of herbs, they quickly fall and wither, unless old age set a limit, or continence raise them to perfection.

Let not Ahab therefore come into you, to covet destroying and extinguishing your vineyard; nor let Jezebel come into you, that vain and worldly stream—for this is what the word signifies, a vain and empty overflowing—but let Naboth come, who comes from the Father, as the interpretation of his name indicates, who defends his vineyard with his own blood and offers his death for it. This is he who was stoned for us, who died for us, who for you endured false accusations; who came here poor when he was rich, so that we might be enriched by his poverty. This is the vine which, with the overflowing fruits of his grace, has filled the whole circle of the earth. Let him remain fixed deep in your hearts with a deep root, so that your fruit may abound and the burning heat of the body may be tempered by the draught of spiritual grace.

This is he who came upon a light cloud, as the prophecy said: Behold, the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and will come into Egypt; signifying that he would come into Egypt—that is, into the affliction of this world—upon a virgin. A cloud, therefore, because she bore flesh; light, because she was a virgin, weighed down by no burdens of marriage. She is the rod that buds forth a flower, because her virginity is pure and directed to the Lord with a free heart, which is turned aside by no winding paths of cares in this world.

Therefore the Lord from the cross handed her over to the disciple whom he loved most, to holy John, who said to his father and mother: No, no, not you. At last, called by Christ, he left his father, following the Word. To him the virgin is entrusted, to one who does not know his own; to him the virgin is entrusted, who draws wisdom from the breast of Christ; to him the virgin is entrusted, who did not acknowledge his brothers and did not know his sons. And therefore Levi blesses him: Give to Levi his true ones, give to Levi his portion.

Hence he himself also received the mother of the Lord; for we have it written that from that hour the disciple received her as his own. What does "as his own" mean, when he had left father and mother and followed Christ? Or how "as his own," when the apostles themselves said: Behold, we have left all things and have followed you? What did John have as his own, who had nothing worldly or secular, who was not of the world? What then did he have as his own, except what he had received from Christ? A good possessor of the Word and of wisdom, a good receiver of grace. Hear what the apostles received from Christ: Receive, he says, the Holy Spirit: whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; and whose you retain, they are retained. For the mother of the Lord Jesus would not have departed to any possessor of grace except where Christ had his dwelling.

CHAPTER VI.

He applies the words spoken above to the sons, and teaches by what means they themselves can be light clouds through virginity; and that they should give Levi his true lots, if indeed they remain such as the first parents were before sin. He compares the sons whom those cast out of Paradise begot; and on the occasion of the first son he exhorts his own sons not to seek worldly possessions, which the daughters of Zelophehad sought. What is signified by this, and what lots are we commanded to give to Levi? What is the difference between the Lord's allotment and Moses'? By the one marriage, by the other virginity is signified, which follows after the freedom of the ministers of Christ.

Give therefore also you, my sons, to that true Levi his lots. Be clouds, but light ones. You will truly be so, if virginity lightens the burdens of the condition of the flesh and illumines the darkness of this muddy flesh. Therefore she says: I am black, and comely, daughters of Jerusalem; black through the flesh, comely through virginity. And so they are clouds, and heavy clouds, who have married; for I think the word of those who marry is derived from clouds. Finally they are covered as with clouds when they have received the veils of marriage. And truly they are heavy clouds, who bear the burden of matrimony. For they are said to be weighed down even in the womb, when they have received the seeds of conception.

Give therefore to Levi his true [lots]. What is so true as undefiled virginity, which keeps the seal of modesty and the enclosure of integrity, the mark of begetting? But when a young woman is deflowered by burnt-out marriage, she loses what is her own, when what is another's is mingled with her. For that is true which we are born as, not that into which we are changed; that which we have received from the Creator, not that which we have taken on from intercourse. Give therefore to the true Levi, to that prince of priests, the true Aaron, the true Melchisedech, his true [lots], such as he himself made them, not such as the usage of this world produces; so that he may recognize his own work in you, and that mark of begetting inviolate and whole.

Give to him, present to him that Adam who was before sin, that Eve who was before she drank in the slippery poison of the serpent, before they were tripped up by his snares, when they had nothing at which to be ashamed. For surely now, although marriages are good, yet the spouses themselves have that at which they blush before one another. Be therefore such, sons, as Adam and Eve were in paradise (Gen. 4:1). Of whom it is written that after Adam was cast out of paradise, he knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, whom she called Cain; and again she conceived and bore a son, whose name was Abel. Better therefore is the second fruit than the first, because the latter is undefiled, the former spotted. The latter, clinging to God, is wholly the Lord's; the former is a worldly and earthly possession.

Finally, in this one the redemption of the world is announced, in that one the ruin of the world. In this one is the sacrifice of Christ, in that one the parricide of the devil. Let nothing, then, be yours, my sons, with the possession of the world, nor think that any lots of a earthly and Jewish possession are to be claimed by you.

We read indeed that Moses, that is, the Law, ordained that lands sought by war and slaughter be distributed by lot to the Hebrew people (Num. 26:53), whose possession the daughters of Salphaa demanded, because they were the daughters of Salphaa (Num. 27:1 ff.). Yet the same Moses did not divide the land to the Levites (Deut. 18:1 ff.), whose dwelling was not earthly but higher; but to them, without earthly labor, he assigned the stipends of the sacred ministry. But what are the daughters of Salphaa, who seek the land, wondrously, except, as the interpretation teaches, the overshadowing of the mouth? Which is certainly in those in whom there is no word in their mouth, nor truth in their speech (Ps. 5:10); as in the people of the Jews, who refuse to confess Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Such people, therefore, seek the land, and demand a possession of this kind, in which they may toil all the time of their life, and for fruits reap the thorns of cares and anxieties.

Flee therefore, daughters, the shadow of the mouth, you who believe in the eternal light that enlightens every man; who confess Christ not as in a shadow, but in the light. The people who sat in the shadow of death, a light has arisen for them (Isaiah 9:2). We were therefore in the shadow, but now we are no longer, we who confess Christ. And would that it had been granted to me also to say, we who profess Christ! And yet let us profess it—I, widowhood; you, virginity. Let confession be made in our mouth unto salvation.

Give therefore to that Levi, our salvation, his portions. His portion is the levitical portion, his portion is virginity, his portion is widowhood; since not only the virgin but also the unmarried woman thinks on the things of the Lord. Whence also the Apostle said: In whom also we have been appointed by lot (Ephesians 1:11). For just as in the Old Testament the land was divided by lot (Joshua 18:10), so in the Gospel we are assigned to the Lord by a kind of lot. Whence also it is written concerning the evangelists: They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots (John 19:24). And the apostles, when the twelfth apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas, judged that the office of apostleship should be conferred by lot. Therefore, after prayer had been made, that the Lord might choose whom he willed of the two, the lot fell upon Matthias (Acts 1:26). 40. That ancient allotment, then, was earthly; this one is spiritual.

That census of the world was material; this one is personal duty: there possession is of cares, here is the distribution of graces; there we possess fields full of labor and sorrow, here we are possessed by Christ. Hence also holy David says: You have possessed my reins. Here, sons, let him possess your reins, that in them the seed-plots of chastity, the incentives of virtues, may remain. Therefore dedicate yourselves to Christ, and confess to him, that you may say: The Lord is my portion. A married woman cannot say this, but an unmarried one can; for the married woman seeks to please her husband, but the unmarried woman seeks to please Christ. That one is the possession of the world, this one of Christ.

The possession of Christ is the Levite, who claims nothing for himself from earthly things. He who seeks a wife cannot say: The Lord is my portion. Finally, what does the minister of Christ say? Silver and gold I do not have; but what I have, I give to you: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk; for he had received this, since he did not desire gold. Finally he had been sent without a staff, without a bag, without money. And therefore he gloried, because he did not have what he had not received; for he was not ashamed in poverty, whom the poor man had redeemed. And therefore he said: Rise and walk, because he had read: The poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.

CHAPTER VI.

That the sterility of virgins is preferable to the fecundity of others, since it imitates the abundant offspring of the Church, which are produced by lot, that is, by grace and not from works. Therefore lots must be given to Christ, who pays wages beyond the labor; truth also must be given, that is, virginity. By how many and how great temptations is it assailed! But since we have learned from the Apostle that chastity is good, the holy widow indicates that we must have recourse to a remedy: which, by the elegant allegory of that ancient Mary, she signifies to be placed in the mortification of the flesh and in the merit of the Lord's passion, by which we are led to victory. Afterwards wisdom must be sought in heavenly things, and drawn into our inner parts, that we may live.

41. Let the Lord, then, be your portion—the Lord who makes the barren woman to bear. He makes both: but the one bears in sorrow, the other rejoices in sterility, to whom it is said: Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who do not travail (Isa. 54:1). For she has children without the pain of childbirth. Hence it is said of the Church: Who has heard such a thing, that the earth should travail in one day, and a nation be born at once (Isa. 66:8)? But the earth does not travail in one day; grace gives birth. The day has come, the sacraments of baptism are celebrated throughout the city, the sacred virgins are veiled. In one day, then, without any pain, the Church is accustomed to bring forth many children for herself. And therefore it is beautifully said: And a nation is born at once, from a consecrated people.

You see the mysteries, you see the grace of Christ, the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is bestowed as it were by a kind of lot; since each one is justified by the Lord not from works but from faith. For just as the outcome of a lot is not in our power, but is whatever chance brings, so the grace of the Lord is bestowed not as if from the merit of a reward, but as if from will. Whence also the Apostle says concerning the divisions of graces, which are bestowed upon God's servants in diverse ways: But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one as he wills. As he wills, he says, not as is owed (1 Cor 12:11). Finally, the Lord also says to those who demand a more abundant reward for their work and complain that they had received the same as those who came later: If I am good, why is your eye evil (Matt 20:15)?

Give therefore, sons, your lots to him who is accustomed to give to his own the recompense of labor beyond merit. Give his truth to the holy man (Deut 33:8), that is, integrity; for integrity belongs to him who came without stain. Truth therefore is virginity; corruption is a lie. Stand therefore in your heart, like a good vine in its shoot.

There are many temptations; and therefore Scripture says: They tempted him with temptation, and they cursed him at the water of contradiction at Kadesh (Deut. 32). Virginity is tempted by many suitors; and when a virgin has wished to persevere, there arise those who contradict. The suitor contradicts, and when rejected he curses. The unmarried woman seems to be a reproach, whether virgin or widow. For Kadesh is the unmarried woman, who is holy in body and spirit, and has dedicated herself to the Lord, who has left her parents and does not do the will of those who are accustomed to say: You owe us grandchildren, daughter. Kadesh is she who knows not sons. But if she prefers the reproach of Christ to the riches of the world—which it is necessary for one who seeks to please Christ to undergo—how much more you, whom the father calls to integrity and the mother urges to follow what is fitting!

Virginity is therefore good. Finally, he says, He who has judged in his heart to keep his virgin does well. Therefore both he who joins his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not join her does better (1 Cor. 7:37-38). The former does well because of the snare, the latter does better because of the advantage. The one is for a remedy, the other for a reward. But she is more blessed who remains thus, according to my counsel. For I think that I too have the Spirit of God (ibid., 40). Follow therefore, children, the counsel of the Apostle, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Take up therefore also yourselves, as Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron took up, the timbrel in your hands, go forth saying: Let us sing to the Lord; for he is gloriously honored, he has cast the horse and its rider into the sea (Exod. 15:20). Mortify your members in the manner of a timbrel: let no wantonness of the flesh seethe in them, and let every sense of bodily burning perish. Let it know nothing in them except that, amid the dead pleasures of the body, the spirit alone may resound. For if you have died to sin, you will live to God; but you will live, if no concupiscence reigns in your dead body.

Turn the cross of the Lord Jesus in your hands, and lifting it up in your works, tread down the depth of this world and pass through. Let him who neighs after lust like a horse find no place in you; and whoever wishes to pursue and seize you, let him be sunk. Let the water be a wall about you on the right and on the left, that every vapor of the body may be tempered; until the divine favor leads you to those intelligible twelve fountains and seventy palm trees, to that great rest of the sabbath, and deigns to plant you on the mountain of his inheritance, where holy Mary leads the dances.

Play therefore, children, to the Lord Jesus; seek true wisdom, of which Job says: But where is wisdom found, and what is the place of understanding? The deep says: It is not in me. The sea says: It is not with me. Well did the deep say: It is not in me, because he has risen; for it does not hold him whom it could not keep. Finally you have it in the Gospel, that the angels said to the women coming to the tomb: You seek Jesus who was crucified: he is not here, but he has risen. What does "he is not here" mean? That is, he is not in the tomb, he is not in the underworld, but he is in heaven. The sea too, that is, the world, this world says: He is not with me; because he is above the world, whom the falls and enticements of human life could not change; because he committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth. The deep therefore said: He is not in me; the sea said: He is not with me. But heaven did not say that he is not with it, for it had received him rising again. Paradise did not say: He is not in me, for it had known him to reign within it, even when the thief was set free; as the Lord himself said: Today you will be with me in paradise.

Draw wisdom, children, into the inner storehouses of your heart, since it is more precious than all gold and silver, and death does not know it; for the dead will not praise you, Lord, but the living. Therefore, so that you may live, praise the Lord, and praise him day and night. But you will praise him if no desire for marriage and no care for the world turns you away from him, since those who obtain marriage are troubled by the business of this world.

CHAPTER VIII.

To urge her own offspring more sharply—offspring already promised to God by her parents—she cites the obedience of Jephthah's daughter in fulfilling her father's vow; then, turning to her son, she recalls to his memory how he had been obtained from God by prayers, and therefore could not be denied to him without sin. Having said these things, seeing the eagerness of her pious child, the holy woman pours herself out in thanksgiving; Ambrose recounts her advance into the church, where she finds her son performing the office of lector.

Consider, children, what you owe to the vows of your parents. We have opened our mouth to God: the vow is the will of the parents. We have prayed, you must pay. How great is the force in the vows of parents, the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite ought to teach you, who, so that her father's offering might not be made void, offered even her own death. For when he, anxious about the danger of war, had vowed that if the outcome of the battle should be more favorable, whatever first met him on his return to his house he would sacrifice to God, when he had obtained the victory, his daughter met him, joyful beyond the others with the joy of victory and the duty of piety. The father groaned, not unmindful of affection, but mindful of his vow. The daughter asked the reason: he answered what he had promised to the Lord. Then she urged him to fulfill the gift promised to God. And so by her blood she paid her father's rash offering (Judges XI, and following).

These things are common to you. But you, son, whom the true Elkanah (1 Kings i, 1 and following), that is, the possession of God, gave to me, my requested one, my sought one (for from this even Samuel received his name); you, I say, my obtained one and my votive one, who in what manner you came into my hands I do not know (for I had already despaired of offspring of the male sex), whom my vows, not the solemn assembly of water, formed in secret: you, I say, son, acknowledge to whom you have been given to me. He formed your face, he distinguished your limbs, he received my prayers, by whose prompting, by whose obedience I consecrated you before you were born.

You were born not to your parents, not to yourself, but to God; you began to exist before you came forth from your mother's womb. And indeed we are all his, but you, promised in a special way to your Lord, are given back to him; for it is written: Make vows and pay them to the Lord your God (Ps 75). I, wretched and unworthy as I am, nevertheless, like Anna, have promised that all the days and nights of your life you shall not withdraw from the sight of the Lord: I made the promise, do you fulfill it; the Lord will himself complete the gift of his own victim.

These things and other like them the pious mother said; and after she saw the fitting affection of her children, bringing her weaned child, with the breasts of spiritual grace, into the temple of the Lord, she turned to prayer and said: My heart is strengthened in the Lord: my horn is exalted in my God. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, I rejoice in your salvation; for there is no other holy one as the Lord; and there is none just as our God, and there is none holy besides you (1 Sam 2:1-2).

Thus the mother spoke to her sons, she who at once brought into her house the titles of widowhood in herself and of chastity in her children, as it were certain feminine principalities. A truly distinguished woman, who left nothing for herself: all that she had, she offered to God; her manner of life is an instruction in discipline, and a certain pattern of chastity with a good purpose and a better teaching. For she is an example of widowhood and a teacher of virginity.

She proceeds into the church of her virgin daughters from the enclosure of her company, bringing in the domestic glory; and there the Church finds that which she may call her own, a son sounding forth the oracles of the sacred readings, so that they seem to learn as sisters at home, when the brother is heard. The mother too, in imitation of the heavenly example, rejoices that you advance from the lily, and commits all the words of the reader to a pious affection, and keeps them diligently in her heart.

CHAPTER IX.

That the holy Bishop may also crown her maternal exhortation with his own, he stirs up those virgins to seek Christ in the riches of the Scriptures. But asserting that when he is sought he is already present, he teaches that he must be asked where he abides at midday, that is, in the light of the Father: he must also be sought in the light of good works, and in night-time prayers: but where he has passed by, he must be followed; since he delights to be sought more often, that he may stir up grace and wound the soul with a wound of love: what sort these wounds are, he proves by various examples of the saints.

But although nothing was lacking to a mother's encouragements, I too, my sons, will address you, if only briefly. Seek the Lord Jesus, who counsels us to seek the kingdom of God: "And behold," he says, "all things will be supplied to you" (Matthew 6). But I do not wish you to bring forward your merit first, and so demand your reward. The reward is good, but more divine is the dispenser of the reward and the author of the gift. In the kingdom is the reward, in Christ the power to reward. Seek that reward in the divine Scriptures, where Christ is found, and say as she said: "Tell me whom my soul has loved" (Song of Songs 1:6). But the Synagogue too was seeking him whom she had sent, whereas you seek him whom you may not lose. But why, Synagogue, do you say "whom I have loved," and not say "whom I love"? You do not hold him because you say you have loved him; why do you not rather still love him, so that you may be able to hold him?

But let us pass her by. You, virgin, when you begin to seek, he is present; for it cannot be that he is absent from those who seek him, who was made manifest to those not seeking him, and was found by those not asking (Isaiah 65:1). While you ponder and think, he is at hand. Learn to ask, when he has come, where he pastures, where he abides; as she said: "Where do you pasture, where do you rest at midday?" (Song of Songs 1:7). For where does Christ dwell, except where the midday of righteousness shines? And this is taught by the testimony of sacred Scripture, which says: "In the sun he has set his tabernacle" (Psalm 18:6). Whence also the same Prophet says elsewhere: "In your light we shall see light" (Psalm 35:10).

The Son is light, and the Father is light who is seen in the Son, since the Son is the splendor of the Father's glory and the image of his substance.

But even in your light, virgin, seek Christ—in good thoughts, in good works, which shine before your Father who is in heaven. Seek him in the nights, seek him in your chamber; for he comes also by night, and knocks at your door. For he wishes you to be watchful at every moment, he wishes to find the door of your mind open. There is also that door which he wishes to be open, so that your mouth may be opened and may resound with the praise of the Lord, the thanksgiving of the Bridegroom, the confession of the cross: when you recite the creed, when you sing psalms in your chamber. Therefore when he comes, let him find you watching, so that you may be ready. Let your body sleep, let faith be awake; let the enticements of the body sleep, let the prudence of the heart be awake; let your members breathe forth the cross of Christ and the odor of burial, so that the sleep of heat may pour nothing into them, may stir up no impulses. That is the soul which opens itself to Christ, which no vapors of the flesh disturb.

When the Bridegroom has found these things, he will pass on; let your soul follow him, let it depart from its couch, let it go forth in his word, as it is written: My soul went forth in your word (Song 5:6), that is, let it pass out from the body so as to be present to God; for while it is in the body, it is a stranger to Christ. Hence the Apostle also says: We are therefore bold and well pleased rather to be strangers from the body and to be present with the Lord. And therefore we strive, whether absent or present, to please him. For all must be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, so that each one may receive back what is his own through the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil (1 Cor 5:8 ff.). How quickly he has proved the case by which the body will rise again! For the flesh must rise again, since it is to obtain the recompense of its own deeds, so that what we have done in the body, we may receive in the body.

The Lord therefore wishes to be sought more often; he withdraws, he runs, so as to rekindle the grace that he wishes to be rekindled by you even in this, as we have it written to Timothy: For this cause I admonish you, that you rekindle the grace of God, which is in you through the imposition of my hands (2 Tim 1:6). But she who has rekindled grace is made wounded by love, as she said: Because I am wounded by love: if you stir up and awaken love (Song 5:8). What this is, we shall be able to understand if we recall that the Lord Jesus is an arrow, to whom the Father said: I have set you as a chosen arrow (Isa 49:2).

And because he himself is love, there are surely arrows of love, by which those who seek him wound themselves. Indeed, bound by his chains, they follow him; for those whom he wounds, he binds. Therefore there are also the bonds of love, by which Paul was bound, who says: Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ (Philem 1).

But that there are wounds of love, Job teaches, than whom no one loved Christ more, who loved even in the torments of his own body. Hence he said: But the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose fury drinks up my blood; when I begin to speak, they pierce me (Job 6:4). There are, then, wounds of love, and good wounds: indeed, better are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy (Prov 27:6). Jeremiah also burned, and could not bear the fire of love with which he was inflamed for the office of preaching (Jer 20:9). Indeed, he was sunk into the pit (Jer 38:6), because he announced the coming destruction to the Jews, and could not be silent. Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:58), and those wounds for Christ he received with devout affection as if they were wounds of love. The apostles were beaten, and they rejoiced (Acts 5:40). How good is the Lord, for whom even injuries are sweet, and death is welcome! And rightly welcome, since it acquires immortality.

CHAPTER X.

That the passage of Ecclesiastes about garments applies to virginity; but what he adds about carrying oil on the head is to be understood of humility of mind and modest composure of the body; since interior adornments are especially required in us, and the riches of the poor are the simplicity of innocence. How does the Synagogue say to the Church: Where do you feed, etc.? But how does she receive the words of Christ: Unless you know yourself, etc.? From this it is signified that the divine image resides in our soul, and therefore the greatest care must be taken of it. Wherefore he admonishes the young man to delight in innocence of heart; but the virgins, as it were, should shun the eyes of men by the example of Mary, and decline every occasion of idle tales.

61. At all times, he says, let your garments be white (Eccles. 9:8). What is whiter than virginity? What is whiter than the untouched garment of modesty? Good indeed is conjugal chastity and the chastity of widowhood; all chastity is clean, but perhaps not all is white, or not white at all times (1 Cor. 7:4-5). Not white, when one does not have power over one's own body, when prayer is set aside for a time. Of virginity, therefore, it is beautifully said: At all times let your garments be white, and oil on your head (Eccles. 9:8); so that your torches may always be able to shine, and not be extinguished, when that heavenly Bridegroom begins to come (Matt. 25 et seq.).

By what reasoning Ecclesiastes said this concerning your head, we shall gather from Proverbs; because "The eyes of a man are in his head" (Eccles. 2), that is, the senses of your wisdom. Perhaps for this reason that woman of the Gospel is also praised, who wiped the feet of the Lord with her hair (Luke 6 and following), because in this she humbled herself; lest she seem to be puffed up through the wisdom of the flesh, which Paul, the true interpreter of the hidden things, declared to be not subject to the Law (Rom. 8:7), in that it is not subject to Christ.

And beautifully we can understand this also in a bodily sense, since if in the prophetic writings the daughters of Zion are reproached because they walked with a lofty neck, with nods of the eyes, and dragging their tunics along as they went, and playing with their feet (Isa. 3:16 and following); and therefore the Lord says that he will take away the glory of their clothing and the adornment of their hair and curls: rightly that woman scattered her hair (Luke 7:38), so that the discipline of the Gospel might loose the knots of her headdress. Whence also the apostles said: "Not with braiding of hair, as Peter taught" (1 Pet. 3:3), "nor in twisted curls, gold and pearls, or costly clothing, as Paul asserted" (1 Tim. 2:9): but rather the ornaments of the inner man are to be required of women; since that hidden man of the heart, who is poor to the world, is himself rich toward God.

You have heard, lilies, you who think yourselves poor. But who is a rich man, when he needs many things, except the one who has no grievous sin in his conscience? For good, it says, is the substance to which there is no sin in the conscience (Eccl. 13:30). You have heard, I say, in what you may be rich before God; that there may be in you, it says, an incorruptible and modest spirit (1 Pet. 3:4). For good are the riches of the innocent and simple, to whom sin is not imputed, because there is in them no cunning of deceit and fraud; for every simple person does not know how to disparage, does not know how to envy: he is content with his own, he does not seek another's; and even if he seems poor to himself, he seems rich to himself if he has enough for food. Finally, the apostle Paul says beautifully: And their deep poverty, he says, abounded in the riches of their simplicity (2 Cor. 8:2).

And because the Church was adorned with fitting ornaments, and receiving light from Christ she shone brightly; that passage can also be understood thus, in that the Synagogue says to the Church: Where do you feed, where do you lie down at midday? Lest perhaps I become one wrapped around beside the flocks of your companions (Cant. 1:6). She desires to be a hireling, who before claimed dominion for herself. How ruinous is perfidy!

so. But because she is unbelieving, harsh, and sacrilegious, Christ separates her from the flocks of His Church, saying: "You do not know yourself, O beautiful among women" (Ibid., 7)—that is, first know what you yourself are, and then ask to draw near to my flocks. And rightly is the Synagogue called "beautiful among women," not among virgins, because she followed Eve, a woman, through whom the fall came; but the Church is "beautiful among virgins," because she is a virgin without wrinkle.

Therefore, whether man or woman, one ought to know oneself, because one is made in the image and likeness of God, so that one may pursue the beauty of the soul, not of the body. For in what do we consist? In the substance of the soul and the vigor of the mind. This is our whole portion. Hence David says: "In God I will hope; I will not fear what flesh may do to me" (Ps. 55:5). We are not, then, flesh, but spirit. But of the Jews it was said: "My spirit shall not remain in them, because they are flesh" (Gen. 6:3). We are not gold, not money, not an abundance of riches; for those things are ours. And therefore Moses says to you: "Attend to yourself" (Deut. 15:9)—that is, to your soul; lest you perish, lest you become carnal. Attend to yourself—that is, to the image you have received from Christ, to the likeness in which you were made. Preserve that very image which Christ has painted in you by His works, as He Himself says to Jerusalem—that is, to the peaceful soul: "Behold, I, Jerusalem, have painted your walls" (Isa. 49:16).

Attend therefore also, especially you, son—attend to yourself, that you may rejoice in your youth; to whom Scripture says: "Rejoice, young man, in your youth" (Eccl. 11:9). It does not speak to you of one time of life only. There is, as it were, a flower of life, and the age of honorable works, of which it is written: "Your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's" (Ps. 103:5). And, it says, "let your heart delight you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart without blemish, and in the sight of your eyes, yet not in the boldness of your eyes" (Eccl. 11:9)—in spiritual sight, that is, not in worldly boldness. And know that over all these things God will bring you into judgment. And drive anger away from your heart, and remove wickedness from your flesh (Eccl. 12:14).

Attend to yourself, virgin, you also, that you may persist in prayer, and that your face may grow pale with continual entreaty. But before prayer prepare your soul (Eccl. 18:23), so that you may not seem to test God when you pray; so that what you pray, your conduct may speak, faith may aid, and works may commend. Attend to yourself: what I say to you, I say to every virgin. For you, who are pious, do not lack a mistress of instruction.

Attend, I say, you virgin—especially of sacred profession—and guard your eyes from all irreverence. And if he passes by for a time like a traveler, yet he opens his mouth, and he will drink from every nearby water, so as to intoxicate you (Eccl. 26 and following). Let no going forth of yours be without your mother, who is the anxious guardian of modesty. Let your going to church also be rarer for young girls. Consider how great Mary was, and yet she is nowhere else found, except in her chamber, when she is sought (Luke 1:28). Let her teach you what to follow. She saw an angel in the form of a man, and she was afraid in her heart, she was a stranger in appearance. Therefore the angel says to her: Do not fear, Mary. Solitude teaches modesty, and the secret place is the training ground of chastity.

For what need is there for you even to approach a neighbor easily? For the foot of a fool is in the house of a neighbor; but he who is wise is ashamed (Eccl. 21:25). From this, tales are born, about which you are beautifully warned to beware, when the wise man says to you: Because he will give my discipline a guard, and over my lips a sure seal; lest I fall by them, and my tongue destroy me (Eccl. 13:33). If the male sex is commanded to do so before elders (Eccl. 11:8), how indecorous it is for virgins to speak and to sow various conversations!

Even if you impose silence on yourself, can you impose it on others, that you may not hear? Someone can at some time put a bridle on his own mouth, and a balance on his words: on his ears he cannot. For to speak is in our own power, but to hear depends on another's authority; for often we hear what we do not wish.

CHAPTER XI.

He joins new warnings to the preceding ones, namely that they avoid the readiness to swear, that they prefer tears to laughter: that they abstain from laughter, through which the Synagogue perished: that they temper anger, or if not, that they be able utterly to extinguish it: finally, if they have not kept a just moderation there, that they be pricked with compunction.

Let us consider what else the Scripture admonishes us. Not to swear easily (Eccl. 23:9), because for the most part many cases arise, so that we cannot fulfill what we have sworn. But he who does not swear, assuredly does not perjure himself: but he who swears, sometimes necessarily falls into perjury; because every man is a liar (Ps. 115:11). Do not swear, therefore, lest you begin to perjure yourself.

Not even that freer joy is fitting for virgins. If they have nothing to weep over, let them weep over the world, let them weep over the falls of sinners; for she who has wept over the falls of others will guard against her own. Finally, let them weep even with this contemplation in view, that weeping here they may receive consolation there; lest, like that rich man who lived in luxury here, you too hear it declared by the Lord's oracle that he suffers grievous punishments there: You have received good things in your life. How much more blessed was Lazarus, who wept here and exults there: here he hungered, and there he feasts! If therefore you too wish to follow a good joy, the book of Ecclesiastes shows you which you ought to follow, saying: Come, eat your bread in joy, for your deeds have already pleased God.

But let us consider what the same Ecclesiastes has warned us all concerning the immoderation of laughing. As the voice, he says, of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools. For thorns, when they burn, make a noise and are quickly consumed, so that there is no effect of heat. Whence also it was said of the Jews: They blazed like fire among the thorns. For consumed by their own laughter, they were set ablaze in the Lord's passion, when they jested at the burning of their own soul, saying: He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him; let him save him, since he desires him.

And mocking, they struck his head with a reed, and because they were crowning him with thorns and offering him vinegar to drink, that laughter set the Synagogue on fire forever (Mark 15 and following). Such, then, is the laughter of fools, which resounds without grace and burns the tunic of their own body. With good reason Sara denied it because she had laughed (Gen. 18:15), lest she seem to have doubted the fulfillment of the heavenly promises by laughing; and yet that laughter had been full of gravity and modesty, which no other witness but God alone knew, whom hidden things do not escape.

How beautiful is that too! Do not be hasty in your spirit to become angry; for anger rests in the bosom of fools (Eccl. 7:10), that is: even if there is a cause that stirs indignation, let vengeance not be hasty, lest the heat of indignation boil over too immoderately. He cannot therefore remove what is a natural motion, but he inserts delay, so that the medicine of counsel may temper anger. For thus David had already said before: Be angry, and do not sin (Ps. 4:5); not that he commanded anger, but because he could not remove what was natural: and as a good physician he gave a remedy, so that anger itself might not harm.

7g. Finally, even if anyone has fallen away in his heart, since anger does not know how to keep moderation, he urges that such a one be pierced with compunction in his bedchambers, and that each person condemn his own error. For thus it is written: "What you say in your hearts, and in your bedchambers be pierced with compunction" (Ibid.). He willed, therefore, that all men be judges of their own offenses, so that the one who is not held by public testimony may blush as his own judge, he who has fallen in secret, and may restrain himself with a certain sting of bitterness and shame.

CHAPTER 14.

He passes to frugality, by which the body is worn down; he commands that a good reputation be secured; but above all he requires sobriety in the virgin, that is, abstinence from wantonness and from vain bodily ornaments, which he grieves are sought even by certain sacred virgins. To these is opposed the example of Saint Sotheris, who so far from cultivating her beauty that she willingly offered her face to the fists of the executioners to be disfigured. A comparison of her with the young Etruscan, whom they report disfigured his own face with brands.

Why should I speak of frugality, when the Wise Man says: Take away from me the concupiscence of the belly and the desire of lust, let it not take hold of me (Eccles. 23:6)? Nor should you dread weakness from fasting and abstinence; for grievous weakness makes the soul sober.

How also do the Proverbs of Solomon teach that good repute must be sought, saying: A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches (Prov. 22:1)? For what is an inheritance, C, unless good conduct and action govern it? Whence holy Job says: Let the blessing of the dying man come upon me, and let the mouth of the widow bless me. I was the eye of the blind, and the foot of the lame, the father of the weak (Job 29 and following). If I saw the naked passing by and did not clothe him; if the needy did not bless me and I did not warm their shoulders with the fleeces of my sheep: if I ever hid my sin, which I committed unwillingly or through imprudence rather than by choice: if I ever allowed the poor man to leave my door with empty bosom (Job 31 and following)? For by these things a good name is procured.

Yet beyond all else, the pursuit of sobriety excels in a virgin. By sobriety I do not mean abstinence from wine, but from bodily wantonness and worldly ostentation, by which we are more grievously intoxicated than by wine; for it gives the cup of ruin and the draught of wrath. Whence also the Lord says to Jerusalem: Hear, you who are humbled and drunk, not from wine. Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of ruin and the draught of wrath (Isa. 51:47). But the Synagogue has drained this cup; let not the daughters of the Church drink it. For it was said of the Jews: Their daughters are adorned, decked about like the likeness of a temple (Ps. 144:12); but you are the temple of God, of him who is not transformed into an angel of light, but is the true light who is from the true light. Therefore let there be in you not a likeness, but the truth. Many, however, while they profess the pursuit of chastity, affect aids to beauty, so that they may go forth more adorned, with a face more elegant than befits the holy women of the Lord, to whom I reply with that apostolic word: You who are dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still, as though living, decree concerning this world? Touch not, says he, handle not, taste not, things which are all unto corruption (Col. 2 and following).

But holy Sotheris—to bring forward an example from the household of a pious parent (for we priests have our own nobility, to be preferred to prefectures and consulates; we have, I say, the dignities of faith, which cannot perish)—Sotheris, as I said, did not concern herself with the care of her face. Though she was exceedingly beautiful in appearance and a noble virgin by the lineage of her ancestors, she held the consulates and prefectures of her parents in contempt through her holy faith, and when ordered to sacrifice, she did not comply. The savage persecutor ordered her to be beaten with blows on her palms, so that the tender virgin might yield to pain or to shame. But when she heard this command, she uncovered her face, veiled and covered by her martyrdom alone; and willingly she rushed to meet the injury, offering her face, so that the sacrifice of martyrdom might be made there where the trial of modesty usually takes place. For she rejoiced that the danger to her integrity was removed at the cost of her beauty. But though they were able to scar her face with the marks of wounds, they could by no means scar the face of her virtue and the grace of her inner beauty.

Old tales report that a certain Etruscan youth, because the wondrous beauty of his own face inflamed women with love, branded his countenance with marks, so that no woman might be able to love him. Whether his mind was chaste, let us consider; yet his feeling was not innocent, since for its sake he took vengeance upon himself. He, however, received wounds only in his own body, that he might do no harm; but she bore back the triumphal scars of martyrdom, that she might preserve the image of God which she had received.

CHAPTER XIII.

He admonishes virgins to preserve in themselves the divine image, so that, taught by God himself, they may not fear the scourge of a foreign tongue. But how and to what extent this is not to be feared; and for what reason they must also be on guard against their own tongue. In this place, the examples of Susanna, Joseph, Daniel, and Job are brought forward to this purpose.

Preserve also in yourselves this image, daughters, preserve the precepts of the divine Scripture; that every mouth, it says, may be stopped. For it is written: Blessed is the man whom you have instructed, O Lord, and from your law you have taught him. The good Lord instructs and teaches, and very often reproves; but even the one whom he reproves, he makes blessed; for blessed is the man whom the Lord reproves. And therefore do not shrink from his rebukes, because they are of love and grace; for he himself strikes, and because he is a good physician, he heals with his own hands. In the seventh, he delivers you from troubles; but in the seventh, evil shall not touch you.

In reputation he snatches you from death, but in battle he strips you from the hand of the sword, he hides you from the scourge of the tongue (Job 5 and following). For if you think no one is to be disparaged, you will not fear the scourges of another's tongue.

But wonderfully did he express the speeches of the slanderous by calling it the scourge of the tongue, whose sound resounds far and wide. Desiring to separate us from this, the apostle Peter admonishes us not to return evil for evil, and curse for curse (1 Peter 3:9), but rather, when we are cursed, to return the grace of blessing. And therefore he says: Restrain your tongue from evil (Psalm 34:13), as though from the scourge of the tongue; nor should you fear the sound of words, if your conscience is clean. It is indeed good, if it can be done, to give no place to detraction; but because many disparage not vices but virtues, let them censure what is worthy of praise, and not find what is of error.

But what is worse, we are scourged not only by another's tongue, but also by our own. And these are the heavier blows, when through much speaking we incur sin. And therefore, virgin, guard your ways, that you may not sin with your tongue (Psalm 39:1). And for a virgin, even to speak good things is often a crime. But why do you marvel concerning a virgin, when a woman is commanded to learn in silence (1 Timothy 2:11)? Good is the modesty which silence commends.

Susanna was in danger, and she kept silent (Dan 13:35), so that she might speak better through silent modesty. In short, her shamefastness found a defender who would defend her chastity. Of her it is well said that the Lord hid her from the scourge of the tongue.

What are we to say of women? Joseph kept silent when accused (Gen 39:20), so that his innocence might defend him better than his tongue. Daniel, wiser than all, kept silent and shut the mouths of lions (Dan 14 and following). Hence holy David says well: I have set, he says, a guard over my mouth, while the sinner stands against me (Ps 38:2).

For what do you wish to say? Are you afraid that, while you are silent, the charges will be believed? But hear the good teacher, holy Job, saying: Behold, I laugh at reproaches, and I do not speak; I cry out, and there is no judgment anywhere (Job 19:1)—that is, does some accuser hurl reproaches? Let him have something within yourself to laugh at, if your conscience does not recognize the crime. For what would you bring back words to words? There is not yet a judgment; and even if you cry out, it does not draw near. Many contests are owed to you in this world.

Holy Job had conquered the pain of loss; he had conquered—indeed, he had shut out—the bitterness of grief in the loss of his children; he had conquered the harshness of his wounds. The woman's temptations are applied to the body's stripes, and he did not feel them. Still, the rebukes of his friends are kept back for his final contest. He had wrestled with fatherly affection (Job 1:18); he had wrestled with bodily pain and sickness (Job 2:7); it was fitting that he should also undergo the temptations of words.

CHAPTER XIV.

From the disadvantages of this world no one's merit is to be judged, since here is the place of contest, not of the crown. Paul asserted this and warned that it was being stored up both for himself and for those who love the coming of Christ; but it must be counted to that widow who, with all her sons whom she herself had trained consecrated to God, offered the twofold sacrifice of her widowhood and of the virginity of her sons. To these Ambrose adds a crowning word with a most pious prayer.

Therefore, when you see a widow laboring under some losses, or under the affliction of her children—either a righteous man being visited with death or with injuries—do not weigh her merits by the hardships of this world, nor marvel that she has been forsaken by the Lord. Here indeed we struggle, but elsewhere we are crowned. I have spoken not of myself alone, but of all men in common. For whence have I so great a merit, for whom indulgence is reckoned as a crown? Here is the struggle, there the prize; here the warfare, there the wages. Therefore, while I am in this world, I still wrestle, I still fight, I am still driven so that I may fall; but the Lord is powerful, who receives the one who is driven, establishes the one who slips, raises up the one who wavers. Why then do you marvel that someone labors? As long as he is in this life, the contest will not be lacking, nor will the crown be lacking. No one is approved unless he has persevered to the end, so that afterward he who has striven lawfully may be crowned.

Who is stronger than Paul, who more blessed? Yet he, the vessel of the Lord's election, did not claim the crown for himself before he had completed every contest. And therefore he says: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness; which, he says, is to be rendered not only to himself, but also to all who love the coming of the Lord. He spoke well of those who love the coming of Christ; for no one hastens to judgment except the one who is secure in his innocence, or the one who presumes from his labor, for whom either the grace of the Lord or his pious strivings for Christ plead in his favor.

What prerogative will that widow surely have who has raised her children well, and will rejoice in her offspring, and above all she who gave to the Lord all whom she received? Hence also that widow in the Gospel is preferred to the rich (Luke 21:1–4); for not only because she gave all that she had for the food of the poor, but also because she brought two mites, she is praised by the Lord's voice—that is, a full mina. Finally, for the healing of a man, the Samaritan too gave two mites to the innkeeper, with which he might cure the wounds of him who had been wounded by robbers (Luke 10:35). Therefore, because both according to the Old Testament she imitated the virginity of Mary, the sister of Aaron (Exod. 15:20), and according to the New the integrity of the holy Mary, the mother of the Lord (Matt. 1:23), in the zeal of her own offspring, she will be reckoned a recompense of faith by divine judgment; she who reserved nothing for herself as a support of this world, but bestowed the whole gift of her pious child upon the Lord.

I beseech you now, Lord, that over this house of yours, over these altars which are dedicated today, over these spiritual stones by which a temple perceptible to you is consecrated in each one, you may appoint a daily overseer, and that with your divine mercy you may receive the prayers of your servants which are offered in this place. Let every sacrifice that is brought in this temple with whole faith and pious devotion become to you a sweet odor of sanctification. And when you look upon that saving victim through which the sin of this world is abolished, look also upon these victims of pious chastity, and guard them with your lasting aid; that they may become acceptable victims to you as a sweet odor, pleasing to Christ the Lord, and that you may deign to preserve their whole spirit and soul and body without complaint until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ your Son.