On Exhortation to Chastity

<p>No one deserves (favor) 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.</p>