Exhortation to Chastity

Contents

1. 1Tertullian counsels a widowed brother that God wills our sanctification, which comes in three degrees: virginity from birth, continence from baptism, and “monogamy,” refusing a second marriage after a spouse's death.
2. 2Since God took the first spouse away, remarrying is striving against his will; and we cannot excuse our choices as his will, because we choose freely, as Adam did.
3. 3What God merely permits is not what he truly wills; Paul gave leave to marry on his own judgment, and “better to marry than to burn” calls marriage only the lesser evil, not a good.
4. 4Paul's leave to remarry is his own counsel, which he at once qualifies, while his counsel of continence comes with the Holy Spirit's authority and so amounts to a command.
5. 5God made one woman from one rib for Adam, and “two in one flesh” means two, not three; Christ's one marriage to the one church doubles that rule, and plural marriage began with the accursed Lamech.
6. 6The patriarchs' many wives belonged to the time of “increase and multiply,” which God has now recalled at the end of the ages, as the Gospel supersedes the old law.
7. 7Since clergy must be married only once, and laypeople are also priests who may have to baptize or offer in need, laypeople too must keep to one marriage.
8. 8What is merely lawful is not thereby good; license tests discipline, and Paul, who did not use his right to a wife, calls us to follow his example.
9. 9Tertullian argues that second marriage is akin to sexual immorality, since it arises from the same desire of the flesh, and that permitting a second marriage leaves no limit to further ones.
10. 10Widowhood is an opportunity for continence, which makes prayer and spiritual life clearer; if even marital intercourse dulls the Spirit, a second marriage does so still more.
11. 11A remarried man still prays and offers yearly for his dead wife, and so stands before God with two wives, through a once-married clergy.
12. 12Tertullian answers the excuses for remarrying (running a household, having heirs) and says a widower should rather take a widow as a “spiritual wife,” warning that a second marriage may bring children anyway.
13. 13Even pagans honor once-married women and priestly celibacy, and Dido and Lucretia died rather than take a second man; how much more should Christians, like those of the church who live in continence, refuse a second marriage.