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| Perfect Modesty Will Abstain from Whatever Tends to Sin, as Well as from Sin Itself. Difference Between Trust and Presumption. If Secure Ourselves, We Must Not Put Temptation in the Way of Others. We Must Love Our Neighbour as Ourself.
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Chapter
II.—Perfect Modesty Will Abstain from Whatever Tends to Sin, as
Well as from Sin Itself. Difference Between Trust and
Presumption. If Secure Ourselves, We Must Not Put Temptation in
the Way of Others. We Must Love Our Neighbour as
Ourself.
You must know that in the eye of perfect, that is,
Christian, modesty, (carnal) desire of one’s self (on the part of
others) is not only not to be desired, but even execrated, by
you: first, because the study of making personal grace (which we
know to be naturally the inviter of lust) a mean of pleasing does not
spring from a sound conscience: why therefore excite toward
yourself that evil (passion)? why invite (that) to which you profess
yourself a stranger? secondly, because we ought not to open a way to
temptations, which, by their instancy, sometimes achieve (a wickedness)
which God expels from them who are His; (or,) at all events, put the
spirit into a thorough tumult by (presenting) a stumbling-block (to
it). We ought indeed to walk so holily, and with so entire
substantiality142
| 142 Substantia. Comp.
Heb. xi. 1, ἔστι
δὲ πίστις
ἐλπιζομένων
ὑπόστασις
. | of faith, as to be
confident and secure in regard of our own conscience, desiring
that that (gift) may abide in us to the end, yet not presuming
(that it will). For he who presumes feels less apprehension; he
who feels less apprehension takes less precaution; he who takes less
precaution runs more risk. Fear143
is the
foundation of salvation; presumption is an impediment to fear.
More useful, then, is it to apprehend that we may possibly fail, than
to presume that we cannot; for apprehending will lead us to fear,
fearing to caution, and caution to salvation. On the other hand,
if we presume, there will be neither fear nor caution to save us.
He who acts securely, and not at the same time warily, possesses no
safe and firm security; whereas he who is wary will be truly able to be
secure. For His own servants, may the Lord by His mercy take care
that to them it may be lawful even to presume on His
goodness! But why are we a (source of) danger to our neighbour?
why do we import concupiscence into our neighbour? which concupiscence,
if God, in “amplifying the law,”144
| 144 Matt. v. 17. Comp. de Or., c. xxii.
mid.; de Pa., c. vi. mid.; de Pæn., c. iii.
sub fin. | do
not145
| 145 The second
“non,” or else the first, must apparently be omitted. | dissociate in (the way of) penalty from the
actual commission of fornication,146
I know not
whether He allows impunity to him who147
| 147 “Qui,”
Oehler; “quæ,” Rig. | has been the
cause of perdition to some other. For that other, as soon as he
has felt concupiscence after your beauty, and has mentally already
committed (the deed) which his concupiscence pointed to,148
| 148 Comp. de
Pæn. c. iii. (latter half). | perishes; and you have been made149
the sword which destroys him: so that,
albeit you be free from the (actual) crime, you are not free from the
odium (attaching to it); as, when a robbery has been committed on some
man’s estate, the (actual) crime indeed will not be laid to the
owner’s charge, while yet the domain is branded with ignominy,
(and) the owner himself aspersed with the infamy. Are we to paint
ourselves out that our neighbours may perish? Where, then, is
(the command), “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself?”150
| 150 Bible:Luke.10.27 Bible:Rom.13.9 Bible:Gal.5.14 Bible:Jas.2.8">Lev. xix. 18; Matt. xix. 19; xxii. 39;
Mark xii. 31; Luke x. 27; Rom. xiii. 9; Gal. v. 14; Jas. ii.
8. | “Care not
merely about your own (things), but (about your)
neighbour’s?”151
| 151 Comp. 1 Cor. x. 24; xiii. 5; Phil. ii.
4. | No enunciation
of the Holy Spirit ought to be (confined) to the subject immediately in
hand merely, and not applied and carried out with a view to
every occasion to which its application is useful.152
Since, therefore, both our own interest
and that of others is implicated in the studious pursuit of most
perilous (outward) comeliness, it is time for you to know153
that not merely must the pageantry of
fictitious and elaborate beauty be rejected by you; but that of even
natural grace must be obliterated by concealment and negligence, as
equally dangerous to the glances of (the beholder’s) eyes.
For, albeit comeliness is not to be censured,154
as being a bodily happiness, as being an additional outlay of the
divine plastic art, as being a kind of goodly garment155
of the soul; yet it is to be feared, just on account of the
injuriousness and violence of suitors:156
which (injuriousness and violence) even the father of the
faith,157
Abraham,158
greatly feared
in regard of his own wife’s grace; and Isaac,159
by falsely
representing Rebecca as his sister, purchased safety by
insult!160
| 160 “Salutem
contumelia redemit;” the “insult” being the denial of
her as his wife. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
