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| Chapter XX
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Chapter
XX.
Now it
is impossible, as far as manual exercise goes, to ply two arts at once;
for instance, husbandry and sailing, or tinkering and carpentering. If
one is to be honestly taken in hand, the other must be left alone. Just
so, there are these two marriages for our choice, the one effected in
the flesh, the other in the spirit; and preoccupation in the one must
cause of necessity alienation from the other. No more is the eye able
to look at two objects at once; but it must concentrate its special
attention on one at a time; no more can the tongue effect utterances in
two different languages, so as to pronounce, for instance, a Hebrew
word and a Greek word in the same moment: no more can the ear take in
at one and the same time a narrative of facts, and a hortatory
discourse; if each special tone is heard separately, it will impress
its ideas upon the hearers’ minds; but if they are combined and
so poured into the ear, an inextricable confusion of ideas will be the
result, one meaning being mutually lost in the other: and no more, by
analogy, do our emotional powers possess a nature which can at once
pursue the pleasures of sense and court the spiritual union; nor,
besides, can both those ends be gained by the same courses of life;
continence, mortification of the passions, scorn of fleshly needs, are
the agents of the one union; but all that are the reverse of these are
the agents of bodily habitation. As, when two masters are before us to
choose between, and we cannot be subject to both, for “no man can
serve two masters1485
,” he who is
wise will choose the one most useful to himself, so, when two marriages
are before us to choose between, and we cannot contract both, for
“he that is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord, but he that is
married careth for the things of the world1486
,” I repeat that it would be the aim of
a sound mind not to miss choosing the more profitable one; and not to
be ignorant either of the way which will lead it to this, a way which
cannot be learnt but by some such comparison as the following. In the
case of a marriage of this world a man who is anxious to avoid
appearing altogether insignificant pays the greatest attention both to
physical health, and becoming adornment, and amplitude of means and the
security from any disgraceful revelations as to his antecedents or his
parentage; for so he thinks things will be most likely to turn out as
he wishes. Now just in the same way the man who is courting the
spiritual alliance will first of all display himself, by the renewal of
his mind1487
, a young man, without a single touch
of age upon him; next he will reveal a lineage rich in that in which it
is a noble ambition to be rich, not priding himself on worldly wealth,
but luxuriating only in the heavenly treasures. As for family
distinction, he will not vaunt that which comes by the mere routine of
devolution even to numbers of the worthless, but that which is gained
by the successful efforts of his own zeal and labours; a distinction
which only those can boast of who are “sons of the light”
and children of God, and are styled “nobles from the sunrise1488
” because of their splendid deeds.
Strength and health he will not try to gain by bodily training and
feeding, but by all that is the contrary of this, perfecting the
spirit’s strength in the body’s weakness. I could tell also
of the suitor’s gifts to the bride in such a wedding1489
; they are not procured by the money that
perishes, but are contributed out of the wealth peculiar to the soul.
Would you know their names? You must hear from Paul, that excellent
adorner of the Bride1490
, in what the wealth
of those consists who in everything commend themselves. He mentions
much else that is priceless in it, and adds, “in chastity1491
”; and besides this all the recognized
fruits of the spirit from any quarter whatever are gifts of this
marriage. If a man is going to carry out the advice of Solomon and take
for helpmate and life-companion that true Wisdom of which he says,
“Love her, and she shall keep thee,” “honour her,
that she may embrace thee1492
,” then he
will prepare himself in a manner worthy of such a love, so as to feast
with all the joyous wedding guests in spotless raiment, and not be cast
forth, while claiming to sit at that feast, for not having put on the
wedding garment. It is plain moreover that the argument applies equally
to men and women, to move them towards such a marriage. “There is
neither male nor female1493
,” the Apostle
says; “Christ is all, and in all1494
”; and so it is equally reasonable that
he who is enamoured of wisdom should hold the Object of his passionate
desire, Who is the True Wisdom; and that the soul which cleaves to the
undying Bridegroom should have the fruition of her love for the true
Wisdom, which is God. We have now sufficiently revealed the nature of
the spiritual union, and the Object of the pure and heavenly
Love.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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