§1Non dubito, frater, te post uxorem in pace praemissam ad conpositionem animi conversum de exitu singularitatis cogitare et utique consilii indigere.
I do not doubt, brother, that after sending your wife ahead in peace, you, having turned to the composure of your mind, are thinking about the outcome of your single state and are indeed in need of counsel.
Quamquam in huiusmodi cum fide sua conloqui debet unusquisque eiusque vires consulere, tamen quoniam in ista specie carnis necessitas cogitatum movet, quae fere apud eandem conscientiam fidei resistit, opus est fidei extrinsecus consilio tamquam advocato adversus carnis necessitates.
Although in matters of this kind everyone ought to converse with his own faith and consult its strength, nevertheless, since in this particular form the necessity of the flesh moves one's thought, which usually resists the faith within that same conscience, there is need of counsel for faith from without, like an advocate against the necessities of the flesh.
Quae quidem necessitas facillime circumscribi potest, si voluntas potius dei quam indulgentia consideretur.
Indeed, this necessity can very easily be limited if the will of God rather than his indulgence is considered.
Nemo indulgentia utendo promeretur, sed voluntati obsequendo.
No one deserves well by using indulgence, but by obeying the will.
Voluntas dei est sanctificatio nostra.
The will of God is our sanctification.
Vult enim imaginem suam nos etiam similitudinem fieri, ut simus sancti, sicut ipse sanctus est.
For He wants us, His image, to become also His likeness, so that we may be holy, just as He Himself is holy.
Id bonum, sanctificationem dico, in species distribuo complures, ut in aliqua earum deprehendamur.
This good—I mean sanctification—I divide into several kinds, so that we may be found in some of them.
Prima species est virginitas a nativitate: secunda, virginitas a secunda nativitate, id est a lavacro, quae aut in matrimonio purificat ex compacto, aut in viduitate perseverat ex arbitrio: tertius gradus superest monogamia, cum post matrimonium unum interceptum exinde sexui renuntiatur.
The first kind is virginity from birth; the second, virginity from the second birth, that is, from the font, which either purifies in marriage by agreement or perseveres in widowhood by choice; the third stage remaining is monogamy, when, after one marriage is cut short, sex is thereafter renounced.
Prima virginitas felicitatis est non nosse in totum a quo postea optabis liberari: secunda virtutis est contemnere cuius vim optime noris: reliqua species hactenus nubendi post matrimonium morte disiunctum praeter virtutis etiam modestiae laus est.
The first virginity is of happiness, not to know at all what you will afterwards wish to be freed from; the second is of virtue, to despise what you know the power of very well; the remaining kind, that of marrying only up to this point after a marriage has been dissolved by death, is a praise not only of virtue but also of modesty.
Modestia est enim ablatum non desiderare, et ablatum a domino deo, sine cuius voluntate nec folium de arbore delabitur nec passer assis unius ad terram cadit.
For modesty is not to desire what has been taken away, and taken away by the Lord God, without whose will not a leaf falls from a tree, nor does a sparrow of a single assarius fall to the ground.
§2Quam denique modesta illa vox est: Dominus dedit, dominus abstulit, ut domino visum est, ita factum est. Et ideo si nuptias sublatas restauremus, sine dubio contra voluntatem dei nitimur. volentes habere rursus quod habere nos noluit.
How modest, indeed, is that saying: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so has it been done." And therefore, if we restore a marriage that has been taken away, we are without doubt striving against the will of God, wishing to have again what He did not wish us to have.
Si enim voluisset, non abstulisset.
For if He had wished it, He would not have taken it away.
Nisi si et hoc voluntatem dei interpretamur. quasi et rursus voluerit habere quod iam noluit.
Unless, of course, we interpret even this as the will of God, as if He wished us to have again what He already did not wish.
Non est bonae et solidae fidei sic omnia ad voluntatem dei referre, et ita adulari sibi unumquemque dicendo nihil fieri sine nutu eius, ut non intellegamus esse aliquid in nobis ipsis.
It is not of a good and solid faith to refer everything in this way to the will of God, and so to flatter oneself, each one saying that nothing happens without His nod, that we do not understand that there is something in ourselves.
Ceterum excusabitur omne delictum, si contenderimus nihil fieri a nobis sine dei voluntate, et ibit definitio ista in destructionem totius disciplinae, etiam ipsius dei, si aut quae non vult de sua voluntate producat, aut nihil est quod deus non vult.
Otherwise, every sin will be excused if we contend that nothing is done by us without God's will; and this definition will go to the destruction of all discipline, and of God Himself, if He either produces by His will what He does not want, or if there is nothing that God does not want.
Sed quomodo vetat quaedam quibus etiam supplicium aeternum comminatur (utique enim quae vetat non vult, a quibus et offenditur), sic et e contrario quae vult praecipit et accepto facit et aeternitatis mercede dispungit.
But just as He forbids certain things for which He even threatens eternal punishment (for indeed He does not want what He forbids, and He is offended by them), so on the contrary He commands what He wants, accepts it, and settles it with the reward of eternity.
Itaque cum utrumque ex praeceptis eius didicerimus, quid nolit et quid velit, tamen nobis est voluntas et arbitrium eligendi alterum, sicut scriptum est: Ecce posui ante te bonum et malum: gustasti enim de agnitionis arbore. Et ideo non debemus quod nostro expositum est arbitrio in domini referre voluntatem, quod non ipse vult aut non vult quod bonum est qui malum non vult.
Therefore, although we have learned both from His commandments, what He does not want and what He wants, yet we have the will and the power of choosing one or the other, as it is written: "Behold, I have set before you good and evil; for you have tasted of the tree of knowledge." And therefore we ought not to refer to the Lord's will what is set before our own choice, because He Himself does not want or not want what is good who does not want what is evil.
Ita nostra est voluntas, cum malum volumus adversus dei voluntatem, qui bonum vult.
Thus the will is ours when we want evil against the will of God, who wants good.
Porro si quaeris, unde venit ista voluntas, qua quid volumus adversus dei voluntatem, dicam, Ex nobis ipsis.
Furthermore, if you ask where this will comes from, by which we want something against God's will, I will say: From ourselves.
Nec temere.
And not without reason.
Semini enim tuo respondeas necesse est; siquidem ille princeps et generis et delicti Adam voluit quod deliquit.
For you must answer to your seed; since indeed that prince of both our race and our sin, Adam, willed what he sinned.
Neque enim diabolus voluntatem ei imposuit delinquendi, sed materiam voluntati subministravit.
For the devil did not impose on him the will to sin, but supplied the material for the will.
Ceterum voluntas dei in obaudientiam venerat.
Otherwise, his will had come into obedience.
Proinde et tu si non oboedieris deo, qui te proposito praecepte liberae potestatis instituit, per voluntatis libertatem volens deverges in id quod deus non vult, et ita te putas a diabolo subversum, qui etsi quid vult te velle quod deus non vult, non tamen facit ut et velis, quia nec tunc istos protoplastos ad voluntatem delicti subegit, immo neque invitos neque ignorantes quid deus nollet.
Therefore, you too, if you do not obey God, who established you with a commandment of free power set before you, will by the freedom of your will willingly turn aside into what God does not want; and so you think you are overthrown by the devil, who, even if he wants you to want what God does not want, does not however make you want it, since he did not then subdue those first parents to the will of sin, and indeed neither against their will nor while they were ignorant of what God did not want.
Utique enim nolebat fieri, cum admisso mortem destinabat.
For indeed He did not want it to be done, since He destined death upon its admission.
Ita diaboli opus unum est, temptare, an velis, quod in te est, ut velis.
Thus, the only work of the devil is to tempt whether you want what is in you to want.
At ubi voluisti, sequitur ut te sibi subigat, non operatus in te voluntatem, sed nactus occasionem voluntatis.
But when you have willed, it follows that he subdues you to himself, not having worked the will in you, but having found the opportunity for your will.
Igitur cum solum sit in nobis velle, et in hoc probetur nostra erga deum mens, an ea velimus quae cum voluntate ipsius faciunt, alte et impresse recogitandam esse dico dei voluntatem, quid etiam in occulto velit.
Therefore, since to will is alone in us, and in this our mind toward God is tested, whether we want those things which agree with His will, I say that the will of God must be deeply and searchingly reconsidered, what He wants even in secret.