what wonder is it if marriage condemns more than adultery when it involves the rejection
of Christ? For, as I said at the beginning, if you were a private person no one would indict
you for shunning to serve as a soldier; but now thou art no longer thy own master, being
engaged in the service of so great a king. For if the wife hath not power over her own body,
but the husband,320 much more they who live in Christ must be unable to have authority
over their body. He who is now despised, the same will then be our judge; think ever on
Him and the river of fire: “For a river of fire” we read, “winds before His face;”321 for it is
impossible for one who has been delivered over by Him to the fire to expect any end of his
punishment. But the unseemly pleasures of this life no-wise differ from shadows and dreams;
for before the deed of sin is completed, the conditions of pleasure are extinguished; and the
punishments for these have no limit. And the sweetness lasts for a little while but the pain
is everlasting.
Tell me, what is there stable in this world? Wealth which often does not last even to the
evening? Or glory? Hear what a certain righteous man says: “My life is swifter than a run-
ner.”322 For as they dash away before they stand still, even so does this glory take to flight
before it has fairly reached us. Nothing is more precious than the soul; and even they who
have gone to the extremity of folly have not been ignorant of this; for “there is no equivalent
of the soul” is the saying of a heathen poet.323 I know that thou hast become much weaker
for the struggle with the Evil One; I know that thou art standing in the very midst of the
flame of pleasures; but if thou wilt say to the enemy “We do not serve thy pleasures, and we
do not bow down to the root of all thy evils;” if thou wilt bend thine eye upward, the Saviour
will even now shake out the fire, and will burn up those who have flung thee into it, and
will send to thee in the midst of the furnace a cloud, and dew, and a rustling breeze, so that
the fire may not lay hold of thy thought or thy conscience. Only do not consume thyself
with fire. For the arms and engines of besiegers have often been unable to destroy the forti-
fication of cities, but the treachery of one or two of the citizens dwelling inside has betrayed
them to the enemy without any trouble on his part. And now if none of thy thoughts within
betray thee, should the Evil One bring countless engines against thee from without he will
bring them in vain.
4. Thou hast by the grace of God many and great men who sympathize with thy trouble,
who encourage you to the fight, who tremble for thy soul,—Valerius the holy man of God,
Florentius who is in every respect his brother, Porphyrius who is wise with the wisdom of
Christ, and many others. These are daily mourning, and praying for you without ceasing;
320 1 Cor. vii. 4.
321 Dan. vii. 10.
322 Job ix. 25.
323 Homer Il. ix. 401.
163
Letter II