39. And so like a good physician, desiring
to preserve the stability of virtue in the strong, and to give health
to the weak, he gives counsel to the one, and points out the remedy to
the others: “He that is weak eateth herbs,” Rom. xiv. 2. let him take a wife; he that has more
power let him seek the stronger meat of virtue. And rightly he
added: “For he who being steadfast hath settled in his own
heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath
determined this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin, doeth
well. So then both he who giveth his own virgin in marriage,
doeth well; and he that giveth her not in marriage, doeth better.
A woman is bound by the law, for so long a time as her husband
liveth. But if her husband have fallen asleep, she is freed, let
her marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be more
happy if she abide as she is, after my counsel, for I think that I also
have the Spirit of the Lord.” 1 Cor. vii. 37–40.
This is to have the counsel of God, to search diligently into all
things, and to advise things that are best, and to point out those that
are safest.