QUESTION III.
On continence.
After having treated of poverty, it now remains to treat of continence; concerning which, according to its three parts, a threefold question will be introduced.
For first it must be asked concerning conjugal chastity.
Second, concerning widowed continence.
Third, concerning virginal sanctity: and all this by comparison to the evangelical and divine law.
ARTICLE I.
On conjugal chastity.
The first question, therefore, is whether conjugal chastity is to be approved according to the evangelical law. And that it is, is shown by authority and by reason; by authority as follows.
1. Matthew 19, the Lord responding to the question put to him concerning marriage: Have you not read, that he who made men from the beginning made them male and female: and afterward: What God has joined together, let not man separate? The joining therefore of male and female according to the undivided companionship of life is from the institution of God and approved in the law of the Gospel by the judgment of Christ: and according to this the act of conjugal chastity is understood: therefore this virtue and its act is consonant with divine law.
2. Likewise, John 2: Jesus and his disciples were called to the wedding: and consequently he shows that he performed his first miracle there; but if the nuptial act were not consonant with the law of God, Christ would not have approved it by his own presence: therefore etc.
3. Likewise, 1 Peter 3: Husbands, dwelling together according to knowledge, bestowing honor on the woman as on a weaker vessel; but this is according to the conjugal act: therefore the conjugal act is consonant with the law of God.
4. Likewise, 1 Timothy 2, it is said of woman: She shall be saved through the bearing of children, if she shall have continued in faith and love with sanctification: but in the conjugal act there is the bearing of children, and that is consonant with the law of God: therefore etc.
5. Likewise, Ephesians 5: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church: but the union of Christ with the Church is according to the most chaste love: therefore the union of man with woman is also according to chaste love. But chaste love is consonant with the law of God: therefore also its act.
6. Likewise, 1 Corinthians 7: Let the husband render to the wife the debt owed, and the wife to the husband. The husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife does: therefore for the husband to render the debt to the wife is consonant with the law of God: but this is done according to the conjugal act: therefore etc.
7. Likewise, in the same place: If you have taken a wife, you have not sinned: and if a virgin shall have married, she does not sin: therefore if one was previously continent without a wife, it seems that one will also be continent with a wife, etc.
Likewise, this same thing is shown by reason as follows.
8. Everything that accords with the evangelical Sacraments is good and praiseworthy: but conjugal continence is of this kind: therefore it is good and praiseworthy. The major is evident; the minor is proved: Ephesians 5: This Sacrament is a great one, etc.: therefore conjugal continence is consonant with the law of God.
9. Likewise, that which accords with divine precepts is a work of virtue and consonant with the law of God: but the conjugal act is of this kind: therefore it is a work of virtue. The minor is proved: Genesis 1: Increase and multiply, etc.: but this is accomplished through the conjugal act: therefore etc.
10. Likewise, that which accords with natural dictate and proceeds from reason is a work of virtue; "for virtue is a habit consonant with reason in the manner of nature"; but conjugal continence accords with natural dictate and proceeds from reason: therefore etc.
11. Likewise, that which accords with the natural and common good accords with the law of God; but the conjugal act is of this kind, because it is directed toward the multiplication of human beings or the preservation of the species: therefore etc.
12. Likewise, there is a threefold character of the desirable, namely the honorable, the useful, and the delightful ; but wherever these three are found, that thing is consonant with the law of God: in matrimony there is the honorable through fidelity, and also the useful and the delightful through the generation of children: therefore etc.
13. Likewise, what food is to the preservation of the individual, sexual union is to the preservation of the species; but the moderate use of food pertains to virtue, namely to temperance: therefore moderate sexual union also pertains to virtue, namely to chastity: therefore it is consonant with the law of God.
On the contrary: 1. Luke 20: The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, etc.: but the children of this age are not children of God: therefore through the conjugal act which they exercise, they are not children of God: therefore conjugal continence is repugnant to the law of God.
2. Likewise, Romans 8: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God: but by the fact that they exercise the carnal act they are said to be in the flesh: therefore such persons cannot please God: therefore etc.