Chapter XXI

Chapter XXI.—The Same Subject Continued.

“Much better is it, then, that your first circumstances should be distressing.  For when this is the case, they do not so deeply grieve you, because you hope that they will pass away, and they yield joy though the expectation of better circumstances.  But, above all, I wish you to know how much chastity is pleasing to God.  The chaste woman is God’s choice, God’s good pleasure, God’s glory, God’s child.  So great a blessing is chastity, ¹¹⁸⁸ that if there had not been a law that not even a righteous person should enter into the kingdom of God unbapp. 305 tized, perhaps even the erring Gentiles might have been saved solely on account of chastity.  Wherefore I am exceedingly sorry for those erring ones who are chaste because they shrink from baptism—thus choosing to be chaste without good hope.  Wherefore they are not saved; for the decree of God is clearly set down, that an unbaptized person cannot enter into His kingdom.”  When he said this, and much more, we turned to sleep.

Footnotes

304:1188

We have adopted an emendation of Wieseler’s.  The emendation is questionable; but the sense is the best that can be got out of the words.