A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

187How small is the gain if you do good to a grateful man, or theloss if to an ungrateful man! A good deed has God as its debtor,just as an evil deed has Him also; for the judge is a rewarder ofevery cause. Now, since God as judge presides over the exactingand maintaining of justice, which is most dear to Him, and sinceit is for the sake of justice that He appoints the whole sum of Hisdiscipline, ought one to doubt that, as in all our acts universally,so, also, in the case of repentance, justice must be rendered toGod?(e) Tertullian, Scorpiace, 6. (MSL, 2:157.)If he had put forth faith to suffer martyrdoms, not for the contest'ssake, but for its own benefit, ought it not to have had some storeof hope, for which it might restrain its own desire and suspend its [168]wish, that it might strive to mount up, seeing that they, also, whostrive to discharge earthly functions are eager for promotion? Orhow will there be many mansions in the Father's house, if notfor a diversity of deserts? How, also, will one star differ fromanother star in glory, unless in virtue of a disparity of their rays?(f) Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, I, 3; II, 8-10. (MSL, 1:1390, 1415.)Cf. Kirch, n. 181.I, 3. There is no place at all where we read that marriages areprohibited; of course as a “good thing.” What, however, is betterthan this “good,” we learn from the Apostle in that he permitsmarriage, indeed, but prefers abstinence; the former on accountof the insidiousness of temptations, the latter on account of thestraits of the times (I Cor. 7:26). Now by examining the reasonfor each statement it is easily seen that the permission to marryis conceded us as a necessity; but whatever necessity grants, sheherself deprecates. In fact, inasmuch as it is written, “It is betterto marry than to burn” (I Cor. 7:9), what sort of “good” is this