Key Arguments

• He sees Continence as a dignified, serene woman ‘enticing’ him in an honourable way and stretching out ‘pious hands’ filled with ‘numerous good examples’—boys, girls, widows, virgins—indicating that chastity is possible for all ages and states.
• He calls her ‘the fruitful mother of children’ whose joys are ‘born of you, Lord, her husband’, framing continence as spiritually fecund rather than barren.
• Through her voice he hears the challenge: ‘Are you incapable of doing what these men and women have done?’, confronting his sense of incapacity.
• She corrects his self‑reliance: they did not achieve continence ‘by their own resources’ but because ‘their Lord God gave me to them’, and she tells him to ‘cast yourself upon him’ and not rely on himself.
• She explicitly promises that if he makes the leap without anxiety, God ‘will catch you and heal you’, connecting conversion to trusting reception of divine healing.
• She further exhorts him to ‘stop your ears to your impure members on earth and mortify them’, noting that while they offer delights, these are ‘not in accord with the law of the Lord your God’.

Source Quotes

(27) Nevertheless it was now putting the question very half-heartedly. For from that direction where I had set my face and towards which I was afraid to move, there appeared the dignified and chaste Lady Continence, serene and cheerful without coquetry, enticing me in an honourable manner to come and not to hesitate. To receive and embrace me she stretched out pious hands, filled with numerous good examples for me to follow.

For from that direction where I had set my face and towards which I was afraid to move, there appeared the dignified and chaste Lady Continence, serene and cheerful without coquetry, enticing me in an honourable manner to come and not to hesitate. To receive and embrace me she stretched out pious hands, filled with numerous good examples for me to follow. There were large numbers of boys and girls, a multitude of all ages, young adults and grave widows and elderly virgins.

There were large numbers of boys and girls, a multitude of all ages, young adults and grave widows and elderly virgins. In every one of them was Continence herself, in no sense barren but ‘the fruitful mother of children’ (Ps. 112: 9), the joys born of you, Lord, her husband. And she smiled on me with a smile of encouragement as if to say: ‘Are you incapable of doing what these men and women have done?

And she smiled on me with a smile of encouragement as if to say: ‘Are you incapable of doing what these men and women have done? Do you think them capable of achieving this by their own resources and not by the Lord their God? Their Lord God gave me to them. Why are you relying on yourself, only to find yourself unreliable? Cast your-self upon him, do not be afraid. He will not withdraw himself so that you fall. Make the leap without anxiety; he will catch you and heal you.’ I blushed with embarrassment because I was still listening to the mutterings of those vanities, and racked by hesitations I remained undecided.

I blushed with embarrassment because I was still listening to the mutterings of those vanities, and racked by hesitations I remained undecided. But once more it was as if she said: ‘ “Stop your ears to your impure members on earth and mortify them” (Col. 3: 5). They declare delights to you, but “not in accord with the law of the Lord your God” ’ (Ps. 118: 85). This debate in my heart was a struggle of myself against myself.

Key Concepts

• there appeared the dignified and chaste Lady Continence, serene and cheerful without coquetry, enticing me in an honourable manner to come and not to hesitate.
• To receive and embrace me she stretched out pious hands, filled with numerous good examples for me to follow.
• In every one of them was Continence herself, in no sense barren but ‘the fruitful mother of children’ (Ps. 112: 9), the joys born of you, Lord, her husband.
• Do you think them capable of achieving this by their own resources and not by the Lord their God? Their Lord God gave me to them. Why are you relying on yourself, only to find yourself unreliable? Cast your-self upon him, do not be afraid. He will not withdraw himself so that you fall. Make the leap without anxiety; he will catch you and heal you.
• But once more it was as if she said: ‘ “Stop your ears to your impure members on earth and mortify them” (Col. 3: 5). They declare delights to you, but “not in accord with the law of the Lord your God” ’ (Ps. 118: 85).

Context

Book VIII, xi (27): In the midst of his hesitation, Augustine experiences an inner vision or personification of Continence, which gathers the examples of chaste Christians and articulates a theology of grace and trust as the way to break with sensual habits.