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On Continence
St. Augustine speaks of his work On Continence in Ep. 231, Ad Darium Comitem. [See vol. 1. of this edition, p. 584.— P.S.] Possidius, Ind. c. 10, mentions it, and it is cited in the Collectanea of Bede or Florus, and by Eugypius. Erasmus is therefore wrong in ascribing it to Hugo on the ground of the style, which is not unlike that of the earlier discourses. It is evidently a discourse, and probably for that reason unnoticed in the Retractations. The Manichæan heresy is impugned after the manner of his early works.— (Abridged from Benedictine ed. vol. vi.)
- GenresTheology
28 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 400
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About the author
Augustine of Hippo
3,311 books2,073 followersEarly church father and philosopher Saint Augustine served from 396 as the bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria and through such writings as the autobiographical
Confessions
in 397 and the voluminous
City of God
from 413 to 426 profoundly influenced Christianity, argued against Manichaeism and Donatism, and helped to establish the doctrine of original sin.
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
An Augustinian follows the principles and doctrines of Saint Augustine.
People also know Aurelius Augustinus in English of Regius (Annaba). From the Africa province of the Roman Empire, people generally consider this Latin theologian of the greatest thinkers of all times. He very developed the west. According to Jerome, a contemporary, Augustine renewed "the ancient Faith."
The Neo-Platonism of Plotinus afterward heavily weighed his years. After conversion and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to theology and accommodated a variety of methods and different perspectives. He believed in the indispensable grace to human freedom and framed the concept of just war. When the Western Roman Empire started to disintegrate from the material earth, Augustine developed the concept of the distinct Catholic spirituality in a book of the same name. He thought the medieval worldview. Augustine closely identified with the community that worshiped the Trinity. The Catholics and the Anglican communion revere this preeminent doctor. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider his due teaching on salvation and divine grace of the theology of the Reformation. The Eastern Orthodox also consider him. He carries the additional title of blessed. The Orthodox call him "Blessed Augustine" or "Saint Augustine the Blessed."
Santo Agostinho
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews
February 5, 2026
Brilliant book by St. Augustine on the virtue of continence, which is a gift given to us by God (Wisdom 8:21; Matthew 19:11; 1 Corinthians 7:7), through which we not only resist putting into outward actions things we have conceived mentally, but also allows us to restrain our evil concupiscence, without consenting to it. This is the “door of Continence” that must be set around the inward lips of the heart.
In the Old Law, men were commanded to do things, and finding themselves unable to fulfill them, their concupiscence was inflamed and the Law became the strength of sin. Yet under the New Law, we are no longer under the Law, but under Grace, not such that we can yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness, but such that the New Law of the Gospel both commands and gives the grace to allow us to fulfill.
This fight exists because we lost the perfect ordering of ourselves which we had in Eden (whereby the lower faculties were subject to the higher faculties). These lower faculties rebel against the higher ones. This rebellion is called Concupiscence. It is the inclination to sin, which, though forgiven in baptism, is still left for us to deal with. We fight this war and thereby merit eternal life if we found ourselves victorious. It inclines our lower appetites to sin, and if we consent to its motions then we are guilty of sin. Yet if we restrain this inward movement, by not giving consent to concupiscence, we are found to be blameless, and this is what it means to mortify our flesh. Yet by mortifying our flesh, we are indeed loving our body.
Yet our body ought not to be seen as evil. Once we die, the body will lie in the grave until the General Resurrection. Here our corruptible bodies will put on immortality, and it will be spiritual, that is, wholly submitted to the higher faculties, I.e. intellect and will. Here the fight with concupiscence will be over, here we will no longer be able to sin. Not merely the state Adam had, but one far better, with no ability to sin. Adam had the ability to sin or not, that he might merit; we will have no ability to sin as our reward. God allowed sin the beginning so as to bring out a greater good by it.
“…and, what is greater, and to be looked to with yet greater watchfulness of Continence, our very thought itself, although in a certain way it be touched by [concupiscence’s] suggestion, and as it were, whisper, yet turns away from these, that it receive not delight from them, and turns to more delightful thoughts of things above..” — St. Augustine.
In the Old Law, men were commanded to do things, and finding themselves unable to fulfill them, their concupiscence was inflamed and the Law became the strength of sin. Yet under the New Law, we are no longer under the Law, but under Grace, not such that we can yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness, but such that the New Law of the Gospel both commands and gives the grace to allow us to fulfill.
This fight exists because we lost the perfect ordering of ourselves which we had in Eden (whereby the lower faculties were subject to the higher faculties). These lower faculties rebel against the higher ones. This rebellion is called Concupiscence. It is the inclination to sin, which, though forgiven in baptism, is still left for us to deal with. We fight this war and thereby merit eternal life if we found ourselves victorious. It inclines our lower appetites to sin, and if we consent to its motions then we are guilty of sin. Yet if we restrain this inward movement, by not giving consent to concupiscence, we are found to be blameless, and this is what it means to mortify our flesh. Yet by mortifying our flesh, we are indeed loving our body.
Yet our body ought not to be seen as evil. Once we die, the body will lie in the grave until the General Resurrection. Here our corruptible bodies will put on immortality, and it will be spiritual, that is, wholly submitted to the higher faculties, I.e. intellect and will. Here the fight with concupiscence will be over, here we will no longer be able to sin. Not merely the state Adam had, but one far better, with no ability to sin. Adam had the ability to sin or not, that he might merit; we will have no ability to sin as our reward. God allowed sin the beginning so as to bring out a greater good by it.
“…and, what is greater, and to be looked to with yet greater watchfulness of Continence, our very thought itself, although in a certain way it be touched by [concupiscence’s] suggestion, and as it were, whisper, yet turns away from these, that it receive not delight from them, and turns to more delightful thoughts of things above..” — St. Augustine.
October 28, 2019
This short treatise is about self-control and Augustine does what he often does which is just talk about sex really frankly and openly and also talk about the spiritual issues at hand with an incredible level of nuance. He's more nuanced and honest about this stuff than a lot of religious people TODAY, to be frank. That's why he still endures, I think.
June 18, 2019
Good, but at times the translation is an awful chore to read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews