Miscellanies 3.12.82

And the apostle's addition, “and come together again because of Satan,” cuts off beforehand any turning aside to other desires. For temporary agreement does not entirely repel the desires of nature, though it restrains them; because of them he brings back the union of marriage, not for lack of self-control, sexual immorality, and the devil's work, but so that one may not fall into lack of self-control, sexual immorality, and the devil. Tatian also separates the old husband and the new, but not as we say. We too agree with him in calling the law the old husband and the gospel the new, but not as he wishes, abolishing the law as belonging to another God; rather, the same Husband and Lord, making the old new, no longer allows polygamy (for God required it then, when there had to be increase and multiplying), but introduces monogamy for the begetting of children and the care of the household, for which the wife was given as a helper. And if the apostle, by concession, allows someone a second marriage because of lack of self-control and burning, it is because this person too does not sin according to the covenant (for it has not been forbidden by the law), but does not fulfill the heightened perfection of the gospel way of life. But the one who remains single and keeps undefiled the union dissolved by death, gladly obeying the divine arrangement, gains heavenly glory for himself; by it he has become free from distraction for the Lord's service. Nor indeed does divine providence through the Lord now command the one rising from the marriage bed to be washed, as it did of old. For the Lord does not keep believers from begetting children by necessity, having washed them completely for their intercourse by one baptism, he who has also summed up Moses' many washings in one baptism.