George Leo Haydock

The younger [5] (widows) should marry. They who understand this of a command or exhortation to all widows to marry, make St. Paul contradict himself, and the advice he gave to widows 1 Corinthians vii. where he says, (ver. 40.) She (the widow) will be more happy if she so remain according to my counsel; and when it is there said, I would have all to be as myself. [ See the notes on those places. ] He can therefore only mean such young widows, of whom he is speaking, that are like to do worse. Thus it is expounded by St. Jerome to Sabina:[6] “Let her rather take a husband than the devil.” And in another epistle, to Ageruchia: “It is better to take a second husband than many adulterers.” St. Chrysostom[7] on this verse: I will, or would have such to marry, because they themselves will do it. See also St. Augustine,[8] de Bono viduitatis, chap. viii. (Witham)