10. But I am
aware of some that murmur: What, say they, if all men should
abstain from all sexual intercourse, whence will the human race
exist? Would that all would this, only in “charity out of a pure
heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned;”1962
much more
speedily would the City of
God be filled, and the end of the
world
hastened. For what else doth the
Apostle, as is manifest,
exhort
to, when he saith, speaking on this head, “I would that all were
as myself;”
1963
or in that
passage, “But this I say,
brethren, the time is short: it remains
that both they who have
wives, be as though not having: and they
who
weep, as though not weeping: and they who
rejoice, as though
not rejoicing: and they who
buy, as though not buying: and they who
use this
world as though they use it not. For the form of this
world passeth by. I would have you without care.” Then he adds,
“Whoso is without a
wife thinks of the things of the
Lord, how to
please the
Lord: but whoso is joined in
marriage, thinks of the
things of the
world, how to please his
wife: and a
woman that is
unmarried and a
virgin is different: she that is
unmarried is
anxious about the things of the
Lord, to be holy both in body and
spirit: but she that is
married, is anxious about the things of the
world, how to please her
husband.”
1964
Whence it seems to me, that at
this time, those only, who contain not, ought to marry, according
to that sentence of the same
Apostle, “But if they contain not,
let them be married: for it is better to be married than to
burn.”
1965
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