19. Therefore as many women
as there are now, unto whom it is said, “if they contain not, let
them be married,1986
” are not to be
compared to the holy
women then, even when they
married.
Marriage
itself indeed in all
nations is for the same cause of begetting
sons, and of what character soever these may be afterward, yet was
marriage for this purpose instituted, that they may be
born in due
and
honest order. But men, who contain not, as it were ascend unto
marriage by a step of
honesty: but they, who without doubt would
contain, if the purpose of that time had allowed this, in a certain
measure descended unto
marriage by a step of
piety. And, on this
account, although the marriages of both, so
far as they are
marriages, in that they are for the sake of begetting, are equally
good, yet these men when
married are not to be compared with those
men as
married. For these have, what is allowed them by the way of
leave, on account of the
honesty of
marriage, although it pertain
not to
marriage; that is, the advance which goes beyond the
necessity of begetting, which they had not. But neither can these,
if haply there be now any found, who neither
seek, nor desire, in
marriage any thing,
save that wherefore
marriage was instituted, be
made equal to those men. For in these the very desire of sons is
carnal, but in those it was
spiritual, in that it was suited to the
sacrament of that time. Forsooth now no one who is made
perfect in
piety seeks to have sons,
save after a
spiritual sense; but then it
was the work of piety itself to beget sons even after a carnal
sense: in that the begetting of that people was fraught with
tidings of things to come, and pertained unto the prophetic
dispensation.
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