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22. If, therefore, even they
who are united in marriage only for the purpose of begetting, for
which purpose marriage was instituted, are not compared with the
Fathers, seeking their very sons in a way far other than do these;
forasmuch as Abraham, being bidden to slay his son, fearless and
devoted, spared not his only son, whom from out of great despair he
had received1997
save that
he laid down his hand, when He forbade him, at Whose command he had
lifted it up; it remains that we consider, whether at least
continent persons among us are to be compared to those Fathers who
were married; unless haply now these are to be preferred to them,
to whom we have not yet found persons to compare. For there was a
greater good in their marriage, than is the proper good of
marriage: to which without doubt the good of Continence is to be
preferred: because they sought not sons from marriage by such duty
as these are led by, from a certain sense of mortal nature
requiring succession against decease. And, whoso denies this to be
good he knows not God, the Creator of all things
good, from things heavenly even unto things earthly, from things
immortal even unto things mortal. But neither are beasts altogether
without this sense of begetting, and chiefly birds, whose care of
building nests meets us at once, and a certain likeness to
marriages, in order to beget and nurture together. But those men,
with mind far holier, surpassed this affection of mortal nature,
the chastity whereof in its own kind, there being added thereto the
worship of God, as some have understood, is set forth as bearing
first thirty-fold; who sought sons of their marriage for the sake
of Christ; in order to distinguish His race after the flesh from
all nations: even as God was pleased to order, that this above the
rest should avail to prophesy of Him, in that it was foretold of
what race also, and of what nation, He should hereafter come in the
flesh. Therefore it was a far greater good than the chaste
marriages of believers among us, which father Abraham knew in his
own thigh, under which he bade his servant to put his hand, that he
might take an oath concerning the wife, whom his son was to marry.
For putting his hand under the thigh of a man, and swearing by the
God of Heaven,1998
what else
did he signify, than that in that Flesh, which derived its origin
from that thigh, the God of Heaven would come? Therefore marriage
is a good, wherein married persons are so much the better, in
proportion as they fear God with greater chastity and faithfulness,
specially if the sons, whom they desire after the flesh, they also
bring up after the spirit.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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