11. Nor do we ourselves set
forth this in virgins, that they are virgins; but that they are
virgins dedicated unto God by pious continence. For it is not at a
venture that I may say, a married woman seems to me happier than a
virgin about to be married: for the one hath what the other as yet
desires, especially if she be not yet even the betrothed of any
one. The one studies to please one, unto whom she hath been given;
the other many, in doubt unto whom she is to be given: by this one
thing she guards modesty of thought from the crowd, that she is
seeking, not an adulterer, but a husband, in the crowd. Therefore
that virgin is with good reason set before a married woman, who
neither sets herself forth for the multitude to love, whereas she
seeks from out the multitude the love of one; nor, having now found
him, orders herself2040
for one, taking thought of the
things of the
world, “how to please her
husband;”
2041
but hath
so
loved “Him of fair
beauty above the sons of men,”
2042
as that,
because she could not, even as
Mary, conceive Him in her
flesh, she
hath kept her
flesh also
virgin for Him conceived in her
heart.
This
kind of
virgins no fruitfulness of the body hath given
birth
to: this is no progeny of
flesh and
blood. If of these the mother
be sought for, it is the
Church. None bears
sacred virgins save a
sacred virgin, she who hath been
espoused to be presented
chaste
unto one
Husband, Christ.
2043
Of her, not altogether in body,
but altogether in spirit virgin, are born holy virgins both in body
and in spirit.
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