24. But concerning what
eunuchs speaketh God by the prophet Isaiah, unto
whom He saith that He will give in His house and in His wall a
place by name, much better than of sons and daughters,2067
save
concerning these, who make themselves
eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of
heaven? For for these, whose bodily organ is without
strength, so that they cannot
beget, (such as are the
eunuchs of
rich men and of kings,) it is surely enough, when they become
Christians, and keep the commands of
God, yet have this purpose,
that, if they could, they would have
wives, to be made equal to the
rest of the
faithful in the
house of
God, who are
married, who
bring up in the
fear of
God a
family which they have lawfully and
chastely gotten, teaching their sons to set their
hope on
God; but
not to receive a
better place than of sons and
daughters.
For it is not of
virtue of the
soul, but of necessity of the
flesh,
that they marry not
wives. Let who will
contend that the
Prophet
foretold this of those
eunuchs who have
suffered mutilation of
body; that even also helps the cause which we have undertaken. For
God hath not preferred these
eunuchs to such as have no place in
His
house, but assuredly to those who keep the
desert of
married
life in begetting sons. For, when He saith, “I will give unto
them a place much better;” He shows that one is also given unto
the
married, but much inferior. Therefore, to allow that in the
house of
God there will be the
eunuchs after the
flesh spoken of
above, who were not in the People of
Israel: because we see that
these also themselves, whereas they become not
Jews, yet become
Christians: and that the
Prophet spake not of them, who through
purpose of continence seeking not
marriage, make themselves
eunuchs
for the sake of the
kingdom of
heaven: is any one so madly opposed
to the
truth as to believe that
eunuchs made so in the
flesh have a
better place than
married persons in the
house of
God, and to
contend that persons being of pious purpose continent, chastening
the body even unto contempt of
marriage, making themselves
eunuchs,
not in the body, but in the very root of concupiscence, practising
an heavenly and angelic
life in an earthly
mortal state, are on a
level with the
deserts of the
married; and, being a
Christian, to
gainsay
Christ when He
praises those who have made themselves
eunuchs, not for the sake of this
world, but for the sake of the
kingdom of
heaven, affirming that this is of use for the present
life, not for a future? What else remains for these,
save to assert
that the
kingdom of
heaven itself pertains unto this temporal
life,
wherein we now are? For why should not
blind presumption advance
even to this madness? And what more full of phrensy than this
assertion? For, although at times the
Church, even that which is at
this time, is called the
kingdom of
heaven; certainly it is so
called for this end, because it is being gathered together for a
future and
eternal life. Although, therefore, it have the promise
of the present, and of a future life, yet in all its good works it
looks not to “the things that are seen, but to what are not seen.
For what are seen are temporal; but what are not seen, are
eternal.”
2068
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