We are not ignorant of: “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled” (Heb. 13:4). We read God’s first judgment: “Increase and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28), but just as we accept marriage, we prefer virginity, which is born of marriage. Now will silver not be silver, if gold is more precious than it? … . Although the one-hundred-fold, sixty-fold, and thirty-fold fruits are brought forth from one earth and from one sowing, nonetheless they differ much in number. The thirty-fold refers to marriage … , the sixty-fold to widows … , the one-hundred-fold … expresses the crown of virginity.
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