Marriage and Virginity
22. So then not even those who marry solely for the purpose of having children, which is the purpose for which marriage was instituted, are to be compared with the fathers. They sought to have children with a very different attitude, as we see with Abraham. When he was commanded to sacrifice his son, he would not have spared him, even though he was his only son whom he had fathered contrary to all hope; and he only lowered his hand when stopped by the one at whose command he had raised it.†38
Old Testament Marriage Possessed a Prophetic Character
19. It remains for us to see whether at least those of our time who are celibate are comparable to those fathers who were married, if not perhaps even to be considered superior to them (even though we have not yet found anyone even comparable to them). Undeniably celibacy is superior to marriage as such, but in the marriages of the fathers there was something else of greater value. Their motive in wanting children from their marriages out of duty was different from what drives people today under the influence of a certain feeling that mortal nature requires them to have successors after they have gone. Anyone who denies that even this is good shows ignorance of the fact that God is the creator of everything good, from the heavens to the earth and from the immortal to the mortal. This instinct for procreation is not entirely absent in animals, especially in the case of birds, which have an obvious concern for building nests and a similarity to married people in working together to have young and provide food for them. That natural inclination of a mortal being has its own kind of chastity, and, as some have come to understand, when it is accompanied by worship of God it is destined to be fruitful thirty times over.†39 Nevertheless, those people of former times rose above this with a much holier attitude of mind, as they looked to have children from their marriages because of Christ, so that the race that he belonged to in the flesh would be set apart from other races, in accordance with God's plan. This was so that it could be the special bearer of prophecy concerning him, in particular by foretelling what race and what nation he would come from in the flesh.†40 It was, therefore, something of much greater value than the chaste marriages of the faithful of our times. Our father Abraham acknowledged this in relation to his own thigh when he ordered the servant to place his hand on it to make an oath concerning the wife his son was to marry.†41 For what else did it mean when someone placed a hand on his thigh and swore by the God of heaven, except that the God of heaven was to come in flesh that would have its