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| Apocalypse 8:2;4 "The unbloody altar of God" signifies the assembly of the chaste; thus virginity appears to be something great and glorious." |
"Chastity requires strong and generous natures and it is like vaulting over the stream of pleasure and directing the chariot of the soul upwards from the earth, not turning aside your aim until having, by swiftness of thought, lightly bounded above the world, and taken your stand upon the vault of heaven."
"Nothing can so profit a man with respect to moral excellence as chastity; chastity alone accomplishes and brings it about that the soul should be governed in the noblest and best way, and should be set free, pure from the stains and pollutions of the world.
For this reason , when Christ taught us to cultivate it, and showed us its unsurpassable beauty, the kingdom of the Evil One was destroyed, who for a time had led captive, and then enslaved the whole race of men, so that none of the more ancient people pleased the Lord.
At that time the law was not of itself sufficient to free the human race from corruption, until virginity, succeeding the law, governed men by the precepts of Christ.
The first men had run headlong into combats and slaughter ... into lust and idolatry. The righteousness of that law had been insufficient for salvation. They were truly confused by great and frequent calamities.
From the time when Christ became incarnate, and armed and adorned His flesh with virginity, the savage tyrant who was master of incontinence was taken away, and peace and faith began to have dominion.
Men no longer turned as much as before to idolatry.
By a great stretch of power the plant of virginity was sent down to men from heaven. It was not revealed to the first generations of humanity.
The reason for this was because the race of mankind was still very small in number; and it was necessary that it should first be increased in number, and then brought to perfection.
Therefore the men of old times thought it nothing unseemly to take their own sisters for wives, until the new law, which was coming from God, separated them, and by forbidding that which at first had seemed to be right ... declared it to be a sin, calling that man cursed who should "uncover the nakedness" of his sister.
God thus mercifully brought to our race the needful help in due season, as parents do to their children. Parents do not at once set masters over them, but allow them, during the period of childhood, to amuse themselves like young animals, and first send them to teachers stammering like themselves.
When they have cast off the youthful wool of the mind, then they are ready to go onwards to the practice of greater things, and from thence again to that of greater still.
Thus we must consider that this was the way that the God and Father of all acted towards our forefathers. The world, still unfilled with men, was like a child and it was necessary that it should first be filled with these, and so grow to manhood. But when, hereafter it was colonized from end to end, the race of man spreading to a boundless extent, God no longer allowed man to remain in the same ways, considering how they might now proceed from one point to another, and advance nearer to heaven.
Then would come the very greatest and most exalted lesson of virginity from which they could reach perfection:
First they learned to abandon the intermarriage of brothers and sisters, and marry wives, like brute beasts, as though born for the mere propagation of the species; and then that they should not be adulterers; and then again that they should go on to continence, and from continence to virginity, when having trained themselves to despise the flesh, they sail fearlessly into the peaceful haven of immortality.
St. Paul, when summoning all persons to sanctification and purity, referred to that which had been spoken concerning the first man and Eve. He referred it, in a secondary sense, to Christ and the Church, in order to silence the ignorant, now deprived of all excuses.
Words For Priests From Methodius:
"Go then, ye virgin band of the new ages"
Moreover ... it has been handed down that the unbloody altar of God (Apocalypse 8:2-4) signifies the assembly of the chaste; thus virginity appears to be something great and glorious. Therefore it ought to be preserved undefiled and altogether pure, having no participation in the impurities of the flesh; but it should be set up before the presence of the testimony, gilded with wisdom, for the Holy of Holies, sending forth a sweet savour of love to the Lord, for He says: "Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. And thou shall make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
And thou shalt put it before the veil .. that is by the ark of the testimony ... before the mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps ... he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upo it: a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt-sacrifices nor meat offering: neither shall ye pour drink-offering thereon. "Go then, ye virgin band of the new ages. Go, fill your vessels with righteousness, for the hour is coming when ye must rise and meet the bridgefroom.
Go, lightly leaving on one side the fascinations and the pleasures of life, which confuse and bewitch the soul: and thus shall ye attain the promises "This I swear by Him who has shown me the way of life." Methodius
From: Writings of Methodius: The Banquet of the Ten Virgins, or, Concerning Chastity Translated by Rev. William R. Clark, M.A. Vicar of St. Mary Magdelen Taunton
mb-soft.com/believe/txua/methodiu.htm
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