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Chapter IV.—Continuation of the Remarks on Self-Denial; Object and Reward of True Virgins.; original source section: Chapter 4
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Benjamin Plummer Pratten (original ANF VIII translator credit), Alexander Roberts (Edinburgh series editor), James Donaldson (Edinburgh series editor), Arthur Cleveland Coxe (American revision with prefaces and notes), Matthew Brown Riddle (American volume collaborator; individual note authorship unspecified).
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“Sanctification.”—Beelen. [So A.V. The R.V. correctly renders ἁγιασμός, “sanctification,” in every instance.—R.]
Editorial footnote · Two Epistles Concerning Virginity, Chapter IV.—Continuation of the Remarks on Self-Denial; Object and Reward of True Virgins.; original source section: Chapter 4, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
For he who covets for himself these things so great and excellent, withdraws and severs himself on this account from all the world, that he may go and live a life divine and heavenly, like the holy angels, in work pure and holy, and “in the holiness of the Spirit of God,” and that he may serve God Almighty through Jesus Christ for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. On this account he severs himself from all the appetites of the body. And not only does he excuse himself from this command, “Be fruitful, and multiply,” but he longs for the “hope promised” and prepared “and laid up in heaven” by God, who has declared with His mouth, and He does not lie, that it is “better than sons and daughters,” and that He will give to virgins a notable place in the house of God, which is something “better than sons and daughters,” and better than the place of those who have passed a wedded life in sanctity, and whose “bed has not been defiled.” For God will give to virgins the kingdom of heaven, as to the holy angels, by reason of this great and noble profession.