Traité de la virginité

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In On Virginity ch. 15 ("Marriage does not increase the human race."), St. John argues that sin, not virginity, causes death:

And today our race is not increased by the authority of marriage but by the word of our Lord, who said at the beginning: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth." [Gen. 1:28] How did marriage help Abraham in the procreation of children? After participating in it for so many years, did he not finally cry out: "Master, what will you give me? Am I to die childless?" [Gen. 15:2] […] For marriage will not be able to produce many men if God is unwilling, nor will virginity destroy their number if he wishes there to be many of them.