THEOPHILA: Theophila then, she said, spoke, saying: It seems to me to be necessary, since Marcella set out well upon the discourse but did not fill it out sufficiently, that I should try to put a finish to the argument. For that man, by gradual advance, progressed toward virginity, God urging him on at one time and another, seems to me to have been finely set forth; but that one ought no longer to speak of child-bearing from here on—that was not finely said. For I think I have clearly observed from the Scriptures that, when virginity came, the Word did not altogether abolish child-bearing. For it is not because the moon is greater than the stars that the light of the other stars is thereby abolished. Let us begin from Genesis, that we may honor the Scripture all the more. For the decree of God and the ordinance concerning procreation is confessedly being fulfilled even up to now, the Creator still fashioning man. For this too is evident to everyone, that God is even now at work, painting the world, just as the Lord also taught, saying, "My Father is working still." But when the rivers shall at last cease, emptying into the vessel of the sea, and the light shall be perfectly separated from the darkness (for now it is still being divided), and the dry land shall at last cease to bring forth fruits along with the creeping things and quadrupeds, and the foreordained number of men shall be filled up—then at last child-bearing too is to be abstained from. For now, while the world is being constituted and built, man comes into being in the image of God. For "increase," it was said, "and multiply." And one ought not to abhor the ordinance of the Creator, from which we ourselves also have come into being. For the beginning of the generation of men comes about by the casting of the seed into the furrows of the womb, so that the bone from the bones and the flesh from the flesh, taken up by an invisible power, may be fashioned anew by the Craftsman into another man. For in this way one must hold that saying to be fulfilled: "This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."
For perhaps this too was hinted at by the ecstasy laid upon the first-formed man, prefiguring beforehand the enchantment of the husband in the act of love, when, thirsting for children, he goes into ecstasy, made effeminate in his sleep by the pleasures that beget children, so that again something of his bones and his flesh, drawn off, may, as I said, be filled out into another man. For when the natural harmony of the supports involved in intercourse is stirred up, as those initiated into the marriage rite teach us, all the marrowy and most generative part of the blood—which is liquid bone—from all the members, being foamed and clotted, is poured forth through the organs that beget children into the living soil of the female. With good reason, then, on this account it is said that a man shall leave father and mother—forgetting all things at once at that moment when, united to the woman in tender embraces, he is held fast by generative desire, offering to the divine Craftsman the taking of his rib, so that from the son the father too may again be made manifest. Since, then, God is even now still fashioning man, how is it not rash to abhor procreation, which the very One who works it with undefiled hands is not ashamed of? "Before I formed you in the belly of your mother, I knew you," he says to Jeremiah; and to Job, "Did you not take clay and form a living and speaking creature and set it upon the earth?" And Job too is borne toward him in supplication, saying, "Your hands made me and formed me." And how is it not absurd that the exchanges of marriage should be forbidden, when there are still expected to be after us those who set themselves against the evil one, for whose sake also the Word promised that "the days shall be shortened"? For if procreation has henceforth, as you said, been reckoned base by God, for what reason will those who are born contrary to the decree and the divine counsel be able to stand well-pleasing before God? For it would be necessary that what is begotten be counterfeit and not dear to God, if contrary to the judgment and the ordinance it is fashioned like a forgery of the Power—granting, that is, that we should also concede that men can fashion men.
And Marcella, taking up the word, said: O Theophila, a great blunder appears, contrary to what you have said, and do you think it has escaped notice, having thrust aside so great a cloud? For there comes that argument which perhaps someone, demanding it of you, O most wise one, will state: "What do you say concerning those who are unlawfully born of adultery?" For you have granted that it is impossible and impracticable for anything to enter the world unless guided by the will of the Majesty, the very tabernacle being prepared by God. And lest you take refuge, as into a little wall, in the Scripture that gives surety, saying "the children of adulterers shall not come to maturity," he will gently rebuff you, saying: "And yet we see those conceived from such lawless unions often springing up to ripe fruit through full-term birth-pangs of many kinds." And if again you should subtly say, "My good sir, I hold that 'shall not come to maturity' is to be applied to those not brought to perfection in the righteousness taught by Christ," it will be said: "And indeed, O blessed one, very many born of unjust seed are no less not only deemed worthy of the flock of the brethren, but are also in many cases allotted to preside over them." Therefore, since it is plain and all attest that the offspring of adultery too are brought to completion, one ought not to suppose that the Spirit prophesied concerning conceptions and births, but rather, perhaps, concerning those who commit adultery against the truth—who, adulterating the Scriptures with knavishly-wise doctrines, beget an immature wisdom, mixing error with godliness. Therefore, this pretext of yours being removed, come now: answer—even granting that the offspring of adultery come about with God's good pleasure. For you said that the begetting of a man is impossible unless the Lord has formed and ensouled it.
And Theophila, as though seized by a noble adversary in the midst of the contest, grew dizzy, and only with great difficulty regaining her breath, said: You ask a question that needs to be demonstrated by an example, O blessed one, that you may see still more clearly how the creative power, governing all things, itself works for the most part toward the generation of men, increasing the things planted in the fertile soil. For one must not blame what is sown, but rather the one who, in another's field, by stealthy beddings, sells his own seed shamelessly, like a hireling for a little pleasure. For liken our coming into life to something such as this: a house having its entrance set among high mountains, but extending far down a long way from the entrance, having many openings at the back and being curved and rounded in this part. Marcella said: I liken it. THEOPHILA: Suppose, then, that a modeler sits within working at statues, and conceive that the material of the clay is supplied to him through the openings from outside abundantly by many men, none of them seeing the craftsman. Grant too that the house is covered with mist and clouds, and that nothing outside is visible to them except the openings alone. "Let this be granted," she said. And let each of those who labor together in the gathering of the clay have one opening assigned to him, into which alone he brings and deposits his own material, not touching another's. And if he should attempt out of curiosity to open the one allotted to another, fire and scourges are to be threatened against him. Then, after this, consider further the modeler within going round the openings and taking the clay found in each one by itself to mold, and after periods of months, having molded it, giving it back again to those outside through the same opening—having such a command, to work without distinction all the clay that can be fashioned, even if it be channeled into another's opening by someone in an evil manner (the material having done no wrong; wherefore, as innocent, it must be molded and shaped), but to punish, as an avenging-fiend and transgressor, the one who deposits it into another's opening contrary to the decree and the command. For one must not blame the clay, but that man who has done this contrary to what is holy; for it was for the sake of incontinence that he carried it off into another's opening and deposited it secretly or by force. Marcella: Most truly you speak.
Now, then, it is at last time, these matters having been gone through beforehand, that you apply this whole image, O most wise one, to the things already said before—likening the house to the invisible nature of our generation; the entrance set among the mountains to the descent from heaven into the bodies and the escorting of the souls; the openings to the female and womanly kind; the modeler to the creative power of God, which, using nature as a veil of our generation, as I said, fashions men within us invisibly, working the garments for the souls; and likening those who bring the material of the clay to the male and masculine kind, when, thirsting for children, borne toward the natural passages of the female, they cast in the seed, just as there too the clay into the openings. For the seed, partaking, so to speak, of a divine portion of the creative power, must not itself be reckoned the cause of the kindlings of licentiousness. For the art ever works upon the underlying material; for none of things in itself by itself is to be considered evil, but it becomes such by the practice of those who use it. For what is done decorously and with self-control turned out decorous, but what is done basely and unseemly, base. For what wrong did iron do, which was found for the sake of farming and the arts, against those who whetted it for mutual murderous battles? And what of gold or silver or bronze, and, in a word, all the easily-worked earth, against those who err thanklessly toward their own Creator in worshiping the variegated idols made from them? For even if one were to supply wool from stolen goods to the art of weaving, the art works the underlying material toward this one end, if it accepts the manufacture, casting away nothing of what is useful to itself, since the stolen thing is not the cause here, being soulless. Wherefore it must indeed be adorned, but the one who filched it by unjust theft must be punished. And so too those who ruin marriages and rupture the harmony of life, twanging the strings out of tune by frenzy and summoning the appetite to adultery—these themselves must be tortured and punished; for from another's gardens they steal and despoil the embraces that beget children. But the seed, just as there the wool, must be shaped and ensouled.
And what need is there to lengthen the discourse by abusing so many examples? For nature could not have accomplished so great a work in so short a time without care. For who fixed the unjointed bones, and who bound the limbs together to be stretched and relaxed by sinews, bending about their joints? Or what god leavened the humor, soaking it with blood, and made soft flesh out of dust—who but the supreme Artificer alone, fashioning us, the most rational and ensouled image, man, and modeling us as in wax out of moist and very small seeds in the womb? For who is it that takes forethought lest the embryo within be choked by the moisture and overwhelmed by the confinement of the vessels? Or who is it that, after it has come up into the light, changes it from weak and small into greatness and beauty and strength, if not this same supreme Artificer, as I said, God, by his creative power, Christ, transforming and repainting the forms? Whence indeed we have received it in the God-inspired writings that the offspring, even if they be of adultery, are handed over to guardian angels. For if they came into being contrary to the judgment and ordinance of that blessed nature of God, how were these handed over to angels to be nourished with much repose? And how, too, would they, accusing their own parents, with good confidence summon them to the tribunal of Christ, saying: "You did not begrudge us, O Lord, this common light; but these exposed us to death, despising your commandment"? For "children begotten from lawless sleep," it says, "are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at the examination."
And perhaps, then, one plausibly arguing will have room among men not critical and prudent, asserting that this fleshly tunic of the soul, planted by men, is shaped of itself contrary to the decree of God; yet he will not be believed if he goes on to teach that the substance of the soul too is sown together with the mortal body. For the immortal and ageless thing the Almighty alone breathes in, who alone is also the maker of the invisible and the imperishable. For "he breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became," it says, "a living soul." Indeed, the Word, faulting these handcraftsmen who, to the ruin of men, fashion man-like statues, not perceiving their own Maker, says in the all-virtuous Wisdom: "Their heart is ashes, and their hope is cheaper than earth, and their life more dishonored than clay, because they were ignorant of the One who formed them and who breathed into them an active soul and infused into them a vital spirit." Thus God is the maker of all men. Wherefore also, according to the Apostle, he wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And since this has at last reached its end, the things after these must now be spoken. For whenever someone thoroughly learns the contemplation of the things that befall man according to nature, he will know not to abhor procreation, but to praise and prefer chastity. For neither, because honey too is sweeter than the rest, ought the remaining things therefore to be considered bitter—all those fruits that are blended with an innate sweetness. And of these I will furnish Paul as a trustworthy witness, so that "he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her does better." For the Word, by the juxtaposition of the better and sweeter, did not thereby forbid the other; rather, assigning to each what is proper and profitable, he lays down the ordinance. For to some he did not yet grant to attain virginity, while others he no longer wishes to be defiled, flushing with provocations, but rather to practice and picture to themselves from now on the angel-like transformation of the bodies, where men neither marry nor are given in marriage, according to the unlying oracles—since the undefiled eunuch-state that bestows the kingdom of heaven is not entrusted to all, but plainly only to those who are also able to keep the ever-blooming and unstained flower of virginity. For the prophetic word likens the Church to a most flowery and varied meadow, adorned and crowned with flowers not only of chastity, but also with those of child-bearing and those of continence. For "in fringes of gold, embroidered, the queen stands at the right hand" of the Bridegroom. These things I too, according to my own power, O Arete, contribute to the discourse on behalf of chastity. And when Theophila had said these things, Theopatra said that a pleasant tumult arose from all the virgins praising the discourse; and when they had grown quiet, after a long silence had come about, Thaleia rose; for to her it had been entrusted to contend third, after Theophila.