22. Hold fast, O virgins! hold fast what you have begun to be; hold fast what you shall be. A great reward awaits you, a great recompense of virtue, the immense advantage of chastity. Do you wish to know what ill the virtue of continence avoids, what good it possesses? “I will multiply,” says God to the woman, “thy sorrows and thy groanings; and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”36    Gen. iii. 16. You are free from this sentence. You do not fear the sorrows and the groans of women. You have no fear of child-bearing; nor is your husband lord over you; but your Lord and Head is Christ, after the likeness and in the place of the man; with that of men your lot and your condition is equal. It is the word of the Lord which says, “The children of this world beget and are begotten; but they who are counted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage: neither shall they die any more: for they are equal to the angels of God, being the children of the resurrection.”37    Luke xx. 35, 36. That which we shall be, you have already begun to be. You possess already in this world the glory of the resurrection. You pass through the world without the contagion of the world; in that you continue chaste and virgins, you are equal to the angels of God. Only let your virginity remain and endure substantial and uninjured; and as it began bravely, let it persevere continuously, and not seek the ornaments of necklaces nor garments, but of conduct. Let it look towards God and heaven, and not lower to the lust of the flesh and of the world, the eyes uplifted to things above, or set them upon earthly things.

XXII. Servate , virgines, servate quod esse coepistis, servate quod eritis. Magna vos merces manet, praemium grande virtutis, munus maximum castitatis. Vultis scire quo malo careat et quid boni teneat continentiae virtus? Multiplicabo, inquit mulieri 0461B Deus, tristitias tuas et gemitus tuos, et in tristitia paries filios, et conversio tua ad virum tuum, et ipse tui dominabitur (Gen. III, 16). Vos ab hac sententia liberae estis, vos mulierum tristitias et gemitus non 0462A timetis. Nullus vobis de partu circa filios metus est, nec maritus est dominus, sed dominus vester et caput Christus est ad instar et vicem masculi. Sors vobis et conditio communis est. Domini vox est in illa dicentis: Filii saeculi hujus generant et generantur. Qui autem habuerint dignationem saeculi illius et resurrectionis a mortuis, non nubunt, neque matrimonium faciunt. Neque enim incipient mori: aequales enim sunt Angelis Dei, cum sint filii resurrectionis (Luc. XX, 31-36). Quod futuri sumus jam vos esse coepistis. Vos resurrectionis gloriam in isto saeculo jam tenetis, per saeculum sine saeculi contagione transitis. Cum castae perseveratis et virgines. Angelis Dei estis aequales. Tantum maneat et duret solida et illaesa virginitas, et ut coepit fortiter, jugiter perseveret; 0462B nec monilium aut vestium quaerat ornamenta, sed morum. Deum spectet et coelum, neque oculos ad sublime porrectos ad carnis et mundi concupiscentiam deprimat aut ad terrena deponat.