IX.  But what of the Pharisees?  To them this word seems harsh.  Yes, for they are also displeased at other noble words—both the older Pharisees, and the Pharisees of the present day.  For it is not only race, but disposition also that makes a Pharisee.  Thus also I reckon as an Assyrian or an Egyptian him who is ranged among these by his character.  What then say the Pharisees?  If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.  Is it only now, O Pharisee, that thou understandest this, It is not good to marry? Matt. xix. 10.  Didst thou not know it before when thou sawest widowhoods, and orphanhoods, and untimely deaths, and mourning succeeding to shouting, and funerals coming upon weddings, and childlessness, and all the comedy or tragedy that is connected with this?  Either is most appropriate language.  It is good to marry; I too admit it, for marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled. Heb. xiii. 4.  It is good for the temperate, not for those who are insatiable, and who desire to give more than due honour to the flesh.  When marriage is only marriage and conjunction and the desire for a succession of children, marriage is honourable, for it brings into the world more to please God.  But when it kindles matter, and surrounds us with thorns, and as it were discovers the way of vice, then I too say, It is not good to marry.