Noah when he was commanded to enter the ark and was entrusted with the preservation of the seed of the world received this command, Go in, saith the Lord, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives. He separated them from their wives in order that with purity they might escape the flood and that shipwreck of the whole world. After the cessation of the flood, however, He said, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives. Lo, again, marriage is granted for the sake of the multiplication of the race. Next, Elias, the fire-breathing charioteer and sojourner in heaven did not embrace celibacy, and yet was not his virtue attested by his super-human ascension? Who closed the heavens? Who raised the dead? Who divided Jordan? Was it not the virginal Elias? And did not Elisha, his disciple, after he had given proof of equal virtue, ask and obtain as an inheritance a double portion of the grace of the Spirit? What of the three youths? Did they not by practising virginity become mightier than fire, their bodies through virginity being made proof against the fire? And was it not Daniel’s body that was so hardened by virginity that the wild beasts’ teeth could not fasten in it. Did not God, when He wished the Israelites to see Him, bid them purify the body? Did not the priests purify themselves and so approach the temple’s shrine and offer victims? And did not the law call chastity the great vow?