3. Likewise, Galatians 6: He who sows in the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but sowing in the flesh is done through the act of conjugal continence: therefore conjugal continence is contrary to the law of God.
4. Likewise, 1 Corinthians 7: He who is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, and how he may please his wife: but solicitude for and complacency in this world is condemned and is contrary to the law of God: therefore so also is conjugal continence.
5. Likewise, in the same place: Let those who have wives be as though not having them; but he who does not have a wife does not use her: therefore he who has one should not use her. But this is contrary to the act of conjugal continence: therefore conjugal continence is repugnant to the law of God.
6. Likewise, in the same place: Return together again: but this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of commandment: but no act of virtue requires indulgence: therefore the act of conjugal continence is not an act of virtue: therefore etc.
Likewise, the same is shown by reason as follows.
7. Everything is evil from which sin necessarily follows: but from the act of conjugal continence sin necessarily follows, namely original sin in the offspring generated: therefore etc.
8. Likewise, every act which evil necessarily accompanies is blameworthy: but evil necessarily accompanies the act of conjugal continence, namely lust: therefore it is blameworthy: therefore etc.
9. Likewise, every act about which one reasonably feels shame is a blameworthy act: but the act by which a man has intercourse with his wife is such: therefore etc.
10. Likewise, every act and movement that alienates from God is foreign to virtue: but the act of conjugal continence is such: therefore etc. Proof of the middle term: Hosea 1; the Gloss: "Just as wine intoxicates a man and alienates him from the state of his mind, so the law of marriage alienates a man from the things that are of God": therefore etc.
11. Likewise, no act in which reason is overwhelmed is an act of virtue: but in the act of conjugal continence reason is totally overwhelmed: therefore it is not a work of virtue.
12. Likewise, no act that is repugnant to spiritual delight is a movement of virtue: but the act of conjugal continence is such: therefore etc.
13. Likewise, every virtue consists in a mean; but the pleasure that is in the conjugal act is excessive: therefore its act will not be an act or work of virtue.
14. Likewise, every virtue concerns the good and the difficult: but the conjugal act is frail and easy: therefore it is not a work of virtue.
15. Likewise, the act of continence is to contain: but to contain is to abstain from intercourse: therefore, since knowing one's wife is contrary to this, it will also be contrary to continence, and thereby neither a virtue nor a work of virtue, and thus repugnant to or dissonant from the law of God.
CONCLUSION.
Conjugal chastity is approvable and consonant with the law of God, and indeed according to all states of the passing age.
I respond: It must be said that without doubt conjugal chastity is approvable and consonant with the law of God,
not only according to the state of the present time or the future, but indeed from the beginning of the world until the end of the present age, until the number of the elect is completed.
For the understanding of which it must be noted that conjugal chastity itself and its act and exercise is consonant with the law of nature and the law of Scripture and the law of grace.
It is consonant with the law of nature by reason of created nature itself, by reason of the precept superadded, by reason of the revelation shown from above.
It accords, I say, with the law of nature itself by reason of created nature, which was formed in the distinction of the sexes, according to that passage of Genesis 1: God created man in His image and likeness; male and female He created them. - It accords also by reason of the superadded precept, while the law of nature still remained, according to that passage of Genesis 1: God blessed them and said: Increase and multiply and fill the earth: which indeed is not done legitimately except through the exercise of conjugal chastity.
It accords no less by reason of revelation given from above. For Adam prophetically said after his deep sleep: This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Wherefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh. This word is said to have been spoken by God in Matthew 19, because Adam said it while illuminated by the divine Spirit.
From the first of these the union of man and woman is natural, from the second it is moral, from the third it is sacramental: and all of this belongs to it according to the state of the law of nature; from which the act and exercise of conjugal chastity itself first draws its origin.
It accords also with the written law by reason of the divine promise, the divine miracle, and the divine statute. By reason of the divine promise: because the Lord promised to Abraham, Genesis 17: You shall be the father of many nations; and I will make you increase most exceedingly, and I will establish you among nations, and kings shall come forth from you.
By reason of the divine miracle, according to that passage of Genesis 21: The Lord visited Sarah, as He had promised, and fulfilled what He had spoken, and she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time which God had foretold to her.