5. Likewise, by the example of John the Precursor of Christ, who is established to have been a virgin.
6. Likewise, by the example of Abel, who was a virgin: whence Augustine, in the book On the Wonders of Sacred Scripture: "The whole of justice is this: virginity, priesthood, and martyrdom, which threefold justice was in Abel."
By all these preeminent examples it is shown that virginity or virginal continence is to be preferred to all other parts of continence.
Likewise, the same is shown by reason, thus.
7. That which most greatly makes us follow Christ is most greatly to be preferred; but virginity most greatly makes one follow Christ, Apocalypse fourteen: For they are virgins and follow the Lamb wherever He goes: therefore etc.
8. Likewise, that which most greatly makes one conformed to the Angels is most greatly to be commended; but virginity most greatly makes one conformed to the Angels, because, according to Jerome, "to live in the flesh beyond the flesh is an angelic life, not a human one": therefore etc.
9. Likewise, to be continent is good, therefore to be more continent is more good, and to be most continent is most good; but the greatest continence is virginity: therefore etc.
10. Likewise, what is honorable is good, therefore what is more honorable is more good, and what is supremely honorable is supremely good; but in virginity there is supreme honor and purity: therefore etc.
11. Likewise, "that is whiter which is more unmixed with black": therefore by equal reasoning that is better which is more unmixed with evil: but lust is the fount of all evil, and virginity is most unmixed with lust: therefore etc.
12. Likewise, that which more disposes one to the noblest act is more praiseworthy: but virginity more disposes one to the act of contemplation, in which the greatest purity is required: therefore etc.
But against this it is objected: 1. Augustine, On the Good of Marriage: "The merit of continence is not unequal in John, who experienced no marriage, and in Abraham, who begot sons": therefore virginity is not to be preferred to marriage.
2. Likewise, if the opposite of this is better than the opposite of that, then this is simply better than that; but the opposite fecundity, namely that of the Virgin Mary, is better than virginity: therefore simply fecundity is better than virginity: therefore etc.
3. Furthermore, greater goods are to be preferred to middle and lesser goods—for the greater goods reside in virtues together with their habits, the middle goods reside in powers and faculties, and the least goods reside in corporeal things—but the habit of conjugal and widowed continence is in the mind, whereas virginity is in the flesh: therefore widowed and conjugal continence is to be preferred to virginal continence.
4. Furthermore, a good that one cannot lose unwillingly is better than one that one can lose unwillingly; but virginity is a good that one can lose unwillingly, as is evident in those violently assaulted: yet the habit of conjugal or widowed continence no one could lose unwillingly: therefore, etc.
5. Furthermore, a good that cannot be lost without sin is more to be chosen than one that can be lost without sin: but the habit of conjugal or widowed continence cannot be lost without sin; virginity, however, can be, as is evident in the case of a virgin who contracts marriage: therefore, etc.
6. Furthermore, "art and virtue concern what is difficult"; but it is more difficult for one who has experienced the act of the flesh to be continent than for one who has in no way experienced it: therefore the greater difficulty lies in conjugal or widowed continence than in virginal continence: therefore virginal continence is not to be preferred.
7. Furthermore, what renders one more like God is more praiseworthy: but generation renders one more like God, in whom there is supreme fecundity, than does virginity itself: therefore, etc.
8. Furthermore, what more conforms man to the state of innocence is more praiseworthy: but in the state of innocence there would not have been virginity, but generation and fecundity: therefore, etc.
9. Furthermore, "more goods are more to be chosen than fewer"; but in matrimony there are more goods than in virginity: for in matrimony there are fidelity, offspring, and the Sacrament, but in virginity only one: therefore conjugal continence is to be preferred to virginal continence.
10. Furthermore, what is more consonant with the perfection of nature is more praiseworthy; but generation and fecundity, that is, conjugal continence, is more consonant with the perfection of nature than virginity, because "each thing is perfect when it can produce something such as itself is": therefore, etc.
11. Furthermore, the species is preferred to the individual, and the universal to the particular: therefore what contributes to the perfection or conservation of the species is necessarily to be preferred to what contributes to the perfection or conservation of the individual: but conjugal continence contributes to the conservation of the species, whereas virginal continence contributes to the conservation of the individual or of a singular good: therefore, etc.
CONCLUSION.
Virginity denotes both the habit of continence, the state of virtue, and a preeminent comeliness; hence it is praiseworthy on account of the eminence of its virtue, beauty, and dignity, and takes precedence over the other species of chastity.
I respond: For the understanding of the foregoing, it should be noted that virginity, by the meaning of its name, denotes abstinence from all illicit intercourse and from all licit intercourse, with integrity remaining in body and in mind. For it is, as Augustine says, "virginity is the perpetual meditation upon incorruption in corruptible flesh." Insofar as virginity denotes abstinence from all illicit intercourse, it names a habit of virtue; insofar as it denotes abstinence from all licit intercourse, it names a state of virtue; insofar as it denotes integrity in body and in mind, it denotes a preeminent beauty.
By reason of the habit itself, therefore, virginity is praiseworthy with a praise common to conjugal modesty and widowed continence; by reason of the second, namely the state, it is more praiseworthy, and this with a special praise shared with widowed continence itself; by reason of the third, namely the superadded beauty, it is most praiseworthy, and this with a singular praise on account of its preeminent conformity to Christ the Bridegroom, to whom virginity makes one conformed with respect to the excellence of virtue, beauty, and dignity. — As to the excellence of virtue: because it attests to the highest virtue that someone in mortal flesh should lead a life not human but heavenly, should extinguish heat in fire, and in nature should surpass the force of nature: and this virginity does. Hence Jerome to the virgin Demetrias: "Just as in the furnace the fourth one, having the appearance as it were of the Son of man, tempered the immense flames and amid the conflagration of the raging furnace taught the flames to lose their heat and to threaten one thing to the eyes and present another to the touch: so also in the virginal soul, by the heavenly dew and the cold of fasting, youthful heat is extinguished and the manner of life of angels is obtained for the human body. Wherefore also the vessel of election says of virgins that he does not have a precept of the Lord, because it is against nature, nay rather beyond nature, not to exercise that for which you were born, to kill your root within you and to pluck only the fruits of virginity, to know no stranger's bed, to shudder at all intimacy with men, and to live in the body without the body."