Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew/Chapter 7

Chapter 7.

Then Abiathar the priest offered gifts without end to the high priests, in order that he might obtain her as wife to his son.&#160; But Mary forbade them, saying:&#160; It cannot be that I should know a man, or that a man should know me.&#160; For all the priests and all her relations kept saying to her:&#160; God is worshipped in children and adored in posterity, as has always happened among the sons of Israel.&#160; But Mary answered and said unto them:&#160; God is worshipped in chastity, as is proved first of all. &#160; For before Abel there was none righteous among men, and he by his offerings pleased God, and was without mercy slain by him who displeased Him.&#160; Two crowns, therefore, he received&#8212;of oblation and of virginity, because in his flesh there was no pollution.&#160; Elias also, when he was in the flesh, was taken up in the flesh, because he kept his flesh unspotted.&#160; Now I, from my infancy in the temple of God, have learned that virginity can be sufficiently dear to God.&#160; And so, because I can offer what is dear to God, I have resolved in my heart that I should not know a man at all.