To Florus 1.66

You tried to make this union seem so accursed that you would have us understand that Christ chose to be born of a virgin mother, not for the splendor of the sign, but to condemn the union of the sexes (compare Matthew 1:18–23; Luke 1:34–35). What could anyone ever have said more wickedly or shamelessly than this? You distinguished two apparent kings contending for the possession of humanity, and their two kingdoms, by saying that whatever marriage produced belonged to the devil, while only what the Virgin bore belonged to God. What else does this do but represent the one who made the Virgin fruitful as utterly impoverished by the smallness of his share, and deny that he is the Creator of human beings who come from marriage? Let the careful reader retain the written acknowledgment supplied by your own words, then, and know that you, a faithful disciple of the Manichaeans and leader of the advocates of inherited sin, have condemned nothing other than the union of lawful marriage.