XIX. For it is not only bodily sin which is called fornication and adultery, but any sin you have committed, and especially transgression against that which is divine. Perhaps you ask how we can prove this:—They went a whoring, it says, with their own inventions.27 Ps. cvi. 39. Do you see an impudent act of fornication? And again, They committed adultery in the wood.28 Jer. iii. 9 (Libere). See you a kind of adulterous religion? Do not then commit spiritual adultery, while keeping your bodies chaste. Do not shew that it is unwillingly you are chaste in body, by not being chaste where you can commit fornication. Why have you done your impiety? Why are you hurried to vice, so that it is all one to call a man a Eunuch or a villain? Place yourselves on the side of men, and, even though so late, have some manly thoughts. Avoid the women’s apartments; do not let the disgrace of proclamation be added to the disgrace of the name. Would you have us persevere a little longer in this discourse, or are you tired with what we have said? Nay, by what follows let even the eunuchs be honoured. For the word is one of praise.
ΙΘʹ. Οὐ γὰρ ἡ περὶ σῶμα μόνον ἁμαρτία, πορνεία καὶ μοιχεία λέγεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁτιοῦν ἥμαρτες, καὶ μάλιστα ἡ περὶ τὸ θεῖον παρανομία. Πόθεν παράσχωμεν; τοῦτο τυχὸν ἀπαιτεῖς: Ἐπόρνευσαν, φησὶν, ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν αὐτῶν. Ὁρᾷς καὶ πρᾶξιν πορνείας ἀναίσχυντον; Καὶ, Ἐμοιχῶντο, φησὶν, ἐν τῷ ξύλῳ. Ὁρᾷς καὶ θρησκείαν τινὰ μοιχαλίδα; Μὴ τοίνυν μοιχεύσῃς κατὰ ψυχὴν, σωφρονῶν τῷ σώματι: μὴ δείξεις τὸ ἀκουσίως τῇ σαρκὶ σωφρονεῖν ἐξ ὧν οὐ σωφρονεῖς, ἐν οἷς πορνεύειν δυνατὸς εἶ. Τί πεποιήκατε τὴν ἀσέβειαν ὑμετέραν; Τί πάντες ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον φέρεσθε, ὡς ταυτὸν εἶναι λοιπὸν, ἢ εὐνοῦχον, ἢ ἀσεβῆ καλεῖσθαι; Γένεσθε μετὰ τῶν ἀνδρῶν, ὀψὲ γοῦν ἀνδρικόν τι φρονήσατε, φύγετε τὰς γυναικωνίτιδας, μὴ προστεθήτω τῷ αἰσχρῷ τοῦ ὀνόματος τὸ αἰσχρὸν τοῦ κηρύγματος. Βούλεσθε μικρὸν ἔτι τῷ λόγῳ προσκαρτηρήσωμεν; Ἢ κόρον ἔχει τὰ εἰρημένα; Πλὴν τιμηθήτωσαν καὶ οἱ εὐνοῦχος τοῖς ἑξῆς: ἐπαινετὸς γὰρ ὁ λόγος.