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For since the passions of desire trouble them while they are still young, in the time before marriage you restrain them with exhortations, threats, fears, promises, and countless other things; but at the time of marriage, let no one put off (behold, I speak the words of a matchmaker) arranging your children in marriage. But I am not ashamed to say these things; since not even Paul was ashamed to say, Do not deprive one another, which seems to be more shameful than this; but he was not ashamed. For he paid attention not to the words, but to the deeds accomplished by the words. Therefore when the boy grows up, before military service, before the rest of his life, take thought for his marriage. And if he sees that you are quickly bringing him a bride, and that the time in between is short, he will be able to endure the flame; but if he perceives that you are being lazy and slow and are waiting until he acquires much income, and that only then you will make his wedding arrangements, despairing at the long delay, he will quickly slip into fornication. But alas! The root of evils here too is the love of money. For since no one cares how the boy may become temperate, how he may become decent, but all are mad for gold, for this reason no one makes this effort. Therefore I exhort you first to regulate their souls. For if he approaches the bride pure, if he sees her body alone, both the desire will be vehement, and the fear of God greater, and the marriage truly honorable, receiving pure and undefiled bodies, and the children born will be full of great blessing, and they will yield to one another, both the bridegroom and the bride; for since both are inexperienced in other habits, they will be subject to one another. But one who begins to be licentious when younger, and has had experience of the habits of prostitutes, will praise his wife up to the first and second evening; but after this he will quickly slip into that licentiousness, the dissolute and disorderly laughter, seeking words full of great servility, dissolute gestures, and all the other indecency, which it is not tolerable for us to speak of. But a free-born woman does not endure to provide these things, nor to defile herself. For she was betrothed to the man for the fellowship of life and for childbearing, not for indecency and laughter; so that she may keep the house, so that she may teach him also to be honorable, not so that she may provide him with kindling for fornication. But do the gestures of the prostitute seem pleasant to you? I know it too; for the Scripture says this: Honey drops from the lips of a prostitute. For I do all these things for this reason, so that you may not have experience of that honey; for it immediately turns to gall. And the Scripture says this very thing: She who for a season smoothes your throat, yet afterward you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharpened more than a two-edged sword. 62.427 What do you say? Bear with me as I speak something even unclean, so to speak, and am shameless, and blush not; for I do not suffer this willingly, but because of those who are not ashamed of the deeds, I myself am forced to say the words. And we see many such things also in the Scriptures. For Ezekiel also, reproaching Jerusalem, speaks many such things, and is not ashamed; and rightly so; for he did not say them from his own passion, but from concern. For though the words may seem to be unseemly, yet the purpose is not unseemly, but even exceedingly fitting for one wishing to cast out uncleanness from a soul; for unless the shameless soul hears the words themselves, it is not put to shame. For a physician too, wishing to remove a putrefaction, first puts his fingers into the wound, and unless he first soils the healing hands, he will not be able to heal. So I too, unless I first soil the mouth that is healing your passions, will not be able to heal you. Rather, neither is this soiled, nor are those hands. Why so? Because the uncleanness is not by nature, nor from our body, just as it is not there from his hands, but from others. But if

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Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔτι νέοις οὖσιν ἐνοχλεῖ τὰ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν, τὸν μὲν πρὸ τοῦ γάμου χρόνον παραινέσεσιν, ἀπειλαῖς, φόβοις, ἐπαγγελίαις, μυρίοις ἑτέροις αὐτοὺς κατέχετε· κατὰ δὲ τὸν τοῦ γάμου καιρὸν, μηδεὶς ἀναβαλλέσθω (ἰδοὺ νυμφευτρίας φθέγγομαι ῥήματα) ἁρμόζειν ὑμῖν τοὺς παῖδας. Ἀλλ' οὐκ αἰσχύνομαι ταῦτα λέγων· ἐπειδὴ μηδὲ Παῦλος ᾐσχύνθη λέγων, Μὴ ἀποστερεῖτε ἀλλήλους, ὃ τούτου δοκεῖ αἰσχυντηρότερον εἶναι· ἀλλ' οὐκ ᾐσχύνθη. Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς ῥήμασι προσεῖχεν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ῥημάτων κατορθουμένοις. Ὅταν οὖν ὁ παῖς αὐξηθῇ, πρὸ στρατείας, πρὸ τοῦ βίου τοῦ ἄλλου, τὰ περὶ τοῦ γάμου φρόντιζε. Κἂν ἐκεῖνος ἴδῃ ὅτι ταχέως αὐτῷ τὴν νύμφην ἄγεις, καὶ ὅτι βραχὺς ὁ καιρὸς ὁ ἐν μέσῳ, δυνήσεται διακαρτερῆσαι τὴν φλόγα· ἂν δὲ ἐννοήσῃ ὅτι ῥᾳθυμεῖς σὺ καὶ βραδύνεις καὶ περιμένεις, τότε προσόδους κτήσεται πολλὰς, καὶ τότε αὐτῷ τοὺς γάμους ποιήσεις, ἀπογνοὺς πρὸς τὸ μακρὸν τοῦ χρόνου ταχέως ὀλισθήσει πρὸς πορνείαν. Ἀλλ' οἴμοι! ἡ ῥίζα τῶν κακῶν καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἡ φιλαργυρία. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐδενὶ μέλει πῶς σώφρων, πῶς ἐπιεικὴς ὁ παῖς γένηται, ἀλλὰ μεμήνασι πρὸς τὸν χρυσὸν ἅπαντες, τούτου ἕνεκεν οὐδεὶς ταύτην ποιεῖται τὴν σπουδήν. ∆ιὸ παρακαλῶ πρῶτον αὐτῶν τὰς ψυχὰς ῥυθμίζειν. Ἂν γὰρ ἁγνῇ τῇ νύμφῃ προσέλθῃ, ἂν ἐκείνης μόνον ἴδῃ τὸ σῶμα, καὶ ὁ πόθος ἔσται σφοδρὸς, καὶ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβος μείζων, καὶ τίμιος ὁ γάμος ὄντως, καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμίαντα σώματα δεχόμενος, καὶ τὰ τικτόμενα πολλῆς εὐλογίας ἔσται μεστὰ, καὶ ἀλλήλοις εἴξουσιν, ὅ τε νυμφίος καὶ ἡ νύμφη· ἑτέρων γὰρ ἠθῶν ὄντες ἑκάτεροι ἄπειροι, ἀλλήλοις ὑποταγήσονται. Νεώτερος δὲ ἀρχόμενος ἀσελγαίνειν, καὶ πορνικῶν ἠθῶν πεῖραν λαβὼν, μέχρι μὲν τῆς πρώτης ἑσπέρας καὶ τῆς δευτέρας ἐπαινέσεται τὴν αὐτοῦ γυναῖκα· μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ταχέως πρὸς ἐκείνην ἐξολισθήσει τὴν ἀσέλγειαν, τὸν ἐκκεχυμένον καὶ ἄτακτον γέλωτα, ζητῶν τὰ πολλῆς ἀνελευθερίας γέμοντα ῥήματα, τὰ σχήματα τὰ διακεκλασμένα, τὴν ἄλλην ἀσχημοσύνην πᾶσαν, ἣν ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἀνεκτὸν εἰπεῖν. Ταῦτα δὲ ἡ ἐλευθέρα παρέχειν οὐκ ἀνέχεται, οὐδὲ καταῤῥυπαίνειν ἑαυτήν. Ἐπὶ κοινωνίᾳ γὰρ βίου καὶ παιδοποιίᾳ κατηγγυήθη τῷ ἀνδρὶ, οὐκ ἐπὶ ἀσχημοσύνῃ καὶ γέλωτι· ἵνα οἰκουρῇ, ἵνα παιδεύῃ κἀκεῖνον εἶναι σεμνὸν, οὐχ ἵνα αὐτῷ ὑπεκκαύματα παρέχῃ πορνείας. Ἀλλ' ἡδέα σοι φαίνεται τὰ τῆς πόρνης σχήματα; Οἶδα κἀγώ· καὶ γὰρ ἡ Γραφὴ τοῦτό φησι· Μέλι ἀποστάζει ἀπὸ χειλέων γυναικὸς πόρνης. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο ταῦτα πάντα ποιῶ, ὥστε μὴ τοῦ μέλιτος ἐκείνου πεῖραν λαβεῖν· εἰς γὰρ χολὴν εὐθέως τρέπεται. Καὶ τοῦτο αὐτό φησι καὶ ἡ Γραφή· Ἥτις πρὸς καιρὸν λιπαίνει σὸν φάρυγγα, ὕστερον μέντοι πικρότερον χολῆς εὑρήσεις, καὶ ἠκονημένον μᾶλλον μαχαίρας διστόμου. 62.427 Τί λέγεις; Ἀνάσχεσθέ μού τι καὶ ἀκάθαρτον, ὡς εἰπεῖν, φθεγγομένου, καὶ ἀπαναισχυντοῦντος, καὶ ἀπερυθριῶντος· οὐ γὰρ ἑκὼν τοῦτο πάσχω, ἀλλὰ διὰ τοὺς οὐκ αἰσχυνομένους τὰ πράγματα, τὰ ῥήματα αὐτὸς ἀναγκάζομαι λέγειν. Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς ὁρῶμεν τοιαῦτα. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ Ἰεζεκιὴλ ὀνειδίζων τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, πολλὰ τοιαῦτα φθέγγεται, καὶ οὐκ αἰσχύνεται· καὶ εἰκότως· οὐ γὰρ ἐξ οἰκείου πάθους αὐτὰ ἔλεγεν, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ κηδεμονίας. Κἂν γὰρ τὰ ῥήματα δοκῇ εἶναι ἀπρεπῆ, ἀλλ' ὁ σκοπὸς οὐκ ἀπρεπὴς, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα ἁρμόζων τῷ βουλομένῳ ἀκαθαρσίαν ἐκβαλεῖν ψυχῆς· ἂν γὰρ μὴ αὐτὰ τὰ ῥήματα ἀκούσῃ ἡ ἀναίσχυντος ψυχὴ, οὐκ ἐντρέπεται. Καὶ γὰρ ἰατρὸς βουλόμενος σηπεδόνα ἐκβαλεῖν, πρότερον τοὺς δακτύλους εἰς τὸ τραῦμα καθίησι, κἂν μὴ πρότερον μολύνῃ τὰς ἰωμένας χεῖρας, ἰάσασθαι οὐ δυνήσεται. Οὕτω κἀγὼ, ἂν μὴ πρότερον τὸ στόμα μολύνω τὸ ἰώμενον ὑμῶν τὰ πάθη, οὐ δυνήσομαι ὑμᾶς ἰάσασθαι. Μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ τοῦτο μολύνεται, οὔτε ἐκεῖναι αἱ χεῖρες. Τί δήποτε; Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ἀκαθαρσία φυσικὴ, οὐδὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἡμετέρου σώματος, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐκεῖ ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνου χειρῶν, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἀλλοτρίων. Εἰ δὲ