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not only ridiculous, but also to be shunned. For tell me, if someone went about carrying a dead image, would not all have leaped away? would not all have fled? Consider this now as well. For you go about carrying a spectacle much more grievous than this, a soul deadened by sins, a soul paralyzed. Who then will pity such a person? For when you do not pity your own soul, how will another pity one who is so cruel and hostile and an enemy to himself? If someone, where you slept and dined, buried a dead body, what would you not have done? but you bury a dead soul, not where you have your meal, nor where you sleep, but in the members of Christ, and you do not fear that countless thunderbolts and lightnings might be brought down from above upon your head? And how do you dare to enter the churches of God, and the holy temples, reeking within of such abomination? For if someone, carrying a dead person into the palace and burying it, would have paid the ultimate penalty; you who enter the sacred precincts, and fill the house with such a foul stench, consider how great a punishment you will undergo. Imitate that harlot, who anointed the feet of Christ with ointment, and filled the whole house with fragrance; whereas you do the opposite to the house. For what if you do not perceive the foul smell? For this is especially the grievous thing about the disease; for which reason you are incurably sick, and in a worse state than those whose bodies are maimed and reeking. For that disease provides a sensation to those who are afflicted, and has no blame, but is even worthy of pity; but this one of hatred and punishment. Since then it is more grievous in this way also, and in that the one who is sick does not perceive it as he ought, come, give yourself over to my discourse, that I may teach you clearly its ruinous nature. First, hear what you say as you sing the psalm: Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you. When therefore not incense, but a foul-smelling smoke rises from you and your deeds, what penalty are you not worthy to undergo? What then is the foul-smelling smoke? Many enter looking around at the beauty of women; others examining the youthful bloom of boys. Then are you not amazed how thunderbolts 58.677 are not brought down, and everything is torn up from its foundations? For the things that happen are indeed worthy of thunderbolts and Gehenna; but God, being long-suffering and of great mercy, holds back his anger for a time, calling you to repentance and correction. What are you doing, man? You scrutinize the beauty of women, and you do not shudder at so insulting the temple of God? Does the church seem to you to be a brothel, and more dishonorable than the marketplace? For in the marketplace you fear and are ashamed to be seen scrutinizing a woman; but in the temple of God, while God himself is conversing with you and threatening you concerning these things, you fornicate and commit adultery at the very time when you hear that you should not do these things; and you do not shudder, nor are you beside yourself? These things the theaters of licentiousness teach you, the plague that is hard to get rid of, the poisonous drugs, the grievous snares of the dissolute, the destruction with pleasure of the intemperate. For this reason the prophet also reproaching said: Your eyes are not, nor is your heart, good. It is better for such people to be blind; it is better to be sick, than to misuse one's eyes for these things. Therefore, you ought to have within you the wall that separates you from the women; but since you are not willing, the Fathers thought it necessary to partition you off at least with these wooden planks; as I for my part hear from the elders, that in the old days not even these partitions existed. For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. And in the time of the apostles too, men and women were together. For the men were men, and the women were women; but now it is all the opposite, the women have thrust themselves into the manners of courtesans; while the men are in no better condition than raging horses. Have you not heard, that men and women were gathered together in the upper room, and that assembly was worthy of the heavens? And very rightly so. For at that time women also practiced much philosophy, and men gravity and self-control. Hear at least the seller of purple saying: If you have judged me to be worthy of the Lord, come in and stay