XVIII.  What more?  Are you living in Virginity?  Be sealed by this purification; make this the sharer and companion of your life.  Let this direct your life, your words, every member, every movement, every sense.  Honour it, that it may honour you; that it may give to your head a crown of graces, and with a crown of delights may shield you.52    Ecclus. xxxii. 3.  Art thou bound by wedlock?  Be bound also by the Seal; make it dwell with you as a guardian of your continence, safer than any number of eunuchs or of doorkeepers.  Art thou not yet wedded to flesh?  Fear not this consecration; thou art pure even after marriage.  I will take the risk of that.  I will join you in wedlock.  I will dress the bride.  We do not dishonour marriage because we give a higher honour to virginity.  I will imitate Christ, the pure Grooms-man and Bridegroom, as He both wrought a miracle at a wedding, and honours wedlock with His Presence.53    John ii. 1–11.  Only let marriage be pure and unmingled with filthy lusts.  This only I ask; receive safety from the Gift, and give to the Gift the oblation of chastity in its due season, when the fixed time of prayer comes round, and that which is more precious than business.  And do this by common consent and approval.  For we do not command, we exhort; and we would receive something of you for your own profit, and the common security of you both.  And in one word, there is no state of life and no occupation to which Baptism is not profitable.  You who are a free man,54    ἐν ἐξουσιᾳ evidently means Tui juris—your own master. be curbed by it; you who are in slavery, be made of equal rank; you who are in grief, receive comfort; let the gladsome be disciplined; the poor receive riches that cannot be taken away; the rich be made capable of being good stewards of their possessions.  Do not play tricks or lay plots against your own salvation.  For even if we can delude others we cannot delude ourselves.  And so to play against oneself is very dangerous and foolish.

ΙΗʹ. Τί ἔτι; Παρθενίαν ἀσκεῖς; Τῇ καθάρσει σφραγίσθητι: ταύτην ποίησαι τοῦ βίου κοινωνὸν, καὶ συνόμιλον: αὕτη ῥυθμιζέτω σοι, καὶ βίον, καὶ λόγον, πᾶν μέλος, πᾶν κίνημα, πᾶσαν αἴσθησιν. Τίμησον αὐτὴν, ἵνα σε κοσμήσῃ, ἵνα δῷ τῇ σῇ κεφαλῇ στέφανον χαρίτων, στεφάνῳ δὲ τρυφῆς ὑπερασπίσῃ σου. Δέδεσαι γάμῳ; Καὶ τῇ σφραγῖδι συνδέθητι: ταύτην συνοίκισον σεαυτῷ τῆς σωφροσύνης φύλακα: πόσων εὐνούχων οἴει, πόσων θυρωρῶν οὖσαν ἀσφαλεστέραν; Οὔπω σαρκὶ συνεζεύχθης; μὴ φοβηθῇς τὴν τελείωσιν. Καθαρὸς εἶ, καὶ μετὰ τὸν γάμον: ἐμὸς ὁ κίνδυνος, ἐγὼ τούτου συναρμοστὴς, ἐγὼ νυμφοστόλος. Οὐ γὰρ, ἐπεὶ ἡ παρθενία τιμιωτέρα, ἐν τοῖς ἀτίμοις ὁ γάμος. Μιμήσομαι Χριστὸν, τὸν καθαρὸν νυμφαγωγὸν, καὶ νυμφίον, ὃς καὶ θαυματουργεῖ γάμῳ, καὶ τιμᾷ συζυγίαν τῇ παρουσίᾳ. Μόνον ἔστω γάμος καθαρὸς, καὶ πόθοις ῥυπαροῖς ἀνεπίμικτος. Ἓν αἰτῶ μόνον: λάβε παρὰ τοῦ δώρου τὴν ἀσφάλειαν, καὶ δὸς τῷ δώρῳ τὴν ἁγνείαν κατὰ καιρὸν, ἕως εὐχῆς πρόκειται προθεσμία, καὶ ἀσχολίας τιμιωτέρα, καὶ ταύτην ἐκ κοινῆς ὁμολογίας καὶ συναινέσεως. Οὐ γὰρ νομοθετοῦμεν, ἀλλὰ παραινοῦμεν, καὶ τῶν σῶν τι λαβεῖν ὑπὲρ σοῦ βουλόμεθα, καὶ τῆς κοινῆς ὑμῶν ἀσφαλείας ἕνεκεν. Ἐν κεφαλαίῳ δὲ εἰπεῖν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐ βίος, οὐκ ἐπιτήδευμα, ᾧ μὴ τοῦτο λυσιτελέστερον. Δέξαι, ὁ ἐν ἐξουσίᾳ, τὸν χαλινόν: ὁ ἐν δουλείᾳ, τὴν ἰσοτιμίαν: ὁ ἀθυμῶν, τὴν παραμυθίαν: ὁ ἐν εὐθυμίᾳ, τὴν παιδαγωγίαν, ὁ πένης, τὸν ἄσυλον πλοῦτον: ὁ εὐπορῶν, τὴν καλὴν ὧν ἔχεις οἰκονομίαν. Μηδὲν σοφίσῃ, μηδὲν τεχνάσῃ κατὰ τῆς σεαυτοῦ σωτηρίας. Κἂν γὰρ τοὺς ἄλλους παραλογιζώμεθα, ἡμᾶς γε αὐτοὺς οὐ δυνησόμεθα: ὡς τό γε καθ' ἑαυτοῦ παίζειν, λίαν ἐπισφαλὲς καὶ ἀνόητον.