Chapter 20.—Consistency of Good
Men in All Outward Circumstances.
Let them believe, on the contrary,
that the apostles of our faith were neither puffed up when they
were honored by men, nor cast down when they were despised. And
certainly neither sort of temptation was wanting to those great
men. For they were both cried up by the loud praises of
believers, and cried down by the slanderous reports of their
persecutors. But the apostles used all these things, as occasion
served, and were not corrupted; and in the same way the saints of
old used their wives with reference to the necessities of their own
times, and were not in bondage to lust as they are who refuse to
believe these things.
30. For if they had been under
the influence of any such passion, they could never have restrained
themselves from implacable
hatred towards their sons, by
whom they knew that their wives and concubines were solicited and
debauched.