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. Ps. cvi. 39. Do you see an
impudent act of fornication? And again, They committed adultery
in the wood. 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.