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ROM. 1. 26, 27.
"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even
their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature:and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one towards another."
ALL these affections then were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after
males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more
dishonored, than the body in diseases. But behold how here too, as
in the case of the doctrines, he deprives them of excuse, by saying of
the women, that "they changed the natural use." For no one, he
means, can say that it was by being hindered of legitimate intercourse
that they came to this pass, or that it was from having no means to
fulfil their desire that they were driven into this monstrous
insaneness. For the changing implies possession. Which also when
discoursing upon the doctrines he said, "They changed the truth of
God for a lie." And with regard to the men again, he shows the same
thing by saying, "Leaving the natural use of the woman." And in a
like way with those, these he also puts out of all means of defending
themselves by charging them not only that they had the means of
gratification, and left that which they had, and went after another,
but that having dishonored that which was natural, they ran after that
which was contrary to nature. But that which is contrary to nature
hath in it an irksomeness and displeasingness, so that they could not
fairly allege even pleasure. For genuine pleasure is that which is
according to nature. But when God hath left one, then all things are
turned upside down. And thus not only was their doctrine Satanical,
but their life too was diabolical. Now when he was discoursing of
their doctrines, he put before them the world and man's
understanding, telling them that, by the judgment afforded them by
God, they might through the things which are seen, have been led as
by the hand to the Creator, and then by not willing to do so, they
remained inexcusable. Here in the place of the world he sets the
pleasure according to nature, which they would have enjoyed with more
sense of security and greater glad-heartedness, and so have been far
removed from shameful deeds. But they would not; whence they are
quite out of the pale of pardon, and have done an insult to nature
itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even
the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more sense
of shame than men. And here too the judgment of Paul is worthy of
admiration, how having fallen upon two opposite matters he accomplishes
them both with all exactness. For he wished both to speak chastely and
to sting the hearer. Now both these things were not in his power to
do, but one hindered the other. For if you speak chastely you shall
not be able to bear hard upon the hearer. But if you are minded to
touch him to the quick, you are forced to lay the naked facts before
him in plain terms. But his discreet and holy soul was able to do both
with exactness, and by naming nature has at once given additional force
to his accusation, and also used this as a sort of veil, to keep the
chasteness of his description. And next, having reproached the women
first, he goes on to the men also, and says, "And likewise also the
men leaving the natural use of the woman." Which is an evident proof
of the last degree of corruptness, when both sexes are abandoned, and
both he that was ordained to be the instructor of the woman, and she
who was bid to become an helpmate to the man, work the deeds of enemies
against one another. And reflect too how significantly he uses his
words. For he does not say that they were enamoured of, and lusted
after one another, but, "they burned in their lust one toward
another." You see that the whole of desire comes of an exorbitancy
which endureth not to abide within its proper limits. For everything
which transgresseth the laws by God appointed, lusteth after monstrous
things and not those which be customary. For as many oftentimes having
left the desire of food get to feed upon earth and small stones, and
others being possessed by excessive thirst often long even for mire,
thus these also ran into this ebullition of lawless love. But if you
say, and whence came this intensity of lust? It was from the
desertion of God: and whence is the desertion of God? from the
lawlessness of them that left Him; "men with men working that which
is unseemly." Do not, he means, because you have heard that they
burned, suppose that the evil was only in desire. For the greater
part of it came of their luxuriousness, which also kindled into flame
their lust. And this is why he did not say being swept along or being
overtaken, an expression he uses elsewhere; but what? working. They
made a business of the sin, and not only a business, but even one
zealously followed up. And he called it not lust, but that which is
unseemly, and that properly? For they both dishonored nature, and
trampled on the laws. And see the great confusion which fell out on
both side. For not only was the head turned downwards but the feet too
were upwards, and they became enemies to themselves and to one
another, bringing in a pernicious kind of strife, and one even more
lawless than any civil war, and one rife in divisions, and of varied
form. For they divided this into four new, and lawless kinds. Since
(3 Mss. whence) this war was not twofold or threefold, but even
fourfold. Consider then. It was meet, that the twain should he
one, I mean the woman and the man. For "the twain," it says,
"shall be one flesh."
(Gen. ii. 24.) But this the desire of intercourse effected,
and united the sexes to one another. This desire the devil having
taken away, and having turned the course thereof into another fashion,
he thus sundered the sexes from one another, and made the one to become
two parts in opposition to the law of God. For it says, "the two
shall be one flesh;" but he divided the one flesh into two: here then
is one war. Again, these same two parts he provoked to war both
against themselves and against one another. For even women again
abused women, and not men only. And the men stood against one
another, and against the female sex, as happens in a battle by night.
You see a second and third war, and a fourth and fifth; there is also
another, for beside what have been mentioned they also behaved
lawlessly against nature itself. For when the Devil saw that this
desire it is, principally, which draws the sexes together, he was
bent on cutting through the tie, so as to destroy the race, not only
by their not copulating lawfully, but also by their being stirred up to
war, and in sedition against one another.
"And receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was
meet." See how he goes again to the fountain head of the evil,
namely, the impiety that comes of their doctrines, and this he says is
a reward of that lawlessness. For since in speaking of hell and
punishment, it seemed he would not at present be credible to the
ungodly and deliberate choosers of such a life, but even scorned, he
shows that the punishment was in this pleasure itself. (So Plato
Theaet. p. 176, 7.) But if they perceive it not, but are
still pleased, be not amazed. For even they that are mad, and are
afflicted with phrenzy (cf. Soph. Aj. 265-277) while doing
themselves much injury and making themselves such objects of
compassion, that others weep over them themselves smile and revel over
what has happened. Yet we do not only for this not say that they are
quit of punishment, but for this very reason are under a more grievous
vengeance, in that they are unconscious of the plight they are in.
For it is not the disordered but those who are sound whose votes one
has to gain Yet of old the matter seemed even to be a law, and a
certain law-giver among them bade the domestic slaves neither to use
unguents when dry (i.e. except in bathing) nor to keep youths,
giving the free this place of honor, or rather of shamefulness. Yet
they, however, did not think the thing shameful, but as being a grand
privilege, and one too great for slaves, the Athenian people, the
wisest of people, and Solon who is so great amongst them, permitted
it to the free alone. And sundry other books of the philosophers may
one see full of this disease. But we do not therefore say that the
thing was made lawful, but that they who received this law were
pitiable, and objects for many tears. For these are treated in the
same way as women that play the whore. Or rather their plight is more
miserable. For in the case of the one the intercourse, even if
lawless, is yet according to nature: but this is contrary both to law
and nature. For even if there were no hell, and no punishment had
been threatened, this were worse than any punishment. Yet if you say
"they found pleasure in it," you tell me what adds to the vengeance.
For suppose I were to see a person running naked, with his body all
besmeared with mire, and yet not covering himself, but exulting in
it, I should not rejoice with him, but should rather bewail that he
did not even perceive that he was doing shamefully. But that I may
show the atrocity in a yet clearer light, bear with me in one more
example. Now if any one condemned a virgin to live in close dens
(qalomeuomenhn), and to have intercourse with unreasoning brutes,
and then she was pleased with such intercourse, would she not for this
be especially a worthy object of tears, as being unable to be freed
from this misery owing to her not even perceiving the misery? It is
plain surely to every one. But if that were a grievous thing, neither
is this less so than that. For to be insulted by one's own kinsmen is
more piteous than to be so by strangers: these I say (5 Mss. "I
consider") are even worse than murderers: since to die even is better
than to live under such insolency. For the murderer dissevers the soul
from the body, but this man ruins the soul with the body. And name
what sin you will, none will you mention equal to this lawlessness.
And if they that suffer such things perceived them, they would accept
ten thousand deaths so they might not suffer this evil. For there is
not, there surely is not, a more grievous evil than this insolent
dealing. For if when discoursing about fornication Paul said, that
"Every sin which a man doeth is without the body, but he that
committeth fornication sinneth against his own body" (1 Cor. vi.
18); what shall we say of this madness, which is so much worse than
fornication as cannot even be expressed? For I should not only say
that thou hast become a woman, but that thou hast lost thy manhood,
and hast neither changed into that nature nor kept that which thou
haddest, but thou hast been a traitor to both of them at once, and
deserving both of men and women to be driven out and stoned, as having
wronged either sex. And that thou mayest learn what the real force of
this is, if any one were to come and assure you that he would make you
a dog instead of being a man, would you not flee from him as a plague?
But, lo! thou hast not made thyself a dog out of a man, but an
animal more disgraceful than this. For this is useful unto service,
but he that hath thus given himself up is serviceable for nothing. Or
again, if any one threatened to make men travail and be brought to
bed, should we not be filled with indignation? But lo! now they that
have run into this fury have done more grievously by themselves. For
it is not the same thing to change into the nature of women, as to
continue a man and yet to have become a woman; or rather neither this
nor that. But if you would know the enormity of the evil from other
grounds, ask on what account the law-givers punish them that make men
eunuchs, and you will see that it is absolutely for no other reason
than because they mutilate nature. And yet the injustice they do is
nothing to this. For there have been those that were mutilated and
were in many cases useful after their mutilation. But nothing can
there be more worthless than a man who has pandered himself. For not
the soul only, but the body also of one who hath been so treated, is
disgraced, and deserves to be driven out everywhere. How many hells
shall be enough for such? But if thou scoffest at hearing of hell and
believest not that fire, remember Sodom. For we have seen surely we
have seen, even in this present life, a semblance of hell. For since
many would utterly disbelieve the things to come after the
resurrection, hearing now of an unquenchable fire, God brings them to
a right mind by things present. For such is the burning of Sodom,
and that conflagration! And they know it well that have been at the
place, and have seen with their eves that scourge divinely sent, and
the effect of the lightnings from above. (Jude 7.) Consider how
great is that sin, to have forced hell to appear even before its time!
For whereas many thought scorn of His words, by His deeds did God
show them the image thereof in a certain novel way. For that rain was
unwonted, for that the intercourse was contrary to nature, and it
deluged the land, since lust had done so with their souls. Wherefore
also the rain was the opposite of the customary rain. Now not only did
it fail to stir up the womb of the earth to the production of fruits,
but made it even useless for the reception of seed. For such was also
the intercourse of the men, making a body of this sort more worthless
than the very land of Sodom. And what is there more detestable than a
man who hath pandered himself, or what more execrable? Oh, what
madness! Oh, what distraction! Whence came this lust lewdly
revelling and making man's nature all that enemies could? or even
worse than that, by as much as the soul is better than the body. Oh,
ye that were more senseless than irrational creatures, and more
shameless than dogs! for in no case does such intercourse take place
with them, but nature acknowledgeth her own limits. But ye have even
made our race dishonored below things irrational, by such indignities
inflicted upon and by each other. Whence then were these evils born?
Of luxury; of not knowing God. For so soon as any have cast out the
fear of Him, all that is good straightway goes to ruin.
Now, that this may not happen, let us keep clear before our eyes the
fear of God. For nothing, surely nothing, so ruins a man as to slip
from this anchor, as nothing saves so much as continually looking
thereto. For if by having a man before our eyes we feel more backward
at doing sins, and often even through feeling abashed at servants of a
better stamp we keep from doing anything amiss, consider what safety we
shall enjoy by having God before our eyes! For in no case will the
Devil attack us when so conditioned, in that he would be laboring
without profit. But should he see us wandering abroad, and going
about without a bridle, by getting a beginning h@ ourselves he will be
able to drive us off afterwards any whither. And as it happens with
thoughtless servants at market, who leave the needful services which
their masters have entrusted to them, and rivet themselves at a mere
haphazard to those who fall in their way, and waste out their leisure
there; this also we undergo when we depart from the commandments of
God. For we presently get standing on, admiring riches, and beauty
of person, and the other things which we have no business with, just
as those servants attend to the beggars that do jugglers' feats, and
then, arriving too late, have to be grievously beaten at home. And
many pass the road set before them through following others, who are
behaving in the same unseemly way. But let not us so do. For we have
been sent to dispatch many affairs that are urgent. And if we leave
those, and stand gaping at these useless things, all our time will be
wasted in vain and to no profit, and we shall suffer the extreme of
punishment. For if you wish yourself to be busy, you have whereat you
ought to wonder, and to gape all your days, things which are no
subject for laughter, but for wondering and manifold praises. As he
that admires things ridiculous, will himself often be such, and even
worse than he that occasioneth the laughter. And that you may not fall
into this, spring away from it forthwith. For why is it, pray, that
you stand gaping and fluttering at sight of riches? What do you see so
wonderful, and able to fix your eyes upon them? these gold-harnessed
horses, these lackeys, partly savages, and partly eunuchs, and
costly raiment, and the soul that is getting utterly soft in all this,
and the haughty brow, and the bustlings, and the noise? And wherein
do these things deserve wonder? what are they better than the beggars
that dance and pipe in the market-place? For these too being taken
with a sore famine of virtue, dance a dance more ridiculous than
theirs, led and carried round at one time to costly tables, at another
to the lodging of prostitute women, and at another to a swarm of
flatterers and a host of hangers-on. But if they do wear gold, this
is why they are the most pitiable, because the things which are nothing
to them, are most the subject of their eager desire. Do not now, I
pray, look at their raiment, but open their soul, and consider if it
is not full of countless wounds, and clad with rags, and destitute,
and defenceless! What then is the use of this madness of shows? for
it were much better to be poor and living in virtue, than to be a king
with wickedness; since the poor man in himself enjoys all the delights
of the soul, and doff not even perceive his outward poverty for his
inward riches. But the king, luxurious in those things which do not
at all belong to him, is punished in those things which are his most
real concern, even the soul, the thoughts, and the conscience, which
are to go away with him to the other world. Since then we know these
things, let us lay aside the gilded raiment, let us take up virtue and
the pleasure which comes thereof. For so, both here and hereafter,
shall we come to enjoy great delights, through the grace and love
towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom, and with
Whom, be glory t.o the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever
and ever. Amen.
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