to the fear of evil, to prevent thee from falling, telling thee that “if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.”  I also added the assistance of my prayers, that, if possible, “thy whole body, and soul, and spirit might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” But all this labor I have spent in vain upon thee; and those sweet toils have ended in a bitter disappointment; and now I must again groan over her of whom I ought to have joy.  For lo, thou hast been beguiled by the serpent more bitterly than Eve; for not only has thy mind become defiled, but with it thy very body also, and what is still more horrible—­I dread to say it, but I cannot suppress it; for it is as fire burning and blazing in my bones, and I am dissolving in every part and cannot endure it—­thou hast taken the members of Christ, and made them the members of a harlot.  This is incomparably the greatest evil of all.  This is a new crime in the world, to which we may apply the words of the Prophet, “Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.  Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” For the virgin hath changed her glory, and now glories in her shame.  The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth trembleth very exceedingly.  Now, also, the Lord says, the virgin hath committed two evils, she hath forsaken me, the true and holy bridegroom of sanctified souls, and hath fled to an impious and lawless polluter of the body, and corrupter of the soul.  She hath turned away from God her Savior, and hath yielded her members servants to imparity and iniquity; she bath forgotten me, and gone after her lover, by whom she shall not profit.

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of the Lord’s virgins to offend.  What impudent servant ever carried his insane audacity so far as to fling himself upon the couch of his lord?  Or what robber has ever become so madly hardened as to lay hands upon the very offerings devoted to God?—­but here it is not inanimate vessels, but living bodies, inhabited by souls made in the image of God.  Since the beginning of the world was any one ever heard of, who dared, in the midst of a great city, in broad midday, to deface the likeness of a king by inscribing upon it the forms of filthy swine?  He that despises human nuptials dies without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and defiled his espoused wife, and done despite to the spirit of virginity? . . .