If the adulteress and he who committed fornication with her are punished with death, clearly the command which says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife" speaks of the Gen- tiles, in order that anyone who, as the law directs, abstains from his neighbour's wife and from his sister may hear clearly from the Lord, "But I say unto you, Thou shalt not lust." The addition of the word "I," however, shows the stricter force of the commandment, and that Carpocrates fights against God, and Epiphanes likewise. The latter in the same notorious book, I mean Concerning Righteousness, writes in one passage as follows: "Consequently one must understand the saying 'Thou shalt not covet' as if the lawgiver was making a jest, to which he added the even more comic words 'thy neighbour's goods'. For he himself who gave the desire to sustain the race orders that it is to be suppressed, though he removes it from no other animals. And by the words 'thy neighbour's wife' he says something even more ludicrous, since he forces what should be common property to be treated as a private possession." These then are the doctrines of the excellent Carpocratians. These, so they say, and certain other enthusiasts for the same wickednesses, gather together for feasts (I would not call their meeting an Agape), men and women together. After they have sated their appetites (" on repletion Cypris, the goddess of love, enters,"21 as it is said), then they overturn the lamps and so extinguish the light that the shame of their adulterous "righteousness" is hidden, and they have intercourse where they will and with whom they will.23 After they have practiced community of use in this love-feast, they demand by daylight of whatever women they wish that they will be obedient to the law of Carpocrates-it would not be right to say the law of God. Such, I think, is the law that Carpocrates must have given for the copulations of dogs and pigs and goats. He seems to me to have misunderstood the saying of Plato in the Republic24 that the women of all are to be common. Plato means that the unmarried are common for those who wish to ask them, as also the theatre is open to the public for all who wish to see, but that when each one has chosen his wife, then the married woman is no longer common to all.

Thou supposest that it is a small Matter to commit Whoredom. But I pray consider thyself, whither dost thou send thy Tincture? Which, if it be true [o...

¶Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust...

And God tolerates their as one Body and its Members, and must aim (in the Fear of God) at the Getting of Children; or else the Wantonness [or Lust] in...

Whereby then you see here, that God has not willed the earthly Copulation. Man should have continued in the fiery Love which was in Paradise, and...

The folk that comes not with us have offended In that for which once Caesar, triumphing, Heard himself called in contumely, 'Queen.' Therefore they se...

Amen. Of the innocent and righteous Abel. The Gate of the Christian Church.

And to Gabriel said the Lord: 'Proceed against the bastards and the reprobates, and against the children of fornication: and destroy [the children of ...

It is a great and good thing not to love fornication, and not even to think of the wretched matter at all, for to think of it is death. It is not...

But the right Love and Fidelity (in the Fear of God) covers it before the Countenance of God; and (through the Sun of the Virgin) it is regenerated to...

They say unto Jesus, Master, Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?...

Then the chaste Spirit out of God in Adam (viz. the Virgin) said; My dear Love, and Companion; I plainly see thy Lust, thou wouldst fain copulate...

And do thou command the children of Israel that there be no uncleanness amongst them, for every one who lieth with his daughter-in-law or with his mot...

Is incumbent on all true believers.' Infidelity and hypocrisy are not ordained of God; And yet, if I acquiesce not, that again is wrong; What way of...

Whosoever putteth away his wife, and married another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth...

Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to...

I will bring thee out of this World into my Kingdom, there is mere pleasant Rest and Welfare; in my Kingdom is mere Joy, Honour, and Glory, there is n...

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to...

And let not an adulteress and no uncleanness be found in Israel throughout all the days of the generations of the earth ; for Israel is holy unto the ...

Now the chaste Virgin ought to be bent into the Heart of God, and to have no Imagination to lust after the Beauty of the comely young Man; but yet...

And ye shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin: and inasmuch as †they† delight themselves in †their† children,