Chapter XII

Chapter XII.—Importance of Chastity.

“But this kind of chastity is also to be observed, that sexual intercourse must not take place heedlessly and for the sake of mere pleasure, but for the sake of begetting children. ⁷⁸⁶   And since this observance is found even amongst some of the lower animals, it were a shame if it be not observed by men, reasonable, and worshipping God.  But there is this further reason why chastity should be observed by those who hold the true worship of God, in those forms of it of which we have spoken, and others of like sort, that it is observed strictly even amongst those p. 156 who are still held by the devil in error, for even amongst them there is in some degree the observance of chastity.  What then?  Will you not observe, now that you are reformed, what you observed when you were in error?

Footnotes

155:786

[This chapter is more specific in its statements than Homily XI. 30, to which it has a general resemblance.—R.]