Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XIII/Chapter 19

Chapter XIX.&#8212;Peter&#8217;s Speech Ended.

&#8220;God is my witness:&#160; one adultery is as bad as many murders; and what is terrible in it is this, that the fearfulness and impiety of its murders are not seen.&#160; For, when blood is shed, the dead body remains lying, and all are struck by the terrible nature of the occurrence.&#160; But the murders of the soul caused by adultery, though they are more frightful, yet, since they are not seen by men, do not make the daring a whit less eager in their impulse.&#160; Know, O man, whose breath it is that thou hast to keep thee in life, and thou shalt not wish that it be polluted.&#160; By adultery alone is the breath of God polluted.&#160; And therefore it drags him who has polluted it into the fire; for it hastens to deliver up its insulter to everlasting punishment.&#8221;