To Amun

All the things God has made are good and pure; for the Word of God made nothing useless or impure. For “we are a fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved,” according to the Apostle. But since the darts of the devil are various and manifold, and he contrives that those of simpler mind be troubled, and hinders the brothers from their customary exercise, sowing in them thoughts of impurity and defilement, come, let us briefly drive away the deceit of the evil one by the grace of our Savior, and strengthen the mind of the simpler. For “to the pure all things are pure; but to the impure both the conscience and all things are defiled.” And I wonder at the sophistry of the devil, that, being himself corruption and ruin, he suggests thoughts that seem to be of purity, though what happens is rather a snare than a testing. For, as I said before, so as to distract the ascetics from their customary and saving meditation, and to seem to prevail, he stirs up such buzzings as bring nothing useful to life, but only empty questions and idle talk, which one must avoid. For tell me, beloved and most reverent, what sin or impurity does a natural emission have? It is as if someone wished to make a charge also of the mucus discharged from the nostrils and the spittle from the mouth; and we can mention more than these, the excretions of the belly, which are necessary to the living creature for life. Further, if we believe that man is the work of God's hands, according to the divine Scriptures, how could a defiled work come from a pure power? And if we are God's offspring, according to the divine Acts of the Apostles, we have nothing impure in ourselves. For we are defiled only when we commit the foulest sin. But when some natural emission happens involuntarily, then we endure this too, as we said before, along with the other things, by the necessity of nature. But since those who wish only to contradict what is rightly said, or rather what has been made by God, bring forward a saying of the Gospel as well, “It is not what goes in that defiles a man, but what comes out,” we must necessarily refute this unreason of theirs too; for we would not call it an inquiry. First, being unstable, they wrest the Scriptures to suit their own ignorance. But the divine oracle runs thus: when some, like these men, were again in doubt about foods, the Lord himself, dispelling their ignorance, or rather exposing their deceit, says, “Not what goes in defiles a man, but what comes out”; then he adds from where it comes out: from the heart. For he knows that there are the evil treasures of profane thoughts and of the other sins. And the Apostle, having been taught it, says more briefly, “Food will not commend us to God.” And one might well say now, “A natural emission will not bring us before God for punishment.” Perhaps the physicians' disciples too (so that these men may be put to shame even by those outside) will speak in defense of this, that certain necessary passages have been given to the living creature for sending out the surplus of each of our members as it is nourished: such as the superfluities of the head, the hair and the watery discharges from the head, and the evacuations of the belly, and so too that superfluity of the seminal ducts. What sin is there, then, before God, most God-loving elder, if the Master who formed the living creature himself willed and made these members to have such passages? But since we must anticipate the objections of the wicked (for they might say, “Then the actual use is not a sin either, if the organs were fashioned by the Creator”), let us stop them with a question, saying: What use do you mean? The lawful one, which God also permitted when he said, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth,” and which the Apostle approved when he said, “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled”? Or the common one, carried out secretly and adulterously? For in the other things that happen in life too we shall find that differences arise according to circumstance. For example, it is not lawful to kill; but in war to destroy the enemy is both lawful and worthy of praise. So those who excel in war are deemed worthy of great honors, and monuments are set up to them proclaiming their exploits. So the same thing in one respect and at one time is not lawful, but in another respect and at the right time is allowed and permitted. The same reasoning applies to intercourse: blessed is he who, in youth, having a free yoke, uses nature for the begetting of children; but if for licentiousness, the punishment written in the Apostle awaits the sexually immoral and adulterers. For there are two ways in life concerning these things, the one more moderate and ordinary, I mean marriage, and the other angelic and unsurpassable, virginity. If someone chooses the worldly way, that is, marriage, he has no blame, but he will not receive such great gifts; yet he will receive, since he too bears fruit, the thirtyfold. But if someone embraces the pure and supramundane way, though the road is rough at first and hard to accomplish, yet it has more wonderful gifts; for it has brought forth the perfect fruit, the hundredfold. So their impure and wicked questions have had their own solutions, settled long ago by the divine Scriptures. Strengthen, then, father, the flocks under you, exhorting them from the apostolic writings, encouraging them from the Gospels, counseling them from the Psalms, saying, “Give me life according to your word”; and his word is to serve him from a pure heart. For the same prophet, knowing this, as if interpreting himself, says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God,” lest filthy thoughts …