dulterers, etc.

110. I mention this to the end that no one may believe that sex or the
marriage estate in themselves are to blame. It is chiefly
transgression of God's commandments and disobedience to parents which
are condemned. Owing to absence of fellowship between the Cainites and
the true Church, pious parents desired also social separation from the
Cainites, for fear they might be perverted by the manners of ungodly
wives. But God's command being neglected, and the authority of parents
despised, the younger generation lapsed into the passions of
concupiscence and vehemence. In this way the honor of sex and the
dignity of matrimony are conserved: accusation is brought solely
against the unrighteousness which first departs from God and then
manifests itself in injuring the saints.

111. This is the teaching of the words: "The sons of God saw the
daughters of men that they were fair." Why did they not see the
daughters of God and desire those in the Church and possess the
promise of the seed? Are they not convicted of contempt for the
sisters of their own generation, that is the true Church, and of
mingling with the carnal and impious generation of Cain? They despise
the simplicity and reserve of their sisters and prefer the smiles, the
dress, the wiles of the daughters of Cain; the latter they crave and
cultivate, the former they treat either with neglect or dishonor.

112. With such eyes as Eve viewed the apples when she fell into sin,
the sons of God viewed the daughters of men. Eve had seen the
forbidden tree before that, but with eyes of faith looking back to
God's commandment; for that reason she did not crave, but rather she
fled from the same. When, however, the eyes of faith were dimmed and
she beheld the tree solely with carnal eyes, she stretched out her
hand with desire and invited also Adam, her husband.

113. Likewise the sons of the patriarchs had seen long before that the
daughters of the Cainites excelled in form, dress and elegance of
manners. Nevertheless, they did not mingle with them, for the eye of
faith looked back to the commandment of God and to the promise of the
seed to be born from the generation of the righteous. But the eyes of
faith having been lost, they saw no longer either the command or the
promise of God, but followed merely the desire of the flesh. The
simple, good and virtuous girls of their own generation they despised;
the Cainites they married, seeing they were polished,