The Shepherd of Hermas

I command you, he said, to keep purity and[*](Purity) let not any thought come into your heart about another man’s wife, or about fornication or any such wicked things; for by doing this you do great sin. But if you always remember your own wife you will never sin.

For if this desire enter your heart you will sin, and if you do other such-like wicked things you commit sin. For this desire is a great sin for the servant of God. And if any man commit this wicked deed he works death for himself.

See to it then, abstain from this desire, for where holiness

I said to him, Sir, allow me to ask you a few questions. Say on, said he. Sir, said I, if a man have a wife faithful in the[*](Man and wife) Lord, and he finds her out in some adultery, does the husband sin if he lives with her?

So long as he is ignorant, said he, he does not sin, but if the husband knows her sin, and the wife does not repent, but remains in her fornication, and the husband go on living with her, he becomes a partaker of her sin, and shares in her adultery.