John Trapp on Matthew 19:12

Verse 12. Which were so born] Of a frigid constitution of body and unapt for generation. This is not continency but [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word], a defect in nature. Which were made Eunuches of men] Evirati [illegible: 1 word] of manhood, as in the Court of Persia of old, and of Turky at this day; where Christans children are not gelded only, but deprived of all their [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word] of nature with a silver quill: which [illegible: 1 word] custome was brought in among them by Selymus the [illegible: 1 word], out of jealousie lest his Eunuches were not so chaste as they [illegible: 1 word] have been, in keeping their Ladies beds. For, though made [illegible: 1 word] by men, yet are they not without their fleshly [illegible: 1 word], yea they are magni amatores mulierum, as she in Terence [illegible: 1 word]. Which have made themselves Eunuches.] Not gelded themselves, as Origen and some others in the Primitive times, by mistake of this text. (So Tertullian tells of Democritus, that he pulled outIn [illegible: 1 word]. his own eyes, because he could not look upon women and not lust [illegible: 1 word] them: wherein he did but publish his extreme folly to theIoseph. lib. 2. de [illegible: 2 words], cap. 6. whole City, saith he) Nor yet tyed themselves by vow to perpetuall continency, out of a superstitious opinion of meriting heaven thereby, as the [illegible: 1 word] of old, and the [illegible: 1 word] Clergy now: But live single, that they may serve God with more freedom, fighting against fleshly lusts (that fight against the soul) with [illegible: 1 word] spirituall weapons, Meditation, Prayer, Abstinence, &c. which are [illegible: 1 word] through God to the pulling down of Satans strong holds set up in the heart. Hence the Hebrew, Syriack, Chaldee and Arabick render this text, Qui castr ârunt animam suam, which have gelded their [illegible: 1 word]. And the truth is, there they must begin, that will doe any thing in this kinde to purpose. Incesta est, & fine stupro, [illegible: 1 word] stuprum cupit, [illegible: 1 word] Seneca. And S. Pauls virgin must be holy both in body, and in spirit, 1 Cor. 7. 34.