Let us come therefore to the third and principle chapter and let us see how that which has been spoken of the carnal marriage may in those kind of causes agree to the spiritual marriage which is between Christ and the Church.

The first was of the matter of marriage that it is male and female, not simply, but those which are of the same kind and nature.

1. In this spiritual marriage on the one part Christ is instead of the male; and on the other side, the holy church is in stead of the female and indeed instead of Eve made of the rib of Adam.
2. For Christ the second Adam Is the head of the Church and the preserver thereof out of whose side the church was taken in that sense as I have showed before.
3. For he makes the church fruitful by the seed of his word and of his holy Spirit cast into her mind and therefore worthily deserves the name of a husband.
4. And the church supplies the room of the woman and the wife because she is subject to Christ and receives the spiritual seed from Christ and Christ by her help begets many sons unto himself. And thus much briefly of the first condition of the lawful matter in this spiritual matrimony.
5. Again, for and according to his humanity, Christ and the Church are of one and the same kind.
6. For the Word for this cause was made flesh, that is, the son of God, was made man that he might be the true bridegroom of the Church. For it was not meet that this matrimony should be contracted between such persons as were not of the same kind and nature, as neither can any man’s head be of a diverse nature and kind from the body.
7. But as, Paul says, the husband is the head of the wife and the wife is the body and the flesh of the husband.
8. Therefore, to speak properly and according to the scriptures, God the father is not the husband or bridegroom of the Church neither is the Holy Ghost, but the Son because he alone was made man; but the father gave his spouse unto his so and by his holy Spirit has coupled and joined her unto his son.
9. John 6.37, "All that my Father gives unto me shall come to me…." And so says John the Baptist that Christ is the bridegroom of the Church and the Apostles everywhere confirm the same, "I have betrothed you," Paul says, "to one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ." And the bride in the Apocalypse calls upon her bridegroom and says, "Come Lord Jesus. Come."
10. Wherefore, whatever testimonies we read in the books of the Old Testament of marriage between Jehovah and the Church (as that in the second chapter of Hosea, "I will marry you unto me in faith.") they are all properly to be understood of Christ, that is, of the son manifested in the flesh.
11. For the Son of God for this cause, that he might be the true bridegroom of the church and be of the same nature with her, was so made man that by nature he was made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. And again, that the Church might also be like unto him he regenerates her and cleanses her from sin that the body may not be unlike the head or the head unlike the body but that both the husband and the wife may be one flesh of the same nature and quality.
12. Hereby (that is, by this condition: that the bridegroom must be of the same kind and nature that the bride is and must be like unto the bride in all things except sin) we may easily see what doctrine theirs is who teach that the Church has such a bridegroom whose body is altogether unlike the body of the bride, to wit, an invisible body, a body that cannot be felt or touched, that is, not limited within any certain place, but is corporeally and substantially present everywhere.
13. Such a body truly is not of the same kind with the body of the bride. Therefore such a Christ is not her bridegroom, seeing he is not by nature like in all things to her.
14. Wherefore he that subjects himself to this false Christ, that worships and adores him and embraces him as his bridegroom, he commits adultery against the true Christ who is made like unto us in all things, sin excepted.
15. But, say they, the same Christ has his body in heaven limited, visible and that may be felt, but in earth invisible, etc.
16. I answer, first the scriptures nowhere describe unto us such a Christ. The Church knows non such. No, it rejects any such against Marcian the heretic.
17. Either it is the same body or a diverse body which you say to be invisible, etc. If a diverse, then this Christ is not the bridegroom of the Church, for the bridegroom of the Church has a body and a soul altogether of the same nature with the body and with the soul of the Church, that is, like unto us in all things. Again, the true Christ the bridegroom of the Church has but one body, which he took of the virgin, in all points like unto ours.
18. But if you say that it is one and the same body but that it is in heaven and upon earth after a diverse manner of being: in heaven circumscriptively (that is, so contained as that no part of it is extended without the compass of the heavens); in the bread definitively (that is, so contained that a man may point at it and say, "here it is"); and everywhere repletively (that is, filling all places).
19. I answer, first, one and the same thing cannot have so many ways of being.
20. Secondly, hereby also that body shall be made not to be like ours in all things.
21. For the body of the bride neither ever or anywhere was, nor is, nor can bee such that it may be together and at one instant visible and invisible, circumscriptable and incircumscriptable, or may be some where circumscriptively, elsewhere definitively and everywhere repletively.
22. Wherefore, neither can the true bridegroom of the Church have sucha a body as has incommunicable properties (that is, such properties as cannot be communicated).
23. But if it has such properties (which yet is impossible), he shall not be the true bridegroom of the church but an adulterer because he is not of the same nature and kind with the bride.
24. Besides this body which they say is everywhere present but is yet invisible and can not be seen, etc, either it is a body that has life and is endowed with a reasonable soul or it has no life.
25. If it has no life, then that Christ which consists of this body is not the true bridegroom of the Church for the body of the true Christ is quickened, has life and lives.
26. If it be quickened and has life, either it is quickened by the same soul by which that body (which in heaven is limited, is visible and may be felt) is quickened, or by another and a different soul.
27. If by a different soul then he is not our Christ the bridegroom of the Church, for our Christ consists of one soul only, as he consists also of one body; of that soul, I say, which went out of his body when he died. Therefore, as it was not everywhere at that moment (for it went out of his body), so neither was it afterwards, being resumed and taken again. Neither is it at any time everywhere.
28. But if you say that this invisible body is quickened by the same soul by which that visible body (which is in heaven) is quickened, this cannot be true.
29. The first reason is because one soul cannot be the form of two and the same most diverse and contrary bodies.
30. The second reasons is because the human soul of our bridegroom is the form of a natural and organic body but that body which you feign and imagine to be everywhere (incircumscriptable, etc.) is not a natural nor an organic body, etc.
31. Again, that soul which is in the body of our bridegroom wich is finite and limited in heaven does not pass the bounds of its body nor wanders from its substance. Therefore this invisible body and yet corporeally present everywhere cannot be quickened and have life given unto it by the same soul by which that visible body in heaven is quickened. Wherefore it cannot be the body of our bridegroom, seeing it it is not of the same nature and kind with the body of their spouse.

And let this suffice for the second condition which is required in the lawful matter of this marriage.

32. The third condition of the matter was that the man and woman be such as may consent and agree to the marriage. This can be found wanting neither in Christ nor in the Church, in the Church, I say, that is (as it is manifest and clear) in all men grown to full age and years of discretion.
33. But infants, although they cannot actually consent by their own will, yet they agree thereto and consent by another man’s will (that is to say, by the will of the Church and of their parents), will afterwards consent by their own will when they shall come to years of discretion.
34. Therefore our heavenly Father, who has regenerated them by the blood of Christ, through the operation and power of his holy Spirit and has engrafted them into the body of his Church, also acknowledges them to be in the body of the Church and takes them for the flesh of Christ and does not exclude them from his holy wedlock.
35. For the whole Church is the spouse of Christ, but infants regenerated are pare of the Church.
36. For although indeed they, as to themselves, are then at length said to become the spouse of Christ when they consent and agree unto this marriage by their own will, yet always (as I said before) Christ acknowledges them for his spouse both because he himself agrees and also because in their name and behalf both his heavenly Father is willing and their parent according to the flesh do consent and further because he sees also that they in their time will consent and perform that indeed which as yet they are not able to do. Therefore neither is this third condition of the lawful matter wanting in this marriage.
37. The fourth condition touching the degrees of consanguinity has no place here and therefore does nothing to hinder this marriage.
38. The fifth condition of the matter also is not needful, that is, that they be only two, one man and one woman. For although the faithful, that is to say, the members of the Church are many and diverse, yet because they are all joined and united into one by one and the same spirit and are by the same spirit baptized into one body, therefore the multitude of members is no hindrance, but that they may be all one body, on flesh, and as it were, one man and therefore one spouse of Christ.
39. For neither does the multitude of members in the natural body of Christ make him to have more than one body; neither do the two natures let, but that he is only one and the same Christ and therefore one bridegroom.
40. He is one Christ because he is only one person consisting of one and the same Godhead with the Father and the holy Ghost, that is, subsisting in one and the same essence; consisting likewise of one human soul and one human body like unto ours in all things.
41. Therefore, he is one Christ (he, I say, who by his only one and finite body sits in heaven at the right hand of his father) and him alone and no other the Church has always acknowledged for her bridegroom.
42. If you devise and attribute to him another body and another soul he shall now no longer be one bridegroom of the Church but two. But far be from the Church of Christ this polygamy, that is, this having of more husbands at once than one.
43. Therefore by this condition also it appears how monstrous and blasphemous their opinion is who in very deed give two husbands to the Church.
44. There was added yet another condition, that is to say, that there must be a caveat and a regard had that a godly and faithful man does not marry with an ungodly and wicked woman or that a godly and faithful woman be not married to an ungodly and wicked man. For the Apostle exhorts that the faithful draw not the yoke with the infidels.
45. Christ indeed has washed his Church whom he would join and couple with himself from her sins, first by his blood shed upon the cross having undoubtedly obtained of his Father remission and forgiveness of sins for her and sanctifying her unto himself by imputing and communicating his own holiness and righteousness; afterwards by the washing of the new birth, he washes every member of the Church from their sins and sanctifies them with real and true holiness making them holy indeed.
46. But those relics of sin which she has still remaining in her, partly he does not impute unto her, and partly he diminishes and daily more and more takes them away, until at length she is presented unto him all glorious in the kingdom of heaven without spot and without wrinkle.
47. Whereupon it follows that they are not the spouse of Christ who are not washed from their sins in the blood of Christ and who are not born anew by his spirit.
48. She who would be the wife of Adam must be created of the rib of Adam. So must she who would be the wife and spouse of Christ (being taken out of the side of Christ – from whence issued blood and water) of necessity be washed from her sins and be born anew. For God the Father brought no other to Adam than she who was created wholly out of his holy rib.
49. And neither did Adam acknowledge and take any other to be his wife than her who was taken and made of his own rib, neither did the woman acknowledge any other to be her husband than him of whose rib she was created wholly.
50. So likewise Christ does not acknowledge any to be his Church but her only who was taken out of his side upon the cross, that is to say, who was washed from her sins in his blood and was regenerated and made a new creature. And again, the true Church in like manner does not acknowledge any other to be Christ and to be her husband but him who according to the flesh was born of the seed of David in the womb of the Virgin; who was wrapped in swaddling clothes; who did eat and drink with others; who dwelt not everywhere among the Gentiles, but in Palestine among the Jews; who suffered for us; who was nailed to the cross; who died; whose side was pierced out of which came blood and water, that is to say, the matter of our redemption and regeneration; and therefore out of whose side being dead upon the cross the whole Church was engendered and born.
51. But tell me, this Christ whose body the heretics affirm to be everywhere in its substance invisible, not to be seen, not to be felt, etc. is it that Christ out f whose side the Church is sanctified? For such a body has no side, neither left nor right side, it has no blood, neither is it of the seed of David, nor born of the Virgin, neither did it suffer, nor was it crucified.
52. Therefore as the Church of Christ never has acknowledged, so neither ought it now to acknowledge such a Christ to be her bridegroom and husband and she must content herself with that Christ whose body is in heaven and by whose blood she is sanctified and preserved. And thus much for the matter of marriage, whereby it appears, if we duly consider the lawful matter of marriage, that the marriage between that Christ (which in his human nature is in heaven) and the Church (which is partly in heaven and partly on earth) is a true, a lawful and a holy marriage.
53. For if any make exception of the Angels, that they also are a part of the Church and yet are not of the same nature with Christ because they are neither God nor men, hereto I answer: first, that I doubt not but that they pertain to the body of the Church because of that testimony (to let pass others) which the Apostle gives of them, Hebrew 12.22. And, secondly, although they are not men, as Christ is man, yet they are not altogether of a diverse nature by reason of the soul of Christ. For as the soul of Christ is a created spirit, so are they created spirits endowed with will and understanding.
54. And yet to speak properly, the marriage is said to be made between Christ and the company of men elected and chose. For he took not angels (says the Apostle) into the unity of his person but eh seed of Abraham. Neither can that be truly said of Christ and of the Angels, which Paul speaks of him and of the Church that they are "two in one flesh," or that they "are on flesh," seeing the angels have no flesh.
55. And yet they also are one wit Christ and are under him as under the head. For Christ is also the head of the Angels, Ephesians 1 and Colossians 2, "Who is the head of all principalities and powers…." And he gives to them grace and life and wisdom as he does to all faithful men. therefore they cannot be separated from the body of the Church. So they also after a certain manner are the spouse of Christ. Albeit the Scripture usually and plainly says this only of the company of men elected and chosen.
56. Neither does the Apostle in the fifth chapter to the Ephesians speak of any other marriage than of that whereof the marriage of Adam and Eve was a type and figure but that was a type of that marriage which is between Christ and the Church, which is the company of faithful men.

1. Moreover, as for the efficient causes, I have showed already that they are three, that is, a triple or threefold consent: the free consent of the parents; the free consent of the bridegroom; and likewise the free and voluntary consent of the bride. And these three consents are not wanting in this our spiritual marriage.
2. For God the Father from before all beginnings willed that the Son, taking our flesh into the unity of his person, should marry the Church, that is, the whole body of the Elect and again that the Church should be married to Christ and should be made of two one body and one flesh.
3. He has declared this to be his will and made it manifest first in the marriage of Adam and Eve, as it were in a mirror and figure; as the Apostle interprets it, Ephesians 5; and consequently in all other lawful marriages.
4. He has likewise made it manifest by diverse promises about Christ and the Church that they should be joined into one. And those promises are very commonly and often to be found in the books of Moses and of the Prophets.
5. And here that covenant relation especially pertains which he made with Abraham and with his seed and which he did often renew unto the fathers.
6. But most clearly of all did the Father testify and make known his will when, sending the Angel to Mary, he signified that it was his will that she should conceive and bear a son who would save his people (that is to say, the Church) from their sins and who would remain in the house of Jacob for ever and who would be our Emmanuel that he might be made one flesh with us and so might be truly God with us.
7. Lastly, he has manifested and made known this will of his by the preaching of the Gospel that he desires that we be married to Christ and be made one flesh with him: flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones.
8. Whereunto belong the Sacraments: Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, by which we are received into the society and fellowship of Christ and do grow together in the same. Therefore the will of the Father is plain and manifest enough.
9. The Son also, eve from the beginning, has willed the same which the Father willed and has manifested his consent altogether by the same means which the Father did.
10. This was the voice of the Son to his Church before he took flesh: "I will marry thee unto me in faith…." Hosea 2.
11. But in the Song of Solomon he chose to have this marriage with the Church to be most lively described. And in Proverbs the eternal wisdom which is l o g o V , the Word, the Son of God, says that it is his delight to be with the sons of men, that is, with his Church.
12. But then especially did he make this his will plainly known to all when taking our flesh upon him he became man like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. And he confirmed the same by familiar conversation, conversing and living among us, talking familiarly with us and always doing good to all, despising and rejecting none, no not even harlots and publicans, that he might draw all unto him by true repentance and faith and might incorporate them into himself.
13. But how could he more plainly and more lively have declared this to be his will than he did when he voluntarily he submitted himself to death for the salvation of the Church and shed his blood for us wherewith we might be washed from our sins and might be regenerated and born again into a new creature?
14. For he then merited and obtained for the Church remission of sins, regeneration and eternal marriage to the end that she might be made one flesh with himself and I one word be purchased for her eternal life in his eternal and heavenly kingdom. "I will," he says "that where I am, there they also be who shall believe in me," that is "who shall be my spouse."
15. This will whereby he willed that which also the Father desired concerning this marriage is described by the Apostle in the second chapter to the Philippians where he exhorts that "the same mind and affection be in us that was in Christ Jesus: who when he was in the shape of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but he humbled himself and became obedient unto the death." And in the fifth chapter to the Ephesians, "As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it…, cleansing it by the washing of water through the word."
16. He also makes clear this will of his daily by the word and preaching of the Gospel and seals it unto us by the Sacraments. Wherefore we cannot doubt his will or his consent, indeed the most free consent of the Son.
17. But this will of the Son is twofold: one of his divine nature and the other of his human nature. But with both of them he willed and wills his marriage with the elect. With one he willed it from before all beginning; with the other he willed it in time, and that will is never changed and it is the will of a created and finite soul which is together with the body in heaven.
18. There remains now the consent of the Spouse. For unless she also, even every faithful man, freely consents unto this marriage it is not firm and stable.
19. For marriage (as is showed before) is a lawful conjunction of one man and one woman contracted and coming of a free consent of both parties.
20. Wherefore we then properly say that this matrimony is contracted with Christ when everyone by his own faith and by his own will consents both to the will of the Father, charging and commanding that we acknowledge and embrace Christ for our husband and bridegroom, and also to the will of the bridegroom inviting us unto himself and calling us by his Apostles that we may be made one flesh with him.
21. For that saying of the Son of God remains sure forever: "I will marry thee unto me in faith." Hosea 2. And in the third chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, after John the Baptist had showed that Christ is the bridegroom of the Church, he urged faith in Christ, that by believing everyone might be really and indeed joined and, as it were, glued to him as to his bridegroom and that they might live eternally with him. For he that believes in the Son has eternal life and he that believes not the wrath of God abides upon him. And the Apostle says, "I have betrothed you to one husband to present you a chaste virgin to Christ." How? Even by the faith of the Gospel wherein Christ offers himself unto us to be our bridegroom, our husband and our savior.
22. Therefore this consent is necessary to the real contracting of this marriage with Christ. For by faith we are made one flesh with him and for that cause Christ is aid to dwell by faith in our hearts. Ephesians 2.
23. But from whence is this free consent and will? We have it even from the Father himself who brings us to Christ. For he works in us both to will and to do according to his good will and pleasure for even he also made bot Adam and Eve to consent together to be married.
24. But this consent cannot be but in that man that is already in some sort regenerate and quickened by the Holy Ghost.
25. For it is not possible that a good consent can come from an evil and altogether corrupt and wicked will as our Savior Christ says, "An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit."
26. Wherefore we must needs confess that regeneration is begun in those whosoever they are that have a true faith, which afterwards is daily more and more effected by the increase of the spirit For what power does a dead man have to do the works of life? But to believe in Christ and to consent unto his spiritual marriage is a work of life.
27. Therefore I said also before that by the order of nature regeneration and renewing of the heart is first begun in a man by the holy Ghost before he can with a true assent of faith consent unto this marriage with Christ as both Adam and Eve were first created and endowed with a living soul before they were joined in matrimony.
28. These three therefore, that is to say, the will of God the Father, the will of Christ the bridegroom and the voluntary consent of every faithful man, are truly and properly the efficient causes of the spiritual marriage.
29. But the instrumental causes are the ministers of the Gospel such as was John the Baptist who called himself the friend of the bridegroom and invited us unto the marriage and such also as the Apostles were for which cause Paul says, "I have betrothed you to one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ."
30. Therefore every man has then within himself a sure and certain testimony of this matrimony contracted when he feels in himself a true faith in Christ whereby he consents to the will of the Father that he may be made one flesh with Christ according to his word.
31. But here we must not also that there is required in this marriage a certain knowledge of the person with whom we must be married. For there must in no sort be any errors of the person lest we be married to one instead of another.
32. Wherefore it is needful for every man to take heed that he consent to be married only to the true Christ whom he with certainty knows and not to him whom he does not know for certain by the word of God to be the true Christ.
33. The holy Scriptures teach us who is the true Christ with whom the Father will have us to be coupled in the bond of wedlock describing him to be true God, of the same essence with the Father and true man, like unto us in all things except sin.
34. But the Scripture nowhere propounds unto us such a Christ as consists of an invisible body, a body not limited and which is everywhere present, neither has the ancient Church at any time known, nor would it admit, any such.
35. Let the faithful therefore take heed that they not betroth themselves to such a Christ whom many do imagine to have an invisible body and let us be content with such a Christ as the scriptures to propound unto us such as the Father has showed us saying, "This is my beloved Son,": this one, I say, whom John baptized and upon whom the holy Ghost visibly descended in the shape of a dove.
36. Surely the Father did not show us such a Christ as had an invisible body, neither did the holy Ghost descend upon such a one, neither was any such baptized by John, neither did there issue out of such a body water and blood wherewith we might be washed.
37. And Jerome writing to Pammachius reckoned it (against John, Bishop of Jerusalem) among heresies to say that the body of Christ after his resurrection was made invisible.
38. Away therefore with such a monster and vain fantasy and let our bridegroom be Christ, of the same substance with the Father and of the same substance with his mother and like to us in all things, except sin.

In the spiritual marriage also, we are thirdly to consider the formal cause, that is, the very conjunction itself of Christ and the Church into one flesh.

And touching this union, wherein the point and issue of this whole treatise consists, we are to consider these four things:

1. First, what things are united. Whether our soul only without the body be united only to the soul of Christ, or whether our flesh also with the flesh of Christ and so our whole person be joined with the whole person of Christ.
2. Secondly, if our whole person be united and joined with the whole person of Christ, then the question is: Seeing Christ consists both of a divine nature and of a human nature with which of them are we first joined, with the divine or with the human nature?
3. Thirdly, what manner of union this is? Whether substantial or accidental and being only in imagination.
4. Fourthly, if it be a real and substantial union, then how does it come to pass? Whether the flesh of Christ descends invisibly? Or, is it because the substance of the air is changed into the flesh of Christ so that by receiving in the air, we receive the flesh? Or, is it because the flesh of Christ is really in the air and so is united unto the faithful? Or, by what means else is it?

1. Neither is our soul alone joined with Christ’s soul alone, neither our flesh alone with the flesh alone of Christ, but the whole person of every faithful man is truly joined with the whole person of Christ and by the bond of this spiritual marriage is coupled and nearly joined unto him.
2. The first reason is taken from the marriage of Adam and Eve. The whole person of Adam was coupled with the whole person of Eve, therefore the whole person of Christ is joined with the whole person of every faithful man.

For that carnal marriage was a type and mystery of this spiritual marriage, which is to say that that should be spiritually between Christ and the Church which was done carnally between them.

3. The Apostle plainly teaches where it is said, "They shall be two in one flesh," that this respects the mystery of the spiritual marriage between Christ and the Church and is to be understood of Christ and of the Church.

But the word "two" signifies two persons, two men. Christ is one man and one person and every faithful man is another person and the whole Church is taken in the Scriptures for one person and on man (as I have showed before) and as the Apostle plainly teaches, Ephesians 2. Therefore in this spiritual marriage the whole person of every faithful man, to wit, his soul and his flesh, is joined with the whole person of Christ and is made on with him, one flesh, one man.

4. Further, in Genesis it is said, and so it is cited also by Paul, that "a man shall leave his father… and shall cleave to his wife." But a man is not only a soul nor only a body, but both together, neither does the wife consist of a body alone nor of a soul alone, but of both together. And the Apostle in this spiritual marriage, by the name of the husband, understands Christ, and by the name of wife, understands the Church and therein every faithful man. Wherefore, in order that it may be a true marriage, the whole person of the faithful must needs be joined and gathered together into one with the whole person of Christ.
5. This has Christ himself also taught when he was made man for the whole person of the Son of God took into the unity of himself whole man, that is to say, the whole human nature, not flesh alone nor the soul alone, but both together. Therefore when he is also united to every faithful man the whole is united to the whole; whole Christ to the whole faithful man.
6. Christ because he is the husband, therefore, the Apostle calls him also the head and Savior of the Church; and that because he derives life and salvation into the Church as into his own body and into every member thereof. But Christ is not the head nor Savior of the Church according to his divine nature only, nor only according to his human soul and body, but the whole Christ in his Godhead, in his soul and in his flesh, is our head and our Savior. Neither is only the soul or only the body of the faithful saved by Christ, but both together. That is to say, the whole faithful man. And no man is made partaker of salvation but by the union and conjunction which he has with Christ. Wherefore in this spiritual marriage, the whole Christ is coupled with the whole man.
7. And because the chief and principal question is not of the union with the Godhead, but of the union of our flesh with the flesh of Christ, especially while we are in this world, while our flesh is here on earth and the flesh of Christ in heaven, therefore I will add peculiar testimonies of the union of our flesh with the flesh of Christ. Wherefore let this be the sixth argument containing these testimonies.

The union of our flesh with the flesh of Christ.

The Apostle says, Ephesians 5, "We are members of his body," that is to say, "of Christ’s body, bones of his bones and flesh of his flesh." This he says of that conjunction which we have with Christ. Again, "No man hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes the same." And this he understands of Christ toward his Church, that he cherishes the same as his own flesh. Again, where it is said, "And they shall be two in one flesh," he interprets it of Christ and of the Church because of that union which the Church has with Christ. The Apostle therefore meant that we, not in soul alone, but also in flesh are united, not only with the godhead, or with the soul of Christ, but also with is flesh although he is in heave. He meant, I say, that we are truly unite so that we are made one flesh with him. And he in many places repeats and inculcates the name of Body, saying that we are one body with Christ and he speaks of a human body from whose head life flows into the members. Again, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, the sixth chapter, he says, "That our bodies are the members of Christ; shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot?" And in the sixth chapter of John, "unless you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall have no life in you." These and such other testimonies do most plainly witness and declare that the union which we have with Christ is not only of the soul with the soul, nor of the flesh with the Godhead but of our flesh also with the flesh of Christ; not with that invisible and infinite flesh which cannot be seen, nor measured, nor limited within any certain place, which the heretics devise and imagine. For how can we be one flesh and one body with this when there is no likeness and proportion between our flesh which is visible, finite and limited and between that invisible flesh? We are not therefore with this imaginary flesh one flesh with Christ, neither is our flesh joined therewith, but with that which is in heaven altogether like unto ours in substance and nature.

8. The fathers teach the same doctrine. It is needless and superfluous to allege the testimonies of all. For it is manifest that they do all agree with the holy scriptures in this, as I said before, especially for the words of our savior Christ, John 6, "unless you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall have not life in you." Again, "He that eats my flesh abides in me and I in him." Likewise, for the words of the Apostle, 1. Corinthians 10, "The bread which we break, it is the communion of the body of the Lord," that is to say, it is that thing whereby we are received into communion and fellowship with the body of the Lord and whereby we grow together into one with him. Therefore all the fathers jointly teach that the very true flesh of Christ, not that which was feigned of the heretics to be invisible, etc., but that which is like to ours in all things except sin, is truly eaten of us in the Supper of the Lord. And it is so eaten that we wholly grow into one with the whole Christ however great we be, being made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones. It shall suffice therefore to hear the testimony of one or two of them.
9. Cyril upon John in his tenth book and thirteenth chapter writes plainly that Christ dwells in us by communication of his flesh and that we are his members and that even from the words which Christ himself spoke of the eating of his flesh: "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." And by and by he adds, "Whereby", he says, "we must consider that Christ is in us, not only by imitation and by a similitude or likeness, which is through love, but also even by natural participation." Thus he says: "But what does he mean by ‘natural participation?’ Not that participation which is or may be by any natural means but the true participation of the natural flesh of Christ whereby we are truly made one flesh and one body with Christ. Therefore the word "natural" is to be referred not to the means whereby, but to the thing which is participated, that is, to the natural flesh of Christ. And thus is repelled that dream of the invisible flesh of Christ." He showed it more plainly by a similitude or comparison, saying, "For as if a man should mangle wax melted at the fire with other wax that is likewise melted so that of both may seem to be made but some one thing, as some one cake, so by the communication of the body and blood of Christ, Christ himself dwells in us and we in him." These are Cyril’s words.
10. A similitude (as they say) runs not on four feet, it does not hold in every point, for it is very sure and certain that neither our body nor the body of Christ is dissolved and melted that they may b united together. And therefore there is no cause why any man should hereupon imagine and think that there is any natural touching by means whereof the flesh of Christ is so united to our flesh as the wax is united to the wax. For Cyril in plain words teaches in this chapter and elsewhere always that this union is made by faith, as we are taught in the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel and as the Apostle has expressed in Ephesians 3 saying, "Christ dwells in our hearts by faith." Now it is all one to say that Christ is in us and that he abides in us and to say Christ dwells I our hearts; and the Apostle teaches that he dwells by faith. He is therefore in us and abides in us and is united to us and therefore is also eaten by faith. Therefore all natural touching is to be utterly excluded.
11. Neither also by this similitude of the wax are we to imagine any corporeal presence of the flesh of Christ as though that cannot be united to our flesh unless it be carnally and really present even as the wax is present to the wax. For this presence Cyril, with other of the fathers, everywhere oppugns and gainsays, teaching that the flesh of Christ (or that Christ in his flesh) is in heaven and abides in heaven and is not on earth in the same manner of being as he is in heaven.
12. Read the same Cyril in his book on John, Book II, Chapter 21, expounding those words of Christ in the seventeenth chapter of John ("While I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name, but now I come to thee," that is, into heaven for the father is said to dwell in heaven), there Cyril writes thus, "The disciples thought that the absence of Christ, I mean as he was a man (for God is everywhere) would be the cause of many inconveniences unto them seeing he was not present that he might deliver them from all evil but it behooved them who were afterwards made the lights of the world to consider and behold not the flesh of Christ alone, but also his Deity, which, albeit we can not see and behold it with our eyes, is yet nevertheless present in great power, neither is there anything able to hinder and let it to fill all places and to do whatsoever it will. For the divine nature is not circumscribed and limited within any one place," as if he had said, in such sort as the human nature is. He adds, "Wherefore, seeing that Christ is truly God and man, they ought to have understood and conceived thus much, that in the unspeakable and wonderful power of his Godhead he will always be present with them although he were absent in his flesh. For therefore he himself also said before: ‘Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou has given unto me,’ plainly signifying that they are and may be preserved and kept by means of his Godhead not by the presence of his flesh." All these are Cyril’s words which he expounds more plainly in the rest of his treatise following, where he says also this not to be omitted, that "Whatsoever things are proper unto God, they cannot be done by any other thing than that which is substantially God." His words are these, "For nothing unless it be substantially God can do those things which are the proper works of God." Now to be everywhere present in his own substance, is not this only proper to God?
13. Read also the 22^nd chapter were he beats upon this point that Christ as he is man is absent from us, but only as he is God is present with us and fills all places. By all of this it is very plain that Cyril, by that similitude of the wax and by that natural participation, did not mean to teach that the flesh of Christ is united unto us and communicated by any corporeal and bodily presence or by any carnal touching whether visible or invisible, seeing he teaches everywhere that this is done by a spiritual presence and by a spiritual touching, that is, by faith of which spiritual touching Christ says, "somebody has touched me."
14. What then did Christ mean by that similitude of the wax? Nothing else but that as the wax is in very deed incorporated into the wax, so that of two there is made but one mass or cake of wax. So we also are truly and in very deed incorporated into Christ himself and so verily our flesh ins incorporated into the flesh of Christ so that of two there is made but one flesh according to that: "They shall be two in one flesh," which the Apostle interprets to be of the marriage between Christ and the Church. The words therefore of Cyril are not to be wrested to the manner of the union, but we must understand them of the things which are united and that our flesh and the flesh of Christ, nay, we wholly and with the whole Christ, are truly and in very deed united together.
15. But the manner is spiritual, because this union and incorporation is made by the spirit of Christ and y our faith as we shall afterwards show. And that is so (as we have said) is apparent and manifest by the scope and drift of Cyril in that thirteenth chapter of the tenth book. For he wrote against them who said that by the name of the vine whereof we are the branches was to be understood only the deity of Christ and therefore that we are not engrafted into the true flesh of Christ, but only into his Godhead; against which Cyril showed that we are nevertheless truly and really engrafted and incorporated into the true flesh of Christ although he is in heaven absent from us. And this he proves especially by the mystery of the supper of the Lord where Christ gives unto us his own true flesh to be eaten and says, "He that eats my flesh abides in me." But how is his flesh eaten? By faith, as Christ there in the sixth chapter of John teaches. For there is no difference to be made between the manner how he is eaten and the manner how he is in us, seeing he is therefore in us because he is eaten of us.
16. Hillary teaches altogether the same doctrine in his eighth book on the Trinity a little down from the beginning where he shows how the father and the Son are one, that is, by unity of nature and essence. There also he teaches that the unity whereby the faithful were and are one in Christ is made indeed by faith, but yet that it is natural and that because our natural flesh is united with the natural flesh of Christ. And thus in the 141 page he concludes from the supper of the Lord in these words: "We speaks foolishly and wickedly unless we learn of him whatsoever we speak of the natural verity of Christ in us." Let them note these words who dispute of the flesh of Christ and of the personal union but not according to the words of Christ, for he himself says, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. There is now no doubt left of the truth of his flesh and blood, for both by the testimony of the Lord himself and as we also do certainly believe, it is flesh indeed and it is blood indeed. And this being taken and received into us makes us to be in Christ and Christ in us. Is not this truth? They indeed shall find it not to be true who deny that Jesus Christ is true God. He is therefore in us by his flesh and we are in him while with himself he is in God that which we are.
17. A little after he calls this union which we have with Christ natural and he proves it saying, "And that this unity is natural in us he himself witnesses in this sort: He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. For not just anyone shall be in him, but only he in whom Christ himself will be, having only his flesh assumed and taken into himself whom has eaten his."

It is therefore evident also by Hillary that our true and natural flesh is joined with the true and natural flesh of Christ in this spiritual marriage whereof we speak.

18. So writes Leo I, "For the participation of his body works this: that we pass into that which we eat, that is, into his flesh who was made our flesh." These are his words. Christ indeed was made our true and natural flesh, therefore we also pass into his natural flesh and do eat his natural flesh.
19. But how do we pass? With our bodily feet? Or by transferring this flesh into the flesh of Christ? Nothing less than by spirit and faith. Therefore neither do we eat the flesh of Christ with the mouth of our body. For even so and after the same manner do we eat the flesh of Christ as we do pass and go into it and as we abide in him and he in us; for Christ joins both together, saying, "He that eats my flesh abides in my and I in him."
20. Now the sum of all is this: that as we eat the true and natural flesh of Christ, so we are united to the true flesh of Christ. And again, as we are united tot he true and natural flesh of Christ, so we do also eat his natural flesh. These are equivalent and all one.
21. But when we are united to the flesh and body of Christ we are made (as Cyril, or rather as the Apostle to the Ephesians, says) one body with him and one flesh.

Therefore, by this most certain, most plain and evident doctrine is repelled that heresy of the old heretics and which seems now again to be renewed by many, touching the invisible flesh of Christ, incircumscriptable and everywhere present.

For neither do we pass into this flesh (as Leo speaks); neither (as Cyril, and before him the Apostle, says) are we made one body with this flesh; neither are we made one flesh therewith; neither did Christ take this in the womb of the virgin into the unity of the person; neither was this crucified for us; neither is it natural flesh like unto ours. Therefore neither do we eat this in the supper; neither are we incorporated and made one body therewith, but with that natural flesh (as the father speak) which is in heaven.

22. Besides, we are not united but to a lively and quickening flesh, and this is the end why we are united thereto: that being quickened thereby we may live eternally. But the flesh of Christ is not a quickening flesh of itself but only so far forth as it was taken of the Son of God into the unity of the person. And who dare say that such flesh as has no similitude and likeness with ours was taken of the Son of God into the unity of the person? Were not this to deny the Word to be made true man?

The first chapter therefore is of no small weight and importance, which we have taken in hand to expound touching our union with Christ, which is the formal cause of this spiritual marriage. Wherefore, we must diligently hold fast to this doctrine: that in this holy wedlock we are wholly incorporated and joined with the whole Christ and so without doubt our soul is joined with the soul of Christ and our natural flesh with the flesh of Christ and therefore it is like unto ours in all things, sin only excepted.

The second question was this: Seeing that Christ consists of a divine and human nature together, of the word and flesh, to which is a faithful man first joined, with the humane or with the divine nature?

This questions is not without cause expounded. For as some denied (as by Cyril it appears) that we are joined with the human nature of Christ, as the branches are with the vine, and did affirm and defend that we are only grafted into his deity, so among those also which grant and confess that we are joined with the whole person of Christ, there have not been wanting such as thought that we are first joined with his divine nature and afterwards to his human nature; or first to the Word and then after that to his flesh. And this they imagined (besides other reasons which they had) because the Word is nearer unto us, seeing it is everywhere, than the flesh is, which is in heaven. But this reason is no reason. If this union were made by any natural means it might have some force, but seeing it is wrought by the holy Ghost and by faith (as we shall afterwards declare) and the spirit as well unites unto us things far off as things near us and faith also as well apprehends things absent as things present, there is no let, but that we may as well be joined to the flesh of Christ as to the word. We must therefore consider rather in what order both God propounds Christ unto us in the scriptures and our faith apprehends him; and so too, whether our mind and by consequence our flesh is first joined, whether to the word or to the flesh.

1. A faithful man is first joined by the flesh of Christ, and then afterwards by the flesh he is joined to the word itself or to the Godhead.
2. The reason is taken from knowledge. As it is with knowledge and the understanding of the mind, so it is also with voluntary uniting and coupling. For the will follows knowledge and so far forth chooses, wills and embraces anything and unites itself thereto as it thoroughly understands and knows the same. For it always desires not unknown but known good. But we do first and sooner apprehend and know Christ propounded in the word of God as he is man, then as he is God. Therefore in a certain order of nature and of the actions of the mind and of faith, we are first united to the flesh of Christ and by that to his deity and so to his whole person.
3. I easily prove the second part of this reason out of the holy Scriptures: namely that we do first and sooner apprehend and know Christ propounded in the word of God as he is man, then as he is God.

For when God in the beginning of the world did promise a Redeemer, he promised and propounded him immediately as the seed of the woman, that is, as man, Genesis 3: "Her seed," that is, the seed of the woman, "shall bruise they head." So promised he also to Abraham: "In they seed shall the nations be blessed." So said Moses: "He shall raise up a Prophet of they brethren." And so the Son himself did immediately exhibit himself unto the fathers to be seen of them in the form of a human body and did afterwards declare himself to be the Angel of the Lord, even the Lord himself; so he was promised and propounded by the Prophets first as man, as the seed of David, and then afterward as Jehovah, as Lord and God.

In the seventh chapter of Isaiah, first: "Behold," says the prophet, "a virgin shall conceive a son." And in the second place he adds, "And he shall be called Emmanuel." So likewise Jeremiah in the 23^rd chapter of his prophecy, "Behold the days shall come that I will raise unto David a righteous branch." And he adds afterward, "And this is his name whereby they shall call him ‘The Lord our righteousness.’"

Run over all the Prophets and you shall see that Christ was always propounded to them in this same order and likewise by the Prophets to the Church.

The Evangelist Matthew does the same thing. For first he propounds Christ as man, the son of Abraham and the son of David; and at length, citing the prophecy of Isaiah, he calls him Emmanuel and interprets it, saying, "that is, God with us." The same is also done by Mark and Luke who diligently describe the whole genealogy of Christ as he is man and afterward show by his miracles and other arguments that he is also perfect God.

4. If you object that John begins with his Godhead saying, "In the beginning was the Word…" and at length, speaking of his humanity adds, "and the word was made flesh," the answer is ready: that he did it for this end: because the other Evangelists had labored rather in describing his human nature, then his divine (to show that he is the Messiah, the son of David, who had been promised by the Prophets); therefore John, resting contented with that doctrine which the other Evangelists had fully set down touching the human nature of Christ, comprised his incarnation in one word, having first showed his true and eternal Godhead.

Yet when he speaks of the knowledge of Christ he shows that both he himself and others know him first as man, afterwards as God, for thus he says, "And he dwelt among us," to wit, as man, "as we saw his glory." We saw, that is, we knew it even by miracles and by other testimonies and effects.

And in his Epistle, he teaches the same saying, "Which we have seen and heard and our hands have handled of the word of life…." First therefore they knew him as man and afterwards as God.

The Apostle in Romans 1 keeps the same order and teaches that this is the order of the Gospel which he preached saying that he was set apart to preach the Gospel of God which he had promised before concerning his Son. What son? First, says he, "made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (behold, Christ as man) "but declared to be the Son of God touching the Spirit of sanctification" (behold, Christ as God). And it is certain that Christ therefore being made man did first declare himself to be man and afterward to be the only begotten son of God and therefore God. And so the Apostle in 1 Timothy 3 says, "God is manifested in the flesh…" that is, first he declared himself to be flesh (that is to say, true man), afterward by the flesh and in the flesh he manifested himself to be God; and therefore he adds, "Is justified in the spirit."

5. Wherefore there is no doubt but that this order in promising , in describing, in propounding and in manifesting of Christ was observed in the holy Scriptures of the fathers , of the Prophets, of Christ himself, of the Evangelists and Apostles; that first the knowledge of human nature went before and then followed the knowledge of his divine nature. And f we know Christ and our mind apprehends him in the same order as he is propounded in the holy Scriptures to be known, it is very plain that Christ is known of every faithful man, first as man and then as God. And therefore we are first united also by faith unto his flesh, which in the first place we do apprehend, and afterward by his flesh we are united unto his Godhead.
6. No man can be united to God but by a mediator. And although Christ is a Mediator, not only as he is the son of man and true man, but also as he is the Son of God, true God of true God, yet that by which Christ was made a Mediator and in which he performed the chief duties of a Mediator and wherein he declared himself to be our Mediator is his human nature taken into the unity of his person.
7. Therefore of and for this chief and principal part the Apostle said, "The Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." In which place he calls Christ the Mediator, "Man," by an excellent prerogative, because in his human flesh he performed the duty of a Mediator.
8. As therefore we are not united to God but by a Mediator, so neither are we united to the Godhead of Christ but by his flesh wherein he performed the duty of Mediator.
9. Here belong these saying: "No man comes to the Father but by me. I am the way…." Again, whereas to Philip, saying, "Show us your Father," he answered, "He that sees me sees also my father." He spoke of himself as he was man, the human nature being taken into the unity of the divine person of God in which man, as in a glass, the whole nature and goodness of the Father did shine and show itself.
10. Therefore, we cannot enter into the Godhead also of Christ, which is one and the same with the Godhead of the Father, but by his flesh.
11. And no man ascends to God and is united to God but by Christ the Mediator and that by his flesh (as was showed before), so God also communicates nothing with us but by the same Mediator and that by his flesh. And the reason is because even in his flesh our redemption was wrought, sin was destroyed, the devil was vanquished, death was overcome and eternal life obtained.
12. Although, therefore, our whole salvation and life depend on the fullness of the Godhead which is in Christ, yet it is not communicated unto us but in the flesh and by the flesh of Christ. Therefore, says Christ, "Except you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall have no life in you." Again, "He that eats my flesh dwells in me and I in him."
13. For the Godhead is as a fountain from whence comes all good things and from which life and salvation flow. But his flesh and his humanity is, as it were, the channel by which all these good things and all graces are derived and brought unto us.
14. Unless therefore a man apprehends and lays hold of this channel and is united thereunto, he cannot possibly be made a partaker of the waters which spring and flow from the fountain.
15. Hereto belongs that which the Apostle teaches, Romans 5, saying, "As by one man sin entered into the word… so by one man righteousness has abounded to many."
16. That righteousness is the righteousness of God, as the Apostle says, for both it is his and it is from him who is true God. But it is not communicated unto the faithful but by him being man and by his flesh. So does that also belong hereto which the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 15, "By man came death and by man came the resurrection of the dead." Also that, "My flesh is meat, indeed." And likewise that, "He has washed us from all sin." And likewise that, "He has washed us in his blood." And other such like.
17. Surely by the corrupt flesh of Adam, sin and death is spread over all, so also by the flesh of Christ sanctified and united to the eternal Godhead inseparably to the unity of the person, righteousness and life is communicated unto us.
18. God was not wont to give his oracles nor to hear the prayers of the people, nor to communicate his grace but out of the ark of the Covenant and by that visible ark and by that visible Mercy-seat. But in the ark were mysteries hidden.
19. The flesh of Christ is the ark wherein dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporeally; by that and from that are all heavenly good things communicated and given unto us.
20. As therefore it was the people’s duty to come to the visible ark and there to wait and look for the grace of God, so let no man hope for the grace of God except he come to Christ, the visible man, and eat his visible flesh and incorporate the same into himself by faith.
21. Wherefore it is clearer than the daylight that a man cannot be united to the Godhead of Christ except he be joined to his humanity and to his flesh. For the flesh of Christ is the instrument of the Godhead, but it is this instrument only being taken and joined inseparably into the unity of the person.
22. This whole doctrine is very lively to be seen in the Sacraments, as it were in most clear looking glasses.
23. There are two things in every Sacrament: the visible sign and the invisible grace; the earthly things and the heavenly. He that brings faith receives both.
24. But in what order? Even in the same as they are propounded of God: by the sign we receive the thing signified and by the earthly thing we receive the heavenly thing for God by the one offers the other.
25. As therefore by a certain order of the heavenly dispensation, fist the sign is received and then in the sign and by the sign the thing signified; so you must first be united to the visible flesh of Christ and by that afterward to his Godhead if you will be made partakers of his grace. John 6, "He that eats my flesh dwells in me…." Again, "Except you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man…."
26. Hereby also is repelled that doting of the invisible flesh of Christ. For that a man may have life in himself he must needs eat the flesh of Christ, that flesh (I say) which was taken into the unity of the person, for no other is able to give life and this also is not able to give life by any other means than because and so far forth only as it was taken into the unit of the person of God. But the invisible flesh, which is everywhere present and not circumscriptable or limited within any certain place was not taken into the unity of the person for then should not Christ be true man like unto us in all things, except sin. Therefore it is no quickening flesh able to give life, neither are we united thereunto. Wherefore we must abandon this imaginary and invisible flesh and give no place unto it and let us be united to the true and visible flesh of Christ by which alone all heavenly treasures, salvation and life is communicated unto us.

The use of this doctrine is great and it is this: that in the exercise of faith and godliness we fasten the eyes of our mind immediately and first of all upon the human flesh of Jesus Christ (as it were upon the veil by which the entrance was into the Sancta Sanctorum, the most holy place, where the glory of God shines) and then after that enter, as it were, into the Sanctuary itself to behold his deity.

This question depends on the former and it is propounded against two kinds of men. First, against those who think that this is not a true and real union but a union only in imagination because forsooth it is no otherwise wrought than by a certain apprehension of the mind even as we also conceive in the mind and comprehend in imagination other things and substances by such resemblances as may represent the same to our understanding and not because they are truly and indeed united unto us. The second kind of men are those who hold that this is no otherwise a true and real union than as it is made by participation of the spiritual gifts and grace of Christ without communicating the substance of the flesh of Christ; as we may be said to be united with the fire or the sun only by participation of the heat thereof. Against both these opinions let this be our determination of the question propounded.

1

The union of us with Christ and of Christ with us is essential and substantial. It is a true and real union.

2. it is substantial because the very substance of the flesh of Christ and of our flesh, of the person of Christ and of our persons, are united and not because we are partakers only of the fruits which come from Christ seeing we cannot be partakers of them except we be partakers of the substance of Christ.
3. I call it true and real because we are united with Christ not in imagination alone but in truth and in very deed and being united we doe more and more grow together into one body, yet not by any natural means, but by a spiritual and supernatural means as shall afterwards be showed.
4. All this is clear and manifest first by that similitude of carnal marriage which the Apostle uses: "They shall be two in one flesh." Surely the union of man and wife is substantial because two persons are united. And it is true and real because they are united into one true flesh and are always indeed one flesh. How? By means of the marriage bond wherewith by the ordinance of God they are tied and bound together.
5. Out of which similitude we may gather this also: that albeit the flesh of Christ is in heaven and ours is here on earth, yet this distance of places does not hinder one whit the true and real conjunction of our flesh with his flesh. As likewise though the husband is abroad in the market and the wife at home, yet the distance of places does not hinder them to be still united into one flesh and so to be one flesh.
6. Secondly, the Apostle yet more plainly declares and teaches this essential and true and real union by another similitude which he uses in the same chapter and elsewhere very often. The similitude is of the head and the members. Christ, says he, is the head of the Church; we are his body and members. Now the union of the members with the head and of one with the other is substantial, is a true and real union.
7. Whereby also we are given to understand that we cannot possibly be partakers of the fruits of Christ’s death and passion and of his gits and grace without the true and real participation of the very flesh of Christ. For the members being pulled from the head cannot receive thence motion, life, juice and nourishment.
8. Thirdly, the same is confirmed by a similitude of the living foundation and likewise of the living stones built upon that foundation which for the real and true substantial joining which they have with the foundation still increases until they grow up into an holy temple in the Lord.
9. Whereunto that also has relation that Christ often called himself the foundation upon which he builds his Church.
10. Fourthly, the same Christ has lively expressed and set forth this real conjunction and incorporation by a similitude of the vine and the branches: "I am the vine," says he, John 15, "and you are the branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me." What is more plain and evident by this similitude than that we are truly and really engrafted into Christ?
11. Hereto belongs that also which the Apostle writes to the Romans of the olive and the branches grafted into it.
12. The same doctrine is thereby also confirmed that Christ has expressed this union by the words of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, John 6: "He that eats my flesh…." Is no the meat and the drink substantially and really united into him who eats and drinks the same? Yes, verily and that so as of the meat that is eaten and of him that eats the meat there is made one substance. Neither can meat and drink give life unless in their substance they be really united to him that eats and drinks.
13. Hereupon Cyril and other of the fathers said that Christ dwells corporeally and naturally in us. Which words we have showed a little before how they are to be understood, that is to say, not of the manner how Christ dwells in us, as though he were in us in any natural and fleshly manner, but of the thing whereto we are united. For we are united to the true and natural body of Christ and that by a true and real union, but yet by the Spirit and by faith.
14. For the drift and purpose of the fathers was to set down and teach this: that we, so many as are faithful, are united not only to the Godhead of Christ, by consent of his will and by a certain similitude and likeness (as the heretics did affirm), but also to his natural flesh and body and that thereby our flesh is nourished to eternal life.
15. For the Heretics said that the flesh of Christ after his resurrection is now no longer necessary or needful, the mystery of our redemption being already finished and wrought therein, and therefore seeing that it is no longer profitable to us either that it has vanished away or else it has changed into the Godhead.
16. On the other side, Cyril and other of the fathers, showed that the use thereof is perpetual and this they proved plainly by the words of Christ, John 6: "Except you shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall have no life in you."
17. And therefore that Christ still retains his natural flesh and imprints the virtue and efficacy, and as it were the image thereof into our flesh by communicating his holiness with us whereby we are made flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones also that he by the Holy Ghost engrafts our flesh into his flesh and so quickens our flesh by his flesh; and again that the father communicates unto us nothing concerning salvation but by the flesh of Christ truly and really communicated with us. And this they have proved especially by the mystery of the Supper of the Lord.
18. For as the bread is really and truly united unto us eating the same, so also is the flesh of Christ truly and in very deed united unto us who eat the same.
19. But yet there is great odds and differences in the manner, for the bodily meat both is eaten with the bodily mouth and is united unto us by bodily means; but we eat and incorporate into us the spiritual meat (that is to say, the true flesh of Christ) spiritually and we are united thereto by faith and by the Holy Ghost. Thus the fathers taught.
20. I suppose therefore it is clear and manifest, both by those places and similitudes of the holy Scriptures and also by the testimony of the fathers, that our union with Christ is essential and substantial and true and real so that we are truly made one body with him because Christ the bridegroom and the Church being the bride are two in one flesh.
21. Where again also is refuted that fond imagination of the invisible and impalpable flesh of Christ which can neither be seen nor felt. For the Church is not made one body with this flesh but with that natural flesh which is in heave. The husband shall cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh, that is, Christ in that his natural flesh is joined to the Church and to the flesh of every faithful man and so by the virtue of this marriage, there is made of two one flesh. Therefore the flesh of the bride cannot be unlike in its substance to the flesh of her bridegroom if they be one flesh.
22. But what likeness can there be between our flesh and that imaginary invisible flesh?
23. Wherefore even by this also, that our union with Christ is substantial and real, it is manifestly proved that we neither are nor can be united with this invisible flesh, but only with that which is like unto ours in nature and substance and has made ours like unto itself in holiness and righteousness.

Because this union is made at the preaching of the Gospel in Baptism and in the Supper of the Lord, therefore there are divers answers to this question. All confess that it is made at the preaching of the Gospel by faith alone, I say an effectual faith, neither is there any great controversy of the manner how it is made in baptism, but there is no man ignorant how great contention there is even among those that profess Christ of the manner how we are united to the flesh of Christ and how the flesh of Christ is united to us in the Super of the Lord.

The Papists hold that besides that we are united by faith, we are also united in a bodily and very natural manner because, say they, the substance of bread is changed into the substance of the body of Christ and so, as the accidents of the bread and wine are received with the mouth and conveyed into the belly, so also together with them the very true substance of the body of Christ is received with the mouth of the body.

The Lutherans also teach that he is received in the same manner, for although they do not grant transubstantiation, yet they defend consubstantiation. Therefore they also cannot teach otherwise than that it is received with the mouth of the body and therefore that this union is made corporeally, that is to say, in a bodily manner. They go about to confirm this by other arguments, so also by some sayings of the fathers (but yet wrested and misunderstood, as by that saying Cyril upon John whereof I spoke before, of which judgment and opinion others of the fathers also are, that is to say that Christ dwells in us by his body naturally, bodily and by natural participation). Yes and the Ubiquitarians also, who affirm that the body of Christ is everywhere present, labor to establish and prove their ubiquity by the same. But how foully they abuse those saying is apparent and manifest even by the places themselves.

First, because all the fathers plainly and constantly teach that Christ according to his flesh dwells not in us, but according to his Godhead, that is to say, not by any carnal and fleshly presence but by the presence his godhead. Again, "By that which he is man, he is only in heave and by that which he is God he is with us here upon earth even to the end of the world." And always to the absence of the body of Christ they oppose the presence of his spirit and Godhead. Whosoever reads the fathers shall find this in them. Therefore they never meant that the flesh of Christ is united to us here on earth naturally and corpoeally, that is, by any natural and bodily means.

Secondly, the places of Scripture which those fathers use to confirm their saying of our natural union with Christ do plainly teach in what sense the fathers so spoke. The places are John 6: "He that eats my flesh…." There Christ expressly speaks of the means by faith and condemns carnal and fleshly eating. There is another place, John 15: "I am the vine…." There likewise he speaks of the means by faith. There is also a place, 1 Corinthians 10, of the communion and fellowship which we have with Christ. And there the Apostle teaches that we have the same communion and fellowship with whole body of the Church which we have with Christ our head. But it is certain and evident that we are not united one with another in a bodily manner.

Thirdly, the same is evident because the fathers teach that Christ is united to us and that we are incorporated into him as well in baptism as in the Super of the Lord.

And it is evident that there this union is not made in a bodily manner.

Lastly, it is very manifest even by them against whom the fathers wrote thus: for they did not write against those that taught that Christ is apprehended and received by faith alone, but against the Eutychians who affirmed that the flesh of Christ after his resurrection either vanished away or was swallowed up of the godhead because now it was no longer needful or profitable for us and therefore they said that we are joined with his Godhead alone and that thereby alone he dwells in us. On the other side the fathers taught that Christ still retains his flesh and that we are united thereto and that Christ by that dwells in us by the bond of the spirit and of faith; otherwise, the whole Christ dwells in us, Ephesians 3.

Therefore, whereas they said that Christ dwells in us naturally and bodily, that must be understood not of the manner how, but of the thing which is received and whereby Christ dwells in us, even in his own natural and true body.

1. The union whereby we are united and joined in our flesh and soul with the flesh of Christ (and what is more, with Christ into one flesh) is made by the Holy Ghost and by faith.
2. For the true and right understanding hereof we must call to mind that which has been spoken before of the efficeint cause ofMarriage. For we have showed that marriage is properly contracted by the consent of both parties and we have also showed that marriage is the very conjunction itself of man and woman, whereby two are made into one flesh, or one flesh. Christ has effectually manifested unto us his consent by pouring his spirit into our hearts. For by this spirit he makes us to fell and understand that he indeed is willing and that agreeably to his father’s will also to be our husband and so our head and preserver.
3. And we again consent unto this marriage with Christ by faith, stirred up in us by the Holy Ghost.
4. And as he by the communication of his Spirit unites himself unto us, so we by faith are joined unto him. This therefore is that which I said, that this union is made by the spirit (with respect of Christ) and by faith (with respect to us).
5. Of the Spirit, John says in his first epistle, chapter four, "By this we know that Christ is in us, even by the spirit which he has given unto us." Therefore by his spirit Christ joins himself unto us and as it were creeps into our hearts and by the same Spirit and the manifest effects of the Spirit, we know that he is in us and has takes us into the communion and fellowship of himself. And Romans 8: "He that has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." We are therefore made the members of Christ (to wit, our husband) and flesh of his flesh by the Spirit, whereby he incorporates himself into us and us into him.
6. Of faith the Apostle says, Ephesians 3, that "Christ dwells in our hearts by faith." Therefore, by faith also he is received of us into our hearts and we are united to him. And John 6, "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." But he is eaten and drunk by faith as Christ in the same place expounds it, saying, "He that believes in me shall never thirst." We are therefore united to Christ by faith.
7. Wherefore, whether he be propounded to us in the word or in baptism or in the supper, Christ is always united to us and we unto him by his Spirit and by our faith.
8. Of Baptism thus says the Apostle: "For by one Spirit we all are bbptized into one body." Therefore, in Baptism we are incorporated into Christ and are made his members by the virtue and power of his Holy Spirit.
9. Of the Supper he adds in the same place, "And we all," meaning of the same communion and fellowship in one spirit, "have drunk of the same Spirit." What does "into our Spirit" mean? That is, that all as we are one body in Christ, so we live by one and the same spirit. Therefore, by the virtue and power of the same Holy Spirit we drink in the supper, the blood of Christ and grow together into one with him and are quickened by his Spirit.
10. For as by one and the same soul all the members of the body are united with the head and quickened, so all the faithful although they be upon earth and the head is in heaven, yet they are in very deed by one and the same Spirit united with him and being united, do abide and live in him.
11. This doctrine and no other all the fathers taught. Augustine in his 50 tractat upon John, "Let them," says he, meaning the Jews, "Hear and lay hold of Christ who sits at the right hand of the father in heave." They answer, "Whom shall I lay hold of? Him that is absent? How shall I life up my hand into heaven to lay hold of him sitting there? Lift up they faith, and you have laid hold on him. Your fathers held him in the flesh. You should hold him in your heart because Christ being absent is yet nevertheless also present. Unless he were present he could not be held by us. Augustine shows at large that Christ is absent in flesh but is present in majesty.
12. Seeing therefore that it is as clear as the light at noonday that Christ, his flesh and blood, is received of us by spirit and faith and that in that way we are wholly joined to the whole Christ and are made one flesh (so that our adversaries dare not oppugn this manner of union), let us content ourselves with this and seek no other because the scriptures do not teach any other and because this only and alone is necessary to salvation, so it is also sufficient by all consent.
13. By all which it appears that this union is essential and real if we respect the things which are united and the truth of the union, but if we consider the manner how it is made, it is spiritual.
14. Hereby also is refuted that wicked opinion of the invisible flesh of Christ, that is everywhere present. For to this end and purpose they feigned this flesh that we might receive it with the mouth of the body, but this is superfluous and needless, for seeing that the true and natural flesh which is in heaven is truly and in very deed received of us and united to us by the Spirit of Christ and by our faith (as all do confess), to what end does this other invisible flesh serve, forsooth that it may also be received with the mouth of the body?
15. No truly, the whole cannot be received of one faithful man with the mouth of the body. For one faithful man is not everywhere that he may devour this flesh that is everywhere present, but one piece shall be received of one and another of another.
16. By the same argument is repelled the opinion of transubstantiation and of consubstantiation. For seeing it is received by spirit and faith and that to salvation, not only in the word of the Gospel, but also in Baptism and in the Supper, both transubstantiation and consubstantiation is superfluous and not needed. Why then do they trouble the Churches and strive for a thing not necessary to salvation?
17. And let this suffice for the third chapter: wherein these four questions of the formal cause of this spiritual marriage are unfolded and resolved: First, what things are united. Secondly, whereto we are first united, whether to the Godhead of Christ and by that to his flesh, or rather first to his flesh and by that to his Godhead. Thirdly, what manner of union this is. Fourthly, how it is made.

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