2. This we have undertaken in
our present discourse: may Christ help us, the Son of a virgin, and
the Spouse of virgins, born after the flesh of a virgin womb, and
wedded after the Spirit in virgin marriage. Whereas, therefore, the
whole Church itself is a virgin espoused unto one Husband Christ,2028
as the
Apostle saith, of how great
honor are its members worthy, who
guard
this even in the
flesh itself, which the whole
Church guards in the
faith? which
imitates the mother of her
husband, and her
Lord. For
the
Church also is both a mother and a
virgin. For whose
virgin
purity consult we for, if she is not a
virgin? or whose
children
address we, if she is not a mother?
Mary bare the Head of This Body
after the
flesh, the
Church bears the members of that Body after
the Spirit. In both
virginity hinders not fruitfulness: in both
fruitfulness takes not away virginity. Wherefore, whereas the whole
Church is holy both in body and spirit, and yet the whole is not
virgin in body but in spirit; how much
more holy is it in these
members, wherein it is virgin both in body and spirit?
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