8. Whence, also, what the
Apostle Paul said of the unmarried woman, “that she may be holy
both in body and spirit;”2237
we are not so to understand, as
though a
faithful woman being
married and
chaste, and according to
the Scriptures subject unto her
husband, be not holy in body, but
only in spirit. For it cannot come to pass, that when the spirit is
sanctified, the body also be not holy, of which the sanctified
spirit maketh use: but, that we seem not to any to argue rather
than to
prove this by
divine saying; since the
Apostle Peter,
making mention of
Sarah, saith only “holy
women,” and saith
not, “and in body;” let us consider that saying of the same
Paul, where forbidding
fornication he saith, “Know ye not, that
your bodies are members of
Christ? Taking, therefore, members of
Christ, shall I make them members of an
harlot?
Far be it.”
2238
Therefore
let any one
dare to say that the members of
Christ are not holy; or
let him not
dare to separate from the members of
Christ the bodies
of the
faithful that are
married. Whence, also, a little after he
saith, “Your body is the
temple within you of the
Holy Spirit,
Whom ye have from
God; and ye are not your own; for ye have been
bought with a great
price.”
2239
He saith that the body of the
faithful is both members of
Christ, and the
temple of the Holy
Spirit, wherein assuredly the
faithful of both sexes are
understood. There therefore are
married women, there
unmarried
women also; but distinct in their
deserts, and as members preferred
to members, whilst yet neither are separated from the body.
Whereas, therefore, he saith, speaking of an
unmarried woman,
“that she may be holy both in body and spirit,” he would have
understood a fuller sanctification both in body and in spirit, and
hath not deprived the body of married women of all
sanctification.
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