26. And from such members He is not ashamed
to assume flesh, who is the framer of those very members. But
then who telleth us this? The Lord saith unto Jeremiah:
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before
thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee Jer. i. 5.. If, then, in fashioning man He was
not ashamed of the contact, was He ashamed in fashioning for His own
sake the holy Flesh, the veil of His Godhead? It is God who even
now creates the children in the womb, as it is written in Job, Hast
thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou
hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast knit me together with
bones and sinews Job x. 10, 11.. There is
nothing polluted in the human frame except a man defile this with
fornication and adultery. He who formed Adam formed Eve also, and
male and female were formed by God’s hands. None of the
members of the body as formed from the beginning is polluted. Let
the mouths of all heretics be stopped who slander their bodies, or
rather Him who formed them. But let us remember Paul’s
saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy
Ghost which is in you 1 Cor. vi. 19.? And again
the Prophet hath spoken before in the person of Jesus, My flesh is
from them Hos. ix. 12. R.V. Woe also to them,
when I depart from them. The Seventy mistook
ירִוּשֹבְּ,
“at my departure,” for ירְשָֹבִּ,
“my flesh.”: and in
another place it is written, Therefore will He give them up, until
the time that she bringeth forth Mic. v. 3.. And
what is the sign? He tells us in what follows, She shall bring
forth, and the remnant of their brethren shall return. And
what are the nuptial pledges of the Virgin, the holy bride?
And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness Hos. ii. 20.. And Elizabeth, talking with Mary,
speaks in like manner: And blessed is she that believed; for
there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from
the Lord Luke i. 45..