But he who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit.

“"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." For the conjunction suffers the two no longer to be two, but makes them both one. Now mark again, how he proceeds by means of the bare terms, conducting his accusation in the names of the harlot and of Christ. Wherefore he saith, "He that is joined to a harlot is one body; but he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." For such an one becomes thenceforth Spirit, although a body envelope him. For when nothing corporeal nor gross nor earthly is around him, the body doth but merely envelope him; since the whole government of him is in the soul and the Spirit. In this way God is glorified. Wherefore both in the Prayer we are commanded to say, "Hallowed be Thy Name:" and Christ saith also, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." So do the heavens also glorify Him, uttering no voice, but by the view of them attracting wonder and referring the glory unto the Great Artificer. So let us glorify Him also, or rather more than they. For we can if we will. For not so much do the heaven nor day nor night glorify God, as a holy soul. For as one that gazeth upon the beauty of the heaven, saith, "Glory be to Thee, O God! How fair a work hast thou formed!" so too when beholding virtue in any man: nay, and much more so in the latter instance. For from these works of creation all do not glorify God; but many even assert that the things which exist are self-moving: and others impute to demons the workmanship of the world and providence; and these indeed greatly and unpardonably err: but in regard to the virtue of man, no one shall have power to hold these shameless opinions, but shall assuredly glorify God when he seeth him that serveth Him living in goodness. For who shall help being astonished when one being a man, and partaking of our common nature, and living among other men, like adamant yields not at all to the swarm of passions? when he is injured, and blesses; when he is evil reported of, and praises; when he is despitefully used, and prays for those who injure him; when he is plotted against, and does good to those that fight with him and lay snares for him? For these things, and such as these, will glorify God far more than the heaven. For the Greeks when they behold the heavens feel no awe; but when they see a holy man exhibiting a severe course of life with all strictness, they shrink away and condemn themselves. Since when he that partakes of the same nature as themselves is so much above them, a great deal more so than the heaven is above the earth, even against their inclination they think that it is a Divine power which works these things. Wherefore He saith, "And glorify your Father which is in heaven."”

“Above, the Apostle rebuked the Corinthians in three ways concerning judgments; now, however, he returns to rebuking the sin of the fornicator, whom he had mentioned above at V, 1, and in whose judgment the Corinthians had been negligent. He condemns fornication, moreover, by four arguments: the first is taken from the divine ordination; the second from union with Christ, at the words "or do you not know that your bodies," etc.; the third from the defilement of the body, at the words "flee fornication"; the fourth from the dignity of grace, at the words "or do you not know," and so forth. Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets down the divine ordination; second, the end of that ordination, at the words "For God," and so forth. Concerning the first it must be considered that some take an argument for their lasciviousness from the ordination of God. For those who fornicate use their body for a use instituted by God. But he excludes this, saying that food is ordained for the belly, and the belly for foods, but the body of man is not for fornication—that is, it is not ordained for fornicating, but for the Lord—that is, it is ordained for this, that it may belong to our Lord Jesus Christ; and the Lord for the body—that is, the Lord Jesus Christ was given to men for this, that he might conform human bodies to his glory, according to that saying of Phil. III, 21: "he will reform the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of his brightness." But against this it seems to be that just as the belly is ordained by God for the use of foods, so also certain members of the human body are ordained by God for the use of generation, by which fornication is carried out. But a difference must be attended to as to two points. First, indeed, that the Apostle above spoke of one member of the body, namely the belly, but here he speaks of the whole body, which just as it is not ordained for fornicating, so neither for taking food; but rather the use of foods is for the sake of the body, and the body for the sake of the soul, from which it receives life according to its condition. And because all things are ordained to God as to an end, therefore the body ought to be subject to the Lord and dedicated to him. And because above he spoke of the use of foods in common without disorder, but fornication is a disordered use arising from the member of the fornicator. Hence not even those members themselves are for the sake of fornication, but are ordained by reason for the sake of the use of generation, to which all the members of the body ought to be of service, just as also the belly is not for the sake of gluttony and drunkenness, but for the sake of the fitting use of foods. Then, when he says "But God," etc., he sets down the end of the aforesaid ordination. And first he sets down what God did concerning the Lord, saying that God also "raised up the Lord," namely the Lord Jesus Christ, from the dead, from whom Christ himself asks in Ps. XL, v. 11: "But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up." Now God is both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; hence also Christ himself, who is the Son of God, raised himself up, and rose by his own power, according to that saying of Ps. III, 6: "I slept, and took rest, and rose up, because the Lord sustained me"; and II Cor., last chapter: "if he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God." Second he sets down what he is going to do concerning us, saying that God will raise us up "through his power," namely the power by which he raised up Christ, according to that saying of Rom. VIII, 11: "he who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies." And it must be noted that above, speaking of foods and the belly, which pertain to the use of animal life, he said that they would be destroyed by God; but now, speaking of the body and the Lord, he makes mention of the resurrection, because, namely, when animal life ceases, the nature of the body will be reformed into something better. Hence it is clear that the body is not to be used for fornication, which impedes future incorruption, according to that saying of Gal., last chapter: "he who sows in the flesh will also reap corruption from the flesh." Then, when he says "do you not know," etc., he sets down the second argument, which is taken from the affinity of the human body to Christ, which is as follows: the members of a man who fornicates are the members of a harlot; but the members of a man are the members of Christ; therefore through fornication the members of Christ become the members of a harlot, which is unfitting. Concerning this he does four things. First he states the major, saying, "Or do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ?" As if to say: you ought not to be ignorant of this, because whoever you are who have been regenerated in Christ, you have been made members of Christ, according to that saying below at XII, 27: "you are the body of Christ, and members of a member." And this is so not only with regard to souls, which are justified by him, but also with regard to bodies, which will be raised up by him, as has been said. Second he sets down the conclusion, saying, "Taking, then, the members of Christ"—that is, rightly withdrawing them from the service of Christ, to which they ought to be assigned (according to that saying of Rom. VI, 13: "that you present your members as weapons of righteousness to God")—"shall I make" them, namely those same members, "to be the members of a harlot" by fornicating? "God forbid": for this is a horrifying sacrilege. Hence it is said in Mal. II, v. 11: "Judah has profaned the sanctification of the Lord which he loved, and has had the daughter of a strange god." Third he sets down the minor, saying, "Or do you not know that he who cleaves to a harlot"—namely by fornicating—"is made one body"? Namely through unclean commingling. And to prove this, he brings in the authority of Genesis, saying: "for," Scripture "says," namely Gen. II, 24: "the two"—namely man and woman—"shall be in one flesh," that is, through carnal mixture they are made one flesh, and thus the members of the one become the members of the other. For these are the words of Adam speaking of husband and wife, which the Apostle here refers also to fornication, because according to the species of nature the acts of both do not differ. But it must be understood that, as the Philosopher says in the book On the Generation of Animals, in the male is the active principle of generation, in the female is the passive. And just as in a plant, whose life is principally ordained to generation, there is always one body in which both principles are united, so in animals, which are ordained to higher acts of life, there is not always one body having these two principles, but out of two there is made one in the act of generation. Which indeed is not the man's alone, because, as is said below in chapter VII, 4, "the husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife." Fourth he proves the minor, saying, "but he who cleaves to the Lord," etc., namely through faith and charity, "is one spirit with him," because, namely, he is united to him by a spiritual unity, not a bodily one. Hence also it is said in Rom. VIII, 9: "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his"; and Jn. XVII, 21 and following: "that they may be one in us, as we are one," namely through the connection of the spirit: and because the body is in service to the spirit, it follows that our bodies too are the members of him to whom we are united through the spirit, not indeed by carnal conjunction, but spiritual. Now from the two aforesaid arguments one argument can be forged, namely, that because our body is not assigned to fornication, but to the Lord—in this way, namely, that our members are the members of Christ, as he afterward explains—we should not make them the members of a harlot by fornicating. Then, when he says "flee fornication," etc., he sets down the third argument, which is taken from the defilement of the body. First he sets down the intended conclusion, saying "flee fornication." Where it must be noted that the other vices are overcome by resisting, because the more a man considers and dwells upon particulars, the less he finds in them wherein to delight, but is rather made anxious; but the vice of fornication is not overcome by resisting, because the more a man there thinks upon the particular, the more he is inflamed; but it is overcome by fleeing, that is, by totally avoiding unclean thoughts and any occasions whatsoever, as is said in Zech. II, 6: "flee from the land of the North, says the Lord." Second he assigns the reason, saying, "every other sin whatsoever a man commits," and so forth. For evidence of this it must be known that certain sins are not consummated in carnal delight, but in spiritual delight alone, and so they are called spiritual vices, such as pride, avarice, sloth; but fornication is completed chiefly in carnal delight, and according to this it could be understood what is said here, "every sin whatsoever a man commits is outside the body," because, namely, it is completed apart from the delight of his own body. "But he who fornicates sins against his own body," because, namely, his sin is consummated in the flesh. But contrary to this exposition it seems to be that the sin of gluttony also is consummated in the delight of the body. To which it could be said that the sin of gluttony is contained under lust, insofar as it is ordained to it, according to that saying of Eph. V, 18: "do not be drunk with wine, in which is lust." But it can better be said that the Apostle does not say "he who fornicates sins by his own body," which would fit the first exposition; but "sins against his own body," that is, against his own body, by corrupting and defiling it apart from the use of reason. Hence also Apoc. III, 4: "you have a few names in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments," that is, their body; and Apoc. XIX, 4: "these are they who have not been defiled with women." Or otherwise, according to Augustine, here in the Gloss, "he who fornicates sins against his own body," because his soul in that act is totally subjected to the flesh, so that he cannot think of anything else there. Hence in Ps. XXXI, 9 it is said: "do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding." Or otherwise: "he sins against his own body," that is, against his wife, who is called the body of the husband, against whom the other sins are not so directly committed as the fornication of the husband. Hence also in I Thess. ch. IV, 4 it is said: "that each of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification," that is, his wife. Or according to Augustine it can be understood of spiritual fornication, by which the soul cleaves through love to the world, and withdraws from God, according to that saying of Ps. LXXII, 27: "you will destroy all who fornicate away from you." The sense, therefore, is: "he who fornicates," withdrawing from God on account of love of the world, "sins against his own body," that is, through bodily concupiscence. But every other sin, for instance one which a man commits out of forgetfulness, or out of ignorance, or negligence, is "outside the body," that is, outside bodily concupiscence. Then, when he says "or do you not know," etc., he sets down the fourth argument, which is taken from the dignity of grace, which indeed arises from two things, namely from the grace of the Holy Spirit, and from the redemption of the blood of Christ. Concerning this, then, he does three things. First he sets forth the dignity of our body, which it has from the grace of the Holy Spirit, saying "or do you not know," as if to say, you ought not to be ignorant, "that your members"—namely the bodily ones—"are the temple of the Holy Spirit"? Just as above at III, 16 it was said: "do you not know that you are the temple of God." And he assigns the reason for this, adding, "who is in you." Now a temple is called the house of God; therefore, because the Holy Spirit is God, it is fitting that in whomever the Holy Spirit is, he should be called the temple of God. Now the Holy Spirit is indeed principally in the hearts of men, in whom the charity of God is poured out through the Holy Spirit, as is said in Rom. V, 5. But secondarily he is also in the bodily members, insofar as they carry out works of charity. Hence in Ps. LXXXIII, 3 it is said: "my heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." And lest they should ascribe this dignity to themselves, he adds, "whom you have from God," not from yourselves. Hence Joel II, 28: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh"; and Acts V, 23: "he has given his Spirit to those who obey him." Second he sets down the dignity which our bodies have from the redemption of the blood of Christ, saying, "and you are not your own, but Jesus Christ's," according to that saying of Rom. XIV, 8: "whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's"; II Cor. V, 15: "he who lives, let him no longer live for himself." He assigns the reason for this, saying, "you have been bought at a great price," and therefore you are the servants of him who redeemed you from the servitude of sin. Hence below at VII, 22 it is said: "he who was called free is the servant of Christ; for you have been bought at a price"; and in Ps. XXX, 6: "you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." Now the price of redemption is called great, because it is not corruptible, but has an eternal power, since it is the blood of God himself, the eternal one. Hence I Peter I, 18 and following: "you have been redeemed from your vain manner of life, not with corruptible things like gold or silver, but with the blood of the lamb, unspotted and undefiled, Jesus Christ." Third he draws the intended conclusion, saying, "glorify, therefore, and bear God in your body." For because your members are the temple of God, nothing ought to appear in your body except what pertains to the glory of God, and this is to glorify God in your body, because in Ps. XXVIII, 9 it is said: "in his temple all shall speak his glory." Exodus, last chapter, it is said: "the cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it." But because you are not your own, but are the servants of God, your body ought to bear God, just as a horse or another animal bears its master. Hence in Ps. LXXII, 23 it is said: "I have become like a beast of burden before you." But our body bears the Lord, insofar as it is assigned to divine ministry. Thus, then, a man ought to avoid sinning against his own body by fornicating, which is against the glory of God, and against the ministry which our body owes to God.”

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit . Not one essentially, as Ruisbrochius (de Aita Contempt .) says that Almaric and certain fanatic 44 illuminati ” thought, but one in the way of accidents : one in charity, in the consent of the will, in grace and glory, all which make man like God, so that he is as it were one and the same spirit with God. So Ambrose, Anselm, (Ecumenius. From this passage S. Basil (de Vera Virgin.) shows that the chaste and holy soul is the spouse of God, and is changed into the excellence of the Divine image, so as to become one spirit with God, and from this union with God drinks in all possible purity, virtue, incorruption, peace, and inward calm. u Wherefore ,” he says, “the soul which is joined to Christ is, as it were, the bride of the Wisdom or the Word of God ; is necessarily wise and prudent, so that every mark of the yoke of brutish folly having been removed by meditation on Divine things, she wears the beauteous ornament of the Wisdom to which she has been joined, until she so thoroughly joins to herself the Eternal Wisdom , so becomes one with It, that of corruptible she is made incorruptible, of ignorant most prudent and wise , like the Word, to whose side she has closely kept, and in short, of mortal man is made immortal God ; and so He to whom she has been united is made manifest to all ” S. Bernard ( Serm 7 in Cantic.) beautifully describes this betrothal of God with the soul that clings to Him with pure and holy love, and the communication of all good things that flows from it. He says : 44 The soul which loves God is called His bride ; for the two names, bride and bridegroom, denote the closest affections of the heart ; for to them all things are in common : they have one purse, one home, one table, one bed, one flesh. Therefore shall a man leave father and mother, &*c., and they twain shall be one flesh. . . . She that loves is called a bride ; but one that loves seeks for kisses — not for liberty, or wages, or a settlement of money, but for kisses after the manner of a Digitized by v^,ooQle Il6 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE most chaste bride , whose every breath whispers of her love in all its purity , and who is wholly unable to conceal the fire that is burning her . * Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth] she says. It is as though she were to say , 4 What have I in heaven , and what do I wish for on earth apart from you ? 9 Surely this , her love , is chaste , since she seeks to have Him that she loves , and nothing else besides Him. It is a holy love , because it is not in the lust of the fleshy but in the purity of the spirit. It is a burning love , because she is so drunken with her own love that she thinks not of His majesty. Yet He is One that looks at the earth and it trembles , He toucheth the mountains and they smoke , and she seeks to be kissed by Him. Is she drunk ? Surely so, because she had perchance come forth from the wine-cellar. How great is love’s power l how great is the confidence of the spirit of liberty l Perfect love casteth out fear. She does not say , 4 Let this or that bridegroom , or friend or king, kiss me] but definitely, 4 Let Him kiss me 9 Just so Mary Magdalene, when she found not her Lord in the tomb, and believed Him to have been taken away, said of Him, 4 If thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away . 9 Who is the 4 Him 9 f She does not reveal it, because she supposes that what is never for a moment absent from her heart must be obvious to all. So too the bride says, 4 Let him kiss me] i.e., him who is never absent from my heart ; for being on fire with love she thinks that the name of him she loves is well known to all” More on this betrothal and union to God of the soul that clings to Him will be found in the notes to 2 Cor. xi. 2. Again we find S. Bernard, or the author of the treatise, 44 On the Solitary I ,ife,” saying towards the end : 44 The perfection of the will that is moving towards God is to be found in the unity with God of the spirit of the man whose affections are set on things above . When he now no longer merely wills what God wills, but has so far advanced in love that he cannot will save what God wills, the union is complete. For to will what God wills is to be like God; not to be able to will save what God wills is to be what God is, with whom Will and Being are the same. Hence it is well said that then we Digitized by v^,ooQle SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE II 7 shall see Him as He is , when we shall be so like Him that we shall be what He is. For to those to whom has been given the power of becoming the sons of God there has been also given the power of becoming, not indeed God , but what God is. S. Bernard goes on to point out a triple similitude that men have to God, and then he adds : “ This likeness of man to God is called a unity of spirit, not merely because it is the Holy Spirit that effects it, or because He affects marls spirit towards it, but because it is itself the Holy Spirit — God who is love. Since He is the bond of love between the Father and the Son, He is unity, and sweetness , and good, and kisses , and embraces, and whatever can be common to Both in that supreme unity of Truth and truth of Unity ; and similarly He makes man to become to God after mails capacity all that by substantial unity the Father is through Him to the Son and the Son to the Father. The blessed consciousness of man has found in some way a means by which it embraces the Father and the Son : in an ineffable and inconceivable manner man merits to become of God, though not God. God, however, is what He is by His own Nature ; man becomes what he does by grace.” Ver. 1 8 . — Flee fornication. Because, as Anselm, Cassian, and the Fathers generally teach, other vices are conquered by resistance, lust alone by flight, viz., by fleeing from women, from the objects and occasions of lust, by turning aside the eyes and the mind to see and think of other things. For if you oppose a temptation to some lewdness, or fight against some impure thought, you only excite the imagination by thinking of such things, and then inflame still more the innate lust of the flesh, that is naturally disposed to such acts as fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body. Does not stain or pollute the body. It may be said that if a man kills or mutilates or castrates himself he sins against his body, and therefore it is not a fact that every sin distinct from fornication is without the body. I reply that every sin, i.e., every kind of sins which men commonly and ordinarily commit is without the body. For there are seven Digitized by v^,ooQle Il8 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE capital sins, which theologians, following S. Paul, divide into spiritual and bodily or camaL Those that are carnal are two — gluttony and lust ; the spiritual are five — pride, covetousness, anger, envy, sloth. Of these anger and envy tend directly of themselves towards murder of one’s neighbour, but not except by accident towards murder of one’s self, and that in few and extraordinary cases. The angry man, therefore, does not ordinarily and necessarily sin against his body, but against that of another, by assaulting him or killing him. The Apostle’s meaning then is, that all the sins in general which men ordinarily and commonly commit are without the body. " Every sin ” therefore does not include mutilation or suicide, which happen rarely, and as it were accidentally; nor does it include gluttony as I will show directly. But he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body . S. Jerome {Ep. ad Amand. tom. iii.) gives two explanations of this passage, of which the first is — the fornicator sins against his wife, who is his own body ; the second is — he plants in his body the seeds of sexual passion, which, even after his sin, remain, when he wishes to repent, to spring up into active life. S. Jerome says that “ other sins are without , and after being committed are repented of and though profit urge to them yet conscience rebukes. Lust alone , even in the hour of repentance , suffers under the whips and stings of the past and under organic irritation , and under incentives to sin , so that material for sin is supplied again by thoughts of the very things which we long to see corrected. n S. Jerome confesses (Ep. 22 ad Eustoch.) that he knew this from his own experience. S. Mary of Egypt found the same true in her own case, who endured under penance these whips and stings for as many years as she had formerly given to sexual passion, viz., seventeen, as Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, relates in her life. (Ecumenius has ten other explanations of this passage, as has also Isidorus Pelusiota {lib. iv. Ep. 129). But the true and genuine sense is : Whoever commits fornication does injury to his own body, 1. because he pollutes and disgraces his body, as Gregory of Nyssa says in his oration on these words. Digitized by v^,ooQle THE EVIL OF FORNICATION 119 2. Because by fornication he weakens and exhausts his body, and often destroys it, by contracting venereal disease. So S. Athanasius, quoted by CEcuraenius. In both these ways the glutton and drunkard sin against their body, because the first disgraces it by subjecting it to unhealthy humours, to vomiting, and other disgusting things, while the latter weakens, injures, and finally ruins its natural heat and strength. Hence under the name of fornication, here gluttony and drunkenness, as being akin to it, or rather its mother, may be understood. It was for this reason that the Apostle, in ver. 13, spoke of gluttony. For these two sins, gluttony and lust, are vices peculiar to the body, and are thence called sins of the flesh : other sins belong to the spirit alone, as I have just said. 3. The fornicator does injury to his own body, inasmuch as he alone brings his body, which was created free, pure, and noble, under the jurisdiction, service, and power of the most degraded harlot, so that he becomes as one thing with her. In the same way that, if any one were to bind his own body, that was noble, healthy, and beautiful, to the body of some loathsome leper, he would be said to do his body a great wrong, so does he who unites to a common, base, and infamous harlot his body, that was created by God pure, noble* and free, and redeemed and washed by the blood of Christ, do to it grievous injury. In all these verses the Apostle lays stress upon this wrong. 4. The fornicator does injury to his body, because he excites in it a foul and shameful lust, which so absorbs the mind that in carrying it out into action the man can think of nothing else. He makes his body, therefore, the slave of his lust, in such a way that he is wholly ruled by it Neither gluttony nor any other sin in the body excites such shameful and vehement lust as this is. Impurity alone then holds sway over the body, and by its lust and outward action stains, subjugates, and destroys it”

“He that is joined unto the Lord,.... As every elect person is; his whole person, soul and body, is united to the Lord Jesus Christ, to his whole person, as God-man and Mediator; even as Adam and Eve, whose marriage was a representation of the marriage between Christ and his church, were personally united, and were called by the same name; and as the whole human nature of Christ, consisting of a true body and a reasonable soul, was united to the person of the Son of God; and as appears from the influence that union with Christ has upon the redemption, sanctification, and resurrection of the body. The ground, foundation, and bond of which union is, not the Spirit on Christ's part; for the Spirit being received as a spirit of regeneration, sanctification, &c. is a fruit of union to Christ, and an evidence of it; nor faith on our part, which as a grace is not ours, but the gift of God, and is a fruit of union; nor is it of an uniting nature, but is a grace of communion; and the foundation of all its acts, as seeing Christ, going to him, receiving of him, walking on in him; &c. is a previous union to Christ; but it is the everlasting and unchangeable love of Christ to them, shown in his choice of them, in his covenant with his Father on their behalf, in his engaging for them as a surety, in assuming their nature, and acting, both in time and eternity, as the representative of them, which is the bond and cement of their union, and from which there can be no separation. This union is first discovered in the effectual calling, and will be more manifest hereafter. Now he that is in this sense united to Christ, is one spirit; for this union is a spiritual one; it is complete and perfect; near and indissoluble; by virtue and in consequence of it, God's chosen ones come to have and enjoy the same spirit in measure, which Christ their head and Mediator has without measure: hence they have the Spirit of God, as a spirit of illumination and conversion, of faith and holiness, of adoption, and as the earnest, pledge, and seal of their future glory. And since so it is, fornication, which makes them one flesh with an harlot, ought studiously to be abstained from.”

“one spirit--with Him. In the case of union with a harlot, the fornicator becomes one "body" with her (not one "spirit," for the spirit which is normally the organ of the Holy Spirit in man, is in the carnal so overlaid with what is sensual that it is ignored altogether). But the believer not only has his body sanctified by union with Christ's body, but also becomes "one spirit" with Him (Joh 15:1-7; Joh 17:21; Pe2 1:4; compare Eph 5:23-32; Joh 3:6).”