Thus, brethren, if we do the will of our Father, The preexistent Church God, we shall belong to the first Church, the spiritual one which was created before the sun and moon; but if we do not the will of the Lord, we shall fall under the scripture, which says, My house became a den of brigands. Therefore let us choose to belong to the Church of life, that we may win salvation. Now I imagine that you are not ignorant that the living Church is the body of Christ. For the scripture says, God made man male and female ; the male is Christ, the female is the Church. And moreover the books and the Apostles declare that the Church belongs not to the present, but has existed from the beginning; for she was spiritual, as was also our Jesus, but he was made manifest in the last days that he might save us; The translation she was made . . . that she might save us is grammatically more probable, but seems to be excluded both by the context and by the history of doctrine.