On Christian Doctrine In Four Books

44. The first is about the Lord and His body, and it is this, that, knowing as we do that the head and the body -- that is, Christ and His Church -- are sometimes indicated to us under one person (for it is not in vain that it is said to believers, "Ye then are Abraham's seed," [1898] when there is but one seed of Abraham, and that is Christ), we need not be in a difficulty when a transition is made from the head to the body or from the body to the head, and yet no change made in the person spoken of. For a single person is represented as saying, "He hath decked me as a bridegroom with ornaments, and adorned me as a bride with jewels" [1899] and yet it is, of course, a matter for interpretation which of these two refers to the head and which to the body, that is, which to Christ and which to the Church.