_The Preachers_: "So is it with all the works and ordinances of God, especially with the Sacraments. When I am baptised it is well if faith be there; but if it be not, baptism does not for all that fail to be a precious, noble, and holy Sacrament, yes, what St. Paul calls it, a regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost, because it is ordered by God's word and given His promise. So also with respect to the Lord's Supper; if those who partake shall have faith to grasp the promise of Christ, as it is written, _Oportet accedentem credere_, but none the less does God's word, ordinance, and command remain, even if my faith never more turned thereto. But of this we have said enough."[278] [278] _Ibid._ f. 384 b. The preachers next catechised John of Leyden on his heresy concerning the Incarnation. He did not deny that Jesus Christ was born of Mary, but he denied that He derived from her His flesh and blood, as he considered that Mary being sinful, out of sinful flesh sinful offspring must issue. The catechising on the subject of marriage follows. _The Preachers_: "How have you regarded marriage, and what is your belief thereupon?" _The King_: "We have ever held marriage to be God's work and ordinance, and we hold this now, that no higher or better estate exists in the world than the estate of matrimony." _The Preachers_: "Why have you so wildly treated this same estate, against God's word and common order, and taken one wife after another? How can you justify such a proceeding?" _The King_: "What was permitted to the patriarchs in the Old Testament, why should it be denied to us? What we have held is this: he who wished to have only one wife had not other wives forced upon him; but him who wished to have more wives than one, we left free to do so, according to God's command, Be fruitful and multiply." This the preachers combat by saying that the patriarchs were guiltless, because the law of the land (_die gemeine Policey_) did not then forbid concubinage, but that now that is forbidden by common law, it is sinful.[279] Then they asked the king what other texts he could quote to establish polygamy. [279] Wei zweiveln nicht wenn ein bestendig Policey und Regiment gewesen were, wie itzt est, es würden sich die Vetter freilich aug der selbigen gehalten haben. _The King_: "Paul says of the bishop, let him be the husband of one wife; now if a bishop is to have only one wife, surely, in the time of Paul, laymen must have been allowed two or three apiece, as pleased them. There you have your text." _The Preachers_: "As we said before, marriage is an affair of common police regulation, _res Politica_. And as now the law of the land is different from what it was in the time of Paul, so that many wives are forbidden and not tolerated, you will have to answer for your innovations before God and man."