Book of Rules 2 part 1/7

Before all else I have considered it necessary to write a little book of Rules and, as it were, to forge keys and lamps for the laws of hidden things, according to what seems best to me. For there are certain mystical rules which command the recesses of the whole Law and make the treasures of truth invisible to some. If the reasoning of these rules be received without grudging, as we share it freely, then everything closed shall be laid open and the obscure shall be made clear, so that anyone walking through the vast forest of prophecy, led by these rules along, as it were, pathways of light, may be defended from error. The rules are these: I. Of the Lord and His Body. II. Of the Lord's twofold Body. III. Of the promises and the Law. IV. Of the species and the genus. V. Of the times. VI.

Of recapitulation. VII. Of the devil and his body. Of the Lord and His Body. The Scripture speaks of the Lord and His Body, that is, the Church (2 Tim. i, 20); reason alone distinguishes them, persuading what befits each one; but because the force of truth is so great, it compels assent. Elsewhere a single person is addressed whom the differing offices of two show to be twofold. Thus through Isaiah: 'He,' it says, 'bears our sins and grieves for us, and He Himself was wounded for our crimes. God delivered Him up for our sins,' etc. (Isa. liii, 4, 6, according to the LXX), which the whole Church with one mouth celebrates as applying to the Lord. But it follows and says of the same one:

'And God wills to cleanse Him from the stroke, and God wills to take away the suffering from Him and to give Him light, and to form Him with prudence' (Ibid., 10, 11). Surely it is not to Him whom He delivered up for our sins that He wills to show light and to form with prudence—since He Himself is the light and wisdom of God—but rather to His Body? Hence it is plain that by reason alone can one perceive when the text passes over from the Head to the Body. Daniel too says that the stone cut from the mountain struck against the body of the kingdoms of the world and ground the Lord into dust. But the mountain, having grown great, filled the whole earth—this is His Body. For it is not, as some say, to the dishonour of the kingdom of God and of the unconquered inheritance of Christ—which I do not say without grief.

The Lord occupied the whole world by His power (Matt. xxviii, 18), and not by the fullness of His Body. For they say the world was filled by that mountain in this sense: that it is now lawful for a Christian to offer in every place, which formerly was lawful only in Sion. But if this is so, there was no need to say that a mountain was made from the stone and that it began with the world growing by increments. For our Lord Christ had this glory before the foundation of the world (John xvii, 2), and although that man was the Son of God, He received all authority in heaven and on earth not little by little, like the stone, but at one moment. The stone, however, was made a mountain by increments, and by growing it covered the whole earth.

For if He had filled the whole earth by power and not by His Body, He would not be compared to a stone. For power is a thing impalpable, but a stone is a palpable body. Nor is it by reason alone that it is shown that the Body, not the Head, grows; it is also confirmed by Apostolic authority: 'That you may grow,' he says, 'in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ; from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every contact of supply, according to the measure of each single part, makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself' (Eph. iv, 15, 16). And again: 'Not holding the Head, from whom the whole body, by joints and bands knit together and supplied, grows with the increase of God' (Col. ii, 29 [19]).

It is therefore not the Head, which is the same from the beginning, that grows, but the Body grows out of the Head. Let us return to our purpose. It is written concerning the Lord and His Body, and what belongs to which must be distinguished by reason: 'He has given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt tread upon the lion and the dragon. Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he has known my name. He has called upon me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him. With length of days will I fill him, and I will show him my salvation' (Ps. xc [xci], 11-16).

Surely it is not to him concerning whose service God charged His angels that He shows His salvation, and not to His Body? Again: 'As on a bridegroom He has placed a mitre upon me, and as a bride He has adorned me with ornament' (Isa. lxi, 10, according to the LXX). He spoke of one body of both sexes, of bridegroom and bride; but what applies to the Lord and what to the Church is known by reason. And the same Lord says in the Apocalypse: 'I am the bridegroom and the bride' (Apoc. xviii, 23). And again: 'They went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride' (Matt. xxv, 1). And again, what is to be distinguished by reason as belonging to the Head and to the Body is declared through Isaiah: 'Thus says the Lord to my Christ the Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may obey him' (Isa. xlv, 1-3).

It follows and says what can apply only to the Body: 'And I will give thee hidden treasures and will open to thee invisible things, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord, who call thy name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen one.' For on account of the covenant which He made with the Fathers, that He might be acknowledged, God opens to the Body of Christ the invisible treasures, 'which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they ascended into the heart of man' (1 Cor. ii, 9)—but neither into the heart of the man who is stopped up, who is not in the Body of Christ. To the Church, however, God revealed these things through the Holy Spirit, though this is of the grace of God. Yet when reason is applied, they are sometimes seen more easily.

There are other passages in which this kind of reasoning shines forth less clearly, because the saying may fitly apply either to the Lord or to His Body. Wherefore they can be seen only by the greater grace of God. Thus in the Gospel: 'Henceforth,' He says, 'you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxvi, 64). In another place He says: that they shall not see Him coming in the clouds of heaven except only on the last day, when all the tribes of the earth shall mourn. 'And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxiv, 30). But both must necessarily come to pass. Yet first is the coming of the Body, that is, of the Church continually coming in the same invisible glory;

then comes the coming of the Head, that is, of the Lord in manifest glory. For if He had said, 'Henceforth you shall see Him coming,' the coming of the Body alone would be understood. But if 'you shall see,' the coming of the Head. Now, however, He says, 'henceforth you shall see Him coming,' because in His Body He continually comes by birth and by the glory of like sufferings. For if the reborn become members of Christ, and the members which constitute the Body are Christ, it is Christ who comes, since birth is a coming, as it is written: 'He enlightens every man coming into this world' (John i, 9). And again: 'One generation passes away, and another generation comes' (Eccles. i, 4). And again: 'As you have heard that Antichrist comes' (1 John ii, 18).

Again concerning the same Body: 'For if he who comes preaches another Christ' (2 Cor. xi, 4). Hence the Lord, when He was asked about the sign of His coming, began to speak of that coming of His which can be imitated by the hostile body through signs and wonders: 'Take heed,' He says, 'that no one lead you astray' (Matt. xxiv, 4). 'Many will come in my name,' that is, in the name of my Body. But at the last coming of the Lord, that is, of the consummation of His whole coming, no one would die, as some suppose. But that these things may be said more fully, let us leave them to their proper place.

Nor will it be absurd that we wish the whole Body to be understood from one—as the Church to be the Son of Man—since the Church, that is, the sons of God gathered into one Body, are called the Son of God, are called one man, are even called God, as through the Apostle: 'Above everything that is called God, or that is worshipped' (2 Thess. ii, 4). He who is called God is the Church. But that which is worshipped is the most high God: 'so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God'—that is, that he himself is the Church. As if he should say: that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself to be the temple of God; or that he sits in God, showing himself to be God. But this understanding Daniel willed, as we know, to obscure no less, concerning the last king:

'In the Lord,' he says, 'his place shall be glorified' (Dan. xi, 38, according to the LXX)—that is, shall be made glorious; as if he set up the Church in the place of the Church, in the holy place, by the abomination of desolation, into God—that is, into the Church. And the Lord calls the whole people His bride and His sister. And the Apostle calls them a holy Virgin, and the opposing body a man of sin. And David calls the whole, Christ, the Church: 'Showing mercy to His Christ, to David and to his seed for ever' (Ps. xvii [xviii], 51). And the apostle Paul calls the Body of Christ, Christ: 'For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ' (1 Cor.

xii, 12)—that is, the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Again: 'I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ' (Col. i, 24)—that is, of the Church. For nothing was lacking to the sufferings of Christ, since it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. Thus then we shall understand the coming of Christ according to the contexts. Likewise in Exodus we learn that all the sons of God are one son, and that all the firstborn of the Egyptians are one firstborn, God speaking thus: 'These things,' He says, 'you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to thee, Let my people go that they may serve me; but thou wouldst not let him go' (Exod. iv, 22). Whence then:

'Behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn.' And David, of the vineyard of the Lord as one son, speaks thus: 'O God of hosts, turn again; look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard, and perfect it which thy right hand has planted; and look upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself' (Ps. lxxix [lxxx], 15). And the Apostle calls him a son of God who is joined to the Son of God: 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He had promised before through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was predestined the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom.

i, 1-4). Had he said 'concerning His Son, as by the resurrection from the dead,' he would have shown one Son; but now he says, 'concerning His Son, by the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.' But who was made the Son of God by the resurrection of Christ, he shows more openly: 'concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestined the Son of God.' For our Lord is not predestined the Son of God, because He is God and coequal with the Father, who is what He is from the moment He was begotten. But that one is meant, to whom, according to Luke, He says at the baptism: 'Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee' (Ps. ii, 7).

He who is of the seed of David was joined to the principal Spirit, and was Himself made the Son of God by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ—that is, when in Christ the seed of David rises again; not that one of whom David himself says: 'Thus says the Lord to my Lord' (Ps. cix [cx], 1). And so the two became one flesh: 'The Word was made flesh' (John i, 14), and the flesh became God; for we are born not of blood, but of God. The Apostle says: 'The two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak in Christ and in the Church' (Eph. v, 31, 32). For God promised one seed to Abraham, so that however many should be joined to Christ, there might be one in Christ, as the Apostle says: 'You are all one in Christ Jesus.'

'And if you are one in Christ Jesus, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise' (Gal. iii, 28, 29). But there is a difference between 'you are one [thing]' and 'you are one [person].' As often as one is joined to another by will into one, they are one [thing]. As the Lord says: 'I and the Father are one' (John x, 30). But as often as they are joined also bodily, and two are made solid into one flesh, they are one body. And so in His Head He is the Son of God, and God in His Body is the Son of Man, who by being daily born comes and grows into a holy temple of God. For the Temple is twofold. One part of it, although built of great stones, is destroyed, and in it not one stone shall be left upon another.

We must beware of the continual coming of that part, until the Church departs from its midst. Of the Lord's twofold Body. The rule of the Lord's twofold Body is much more necessary and is to be examined by us all the more diligently, and to be kept before our eyes throughout all the Scriptures. For just as, as was said above, the passage from the Head to the Body is seen by reason alone, so the transition from one part of the Body to another part—from the right to the left, or from the left to the right—is made clear by the aforesaid Head. For when He says to one body: 'I will open to thee invisible treasures, that thou mayest know that I am God, and I will take thee up' (Isa. xlv [xliii], 3), He also adds:

'But thou hast not known me, that I am God, and there is no other God beside me, and thou didst not know me' (Ibid., 4, 5). Surely, although He addresses one body, it does not agree into one mind: 'I will open to thee invisible treasures, that thou mayest know that I am God, for the sake of my servant Jacob; and yet thou hast not known me'? In the same body: and Jacob did not receive what God promised. Or it does not agree into one mind: 'But thou hast not known me, and thou didst not know me'; for 'thou didst not know' is not said except to one who already knows. But 'thou hast not known' is said to one who, although he has been called to this, that he might know, and is of the same body visibly, and draws near to God with his lips, yet is separated in heart.

To this one He says, 'but thou hast not known me.' Again: 'I will lead the blind into a way which they have not known, and they shall walk in paths which they have not known; and I will make darkness into light for them, and crooked things straight. These words will I do, and I will not forsake them. But they themselves were turned back' (Isa. xlii, 16, 17). Surely those whom He said He would not forsake are not the same who were turned back—and not rather a part of them? Again the Lord says to Jacob: 'Fear not, for I am with thee. From the East I will bring thy seed, and from the West I will gather thee. I will say to the North, Give up; and to the South, Forbid not. Bring my sons from a far land, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, and all in whom my name has been called.

For I have prepared him for my glory, and I have formed him, and I have brought forth a blind people, and their eyes are likewise blind, and they have deaf ears' (Isa. xliii, 7, 8). Surely those whom He prepared for His glory are not the same who are blind and deaf? Again: 'Thy first fathers, their princes committed a crime against me, and thy princes defiled my holy things, and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to a curse' (Ibid., 25-28). 'Now hear me, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen' (Isa. xliv, 1). He shows that He gave that Jacob to destruction, and that Israel to a curse, whom He had not chosen. Again: 'I have formed thee, my servant; thou art mine, O Israel; forget me not. For behold, I have blotted out thy crimes like a cloud, and thy sins like a mist.'

'Return to me, and I will redeem thee' (Ibid., 21, 22). Surely, the one whose sins He has blotted out, to whom He says 'thou art mine,' and, lest he forget himself, He reminds the same and says 'return to me'—are anyone's sins blotted out before he returns? Again: 'I know that being reprobate thou shalt be reprobated; for thy name's sake I will show thee my dignity, and I will bring my glorious things upon thee' (Isa. xlviii, 8, 9). Surely He does not show His dignity to the reprobate and bring His glorious things upon him? Again: 'Not an elder, not an angel, but He Himself considered them, because He loved them and spared them. He Himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age.'

'But they themselves were rebellious and provoked the Holy Spirit' (Isa. lxiii, 9, 10, according to the LXX). Whom did He exalt all the days of the age, at what time were they rebellious or provoked the Holy Spirit? Again God openly promises to one body firmness and ruin, saying: 'Jerusalem, rich city, tabernacles which shall not be moved, neither shall the stakes of thy tabernacle be shaken for ever, neither shall its cords be broken' (Isa. xxxiii, 20, 21, according to the LXX). And He adds: 'Thy cords are broken, because the mast of thy ship had no strength; they have lowered thy sails and it shall not lift up a signal, until it be delivered into perdition' (Ibid., 23). Again He briefly shows the twofold Body of Christ:

'I am black and comely' (Cant. i, 4). For far be it that the Church, which has no spot or wrinkle (Eph. v, 27), which the Lord cleansed by His own blood, should be black in any part, except in the left part, through which the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles; otherwise, she is wholly beautiful, as it says: 'Thou art wholly beautiful, my neighbour, and there is no reproof in thee' (Cant. iv, 7). For it tells the reason why she is black and beautiful: 'as the tabernacles of Cedar, and the skins of Solomon.' It shows two tabernacles: the royal and the servile. Yet both are the seed of Abraham. For Cedar is a son of Ishmael. And in another place, with that Cedar—that is, with the servant born of Abraham—the Church thus groaned over its long dwelling, saying: 'Woe is me!'

'because my sojourning has become long; I have dwelt with the tabernacles of Cedar; my soul has long been a sojourner. With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause' (Ps. cxix [cxx], 5-7, according to the LXX). But I cannot say that the tabernacle of Cedar is anything outside the Church. For she herself says: 'The tabernacle of Cedar and of Solomon: hence,' she says, 'I am black and comely.' For the Church is not black in those who are outside. By this mystery the Lord in the Apocalypse speaks of seven angels, that is, of the sevenfold Church, now showing them as saints and keepers of His commandments, now showing these same ones as guilty of many crimes and deserving of penance.

And in the Gospel He manifests one body of overseers as of differing merit, saying: 'Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing' (Luke xii, 43). And of the same: 'But if that wicked servant'—whom the Lord divides into two parts (Luke xii, 46 [xix, 21]). I say: will He divide or cleave every one? In short, the whole, not the whole: but 'He will appoint his portion with the hypocrites' (Matt. xxiv, 51). For He shows one body in one. This body, therefore, is to be understood throughout all the Scriptures, wherever God says that Israel is to perish by its own desert, or that His inheritance is abominable. For the Apostle disputes this copiously, especially to the Romans, that whatever is said of the whole body is to be understood of a part.

'To Israel,' he says, 'He says: All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a contradicting people' (Rom. x, 21). And to show that it was said of a part: 'I say,' he says, 'Has God then cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew' (Rom. xi, 1, 2). And after he had taught how this manner of speech was to be understood, by the same kind of speech he shows that one body is both good and evil, saying: 'As regards the Gospel indeed they are enemies for your sakes, but as regards the election they are beloved for the fathers' sakes' (Ibid., 28). Surely those beloved are not the same as the enemies, or can both apply in the same respect? So does the Lord in all the Scriptures.

He testifies that the one body of Abraham's seed grows and flourishes and perishes among all nations. Of the promises and the Law. Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians, and Isaiah ch. xlviii, are to be expounded. It is divine authority that no one could ever be justified by the works of the Law. By the same authority it is most firmly established that there have not been lacking those who kept the Law and were justified. It is written: 'Whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to God. Because no flesh shall be justified by the Law in His sight. For by the Law is the knowledge of sin' (Rom. iii, 19, 20). Again: 'Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law' (Rom. vi, 14). Again:

'And we believe in Christ, that we may be justified by faith, and not by the works of the Law' (Gal. ii, 16). Again: 'For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would indeed have been by the Law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe' (Gal. iii, 21, 22). But someone will say: from Christ onward the Law does not justify, yet in its own time it did justify. To this the authority of the apostle Peter answers, who, when the Gentiles were being compelled by the brethren under the yoke of the Law, spoke thus: 'Why do you tempt the Lord, wishing to lay a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?' (Acts xv, 10). And the apostle Paul:

'When we were,' he says, 'in the flesh, the passions of sins which are through the Law worked in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death' (Rom. vii, 5). And on the contrary, the same Apostle says: 'As to the righteousness which is by the Law, having been preserved blameless' (Phil. iii, 6). And if the authority of so great an Apostle were lacking, what could be said against the testimony of the Lord saying: 'Behold! truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile' (John i, 47). And even if the Lord had not deigned to give this testimony, who would be so sacrilegious, who so puffed up with the swelling of stupor, as to say that Moses and the Prophets, or all the Saints, did not do righteousness or were not justified—when the Scripture says of Zacharias and his wife:

'They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of God without blame' (Luke i, 6). And the Lord came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. ix, 13). But the Law—how could it justify from sin, the Law which was given for this very purpose: 'The Law entered in, that sin might abound' (Rom. v, 20)? But this we ought to know and to hold: that the seed of Abraham was never wholly cut off, from Isaac until today. But the seed of Abraham is not carnal but spiritual, which is not of the Law but of the promise. For the other seed is carnal, which is from Mount Sinai, which is Hagar bringing forth into bondage. That one indeed who was born of the bondwoman according to the flesh.

'But he who is of the freewoman, by promise' (Gal. iv, 23, 24). But that there is no seed of Abraham except that which is of faith, the Apostle says: 'Know therefore that those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham' (Gal. iii, 7). And again: 'But you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of the promise' (Gal. iv, 28). Therefore the seed of Abraham is not of the Law, but of the promise, which passes continually through Isaac. But if it is established that the seed of Abraham is that which is of faith, it is established that it was never of the Law. For it could not be of the Law and of faith. For the Law and faith are different things. Because the Law is not of faith, but of works. As it is written: 'The Law is not of faith, but he who does these things shall live in them' (Gal. iii, 12).

Abraham therefore always had sons by faith, never by the Law. For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not by the Law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if those who are heirs by the Law are themselves heirs, faith is void and the promise is void. For the Law works wrath. If therefore neither the faith nor the promise of Abraham can be destroyed, it has continued from its rising. Nor, the Law being given, was it hindered—so that the sons of Abraham might be begotten according to the promise of faith. For the Apostle says that the Law, given after four hundred and thirty years, did not stand in the way, nor destroy the promise: 'For if the inheritance is by the Law, it is no longer by promise. But to Abraham God gave it by promise' (Ibid., 18). And in another place:

'Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid' (Ibid., 21). We see that the Law does not pertain to the promises, nor did one ever clash against the other, but each kept its own order. Because just as the Law never hindered faith, so neither did faith destroy the Law. As it is written: 'Do we then destroy the Law through faith? God forbid; but we establish the Law' (Rom. iii, 31)—that is, we confirm it; for they mutually confirm each other. Therefore the sons of Abraham are not of the Law, but of faith through the promise. But it must be asked how those who are denied to have been able to be justified by the works of the Law, being placed under the Law and doing the Law, were justified.

It must moreover be asked why, after the promise of faith—which can in no way be destroyed—a Law was given which is not of faith, by whose works no one could be justified, because, 'As many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse. For it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them' (Gal. iii, 10). The Apostle, finally, looking to this question, since he asserts that in every way the sons of Abraham were always by the gift of God through faith, not by the Law of works, answers himself in the person of another, saying: 'Where then is the law of works?' (Rom. iii, 27). That is: