Book of Rules preface–2

I thought it necessary, before all the other things that seem right to me, to write a little book of Rules, and to fashion, as it were, keys and lamps for the laws of the hidden things. For there are certain mystical rules which hold the recesses of the whole law and make the treasures of the truth invisible to some. If the reasoning of these rules is received without envy, as we share it, whatever is shut will be opened, and whatever is obscure will be made clear, so that one who walks through the whole forest of prophecy, guided by these rules as by paths of light, may be defended from error. These are the rules: 1. On the Lord and his body. 2. On the twofold body of the Lord. 3. On the promises and the law. 4. On species and genus. 5. On times. 6. On recapitulation. 7. On the devil and his body.

Scripture speaks of the Lord and of his body, that is, the church; reason alone distinguishes them, by persuading what fits each, or rather, because the force of truth is so great, by compelling it. Elsewhere one person is addressed whom the different offices of the two show to be twofold. So through Isaiah: “He,” it says, “bears our sins and grieves for us, and he was wounded because of our crimes. God handed him over for our sins,” and so on, which the mouth of the whole church celebrates as fitting the Lord. But it goes on and says of the same: “And God wills to cleanse him from the stroke, and God wills to take away from his pain, to show him light, and to form him with understanding.” Does he wish to show light and to form with understanding the one whom he handed over for our sins, since he himself is the light and wisdom of God, and not rather his body? So it is plain that only by reason can it be seen when the passage moves from the head to the body. Daniel too says that a stone cut from the mountain struck the body of the kingdoms of the world and ground it to dust, meaning the Lord; but that his body became a mountain and filled the whole earth. For it is not, as some say, to the insult of the kingdom of God and of Christ’s unconquered inheritance (which I do not say without grief), that the Lord occupied the whole world by power and not by the fullness of his body. For they say that the world was filled by that mountain in the sense that a Christian may offer sacrifice in every place, which before was permitted only in Zion. If this is so, there was no need to say that a mountain was made from the stone and began to fill the world by growth. For our Lord Christ had this glory before the foundation of the world; and since that man was the Son of God, he did not receive all power in heaven and on earth gradually, like the stone, but at one time. But the stone became a mountain by growth, and by growing covered the whole earth. If it had filled the whole earth by power, not by body, it would not be compared with a stone. For power is an intangible thing, but a stone is a tangible body. Nor is it shown by reason alone that the body, not the head, grows; it is also confirmed by apostolic authority: “That you may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, built up and joined together through every joint of supply, according to the measure of each part, makes the growth of the body for its own building up.” And again: “You do not hold the head, from which the whole body, built up and supplied through joints and bands, grows with the growth of God.” So it is not the head, which is the same from its origin, but the body that grows from the head. Let us return to our purpose. It is written of the Lord and of his body, and what fits each must be distinguished by reason: “He has commanded his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways; they will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample the lion and the dragon. Because he has hoped in me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he has known my name. He 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 I will fill him, and I will show him my salvation.” Does God show his salvation to the same one whose service he commanded to his angels, and not to his body? Again: “As on a bridegroom he set a mitre on me, and as a bride he adorned me with ornament.” He spoke of one body of both sexes, of bridegroom and bride; but what fits the Lord and what the church is known by reason. And the same Lord says in the Apocalypse: “I am the bridegroom and the bride.” And again: “They went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride.” And again, what is to be distinguished by reason for head and body is declared through Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord to Christ my Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may obey him.” It goes on and says what fits only the body: “And I will give you hidden treasures, and I will open invisible ones to you, that you may know that I am the Lord who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen.” For because of the covenant that he made with the fathers, so that he may be known, God opens to the body of Christ invisible treasures, which eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, not even of the stopped-up man who is not in the body of Christ; but to the church God has revealed these things through the Holy Spirit, though this belongs to the grace of God. Yet when reason is applied, they are sometimes seen more easily. There are other passages in which reason of this kind is less clear, because the saying fits rightly either the Lord or his body. These, therefore, can be seen only by the greater grace of God. So in the Gospel: “From now on,” he says, “you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.” In another place he says that they will not see him coming on the clouds of heaven except on the last day only, when all the tribes of the earth mourn: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.” Both must happen. But first is the coming of the body, that is, of the church, coming continually in the same invisible glory; then of the head, that is, of the Lord in manifest glory. For if he had said, “From now on you will see him coming,” it would have to be understood of the coming of the body alone; if, however, “you will see,” of the coming of the head. But now he says, “From now on you will see him coming,” since he comes continually in his body, by birth and by the glory of like sufferings. For if those who are reborn are made members of Christ, and the members make the body, it is Christ who comes, since birth is a coming, as it is written: “He enlightens every man coming into this world.” And again: “A generation goes, and a generation comes.” And again: “As you have heard that Antichrist is coming.” Again, of the same body: “For if he who comes preaches another Christ.” 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 with signs and wonders: “Beware,” he said, “that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name,” that is, in the name of my body. But at the last coming of the Lord, that is, the consummation of his whole coming, no one, as some think, would die. But so that these things may be said more fully, let us leave them to their own order. Nor will it be absurd that we wish the whole body to be understood from one, as the Son of Man means the church; since the church, that is, the sons of God gathered into one body, are called the Son of God, called one man, called even God, as through the Apostle: “Above all that is called God or that is worshipped.” What is called God is the church; what is worshipped is the supreme God: “so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” that is, that he is the church. As if he said: “He sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is the temple of God”; or: “He sits in God, showing himself that he is God.” But, as we know, Daniel wished to obscure this understanding no less, concerning the last king: “Against the Lord,” he says, “his place will be glorified”: that is, made glorious; as if he had set up the church in the place of the church, in the holy place, the abomination of desolation, against God, that is, against the church. And the Lord calls the whole people bride and sister; and the Apostle calls it a holy virgin, and the opposing body the man of sin. And David calls the whole, Christ, the church: “Showing mercy to his Christ, David, and to his seed for ever.” And the apostle Paul calls the body of Christ Christ: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of one body, though many, are one body, so also Christ,” that is, the body of Christ, which is the church. Again: “I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ,” that is, of the church. For nothing was lacking to the sufferings of Christ, since it is enough for the disciple to be like his master. So, then, we shall take the coming of Christ according to the passages. Likewise in Exodus we learn that all the sons of God are one son, and all the firstborn of the Egyptians are a firstborn, as God says: “You shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you: Let my people go, that they may serve me. But you would not let them go. Therefore behold, I will kill your firstborn son.” And David calls the vine of the Lord one son, saying: “God of hosts, turn; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine, and perfect it, which your right hand has planted, and upon the son of man whom you have strengthened for yourself.” And the Apostle calls Son of God the one who has been mingled with the Son of God: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand 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 Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.” If he had said, “concerning his Son, as by the resurrection of the dead,” he would have shown one Son; but now he says, “concerning his Son … by the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.” But he shows more openly who was made Son of God by the resurrection of Christ: “concerning his Son, who was made for him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestined Son of God.” For our Lord was not predestined Son of God, since he is God and coequal with the Father, who from the time he was created, is this. But he to whom he says at the baptism, according to Luke, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”: he who, of the seed of David, was mingled with the princely Spirit and was himself made Son of God by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: that is, when the seed of David rises in Christ; not he of whom David himself says: “Thus says the Lord to my Lord.” So the two have become one flesh: the Word was made flesh, and the flesh God; because we are born not of blood but of God. The Apostle says: “The two will be in one flesh. This mystery is great; but I say, in Christ and in the church.” For God promised one seed to Abraham, so that however many were mingled with Christ 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, heirs according to the promise.” But there is a difference between “you are one thing” and “you are one man.” Whenever one is mingled with another by will, they are one thing; as the Lord says: “I and the Father are one.” But whenever they are mingled bodily too, and two are made solid into one flesh, they are one body. So in his head he is the Son of God; and God in his body is the Son of Man, who comes daily by being born and grows into the holy temple of God. For the temple is twofold. One part of it, though it is built with great stones, is destroyed, and not one stone will be left upon another in it. Its continual coming we must beware of, until the church departs from its midst.

The rule of the twofold body of the Lord is much more necessary, and must be examined by us the more carefully, and kept before our eyes through all the Scriptures. For as, as was said above, the passage from the head to the body is seen by reason alone, so the return from part of the body to part, from right to left or from left to right, is clear in the heading mentioned above. For when he says to one body, “I will open invisible treasures to you, that you may know that I am God, and I will take you up,” he added: “But you have not known me, for I am God, and there is no other God besides me, and you did not know me.” Although he addresses one body, does “I will open invisible treasures to you, that you may know that I am God, for the sake of my servant Jacob” fit one mind together with “And you have not known me”? In the same passage: and Jacob did not receive what God promised. Or do “You have not known me” and “You did not know me” fit one mind? For “you did not know” is said only to one who already knows; but “you have not known” is said to one who, though he was called to know, and visibly belongs to the same body, and draws near to God with his lips, is yet separated in heart. To this one he says, “But you have not known me.” Again: “I will lead the blind into a way that they did not know, and they will tread paths that they had not known; and I will make darkness light for them, and crooked things straight. These words I will do, and I will not forsake them. But they have turned back.” Are those whom he said he will not forsake the same who turned back, and not a part of them? Again the Lord says to Jacob: “Do not fear, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give; and to the south, Do not hold back. Bring my sons from a far land, and my daughters from the end of the earth, and all on whom my name is called. For I prepared him for my glory, and I formed him and made him; and I brought out a blind people, and their eyes are likewise blind, and they have deaf ears.” Are those whom he prepared for his glory the same who are blind and deaf? Again: “Your fathers first, their princes committed crime against me, and your princes defiled my holy things, and I gave Jacob to perish and Israel to a curse. Now hear me, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.” He shows that he gave to perish the Jacob, and to a curse the Israel, whom he had not chosen. Again: “I have formed you, my servant; you are mine, Israel; do not forget me. For behold, I have blotted out your crimes like a cloud and your sins like a rain cloud. Turn to me, and I will redeem you.” Does he remind the very one whose sins he blotted out, to whom he says, “You are mine,” and not to forget him, and say to him, “Turn to me”? Or are anyone’s sins blotted out before he turns? Again: “I know that being rejected you will be rejected: for the sake of my name I will show you my dignity and bring my glorious things upon you.” Does he show his dignity to one rejected, and bring his glorious things upon him? Again: “Not an elder, not an angel, but he himself considered them because he loved them and would spare them. He himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age. But they were rebellious and provoked the Holy Spirit.” Those whom he exalted all the days of the age, at what time were they rebellious or did they provoke the Holy Spirit? Again God openly promises to one body both firmness and destruction, saying: “Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that will not be moved, nor will the stakes of your tent be shaken for ever, nor its cords be broken.” And he added: “Your cords are broken, because the mast of your ship did not hold firm; your sails have sagged, and it will not raise the signal until it is handed over to destruction.” Again he shows briefly the twofold body of Christ: “I am dark and beautiful.” For far be it that the church, which has no spot or wrinkle, which the Lord cleansed by his blood, should be dark in any part, except in the left part, through which the name of God is blasphemed among the nations; otherwise it is wholly beautiful, as he says: “You are wholly beautiful, my love, and there is no blemish in you.” For he says for what reason it is dark and beautiful: “as the tents of Kedar and the skins of Solomon.” He shows two tents, the royal and the servile. Yet both are the seed of Abraham; for Kedar is the son of Ishmael. Indeed in another place the church groans at its long dwelling with this Kedar, that is, with the slave from Abraham, saying: “Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged: I have dwelt with the tents of Kedar; 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.” But I cannot say that the tent of Kedar is outside the church. For he himself says, “the tent of Kedar and of Solomon”: hence, “I am dark,” it says, “and beautiful.” For the church is not dark in those who are outside. By this mystery the Lord in the Apocalypse speaks of seven angels, that is, the sevenfold church, and shows them now as holy and keepers of the commandments, now the same as guilty of many crimes and needing repentance. And in the Gospel he shows one body of overseers of different merit, saying: “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, finds so doing.” And of the same: “But if that wicked servant …,” whom the Lord divides into two parts. I ask: will he divide or split the whole? Indeed, not the whole: he will put a part of him with the hypocrites. For he shows the body in one. So this body must be understood through all the Scriptures, wherever God says that Israel will perish for its desert, or that his inheritance is accursed. For the Apostle argues at length, especially in Romans, that whatever is said of the whole body must be understood of a part. “To Israel,” he says, “he says: All day long I have stretched out my hands to a contradicting people.” And to show that it was said of a part: “I say,” he says, “has God rejected his people? Far from it. For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” And after he had taught how this way of speaking was to be understood, he showed by the same kind of speech that one body is both good and bad, saying: “According to the gospel they are enemies for your sake; but according to election they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.” Are the same beloved who are enemies, or can both fit in one case? So the Lord in all the Scriptures. He testifies that one body of the seed of Abraham grows and flourishes and perishes among all the nations.