41. It would be tedious to go over all the rest in this way; for the speech of the vulgar makes use of them all, even of those more curious figures which mean the very opposite of what they say, as for example, those called irony and antiphrasis. Now in irony we indi- cate by the tone of voice the meaning we de- sire to convey; as when we say to a man who is behaving badly, " You are doing well." But it is not by the tone of voice that we make an antiphrasis to indicate the opposite of what the words convey; but either the words in which it is expressed are used in the opposite of their etymological sense, as a grove is called Incus from its want of light; 2 or it is customary to use a certain form of expression, although it puts yes for no by a law of contraries, as when we ask in a place for what is not there, and get the answer, "There is plenty;" or we add words that make it plain we mean the opposite of what we say, as in the expression, " Beware of him, for he is a good man." And what illiterate man is there that does not use such expressions, although he knows nothing 1 The word piscina (literally a fish-f>ond) was used in post- Augustan times for any pool of water, a swimming pond, for in- stance, or a pond for cattle to drink from.
2 Quod minimc luceat.
568 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book III.
at all about either the nature or the names of these figures of speech? And yet the knowl- edge of these is necessary for clearing up the difficulties of Scripture; because when the words taken literally give an absurd meaning, we ought forthwith to inquire whether they may not be used in this or that figurative sense which we are unacquainted with; and in this way many obscure passages have had light thrown upon them.
CHAP. 30. — THE RULES OF TICHONIUS THE DONATIST EXAMINED.
42. One Tichonius, who, although a Dona- tist himself, has written most triumphantly against the Donatists (and herein showed him- self of a most inconsistent disposition, that he was unwilling to give them up altogether), wrote a book which he called the Book of Rules, because in it he laid down seven rules, which are, as it were, keys to open the secrets of Scripture. And of these rules, the first relates to the Lord and His body, the second to the twofold division of the Lord's body, the third to the promises and the law, the fourth to species and genus, the fifth to times, the sixth to recapitulation, the seventh to the devil and his body. Now these rules, as expounded by their author, do indeed, when carefully considered, afford considerable assistance in penetrating the secrets of the sacred writings; but still they do not explain all the difficult passages, for there are several other methods required, which are so far from being embraced in this number of seven, that the author himself explains many obscure passages without using any of his rules; find- ing, indeed, that there was no need for them, as there was no difficulty in the passage of the kind to which his rules apply. As, for example, he inquires what we are to understand in the Apocalypse by the seven angels of the churches to whom John is commanded to write; and after much and various reason- ing, arrives at the conclusion that the angels are the churches themselves. And through- out this long and full discussion, although the matter inquired into is certainly very ob- scure, no use whatever is made of the rules. This is enough for an example, for it would be too tedious and troublesome to collect all the passages in the canonical Scriptures which present obscurities of such a kind as require none of these seven rules for their elucidation.
43. The author himself, however, when commending these rules, attributes so much value to them that it would appear as if, when they were thoroughly known and duly applied, we should be able to interpret all the obscure passages in the law— that is, in the sacred books. For he thus commences this very book: " Of all the things that occur to me, I consider none so necessary as to write a little book of rules, and, as it were, to make keys for, and put window's in, the secret places of the law. For there are certain mystical rules which hold the key to the secret recesses of the whole law, and render visible the treasures of truth that are to many invisible. And if this system of rules be received as I communicate it, without jealousy, what is shut shall be laid open, and what is obscure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling through the vast for- est of prophecy shall, if he follow these rules as pathways of light, be preserved from going astray." Now, if he had said, "There are certain mystical rules which hold the key to some of the secrets of the law," or even "which hold the key to the great secrets of the law," and not what he does say, "the secret recesses of the whole law;" and if he had not said " What is shut shall be laid open," but, " Many things that are shut shall be laid open," he would have said what was true, and he would not, by attributing more than is war- ranted by the facts to his very elaborate and useful work; have led the reader into false expectations. And I have thought it right to say thus much, in order both that the book may be read by the studious (for it is of very great assistance in understanding Scripture), and that no more may be expected from it than it really contains. Certainly it must be read with caution, not only on account of the errors into which the author falls as a man, but chiefly on account of 'the heresies which he advances as a Donatist. And now I shall briefly indicate what these seven rules teach or advise.
CHAP. 31.— THE FIRST RULE OF TICHONIUS.
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," x 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; " 2 and yet it is, of course, a matter for 1 Gal. iii. 29.
2 Isa. Ixi. 10 (LXX.). " As a bridegroom declceth hims.If with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with iewi:1s " I \. V.).
Chap. XXXIV. J ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
569 interpretation which of these two refers to the head and which to the body, that is, which to Christ and which to the Church.
CHAP. 32. — THE SECOND RULE OF TICHONIUS.
45. The second rule is about the twofold division of the body of the Lord; but this in- deed is not a suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of Christ which will not be with Him in eternity. We ought, there- fore, to say that the rule is about the true and the mixed body of the Lord, or the true and the counterfeit, or some such name; because, not to speak of eternity, hypocrites cannot even now be said to be in Him, although they seem to be in His Church. And hence this rule might be designated thus: Concerning the mixed Church. Now this rule requires the reader to be on his guard when Scripture, although it has now come to address or speak of a different set of persons, seems to be ad- dressing or speaking of the same persons as before, just as if both sets constituted one body in consequence of their being for the time united in a common participation of the sacraments. An example of this is that pas- sage in the Song of Solomon, "I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the cur- tains of Solomon." ' For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, but am now comely as the curtains of Solomon. The Church de- clares itself to be at present both; and this because the good fish and the bad are for the time mixed up in the one net.2 For the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmael, who " shall not be heir with the son of the free woman."3 And in the same way, when God says of the good part of the Church, " I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them;"4 He im- mediately adds in regard to the other part, the bad that is mixed with the good, " They shall be turned back." Now these words refer to a set of persons altogether different from the former; but as the two sets are for the present united in one body, He speaks as if there were no change in the subject of the sentence. They will not, however, always be in one body; for one of them is that wicked servant of whom we are told in the gospel, whose lord, when he comes, " shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." 5 CHAP. 33. THE THIRD RULE OF TICHONIUS.
46. The third rule relates to the promises and the law, and may be designated in other terms as relating to the spirit and the letter, which is the name I made use of when writing a book on this subject. It may be also named, of grace and the law. This, however, seems to me to be a great question in itself, rather than a rule to be applied to the solution of other questions. It was the want of clear views on this question that originated, or at least greatly aggravated, the Pelagian heresy. And the efforts of Tichonius to clear up this point were good, but not complete. For, in discussing the question about faith and works, he said that works were given us by God as the reward of faith, but that faith itself was so far our own that it did not come to us from God; not keeping in mind the saying of the apostle: " Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. " 6 But he had not come into contact with this heresy, which has arisen in our time, and has given us much labor and 2 Matt. xiii. 47,. 4 Isa xlii. 16.
trouble in defending against it the grace of God which is through our Lord Jesus Christ, and which (according to the saying of the apostle, " There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you " 7) has made us much more watchful and diligent to discover in Scripture what escaped Tichonius, who, having no enemy to guard against, was less attentive and anxious on this point, namely, that even faith itself is the gift of Him who " hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."8 Whence it is said to certain be- lievers: 'k Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for 'His sake."9 Who, then, can doubt that each of these is the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes, that each of them is given? There are many other testimonies besides which prove this. But I am not now treating of this doctrine. I have, however, dealt with it, one place or another, very frequently.
CHAP. 34 THE FOURTH.RULE OF TICHONIUS.
47. The fourth rule of Tichonius is about species and genus. For so he calls it, intend- ing that by species should be understood a part, by genus the whole of which that which he call's species is a part: as, for example, every single city is a part of the great society of nations: the city he calls a species, all 50, 51.
6 Fph. vi. 23. s Rom. xii. 3.
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[Book III.
nations constitute the genus. There is no necessity for here applying that subtilty of distinction which is in use among logicians, who discuss with great acuteness the differ- ence between a part and a species. The rule is of course the same, if anything of the kind referred to is found in Scripture, not in regard to a single city, but in regard to a single province, or tribe, or kingdom. Not only, for example, about Jerusalem, or some of the cities of the Gentiles, such as Tyre or Baby- lon, are things said in Scripture whose signifi- cance oversteps the limits of the city, and which are more suitable when applied to all nations; but in regard to Judea also, and Egypt, and Assyria, or any other nation you choose to take which contains numerous cities, but still is not the whole world, but only a part of it, things are said which pass over the limits of that particular country, and apply more fitly to the whole of which this is a part; or, as our author terms it, to the genus of which this is a species. And hence these words have come to be commonly known, so that even uneducated people understand what is laid down specially, and what generally, in any given Imperial command. The same thing occurs in the case of men: things are said of Solomon, for example, the scope of which reaches far beyond him, and which are only properly understood when applied to Christ and His Church, of which Solomon is a part.1 48. Now the species is not always over- stepped, for things are often said of such a kind as evidently apply to it also, or perhaps even to it exclusively. But when Scripture, having up to a certain point been speaking about the species, makes a transition at that point from the species to the genus, the reader must then be carefully on his guard against seeking in the species what he can find much better and more surely in the genus. Take, for example, what the prophet Ezekiql says: "When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way, and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a re- moved woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way, and according to their doings, I judged them."2 Now it is easy to understand that this applies to that house of Israel of which the apostle says, " Behold Israel after the flesh;" 3 because the people of Israel after the flesh did both perform and endure all that is here referred to. What immediately follows, too, may be understood as applying to the same people. But when the prophet begins to say, " And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord," 4 the reader ought now carefully to observe the way in which the species is overstepped and the genus taken in. For he goes on to say: "And I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my com- mandments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses." s Now that this is a prophecy of the New Testament, to which pertain not only the remnant of that one nation of which it is elsewhere said, " For though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall be saved," 6 but also the other nations which were prom- ised to their fathers and our fathers; and that there is here a promise of that washing of re- generation which, as we see, is now imparted to all nations, no one who looks into the matter can doubt. And that saying of the apostle, when he is commending the grace of the New Testament and its excellence in com- parison with the Old, "Ye are our epistle...written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart," 7 has an evident reference to this place where the prophet says, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." 8 Now the heart of flesh from which the apostle's expression, "the fleshy tables of the heart," is drawn, the prophet intended to point out as distinguished from the stony heart by the possession of sentient life; and by sentient 2 Ezek. xxxvi. 17-19.
3 1 Cor. x. 18.
5 Ezek. xxxvi. 23-29.
7 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3.
4 Ezek. xxxvi. 23.
6 Isa. x. 22.
8 Ezek. xxxviii. 26.
Chap. XXXV.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
he understood intelligent life. And thus the spiritual Israel is made up, not of one nation, but of all the nations which were promised to the fathers in their seed, that is, in Christ.
49. This spiritual Israel, therefore, is dis- tinguished from the carnal Israel which is of one nation, by newness of grace, not by nobility of descent, in feeling, not in race; but the prophet, in his depth of meaning, while speaking of the carnal Israel, passes on, without indicating the transition, to speak of the spiritual, and although now speaking of the latter, seems to be still speaking of the former; not that he grudges us the clear ap- prehension of Scripture, as if we were ene- mies, but that he deals with us as a physician, giving us a wholesome exercise for our spirit. And therefore we ought to take this saying, "And I will bring you into your own land," and what he says shortly afterwards, as if repeating himself, "And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, "not literally, as if they referred to Israel after the flesh, but spiritually, as referring to the spiritual Israel. For the Church, without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign for ever with Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living; and we are to understand that this was given to the fathers when it was promised to them in the sure and immutable purpose of God; for what the fathers believed would be given in its own time was to them, on account of the unchangeableness of the promise and pur- pose, the same as if it were already given; just as the apostle, writing to Timothy, speaks of the grace which is given to the saints: " Not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the ap- pearing of our Saviour."1 He speaks of the grace as given at a time when those to whom it was to be given were not yet in existence; because he looks upon that as having been already done in the arrangement and purpose of God, which was to take place in its own time, and he himself speaks of it as now made manifest. It is possible, however, that these words may refer to the land of the age to come, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein the unrighteous shall be unable to dwell. And so it is truly said to the righteous, that the land itself is theirs, no part of which will belong to the unrighteous; because it is the same as if it were itself given, when it is firmly settled that it shall be given.
CHAP. 35. THE FIFTH RULE OF TICHONIUS.
50. The fifth rule Tichonius lays down is one he designates of times, — a rule by which we can frequently discover or conjecture quantities of time which are not expressly mentioned in Scripture. And he says that this rule applies in two ways: either to the figure of speech called synecdoche, or to legiti- mate numbers. The figure synecdoche either puts the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. As, for example, in reference to the time when, in the presence of only three of His disciples, our Lord was transfigured on the mount, so that His face shone as the sun, and His raiment was white as snow, one evangelist says that this event occurred " after eight days," 2 while another says that it occurred " after six days." 3 Now both of these statements about the number of days cannot be true, unless we suppose that the writer who says "after eight days," counted the latter part of the day on which Christ uttered the prediction and the first part of the day on which he showed its fulfillment as two whole days; while the writer who says " after six days," counted only the whole un- broken days between these two. This figure of speech, which puts the part for the whole, explains also the great question about the resurrection of Christ. For unless to the latter part of the day on which He suffered we join the previous night, and count it as a whole day, and to the latter part of the night in which He arose we join the Lord's day which was just dawning, and count it also a whole day, we cannot make out the three days and three nights during which He foretold that He would be in the heart of the earth.4 51. In the next place, our author calls those numbers legitimate which Holy Script- ure more highly favors, such as seven, or ten, or twelve, or any of the other numbers which the diligent reader of Scripture soon comes to know. Now numbers of this sort are often put for time universal; as, for example, "Seven times in the day do I praise Thee," means just the same as " His praise shall continually be in my mouth."5 And their force is exactly the same, either when multi- plied by ten, as seventy and seven hundred (whence the seventy years mentioned in Jere- miah may be taken in a spiritual sense for the whole time during which the Church is a sojourner among aliens);6 or when multiplied into themselves, as ten into ten gives one hundred, and twelve into twelve gives one hundred and forty-four, which last number is 1 2 Tim. i. 9, 10.
^Lukeix. 28. 3 Matt. xvii. 1; Mark ix. 2. 5 Comp. Ps. cxix. 164 with xxxiv. 2.
4 Matt. xii. 40. 6 Jer. xxv. 11.
5 7- ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book III.
used in the Apocalypse to signify the whole body of the saints.1 Hence it appears that it is not merely questions about times that are to be settled by these numbers, but that their significance is of much wider application, and extends to many subjects. That number in the Apocalypse, for example, mentioned above, has not reference to times, but to men.
CHAP. 36. — THE SIXTH RULE OF TICHONIUS.
52. The sixth rule Tichonius calls the recapitulation, which, with sufficient watchful- ness, is discovered in difficult parts of Script- ure. For certain occurrences are so related, that the narrative appears to be following the order of time, or the continuity of events, when it really goes back without mentioning it to previous occurrences, which had been passed over in their proper place. And we make mistakes if we do not understand this, from applying the rule here spoken of. For example, in the book of Genesis we read, "And the Lord God planted a garden east- ward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food."2 Now here it seems to be indi- cated that the events last mentioned took place after God had formed man and put him in the garden; whereas the fact is, that the two events having been briefly mentioned, viz., that God planted a garden, and there put the man whom He had formed, the narra- tive goes back, by way of recapitulation, to tell what had before been omitted, the way in which the garden was planted: that out of the ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.