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55. The seventh rule of Tichonius and the last, is about the devil
and his body. For he is the head of the wicked, who are in a sense
his body, and destined to go with him into the punishment of
everlasting fire, just as Christ is the head of the Church, which is
His body, destined to be with Him in His eternal kingdom and glory.
Accordingly, as the first rule, which is called of the Lord and His
body, directs us, when Scripture speaks of one and the same person,
to take pains to understand which part of the statement applies to the
head and which to the body; so this last rule shows us that statements
are sometimes made about the devil, whose truth is not so evident in
regard to himself as in regard to his body; and his body is made up not
only of those who are manifestly out of the way, but of those also
who, though they really belong to him, are for a time mixed up with
the Church, until they depart from this life, or until the chaff is
separated from the wheat at the last great winnowing. For example,
what is said in Isaiah, "How he is fallen from heaven, Lucifer,
son of the morning!" and the other statements of the context which,
under the figure of the king of Babylon, are made about the same
person, are of course to be understood of the devil; and yet the
statement which is made in the same place, "He is ground down on the
earth, who sendeth to all nations," does not altogether fitly apply
to the head himself. For, although the devil sends his angels to all
nations, yet it is his body, not himself, that is ground down on the
each, except that he himself is in his body, which is beaten small
like the dust which the wind blows from the face of the earth.
56. Now all these rules, except the one about the promises and the
law, make one meaning to be understood where another is expressed,
which is the peculiarity of figurative diction; and this kind of
diction, it seems to me, is too widely spread to be comprehended in
its full extent by any one. For, wherever one thing is said with the
intention that another should be understood we have a figurative
expression, even though the name of the trope is not to be found in the
art of rhetoric. And when an expression of this sort occurs where it
is customary to find it, there is no trouble in understanding it; when
it occurs, however, where it is not customary, it costs labor to
understand it, from some more, from some less, just as men have got
more or less from God of the gifts of intellect, or as they have
access to more or fewer external helps. And, as in the case of proper
words which I discussed above, and in which things are to be
understood just as they are expressed, so in the case of figurative
words, in which one thing is expressed and another is to be
understood, and which I have just finished speaking of as much as I
thought enough, students of these venerable documents ought to be
counselled not only to make themselves acquainted with the forms of
expression ordinarily used in Scripture, to observe them carefully,
and to remember them accurately, but also, what is especially and
before all things necessary, to pray that they may understand them.
For in these very books on the study of which they are intent, they
read, "The Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge
and understanding;" and it is from Him they have received their very
desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety. But about signs, so
far as relates to words, I have now said enough. It remains to
discuss, in the following book, so far as God has given me light,
the means of communicating our thoughts to others.
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