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47. The fourth rule of Tichonius is about species and genus. For
so he calls it, intending that by species should be understood a part,
by genus the whole of which that which he calls 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 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 difference 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
Babylon, are things said in Scripture whose significance 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.
48. Now the species is not always overstepped, 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
Ezekiel 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 removed 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." Now it is easy to understand that this applies to that house
of Israel of which the apostle says, "Behold Israel after the
flesh;" 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," 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 y Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my commandments, 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." 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," but also the other nations which were promised to their
fathers and our fathers; and that there is here a promise of that
washing of regeneration 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 comparison 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,"
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." 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 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 distinguished 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 dear apprehension of Scripture, as
if we were enemies, 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 for what the fathers believed would be
given in its own time was to them, on account of the unchangeableness
of the promise and purpose, 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 appearing of our
Saviour." He speaks of the 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.
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