rules, attributes so much value to them that it would appear
lOG ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRIXE. [BOOK III.
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. Xow 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 finding, indeed, that there \vas no need for them, as there w^as no dilliculty 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 reasoning, arrives at the conclusion that the angels are the churches themselves. And throughout this long and full discussion, although the matter inquired into is certainly very obscure, 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. Tlie author himself, however, Avhen 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 tlie 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 windows 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 triitli that are to many invisible. Ahd if this system of rules be received, as I communicate it, without jealousy, what is shut shall be laid open, and what is ob-
CHAP. XXXL] first RULE OF TICHONIUS. 107 scure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling through the vast forest 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 warranted 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. xxxi.— The first rule of Tichonius,
4:4:. The first is about the Lord and His lody, and it is this, that, knowing as we do that the head and the body—tliat 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,"-^ 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 brideajroom with ornaments, and adorned me as a bride with jewels ;"^ and yet it is, of course, a matter for interpretation which of these two refers to the head and which to the body, that is, which to Christ and which to the
Church.
1 Gal. iii. 29.
2 Isa. Ixi. 10 (LXX.). ** As a bridegroom dccketh himself witli ornament.s, and as a bride adorneth lierself with jewels" (A. V.)