of the Lord; but this indeed is not a suitable name, for that is
108 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [book III.
Cii.vr. xx.xii.— The second rule of Tichoniua.
45. The second rule is about tlie twofold division of the hody of the Lord; but this indeed is not a suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of Christ which will not be witli Him in eternity. We ought, therefore, to say tliat 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 mi^ht be desif^nated thus: Concerninfr the ruixcd Church. Xow 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 addressing 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 passage in the Song of Solomon, " I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."^ For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, but am ^ow comely as the curtains of Solomon. The Church declares 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." For the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmael, who " shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." ^ 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 straiglit : these things will I do unto them, and not forsake them;'"* He immediately adds in regard to tlie other part, the bad that is mixed with the good,
They shall be turned back." Now tliese 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 tliere 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
' Matt. xiii. 47
43. » Cant. i. 5.
' Gal. iv. yO.
* Isa. xlii. Id.