the devil and his hodi/. For he is the head of the wicked,
CHAP. XXXVII.] SEVENTH RULE OF TICHONIUS. 117 receive liis reward according to the things he has given heed to or despised ? And yet because Scripture says, " In that day," the time of the revelation of the Lord will be thought the time for giving heed to these sayings, unless the reader be watchful and intelligent so as to understand the recapitulation, in which he will be assisted by that other passage of Scripture which even in the time of the apostles proclaimed : " Little children, it is the last time." ^ The very time then when the gospel is preached, up to the time that the Lord shall be revealed, is the day in which men ought to give heed to these sayings : for to the same day, which shall be brought to a close by a day of judgment^ belongs that very revelation of the Lord here spoken of.
Chap, xxxvii.— TAe seventh rule of Tichonius.
55. The seventh rule of Tichonius and the last, is about the devil and his hodi/. 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 hody, 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
1 1 John ii. 18. - Comp. Rom. ii. 5.
' Isa. xiv. 12 (LXX.). " How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! " (A. V.)