Book of Rules 2

Before all else I have considered it necessary to write a little book of Rules and, as it were, to forge keys and lamps for the laws of hidden things, according to what seems best to me. For there are certain mystical rules which command the recesses of the whole Law and make the treasures of truth invisible to some. If the reasoning of these rules be received without grudging, as we share it freely, then everything closed shall be laid open and the obscure shall be made clear, so that anyone walking through the vast forest of prophecy, led by these rules along, as it were, pathways of light, may be defended from error. The rules are these: I. Of the Lord and His Body. II. Of the Lord's twofold Body. III. Of the promises and the Law. IV. Of the species and the genus. V. Of the times. VI.

Of recapitulation. VII. Of the devil and his body. Of the Lord and His Body. The Scripture speaks of the Lord and His Body, that is, the Church (2 Tim. i, 20); reason alone distinguishes them, persuading what befits each one; but because the force of truth is so great, it compels assent. Elsewhere a single person is addressed whom the differing offices of two show to be twofold. Thus through Isaiah: 'He,' it says, 'bears our sins and grieves for us, and He Himself was wounded for our crimes. God delivered Him up for our sins,' etc. (Isa. liii, 4, 6, according to the LXX), which the whole Church with one mouth celebrates as applying to the Lord. But it follows and says of the same one:

'And God wills to cleanse Him from the stroke, and God wills to take away the suffering from Him and to give Him light, and to form Him with prudence' (Ibid., 10, 11). Surely it is not to Him whom He delivered up for our sins that He wills to show light and to form with prudence—since He Himself is the light and wisdom of God—but rather to His Body? Hence it is plain that by reason alone can one perceive when the text passes over from the Head to the Body. Daniel too says that the stone cut from the mountain struck against the body of the kingdoms of the world and ground the Lord into dust. But the mountain, having grown great, filled the whole earth—this is His Body. For it is not, as some say, to the dishonour of the kingdom of God and of the unconquered inheritance of Christ—which I do not say without grief.

The Lord occupied the whole world by His power (Matt. xxviii, 18), and not by the fullness of His Body. For they say the world was filled by that mountain in this sense: that it is now lawful for a Christian to offer in every place, which formerly was lawful only in Sion. But if this is so, there was no need to say that a mountain was made from the stone and that it began with the world growing by increments. For our Lord Christ had this glory before the foundation of the world (John xvii, 2), and although that man was the Son of God, He received all authority in heaven and on earth not little by little, like the stone, but at one moment. The stone, however, was made a mountain by increments, and by growing it covered the whole earth.

For if He had filled the whole earth by power and not by His Body, He would not be compared to a stone. For power is a thing impalpable, but a stone is a palpable body. Nor is it by reason alone that it is shown that the Body, not the Head, grows; it is also confirmed by Apostolic authority: 'That you may grow,' he says, 'in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ; from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every contact of supply, according to the measure of each single part, makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself' (Eph. iv, 15, 16). And again: 'Not holding the Head, from whom the whole body, by joints and bands knit together and supplied, grows with the increase of God' (Col. ii, 29 [19]).

It is therefore not the Head, which is the same from the beginning, that grows, but the Body grows out of the Head. Let us return to our purpose. It is written concerning the Lord and His Body, and what belongs to which must be distinguished by reason: 'He has given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways; in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt tread upon the lion and the dragon. Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he has known my name. He has called upon me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him. With length of days will I fill him, and I will show him my salvation' (Ps. xc [xci], 11-16).

Surely it is not to him concerning whose service God charged His angels that He shows His salvation, and not to His Body? Again: 'As on a bridegroom He has placed a mitre upon me, and as a bride He has adorned me with ornament' (Isa. lxi, 10, according to the LXX). He spoke of one body of both sexes, of bridegroom and bride; but what applies to the Lord and what to the Church is known by reason. And the same Lord says in the Apocalypse: 'I am the bridegroom and the bride' (Apoc. xviii, 23). And again: 'They went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride' (Matt. xxv, 1). And again, what is to be distinguished by reason as belonging to the Head and to the Body is declared through Isaiah: 'Thus says the Lord to my Christ the Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may obey him' (Isa. xlv, 1-3).

It follows and says what can apply only to the Body: 'And I will give thee hidden treasures and will open to thee invisible things, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord, who call thy name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen one.' For on account of the covenant which He made with the Fathers, that He might be acknowledged, God opens to the Body of Christ the invisible treasures, 'which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they ascended into the heart of man' (1 Cor. ii, 9)—but neither into the heart of the man who is stopped up, who is not in the Body of Christ. To the Church, however, God revealed these things through the Holy Spirit, though this is of the grace of God. Yet when reason is applied, they are sometimes seen more easily.

There are other passages in which this kind of reasoning shines forth less clearly, because the saying may fitly apply either to the Lord or to His Body. Wherefore they can be seen only by the greater grace of God. Thus in the Gospel: 'Henceforth,' He says, 'you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxvi, 64). In another place He says: that they shall not see Him coming in the clouds of heaven except only on the last day, when all the tribes of the earth shall mourn. 'And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxiv, 30). But both must necessarily come to pass. Yet first is the coming of the Body, that is, of the Church continually coming in the same invisible glory;

then comes the coming of the Head, that is, of the Lord in manifest glory. For if He had said, 'Henceforth you shall see Him coming,' the coming of the Body alone would be understood. But if 'you shall see,' the coming of the Head. Now, however, He says, 'henceforth you shall see Him coming,' because in His Body He continually comes by birth and by the glory of like sufferings. For if the reborn become members of Christ, and the members which constitute the Body are Christ, it is Christ who comes, since birth is a coming, as it is written: 'He enlightens every man coming into this world' (John i, 9). And again: 'One generation passes away, and another generation comes' (Eccles. i, 4). And again: 'As you have heard that Antichrist comes' (1 John ii, 18).

Again concerning the same Body: 'For if he who comes preaches another Christ' (2 Cor. xi, 4). Hence the Lord, when He was asked about the sign of His coming, began to speak of that coming of His which can be imitated by the hostile body through signs and wonders: 'Take heed,' He says, 'that no one lead you astray' (Matt. xxiv, 4). 'Many will come in my name,' that is, in the name of my Body. But at the last coming of the Lord, that is, of the consummation of His whole coming, no one would die, as some suppose. But that these things may be said more fully, let us leave them to their proper place.

Nor will it be absurd that we wish the whole Body to be understood from one—as the Church to be the Son of Man—since the Church, that is, the sons of God gathered into one Body, are called the Son of God, are called one man, are even called God, as through the Apostle: 'Above everything that is called God, or that is worshipped' (2 Thess. ii, 4). He who is called God is the Church. But that which is worshipped is the most high God: 'so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God'—that is, that he himself is the Church. As if he should say: that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself to be the temple of God; or that he sits in God, showing himself to be God. But this understanding Daniel willed, as we know, to obscure no less, concerning the last king:

'In the Lord,' he says, 'his place shall be glorified' (Dan. xi, 38, according to the LXX)—that is, shall be made glorious; as if he set up the Church in the place of the Church, in the holy place, by the abomination of desolation, into God—that is, into the Church. And the Lord calls the whole people His bride and His sister. And the Apostle calls them a holy Virgin, and the opposing body a man of sin. And David calls the whole, Christ, the Church: 'Showing mercy to His Christ, to David and to his seed for ever' (Ps. xvii [xviii], 51). And the apostle Paul calls the Body of Christ, Christ: 'For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ' (1 Cor.

xii, 12)—that is, the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Again: 'I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ' (Col. i, 24)—that is, of the Church. For nothing was lacking to the sufferings of Christ, since it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master. Thus then we shall understand the coming of Christ according to the contexts. Likewise in Exodus we learn that all the sons of God are one son, and that all the firstborn of the Egyptians are one firstborn, God speaking thus: 'These things,' He says, 'you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to thee, Let my people go that they may serve me; but thou wouldst not let him go' (Exod. iv, 22). Whence then:

'Behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn.' And David, of the vineyard of the Lord as one son, speaks thus: 'O God of hosts, turn again; look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard, and perfect it which thy right hand has planted; and look upon the son of man whom thou hast confirmed for thyself' (Ps. lxxix [lxxx], 15). And the Apostle calls him a son of God who is joined to the Son of God: 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He had promised before through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was predestined the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom.

i, 1-4). Had he said 'concerning His Son, as by the resurrection from the dead,' he would have shown one Son; but now he says, 'concerning His Son, by the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.' But who was made the Son of God by the resurrection of Christ, he shows more openly: 'concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestined the Son of God.' For our Lord is not predestined the Son of God, because He is God and coequal with the Father, who is what He is from the moment He was begotten. But that one is meant, to whom, according to Luke, He says at the baptism: 'Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee' (Ps. ii, 7).

He who is of the seed of David was joined to the principal Spirit, and was Himself made the Son of God by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ—that is, when in Christ the seed of David rises again; not that one of whom David himself says: 'Thus says the Lord to my Lord' (Ps. cix [cx], 1). And so the two became one flesh: 'The Word was made flesh' (John i, 14), and the flesh became God; for we are born not of blood, but of God. The Apostle says: 'The two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak in Christ and in the Church' (Eph. v, 31, 32). For God promised one seed to Abraham, so that however many should be joined to Christ, there might be one in Christ, as the Apostle says: 'You are all one in Christ Jesus.'

'And if you are one in Christ Jesus, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise' (Gal. iii, 28, 29). But there is a difference between 'you are one [thing]' and 'you are one [person].' As often as one is joined to another by will into one, they are one [thing]. As the Lord says: 'I and the Father are one' (John x, 30). But as often as they are joined also bodily, and two are made solid into one flesh, they are one body. And so in His Head He is the Son of God, and God in His Body is the Son of Man, who by being daily born comes and grows into a holy temple of God. For the Temple is twofold. One part of it, although built of great stones, is destroyed, and in it not one stone shall be left upon another.

We must beware of the continual coming of that part, until the Church departs from its midst. Of the Lord's twofold Body. The rule of the Lord's twofold Body is much more necessary and is to be examined by us all the more diligently, and to be kept before our eyes throughout all the Scriptures. For just as, as was said above, the passage from the Head to the Body is seen by reason alone, so the transition from one part of the Body to another part—from the right to the left, or from the left to the right—is made clear by the aforesaid Head. For when He says to one body: 'I will open to thee invisible treasures, that thou mayest know that I am God, and I will take thee up' (Isa. xlv [xliii], 3), He also adds:

'But thou hast not known me, that I am God, and there is no other God beside me, and thou didst not know me' (Ibid., 4, 5). Surely, although He addresses one body, it does not agree into one mind: 'I will open to thee invisible treasures, that thou mayest know that I am God, for the sake of my servant Jacob; and yet thou hast not known me'? In the same body: and Jacob did not receive what God promised. Or it does not agree into one mind: 'But thou hast not known me, and thou didst not know me'; for 'thou didst not know' is not said except to one who already knows. But 'thou hast not known' is said to one who, although he has been called to this, that he might know, and is of the same body visibly, and draws near to God with his lips, yet is separated in heart.

To this one He says, 'but thou hast not known me.' Again: 'I will lead the blind into a way which they have not known, and they shall walk in paths which they have not known; and I will make darkness into light for them, and crooked things straight. These words will I do, and I will not forsake them. But they themselves were turned back' (Isa. xlii, 16, 17). Surely those whom He said He would not forsake are not the same who were turned back—and not rather a part of them? Again the Lord says to Jacob: 'Fear not, for I am with thee. From the East I will bring thy seed, and from the West I will gather thee. I will say to the North, Give up; and to the South, Forbid not. Bring my sons from a far land, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, and all in whom my name has been called.

For I have prepared him for my glory, and I have formed him, and I have brought forth a blind people, and their eyes are likewise blind, and they have deaf ears' (Isa. xliii, 7, 8). Surely those whom He prepared for His glory are not the same who are blind and deaf? Again: 'Thy first fathers, their princes committed a crime against me, and thy princes defiled my holy things, and I gave Jacob to destruction, and Israel to a curse' (Ibid., 25-28). 'Now hear me, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen' (Isa. xliv, 1). He shows that He gave that Jacob to destruction, and that Israel to a curse, whom He had not chosen. Again: 'I have formed thee, my servant; thou art mine, O Israel; forget me not. For behold, I have blotted out thy crimes like a cloud, and thy sins like a mist.'

'Return to me, and I will redeem thee' (Ibid., 21, 22). Surely, the one whose sins He has blotted out, to whom He says 'thou art mine,' and, lest he forget himself, He reminds the same and says 'return to me'—are anyone's sins blotted out before he returns? Again: 'I know that being reprobate thou shalt be reprobated; for thy name's sake I will show thee my dignity, and I will bring my glorious things upon thee' (Isa. xlviii, 8, 9). Surely He does not show His dignity to the reprobate and bring His glorious things upon him? Again: 'Not an elder, not an angel, but He Himself considered them, because He loved them and spared them. He Himself redeemed them, and took them up, and exalted them all the days of the age.'

'But they themselves were rebellious and provoked the Holy Spirit' (Isa. lxiii, 9, 10, according to the LXX). Whom did He exalt all the days of the age, at what time were they rebellious or provoked the Holy Spirit? Again God openly promises to one body firmness and ruin, saying: 'Jerusalem, rich city, tabernacles which shall not be moved, neither shall the stakes of thy tabernacle be shaken for ever, neither shall its cords be broken' (Isa. xxxiii, 20, 21, according to the LXX). And He adds: 'Thy cords are broken, because the mast of thy ship had no strength; they have lowered thy sails and it shall not lift up a signal, until it be delivered into perdition' (Ibid., 23). Again He briefly shows the twofold Body of Christ:

'I am black and comely' (Cant. i, 4). For far be it that the Church, which has no spot or wrinkle (Eph. v, 27), which the Lord cleansed by His own blood, should be black in any part, except in the left part, through which the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles; otherwise, she is wholly beautiful, as it says: 'Thou art wholly beautiful, my neighbour, and there is no reproof in thee' (Cant. iv, 7). For it tells the reason why she is black and beautiful: 'as the tabernacles of Cedar, and the skins of Solomon.' It shows two tabernacles: the royal and the servile. Yet both are the seed of Abraham. For Cedar is a son of Ishmael. And in another place, with that Cedar—that is, with the servant born of Abraham—the Church thus groaned over its long dwelling, saying: 'Woe is me!'

'because my sojourning has become long; I have dwelt with the tabernacles of Cedar; my soul has long been a sojourner. With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause' (Ps. cxix [cxx], 5-7, according to the LXX). But I cannot say that the tabernacle of Cedar is anything outside the Church. For she herself says: 'The tabernacle of Cedar and of Solomon: hence,' she says, 'I am black and comely.' For the Church is not black in those who are outside. By this mystery the Lord in the Apocalypse speaks of seven angels, that is, of the sevenfold Church, now showing them as saints and keepers of His commandments, now showing these same ones as guilty of many crimes and deserving of penance.

And in the Gospel He manifests one body of overseers as of differing merit, saying: 'Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing' (Luke xii, 43). And of the same: 'But if that wicked servant'—whom the Lord divides into two parts (Luke xii, 46 [xix, 21]). I say: will He divide or cleave every one? In short, the whole, not the whole: but 'He will appoint his portion with the hypocrites' (Matt. xxiv, 51). For He shows one body in one. This body, therefore, is to be understood throughout all the Scriptures, wherever God says that Israel is to perish by its own desert, or that His inheritance is abominable. For the Apostle disputes this copiously, especially to the Romans, that whatever is said of the whole body is to be understood of a part.

'To Israel,' he says, 'He says: All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a contradicting people' (Rom. x, 21). And to show that it was said of a part: 'I say,' he says, 'Has God then cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew' (Rom. xi, 1, 2). And after he had taught how this manner of speech was to be understood, by the same kind of speech he shows that one body is both good and evil, saying: 'As regards the Gospel indeed they are enemies for your sakes, but as regards the election they are beloved for the fathers' sakes' (Ibid., 28). Surely those beloved are not the same as the enemies, or can both apply in the same respect? So does the Lord in all the Scriptures.

He testifies that the one body of Abraham's seed grows and flourishes and perishes among all nations. Of the promises and the Law. Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians, and Isaiah ch. xlviii, are to be expounded. It is divine authority that no one could ever be justified by the works of the Law. By the same authority it is most firmly established that there have not been lacking those who kept the Law and were justified. It is written: 'Whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become subject to God. Because no flesh shall be justified by the Law in His sight. For by the Law is the knowledge of sin' (Rom. iii, 19, 20). Again: 'Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the Law' (Rom. vi, 14). Again:

'And we believe in Christ, that we may be justified by faith, and not by the works of the Law' (Gal. ii, 16). Again: 'For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would indeed have been by the Law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe' (Gal. iii, 21, 22). But someone will say: from Christ onward the Law does not justify, yet in its own time it did justify. To this the authority of the apostle Peter answers, who, when the Gentiles were being compelled by the brethren under the yoke of the Law, spoke thus: 'Why do you tempt the Lord, wishing to lay a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?' (Acts xv, 10). And the apostle Paul:

'When we were,' he says, 'in the flesh, the passions of sins which are through the Law worked in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death' (Rom. vii, 5). And on the contrary, the same Apostle says: 'As to the righteousness which is by the Law, having been preserved blameless' (Phil. iii, 6). And if the authority of so great an Apostle were lacking, what could be said against the testimony of the Lord saying: 'Behold! truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile' (John i, 47). And even if the Lord had not deigned to give this testimony, who would be so sacrilegious, who so puffed up with the swelling of stupor, as to say that Moses and the Prophets, or all the Saints, did not do righteousness or were not justified—when the Scripture says of Zacharias and his wife:

'They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of God without blame' (Luke i, 6). And the Lord came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. ix, 13). But the Law—how could it justify from sin, the Law which was given for this very purpose: 'The Law entered in, that sin might abound' (Rom. v, 20)? But this we ought to know and to hold: that the seed of Abraham was never wholly cut off, from Isaac until today. But the seed of Abraham is not carnal but spiritual, which is not of the Law but of the promise. For the other seed is carnal, which is from Mount Sinai, which is Hagar bringing forth into bondage. That one indeed who was born of the bondwoman according to the flesh.

'But he who is of the freewoman, by promise' (Gal. iv, 23, 24). But that there is no seed of Abraham except that which is of faith, the Apostle says: 'Know therefore that those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham' (Gal. iii, 7). And again: 'But you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of the promise' (Gal. iv, 28). Therefore the seed of Abraham is not of the Law, but of the promise, which passes continually through Isaac. But if it is established that the seed of Abraham is that which is of faith, it is established that it was never of the Law. For it could not be of the Law and of faith. For the Law and faith are different things. Because the Law is not of faith, but of works. As it is written: 'The Law is not of faith, but he who does these things shall live in them' (Gal. iii, 12).

Abraham therefore always had sons by faith, never by the Law. For the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not by the Law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if those who are heirs by the Law are themselves heirs, faith is void and the promise is void. For the Law works wrath. If therefore neither the faith nor the promise of Abraham can be destroyed, it has continued from its rising. Nor, the Law being given, was it hindered—so that the sons of Abraham might be begotten according to the promise of faith. For the Apostle says that the Law, given after four hundred and thirty years, did not stand in the way, nor destroy the promise: 'For if the inheritance is by the Law, it is no longer by promise. But to Abraham God gave it by promise' (Ibid., 18). And in another place:

'Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid' (Ibid., 21). We see that the Law does not pertain to the promises, nor did one ever clash against the other, but each kept its own order. Because just as the Law never hindered faith, so neither did faith destroy the Law. As it is written: 'Do we then destroy the Law through faith? God forbid; but we establish the Law' (Rom. iii, 31)—that is, we confirm it; for they mutually confirm each other. Therefore the sons of Abraham are not of the Law, but of faith through the promise. But it must be asked how those who are denied to have been able to be justified by the works of the Law, being placed under the Law and doing the Law, were justified.

It must moreover be asked why, after the promise of faith—which can in no way be destroyed—a Law was given which is not of faith, by whose works no one could be justified, because, 'As many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse. For it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them' (Gal. iii, 10). The Apostle, finally, looking to this question, since he asserts that in every way the sons of Abraham were always by the gift of God through faith, not by the Law of works, answers himself in the person of another, saying: 'Where then is the law of works?' (Rom. iii, 27). That is:

If the sons are by faith, why was the law of works given, when the promise would have sufficed for the begetting of Abraham's sons, and they should have been nourished by faith? 'Because the just lives by faith' (Rom. i, 17; Gal. iii, 11; Heb. x, 38). For before he had asked himself, 'Where then is the law of works?' he had already said that they should live who could not be justified by faith [i.e. by works], in this manner: 'But that by the Law no one is justified before God, it is evident; for the just lives by faith' (Gal. iii, 11). He shows moreover that it was said through the Prophet, 'He lives by faith,' so that it might be made plain how they should live who could not keep the Law. But it shines forth less what 'The just lives by faith' (Hab. ii, 4) means.

For no one placed under the Law could live unless he had done the works of the Law, and all the works; otherwise he would be accursed. God gave the Law and said: 'Thou shalt not covet' (Exod. xx, 17; Deut. v, 21). At once, occasion being taken, sin through the commandment worked all manner of concupiscence. For it is necessary that the passions of sins which are through the Law should work in the members of him who is under the Law. Therefore was it given: 'that sin might abound' (Rom. v, 20), because the strength of sin is the Law. But he who is sold under sin no longer works the good that he wishes, but the evil that he wishes not; for he consents to the Law according to the inner man.

But he is overcome by another law of the members, and is led captive, nor could he ever be set free except by grace alone through faith. But it is a great crime of unbelief not to have attended to the kind of arms by which the violence of sin might be overcome; and on the contrary, it is of magnificent faith to have sought out and seen them. It is therefore a sacrilegious mind, and one thinking ill of God, which, although it saw that the Law could in no way be fulfilled in a human manner and was prepared for vengeance, yet did not understand that there is some remedy of life—nor that it could have come to pass that the good God, who knew the Law could not be fulfilled, would not have left another entrance to life, and would have shut up the ways of life on every side against the men whom He had made for life. This faith did not bear, did not admit.

But when he was pressed by the weakness of the flesh and the power of sin, God gave light. Knowing that the Lord is good and just, and that He has not shut up the bowels of His compassion against the works of His own hands, he understood that there is a way to life, and he saw the remedy of fulfilling the Law. For when God said, 'Thou shalt not covet,' He did not lay bare how that might come to pass, but truly and decisively said, 'Thou shalt not covet,' because He left it to be discovered. For if He had commanded that the accomplishment be sought from Himself, He would have destroyed the Law and faith. For why would He give the Law, if He promised the Law in all the works? Or what would be left to faith, if He should anticipate faith by promising help? But now, for the good of faith, He gave the Law, the minister of death:

so that the lovers of life might see life by faith, and that the righteous might live by faith, who believed that the work of the law could be accomplished not by their own power, but by the gift of God. For the law cannot be fulfilled by the flesh; and since it has not been fulfilled, it punishes. What hope, then, is there for a man of fulfilling the law and of escaping death, except in the help and mercy of God, which faith finds? The flesh is not subject to the law of God; nor indeed can it be. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit; if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Rom. viii, 7, 9). He shows that the Spirit of God and of Christ is one and the same.

He shows besides that whoever has the Spirit of God is not in the flesh. If, then, the Spirit of God and of Christ is one, the prophets and saints, because they had the Spirit of God, had the Spirit of Christ. And if they had the Spirit of God, they were not in the flesh, and they fulfilled the law; for the flesh is hostile against God, and is not subject to His law. Whoever, therefore, takes refuge in God has received the Spirit of God; and when that Spirit is received, the flesh is mortified; and once the flesh is mortified, he could fulfill the law as a spiritual man, freed from the law, because for the righteous it is not laid down. And again: If you are led by the Spirit of God, you are not under the law (Gal. v, 18). Whereby it is manifest that our fathers, who had the Spirit of God, were not under the law.

For as long as anyone is in the flesh—that is, does not have the Spirit of God—the law has dominion over him. But if he has given himself over to grace, he dies to the law, and the law of the spirit operates in him, the flesh being dead, which cannot be subject to the law of God. For what was being done then is even now still being done; for it is not the case that, because we are not under the law, that prohibition against concupiscence has ceased, but rather it has been enlarged; yet we run together into revealed grace through faith, having been taught by the Lord to ask the work of the law from His mercy and to say: Thy will be done; and, Deliver us from the evil one (Matt. vi, 10, 13). But they, being driven by the fear of death into the grace not yet revealed by that same faith, beheld death threatened against them by the sword made ready through the ministry of the law.

The law was given until the seed should come, to whom the promise was made and to whom faith was to be proclaimed. But beforehand, the law constrained men toward faith; as if faith, in seeking out the grace of God, could not be expressed without the law, because sin had no power. But once the law was given, the passions which are through the law worked in our members, pressing us toward sin, so that at least by necessity we might be driven into faith, which would implore the grace of God to aid our endurance. We endured the custody of a prison, the law threatening death and encompassing us round about with an insurmountable wall, the only single gate of whose enclosure was grace. Over this gate faith presided as guard, so that no one might escape that prison except him to whom faith had opened it;

and whoever did not knock at this gate would die within the enclosures of the law. We endured the law as a schoolmaster, which compelled us to strive after faith, which drove us into Christ. For the Apostle says that the law was given for this reason, to shut us up under its custody unto faith, until such time as faith should be revealed in Christ, who is the end of the law, by whom all lived who sought out the faith of the grace of God. Before faith came, he says, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which was to be revealed. The law, therefore, was our schoolmaster in Christ (Gal. iii, 24): that we might be justified by faith. The law, I say, was the pointer to faith. But someone will say:

if the law was given for the benefit of faith, why was it not given from the very origin of Abraham's seed, since it was perpetual? Indeed, it was perpetual. Faith too is perpetual, as the mother of Abraham's children. The law also is perpetual, through the discernment of good and evil. But after the promise of Abraham's children, when they were multiplied according to the flesh, Abraham's seed too was to be multiplied, which is not of faith. This multiplication could not come about without the aid of the multiplied law, and so that the multitude might be led—as has already been said, at least by necessity—into the faith not yet revealed. By the providence of God, therefore, Abraham's seed being holy by increase and governance, that by the severity and fear of the law many might be compelled into faith, and the seed might be sustained until the revelation of faith:

But the law entered in, that sin might be multiplied. Where, he says, sin was multiplied, grace did superabound (Rom. v, 20). He did not say it was born, but that it superabounded. For from the beginning it was given to those fleeing the troubles and dominion of the law. But it abounded when the law was multiplied, and it superabounded indeed upon all flesh, being revealed in Christ. Who, coming to restore the things in heaven and the things on earth, proclaimed the good news of faith to those who were near and to those who were far off (Isa. lvii, 19; Eph. ii, 17), that is, to the sinners of Israel and to the Gentiles. For the righteous of Israel by faith were called into the same faith. For the same Spirit, the same faith, the same grace has always been given through Christ.

Coming to bring the fullness of these, He, having removed the veil of the law, lavished it upon every nation, which differed from those to come only in measure, not in kind. For otherwise Abraham's seed never existed. But if anyone has been justified apart from faith, he was not a son of Abraham. For he cannot be called a son of Abraham, if he has been justified from the law, and not as Abraham was, from faith. For the Apostle teaches that the Church has passed from the same image of grace and spirit into the very same, saying: But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of God, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory (2 Cor. iii, 18). And he says that this glory existed even before the Lord's passion, and he denies that it could be excluded—that is, expressed, produced, brought about—from the law.

Whence it is manifest that it was of faith. Where then, he says, is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith (Rom. iii, 27, 28). For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness (Rom. iv, 3). To glory we have passed over from the same glory, which was not from the law. If it were from works, one has glory, but not toward God. For it is impossible, without the grace of God, to have any glory. For there is one glory, and it has always been of one kind. For no one has conquered, except him for whom God has conquered—which is not from the law, but is for the one who acts. But unto faith, God makes our adversary weak. Therefore, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor. i, 31).

For if what we conquer is not ours, it is not from works, but from faith. There is nothing, therefore, in which we may glory of ourselves. For we have nothing which we have not received. If we exist, we exist from God; so that the greatness of the power may be of God, and not of us. Our whole work is faith. And however great that faith is, just so much does God work in us. When Solomon glories in this, that man's continence was not from man but from the gift of God: When I knew, he says, that I could not otherwise be continent unless God should grant it. And this itself was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift this was: I went to the Lord, and besought Him (Wis. viii, 21).

We must believe, by the judgment of Solomon, that all were justified not from works, but from the grace of God—those who knew that the work of the law was to be fulfilled by God, whereby they might glory. And the Apostle says: That no flesh may glory in the sight of God (1 Cor. i, 29). The wicked, in every way, because they did not know God; the righteous, because the work is not their own, but God's. The useless things, he says, and the despised, God chose, the things that are not, that those which are might be brought to nothing, that no flesh might glory in the sight of God. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has been made for you wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (ibid., 28-30). And again:

By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves (Eph. ii, 8). It is the gift of God, not of works, lest perhaps anyone should glory: for we are His workmanship, created in Christ. Thus no flesh can ever be justified from the law—that is, from works—so that every righteous man might have glory from God. There is another reason that no one should glory in the sight of God: for God so works in His own people that there remains something which He may forgive: For no one is clean from defilement, not even if his life be but of one day (Job xiv, 4). And David says: Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no living man shall be justified (Ps. cxlii, 2). And Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, says: There is no man who has not sinned (1 Kings

viii, 46). And again: Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned (Ps. l, 6). For who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who shall boast that he is clean from sin? It would be a small thing concerning a chaste heart—that is, free from evil thoughts—unless also no one should boast that he is clean from sin. Every victory is granted not from works, but from the pity of God, as it is written: Who crowns you in pity and mercy (Ps. ciii, 4). And the mother of the martyrs says thus to her son: That in that mercy I may receive you back with your brothers (2 Macc. vii, 29). But the righteous fulfilled the will of God by their vow and endeavor, who strive and desire to serve God, yet not under the law.

But if these things justify, all the righteous would be of equal merit, because He requires the same observance of all; otherwise, the curse would be at work. But if the merit was unequal, then each one received just so much of the grace of God's mercy as he believed was given to him, being transformed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of God—that is, from the same into the same. For it is so, that since faith was given after Christ, just as the Holy Spirit was given, even so all the prophets and the righteous always lived by that same spirit. For they could not live otherwise than by the spirit of faith. For as many as were under the law were slain. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor. iii, 6). And yet the Lord says concerning that same Spirit:

Unless I go away, He will not come (John xvi, 7), although He had already given that same Spirit to the Apostles. But the Apostle says that the same Spirit was among the ancients: Having, moreover, the same spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed, therefore have I spoken (2 Cor. iv, 13). He said that the same one had the same spirit of faith who said: I believed, therefore have I spoken (Ps. cxv, 1); and he confirms this, saying: And we also believe, and therefore we also speak. By saying And we also, he shows that they too believed by the same spirit of faith. Whence it is manifest that the righteous always had these things not from the law, but from the spirit of faith. Whatever has come through the Lord is the fullness, of which a part was given through the same.

Just as a little child, who although he lacks nothing in comparison with a grown man, is nevertheless not a man, and through the growth not of new members but of those same members, the fullness of the body comes upon him, so that he becomes complete—the same one, however, who had been a little child. Indeed, the Holy Spirit was not in all before the Lord's passion; but He was in those who believed through Him while He was present, so that, with Him as conqueror and the one perfecting all things, those who were sealed might be perfected. For the righteous whom He found here had the Holy Spirit, such as Simeon and Nathanael, and Zacharias, and Elizabeth, and Anna the widow, the daughter of Phanuel. The promise is separated from the law; and since it is distinct, it cannot be mingled with it. A condition does not weaken the promise;

but we are compelled to speak of those things which we cannot hear without the fire of grief. For some say—those who do not know the firmness of the promises and the transgression which is from the law—that God indeed promised all the nations to Abraham (but with free will preserved), if they should keep the law. And although it may be profitable to lay open the perils of the inexperience of certain righteous men for the salvation of others; yet when the discourse is about almighty God, we ought to moderate what is to be said, lest by reckoning things that should be passed over in silence we recall them, and from our own mouth things, though belonging to others, be heard. Wherefore, speaking with trembling, let us leave to each one his own perils to be considered. It is manifest that God foreknew, out of free will, those whom He promised to Abraham, whether they would come to be or not. It is one of two things:

if they were to come to be, the question is settled; if they were not to come to be, the faithful God would not have promised. Or if it was thus decreed by God, then to grant the promised ones only if the promised were willing—surely He would have said it, lest His servant and believer, Abraham, be mocked, because what He promised, He is able also to perform. But that promise is one which incurs no condition. Otherwise, neither is the promise firm, nor is the faith whole. For what stable thing will remain in God's promise, or in Abraham's faith, if that which was promised and believed should depend on the will of those who were promised? Then both God promised what belonged to another, and Abraham believed incautiously. To what end also was that very promise afterward made a debt, when God said:

In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast hearkened to My voice, and hast not spared thy beloved son for My sake (Gen. xxii, 18)? Nor is it among those things in which it is easy even to clamor with calumny of free will against the merit of Abraham; for even after the death of Abraham himself, God confirms Himself a debtor to him, and declares that for his sake He will do what He was promising to his son, saying: I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For to thee and to thy seed will I give this land, and I will establish My oath which I swore to Abraham thy father, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give to thee and to thy seed all the nations of the earth, because Abraham thy father hearkened to My voice (Gen. xxvi, 3-5).

Behold, the debt owed to Abraham is confirmed. For he could not, through free will, lose after death what he had merited while alive; but the nations were unwilling to believe. What shall Abraham do, to whom it is owed? How shall he receive the debt of his faith and temptation, which he was secure that God owed him? To whom if it is said: I will give what I promised, and I will repay what I swore (ibid., 3): if the nations were willing, He would not believe, but would await something fortuitous. If a condition is needed, it must be with the workman, not with the wage. For the workman can wish to receive or to refuse; the wage cannot be paid back or not paid back. For all the nations were given to Abraham as the wage of his faith, as God says: Thy reward is exceeding great (Gen. xv, 1).

For He did not promise them if they were to come to be, and not because they were to come to be. For it was not on account of Abraham's faith that it pleased God that all the nations should be saved—nations which He possessed not only before Abraham's faith, but before the foundation of the world. But He sought a faithful man to whom He might grant this, from whom should come that for which He had decreed the future. Therefore Abraham did not merit this, that those should exist who were to come to be, whom God had chosen, and whom He had foreseen would be conformed to the image of His Son. For in Genesis the Scripture testifies that all the nations were promised to Abraham according to the foreknowledge of God, saying: But Abraham shall surely become a great and numerous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (Gen. xviii, 18).

He knew also that Abraham would instruct his sons and his household after him, that they should keep the ways of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that God might bring upon Abraham whatever He had spoken to him. But we also come upon conditions, such as: If you will hear Me, and if you will be willing. Where is the foreknowledge of God, where is the firmness of the promise in conditions of this kind? The Apostle also said that the promise was given of faith, and not of the law, for this reason, that the promise might be firm (Rom. iv, 16). The law, he says, works wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there transgression (ibid., 15). Therefore of faith, that according to grace the promise might be firm to all the seed. Rightly, that the promise might be firm.

For he added: by a condition it is not firm. For it is foolish enough to believe that what is said to a body divided in two applies to the whole body. Far be it that God should say to those: If you will hear Me—those whom He knew would hear, those whom, before He made them, He knew would persevere in the image of God, those whom He also promised. A condition—that is, the law—is not given except to the wicked and to sinners: that they may either flee to grace, or be more justly punished, if they have made it void. To what end is the law for the righteous, for whom the law is not laid down, who, with God being favorable, fulfill the law without the law, who serve, who live unto the image and likeness of God and of Christ, who are good of their own will? For he who is under the law, by fear of death, is not such a one—he is not merciful, he is not the image of God.

The law displeases him; but he fears its avenger, and cannot perfect it; which he thinks must be done not by will, but by necessity. It is necessary that he be handed over to his own will; so that his will may indeed receive its reward, because he did not mingle his soul with the will of God. What God willed displeases him. For he is evil by will, who is good by necessity. The law is a hindrance to the deed, not to the will. He is not joined to God, who, if there were no penalty for evil, would pursue evil. Nor does he do the will of God, who groans that he does not do his own. He is not merciful, who fears to be cruel. He who is under the law is a slave. He does not hate theft, but dreads the punishment.

But it is necessary that he steal, being persuaded and overcome, who is carnal under the power of sin, not having the Spirit of God. But he who loves the good is the image of God, lives by the Lord's faith, and is an heir, now no longer the son of the bondwoman (Gal. iv, 30, 31), who received the law in fear; but of the free woman, according to Isaac, who did not receive the spirit of bondage in fear, but the adoption of sons, crying Abba, Father (Rom. viii, 15). He who loves God does not fear in a servile way. For it is written, servile fear is accompanied by hatred of discipline. But the children's fear is with honor of the Father. It is one thing to fear from the law, another to tremble in reverence of the awesome majesty of God. Such men are like their Father who is in heaven:

having been reminded and taught, they love the good and hate the evil. They are without the law, they are free, they themselves are the promised ones: it is not to them that it is said, If you will hear Me—for indeed He can hear: would it apply to him whom God has not yet foreseen as one who will hear? And the righteous indeed, whom God foreknew (ibid., 29), are under this law. To them also it is said: if you will hear Me; but for another cause, not because they can fail to hear, but that they may always be solicitous for their own salvation and certain of their own end. For no one is secure that he is of the number of the foreknown, since the Apostle says: Lest I myself become a castaway (1 Cor. ix, 27).

Therefore for them this law is not a worker of wrath, but an exercise of faith, whereby they may continually seek the grace of God, laboring, so that what God foresaw in them might be perfected, and they might, out of free will, have been destined unto life. Otherwise it is impossible that he should fail to hear, whom God foresaw, promised, and swore would hear. But into what part the law properly applies, although it is given to one body, the Lord declares in the Gospel, saying to the Apostles: If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I speak not of all of you: I know whom I have chosen (John xiii, 17, 18). Great brevity, which shows one body and yet distinguishes. For if He had said: I speak not of all of you; or, I speak not of all—He would not have shown one body.

But now He says, I speak not of all: He shows that even if not of all, He nevertheless spoke of them. Just as if someone should say, I did not speak of the whole of you; for two bodies are mixed together as if one, and in common, one body is praised or rebuked. As in Exodus, when a certain man, against the prohibition, had gone out on the Sabbath to gather manna, God said to Moses: How long do you refuse to hear My law (Exod. xvi, 28)? though Moses always heard. What shall we say of that law which seems openly contrary to the promise? It is written in Isaiah: If you had hearkened to Me, O Israel, your number would have been as the sand of the sea (Isa. xlviii, 18). Behold, Israel is rebuked, because by its own fault it had not become as the sand of the sea.

It remains to understand that, if he should never hear, he will always be small. And where is the firmness of the promises? But this happens because we wish to understand before believing, and to subject faith to reason. But if we believe altogether that it comes to pass just as God swore, faith will give the reason. How faithless it is to seek by reason, when we understand that the firmness of the promises is greater than the weakness we suppose. For this saying—If Israel had hearkened—is a commemoration of the righteousness of God, and a confirmation of the promises, by the disposition of God some being made unto death, but some unto life. Therefore He said to those present, If you had hearkened to Me:

so that it might be made manifest that those whom He promised should come to be as the sand, He promised for this reason: because He foresaw that they would hear. For before the Lord Christ, when this was said, was the seed of Abraham never as the sand of the sea? This is easy to prove. First, because He promised this multitude in Christ: Not in seeds, as in many, but as in one, And to thy seed, which is Christ (Gal. iii, 16). Then, because He promised all the nations, which could not come to pass before Christ. And if there was, before the Lord, a number of the sons of Israel like the sand of the sea, yet it was with false brethren, who are not the sons of Abraham. For it is not the case that, because all are from Abraham, all are sons of Abraham; or that, because they are Israel, all are Israel.

Just as the Apostle, when he wished to be anathema for Israel (Rom. ix, 3), whose was the adoption of sons and the covenants, shows that they were not such as the sons of Abraham, but that he grieved out of the affection of carnal kinship, because they were not of that very number. Not that the promise of God had failed, saying: Yet the word of God has not failed; for not all who are of Israel, these are Israel; nor because they are the seed of Abraham, are all sons; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called: that is, not those who are the children of the flesh, these are the children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for the seed (ibid., 6-8). Therefore in the ancient multitude there was no seed of Abraham, except in those who, according to Isaac, were the children of faith and of the promise.

He also brings in this example: If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, that is, a small number (Isa. x, 22; Hos. i, 10). And, Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodom (Isa. i, 9). Those very remnants were the seed of Abraham, lest all Judea should be as Sodom. Again, when he asserted that God had never abandoned His inheritance, but that just as at the coming of the Lord a part of Israel was saved, so it had always been. What, he says, does the divine answer say? I have left for Myself seven thousand living men, who have not bowed the knee before Baal (1 Kings xix, 18; Rom. xi, 4). So now also a remnant according to the election has been saved, by saying:

If now in this present time: he shows that it had been done thus before in Israel also, that a remnant—that is, a small portion—should be saved. But if neither faith nor reason persuades faith that it was the one who was promised, of whom it was said: If thou hadst hearkened to Me, O Israel, thy number would have been as the sand of the sea (Isa. xlviii, 18). And Jacob, who before he was born was given, was himself afterward, by free will, rejected. As Hosea says: The judgment of the Lord is against Judah, to take vengeance on Jacob; according to his ways, and according to his pursuits, He will repay him (Hos. xii, 2): because in the womb he supplanted his brother, and in his labors he prevailed with God, and prevailed with the angel, and was made mighty (Gen. xxv, 26; Rom. ix, 10).

But if it is agreed that in Jacob the beloved was brought to completion, then the one who in his labors prevailed with God is not the same as the supplanter, but they are two in one body. For it is a figure of the twofold seed of Abraham—that is, of two peoples wrestling in the one womb of mother Church. The one is, according to the election from foreknowledge, the beloved; the other, by the election of his own will, is wicked. But Jacob and Esau are in one body, from one seed. Yet the fact that they were plainly born as two is a manifestation of the two peoples. And lest anyone should think that the two peoples were thus plainly to be separated, it was shown that both were to be in one body in Jacob, who was both called beloved and expressed as the supplanter of his brother.