Book of Rules 2 part 5/7

If here in any whole sum of time, as for instance, it is after 9 days, or after 9 months: the first day of the tenth month it is. As it is written: In the womb of my mother I was formed flesh, congealed in blood for ten months (Wisd. 7:1-2). But as in the first part of any time there is time, so in the last hour let it be the whole day; the remnant of a thousand years is a thousand years. Six days are the age of the world, that is, of 6000 years. In the remnant of the sixth day, that is, of a thousand years, the Lord was born, suffered, and rose again. Likewise the remnants of a thousand years are called the thousand years of the first resurrection. For as the remnants of the sixth weekday, that is, three hours, are a whole day, one of the three of the Lord's burial:

so the remnants of the sixth greater day, in which the Church rose, is a whole day, a thousand years. For by this trope, three days and three nights are made up. But of night and day, the 24 hours are one period of time, nor are the nights added to the days, except by a fixed reckoning. Otherwise, we speak of days alone, as the Apostle is said to have stayed with Peter 15 (days). Was it necessary to say, the same number of days and nights? For thus it is written: The evening and the morning were one day (Gen. 1:5). But if night and day are one period of time, the last hour of the day retains both the whole day and the night just past. Likewise the last hour of the night retains the whole day and the night to come. For the hour is a part of both periods of time.

The hour in which the Lord was buried is a part of the sixth weekday by its night which had passed, and the hour of night in which he rose is a part of the impending day. Otherwise, if neither in the present day is the night past, nor in the present night the morrow's day, the Lord did not rise by day, but by night. Since the day is from the rising of the sun, as it is written: The greater light, the beginning of the day (Gen. 1:16). But the Lord rose before the rising of the sun. For Mark says: At the rising of the sun (Mark 16:2), not when it had risen, but when it was rising, that is, going toward its rising; but Luke says, at dawn (Luke 24:1). But lest there be any doubt about this expression, the other Evangelists plainly testify that it was night.

Does not Matthew say that the women came to the tomb by night and saw the Lord (Matt. 28:1)? And John, while it was still dark (John 20:1). But if the Lord rose before the sun, that is, before the beginning of the day, that night was a part of the dawning day. And this also befits the works of God, that the day should not be darkened into night, but that the night should grow light into day. For that very night is illumined and becomes day; which is a figure of those things that were done in Christ. Because God, who said: That light should shine out of darkness in our hearts (2 Cor. 4:6); who illumined the darkness, as it is written: Your darkness shall be as the noonday (Isa. 58:10). And:

The night is passed, but the day has drawn near; let us walk becomingly as in the day (Rom. 13:12). For first is that which is carnal, then that which is spiritual. Therefore the first day and the last are a part taken from the whole. Only the middle one was full, from evening to evening, according to the institution and the precept. As he says to Moses: From evening to evening I darkened the day of the Sabbaths (Lev. 23:32). But some say that it is to be reckoned from the day, since the Lord said three days and nights, not three nights and days. But this is overthrown without long argument. For if the beginning of the burial is by day, the end is in the night; but if it was ended in the day, it began from a night. For if the day of each is included, there will be one day too many.

Furthermore they say that in the day the night past cannot be, nor in the night the day to come; that the three separate days and nights must be assigned, reckoning the first day on which he was crucified, the second of the three hours restored, the third of the Sabbath, and the Lord's day will be the fourth. But those who avoid this circumlocution agree that it is indeed to be reckoned from the night, but that the nights must be separated from the days, saying that in the three hours of unseasonable darkness was the first night, the second that of the Sabbath, the third that of the dawning Lord's day. There are indeed three nights, as it were, but two days. The first in the three hours after the darkness; the second, that of the Sabbath.

For he who asserts separate days cannot say that in the night in which he rose there was a day to come. But if he should agree to this, he must of necessity agree that in the remnant of the sixth weekday a night had passed. And if those were the unseasonable darkness, the three hours of light are nonetheless of that same day; nor did they lose their order, so as not to be a part of their day and night. I say nothing of the fact that the three hours of darkness could not have been night, since they were outside the order of God's creation. For whatever is a sign does not disturb the reasonable course of the elements. For not because the sun and moon stood still in the days of Joshua (Josh. 10:13) and of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:10), did the sun alone go back:

that some course between the sun and moon was mutilated and subtracted, or added to the day or night, and that thence a new reckoning of times or of the new moon began, which God established in the sun and moon, to be for the days and years of times, as it is written in Genesis (Gen. 1:14). Much more in that day nothing was disturbed, to which the three hours of darkness were not added so as to make 15. For if we say that the sun was darkened and again shown is a day, by what name, what order do we assign to that very day which is said to have been between the sixth weekday and the Sabbath, unless on this reckoning the Sabbath was, and that week had 8 days?

Certainly, if the contention can by no means be settled by reason, we prove by a shortcut that the three hours of darkness do not pertain to the Lord's burial, in that he was still alive. For he could not be in the heart of the earth except from the time he died or was buried, which took place in the three hours of the sixth weekday, within the twelfth hour. Since after sunset it was not lawful for the Jews to bury, when it was the pure supper, the beginning of the Sabbath, as John says (John 13:2; 19:42). There, therefore, on account of the pure supper of the Jews, since the tomb was near, they laid Jesus. But days are preferred to nights in dignity, not in the order of newness; just as all the firstborn males are, as it is said:

He begot sons and daughters, and died (Gen. 5). This is against the law of nature, that all those should beget males first. But to us the whole time is day. All things are new, the figures have passed away. Of the lawful numbers there are the sevenfold, the tenfold, the twelvefold. But it is the same number even when it is multiplied: as seventy, or seven hundred, or so many times into itself: as seven times seven, or ten times ten. But they signify either perfection, or the whole from a part, or a simple sum. Perfection, as the seven spirits, the seven Churches (Rev. 1:4-11). Or as he says: Seven times in the day will I praise you (Ps. 119:164); or he shall receive sevenfold in this age (Matt. 19:29; Eccl. 35:13).

Likewise, the tenfold, as another Evangelist says: He shall receive a hundredfold in this age (Mark 10:30). And Daniel embraced the innumerable multitude of the angels and of heaven, or of the Church, in a tenfold number, saying: Thousands of thousands appeared to him, and ten times tenfold thousands stood round about him (Dan. 7:10). And David: The chariots, he says, of God are ten thousand times as many (Ps. 68:17). And concerning all time, David: For a thousand generations (Ps. 105:8). Likewise, by the twelvefold the whole Church is spoken of by the 144,000 and the twelve tribes (Rev. 7:4-5), all the nations, as: You shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28). The whole from a part:

since a hundred is a period of time defined by lawful numbers, as in the Apocalypse: You shall have tribulation 10 days (Rev. 2:10); meaning until the end. But to prove now that the seventy in Babylon are the same period of time is unseasonable. Besides the lawful numbers also, the Scripture has frequently abbreviated whatever time in whatever number, as the aforesaid time was called an Hour, the Apostle saying: It is the last hour (1 John 2:18). And a day, as: Behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2). And to proclaim a year, as through Isaiah: To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Isa. 61:2). Since not only that one in which the Lord preached was acceptable:

but also this one in which he preaches, as it is said: In an acceptable time I have heard you (Isa. 49:8); and the Apostle interprets it: Behold, now is the acceptable time (2 Cor. 6:2). Finally, the end of this year, that is, of judgment, he joined, saying: To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense. And David: You shall bless, he says, the crown of the year of your goodness (Ps. 65:11). Sometimes the hour, the day, and the months are a year, as in the Apocalypse: Prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year (Rev. 9:15), which is three years and a half. In the same place, months for years: It was given to him to destroy men five months (Ibid. 5).

Sometimes, days by a tenfold number, 100 days are days, as in the Apocalypse: A thousand two hundred and sixty days (Rev. 11:3); for a thousand times two hundred times sixty are a hundred times one hundred and twenty-six thousand days, which are three hundred and fifty years, with months of three hundred days each. In the same place: one month by a tenfold number, 100 months, as: They shall tread the holy city forty-two months (Ibid. 2). For forty-two times one hundred are 4200 months, which are three hundred and fifty years. A time is either a year or 100 years, as: a time, and times, and half a time (Dan. 7:25; 12:7), which is either three years and a half, or 350. Likewise: One day is sometimes a hundred years:

Just as it is written concerning the Church: 'to lie in the city where also her Lord was crucified, and after three days and a half' (Apoc. xi, 8, 11). And: 'The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again' (Matt. xx, 18; Mark x, 33; Luke xviii, 32). For He Himself rose on the third day. A generation is sometimes also a hundred years, just as the Lord says to Abraham: 'But in the fourth generation they shall return hither' (Gen. xv, 16). In Exodus, however, it is said not of the time of servitude, but of the whole time of sojourning: 'And in the fifth generation the people went up out of Egypt' (Exod. xii, 42), that is, after 450 years.

Likewise a generation is sometimes ten years, just as Jeremiah says: 'You shall be in Babylon until seven generations' (Baruch vi, 2). That the number three is the very same as the number ten is more fully discovered in the Gospel. For Matthew says that the Lord's substance was entrusted to three servants (Matt. xxv, 13); but Luke says ten (Luke xix, 13). These ten he reduces to three, since he too speaks of an account exacted from three. Sometimes one day is a thousand years, just as it is written: 'In the day that you taste of the tree, you shall die the death' (Gen. ii, 17). And the first seven days are 7,000 years.

In six days God worked, and rested from all His works on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it (Gen. ii, 2, 3). But the Lord says: 'My Father worketh until now' (John v, 17). For just as He fashioned this world in six days, so He fashions the spiritual world, which is the Church, through 6,000 years, and will cease on the seventh day, which He blessed and made everlasting. This is why, among the rest of His commandments, the Lord enjoined nothing more frequently than that we observe and love the day of the sabbaths. And whoever keeps the precepts of God, let him love the sabbath of God: that is, the seventh day of eternal rest.

Therefore God exhorts the people not to enter the gates of Jerusalem with a burden on the sabbath day, and He threatens the gates, and those who enter through them and go out by them, as He commands to Jeremiah, saying: 'Go and stand in the gates of the children of thy people, by which the kings of Judah enter in and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; and thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye who enter in by these gates. Thus saith the Lord: Keep your souls, and do not take up burdens on the sabbath day, and do not go out of the gates of Jerusalem, and do not carry burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers':

'but they did not hearken with their ears, and they hardened their neck above their fathers, so as not to hear Me, nor to receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if you will hearken to Me, saith the Lord, that you bring no burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, that you do no work of yours, and that you sanctify the sabbath day; then there shall enter through the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting upon the throne of David. And mounting upon chariots and horses, they themselves and their princes, the men of Judah, who dwell in Jerusalem.'

'And this city shall be inhabited forever, and they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the cities of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain country, and from the land that is to the south, bringing holocausts and incense, and manna, and frankincense, bringing praise into the house of the Lord. But if you will not hear Me, to sanctify the sabbath day, so as not to carry burdens, nor to enter through the gates of Jerusalem: I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched' (Jer. xvii, 19-27). It would have been enough to have briefly commanded not to work on the sabbaths. Why then: 'Bring no burdens through the gates of Jerusalem'? Or, if it were a matter of work, He would have stated the kind of work, that is, 'do not bring in through the gates.'

For no one was bringing burdens into the city through the walls and roofs. Jerusalem is twofold, and its gates are twofold. Through the gates of hell one goes out from the holy Jerusalem, and through the same gates one enters into the accursed Jerusalem. But those who enter through the gates, enter into the eternal Jerusalem, like kings in chariots and on horses, sitting on the throne of David, just as it is said through Isaiah: 'The children's children shall bring from all nations a gift to God with horses and chariots, in the splendor of many, with canopies, into the holy city' (Isa. lvi, 20). The gates of the holy city Jerusalem are Christ, and His vicars, the keepers of the law; but those who slay the prophets and stone those sent to them.

The gate is the devil, and his vicar is the false apostles, transgressors of the law, hiding away the keys of the kingdom of heaven in a deep sense. They themselves are the gates which do not prevail against the Church, which is founded upon the rock. For the foundation of God stands, just as it is written: 'The Lord knoweth who are His' (II Tim. ii, 19). But if anyone enters through the precepts of those who preside in the chair of Moses, he enters through Christ. For the precepts are His; He Himself expounds the burden of one's sins, and without Him no one enters into the rest of the sabbath. But if anyone enters not through the precepts, but through the deeds of those who preside in the chair of Moses, he is a son of Gehenna more than they are.

And while all are resting who have gathered before the sabbath, let him be found with his burden on the sabbath day, on which it is not lawful to gather manna or to set it forth. For they will not hear the voice of the Son of God crying in the Church and saying: 'Come unto Me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will make you rest' (Matt. xi, 28). These are the thieves who enter into their own Jerusalem not by the true door, but by their own gates. And God will kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem, and it shall devour its ways, and it shall not be quenched. For the fire which burned up the gates of the visible Jerusalem has been extinguished. But the Apostle says that the sabbath and the other commandments of the law are a figure of what is to come, thus saying:

'Let no one therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of a new moon, or of the sabbaths, which is a shadow of things to come' (Col. ii, 16). In many places, the diverse events of a single time, described separately in appearance, have made two times, as though following one another in order. But in general, both events occur at one time. So the 14 years under Joseph, of plenty and of barrenness, are only 7 years (Gen. xli), that is, the whole time of the Lord's passion, in whose figure Joseph was made lord of Egypt when he was 30 years old. And so the 7 years of plenty and abundance are for us the very same as the other 7 of barrenness and famine. For in this time the Lord threatens the rich with famine, but the poor with abundance.

He promises these good things; and the evils of a twofold time are to be in one time. The Scripture of Exodus testifies (Exod. x), since it is manifest that Israel was exempt from all the plagues of Egypt, and that they had light during the three days of darkness. This now is wrought spiritually, as God afterward threatened the same Pharaoh, saying: 'I will give darkness over thy land' (Ibid. 2). Sometimes He divides one time into many parts, each one of which is the whole time. So the year in which Noah was in the ark is divided into all the numbers. Yet whenever there is mention of times, the number four is especially the time from the Lord's passion until the end.

It is the number four, whenever it is either full, or, after the third, a part of the fourth, as 340, or three and a half. But the rest (for they are to be understood according to the places) are signs, not manifest definitions. Therefore the forty days of the flood are the whole time. For these are the 40 years in Egypt, and the 40 years in the wilderness, and the 40 days of the fasting of the Lord and of Moses and of the Church, during which the Church fasts in the Church, that is, abstains from the pleasures of the dead. Likewise the 40 days in which the Church eats and drinks with the Lord after the resurrection are the 40 years in which the Church was eating and drinking under Solomon, with deep peace on every side, yet with the twofold Solomon oppressing them, just as the same Church says:

'One father oppressed us' (III Kings xii, 30). For forty days the water was at its full, and for as many days it abated, so that in this also the abatement of the water might be completed in the tenth month, that is, in the perfect time. But in general it is not so, that at one time it increases, and then abates. For at the very time when it grows strong carnally, at the same time it fails spiritually, so that the very exaltation is the failing, until the time is completed. Thus the reigning world is placed under the feet of the Church, the Son of Man. The 40 days, then, which absolved the sins of Judah, and of Israel 149, are one and the same. And in the 7th month the ark settled, the same time; and the water was abating until the 10th month, the same time; he went out of the ark in the 12th month (Gen. vii, 14).

This is the acceptable year of the Lord's liberty. When it is completed, the Church will be made manifest that the flood of the world has passed by. Each part of this year is the same year. As if He should say, he went out of the ark on the fortieth day, or in the 7th month, or the 10th. Concerning Recapitulation. These parts from the beginning to the end are recapitulations: as from Adam to Enoch, that is, to the translation of the Church, seven generations, which is the whole time. Again from Adam to Noah, that is, to the restoration, ten generations, which is the whole time; and from Noah to Abraham, ten generations.

For the hundred years also, during which the ark was built, are the whole time in which the Church is being built, and during that time, when all are perishing in the flood, she is steered safely. We leave this for the prudent to investigate more fully, the way having been given. For lest the abundance of Scripture should be too much in interpreting, we did not think it necessary to pursue every detail, nor to remove those things which perhaps hinder this understanding, since we are hastening to something else. Among the rules with which the Spirit sealed the law, so that the way of light might be kept, the seal of recapitulation guards no small thing with such subtlety that it seems rather to be a continuation of the narrative than a recapitulation. For sometimes it thus recapitulates: 'Then, in that hour, on that day, at that time,' just as the Lord speaks in the Gospel, saying:

'On the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire from heaven and destroyed them all' (Gen. xix, 24). 'According to these things shall be the days of the Son of Man' (Matt. xxiv, 37); when that hour shall be revealed, let him who is on the housetop, and his goods in the house, not come down to take them; and let him who is in the field likewise not return back (Matt. xxiv, 17, 18). 'Remember Lot's wife' (Luke xvii, 32). Surely, in that hour in which the Lord shall be revealed by His coming, must not one turn back to the things that are his own, and remember Lot's wife, and not before He is revealed? But the Lord commanded these things to be observed in that hour in which He shall be revealed: not only that by hiding it He might make the truth more pleasing to those who seek it;

but also that He might show that whole time to be a day or an hour. And so in the same hour, that is, in the same time, He commanded these things to be observed—but before He is revealed. In the same hour indeed, but in which part of the hour, is known by reason. Sometimes, however, things of this kind are not recapitulations, but likenesses of things to come, just as the Lord says: 'When you shall see what was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains' (Matt. xxiv, 15; Dan. ix, 27). And He brings in the end. But what Daniel said is carried out in Africa, and not at the same time as the end. But since, although it is not under that title, yet it is to come. Therefore He said 'then,' that is, when the like has been done throughout the world:

which is the departure and the revelation of the man of sin. In this manner of speech the Spirit speaks in the Psalms: 'When the Lord shall turn the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted. Then was our mouth filled with joy, and our tongue with exultation. Then shall they say among the nations: The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us; we are become joyful' (Psal. cxxv, 1-3). But in saying: 'When the Lord shall turn the captivity of Sion: then they said among the nations'—'Now shall He turn it,' He says. 'Then shall they say among the nations.' For we are the nations whose captivity He turns. As in their figure, we have a time, saying:

'The Lord hath done great things for them, the Lord hath done great things for us.' Therefore by reason of the likeness He made one and joined together His time and ours, saying: 'Then shall they say among the nations,' that is, when He shall have done the like for the nations. Nor do I think that passage should be passed over, which the Spirit willed to be understood without mysteries or allegory: 'Many false prophets have gone forth into this world. In this know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that dissolves Jesus, and denies that He is come in the flesh, is not of God; but this is of Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already present in this world' (I John iv, 3). Surely, does everyone who does not deny that Jesus has come in the flesh have the Spirit of God?

But that this denial is in deed, not in word, and that each one is to be understood not by profession, but by his fruits, he subtly admonishes in the whole Epistle, in which he wrote of nothing but good and evil fruits, by the same manner of speech, just as he says: 'In this we know Him, if we keep His commandments' (I John ii, 3, 4). 'But he who says: I have known Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar.' Surely he did not say that the brother who knows not God is to be understood by profession, and not by works? And: 'He who says that he loves God, and hates his brother, is a liar' (I John iv, 20). For if, as he says, he loves God, let him show it by works, let him cleave to God, let him love God in his brother.

If he believes Christ was incarnate, let him cease to hate the members of Christ. If he believes the Word was made flesh, why does he persecute in the flesh the Word made flesh (John i, 14)? Why does he persecute the Word in the flesh? Because the Lord said: 'As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren who believe in Me, you did it to Me' (Matt. xxv, 40); let him not work evil upon the flesh of Christ, that is, upon His servants, since the Lord and the Church are one flesh. And if he believes there is a man in this flesh, why does he not love him, or—what is more cruel—why does he hate him, just as it is written: 'He who loves not his brother, abides in death' (I John iii, 14); and 'He who hates his brother is a murderer' (Ibid., 15)?

Did he say that there was any greater or more evident sign of recognizing the Antichrist than this, that he who denies Christ in the flesh, also hates his brother? But this which he says: 'For he who denies Christ in the flesh is not of God' (II John 7), is of the same kind as: 'No one can say, the Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit' (I Cor. xii, 3)—since many say 'the Lord Jesus,' He Himself testifying: 'Not all who say to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. vii, 21). But in this place the Apostle said that no one can say the Lord Jesus Christ, except in the Holy Spirit, according to conscience (I Cor.

xii, 3), according to the inner man, not according to mere profession, in order to show those who say 'the Lord Jesus' that they have nothing less than those who are exalted by the kinds of charisms. But that one and the same Spirit possesses everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus, provided he shows that he has believed by his works. 'No one,' he says, 'can say the Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; now there are diversities of charisms, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, and the same Lord' (Ibid., 4, 5). But to dissolve Jesus is not to do what one confesses Jesus to have done, just as the same Lord says: