Book of Rules 2 part 6/7

'Whoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. v, 19). And what 'shall break' means, He opens from what follows, saying: 'But whoever shall do and so teach.' And so this denial belongs to works, not to word, and the Apostle Paul confirms it, saying: 'They profess that they know the Lord, but in their deeds they deny Him' (Tit. i, 16). And again: 'Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof' (II Tim. iii, 5). In this sense he says that certain brethren preach Christ not holily in word, but in heart. For in word they preach holily. Finally he consents to their preaching, and bids it be heard, saying:

'What does it matter, whether by occasion or by truth, Christ is preached?' (Phil. i, 18). For Antichrist preaches the Lord Christ not by purpose, but by occasion. Aiming at something else, he enters in through the name of Christ, so as to pave a way for himself, so that under the name of Christ he may serve his belly, and—which is shameful to say—he imposes on these the name of holiness and simplicity, asserting that the works of his chambers are Christ, by signs and prodigies. The Apostle admonishes us to avoid such with wholesome caution, saying: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols' (I John v, 21). Concerning the devil and his body. Two passages are illustrated, Isaiah ch. xiv, and Ezekiel xxviii.

Concerning the devil and his body it can be briefly seen, if what was said concerning the Lord and His body is likewise observed. For the transition from the head to the body is discerned by the same principle, just as it is said through Isaiah concerning the king of Babylon: 'How is Lucifer fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning? He is crushed to the earth, who was sent to all nations? But thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will set my throne, I will sit upon the high mountain above the lofty mountains in the north, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But now thou art brought down to hell, into the foundations of the earth; and they who shall see thee shall wonder over thee, and shall say:'

'Is this the man who troubles the earth, who shakes kings, who makes the whole world a desert? He destroyed the city and did not loose those carried away. All the kings of the nations have slept in honor, in their own house. But thou art cast out into the mountains like one dead, abhorred together with all who have fallen in the deserts by the sword, and have gone down to hell. How camest thou? As a garment sprinkled with blood shall not be clean, so neither shalt thou be clean, because thou hast destroyed my land, and slain my people. Thou shalt not be forever, O wicked seed; prepare thy children for slaughter, for the sin of their father; let them not rise up' (Isa. xiv, 16-22). In the king of Babylon, all the kings, and all the people are signified, for it is one body.

'How,' he says, 'is Lucifer fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning, broken on the earth, who is sent to all nations? But thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will set my throne.' The devil promises this to himself. For he does not hope to be able to ascend into heaven by holding his position, who could not resist being cast down. Much less can a man hope these things; and yet he so says that it is a man: 'This is the man who incites the earth.' But besides this argument—that neither the devil nor a man can hope to be able to ascend into heaven, and, sitting above the stars of God, to be made like God—Scripture itself admonishes us to inquire into something else.

For if he says he will set his throne in heaven and above the stars of God, how shall he sit upon the high mountain, or upon the mountains in the north, or in the clouds, that he may be like the Most High? For the Most High does not have His throne in such a place. By 'heaven' He means the Church, as we shall see in the course of Scripture. From this heaven the morning star falls. For Lucifer is twofold, just as the Lord says in the Apocalypse concerning Himself and His body: 'I am the root and stock of David, and the bright morning star, the bridegroom and the bride' (Apoc. xxii, 16). Likewise there: 'To him who overcomes I will give the morning star' (Apoc. ii, 28); that is, that he may be a morning star as Christ is, whom we have received.

Therefore a part, Lucifer, that is, the adverse body, which is the devil, the kings, and the people, falls from heaven and is broken on the earth. By these rules Wisdom says: 'Hear therefore, ye kings, and understand; learn, ye judges of the ends of the earth; give ear, you who hold the multitudes, and please yourselves in throngs of nations: for power was given you by the Lord, and strength by the Most High, who will examine your works and search out your thoughts. Because, when you were ministers of His kingdom, you judged not rightly, nor kept the law' (Wisd. vi, 2, 3). The king of Babylon, then, is the whole body; but according to the places we understand to which part of the body it applies.

'Lucifer fell from heaven' can apply to the whole body. 'I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will set my throne,' likewise applies also to the head: the greater ones, who think they should lord it over the stars of God, that is, over the lord of the saints, while their own inferiors lord it over them, just as it is written: 'The elder shall serve the younger' (Gen. xxv, 23). To this Esau, that is, to the evil brethren, the Lord thus says through the prophet Obadiah: 'Thou that exaltest thy dwelling, saying in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou be exalted as the eagle, and set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord' (Obad. 3, 4). 'I will sit on the high mountain above the lofty mountains, in the north, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High' (Isa.

xiv, 13). The high mountain is the proud people. The lofty mountains are the several individuals who, united together, make up the mountain, that is, the body of the devil. For Scripture says that there are many evil mountains: 'The mountains shall be removed into the heart of the sea' (Psal. xlv, 3). Again: 'The foundations of the mountains were troubled and shaken, because God was angry' (Psal. xvii, 8). For the body of the Lord also, that is, the Church, is called a mountain; and the individuals who make up the Church are mountains, just as it is written: 'But I am appointed king by Him over Sion, His holy mountain, proclaiming His decrees' (Psal. ii, 6). And again: 'I will destroy the Assyrians in my land, and in my mountains' (Isa. xiv, 25). And again:

'Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice' (Psal. lxxi, 3). And again: 'The mountains shall leap like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock' (Psal. cxiii, 4). God has His throne in mount Sion, and in the mountains of Israel, and in His holy clouds, which is the Church. It is written: 'Let all the earth fear before the face of the Lord, because He riseth up from the holy clouds' (Psal. xvii, 8). Again: 'I will command the clouds not to rain upon it' (Isa. v, 6). Again: 'A cloud and mist are round about Him' (Psal. xcvi, 2). And that He dwells in mount Sion, He thus says: 'You shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain' (Ezech. xx, 40).

And the devil sits on a mountain, but it is Seir, which is Esau, that is, of the evil brethren—which mountain God rebukes through Ezekiel, and says He will make it desolate to the joy of the whole earth, because it exercises enmities against Israel. That is the mountain, those are the mountains of the north. On these the devil sits, and as it were lords it over the clouds of heaven. Thus far does he say he is 'like the Most High' (Isa. xiv, 14). There are two parts in the Church, of the South and of the North, that is, the Meridian and the Septentrional. In the southern part the Lord abides. It is written: 'Where dost thou feed, where dost thou abide at noon?' (Cant. i, 6). But the devil is in the North, just as God says to His people:

'I will drive him from the North away from you, and will expel him into a land without water,' that is, into his own people; 'and I will destroy his face into the former sea, and his hinder parts into the latter sea,' which is into the first and the last peoples (Joel ii, 20). After the likeness of the Church this world was fashioned, in which the rising Sun has its course only through the South, that is, the meridian; and having run through the southern part, it goes invisibly into its place, returning. So also our Lord God Jesus Christ, the eternal Sun, runs through His own part, whence He calls it the meridian. But to the North, that is, to the adverse part, He does not rise, just as those very ones, when they shall come into judgment, shall say: 'The light of justice hath not shined unto us' (Wisd. v, 6).

But to those who fear the Lord, the Sun of justice rises, and health is in His wings, as it is written (Mal. iv, 2). But to the wicked, noonday is night, just as it is written: 'While they wait for light, darkness is made unto them; in the gloom of dark night they have walked; they shall grope like a blind man at the wall, and like those who have no eyes they shall grope and fall at noon, as at midnight' (Isa. lix, 9, 10, according to the LXX). Again: 'The sun shall set at noon, and the day of light shall grow dark over the earth' (Amos viii, 9). Again: 'Therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness shall be to you instead of divination; and the sun shall set over the prophets, and the day of light shall grow dark over them' (Mic. iii, 6).

Against this people God threatens from the South, as through Ezekiel He rebukes Tyre, saying: 'The south wind hath crushed thee' (Ezech. xxvii, 26). For He permits this to break, saying: 'Arise, O north wind, and come, O south; blow through my garden, and let my ointments flow out' (Cant. iv, 16). For when the wicked spirit arises, the Holy Spirit resists, who blows through the Lord's garden, and the ointments are drawn forth, that is, the odor of sweetness is offered. And through Ezekiel God thus says, that out of the remnants of the evil people He will bring upon His own people a part of that same people, which is the mystery of iniquity: 'Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Mosoch and Thubal:'

'and I will gather thee, and bring thee, and place thee in the uttermost North, and bring thee upon the mountains of Israel; and I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and thy arrows out of thy right hand, and cast thee down upon the mountains of Israel' (Ezech. xxxix, 1-4). But this is wrought from the Lord's passion, until the Church which restrains depart out of the midst of that same mystery of iniquity, so that in its own time the impiety may be uncovered, just as the Apostle says: 'And now you know what restrains, that he may be revealed in his own time; for the mystery of iniquity is already at work, only that he who now restrains, restrains, until he be taken out of the midst. And then that wicked one shall be revealed' (II Thess. ii, 6-8).

And in Jeremiah we read that the sinners of Israel gather in the North, the Lord saying: 'Go and read these words toward the North, and say: Return to Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord' (Jer. iii, 12). But the Meridian is the part of the Lord, just as it is also written in Job: 'On the southern side life shall spring up there' (Job xi, 17). The North is the devil's; but each part is in the whole world. 'I will ascend,' he says, 'above the clouds; I will be like the Most High. But now thou shalt descend to hell, into the foundations of the earth. They who shall see thee shall wonder over thee, and shall say: This is the man who troubles the earth, who shakes kings, who makes the whole world a desert.' Surely it does not apply to the devil, 'They who shall see thee shall wonder over thee'?

Or to the last king, when he descends to hell? For when he himself descends to hell, the world being ended, there will be no one to wonder. For they will not say: 'This is the man who troubled the earth, the kings, and made the whole world a desert'; but 'he incites, and shakes, and makes.' For He calls 'man' the whole body, both in the kings and in the peoples; when God smites a part of this proud man, and casts it down to hell, we say: 'This is the man who incites the earth, who shakes kings,' namely the saints; 'who makes the whole world a desert'—this is the voice of those who mock, not of those who affirm, just as there: 'Thou that destroyest the temple, and in three days raisest it up' (Mark xv, 29). For he said: 'I will work might, and the wisdom of understanding.'

I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and lay waste their strength, and crush their cities together with their inhabitants; and I will grasp the whole world in my hand as if it were a nest, and I will carry it off as eggs that have been abandoned, and there will be none who can escape me or contradict me (Isa. 10:13-14). Can he indeed fulfill these things which he promises himself? He does indeed make the whole world a desert—but his own world. And he destroyed cities—those of his own world, to be sure. For the world is twofold, the movable and the immovable, as in Chronicles: 'Let all the earth be moved before the face of the Lord. For he established the world, which shall not be moved'; and 'He did not release those who were led away captive' (1 Chron. 16:30; Ps. 95:9). 'It can,' he says, 'agree with the literal sense.'

because he had granted no relief to the captives, but reckoning them as plunder seized from his enemies, he wielded his full sovereign power against them. This God reproaches, saying: 'I was indeed angry but a little; they, however, added to the evils' (Zech. 1:15). Yet these things were done and said as a figure of the general sense, and are fulfilled spiritually: when those who hold dominion afflict, without regard to piety or to their common human condition, the lowly who are subject to them—whether subjected to them for the sake of testing, or by their own deserving—men for whom power is not enough, but who scorn to use it within measure, which God blames, saying: 'Pursuing recompense' (Isa. 1:23). And again: 'He stretched out his hand against him in requital' (Ps. 54:21). For it is too little a thing that one is an enemy;

he still longs even to take vengeance upon the one subject to him, as it is written: 'You afflict all who are subject to you.' Hating the Lord under a pretense, he is an enemy and an avenger, in that through the vengeance which God reserved for himself alone he usurps some appearance of holiness. For it is written: 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord' (Rom. 12:19). 'All the kings of the earth have slept in honor, each man in his own house' (Isa. 14:18-19). By 'kings' he meant the saints. For not all kings, nor private men, have slept in their own house as the saints have slept in their (own) house which they chose. 'But you have been cast out upon the mountains like one dead and abhorred, together with all who have fallen, pierced by the sword, and they go down to hell.'

He speaks to the devil: 'You are cast out upon the mountains' on which he sits. Note that he did not say 'dead' but 'like one dead and abhorred.' For he still lives, although in his own members he is slain by the sword and goes down to hell. For just as the Lord said that whatever his own members suffer, he himself suffers (Matt. 25:40), so too the devil himself is trodden down in his members, he himself is shattered, being abhorred, as it is written: 'In the diminishing of the people, the crushing of the prince' (Prov. 14:28). The devil is not separated from the man who is his own; nor can a man in whom the devil is not, say, 'I will be like the Most High.' Nor is the devil this man who stirs up the earth, unless he be within a man. Just as the Lord cannot be called man, except within a man;

nor is there a man, except in Christ. But which sense fits which case must be observed according to the contexts. Again, the body of the devil itself is in view when it says: 'How did you come? As a garment sprinkled with blood is not clean, so neither shall you be clean; for you have destroyed my land and slain my people. You shall not endure to eternal time, O wicked seed; prepare, slay your sons for the sins of their father, that they may not rise again' (Isa. 14:19-21, according to the Septuagint). Here he shows that it does not fit the literal sense. For the king of Babylon who laid waste the Lord's land and killed his people—that is, Nebuchadnezzar—died at peace and lives forever.

He tells the body that, in each of its times, it should prepare those whom it has begotten, that they may be slain for the sins of him by whom he who is addressed was begotten. For the last king can have not sons but brothers. Nor is he 'like one dead' when he descends to hell, but truly 'dead.' Through Ezekiel God thus rebukes the king of Tyre: 'Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am God; I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea. But you are a man, and not God; and you have set your heart as the heart of God. Are you wiser than Daniel? The wise have refuted you by your own wisdom. Have you by your wisdom or your learning made for yourself power, and gold and silver in your treasuries?'

'Have you by your great learning and by your trade multiplied your power? Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God—therefore, behold, I bring upon you strangers, plagues from the nations, and they will draw out their swords against you, and against the beauty of your learning; and they will wound your beauty unto perdition, and bring you down, and you shall die the death of those slain in the heart of the sea. Will you indeed say in the sight of those who kill you, I am God? But you are a man, and not God. You shall perish in the midst of the uncircumcised, by the hands of strangers; for I have spoken, says the Lord. You are the seal of a multitude and the crown of beauty;'

'you were in the delights of the paradise of God, having every precious stone bound upon you—the sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle and sapphire, jasper, and silver and gold, and ligure and agate and amethyst, chrysolite and beryl, and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold. I set you with the cherubim on the holy mountain of God; you were in the midst of stones of fire; you walked without blemish in your days, from the day you were created, until iniquities were found in you. From the abundance of your trade you filled your storerooms with iniquity and sins, and you were wounded by the mountain of God. The cherub led you away from the midst of the stones of the lower regions; your heart was lifted up in your heart;'

'your learning was corrupted along with your beauty. For the multitude of your sins and the iniquity of your trade, your holy things were defiled; I will bring forth fire from the midst of you—this shall devour you. And I will make you ashes upon your land, in the sight of all who see you, and all who knew you among the nations shall be grieved over you. You have become destruction, and you shall not be to eternal time' (Ezek. 28:2-19, according to the Septuagint). ['Because your heart is lifted up,' he says, 'and you have said, I am God; I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea'—and this fits the man who says, 'I am Christ'; and it fits the devil who dwells in the heart of the sea, that is, of the people, just as God sits in the heart of his saints.]

The people dwells in the heart of the sea, that is, in the pleasure or the loftiness of the world, just as in another place God says to the same city: 'You are satisfied and exceedingly honored in the heart of the sea. Your rowers brought you into many waters; the south wind has broken you in the heart of the sea of your strength' (Ezek. 27:25-26). 'But you are a man, and not God.' And the devil, being in a man, is called a man, just as the Lord said in the Gospel: 'An enemy, a man, has done this' (Matt. 13:28). And he interpreted it, saying: 'He who sows them is the devil' (ibid. 39). The man of the devil cannot be God. Therefore it fits both: 'You are a man, and not God. You have set your heart as the heart of God. Are you wiser than Daniel?'

By 'Daniel' the whole body is the Church; for the one who is wise in sin cannot be wiser in the affairs of life, just as that one is wiser in his own kind than the sons of light. It can also fit the literal sense, since Daniel in particular confounded the king of Babylon as a figure, who by the prophetic spirit cast down the proud king to the confession of the one God by his ecclesiastical majesty; who by the confession of his virtues and by heavenly wisdom overthrew the superstitions of Babylon. 'The wise have not refuted you by your wisdom.' For not Daniel alone was wise, but also the three young men, who, by asserting one Lord, confounded the king and all his kingdom together with their very gods, the same God being present.

These same men, even to this day, generally shatter both the external and the internal forces of Babylon by the light of truth. 'Have you by your knowledge or your wisdom made for yourself power, and gold and silver in your treasuries? Have you by your great knowledge, or by your trade, multiplied your power? And your heart was lifted up in your power.' For the proud, and those ungrateful for the benefits of the all-powerful God, suppose that they can do something by their own power, and grow rich by their own wisdom, not knowing that it is written: 'The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise' (Eccl. 9:14). And again: 'Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?' (Isa. 10:15).

And indeed riches are not to the prudent, nor favor to the knowing. For these things are not in our power, but are bestowed by God. 'For what do you have that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?' (1 Cor. 4:7). And again: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom' (Jer. 9:23). 'Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God—therefore, behold, I bring upon you strangers, plagues from the nations; and they will draw out their swords against you, and against the beauty of your knowledge' (Ezek. 28:7-8). And although it can fit the literal sense, that the kings of the world through their pride allow themselves to be called lords, yet this also fits the general sense.

For God frequently brings foreigners into the Church, and wounds many unto death. But also by hidden persecution he brings in many from among the nations, by whom he tests his own people, and slays the wicked through their likes, as he did Mattathias. 'And they shall wound your beauty unto perdition.' For some they wound not unto perdition, but with hope of healing. 'And they shall bring you down,' that is, they shall humble you; 'and you shall die the death of those slain in the heart of the sea.' He would not say to one already wounded, 'you shall die the death of those slain,' except that he is not openly wounded and dies; rather, he himself exists in those in whom he is wounded. 'Will you, telling your tale, boast in the sight of those who kill you, I am God?'

That is: will you terrify, by titles of a divine race, those to whom you have been handed over, both spiritually and carnally? 'But you are a man and not God; you shall perish in the midst of the uncircumcised by the hands of strangers; for I have spoken, says the Lord.' Now he has revealed in what manner that one calls himself God: in that he threatens that he will perish in the midst of the uncircumcised by the hands of strangers—which does not fit except the one who seems to himself circumcised. For the king of Tyre could fear death alone: would he not be slain by the circumcised, or together with them? 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: Thus says the Lord:'

'You are the seal of likeness, and the crown of beauty; you were in the paradise of God.' Has the devil become a paradise, that he should be reproached for having lost a paradise? It was man who was in the delights of paradise; he is 'the seal of likeness,' who was made after the likeness of God. And he said 'seal' with respect to beauty, just as through Haggai, when the brethren of this one were contending against each other, God promises to the Church, saying: 'I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land; and I will overthrow the chariots and the riders. And the horses and their riders shall come down, each one by the sword against his brother.'

'In that day, says the Lord almighty, I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, and I will make you a seal, for I have chosen you, says the Lord almighty.' Zerubbabel is the whole body (Hag. 2:22-24; Sir. 49:13). For from that time we nowhere read that any commotion came upon Zerubbabel from above. He is of the tribe of Judah, who under Darius merited to build Jerusalem. He too, as a figure, at last laid the foundation of the house of God and completed it, as the same Lord says: 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish it' (Zech. 4:9). But what this seal is, and the crown of beauty, just as God promises to the Church, saying:

'The nations shall see your righteousness, and the kings your glory; and they shall call you by a name which the Lord shall name. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be called forsaken; and your land shall no more be called desolate. You shall also be called by a name, My Delight, and your land the whole world' (Isa. 62:2-4). Man, therefore, is the seal of likeness and the crown of beauty: one part of whom perseveres in the very beauty of the divine likeness and in the delights of paradise, that is, of the Church. But the other part, lest it should live forever, has a flaming sword turning between it and the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). For Adam, as the Apostle says, is a figure of the one to come (Rom. 5:14).

So too these brothers were divided into Cain and Abel. 'Having every precious stone bound upon you—the sardius, and topaz, and emerald, and carbuncle, and sapphire, and jasper, silver and gold, and ligure and agate and amethyst and chrysolite and beryl and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold, in yourself.' These things fit both the devil and man. For these twelve stones, and gold and silver, and all the treasures, cleave to the devil as allotted to him. Indeed, 'you have bound upon you'; and again, 'your storehouses in yourself.' Just as the body of the Lord is adorned by the saints, God promising and saying: 'Lift up your eyes round about;'