規則之書 第 2 章 第 7/7 段

'see all your children, they are gathered together, and have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall clothe yourself with all of them, and put them upon you as ornaments, like the adornment of a bride; for your desolate and ruined places, and the places that have fallen, shall now be too narrow because of the inhabitants' (Isa. 49:18-19; 60:14). And in the Apocalypse, the same city is built up, founded on twelve stones (Rev. 21:12, 20). 'All,' he says, 'precious stone'—and he enumerated twelve, in order to show in the number twelve the perfection. For 'all things which God made are good' (Gen. 1:25). Of these the devil changed the use, not the nature.

And all men of excellent understanding and powerful intellect are gold and silver and precious stones according to nature; but they will belong to him in whose service, by their nature, they enjoy their own gifts. For to whomever one yields oneself in obedience, one is the servant of him whom one obeys, whether of sin or of righteousness. So it comes about that even the devil has gold and silver and precious stones—all of them not his according to their origin, but his according to their will. For in Job too it is written of the devil: 'All the gold of the sea is under him' (Job 41:21). And the Apostle says that there are certain vessels of gold and silver unto dishonor (2 Tim. 2:20).

For he did not, as some suppose, reject all wooden and earthen vessels, since some of them are unto honor, the Apostle himself saying: 'The potter, of the same clay, fashions one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor' (Rom. 9:21). And of wood, one thing is for ornamentation, another for sacrilege; by gold and silver—that is, by great and conspicuous men—he called the unclean. For in the Apocalypse too: 'The harlot' (that is, the adverse body) 'is adorned with purple, scarlet, and gold, and silver, and precious stones; having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abominations and uncleannesses of the whole earth' (Rev. 17:4). These, then, are the ornaments of the devil, the precious stones;

by which he imitates the stones of fire, and man has within himself treasures both of crimes and of conspicuous things. For he himself is the bearer of his own things, whom his possessions have bound like fetters. Besides those things which are produced to be displayed by either sex of the body of the devil, the heart too is implanted in those things which they have hidden away. For where the treasure is, there will the heart of man also be (Matt. 6:21). For the old man and his earth are one body, since he himself too is earth. Hence the Apostle defined that not only those things which can be committed with the body, but also avarice, is a member of the one who possesses it, saying thus:

'Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and avarice, which is the worship of idols. On account of which the wrath of God comes' (Col. 3:5-6). 'From the day you were created, I set you with the cherubim on the holy mountain of God' (Ezek. 28:14)—that is, in Christ, or the Church. 'You were in the midst of stones of fire'—that is, of holy men, who, being united, make up the mountain of God. For angels, being of another substance, cannot be called stones, because they have no body. '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' (ibid. 15).

That the stones are the Church, Peter says thus: 'Behold, you brethren, as living stones, are built up into spiritual houses' (1 Pet. 2:5). That this house is a house of fire, and that the wicked brethren burn within it, God says thus: 'The house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; but the house of Esau stubble. They shall blaze up against them and consume them; and there shall be no firebearer in the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken' (Obad. 18). For when a man sins, he is cast down from the mountain of God, and there shall be no firebearer, the Spirit being lost, and he shall be burned to ashes. 'You sinned, and you were wounded by the mountain of God; and the cherub led you away from the midst of the stones of fire.' [The cherub is the ministry of God;]

which excluded all the wicked from the Church, but spiritually. For he who has not a wedding garment is, in this present age, excluded from the midst of those reclining at table. Then he is sent into darkness, that is, into hardness, until he descends into the eternal fire. For in the age to come, no one shall mingle with the choir of the saints who afterward might be excluded. 'Your heart was lifted up in your beauty; your knowledge was corrupted in your beauty.' Corrupted was the knowledge of him who was knowing and prudent, and who, by his zeal for an affected wisdom, asserts a lie while concealing the truth, just as the Spirit says: 'When they had known the Lord, they did not glorify him as Lord, nor give thanks;'

'but became vain in their reasonings, saying that they were wise' (Rom. 1:22). [Corrupted was the knowledge of those who teach others, but do not teach themselves. Defective was the beauty which does not correspond, by the likeness of works, to its own kind. 'On account of the multitude of your sins I have cast you down to the earth; in the sight of kings I have given you to be dishonored' (Ezek. 28:18). And the devil is in the earth, that is, in man; and man is from the height of the Church into trampling-down, as Jeremiah says: 'I have cast down the glory from heaven to earth. In the sight of kings' (Lam. 2:1)—he meant of Christians, by whose feet the devil and his man are trampled down:]

'On account of the multitude of your sins, and the iniquity of your trade, your holy things are defiled.' He seems to have reproached, as it were, the principal title; but he speaks rather of the body of the devil, of trade, and of treasures of spiritual wickedness. For just as the trade of spiritual righteousness is a treasure, as the Lord says: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant' (Matt. 13:45); and again: 'Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven' (Matt. 6:20); again: 'He gave his servants his substance, that they might trade' (Luke 19:13); again: 'The merchants of Carthage resisting,' etc. (Ezek. 27:12); again: 'Her trade and her wages shall be holy to the Lord' (Isa. 23:18).

And the Apostle: 'Godliness,' he says, 'is great gain' (1 Tim. 6:6). So spiritual wickedness, this trade, is the treasure of sins, just as the Lord says: 'The evil man, out of the treasure of his heart, brings forth evil things' (Matt. 12:35). And the Apostle: 'You are storing up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath' (Rom. 2:5). 'On account of the iniquity,' he says, 'of your trade, your holy things are defiled.' For he who does not rightly use the holiness of God makes it his own, just as God says concerning his sabbaths: 'My soul hates your sabbaths. I will bring forth fire from the midst of you—this shall devour you' (Isa. 1:13). The fire is the Church, which, when it has departed from the midst of the mystery of iniquity, then the Lord shall rain fire from the Lord, from the Church, as it is written:

'The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Zoar; and the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven' (Gen. 19:23-24). This is the fire of which he spoke above: 'The house of Jacob, fire; but the house of Esau, stubble. They shall blaze up against them and consume them; and there shall be no firebearer in the house of Esau' (Obad. 18). In Genesis again it is written: 'When God destroyed all the cities round about'—upon these Rules of Tyconius, Augustine comments in vol. III, book III of On Christian Doctrine, chapters 30-37—'God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when God overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt' (Gen.

19:29). Could not Lot have deserved to be delivered by his own righteousness, that Scripture should say: 'God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow'? Or, did he dwell 'in the cities,' and not in a city, so that it should say, 'the cities in which he dwelt'? But it is a prophecy of the future separation. For God, mindful of the promise to Abraham, cast Lot out of all the cities of Sodom, upon which there will come fire from the fire of the Church, which shall be led out of the midst of them. 'And I will make you ashes upon your land' (Ezek. 28:18). That is, among men—or rather the men themselves—upon their land, who would not be in the land of God. 'In the sight of men who see you,' that is, who understand.

Can the devil be seen in a man? 'And all who knew you among the nations shall be grieved over you' (ibid. 19). For when the Lord strikes or chooses out the wicked, those who are accustomed to be supported by their aid are grieved, a part of their own body being weakened. 'You have become destruction; and you shall not be to eternity.'