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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 31. The first rule of Tichonius |
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44. The first is about the Lord and His body, and it is this,
that, knowing as we do that the head
and the body--that is, Christ and His Church--are sometimes
indicated to us under one person (for
it is not in vain that it is said to believers, "Ye then are
Abraham's seed," when there is but one
seed of Abraham, and that is Christ), we need not be in a
difficulty when a transition is made from
the head to the body or from the body to the head, and yet no
change made in the person spoken
of. For a single person is represented as saying, "He has decked
me as a bridegroom with
ornaments, and adorned me as a bride with jewels;" and yet it is,
of course, a matter for
interpretation which of these two refers to the head and which to
the body, that is, which to Christ
and which to the Church.
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Ch 32. The second rule of Tichonius |
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45. The second rule is about the twofold division of the body of
the Lord; but this indeed is not a
suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of Christ
which will not be with Him in
eternity. We ought, therefore, to say that the rule is about the
true and the mixed body of
the Lord, or the true and the counterfeit, or some such name;
because, not to speak of eternity,
hypocrites cannot even now be said to be in Him, although they
seem to be in His Church. And
hence this rule might be designated thus: Concerning the mixed
Church. Now this rule requires
the reader to be on his guard when Scripture, although it has now
come to address or speak of a
different set of persons, seems to be addressing or speaking of
the same persons as before, just as
if both sets constituted one body in consequence of their being
for the time united in a common
participation of the sacraments. An example of this is that
passage in the Song of Solomon, "I am
black, but comely, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of
Solomon." For it is not said, I *was*
black as the tents of Cedar, but am *now* comely as the curtains
of Solomon. The Church
declares itself to be at present both; and this because the good
fish and the bad are for the time
mixed up in the one net. For the tents of Cedar pertain to
Ishmael, who "shall not be heir with the
son of the free woman." And in the same way, when God says of the
good part of the Church, "I
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them
in paths that they have not
known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things
straight: these things will I do
unto them, and not forsake them;" He immediately adds in regard to
the other part, the bad that is
mixed with the good, "They shall be turned back." Now these words
refer to a set of persons
altogether different from the former; but as the two sets are for
the present united in one body, He
speaks as if there were no change in the subject of the sentence.
They will not, however, always
he in one body; for one of them is that wicked servant of whom we
are told in the gospel, whose
lord, when he comes, "shall cut him asunder and appoint him his
portion with the hypocrites."
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Ch 33. The third rule of Tichonius |
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46. The third rule relates to the promises and the law, and may be
designated in other terms as
relating to the spirit and the letter, which is the name I made
use of when writing a book on this
subject. It may be also named, of grace and the law. This,
however, seems to me to be a great
question in itself, rather than a rule to be applied to the
solution of other questions. It was the
want of clear views on this question that originated, or at least
greatly aggravated, the Pelagian
heresy. And the efforts of Tichonius to clear up this point were
good, but not complete. For, in
discussing the question about faith and works, he said that works
were given us by God as the
reward of faith, but that faith itself was so far our own that it
did not come to us from God; not
keeping in mind the saying of the apostle: "Peace be to the
brethren, and love with faith, from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." But he had not come
into contact with this heresy,
which has arisen in our time, and has given us much labour and
trouble in defending against it the
grace of God which is through our Lord Jesus Christ and which
(according to the saying of the
apostle, "There must be also heresies among you, that they which
are approved may be made
manifest among you" has made us much more watchful and diligent to
discover in Scripture what
escaped Tichonius, who, having no enemy to guard against, was less
attentive and anxious on this
point, namely, that even faith itself is the gift of Him who "has
dealt to every man the measure of
faith." Whence it is said to certain believers: "Unto you it is
given, in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Who,
then, can doubt that each of these is
the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes,
that each of them is given? There
are many other testimonies besides which prove this. But I am not
now treating of this doctrine. I
have, however, dealt with it, one place or another, very
frequently.
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Ch 34. The fourth rule of Tichonius |
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47. The fourth rule of Tichonius is about species and genus.
For so he calls it, intending that by
species should be understood a part, by genus the whole of which
that which he calls species is a
part: as, for example, every single city is a part of the great
society of nations: the city he calls a
species, all nations constitute the genus. There is no necessity
for here applying that subtilty of
distinction which is in use among logicians, who discuss with
great acuteness the difference
between a part and a species. The rule is of course the same, if
anything of the kind referred to is
found in Scripture, not in regard to a single city, but in regard
to a single province, or tribe, or
kingdom. Not only, for example, about Jerusalem, or some of the
cities of the Gentiles, such as
Tyre or Babylon, are things said in Scripture whose significance
oversteps the limits of the city,
and which are more suitable when applied to all nations; but in
regard to Judea also, and Egypt,
and Assyria, or any other nation you choose to take which contains
numerous cities, but still is
not the whole world, but only a part of it, things are said which
pass over the limits of that
particular country, and apply more fitly to the whole of which
this is a part; or, as our author
terms it, to the genus of which this is a species. And hence these
words have come to be
commonly known, so that even uneducated people understand what is
laid down specially, and
what generally, in any given Imperial command. The same thing
occurs in the case of men: things
are said of Solomon, for example, the scope of which reaches far
beyond him, and which are only
properly understood when applied to Christ and His Church, of
which Solomon is a part.
48. Now the species is not always overstepped, for things are
often said of such a kind as
evidently apply to it also, or perhaps even to it exclusively. But
when Scripture, having up to a
certain point been speaking about the species, makes a transition
at that point from the species to
the genus, the reader must then be carefully on his guard against
seeking in the species what he
can find much better and more surely in the genus. Take, for
example, what the prophet Ezekiel
says: "When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they
defiled it by their own way, and by
their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a
removed woman. Wherefore I
poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the
land, and for their idols
wherewith they had polluted it: and I scattered them among the
heathen, and they were dispersed
through the countries: according to their way, and according to
their doings, I judged them." Now
it is easy to understand that this applies to that house of Israel
of which the apostle says "Behold
Israel after the flesh;" because the people of Israel after the
flesh did both perform and endure all
that is here referred to. What immediately follows, too, may be
understood as applying to the
same peep]e. But when the prophet begins to say, "And I will
sanctify my great name, which was
profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of
them; and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord," the reader ought now carefully to
observe the way in which the species
is overstepped and the genus taken in. For he goes on to say: "And
I shall be sanctified in you
before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and
gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be
clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I
cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take
away the stony heart out of your
flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my commandments, and do
them. And ye shall dwell in the
land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I
will be your God. I will also save
you from all your uncleannesses." Now that this is a prophecy of
the New Testament, to which
pertain not only the remnant of that one nation of which it is
elsewhere said, "For though the
number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a
remnant of them shall be saved,"
but also the other nations which were promised to their fathers
and our fathers; and that there is
here a promise of that washing of regeneration which, as we see,
is now imparted to all nations,
no one who looks into the matter can doubt. And that saying of the
apostle, when he is
commending the grace of the New Testament and its excellence in
comparison with the Old, "Ye
are our epistle ... written not with ink, but with the Spirit of
the living God; not in tables of stone,
but in fleshy tables of the heart," has an evident reference to
this place where the prophet says, "A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh." Now the heart of flesh from
which the apostle's expression, "the fleshy tables of the heart,"
is drawn, the prophet intended to
point out as distinguished from the stony heart by the possession
of sentient life; and by sentient
he understood intelligent life. And thus the spiritual Israel is
made up, not of one nation, but of all
the nations which were promised to the fathers in their seed, that
is, in Christ.
49. This spiritual
Israel, therefore, is distinguished from the carnal Israel which
is of one nation, by newness of
grace, not by nobility of descent, in feeling, not in race; but
the prophet, in his depth of meaning,
while speaking of the carnal Israel, passes on, without indicating
the transition, to speak of the
spiritual, and although now speaking of the latter, seems to be
still speaking of the former; not
that he grudges us the clear apprehension of Scripture, as if we
were enemies, but that he deals
with us as a physician, giving us a wholesome exercise for our
spirit. And therefore we ought to
take this saying "And I will bring you into your own land," and
what he says shortly afterwards, as
if repeating himself, "And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave
to your fathers," not literally, as if
they referred to Israel after the flesh but spiritually, as
referring to the spiritual Israel. For the
Church, without spot or wrinkle, gathered out of all nations, and
destined to reign forever with
Christ, is itself the land of the blessed, the land of the living;
and we are to understand that this
was given to the fathers when it was promised to them in the sure
and immutable purpose of God;
for what the fathers believed would be given in its own time was
to them, on account of the unchangeableness of the promise and purpose, the same as if it
were already given; just as the
apostle, writing to Timothy, speaks of the grace which is given to
the saints: "Not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour." He speaks of
the grace as given at a time when those to whom it was to be given
were not yet in existence;
because he looks upon that as having been already done in the
arrangement and purpose of God,
which was to take place in its own time, and he himself speaks of
it as now made manifest. It is
possible, however, that these words may refer to the land of the
age to come, when there will be a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein the unrighteous shall be
unable to dwell. And so it is truly
said to the righteous, that the land itself is theirs, no part of
which will belong to the unrighteous;
because it is the same as if it were itself given, when it is
firmly settled that it shall be given.
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Ch 35. The fifth rule of Tichonius |
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50. The fifth rule Tichonius lays down is one he designates of
times,--a rule by which we can frequently discover or conjecture
quantities of time which are not expressly mentioned in Scripture.
And he says that this rule applies in two ways: either to the
figure of speech called synecdoche, or to legitimate numbers. The
figure synecdoche either puts the part for the whole, or the whole
for the part. As, for example, in reference to the time when, in
the presence of only three of His disciples, our Lord was
transfigured on the mount, so that His face shone as the sun, and
His raiment was white as snow, one evangelist says that this event
occurred "after eight days," while another says that it occurred
"after six days." Now both of these statements about the number of
days cannot be true, unless we suppose that the writer who says
"after eight days," counted the latter part of the day on which
Christ uttered the prediction and the first part of the day on
which he showed its fulfilment as two whole days; while the writer
who says "after six days," counted only the whole unbroken days
between these two. This figure of speech, which puts the part for
the whole, explains also the great question about the resurrection
of Christ. For unless to the latter part of the day on which He
suffered we join the previous night, and count it as a whole day,
and to the latter part of the night in which He arose we join the
Lord's day which was just dawning, and count it also a whole day,
we cannot make out the three days and three nights during which He
foretold that He would be in the heart of the earth.
51. In the next place, our author calls those numbers
legitimate which Holy Scripture more highly favours, such as
seven, or ten, or twelve, or any of the other numbers which the
diligent reader of Scripture soon comes to know. Now numbers of
this sort are often put for time universal; as, for example,
"Seven times in the day do I praise Thee," means just the same as
"His praise shall continually be in my mouth." And their force is
exactly the same, either when multiplied by ten, as seventy and
seven hundred (whence the seventy years mentioned in Jeremiah may
be taken in a spiritual sense for the whole time during which the
Church is a sojourner among aliens); or when multiplied into
themselves, as ten into ten gives one hundred, and twelve into
twelve gives one hundred and forty-four, which last number is used
in the Apocalypse to signify the whole body of the saints. Hence
it appears that it is not merely questions about times that are to
be settled by these numbers, but that their significance is of
much wider application, and extends to many subjects. That number
in the Apocalypse, for example, mentioned above, has not reference
to times, but to men.
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Ch 36.The sixth rule of Tichonius |
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52. The sixth rule Tichonius calls the recapitulation, which, with
sufficient watchfulness, is discovered in difficult parts of
Scripture. For certain occurrences are so related, that the
narrative appears to be following the order of time, or the
continuity of events, when it really goes back without mentioning
it to previous occurrences, which had been passed over in their
proper place. And we make mistakes if we do not understand this,
from applying the rule here spoken of. For example, in the book of
Genesis we read, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastwards in
Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the
ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight, and good for food." Now here it seems to be indicated
that the events last mentioned took place after God had formed man
and put him in the garden; whereas the fact is, that the two
events having been briefly mentioned, viz., that God planted a
garden, and there put the man whom He had formed, the narrative
goes back, by way of recapitulation, to tell what had before been
omitted, the way in which the garden was planted: that out of the
ground God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
and good for food. Here there follows "The tree of life also was
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil." Next the river is mentioned which watered the garden, and
which was parted into four heads, the sources of four streams; and
all this has reference to the arrangements of the garden. And when
this is finished, there is a repetition of the fact which had been
already told, but which in the strict order of events came after
all this: "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden." For it was after all these other things were done
that man was put in the garden, as now appears from the order of
the narrative itself: it was not after man was put there that the
other things were done, as the previous statement might be thought
to imply, did we not accurately mark and understand the
recapitulation by which the narrative reverts to what had
previously been passed over.
53. In the same book, again, when the generations of the sons
of Noah are recounted, it is said: "These are the sons of Ham,
after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and
in their nations." And, again, when the sons of Shem are
enumerated: "These are the sons of Shem, after their families,
after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations." And it
is added in reference to them all: "These are the families of the
sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by
these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. And
the whole earth was of one language and of one speech." Now the
addition of this sentence, "And the whole earth was of one
language and of one speech," seems to indicate that at the time
when the nations were scattered over the earth they had all one
language in common; but this is evidently inconsistent with the
previous words, in their families, after their tongues." For each
family or nation could not be said to have its own language if all
had one language in common. And so it is by way of recapitulation
it is added, "And the whole earth was of one language and of one
speech," the narrative here going back, without indicating the
change, to tell how it was, that from having one language in
common, the nations were divided into a multitude of tongues. And,
accordingly, we are forthwith told of the building of the tower,
and of this punishment being there laid upon them as the judgment
of God upon their arrogance; and it was after this that they were
scattered over the earth according to their tongues.
54. This recapitulation is found in a still more obscure form;
as, for example, our Lord says in the gospel: "The same day that
Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire from heaven, and destroyed
them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is
revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and
his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away; and
he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Remember Lot's wife." Is it when our Lord shall have been revealed
that men are to give heed to these sayings, and not to look behind
them, that is, not to long after the past life which they have
renounced? Is not the present rather the time to give heed to
them, that when the Lord shall have been revealed every man may
receive his reward according to the things he has given heed to or
despised? And yet because Scripture says, "In that day," the time
of the revelation of the Lord will be thought the time for giving
heed to these sayings, unless the reader be watchful and
intelligent so as to understand the recapitulation, in which he
will be assisted by that other passage of Scripture which even in
the time of the apostles proclaimed: "Little children, it is the
last time." The very time then when the gospel is preached, up to
the time that the Lord shall be revealed. is the day in which men
ought to give heed to these sayings: for to the same day, which
shall be brought to a close by a day of judgment, belongs that
very revelation of the Lord here spoken of.
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Ch 37. The seventh rule of Tichonius |
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55. The seventh rule of Tichonius and the last, is about the devil
and his body. For he is the head
of the wicked, who are in a sense his body, and destined to go
with him into the punishment of
everlasting fire, just as Christ is the head of the Church, which
is His body, destined to be
with Him in His eternal kingdom and glory. Accordingly, as the
first rule, which is called of the
Lord and His body, directs us, when Scripture speaks of one and
the same person, to take pains to
understand which part of the statement applies to the head and
which to the body; so this last rule
shows us that statements are sometimes made about the devil, whose
truth is not so evident in
regard to himself as in regard to his body; and his body is made
up not only of those who are
manifestly out of the way, but of those also who, though they
really belong to him, are for a time
mixed up with the Church, until they depart from this life, or
until the chaff is separated from the
wheat at the last great winnowing. For example, what is said in
Isaiah, "How he is fallen from
heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! " and the other statements of
the context which, under the
figure of the king of Babylon, are made about the same person, are
of course to be understood of
the devil; and yet the statement which is made in the same place,
"He is ground down on the
earth, who sendeth to all nations," does not altogether fitly
apply to the head himself. For,
although the devil sends his angels to all nations, yet it is his
body, not himself, that is ground
down on the earth, except that he himself is in his body, which is
beaten small like the dust which
the wind blows from the face of the earth.
56. Now all these rules, except the one about the promises and the
law, make one meaning to be
understood where another is expressed, which is the peculiarity of
figurative diction; and this kind
of diction, it seems to me, is too widely spread to be
comprehended in its full extent by any
one. For, wherever one thing is said with the intention that
another should be understood we have
a figurative expression, even though the name of the trope is not
to be found in the art of rhetoric.
And when an expression of this sort occurs where it is customary
to find it, there is no trouble in
understanding it; when it occurs, however, where it is not
customary, it costs labour to
understand it, from some more, from some less, just as men have
got more or less from God of
the gifts of intellect, or as they have access to more or fewer
external helps. And, as in the case of
proper words which I discussed above, and in which things are to
be understood just as they are
expressed, so in the case of figurative words, in which one thing
is expressed and another is to be
understood, and which I have just finished speaking of as much as
I thought enough, students of
these venerable documents ought to be counselled not only to make
themselves acquainted with
the forms of expression ordinarily used in Scripture, to observe
them carefully, and to remember
them accurately, but also, what is especially and before all
things necessary, to pray that they may
understand them. For in these very books on the study of which
they are intent, they read, "The
Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth comets knowledge and
understanding;" and it is from Him
they have received their very desire for knowledge, if it is
wedded to piety. But about signs, so far
as relates to words, I have now said enough. It remains to
discuss, in the following book, so far as
God has given me light, the means of communicating our thoughts to
others.
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