Chapter 32.—The Second Rule of Tichonius.

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 Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”193    Cant. i. 5.  For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, 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.194    Matt. xiii. 47, 48.  For the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmael, who “shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.”195    Gal. iv. 30.  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;”196    Isa. xlii. 16. 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 be 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.”197    Matt. xxiv. 50, 51.

CAPUT XXXII. Regula secunda Tichonii.

Secunda est de Domini corpore bipartito, quod quidem non ita debuit appellari; non enim revera Domini corpus est, quod cum illo non erit in aeternum: sed dicendum fuit, De Domini corpore vero atque permixto, aut, vero atque simulato, vel quid aliud; quia non solum in aeternum, verum etiam nunc hypocritae non cum illo esse dicendi sunt, quamvis in ejus esse videantur Ecclesia. Unde poterat ista regula et sic appellari, ut diceretur de permixta Ecclesia. Quae regula lectorem vigilantem requirit, quando Scriptura cum ad alios jam loquatur, tanquam ad eos ipsos ad quos loquebatur, videtur loqui; vel de ipsis, cum de aliis jam loquatur; tanquam unum sit utrorumque corpus, propter temporalem commixtionem et communionem 0083 Sacramentorum. Ad hoc pertinet in Canticis canticorum, Fusca sum et speciosa ut tabernacula Cedar, ut pelles Salomonis (Cant. I. 5). Non enim ait, Fusca fui ut tabernacula Cedar, et speciosa sum ut pelles Salomonis; sed utrumque se esse dixit, propter temporalem unitatem intra una retia piscium bonorum et malorum (Matth. XIII, 48). Tabernacula enim Cedar ad Ismaelem pertinent, qui non erit haeres cum filio liberae (Gen. XXI, 10; Galat. IV, 30). Itaque cum de bona parte Deus dicat, Ducam caecos in viam quam non noverunt, et semitas quas non noverunt calcabunt; et faciam illis tenebras in lucem, et prava in directum: haec verba faciam, et non derelinquam eos: mox de alia parte, quae male permixta est, dicit, Ipsi autem conversi sunt retro (Isai. XLII, 16, 17), quamvis alii jam significentur his verbis. Sed quoniam nunc in uno sunt, tanquam de ipsis loquitur de quibus loquebatur: non tamen semper in uno erunt. Ipse est quippe ille servus commemoratus in Evangelio, cujus dominus cum venerit, dividet eum, et partem ejus cum hypocritis ponet (Matth. XXIV, 51).