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| The Fourth Rule of Tichonius.
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Chapter 34.—The Fourth Rule of
Tichonius.
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.1909
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.”1910
Now it
is easy to understand that this applies to that house of Israel of
which the apostle says, “Behold Israel after the flesh;”1911
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 people. 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,”1912
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.”1913
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,”1914
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,”1915
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.”1916
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 for ever 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 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.”1917
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.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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