Book of Rules 7

Concerning the devil and his body, it can be seen briefly if what was said of the Lord and his body is observed here too. For the passage from the head to the body is recognized by the same reasoning, as is said through Isaiah of the king of Babylon: “How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, rising in the morning? He is crushed on the earth who was sent to all the nations. But you said in your mind: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my seat above the stars of God, I will sit on a high mountain above the high mountains in the north, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But now you have gone down to the underworld, to the foundations of the earth; and those who see you will marvel at you and say: This is the man who stirs up the earth, shakes kings, who makes the whole world a desert. He destroyed the city and did not release those carried off. All the kings of the nations have slept in honour, each in his house. But you are cast out on the mountains like an abominated corpse, with all who have fallen in the deserts by the sword and gone down to the underworld. As a garment sprinkled with blood will not be clean, so neither will you be clean, because you have destroyed my land and killed my people. You will not be for ever, evil seed; prepare to kill your sons for the sin of your father, that they may not rise.” In the king of Babylon both all the kings and the whole people are signified; for the body is one. “How,” he says, “has Lucifer fallen from heaven, rising in the morning, broken on the earth, who is sent to all the nations? But you said in your mind: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my seat above the stars of God.” The devil promises himself this. For he does not hope to be able to ascend into heaven by holding on, he who was not strong enough to resist so as not to be cast down. Much less can a man hope for these things; and yet it calls him a man thus: “This is the man who stirs up the earth.” But besides this reason, that neither the devil nor man can hope to ascend into heaven and, sitting above the stars of God, become like God, Scripture itself warns that something else must be sought. For if he says he will set his seat in heaven and above the stars of God, how will he sit on a high mountain, or above the mountains in the north, or in the clouds, to be like the Most High? For the Most High does not have his seat in such things. By heaven it means the church, as we shall see as Scripture proceeds. From this heaven the morning star falls. For the morning star is twofold, as the Lord says in the Apocalypse of himself and of his body: “I am the root and the race of David, and the bright morning star, the bridegroom and the bride.” Likewise there: “To him who conquers I will give the morning star”: that is, that he may be a morning star like Christ, whom we have received. So a part of the morning star, that is, the opposing body, which is the devil, kings, and people, falls from heaven and is broken on the earth. By these rules Wisdom says: “Hear, then, you kings, and understand; learn, you judges of the ends of the earth; give ear, you who rule multitudes and pride yourselves on crowds 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, though you were ministers of his kingdom, you did not judge rightly, nor keep the law.” The king of Babylon, then, is the whole body; but according to the places we understand to which part of the body it fits. “Lucifer has fallen from heaven” can fit the whole body. “I will ascend into heaven, I will set my seat above the stars of God” likewise fits the head too: the greater, who think they must lord it over the stars of God, that is, the saints, though the lesser among them will be lords, as it is written: “The greater will serve the lesser.” To this Esau, that is, to evil brothers, the Lord speaks thus through the prophet Obadiah: “Exalting his dwelling, saying in his heart: Who will bring me down to the ground? If you are exalted like an eagle and set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.” “I will sit on a high mountain above the high mountains, in the north; I will ascend above the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” The high mountain is the proud people; the high mountains are the individuals who, united, make the mountain, that is, the body of the devil. For Scripture says there are many evil mountains: “The mountains will be carried into the heart of the sea.” Again: “The foundations of the mountains were troubled and shaken, because God was angry.” For the body of the Lord too, that is, the church, is called a mountain, and the individuals who are the church make mountains, as it is written: “But I have been set as king by him on Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming his commands.” And again: “I will destroy the Assyrians in my land and on my mountains.” And again: “Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills righteousness.” And again: “The mountains will leap like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock.” God has his seat on Mount Zion and on 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, for he rises from his holy clouds.” Again: “I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” Again: “Cloud and darkness are round about him.” And that he dwells on Mount Zion he says thus: “You will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.” And the devil too sits on a mountain, but on Seir, which is Esau, that is, of evil brothers: which mountain God rebukes through Ezekiel, and says he will make it desolate amid the joy of the whole earth, because it exercises enmity against Israel. He is the mountain; they are the mountains of the north. In these the devil sits, and lords it, as it were, over the clouds of heaven. Thus far he says he is like the Most High. There are two parts in the church, of the south and of the north, that is, the southern and the northern. In the southern part the Lord dwells. It is written: “Where do you pasture, where do you rest at noon?” But the devil is in the north, as God says to his people: “I will drive him from the north away from you, and I will expel him into a land without water,” that is, into his own; “and I will destroy his face into the first sea and his back into the last sea,” that is, into the first and last peoples. This world was made after the likeness of the church, in which the rising sun has its path only through the south, that is, the midday; and when it has run through the southern part, it goes invisibly, returning to its place. So too our Lord God Jesus Christ, the eternal Sun, runs through his own part, which is why he calls it the midday. But to the north, that is, to the opposing part, he does not rise, as the same say when they come to judgment: “The light of righteousness has not shone for us.” But for those who fear the Lord the Sun of righteousness rises, with healing in his wings, as it is written. But for the wicked, noon is night, as it is written: “While they wait for light, darkness has come upon them; they have walked in the gloom of night for brightness; they will grope like a blind man for the wall, and like one who has no eyes they will grope and fall at noon as at midnight.” Again: “The sun will set at noon, and the day of light will grow dark over the earth.” Again: “Therefore you will have night instead of vision and darkness instead of divination, and the sun will set over the prophets, and the day of light will grow dark over them.” To this people God threatens from the south, as through Ezekiel he rebukes Soor, saying: “The south wind has crushed you.” For he permits it to break, saying: “Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; blow upon your garden, and my ointments will flow.” For when the evil spirit rises, the Holy Spirit resists, who blows upon the Lord’s garden, and the ointments are drawn out, that is, the fragrance of sweetness is offered. And through Ezekiel God likewise says that from the remnant of the wicked people he will bring upon his people a part of the same people, which is the mystery of iniquity: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal; and I will gather you, and bring you, and set you from the farthest north, and bring you upon the mountain of Israel; and I will destroy the bow from your left hand and your arrows from your right hand, and cast you down upon the mountains of Israel.” This is done from the Lord’s passion until the church departs from the midst of the same mystery of iniquity; the church, which holds back, so that the ungodliness may be uncovered in its own time, as the Apostle says: “And now you know what holds him back, so that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work; only, he who now holds back holds back until he is taken out of the midst. And then the ungodly one will be revealed.” And in Jeremiah we read that the sinners of Israel are addressed in the north, the Lord saying: “Go and read these words toward the north, and say: Return to me, house of Israel, says the Lord.” But the south is the Lord’s part, as also it is written in Job: “From the southern part life will spring up there.” The north is the devil’s; and both parts are in the whole world. “I will ascend,” he says, “the clouds; I will be like the Most High. But now you will go down to the underworld, to the foundations of the earth. Those who see you will marvel at you and say: This is the man who stirs up the earth, shakes kings, who makes the whole world a desert.” Does “those who see you will marvel at you” fit the devil? Or the last king, when you go down to the underworld? For when he goes down to the underworld there will be no one to marvel, the world being ended. For they will not say: “This is the man who stirred up the earth and kings and made the whole world a desert,” but “stirs up,” and “shakes,” and “makes.” For he calls the whole body a man, both in kings and in peoples; and when God strikes a part of this proud man and casts it down to the underworld, we say: “This is the man who stirs up the earth, 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, as in that place: “He who destroys the temple and raises it in three days.” For he said: “I will do mightily, and the wisdom of understanding; I will remove the boundaries of the nations and lay waste their strength, and shatter cities with their inhabitants; and I will take the whole world in my hand like a nest, and like abandoned eggs I will carry it off, and there will be none to escape me or to contradict me.” Is he able to fulfil these things that he promises himself? He makes the whole world a desert indeed, but his own world. And he destroyed the cities, surely of his own world. For the world is twofold, movable and immovable, as in Chronicles: “Let all the earth be shaken before the face of the Lord; for he has founded the world, which will not be shaken.” “And he did not release those carried off.” This can fit the species: that he gave no relief to the captives, but, thinking them seized from enemies, used his whole princely power against them. God rebukes this, saying: “I indeed was a little angry; but they added to the evils.” Yet these things were done and said as a figure of the general, and are fulfilled spiritually, when those who rule afflict, without regard for compassion and for the common condition, those subject to them by humility or for the sake of testing, or by desert; to whom power is not enough, but they scorn to use it moderately. This he blames, saying: “Pursuing retribution.” And again: “He stretched out his hand against him in retribution.” For it is too little that he is an enemy; he desires also to take vengeance on his subject, as it is written: “You goad all who are subject to you,” pretending to hate the Lord, the enemy and avenger, so that by vengeance, which God reserved to himself alone, he may usurp something of holiness. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord.” “All the kings of the earth have slept in honour, a man in his house.” He called the saints kings. For not all kings or private persons have slept in their house, as the saints in the house that they chose. “But you are cast out on the mountains like an abominated corpse, with all who have fallen pierced by the sword, and they go down to the underworld.” To the devil he says, “You are cast out on the mountains,” on which he sits. Indeed he did not say “dead,” but “like an abominated corpse.” For he still lives, though in his own he is slain by the sword and goes down to the underworld. For as the Lord said that whatever his own suffer he suffers, so the devil himself is trampled in his own; he himself, abominated, is broken, as it is written: “In the diminishing of the people is the crushing of the prince.” The devil is not separated from his man; 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 is in a man. As the Lord cannot be called man except in man, nor man except in Christ. But what fits whom must be observed according to the places. Again he addresses the body of the devil himself, saying: “As a garment sprinkled with blood is not clean, so neither will you be clean, because you have destroyed my land and killed my people. You will not be for ever, evil seed; prepare to kill your sons for the sins of your father, that they may not rise.” Here he shows that it does not fit the species. For the king of Babylon, who laid waste the Lord’s land and killed the people, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, died a cleansed man and lives for ever; he says to the body of each time to prepare those whom it has begotten to be killed for its sins by which he himself, who is addressed, was begotten. For the last king can have not sons, but brothers. Nor, when he goes down to the underworld, is he “like a corpse,” but a corpse. Through Ezekiel God rebukes the king of Tyre thus: “Because your heart is exalted, and you 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 with your wisdom. Have you by your wisdom or your learning made strength for yourself, and gold and silver in your treasuries? Have you by your great learning and your trading multiplied your strength? Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, therefore behold, I bring upon you foreign plagues from the nations, and they will draw their swords against you and against the beauty of your learning, and they will wound your beauty to destruction, and bring you down, and you will die the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea. Will you say before those who kill you: I am God? But you are a man and not God. You will perish among the multitude of the uncircumcised, by the hands of foreigners; for I have spoken, says the Lord. You are the seal of the multitude and the crown of beauty; you were in the delights of the paradise of God, having every finest stone bound upon you: sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper, silver and gold, ligure, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold. With the cherubim I set you on the holy mountain of God; you were in the midst of the stones of fire; you walked without spot in your days, from the day you were created, until your iniquities were found in you. By the multitude of your trading you filled your storehouses with iniquity and sins; and you were wounded from the mountain of God. The cherub led you out from the midst of the stones of fire; your heart was exalted in your heart; your learning was corrupted with your beauty. Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquity of your trading your holy places were defiled; I will bring out fire from your midst; it will devour you. And I will make you ashes in your land in the sight of all who see you, and all who knew you among the nations will be grieved over you. You have become destruction, and you will not be for ever.” “Because your heart is exalted,” he says, “and you said: I am God, I have dwelt in the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea”: this fits both the man who says, “I am Christ,” and the devil, who dwells in the heart of the sea, that is, of the people, 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 depth of the world, as in another place God says to the same city: “You were filled and greatly honoured in the heart of the sea. In many waters your oarsmen brought you: the south wind crushed you in the heart of the sea of your strength.” “But you are a man and not God.” The devil too, in man, is called man, as the Lord said in the Gospel: “An enemy man has done this”; and he interpreted, saying: “He who sows them is the devil.” 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?” Daniel is the whole body of the church: because he cannot be wiser in sin in the affairs of life, as that one is wiser in his own than the sons of light. It can also fit the species, since Daniel specifically confounded the king of Babylon, as a figure: he who by the prophetic Spirit, with the majesty of the church, laid low the proud king to the confession of one God; who by the confession of his powers and by heavenly wisdom overthrew the superstitions of Babylon. “The wise have refuted you with your wisdom.” For not only Daniel was wise, but also the three youths, who confounded the king and all his kingdom with their very gods by asserting one Lord, the same God being present. The same, to this day, generally break up both the outward and the inward things of the same Babylon by the light of truth. “Have you by your knowledge or your wisdom made strength for yourself, and gold and silver in your treasuries? Have you by your great knowledge or by your trading multiplied your strength? And your heart has been exalted in your strength.” For the proud, ungrateful for the benefits of almighty God, think they can do something by their own strength and be enriched by 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.” And again: “Will the axe be magnified without the one who cuts with it?” “And riches are not to the prudent, nor favour to those who know.” For these things are not in our power, but are bestowed by God. “For what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” And again: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.” “Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, therefore behold, I bring upon you foreigners, plagues from the nations, and they will draw their swords against you and against the beauty of your knowledge.” Though it can fit the species, that the kings of the world in their pride allow themselves to be called lords, yet this too fits the genus. For God frequently brings foreigners into the church and wounds many to death. But he also brings in many from the nations by a hidden persecution, by whom he may test his people and kill the wicked by those like them, as Mattathias did. “And they will wound your beauty to destruction.” For some they wound not to destruction but with hope of healing. “And they will bring you down,” that is, they will humble you; “and you will die the death of the wounded in the heart of the sea.” He would not say to one wounded, “You will die the death of the wounded,” unless it were that he is not openly wounded and dies, but he is the one in whom they are wounded. “Will you indeed say before those who kill you: I am God?” That is, will you terrify with titles of divine race those to whom you have been handed over, both spiritually and carnally? “But you are a man and not God; you will perish among the multitude of the uncircumcised by the hands of foreigners; for I have spoken, says the Lord.” Now he has disclosed in what way that one calls himself God, while he threatens that he will perish among the multitude of the uncircumcised by the hands of foreigners: which fits only one who seems to himself circumcised. For the king of Tyre could fear death alone: would he not have died at the hands of the circumcised or with them? “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lament 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.” Was paradise made for the devil, so that he might be rebuked for losing paradise? It was man who was in the delights of paradise; he is the seal of likeness, who was made to the likeness of God. And he spoke of a seal for beauty, as through Haggai God promises the church, when the brothers of this people fight against one another, saying: “I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and overturn chariots and riders; and the horses and their riders will go down, each by the sword against his brother. On 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. For after that we nowhere read that any commotion came upon Zerubbabel. He is of the tribe of Judah, who under Darius was found worthy to build Jerusalem. He too, as a figure, founded the house of God and completed it, as the same Lord says: “The hands of Zerubbabel have founded this house, and his hands will complete it.” And what this seal and crown of beauty is, God promises to the church, saying: “The nations will see your righteousness, and kings your glory, and they will call you by your name, which the Lord has named. It will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of your God. You too will not be called forsaken, and your land will not be called desert. Your name too will be called My will, and your land the world.” So man is the seal of likeness and the crown of beauty: of whom one part persists in that beauty of the divine likeness and in the delights of paradise, that is, of the church; but between the other part and the tree of life, lest it live for ever, a flaming sword turns. For Adam, as the Apostle says, is a shadow of what is to come. So too these brothers: he was divided into Cain and Abel. “Having every finest stone bound upon you: sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper, silver and gold, ligure, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses in you with gold.” These things fit both the devil and man. For these twelve stones and the gold and silver and all the treasures cling to the devil as assigned to him. Indeed: “You have them bound upon you”; and again: “your storehouses in you.” As the body of the Lord is adorned by the saints, God promising and saying: “Lift up your eyes round about; see all your sons, they are gathered and have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you will put them all on and lay them upon you like the ornament of a new bride; for your deserts and your ruins and what had fallen will now be too narrow for the inhabitants.” And in the Apocalypse the same city is built founded on twelve stones. “Every finest stone,” he says, and he counted twelve, to show perfection in the number twelve. For all things that God made are good; the devil changed their use, not their nature. And all men of excellent understanding and powerful mind are gold and silver and precious stones according to nature; but they will be his in whose service their nature enjoys its gifts. For “to whom one has sealed himself in obedience, he is the slave of him whom he obeys, whether of sin or of righteousness.” So it comes about that the devil too has gold and silver and precious stones: all of them not his by origin, but his by will. For in Job too it is written of the devil: “All the gold of the sea is under him.” And the Apostle says that there are some vessels of gold and silver for dishonour. For he did not, as some think, reject all the wooden and earthen ones, since some of them are for honour, as he himself says: “The potter of clay forms one for honour, another for dishonour.” And of wood, one is for preparation, another for sacrilege; of gold and silver, that is, of the great and illustrious, he spoke of the unclean. For in the Apocalypse too the harlot (that is, the opposing body) is adorned with purple, scarlet, gold and silver and precious stones, holding a golden cup in her hand full of the abominations and uncleannesses of the whole earth. These, then, are the ornaments of the devil, precious stones, by which he imitates the stones of fire; and man has in himself treasures both of crimes and of splendid things. For he is the bearer of his own, whom his possessions have bound like fetters. Besides those things which are put forth by both sexes of the devil’s body to be adorned, the heart is set even in those things which they have buried. “For where the treasure is, there will the heart of man be also.” For the old man and his land are one body, since he too is earth. Hence the Apostle defined not only what can be committed by the body, but also avarice, as a member of the one who possesses, saying: “Put to death, therefore, your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and avarice, which is the service of idols; because of which the wrath of God comes.” “From the day you were created, I set you with the cherubim on the holy mountain of God,” that is, in Christ, or in the church. “You were in the midst of the stones of fire,” that is, of holy men, who, united, make the mountain of God. For angels, being of another substance, cannot be called stones, because they have no body. “You walked without spot in your days, from the day you were created, until your iniquities were found in you, from the multitude of your trading.” That the stones are the church, Peter says thus: “See, brothers, like living stones you are built up into spiritual houses.” That this house is fiery, and that it burns the evil brothers, God says thus: “The house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau stubble. They will blaze against them and devour them, and there will be no fire-bearer in the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.” For when a man sins he is cast down from the mountain of God, and there will be no fire-bearer, the Spirit being lost, and he will be burned to ashes. “You sinned, and you were wounded from the mountain of God; and the cherub led you out from the midst of the stones of fire.” The cherub is the ministry of God, which has shut out all the wicked from the church, but spiritually. For he who does not have the wedding garment is shut out, in this world, from the midst of those reclining at table. Then he is sent into darkness, that is, into hardening, until he goes down into the eternal fire. For in the age to come no one will be mixed with the choir of the saints who is afterwards shut out. “Your heart was exalted in your beauty; your knowledge was corrupted in your beauty.” The knowledge of him is corrupted who was knowing and prudent, and through zeal for affected wisdom, concealing the truth, asserts a lie, as the Spirit says: “Though they knew the Lord, they did not glorify him as Lord or give thanks, but became futile in their thoughts, saying that they were wise.” The knowledge is corrupted of those who teach others and do not teach themselves. The beauty is corrupted that does not answer to its race by likeness of works. “Because of the multitude of your sins I cast you to the earth; before kings I gave you to be dishonoured.” The devil too is cast to the earth, that is, into man, and man from the height of the church into being trampled, as Jeremiah says: “He cast down the glory from heaven to earth.” “Before kings”: he means Christians, under whose feet the devil and his man are trampled. “Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquity of your trading your holy places are defiled.” He seems to have reproached him with his principal title; in the body of the devil he speaks rather of trading and of treasures, spiritual forces of wickedness. For as the trading of spiritual righteousness is a treasure, as the Lord says: “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant”; and again: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”; again: “He gave his servants his property to trade with”; again: “The merchants of Carthage …”; again: “Its trading and its wages are holy to the Lord”; and the Apostle: “Godliness,” he says, “is great gain”: so spiritual wickedness is a trading that is a treasure of sins, as the Lord says: “The evil man brings forth evil things from the treasure of his heart”; and the Apostle: “You store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath.” “Because of the iniquity,” he says, “of your trading your holy places are defiled.” For whoever does not use the holiness of God rightly makes it his own, as God says of his sabbaths: “My soul hates your sabbaths.” “I will bring out fire from your midst; it will devour you.” The fire is the church; and when it has departed from the midst of the mystery of iniquity, then the Lord will rain fire from the Lord, from the church, as it is written: “The sun rose over the earth, and Lot entered Zoar; and the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” This is the fire of which he spoke above: “The house of Jacob a fire, but the house of Esau stubble. They will blaze against them and devour them, and there will be no fire-bearer in the house of Esau.” In Genesis again it is written: “When God destroyed all the cities round about, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when God overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.” Did Lot not deserve to be set free 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 cities and not in a city, that it should say “the cities in which he dwelt”? But it is a prophecy of the future departure. For God, remembering his promise to Abraham, cast Lot out of all the cities of Sodom, upon which fire will come from the fire of the church, which will be brought out from their midst. “And I will make you ashes in your land”: that is, in men, or the men themselves in their own land, who did not wish to be in the land of God. “In the sight of the men who see you,” that is, who understand. Can the devil be seen in a man? “And all who knew you among the nations will be grieved over you.” For when the Lord strikes or destroys the wicked, those who are used to being supported by their help are grieved, a part of their body being weakened. “You have become destruction, and you will not be for ever.”