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| Of the Seventh Day, in Which Completeness and Repose are Celebrated.
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Chapter 31.—Of the Seventh Day,
in Which Completeness and Repose are Celebrated.
But, on the seventh day
(i.e., the same day repeated seven times, which number is
also a perfect one, though for another reason), the rest of God is
set forth, and then, too, we first hear of its being hallowed. So
that God did not wish to hallow this day by His works, but by His
rest, which has no evening, for it is not a creature; so that,
being known in one way in the Word of God, and in another in
itself, it should make a twofold knowledge, daylight and dusk (day
and evening). Much more might be said about the perfection of the
number seven, but this book is already too long, and I fear lest I
should seem to catch at an opportunity of airing my little
smattering of science more childishly than profitably. I must
speak, therefore, in moderation and with dignity, lest, in too
keenly following “number,” I be accused of forgetting
“weight” and “measure.” Suffice it here to say, that
three is the first whole number that is odd, four the first that is
even, and of these two, seven is composed. On this account it is
often put for all numbers together, as, “A just man falleth seven
times, and riseth up again,”505
—that is, let him fall never so
often, he will not perish (and this was meant to be understood not
of sins, but of afflictions conducing to lowliness). Again,
“Seven times a day will I praise Thee,”506
which elsewhere is expressed thus,
“I will bless the Lord at all times.”507
And many such instances are found
in the divine authorities, in which the number seven is, as I said,
commonly used to express the whole, or the completeness of
anything. And so the Holy Spirit, of whom the Lord says, “He
will teach you all truth,”508
is signified by this number.509
| 509 In
Isa.
xi. 2, as he shows in his eighth sermon, where this subject
is further pursued; otherwise, one might have supposed he referred
to Rev. iii. 1. | In it is
the rest of God, the rest His people find in Him. For rest is in
the whole, i.e., in perfect completeness, while in the part
there is labor. And thus we labor as long as we know in part;
“but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away.”510
It is even with toil we search
into the Scriptures themselves. But the holy angels, towards
whose society and assembly we sigh while in this our toilsome
pilgrimage, as they already abide in their eternal home, so do they
enjoy perfect facility of knowledge and felicity of rest. It is
without difficulty that they help us; for their spiritual
movements, pure and free, cost them no effort.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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