Книга 4

“So are the heavens and the earth and all their hosts complete. And God finished on the seventh day His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He rested from all His work, which God had created and created” (Gen. 2.1–3). One must make a lot of effort to understand the significance that the writer attached to these six days: whether they have passed completely, or, with the addition of the seventh day to them, they are repeated in the cycle of times, although not by the deeds themselves, but at least by their name, for in time, taken collectively, there are many days similar to the past, but the same day will never be repeated; So, it is difficult to understand whether those days have passed, or, while our days pass daily, those days remain (until now) in the very foundations of things, so that not only in the first three days, before the appearance of the luminaries, but also in the remaining three, the word “day” refers to the types of created things, and by night - the absence or lack of a form, or, if a better word can be found, something that denotes (the moment of) deprivation of a form during the transition from formlessness to form (and such a transition is potentially inherent in any creature, with the possible exception of the highest heavenly creatures, when, in order to replenish beauty in lower objects, the destruction of the old and the emergence of the new occurs); then, evening is, as it were, the end of a completed creation, and morning is the beginning of a new one, for every created nature has its own beginning and its end. But whatever explanation we accept of what was meant by morning, evening and night in the first three days, this will not prevent us from proceeding to consider the perfection of the sixfold number from the point of view of the innermost nature of numbers, by mentally contemplating which we count and express in numbers everything that is accessible to our bodily senses. So, in the sixfold number we meet the first perfect number, perfect in the sense that it is composed of its (whole) parts. There are other perfect numbers in other respects. A sixfold number, as we have noticed, is perfect in the sense that it is made up of its parts, but only those parts that, if added together, add up to the number of which they serve as parts. But it is important to indicate what these parts are. So, for example, the number three can be called a part not only of six, of which it is half, but also of all numbers in general that are greater than three. Moreover, for four and five it will be the greater half, for four can be divided into three and one, and five into three and two, and for seven, eight, nine, etc., the lesser half; Thus, seven can be divided into three and four, eight into three and five, nine into three and six. But of none of these numbers can it be said what part of each of them is three, with the only exception of nine, of which three is the third part, as of six is ​​the half. Thus, none of the numbers mentioned, with the exception of six and nine, consists of several triplets, while six consists of two, and nine - of three triplets. So the number six, as I have already said, is made up of its (whole) parts added together. There are numbers whose sum of parts is greater or less than this number, and only for a few this sum coincides with the number itself. And the first among such numbers is six. So, one does not have any parts, i.e. it is a prime number. Part of two is one, and it is half of two; the deuce has no other parts. The three has two parts, but only the one makes up the third part, but about the two it cannot be said which (whole) part of the three it makes up; therefore, the parts of the triple cannot be called the parts we are talking about. Further, four also has two parts: one is a fourth part, and two is a half; but the sum of these parts is less than four. Five has three parts: one, two and three, but only one can be said to be one fifth of five. Six have the same three parts: one, two and three, but about all of them one can definitely say what parts they are, namely: one is the sixth, two is the third and three is the half. In total, these parts make six. The number seven has only one such part - one. Eight is three: eighth, fourth and half, but these parts add up to seven. Nine has two parts: the ninth and the third, but their sum, four, is much less than nine. Ten has three parts: the tenth is one, the fifth is two and the half is five; the sum of these parts is eight. The number eleven has only one (whole) part - the eleventh, just as seven has the seventh, five has the fifth, and three has the third. The sum of the parts of the number twelve is greater than this number and equals sixteen; The parts of twelve are as follows: the twelfth is one, the sixth is two, the fourth is three, the third is four and the second is six; their sum is sixteen. In a word, in an infinite series of numbers there are many that have only one part, for example, three, five, etc., or those whose sum of parts is either less than the number itself, for example, eight, nine, etc., or more, for example, twelve, eighteen, etc. There are incomparably more such numbers than the so-called. perfect, composed of their (whole) parts. Thus, after six, the next perfect number will be only the number twenty-eight, which has five parts: the twenty-eighth, the fourteenth, the seventh, the fourth and the second, that is, one, two, four, seven and the number fourteen, which parts, added together, give the number twenty-eight. And the further you count, the less often perfect numbers are found. If the sum of the parts of a number is less than this number, it is called imperfect, and if it is more, it is called more than perfect. Thus God carried out the works of creation in a perfect number of days. But this number will attract our attention even more if we look closely at the order of these very affairs. Indeed, just as the number six sequentially grows with its three parts, for one, two and three follow one another without any interval, so sequentially the light was created on one day, on the next two - our visible world, and on the first (of these two days) - the highest world, that is, the firmament, and on the second - the lower, earth and sea; but God did not fill the upper part with any kinds of bodily food, for He did not intend to place there bodies in need of restoration, while the lower part, which was later decorated with various animals, He provided in advance with the types of food necessary for them. In the remaining three days, those visible (creatures) were created that inside the world, that is, inside the visible universe, made up of the (four) elements, have the corresponding movements, namely: first the lights in the firmament, then in the lower region - the animals, first from the water, and then from the earth. However, no one would be so crazy as to assert that God, if he had wanted to, could not have created everything in one or two days, for example, on the first day - a spiritual creation, and on the second - a bodily one, or on one day - the sky along with everything heavenly, and on the second - the earth with everything earthly; and in general, what he wanted, where he wanted and when he wanted, for what could oppose His will? But since we read that God accomplished everything in six days, and, having considered what the number six is, we find that it is a perfect number and that creatures received their existence in such an order, which is, as it were, a sequential unfolding of those very parts that perfectly constitute this perfect number, then another passage of Scripture comes to mind, where it is said that God arranged everything by measure, number and weight (Wis. 11:21); and hence the thinking mind cannot help but wonder whether these measure, number, and weight existed before creatures were created, and if so, where exactly? It is clear that before creation there was nothing except the Creator, and, therefore, they had to exist in him. But how did they exist? After all, as it is said, everything else that has existence is in Him (Rom. 9:5). Or did measure, number and weight exist in Him as He Himself, and all created things in Him as in the One Who controls everything? But how could they be like Him? After all, God is neither measure, nor number, nor weight, nor anything else like this. Perhaps, from the point of view from which we know measure, number and weight when measuring, counting and weighing things, they are not God, but from the point of view that measure gives certainty to things, number - form, weight - peace and stability, they in this original sense are He - the One who gives a certain form and order to everything. Therefore, the above saying should be understood as follows: “You have placed everything in Yourself.” It is a difficult and impossible task for most to rise so far above everything that is measured, counted and weighed as to see Measure without measure, Number without number, Weight without weight. For measure, number and weight can be seen and thought not only in stones, trees and other corporeal things, heavenly or earthly, but also in actions there is its own measure, for without measure they will turn into non-stop and immoderate, and in the state of the spirit there is a number that determines the transition from stupidity to wisdom, and in will and love there is a weight that weighs our preferences, desires and aspirations. But this mental-spiritual measure is contained in a different measure; this mental-spiritual number is formed by another number; this mental-spiritual weight is measured by another weight. Meanwhile, there is a Measure without measure, with which what comes from Her is conformed, but She herself does not come from anywhere; There is a Number without a number, according to which everything is formed, but It itself is not formed; He is a weight without weight, to which everything gravitates in order to find peace, the peace of which consists in pure joy, but He himself does not gravitate towards anything. Anyone who understands measure, number and weight only in their external (sensual) meaning understands them in a base way. Let him rise above all this, and if he cannot do this, let him not be tempted by names about which he can only think basely. For for each they are the more sublime, the less he himself is flesh in the lower. If someone, trying to purify his mind for the contemplation of the higher, does not want to attribute to the higher the names that are familiar to the lower, then there is no reason to force him to do this, since the correct understanding is important, and not what to call something. However, you need to know that there is some similarity between what is above and what is below: only in this way can you most truly direct your mind from the lower to the higher. If even now someone else says that measure, number and weight, according to which God, as Scripture testifies, arranged everything, are created, then (let him answer): if God arranged everything according to them, where did He arrange them themselves? If in (something) else, then how will everything be in them if they are in something else? There is no doubt, however, that measure, number and weight, according to which God has arranged everything, exist outside of what is arranged according to them. One can also make the assumption that what was said about God arranging everything by measure, number and weight (Wis. 11:21) is said in the sense that He arranged everything so that it has measure, number and weight. Indeed, if it were written that God arranged everything according to color, then it would not at all follow from this that the Wisdom of God itself, by which everything was created, was originally multi-colored, but this should be understood to mean that all bodies were created with their own color, i.e. that in Wisdom there originally existed the idea of ​​color, according to which each kind of body subsequently received its own color. So, let us assume that what was said about measure, number and weight should be understood in this way: “Everything is arranged so that it has its own measure, its own number, its own weight” and, in accordance with the arrangement given to it by God, changes, being now larger, now smaller; sometimes more, sometimes less; sometimes it is lighter, sometimes it is heavier - in accordance with the variability of its kind. But is it really possible that, just as everything changes, we also call that act of God, according to which everything is arranged, changeable? God save us from such madness! Further, if everything was arranged so that it had its measure, its number and its weight, where (one asks) did the Arranger himself contemplate all this? Undoubtedly, not outside of Itself, just as we observe bodies with the help of our eyes - after all, all this did not yet exist, since it was just disposed to being. He did not contemplate all this within Himself, just as we mentally contemplate bodily images that we imagine in our minds based on what we saw or are seeing. Then how did He contemplate all this? Yes, only in a way that only He alone can contemplate. However, even we, mortal and sinful beings, in whom the corruptible body burdens the soul and earthly life burdens the mind - even, I say, we, although we cannot know the divine substance as it is known to itself (even if we had the purest heart, the most perfect mind and were already like the holy angels), we contemplate the above-mentioned perfection of the number six not outside ourselves, like bodies - with our eyes, and not within oneself, like bodily images and forms of visible objects, but in a completely different, special way. Of course, when we think about the composition, order and divisibility of six, certain similarities of corpuscles seem to flash before our mental gaze, however, a strong mind will not dwell on them, but will contemplate the inner essence of the number and will definitely say that from this point of view it is as indivisible (and unchangeable) as one, and that heaven and earth, arranged according to the sixfold number, will sooner disappear than this number will cease to be composed of its parts. Thus, the human mind should thank the Creator, by Whom it was created in such a way that it can see what neither bird nor beast sees, although just like us they see the sky, the earth, the sea, and the stars. Therefore, we can say that six is ​​not a perfect number because God did all His works in six days, but because He created everything in six days, because the number six is ​​perfect. Hence, even if they were not perfect, it (the number six) would be perfect; and if it were not perfect, they would not be perfect either. Trying now, as far as it is possible for us with God's help, to understand what is written, that God rested on the seventh day from all His works that He did, blessed and sanctified that day, we must first of all cleanse our minds from carnal human views on this subject. Is it really proper to say or think that God worked during the creation of everything described above (in our understanding of the word), when he spoke, it was fulfilled? After all, we would not even call a person a worker if he only spoke, and his word would immediately be fulfilled. It is true that human speech, spoken aloud, is sometimes very tiresome; but the words of God cited in Scripture “let it be” (Gen. 1:3, 6, 14) are so brief that they could not be considered work not only for God, but also for man. However, someone can object that God worked not when he uttered words so that this or that would come into being, but when he thought about what should come into being, and having freed himself from this concern after the creation of things, He rightly wanted to bless and sanctify the day on which he first became free from this tension of the spirit. But to reason in this way is madness, for God has not only the ability to create things, but also the indescribable ease with which He does this; Therefore, we can only think that for rational creatures, including humans, God indicated peace in Himself, giving us the Holy Spirit, with which love is poured into our hearts, so that we strive to where we can find peace. For just as it is true that everything we do by the inspiration of God is done by God, it is also true that when we find peace through the gift of God, God also finds it. This understanding is correct, since it is obvious that to say about God that He finds peace by calming us is the same as saying that God knows by giving us knowledge. Of course, God does not temporarily know anything that he did not know before, however, he says to Abraham: “Now I know that you fear God” (Gen. 22.12), which words should be understood: “Now I have made it known.” With this kind of expression, when we talk about something that does not belong to God as something that belongs to Him, we mean that God turns it into something that belongs to us. But at the same time, one must follow the spirit of Scripture, since nothing can be said thoughtlessly about God that is not said in Scripture. Among such expressions, in my opinion, is the saying of the apostle: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4.30). By His very substance, since He exists in Himself, the Holy Spirit cannot be offended: He possesses eternal and unchangeable bliss and even, in fact, is eternal and unchangeable bliss itself. But since He dwells in the saints, filling them with love, according to which they, as people, rejoice in the prosperity and good deeds of the faithful, but in the same measure they grieve, seeing the fall and sins of those whose faith and piety they previously rejoiced at (and such sorrow deserves praise, for it stems from the love bestowed by the Holy Spirit), then it is said that the Holy Spirit himself is offended by those who offend the saints with their lives and deeds. Moreover, they are offended precisely because they have the Holy Spirit, and by His gift they are so good that the evil cannot help but grieve them, especially those whom they previously knew or considered good. It goes without saying that such grief not only does not deserve blame, but, on the contrary, is worthy of praise and glory. In another place we read from the same apostle: “Now having come to know God, or, better yet, having received knowledge from God” (Gal. 4.9). Of course, God not only now knew those whom He knew from the foundation of the world, but since now they themselves knew God by His gift, and not by their merits or abilities, (the apostle) preferred to say in a figurative sense, “having known God,” although He himself revealed Himself for knowledge, and then corrected himself, making it clear that what he said at the beginning in the proper sense is not so true. For others, perhaps, it is quite enough to understand that the saying about God resting from all His works, which He recognized as “very good” (Gen. 1:31), implies that He will grant peace to all of us if we do good. But we, continuing to examine this saying of Scripture, will ask how God himself could rest, even though by His rest He gave us the hope of finding rest in Himself. Indeed, heaven, earth and everything that is in heaven and earth was created by God alone, having completed creation by the seventh day, and it cannot be said that at the same time, by His good pleasure, we also created anything, and that the saying: “And God finished by the seventh day His works that He had done” can be understood in the sense that by His gift they were completed by us. The words are also accurate: “And on the seventh day he rested from all His work that He had done” (Gen. 2:2) we must understand not so much in the sense of our rest, which, by the grace of God, we will find, but first of all - in the sense of the rest of God himself, in which He, after completing His works, rested on the seventh day. For it would be correct to say that just as God rested after His good deeds, so we too will rest after our good deeds. But it follows from this that just as it is clearly indicated about the works of God that they are precisely His works, so also about His rest it must be understood that this is precisely the rest of God himself. Therefore, we need to carefully examine and clarify the question of how it will be true both what is said here about the rest of God on the seventh day from all created works, and what is said in the Gospel by Him through whom all things began to be: “My Father works until now, and I work” (John 5:17). Moreover, these words were spoken by Him in response to reproaches that He did not honor the Sabbath, established in ancient times by the authority of Scripture for the glory of God’s rest. Here it can be noted that the worship of the Sabbath was commanded to the Jews as a threshold of the future, signifying spiritual peace, which God secretly promised through the example of His peace to the faithful who do good deeds. The mystery of this peace was confirmed by His burial and the Lord Jesus Christ, who voluntarily gave Himself up to torment. After all, He rested in the tomb precisely on Saturday, spending that day in a kind of sacred peace after He completed all His works on the sixth day (i.e., on Friday - the sixth day from Saturday), when everything that was foreshadowed about Him ended with the crucifixion. And he even said about it, as (the evangelist) reports: “He said: it is done! And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19.30). What is surprising, then, in the fact that God, wanting to predict the day on which Christ was to rest in the tomb, Himself rested for one day from His works, intending then to act throughout the centuries, which confirms the truth of the saying: “My Father works until now”? But it is also possible to understand that God rested from creating new genera of creation, ceasing to create new genera, however, He is continuously doing (as well as in the future), that is, providing for those genera that were initially established, so that even on the seventh day itself, His omnipotence did not abandon the control of heaven and earth with all created things; otherwise it would all perish instantly. For the power of the Creator and the power of the Almighty are the essence of the existence of every creature; if this power ceased to govern, all births would cease and all nature would perish. When the architect leaves the completed building, it can already do without the architect, but this cannot be said about the world: it could not survive for a moment if God deprived it of His providence. Therefore, what the Lord said: “My Father works until now” (John 5:17) indicates the continuing activity of the Father, by which every creation is supported and governed. If He said: “And now He does,” we could understand this to mean that there were some interruptions in His activity, but the word “until now” clearly indicates what has been done since the moment everything was created. Also, what the apostle says when preaching about God to the Athenians: “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28), being correctly understood, as far as is possible for the human mind, favors the opinion on the basis of which we believe and say that God acts continuously in the world He created. However, we do not exist in Him as His substance, as it is said of Him that He “has life in Himself” (John 5.26), but since we are undoubtedly something other than He, we exist in Him in the sense that He does so, He contains everything, and His Wisdom permeates all things and governs them for good; It is by virtue of this control that we live, and move, and exist. And from here it follows that if He takes away this work of His from things, we will neither live, nor move, nor exist. So, it is clear that God did not stop His providential action for a single day, for otherwise the world would instantly lose its natural movements, by which it is so controlled and enlivened that all its creatures retain their existence and each of them, in accordance with its kind, remains what it is; and all this would immediately cease to exist if that movement of the Wisdom of God, by which She governs all things for good, were taken away from the world. Therefore, we understand the expression that God rested from all His works that He did to mean that He did not create a single new creature, and not that He ceased to preserve and manage those already created. Hence, it is somehow true that He rested on the seventh day, and so is what He does to this day. We see His good deeds, and we will see His peace after our good deeds. To indicate this peace, He commanded the Jews to honor one day (Exodus 20.8). The Jews understood this veneration in such a carnal way that, seeing the Lord, they accused Him of doing the work of our salvation on this day; but He answered them rightly, pointing to the work of the Father, which He shared with Him not only in the sense of governing creatures, but also of our salvation. Since the time of grace, the veneration of the Sabbath, which was expressed in the celebration of one day, has been removed from the faithful. In this grace, the one who already celebrates the permanent Sabbath is the one who, by doing good, hopes for future peace and does not boast of his good deeds, as if he already possesses that good that he has not yet acquired. Understanding and understanding the sacrament of baptism as the Sabbath day, i.e. After the Lord’s rest in the tomb, he tastes peace from his former deeds, and having begun to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6.4), he recognizes that God is at work in him, who at the same time both acts and rests, manifesting Himself, on the one hand, in the appropriate management of creation, and on the other, remaining calm and unchanging in Himself. Thus, God experienced neither weariness when he created, nor rest when he rested; but with the words of Scripture He wanted to arouse in us a desire for rest, declaring that He had sanctified the day on which He rested from His works. We do not read about any of those six days during which God created everything that He sanctified at least one of them, but He deigned to sanctify the day on which He rested, as if for Him, who does not experience any fatigue in His work, rest has greater significance than action. Regarding people, this thought is inspired in us by the Gospel in the place where our Savior calls the part of Mary, who tasted peace in His word, more good than the part of Martha, although she was concerned with serving Him better, which, of course, was a good activity (Luke 10:39-42). But how this can be understood as applied to God is difficult to say, although we can make some assumptions as to why God sanctified the day of His rest, without sanctifying a single day of His creation, not even the sixth, on which He created man and completed all the works of creation. And the most important (question), what is the peace of God, is what human mind can solve? However, if this peace did not exist, Scripture, of course, would not mention it. I will simply say what I think, prefacing this with two undoubted truths: first, God did not enjoy some temporary peace, as we do after completing work; secondly, Scripture, rightly endowed with such authority, does not say in vain or falsely that God rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had done, and for this reason he sanctified this day. There is no doubt that the soul’s ability to enjoy its own affairs rather than the peace gained from them in itself is its weakness and vice. Therefore, God, with the words of Scripture that He rested from all His works, inspires us that He does not delight in any of His works so much that He would need to do it, that He would be more blessed if He did something, or less blessed if He did not do it. And since everything is from Him, and to such an extent that it owes Him everything that it is, He Himself owes nothing to the fact that He is blessed, then He preferred Himself to the things that He did out of love, distinguishing not the day on which He completed creation, so that it would not seem that the very completion of all works increases His joy, but the day on which He rested from them in Himself; He never lost peace, but showed it to us on the seventh day, making it clear that His peace is found only by those who are perfect, for to instill the thought of peace He appointed the day that followed the completion of all creation. For, being always at rest, He then rested in us. It should also be noted that the peace with which God is blessed in Himself should have been communicated to us, so that we could understand how it is said about God that He rests in us; and it is said this way because He imparts peace to us in Himself. Thus, the peace of God is a peace that does not need any good; This means that peace in Him is also our peace, for we become blessed from the Good that He Himself is, and not from the Good that we represent. After all, we also contain some good that we received from Him who created everything well, including us. And since any good is from Him, then He Himself does not need any good created by Him. This is His rest from all the works that He has done. Meanwhile, what blessings would He not so meritoriously need if He had not created anything? Of course, even in this case, He would not have needed anything, but not because in Himself He would have enjoyed peace from doing, but because He would simply not have done anything. But if He could not do good, then He would not have power, and if He could, but did not do it, then this would be great envy. Hence, since He is omnipotent and good, He created everything “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and since He was completely blessed with good in Himself, He rested in Himself from the works that He had done, that is, in such peace from which He never emerged. But if it had not been said that He rested from work, then the thought would not have emerged so clearly that He did not need what He created. What day, if not the seventh, should the remembrance of this rest of God be dated? This is not difficult to understand if we remember the perfection of the number six, corresponding to the perfection of creation. Indeed, if creation was to be completed (as in fact it happened) in a period of six days, and if it was necessary to instill in us the thought of the peace of God, which, as we showed above, God is blessed even apart from the creation of the creature, then, undoubtedly, the day following the sixth should have been sanctified with remembrance, so that on this day, remembering the divine peace, we ourselves would be encouraged to find it in God. But it would not be pious to believe that we could become so like God that in ourselves we would rest from our works in the same way as He rested in Himself from His. Undoubtedly, we must seek peace in some immutable good, which is the One who created us. Hence, our highest, humble and truly pious peace will consist in the fact that, just as He rested from all His works, for the good with which He is blessed is not His works, but He Himself, so that we hope only in Him to find peace not only from our own, but also from His works, for our works are rather His works than ours; so that in this case, He actually rests after His good deeds, providing us with peace in Himself after the completion of our good deeds. It is great (good) for us that we came from Him, but it will be even greater (good) to rest in Him. In turn, He is blessed not because He created us, but because, not needing what was created, He rested in Himself, and not in created things. It is difficult to find anything else that would be so simple in words and so difficult to understand as the fact that God rested from all His works that He had done. Where does He rest if not in Himself? When does he rest, and not always? But, at the same time, in the series of days set aside for the creation of things, it rests on the seventh day following the completion of creation. For He rests from the works He has done, not in the least needing to complete them in order to be blessed. And as for the Lord, for His rest there is neither morning nor evening, because this peace has neither beginning nor end; If we talk about His perfect works, then they have mornings, but no evenings, for the created creature has the beginning of its appeal to the peace of its Creator, but does not have its end, that is, the limit of its perfection as a creature. Thus, the rest of God has its beginning not for God himself, but for the perfection of the things created by Him, so that everything that He accomplishes finds rest in Him and has morning; (creation) in its own kind is limited by evening, but in God it has no evening, for there is nothing more perfect than that perfection. Indeed, in those (six) days during which everything was created, we understand evening as the end of the creation of one creature, and morning as the beginning of the creation of a new one. Hence, the evening of the fifth day was the limit of the creature created on the fifth day, and the morning that came after this day was the beginning of the creation of the creature of the sixth day, after which, that is, after it was created, evening came, its limit. And since now everything had already been created, after this evening the morning came, which was no longer the beginning of the creation of a new creature, but the beginning of the rest of all creation in the peace of the Creator. For heaven and earth with everything that is on them, that is, all spiritual and physical creation, do not abide in themselves, but in Him about whom it is said: “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17.28). And although each part can exist in the whole of which it is a part, yet this whole itself can exist only in the One by whom it was created. Thus, the morning that comes after the evening of the sixth day should be understood in such a way that it does not indicate the beginning of a new creation, but the beginning of the abiding and tranquility of everything created in the peace of the Creator. And this peace has no beginning, no end, no limit; The rest of the creature has a beginning, but no limit, and therefore the seventh day for the creature began in the morning, but does not end in the evening. Indeed, if in those (six) days morning and evening meant the same changes that time passes every day now, then it is not clear why (the writer of everyday life) did not end the seventh day in the evening, and its night in the afternoon, saying: “And there was evening, and there was morning: the seventh day,” for then this day would have been simply one of those seven days, from the repetition of which months, years and centuries are made; so the morning that would follow the evening of the seventh day would be the beginning of the eighth day, on which it would finally have to stop, because the eighth day is the first to which the seven-day week returns and begins again. From all this it follows that the current seven days, being replaced in their course by more and more new (days), constitute periods of time; The first six days alternated during the very creation of things in an unknown and unusual way for us, and their evening and morning, like light and darkness themselves, i.e. day and night did not represent the change (of times) that, thanks to the movement of the sun, the present days represent; this is at least obvious for the first three days mentioned before the creation of the luminaries. Therefore, no matter what the evening and morning were in those days, in no case should we think that in the morning that came after the evening of the sixth day, the peace of God began, lest we have an empty and daring thought that some temporary good was added to the eternity and immutability of God; on the contrary, the peace that God rests in Himself, being the blessed good that He Himself is, has neither beginning nor end; in relation to the creation He produced, this peace of God has a beginning. For the perfection of each thing is affirmed not so much on the whole, of which it serves as a part, but on Him from Whom it gains being and in Whom the whole itself exists - it is affirmed to the extent of its kind, in order to be calm, that is, to maintain its proper place. Hence, the entire totality of creation, completed in six days, has one thing in itself, and another in the order in which it exists in God; exists not as God, but in such a way that the peace of its own stability lies only in the peace of Him who, besides Himself, desires nothing else, by obtaining which it could find peace. And while He abides in Himself, everything that comes from Him returns to Him; so that every creature in itself has the limit of its nature, according to which it is not what He is, but is in Him, in Whose rest it is preserved by what it is, for in Him is its place of rest. I know that the word “place” cannot be used in the literal sense here, since in the literal sense it means a certain space occupied by bodies; but since bodies remain only in that place which they are able to reach, as if by the rush of their gravity, in order to remain there in a calm state, then it is quite permissible to use the word “place” in relation to the spiritual, although it is very different from the bodily. So, that morning, which followed the evening of the sixth day, signifies, in my opinion, the beginning of the creature in the peace of the Creator, for it could find peace in Him only when it was created, and therefore, when on the sixth day all (the works of creation) were completed, then after the evening the morning came when the created began to find its peace in its Creator. And at the same time, it also found God resting in Himself, in Whom it itself could rest, resting all the more firmly and firmly, the more it needed it in Him, and not He in it, for its rest. But since all creation will eternally abide in its Creator, then after that morning there was no more evening. This is a possible explanation for why the seventh day, on which God rested on all His works, had morning after the evening of the sixth day, but no evening. But there is another, in my opinion more direct and better, but somewhat more difficult to understand explanation, namely: that the rest of God on the seventh day is not for the creature, but for God himself, is morning without evening, that is, a beginning without end. In fact, if it were simply said: “God rested on the seventh day” and did not add: “from all His works that He did” (Gen. 2:2), then in this case we would begin to look in vain for the beginning of this rest. God does not begin to rest: His rest is eternal, without beginning and end. But since He rested from all His works, which He did without needing them, then although His rest, indeed, does not begin, yet the rest from all the works that He did began from the time when (these works) were completed. For even though He needed these works, He could not rest until they appeared (although He did not need the already completed works); and since His bliss, never needing any deeds, will not, as if growing, become more perfect from them, then the seventh day was not followed by evening. Undoubtedly, the following question deserves consideration: how to understand that God rested within Himself from all His works? Indeed, it is written that He rested “on the seventh day” (Gen. 2:2), and not in Himself. What kind of “seventh day” is this - some kind of creature or period of time? But time was created together with the temporal creature, which means it itself is a creature. For no, there could not and cannot be any times whose creator would not be God; hence, who created the seventh day, if he is time, if not the Creator of all times? But with what creatures or in what creatures the first six days were created, this is shown by the previous speech of St. Scriptures. Therefore, in the order of the present seven days, whose form is known to us and which, although they are transitory, in some way transmit their names to the other days that succeed them, so that they retain the names of the six days, we know when the first of them were created; but when God created the seventh day, called the Sabbath, we do not see this. In fact, on this day God did not create anything, but from the works that He created for six days He rested on the seventh day. How then did He rest on a day that He did not create? Or how did He create it after six days, when on the sixth day He finished all the works of creation, and on the seventh He created nothing, but rested from His works? Or perhaps God created only one day, all the others were just a repetition of it, why was there no need to create the seventh day, which was only the seventh repetition of the first day? Indeed, the light about which it is written: “And God said: Let there be light. And there became light” (Gen. 1:3), - God separated this light from the darkness and called it day, and called the darkness night. It was then that God created that “one day” (Gen. 1:5), the repetition of which Scripture calls the second day, then the third, and so on until the sixth, on which He finished all His works; the seventh repetition of this originally created light was called the seventh day on which God rested. Hence, the seventh day is not some kind of (new) creation, but the same, seventh time repeated creation that was created when God called light day and darkness night. Thus, we return again to the question that we already considered in the first book, namely: how could light produce the change of day and night not only before the appearance of the heavenly bodies, but also the sky, earth and sea itself, that is, everything in which it could rotate or expand and contract? In view of the difficulty of this question, we then reduced it to the opinion that this originally created light represented the harmony of the spiritual nature, and the night - matter, which still had to receive formation in the subsequent creation of things and which was founded by God when He first created heaven and earth, before the day was created at His word. Now, examining the question of the seventh day, we are forced to admit that we do not know how the light called day determined the changes of day and night - whether by its rotation, compression or scattering, if it is bodily light; and if it is spiritual, and if by its presence during the creation of creatures it produced day, and by its absence - night, the beginning of presence - morning, and the beginning of absence - evening, then even more quickly we will have to admit a misunderstanding of this subject, which is not subject to our senses, which recognition, of course, is better than doubting the words of Divine Scripture and the assertion that the seventh day is something other than simply the seventh repetition of the created first day. Otherwise, either God did not create the seventh day, or even after six days He created something, that is, the seventh day, which means it is falsely written that He completed all His works on the sixth day and rested from them on the seventh. But since it cannot possibly be false, it remains (to think) that during all the works of creation the presence of that light, which God called day, was repeated as many times as the days were counted, including the seventh, when God rested from all His works. But since we have not found out how, by its circulation, or approach, or withdrawal, the bodily light could produce the changes of day and night before the heaven was created, called the firmament, on which the luminaries were built, we should not leave this question without explaining our opinion that that originally created light was not corporeal, but spiritual. And just as after darkness light appeared, and of course the light had already been formed and turned from some of its formlessness to the Creator, so after the evening the morning should have come, when this light, after recognizing its nature, for it is not that God, returns to the glorification of that Light, which is God himself, and from the contemplation of which he himself is formed. And since other creatures created after him are not outside his knowledge, then through all creation one and the same day is repeated, so that from its repetition there are as many days as there are different kinds in created things, the number of which should have been determined by the perfection of the number six. Thus, the evening of the first day represents the knowledge (of light) that he is not that God, and the morning that comes after the first evening is his return to the glorification of the Creator for his creation and the perception from the Word of God of the knowledge of the creation that appears after him, that is, the firmament, which appears first in the knowledge of the light, when it is said: “Let it be,” and then in the nature of the firmament itself, when it is added: “And God created the firmament” ( Gen. 1:6, 7). Then comes the evening of this light, when it recognizes the firmament, not in the Word of God, but in its own nature; this knowledge, being less than the first, is rightly called evening. Next comes morning, which ends the second day and begins the third; and this morning also represents the return of light, that is, the day created by God, to the glorification of God for His creation of the firmament and the reception from the Word of God of the knowledge of the creation that was to be created after the firmament. Therefore, when God says: “Let the waters that are under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear,” (action) this light recognizes in the Word of God, by which these words are spoken, which is why it is further said: “And it became so,” that is, it became in his knowledge from the Word of God; then, when it is added: “And the waters were gathered together...” (Gen. 1:9), etc., this creation appears in its own kind, and when it is recognized by light no longer in the Word, but in its own kind, the third evening appears, and so continues until the morning that comes after the evening of the sixth day. There is a great difference between knowing a thing in the Word of God and knowing it in its own nature, why the former rightly applies to the day, and the latter to the evening. Indeed, in comparison with the light that is contemplated in the Word of God, any knowledge by which we recognize this or that creature in itself can well be called even night. However, this knowledge, in turn, is so different from the error and ignorance of those who do not know the creature itself that, in comparison, it fully deserves to be called day. Likewise, the life of the faithful, which they lead in the flesh in this age, if compared with the life of the unbelievers and the wicked, can rightly be called light and day, according to the words of the apostle: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph 5:8), and again: “Let us cast aside the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light” (Rom 13:12). In turn, this day, in comparison with the day on which, having become equal to the angels, we will see God, would be night if we did not have a prophetic torch, which is why the Apostle Peter says: “And moreover, we have the surest prophetic word; and you do well to look to him as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). This is why the holy Angels (to whom, after the resurrection, we will be like (Matthew 22:30), if we continue to the end on the path that Christ serves for us), constantly seeing the face of God, and also enjoying the Word, His only begotten Son, equal to the Father, and representing the first created wisdom of all, know all creation, among which they themselves were originally created, first of all in the Word of God, in whom, as He created everything, the eternal ideas of everything, even those created in a temporary way, are contained, and then - in its very nature, looking at it as if from above and raising it to the glorification of Him, in whose immutable truth the ideas in accordance with which it was created were originally contemplated. There (they know the creation) as if during the day, which is why their most concordant unity in participating in one and the same Truth represents the originally created day, and here - as if in the evening; but after this evening the morning immediately comes, for angelic knowledge does not remain in creation so as not to then ascend to the glorification and love of Him, in Whom not what has already been created is known, but what will yet be created; staying in this Truth is the essence of the day. For if the angelic nature, turning to itself, were to delight in itself more than in the One in Whom it is blessed to participate, then, puffed up with pride, it would fall like the devil, about whom we will speak in its proper place, when it is necessary to talk about the serpent who has deceived man. Thus, the angels know the creation in its own nature, but in such a way that, by election and love, they prefer to this knowledge the knowledge of it in the Truth, by Which all things were created, having become partakers of It. Therefore, for six days the nights are not mentioned, but after evening and morning - day one, then again after evening and morning - day two, etc. until the morning of the sixth day, from which the seventh day of God's rest begins. For the night belongs to the day, and not the day to the night, in the case when the highest and holy Angels relate the knowledge of creation in its own nature to the glory and love of Him in Whom they contemplate the eternal ideas by which the creation was created, and with their concordant contemplation they form the one day created by the Lord, to which the Church will join, freed from its wandering, so that we too “will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps 117.24). So, the whole creation is completed in a sixfold repetition of that day, the evening and morning of which can be understood in the above sense; and behold, the morning came, with which the sixth ended and the seventh day began, a day that no longer had its evening. And he did not have evening because the rest of God does not apply to that creature, which was created in the previous six days and was known in itself differently than in Him in whose truth it was created, and as if a pale form of knowledge of which evening represented. Hence, in the narration about the creation of things, by day we must understand the form of the creative action itself, by evening - its completion, by morning - the beginning of a new one, so as not to say, contrary to Scripture, that in addition to six days, the creation of the seventh day was also created, or that the seventh day itself is not a creation; so, through all the days of creation, the same day created by God is repeated, repeated not by bodily conversion, but by spiritual knowledge, when the blessed host of angels first beholds the creature in the Word of God, by which God speaks: “Let it be,” why first it appears in the knowledge of the angels, when it is said: “And it was so,” and then the angels recognize it in its own nature, which is signified by the coming of evening, and, finally, the knowledge of it, already created, is attributed to the glorification of the Truth, in which the idea of ​​its creation was previously contemplated, which is indicated by the arrival of morning. Thus, through all these days one day passes, which must be understood not in the sense of ordinary days, which are determined and counted by the revolution of the sun, but in some other way, which cannot be alien to the first three days, counted before the creation of the luminaries. And this order continued not until the fourth day, from which we could already think of the days we are accustomed to, but until the sixth and seventh; so it is one thing - day and night, which the Lord separated from each other, and quite another - day and night, separated by the lights that God created, saying: “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate day from night” (Gen. 1:14). He created this day when He created the sun, by whose presence it is produced; the same originally created day had already lasted three days, when the luminaries were created in its fourth repetition. Therefore, in view of the fact that in our earthly mortality we cannot experience that day or those days that were counted by its repetition, and even if we can achieve some understanding of them, we should not adhere to such a daring opinion that it is no longer possible to have another, more correct and worthy idea about them, we should not think that the current seven days, which, following the example of those days, constitute a week, from the repetition of which times are composed and each day of which lasts from sunrise to sunset, represent themselves a certain succession of creative days, but in such a way that they are much more different from them than similar to them. And let no one think that what I said about the spiritual light, about the created day and the angelic creature, about the contemplation that it has in the Word of God, about the knowledge by which the creature is known in itself and about raising it to the glory of the immutable Truth, in which the ideas of the creation of things are contemplated, which are then recognized as already created, coincides with the understanding of the day, evening and morning not in their own, but as if in figuratively and allegorically. Indeed, in comparison with our ordinary bodily light, that light is something different, but not so much that the first light is light in the proper sense, and the last in a figurative sense. In fact, where the light is better and truer, the day is truer, and therefore the evening and morning are truer. For if in these days the light inclines to the west, and this we call evening, and then returns again from the east, which we call morning, then why not call the turning (of that light) from the contemplation of the Creator to the consideration of creation evening, and in the morning its ascent from the knowledge of creation to the glorification of the Creator? After all, Christ is called light (John 8.12) not in the sense in which he is called a stone (Acts 4.11), but in the proper sense, and a stone, obviously, in a figurative sense. But if anyone does not agree with the opinion regarding the days (of creation), which we have formed and thought on our own, and begins to look for another, not allegorical and prophetic, but in the proper and better sense of the real order of things, let him seek, praying for help from above. It may happen that I myself will find a different solution, more consistent with the words of divine Scripture. For I do not insist on my opinion to such an extent as to exclude the possibility of finding another that deserves greater preference, but I insist that Holy Scripture did not in any way want to instill in us the idea that the rest of God is a consequence of weariness from hard work. Perhaps someone will object that the angels of the highest heavens do not consistently contemplate first the ideas in the immutable truth of the Word of God, then the creatures themselves, and, finally, the knowledge of them in themselves refers to the glorification of the Creator, but their minds with amazing ease can embrace all this at once. But will anyone really say, and if they do, then we should listen to him, that the heavenly city, (consisting of) many thousands of angels, either does not contemplate the eternity of the Creator, or does not know the changeability of creation, or after some lower knowledge of it does not glorify the Creator? Even though they can and do do it all at once, they still do it! This means that they have day, evening, and morning at one time. We should not fear that anyone capable of rising in thought to such a subject might think that such an order cannot exist there because it does not exist in our days, born of the circulation of the sun. Indeed, in individual parts of the earth nothing like this is observed, but who does not know that the world, taken as a whole, has at the same time day on its sunny side, and night on the opposite side, and evening where the sun leaves, and morning where it rises. We, of course, cannot observe all this at the same time, but on this basis alone we should not equate the earthly order of things and the temporal-spatial circulation of material light with that spiritual fatherland, where there is a constant day in the contemplation of the immutable Truth, an everlasting evening in the knowledge of the creature in its nature, an everlasting morning in the return from this knowledge to the glory of the Creator. For evening occurs there not from the withdrawal of the higher light, but from its turning to lower knowledge; in turn, the morning there should not, as it were, replace the night of ignorance with morning knowledge, but (the point is) that it turns even evening knowledge into praise of the Creator. So (the psalmist), without mentioning the night, says: “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry, and He will hear my voice” (Ps 54.18), denoting by this change of times, as it seems to me, what is happening without any change in the fatherland that his wanderings crave. But if the angelic community and the unity of the day created by God now spends and has day, evening and morning at the same time, then did it really have them in the same way when everything was still just being created? Was it not perceived in those six days of creation, when God was pleased to create everything separately, in such a way that it first appeared in their knowledge when it was said: “And it became so” (Gen. 1:7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30), then when it appeared already created in the nature in which it exists and is pleasing to the Lord, for “it is good” (Gen. 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), it was in the same way cognized by their lower knowledge, called evening, and, finally, after the evening the morning came, when the angels glorified God for these His deeds and received from the Word of God the knowledge of another, next in the order of their appearance to the existence of the creature? Hence, day, evening and morning did not appear at once, but separately, in the order in which Scripture narrates. But wasn’t it all at once already then, but not in the sense of simultaneity, as can be imagined in our temporary existence, when “the sun rises, and the sun sets, and hastens to its place where it rises” (Eccl. 1.5), but in the sense of the spiritual power of the angelic mind, embracing everything with an ease incomprehensible to us? But, of course, not without preserving the order connecting the preceding and subsequent causes. In fact, there cannot be knowledge if it is not preceded by what is known, but it exists first in the Word, by Whom all things were created, and only then in everything that was created by Him. The human mind, due to its weakness, first explores and cognizes existence with the help of bodily senses, and only then seeks its causes; and if he is only able to reach the causes that are originally and unchangeably in the Word, he thus gains the ability to see His invisible. And who does not know how long and difficult it is for the mind of a person to acquire this knowledge, whose soul, even if it blazes with love, is burdened by the weakness of the body? Meanwhile, united with the Word of God with the purest love, the angelic mind, created before any creature, contemplates them (creatures) in the Word of God before they acquired their existence. Thus, everything that was supposed to come into being first arose in the knowledge of angels, when it was called God, and then happened in its own nature, becoming in this case the subject of the knowledge of angels, but of a lower knowledge, that is, of the evening. This last knowledge followed the appearance of the creature, for the object of knowledge precedes knowledge itself. And if the angelic mind had remained satisfied with itself after this to such an extent that it would have preferred to enjoy itself rather than the Creator, then the morning would not have come, that is, the angelic mind would not have soared from this knowledge to the glorification of the Creator. Meanwhile, with the onset of morning, a new creature had to be created and known. So, although there were no intervals of time, everything was preceded by the idea of ​​​​creation in the Word of God, when it was said: “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). Following this, the light from which the angelic mind was formed appeared - appeared in its own nature. That’s why it doesn’t say here: “And it became so. And God created light,” but immediately after the word of God, light appeared and joined the creative Light, contemplating It and in It - itself, that is, the idea according to which it was created. But he also contemplated himself in himself, distinguishing himself as a creature from himself in the Creator. Therefore, when “God saw the light that it was good” (Gen. 1:4), and when the light was separated from the darkness and called day, and the darkness night, evening also appeared, because the creature had to understand what it is in itself, and then morning, so that what was supposed to appear after the light according to the word of God, first appeared in the knowledge of the angelic mind, and then in the nature of the firmament. But if the angelic mind can at once embrace everything that is successively conveyed in speech in the order of occurrence of causes, then did all this also appear at once, namely, the firmament, the collection of waters and the exposure of the earth, the growth of grass and trees, the formation of stars and luminaries, water and earthly animals, or did it take certain periods of time over six days? Is it possible that all this, when it initially arose, we should think not from the point of view of its natural movements, as we see now, but from the point of view of the amazing and ineffable power of the Wisdom of God, reaching everything from end to end? Indeed, Wisdom reaches everything and everyone not spatially, as if walking (from end to end). And if so, since She moves neither in space nor in time, then She does not need time for actions. Thus, what is now slow was then created without delay; even the centuries themselves were created instantly, and not as they pass now. In fact, times pass those numbers that they received outside of time. Otherwise, if in relation to that (moment) when everything was originally created by the Word of God, we began to apply the natural movements of things and the usual length of days, then it would take not one, but many, many days for everything that only grows to form and grow from the earth. Then, how many days would pass before the birds would fly across the sky? Or is it to be thought that on the fifth day only the eggs of birds were created, containing numerical ideas (of future birds), incorporeally united with corporeal things? But then one should go further than eggs, for the same ideas were already contained in the wet element. For of the Creator, of whom the Scripture says that He created all things in six days, it is also said that He created all things at once. And if so, then the One who created everything at once also created those six or seven days at once, or rather one day repeated six or seven times. But why then was it necessary to divide this day into six? Because not everyone can imagine the emergence of everything at once, and especially for them (Scripture) seems to slow down its speech, so that they have time to go where it leads them. How then do we talk about the angelic knowledge repeating six times from evening to morning, when it was enough for him to have day, evening and morning once? The day when all creation was contemplated at once, just as it was created at once, in its first and unchangeable ideas, in accordance with which it was later created; evening, when the creature was immediately recognized in its own nature; finally, the morning, when from lower knowledge the angelic mind ascended to the praise of the Creator. It turns out that what Scripture says was created over the course of six days was somehow created sequentially, and not together, and, moreover, the place where it is said about six days, and the one where it is said that God created everything at once, speak about the same thing, for they were written under the inspiration of the one Spirit of truth. There are phenomena in which it is difficult to recognize the sequence of events, as well as things about which we talk “before” or “after”, but we do this rather for the sake of our convenience. Suppose we are looking at some distant object; our gaze seems to run through the space from us to him. But behind this object there is another one, and our gaze, following the same line, runs the distance from the first object to the second and stops on it. Next is another one, and the gaze again sets off on its journey. And so from one to another, before to one, after to another. But is it really possible that our vision does not immediately, instantly reach the most distant of visible objects, without all these “before” and “after”? Meanwhile, the ray of vision is a ray of bodily light. But he also passes through all the immeasurable spaces at once, in an instant, although, undoubtedly, some pass earlier, others later. The Apostle, wanting to better express the speed of our resurrection, rightly said that it will happen in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15.52). For what can be found faster in the movements of bodily things? But if the vision of the bodily eyes is so fast, then how many times faster is the vision of the human mind, and even more so the angelic mind? What then can we say about the speed of the Wisdom of God? Therefore, in what was created at once, no one except the Wisdom of God, by Whom everything was created in its own order and yet at once, can see what appeared before and what appeared after. So, the day originally created by God, if it is an angelic creature, that is, a creature of the heavenly Angels and Powers, was present at all the works of God with its knowledge, with which it recognized, on the one hand, first in the Word of God what was to be created, on the other hand, then in the creation itself, what was created; cognized not in temporal sequence, but causally, and in the action of the Creator - all at once. For what God intended to create, He did not do in time, although what He created was temporary. Therefore, the present seven days, produced by the circulation of the heavenly body, being a kind of shadow (of those first days), force us (spiritually) to seek those days when the created spiritual light was present in all the works of God in accordance with the perfection of the number six. Further, the seventh day of God's rest had mornings, but no evenings. And this does not mean that God rested in need of rest, but that He rested from all His works that He did; rested, of course, in Himself, the uncreated One, before the eyes of His angels, that is, in such a way that His angelic creation, which had hitherto known His works day and evening, after the completion of these works no longer knew anything except Him Himself, who had rested in Himself from all works and did not need any of them in order to be blessed. You might be interested in: