06.0.4.8. The Seventh Day

VIII. -- THE SEVENTH DAY TO this day of rest I now would pass, a stage attained by few, for few pursue it. For it is now, as of old: the Lord may work in many a house: He can find a rest in very few. So He works in many souls, and comes to give of His fulness; but few so entirely yield to Him, as to let Him indeed rest there. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests in us, but few hearts give Christ a true resting-place. Yet this is the stage here drawn, the state of "full age," or "perfection" (Php 3:15; Hebrews 5:14), when, instead of growth and change, and the varying life of faith, and the struggle between the old state and the work of God within us, we reach the life of vision and of rest, where the man through grace is drawn to live in a life of love above such strivings, not converted only, or even gifted, but at rest and full of peace, and, because at rest, reflecting God and heaven, like the deep still stream, which can give back each hue and cloud of heaven, while the restless soul flows on, a brawling river, reflecting nothing, though the light has come, upon its troubled bosom. Such is this day of rest, when heaven is seen in the creature, and the "powers of the world to come" are already more than tasted (Hebrews 6:1-5). Its cause is first described. The rest is come, because through the Word of God His will is done perfectly (Genesis 2:2). No rest can come until His will is done. When it is so accomplished, whether for us or in us, for us or in us there may be rest. For us there is a rest, when we see the work perfect for us in Christ Jesus. In us there is the selfsame rest, when that work is perfected in us by the same Christ Jesus. He gives Himself for us, and thus by faith His rest is ours, so soon as our faith apprehends Him now in rest for us. But He also gives Himself to us, to work in us that which once through grace He wrought for us. Our faith, from the first day when it takes Christ for us, can rest in Him, for His work is perfect. But in us, as well as for us, in experience as in faith, the rest will come, when in us, as for us, His work and will is done. Thus the rest is in His, not in our own, will done. Our will can never give us rest. If His will rules, there will be a rest. Two wills struggling may prove life or growth, but no Sabbath. God will not, cannot rest, save where His will is done. Hence, at first, there cannot be this rest, for the flesh and the spirit strive together, and the man, who as yet is double, and lives in both, though "at peace with God by faith" (Romans 5:1), cannot know "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" (Php 4:7); the law in his members warring against the law of his mind, even though God’s true work is growing there. But in time the flesh is nailed to the cross, and now the man is no longer double, but single and simple. One life now rules him, and this is God’s; and so the day of rest begins to dawn. For this is rest, to yield ourselves to God, to turn away the foot from doing our own pleasure; not doing our own ways, nor speaking our own words, nor seeking to find our own pleasure: then shall we delight ourselves in the Lord, and the creature find joy in God, and God joy in the creature (Isaiah 58:13-14). (Note: See also the connection of the well-known words in Matthew 11:25-30. John, his witness, in bonds, seems to doubt, and asks, "Art thou He that should come, or look we for another?" Then that generation, whether mourned or piped to, mock; and the cities which have beheld His works reject Him. "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, Father, for thus it pleaseth Thee." And then at once turning to those around, having shewn how He could find a rest in God’s will, He says, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest.") But to speak of the rest itself. Much is said descriptive of the nature of this true Sabbath.

And, first, it is "God’s rest." It is not said, "the creature rested," but "God rested" (Genesis 2:3); not as though He could be weary, but to shew His satisfaction, and to teach that as the work was His and not the creature’s, so the rest was His also. For God Himself has joy in seeing His work perfect. And if in the days of labour it is seen that all progress is because He works in us, much more is this felt when the day of rest is come, as it is written, "God rested from all His work which He created and made." For He works that He may rest in us. Let us not forget the complacency with which He surveys His own workmanship, and that each fresh act of submission to His Word leads to His, even as to our, rest.

Further, this rest is "blessed." We read, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." He blessed the day. In the six days of labour God had blessed certain gifts as the "living creatures," that is, certain powers or faculties divinely given. Now a day is blessed, that is, the creature’s state, as well as some of its peculiar powers, obtains the Lord’s blessing. And "God sanctified," that is, took it for Himself. In the days of labour God does not get His own. But the day or state of rest is wholly His. By it, in holy contemplation, far more than in action, is the creature perfected. God may get something from our works: He gets much more when we rest, and so pass out of self and its variableness wholly into His will. On this day there is "no evening" seen. (Note: This is observed by nearly all the Fathers: by Augustine, Serm. ix. (vol. v. p. 53, ed. 1679,) and De Gen. ad lit. l. iv. c. 18, &c.: by Jerome, Epist. xxi. De Celebratione Paschae: by Bernard, De Amore Dei, l. iii. c. 13, &c.) In the days of labour, though the night is never once mentioned, from first to last the evening reappears. The evening and the morning make the day. But on the seventh day we read of no evening. And this omission, like those noticed of Melchisedek by St. Paul, is significant and full of deep teaching. (Note: In his Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 7:1-28) the Apostle points out how much is to be learnt from the simple fact that in the history of Melchisedek nothing is mentioned either of his birth or death: he is presented to us "without father or mother, having neither beginning of days nor end of life;" an omission very unusual in Scripture with persons of note, but here with purpose, as the Apostle teaches. Other omissions in Scripture are as instructive. Those in St. Mark’s Gospel, as compared with St. Matthew, are within the reach of most readers. The contrast between the books of Kings and Chronicles is as marked; the omissions of the latter being, like the additions, full of meaning.) Evening is the state preceding and tending to night or darkness. Morning is the state succeeding it. Hence the evening suggests decline of light; a relapse or tendency, however brief, to the creature’s own darkness. All the days of labour have this evening, for they need it; though even then each stage proceeds "from evening to morning;" with mornings which steadily grow into the day, unlike that fitful light from the cold north, that Northern Morning (Aurora borealis), which without warmth at times shoots up at night, to go out and fade at midnight suddenly. Such northern lights are not the morning. But now the day of days has come without an evening. Now no darkness or shades return. And good as are the days when the work goes on from evening to morning, -- yea, good as are the nights, while yet we need them, -- far more blessed is the day of rest without an evening. For then is the dawn of heaven itself, when "at even time it shall be light," for the days "shall be as one day" (Zechariah 14:7); when the soul is fit to bear unbroken day, and its very "darkness can be even as the noon day" (Isaiah 58:10). Then comes this day of days, when "the sun shall no more go down, neither shall the moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be our everlasting light, and the days and nights of mourning shall be ended" (Isaiah 60:20); a day "as the days of heaven," whose "light is sevenfold, as the light of seven days" (Isaiah 30:26); when "no night is there" (Revelation 21:25), nor toil, nor change, but God’s rest, and our rest in Him for ever; as Enoch’s life, who "walked with God, and was not, for God took him," whose life, the "seventh from Adam" (Jude 1:14), being a true sabbath of rest, could know no evening. Such is this seventh day, a walk with God, uniting earth to heaven in blessedness. If we know it not, let us wait: to those who wait, it will surely come, it will not tarry. And as to God Himself, the rest reveals Him to us in another character; for names denote character, and God is known by another name upon the seventh day. Throughout the days of labour, He is "God" (Genesis 1:1-31. passim). Now on the Sabbath, He is the "Lord God" (Genesis 2:4). The title "God" tells what He does. Elohim is One whose power and oath we may rely on. It speaks rather of His works than of Himself. "Lord" or Jehovah tells what He is, in His own perfections. (Note: "God," Heb. elohim [H430], from ahlah [H422, 423], to swear, speaks of One who is pledged by oath and covenant; while the plural form of the name points us to the Three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by whose agency the covenant is fulfilled. "Lord" is Jehovah, yhwh [H3068], the Self-existing, who is what He is, above our highest thoughts.) At first what God has done or will do, is far more to us than what He is; for we need His work; the names therefore which recall it will be those by which we best know Him. When the rest is come all this remains: His name as connected with His work cannot be forgotten: it is and ever will be precious; but we learn to add what He is to what He does for us. We all have felt how much Christ’s work in the newly awakened soul takes the place of Christ’s person; and how the questions which then arise are of the nature and extent of His work, more than of Himself. Then prayer and praise both speak His work. The earlier part of the Book of Psalms is full of such utterances. But we close the course by praising Him, not only "for his mighty acts," but "for His excellent greatness" (Psalms 150:2); on earth, with Paul, while God works in us, blessing Him as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," for all that blessed work in Him, in that "He hath loved and raised us up in Him" (Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 2:4-6); in heaven to hear a higher strain, "resting not day nor night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which wast, and art, and art to come; for Thou art worthy; for Thou, O Lord, hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:8; Revelation 4:11): a song praising Him for what He is, yet not forgetting what He has done; in His presence and His rest seeing Him above His works, Himself far more glorious. Work indeed reveals the worker; but if somewhat of God is known in and by His work, how much more of Him is learnt in and by His rest, when His will can shine out perfectly! Oh, to know that rest yet more, to know Him more; and to know Him more, to know yet more of rest. Nor is it God alone who shines out more fully upon the seventh day: the creature itself on that day is changed, presented to us in another higher form. For instead of "herb and tree," we have now "a garden drest," whose position is "eastward" and "in Eden" (Genesis 2:8; Genesis 2:15); words full of meaning, and suggesting rising light, and pleasures at God’s right hand for evermore. For the "East" speaks plainly of advancing light and warmth; while "Eden" means pleasure, and is so translated in not a few versions. (Note: Heb. eden [H5731], i.e. delight. The LXX. and Vulgate both translate the word thus: the former rendering it truphes, the latter, voluptatis. See Augustine, De Gen. c. Manich. l. ii. c. 9, § 12. See also Ambros. de Parad. c. 3. See more respecting "the East," below, on chap. 11:2.) The "garden" too speaks far more than we can bear of that Paradise into which some like Paul have been caught up (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7); a state not of faith but of vision, where the things within the veil, which "it is not lawful to utter" without the veil, are made manifest. Such is this "garden," reached on the seventh day, far more glorious than the herbs and fruits upon the third day. Now instead of "seas," we have only sweet "rivers" (Genesis 2:10-14). (Note: It is to be observed, too, that whereas in the six days we only get ehrets, earth, on the seventh day we have the additional word adamah [H127], ground, which seems to indicate more care and cultivation. Earth might be uncultivated.) The man, too, instead of subduing every beast, is seen exercising toward them something like divine power. For before this day, in the first three days, names were bestowed on parts of the creation by the Creator: -- "God called the dry land, Earth, and the waters, Seas, and the expanse He called, Heaven." But on the seventh day man is permitted to shew his likeness to his Maker by giving names to the living creatures, thus shewing his insight into God’s work; -- "the Lord God brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof" (Genesis 2:19). Further, much is now shewn of the "woman," his help-mate, whose relation to the "man," as made out of him, is now discerned (Genesis 2:20-25). The apprehension, too, of the "trees of life and knowledge" is something quite peculiar to this seventh day (Genesis 2:9; Genesis 2:16-17). All these things shew the creature in a form far higher and more removed from carnal conception than any hitherto presented to us. Whether we are fit even to look at such blessings, is a question for each to lay to heart. For surely not in vain was disobedient man shut out from that Paradise, the figure of which is here presented to us, -- shut out in love, for all God does is love; -- shut out lest he should have a worse judgment. The disobedient cannot enter here. Such contemplations do not suit, and would not help them. But humble souls, at peace in Christ, may look and perhaps see some of those things which belong to the seventh day, and learn thence what may be enjoyed when we rest in God’s rest, because His will is done.

What, then, are these "rivers" of which we read, not here only, but in all the prophets; which are known on the day of rest and not before, and which now take the place once occupied by salt and tossing waters? In Eden the stream is one, but "from thence it is parted," and becomes four distinct rivers (Genesis 2:10). What is this, but that stream of living waters, which one and undivided for those who enter Paradise, -- and without a name while it is there, for in its undivided flow the one stream is beyond all human description, -- without the garden is parted into four streams, giving its waters to the world as Pison, Gihon, Euphrates, and Hiddekel? For divine truth, which is the living water, to those who can see it as it is within the veil, is one full stream, in undivided flow; but to us on earth it ever comes by four distinct channels. It may be said in general that there are four sources of truth, and but four, which are accessible to men, which are like rivers, in the fertility they produce upon their banks, and in the glorious power they all possess of reflecting heaven; first, intuition, by which we get an acquaintance with moral or spiritual things, which are not objects of sense; second, perception, through the senses, by which we only get an acquaintance with material things and their properties; third, testimony, by which we learn what others have found out through perception or intuition; fourth, reasoning or reflection, a process of the understanding, by which we unfold what is contained or implied or suggested by the perceptions, intuitions, or testimony. If I err not, the first of these is Pison; the second is Gihon, or Nile, -- since the fall the stream of Egypt; (Note: In Jeremiah 2:18, the LXX. translate Gihon for Nile. Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Josephus, Isidore, and I know not how many more, tell us the same. They all agree also in saying that Pison is the Ganges.) the third is Hiddekel, that is the Tigris; (Note: The LXX. here translate Hiddekel by Tigris. So, too, in Daniel 10:4. It is easy to see how the one name might change into the other, Hiddekel, Digalto, Tigral, Tigris.) and the fourth river or channel of truth is Euphrates. Of the first of these we know little after the fall, but "it compasseth the land of Havilah, where there is gold" (Genesis 2:11-12); (Note: Havilah means "to bring forth.") the land that is of much increase, where the waters produce much fruit while they also roll down rich treasures. As seen on the day of rest these are all good, like the birds and beasts of the fifth and sixth days; yet like those same creatures all capable of perversion, as the best things may be perverted, by the fall. We know that the fall has affected all gifts, -- that some of the best powers are become most devilish. So of these rivers some are now the streams of Egypt and Babel, instead of making glad the city and garden of the Lord. Euphrates, the great head or stream of reasoning, has become the channel of the strength and wealth of great Babylon; while Gihon, or the Nile, the channel of knowledge through the senses, is the river of Egypt, from which we are redeemed. But here they are seen pouring out their streams according to God’s purpose and to God’s glory. And if we can but reach the seventh day of rest, then again not only Pison and Hiddekel, but Gihon and Euphrates also, reasoning and sense as well as faith and intuition, all give their waters to the creature’s joy and to God’s glory. Then, to use the prophet’s words of a like day, "Israel shall be the third with Egypt and Assyria, whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance" (Isaiah 19:24-25). (Note: The Fathers, while holding the inward application of these four rivers, as representing certain powers or faculties of the soul, when it has reached the seventh day, (see Aug. de Gen. c. Manich, l. ii. c. 10, § 13; Ambros. de Par. c. 3, &c.) and connecting these with the fourfold sense of Scripture, i.e. its literal, inward, outward, and dispensational applications, which are apprehended by these faculties, (see Gloss. Ordin. in loco,) in a more outward application referred these four streams to the four Gospels, regarding each as one of the channels by which the living waters of Divine truth flowed forth into the world. (Aug. de Civit. l. xiii. c. 21.) In this application, if I err not, St. John is plainly Pison, "where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good." St. Luke, I think, is Gihon; St. Mark, Hiddekel; and St. Matthew, Euphrates. In the Epistles, also, we can trace these four rivers; in Paul’s arguments, Euphrates; in James’s moralising, Gihon; in Peter, Hiddekel; in John, Pison.) On this day we learn much of the "woman." Till the sixth day we saw no man or woman. Fruits may bud on the third or resurrection day, and yet nothing be seen of the "man" in God’s image; for he is not seen till the "dove" and "lamb" appear, that is, until the sixth day. Then we learn that the man is "male and female." Now on the day of rest we see her "taken out of him;" not from his thinking head or nervous arm, but from that region of the heart, where man is least man; where the heart’s throbs are felt, and the fount of life wells up, the conceded dwelling place of love and the affections. Thence came forth woman, the type in her very nature, as in her birthplace, of those affections; formed to yield to the man or understanding, as he to rule: the two, the understanding and will, making up the man created male and female. Now it is seen that there are two distinct lives in man, one of the intellect, the other of the affections, which, though now separate in the human mind, unite as far as may be, and by their union produce all those forms of life which grow in and out of man. By these do we commune with God; the understanding, as it is the image of God’s wisdom, being the vessel to receive His truth and wisdom; the will, as it reflects His love, to receive His goodness and love; the two together formed to bring forth spiritual fruit to God, and be the means of making known and working His mind and will in the lowest and outmost part of the creature. But the mysteries here cannot be spoken. This, however, is sure, that the divided life of the man and of the woman, full of blessing as it is, shall turn one day to a united life, which is "neither male nor female, but all one in Christ Jesus." These things are indeed unspeakable, but they are seen in measure when we reach the rest. (Note: On this subject the Fathers have written much. Ambrose, De Parad. c. 2, § 11, and c. 11, § 51. Augustine gives the same interpretation, only more fully, De Gen. c. Manichaeos, l. ii. c. 11, § 15. See also c. 13 of the same book regarding the woman. Gregory the Great gives the same interpretation, Moral. in Job, l. xxx. c. 16, § 54. As to the final union of these in Christ, see the following very remarkable passage from Clement of Rome, or rather from the epistle which goes under his name, Clem. Rom. 2 Ep. ad Corinth. ad fin. The same tradition Clement of Alexandria repeats, Strom. l. iii. c. 13.) The "trees," too, as seen upon this day, are wondrous. Trees were formed and seen upon the third day. But the clear perception of their varied ends, and of God’s will respecting them, is not discovered till this day. These trees, like all else wrought by God in the creature, represent some form or manifestation of the Divine Word or Wisdom, by the Word reproduced in us; their perishable nature, -- for both grass and wood are perishable, -- setting forth some gift or grace which is least enduring, as we know that both faith and knowledge shall vanish away (1 Corinthians 13:8). Here, when through grace we reach the seventh day, we learn to distinguish between the tree of life and knowledge, and to understand how the last, through misuse and disobedience, may become a means of death to us. Knowledge is not evil. The tree itself was good, and only evil through man’s weakness; like the law, (and indeed law is but knowledge,) which is "holy, just, and good," and yet "works condemnation" (Romans 7:7-13). But good as it is, let us take heed how we use it. Wisdom is the tree of life; -- "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her" (Proverbs 3:18); and he that eats of her shall live by her (John 6:57); but knowledge, even of divine things, may but reveal our nakedness. The day of rest will shew, not only that good gifts of God need ruling, but that some may only judge us more, if by them we think to be as gods in independence. (Note: Irenaeus, Contr. Hoer. l. v. c. 20, makes a very striking use of this against the Gnostics, whom he charges with preferring the tree of knowledge to the tree of life.) For higher gifts involve a deeper judgment, if they are not used aright.

I say no more, therefore, on this day, though each word here involves a mystery. He who sees the "rivers," and the "trees of Eden," and the "East," and the "keeping of the garden," and the "naming of the creatures," and the "woman for the man," will see yet more to fill him with adoring praise and wonder. For truth is throughout so closely connected, that one truth cannot be opened without opening with it many others. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him; but God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

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Such is the Work and Rest of God, in a soul or world the same story. It is the self-same work which is only set forth more fully in the seven great lives recorded in Genesis; the order of which accords with the steps of the work and rest of God in creation. Thus, the first day revealed the creature’s state, when light shone in, and shewed the earth’s voidness. So Adam is the first great life in Genesis, discovering what the creature is, out of which and in which God purposes to work such great marvels. What he lacks is not yet known, nor is there yet any understanding of what by grace can be brought forth out of him; but the darkness which his fall has wrought is seen under the light of the promise, which, while it lessens the darkness, reveals its gross unsightliness. The second day then gives a heaven to earth, an expanse into which the breath of heaven may come, and which it may fill as its own proper dwelling place, dividing the waters from the waters, shewing that some are salt and earthy, and some heavenly. So Cain and Abel are something more than the "old man." Two lives, of the flesh and spirit, as unlike each other as heaven and earth, are shewn by nature or by grace growing out of the root of old Adam. Then, the third day revealed a rising earth, with herb and fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind. And so the third great life, namely Noah’s, sets forth regeneration, in which the creature is brought to know something of the power of resurrection; delivered out of that which hitherto had precluded fruit, into a state of purer and higher blessing, where, the flood of waters being already passed, vines may be planted, and become very fruitful. After this, the fourth day’s work is lights; the sun and moon appear to rule the day, and still more to conquer darkness; as Abraham’s life, which is the fourth great stage, shines out, not with mere light, but with the lights of faith and charity, emitting rays like sun and moon, by which the light, which we have already received, is governed, and the remaining darkness overcome. Till on the fifth day comes life in the air and sea, the eagle-eye and gentle dove are now visible; answering to which is Isaac’s heavenly life, the fifth great form of life divinely given, in whose spirit of meekness and understanding the very grace itself is shewn which the dove and eagle of the fifth day are formed to represent, -- grace peculiar to the spirit of the Son, who is known as such when the Spirit "like a dove" descends and rests upon Him (Luke 3:22); and whose portrait, as drawn by the beloved Apostle John, has ever been distinguished from other manifestations of the same Life by the form and "face of an eagle." (Note: The fourth cherubic face, "as of an eagle," by the consent of all ages has been applied to St. John’s Gospel, as revealing Christ in the relationship of Son of God.) After which we reach the sixth day’s stage, with beasts from the earth, the sheep and oxen strong to labour; a hint of Jacob and all his long service, toiling for others, sighing to rule, yet not ruling; till at the close of this stage the man appears, the image of God, the first who is called to rule all things, like to Joseph, the last great life, the crowning work, the one who after many struggles knows both rest and glory. I do not attempt to explain all this. But light shews many a link, where the darkness of a less instructed eye only beholds discord. And the tale which to some is but an endless and entangled skein, to those who possess the clue, is full of unity as well as deepest wisdom. And I may add that as this work is fulfilled within, so is there also an accomplishment in the dispensations. In this application "one day is as a thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8). Six thousand years of labour precede the world’s Sabbath. The parallel here has been often traced. Thus the first day gave light to the dark and fallen world. So the light of the promise of the woman’s Seed is the great object which attracts us amid the deep gloom of the first thousand years. At this stage the waters (and in this view "the waters are peoples," Revelation 17:15,) are not only unquiet, but undivided. But the second day divides the waters, as we know the sons of God and the sons of men became distinct and divided during the second thousand years. After this, on the third day, the earth appears; something, firm and fruitful now is seen above the waters; just as Abraham and his seed were called out of the world to be as the fruitful earth amid the restless and fruitless nations. In this day we see the righteous grow like the palm-tree, and fruits of divers forms are borne to God’s glory. Then come lights upon the fourth day, the sun and moon and stars, divine gifts of government and prophecy, to be a light to all nations; a sun indeed one day to be turned to darkness, and the moon into blood. After which, on the fifth and sixth days, higher life appears, beasts, first in the seas, then upon the dry land; as in the fifth and sixth thousand years a form of life appeared on earth, unlike all that went before it; first, the beast from the sea, which St. John saw in his Revelation; and then, on the sixth day, the beast from the earth (Revelation 13:1; Revelation 13:11); and then the man to rule, the image of God on earth, to spend the blessed seventh day, the seventh thousand years, of rest in joy and heavenly blessedness. (Note: Augustine, in his First Book against the Manichees, goes very fully into this dispensational application, in chaps. xxii. and xxiii. § 33-41. Any reader who wishes to see how general this interpretation was in the early Church, will find a mass of quotations in Cotelerius’ Annotations on the General Epistle of Barnabas § 15, and in the Commentary of Corn. a Lapide, On the Pentateuch, on Genesis 2:1, p. 62.)

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Lo, these are a part of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of Him (Job 26:6-14).