And that the changes in the periods of life take place by sevens, the Elegies of Solon teach thus:--
"The child, while still an infant, in seven years,
Produces and puts forth its fence of teeth;
And when God seven years more completes,
He shows of puberty's approach the signs;
And in the third, the beard on growing cheek
With down o'erspreads the bloom of changing skin;
And in the fourth septenniad, at his best
In strength, of manliness he shows the signs;
And in the fifth, of marriage, now mature,
And of posterity, the man bethinks;
Nor does he yet desire vain works to see.
The seventh and eighth septenniads see him now
In mind and speech mature, till fifty years;
And in the ninth he still has vigour left,
But strength and body are for virtue great
Less than of yore; when, seven years more, God brings
To end, then not too soon may he submit to die."
Again, in diseases the seventh day is that of the crisis; and the fourteenth, in which nature struggles against the causes of the diseases. And a myriad such instances are adduced by Hermippus of Berytus, in his book On the Number Seven, regarding it as holy. [3465] And the blessed David delivers clearly to those who know the mystic account of seven and eight, praising thus: "Our years were exercised like a spider. The days of our years in them are seventy years; but if in strength, eighty years. And that will be to reign." [3466] That, then, we may be taught that the world was originated, and not suppose that God made it in time, prophecy adds: "This is the book of the generation: also of the things in them, when they were created in the day that God made heaven and earth." [3467] For the expression "when they were created" intimates an indefinite and dateless production. But the expression "in the day that God made," that is, in and by which God made "all things," and "without which not even one thing was made," points out the activity exerted by the Son. As David says, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice in it;" [3468] that is, in consequence of the knowledge [3469] imparted by Him, let us celebrate the divine festival; for the Word that throws light on things hidden, and by whom each created thing came into life and being, is called day.
And, in fine, the Decalogue, by the letter Iota, [3470] signifies the blessed name, presenting Jesus, who is the Word.
The Fifth Commandment.
Now the fifth in order is the command on the honour of father and mother. And it clearly announces God as Father and Lord. Wherefore also it calls those who know Him sons and gods. The Creator of the universe is their Lord and Father; and the mother is not, as some say, the essence from which we sprang, nor, as others teach, the Church, but the divine knowledge and wisdom, as Solomon says, when he terms wisdom "the mother of the just," and says that it is desirable for its own sake. And the knowledge of all, again, that is lovely and venerable, proceeds from God through the Son.
The Sixth Commandment.
Then follows the command about murder. Now murder is a sure destruction. He, then, that wishes to extirpate the true doctrine of God and of immortality, in order to introduce falsehood, alleging either that the universe is not under Providence, or that the world is uncreated, or affirming anything against true doctrine, is most pernicious.
The Seventh Commandment.
This is followed by the command respecting adultery. Now it is adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge, and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from, knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry, [3471] in following the prophet, who says: "[My people] hath committed fornication with stock and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me." [3472]
The Eighth Commandment.
And after this is the command respecting theft. As, then, he that steals what is another's, doing great wrong, rightly incurs ills suitable to his deserts; so also does he, who arrogates to himself divine works by the art of the statuary or the painter, and pronounces himself to be the maker of animals and plants. Likewise those, too, who mimic the true philosophy are thieves. Whether one be a husbandman or the father of a child, he is an agent in depositing seeds. But it is God who, ministering the growth and perfection of all things, brings the things produced to what is in accordance with their nature. But the most, in common also with the philosophers, attribute growth and changes to the stars as the primary cause, robbing the Father of the universe, as far as in them lies, of His tireless might.
The elements, however, and the stars--that is, the administrative powers--are ordained for the accomplishment of what is essential to the administration, and are influenced and moved by what is commanded to them, in the way in which the Word of the Lord leads, since it is the nature of the divine power to work all things secretly. He, accordingly, who alleges that he has conceived or made anything which pertains to creation, will suffer the punishment of his impious audacity.
The Tenth Commandment. [3473]
And the tenth is the command respecting all lusts. As, then, he who entertains unbecoming desires is called to account; in the same way he is not allowed to desire things false, or to suppose that, of created objects, those that are animate have power of themselves, and that inanimate things can at all save or hurt. And should one say that an antidote cannot heal or hemlock kill, he is unwittingly deceived. For none of these operates except one makes use of the plant and the drug; just as the axe does not without one to cut with it, or a saw without one sawing with it. And as they do not work by themselves, but have certain physical qualities which accomplish their proper work by the exertion of the artisan; so also, by the universal providence of God, through the medium of secondary causes, the operative power is propagated in succession to individual objects.
[3446] i.e., the Commandments.
[3447] For perfect wisdom, which is knowledge of things divine and human, which comprehends all that relates to the oversight of the flock of men, becomes, in reference to life, art (Instructor, book ii. chap. ii. [111]p. 244, supra).
[3448] Gal. v. 17.
[3449] The text reads entolais, which, however, Hervetus, Heinsius, and Sylburgius, all concur in changing to the accusative, as above.
[3450] Gal. v. 17.
[3451] Ex. xx. 2, 3.
[3452] i.e., commandment. The Decalogue is in Hebrew called "the ten words."
[3453] The text has tritos, but Sylburgius reads tetartos, the third being either omitted, or embraced in what is said of the second. The next mentioned is the fifth.
[3454] i.e., Christ. [And the first day, or the Christian Sabbath.]
[3455] [Barnabas, vol. i. chap. xv. p. 146, this series.]
[3456] meseuthus, mesos and euthus, between the even ones, applied by the Pythagoreans to 6, a half-way between 2 and 10, the first and the last even numbers of the dinary scale.
[3457] Luke xx. 35.
[3458] i.e., with the three disciples.
[3459] The numeral s = 6. This is said to be the Digamma in its original place in the alphabet, and afterwards used in mss. and old editions as a short form of st (Liddell and Scott's Lexicon).
[3460] That is, Christ, who answers to the numeral six.
[3461] Ps. xix. 1.
[3462] Rev. xxi. 6.
[3463] John i. 3.
[3464] [By Rabbinical tradition. But see Calmet, Dict. Bib., p. 78.]
[3465] [The honour put upon this number in the Holy Scriptures is obvious to all, and it seems to be wrought into nature by the author of Scripture. But see Dan. viii. 13, the original, and (Palmoni) Eng. margin.]
[3466] Ps. xc. 9, 10.
[3467] Gen. ii. 4.
[3468] Ps. cxviii. 24.
[3469] [1 Cor. v. 7.]
[3470] The first letter of the name of Jesus, and used as the sign of ten.
[3471] In close conjunction with idolatry, fornication is mentioned, Col. iii. 5, Gal. v. 20, 1 Pet. iv. 3.
[3472] Jer. ii. 27, iii. 9.
[3473] [The ninth is not altogether omitted, but is supposed to be included in the eighth. False testimony is theft of another's credit, or of another's truth. Migne, Strom., vi. 361. Elucidation X.]