Cur senarius numerus in Dei opere, septenarius in ejus requie commendetur.
The Perfection of Six in Creation
The number six is shown to be perfectly complete in its parts, and so it fittingly marks the six days of creation.
The number six, then, is seen to contain the greatest perfection. It is made up, surely, from all its own parts, and it doesn't go beyond them. Its parts are one, two, three. For if you ask, 'One — what fraction of six is it?' the answer is, a sixth. 'Two — what fraction?' the answer can be, a third. 'Three — what fraction?' the answer is, a half. Now within the number six there is no other number you could point to and ask what fraction of six it is. Therefore all the parts of six are one, two, three. Add these together, and you'll find neither more nor less than six. And so this number was preserved in the creation of the world, so that in the whole created order you would consider nothing superfluous, nothing imperfect.
The Sevenfold Number and God's Rest in Love
The number seven is linked to God's rest, which is understood as the mutual love of the Father and the Son, confirmed by scriptural testimony.
Furthermore, the sevenfold number is dedicated to God's rest. We have said that the rest of God is his love. And not without reason. The Father, he says, loves the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does (John 5). 5). And again: Just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love (John 15). 15). And the Father himself: This, he says, is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3).
The Holy Spirit as the Bond of Trinitarian Love
The mutual love of the Father and the Son is identified as the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial bond and shared rest of both.
iii). This mutual love and affection of the Father and the Son — this most tender embrace, this welcome clasping, this most blessed charity, in which the Father rests in the Son and the Son finds his repose in the Father — this, plainly, is the unshaken rest of them both: a pure peace, an eternal calm, an incomparable goodness, an indivisible love. This is the one thing they share; indeed, it is that in which each of them is one — sweet, delightful, joyful, holy — and it is this we call the Spirit. And so it is believed that this Spirit has rightly claimed this name as properly its own, because it is established as the one thing common to both. For since the Father and the Son are each Spirit, each holy, yet the one who belongs to both — namely, their love and the consubstantial unity of the two — is properly called the Holy Spirit.
Sevenfold Grace and the Spirit's Scriptural Witness
Because the one Holy Spirit bestows sevenfold grace, Scripture designates the Spirit with the number seven, and in this love God keeps an eternal Sabbath.
Although this Spirit is one, and one with the Father and the Son, yet on account of the sevenfold grace believed to flow forth from the fullness of that fountain, in the Scriptures it is designated by the septenary number. Hence also, according to Zechariah, seven eyes are seen upon one stone (Zach.✦ iii): and according to the Apocalypse, there are seven spirits before the throne of God (Apoc.✦ v). You see, then, how great is the excellence of that love in which the Creator and ruler of all things keeps an everlasting and ineffable Sabbath rest.
Read the original Latin
Senarius sane numerus perfectionem maximam continere videtur. Ex omnibus quippe suis partibus constat, nec eas excedit. Partes ejus sunt unum, duo, tria. Nam si quaeras, unum quota pars sit senarii, respondetur sexta; quota duo, responderi potest tertia; quota tria, respondetur media. Jam in senario nullus alius est numerus: de quo posset responderi, quota sit ejus. Omnes igitur partes senarii, unum, duo, tria. Haec conjunge, nec plus nec minus invenies quam sex. Is ergo numerus in mundi creatione servatus est, ut in universitate creaturae nihil superfluum, nihil aestimes imperfectum.
Porro septenarius numerus in Dei requie dedicatur. Requiem Dei ejus diximus charitatem. Nec immerito. Pater, inquit, diligit Filium; et omnia monstrat ei quae ipse facit (Joan. v). Et iterum: Sicut ego Patris mei mandata servavi, et maneo in ejus dilectione (Joan. xv). Et ipse Pater: Hic est, inquit, Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui (Matth.
iii). Haec mutua Patris Filiique, dilectio amor suavissimus, gratus complexus, charitas beatissima, qua Pater in Filio, Filius repausat in Patre: haec plane, haec utriusque imperturbabilis requies, sincera pax, aeterna tranquillitas, incomparabilis bonitas, charitas indivisibilis: hoc utriusque unum, imo in quo uterque unum, dulce, suave, jucundum, sanctum dicimus Spiritum: qui et idcirco creditur hoc sibi vocabulum proprie assumpsisse, quod esse constat utriusque commune. Nam cum Pater et Filius uterque sit Spiritus, uterque sanctus, hic tamen qui utriusque est, charitas scilicet et unitas consubstantialis amborum, proprie dicitur Spiritus sanctus. Qui licet sit unus, et cum Patre et Filio unum, propter septiformem tamen gratiam, quae ex illius fontis plenitudine creditur emanare, in Scripturis septenario numero designatur. Unde et in lapide uno, juxta Zachariam, septem cernuntur oculi (Zach. iii): et secundum Apocalypsin, septem sunt spiritus ante thronum Dei (Apoc. v). Vides ergo, quanta praestantia charitatis, in qua omnium Creator et rector perenne quoddam et ineffabile Sabbatum sabbatizat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Zech.3.9 — For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua—upon one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
- ↩Rev.1.4 — John, to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from the one who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne,
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
Reorder one love at a time, daily
Use the study map with the free Chosen Portion app's daily readings to work through Aelred at a sustainable pace.
Aelred wrote the Mirror as a rule for daily interior discipline in community, and Chosen Portion carries that discipline forward as a short ordered reading each day.
- All 3 books and 102 chapters mapped into 4 weekly themes with page-level pointers
- Aelred's choice-motion-fruit test, turned into a one-page self-examination worksheet
- 16 discussion questions ready for personal journaling or a 4-session small group