"Seek ye first the kingdom of the heavens and its righteousness, and all these things (which are recounted), shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

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Comparison of the kingdom of God:

1. With the human body from inmosts to outmosts; and therefore concerning that society wherein the Messiah is the Soul, and which shall form one body as one man.

2. With the kindred in the house of Abraham and Nahor.

3. With the land of Canaan and its bordering countries.

4. With the Paradise of Eden.

5. With a marriage and a feast.

[For the above comparisons, see:

(1) n. The Word Explained 596 seq.

(2) n. 567-568.

(3) n. 477 seq.

(4) n. 498 seq.,

(5) n. 586.]

Men are men only so far as they walk in the way of truth. But so far as they turn aside therefrom, they approach to the nature of a beast.

12. And on the seventh day he rested from, all the work which he had completed. Therefore he made the seventh day an auspicious and sacred day, because that in it he had rested from all the work which he had created and made. (3)

God rested from the work of creating the things which he had made or produced, but not from their conservation which is perpetual creation, just as subsistence is perpetual existence. Therefore it is said that God rested from all the work which he had created and made, or, according to Schmidius, which God had created by making. Creation, properly speaking, is that which is foreseen and provided for from eternity, or before the beginning of times; for effects, which are denoted by the words he made, are necessary consequences, since all effects are present in God, and thus are already created; but they are made in time. What therefore God rested from on the seventh day was the production of effects from nothing. It is also worthy of mention that the production of effects proceeded in order up to Adam, from whom all the things which had been created returned again to the Creator; for Adam was created and made in order that he might refer all things to God, and to God's glory. To him therefore was given a soul and a heavenly mind; and therefore on the seventh day he was to engage in holy worship of God, and this also for the sake of the conservation of all things.