1 Objection 1: It would seem that God did not rest on the seventh day from all His work. For it is said Jn. 5, 17), My Father worketh until now, and I work. God, then, did not rest on the seventh day from all His work.
1 Ad secundum sic proceditur. Videtur quod Deus septima die non requievit ab omni suo opere. Dicitur enim Ioan. V, pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor. Non ergo septima die requievit ab omni opere.
2 Objection 2: Further, rest is opposed to movement, or to labor, which movement causes. But, as God produced His work without movement and without labor, He cannot be said to have rested on the seventh day from His work.
2 Praeterea, requies motui opponitur; vel labori qui interdum causatur ex motu. Sed Deus immobiliter, et absque labore sua opera produxit. Non ergo dicendum est septima die a suo opere requievisse.
3 Objection 3: Further, should it be said that God rested on the seventh day by causing man to rest; against this it may be argued that rest is set down in contradistinction to His work; now the words God created or made this thing or the other cannot be explained to mean that He made man create or make these things. Therefore the resting of God cannot be explained as His making man to rest.
3 Si dicatur quod Deus requievit die septima quia fecit hominem requiescere, contra, requies contraponitur eius operationi. Sed quod dicitur, Deus creavit vel fecit hoc vel illud, non exponitur quod Deus hominem fecit creare aut facere. Ergo nec convenienter exponi potest, ut dicatur Deus requievisse, quia fecit hominem requiescere.
4 On the contrary, It is said Gn. 2, 2): God rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.
4 Sed contra est quod dicitur Gen. II, requievit Deus die septimo ab omni opere quod patrarat.
5 I answer that, Rest is, properly speaking, opposed to movement, and consequently to the labor that arises from movement. But although movement, strictly speaking, is a quality of bodies, yet the word is applied also to spiritual things, and in a twofold sense. On the one hand, every operation may be called a movement, and thus the Divine goodness is said to move and go forth to its object, in communicating itself to that object, as Dionysius says Div. Nom.
ii). On the other hand, the desire that tends to an object outside itself, is said to move towards it. Hence rest is taken in two senses, in one sense meaning a cessation from work, in the other, the satisfying of desire. Now, in either sense God is said to have rested on the seventh day. First, because He ceased from creating new creatures on that day, for, as said above Article 1, ad 3), He made nothing afterwards that had not existed previously, in some degree, in the first works; secondly, because He Himself had no need of the things that He had made, but was happy in the fruition of Himself.
Hence, when all things were made He is not said to have rested in His works, as though needing them for His own happiness, but to have rested from them, as in fact resting in Himself, as He suffices for Himself and fulfils His own desire. And even though from all eternity He rested in Himself, yet the rest in Himself, which He took after He had finished His works, is that rest which belongs to the seventh day. And this, says Augustine, is the meaning of God's resting from His works on that day Gen. ad lit. iv).
5 Respondeo dicendum quod quies proprie opponitur motui; et per consequens labori, qui ex motu consurgit. Quamvis autem motus proprie acceptus sit corporum, tamen nomen motus etiam ad spiritualia derivatur dupliciter. Uno modo, secundum quod omnis operatio motus dicitur, sic enim et divina bonitas quodammodo movetur et procedit in res, secundum quod se eis communicat, ut Dionysius dicit, II cap. de Div. Nom. Alio modo, desiderium in aliud tendens quidam motus dicitur. Unde et requies dupliciter accipitur, uno modo, pro cessatione ab operibus; alio modo, pro impletione desiderii. Et utroque modo dicitur Deus requievisse die septima. Primo quidem, quia die septima cessavit novas creaturas condere, nihil enim postea fecit, quod non aliquo modo praecesserit in primis operibus, ut dictum est. Alio modo, secundum quod rebus conditis ipse non indigebat, sed seipso fruendo beatus est. Unde post conditionem omnium operum, non dicitur quod in suis operibus requievit, quasi eis ad suam beatitudinem indigens, sed ab eis requievit, utique in seipso, quia ipse sufficit sibi et implet desiderium suum. Et quamvis ab aeterno in seipso requieverit, tamen quod post opera condita in seipso requievit, hoc pertinet ad septimum diem. Et hoc est ab operibus requiescere, ut Augustinus dicit, super Gen. ad Litt.
6 Reply to Objection 1: God indeed worketh until now by preserving and providing for the creatures He has made, but not by the making of new ones.
6 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod Deus usque modo operatur, conservando et administrando creaturam conditam, non autem novam creaturam condendo.
7 Reply to Objection 2: Rest is here not opposed to labor or to movement, but to the production of new creatures, and to the desire tending to an external object.
7 Ad secundum dicendum quod requies non opponitur labori sive motui, sed productioni novarum rerum, et desiderio in aliud tendenti, ut dictum est.
8 Reply to Objection 3: Even as God rests in Himself alone and is happy in the enjoyment of Himself, so our own sole happiness lies in the enjoyment of God. Thus, also, He makes us find rest in Himself, both from His works and our own. It is not, then, unreasonable to say that God rested in giving rest to us. Still, this explanation must not be set down as the only one, and the other is the first and principal explanation.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod, sicut Deus in solo se requiescit, et se fruendo beatus est; ita et nos per solam Dei fruitionem beati efficimur. Et sic etiam facit nos a suis et nostris operibus in seipso requiescere. Est ergo conveniens expositio, ut dicatur Deus requievisse, quia nos requiescere facit. Sed non est haec sola ponenda, sed alia expositio est principalior et prior.