(56) Why did Abraham appear to hesitate about the promise, for the sacred writer says, He said in his mind, shall there be a son to one who is a hundred years old; and shall Sarra, who is ninety years old, bring forth a child? (#Ge 22:18). This expression, “he said in his mind,” is not added without an object or gratuitously, for words which are articulated in the tongue and the mouth incur guilt, and become liable to punishment, but those which are restrained within the mind are not liable to punishment, because the mind without any intention on its part is led away by irregularities, all kinds of passions being introduced from different quarters, which it for a while resists, being indignant at them, and wishing to keep aloof from their representations. But perhaps we should not say that he hesitated, but rather that he was struck by wonderment at the amazing nature of the gift, and so said, “Behold my body is advanced in years, and has passed the age of generation; nevertheless all things are possible to God, so that he may transmute old age into youth, and lead those who have no seed nor fruit to fertility and generation: and if a man who is a hundred years and a woman who is ninety years old become parents, all commonplace occurrences and all regularity of nature will be done away, and it will be clearly seen that it is only the power and the grace of God.”
But what virtue the number one hundred has must now be explained.
In the first place, a hundred is the power of the number ten.
In the second place, the number ten thousand is the power of this number a hundred, and ten thousand is the brother of the unit, for as one times one is one, so ten thousand times one is ten thousand.
In the third place, every part of the number a hundred is honourable.
In the fourth place, this number consists of thirty-six and sixty-four, which is a cube, and at the same time a triangle.
In the fifth place, it is composed of all these separate odd numbers: one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, nineteen, which added together make a hundred.
In the sixth place, it is composed of these four numbers: one and its double, and four and its double; as one, two, four, eight, which make fifteen, and of these four numbers also added together, one, four, fifteen, sixty-four, which make eightyfive. And the principle of doubling pervades all these numbers, containing that principle which is by fours and by fives: and the principle of four times and twice pervades them all.
In the seventh place, it is composed of five numbers taken simply, one, two, three, four, which make ten; and of five triangular numbers, one, three, six ten, which make twenty; and of five quadrangular numbers, one, four, nine, sixteen, which make thirty; and of five quinquangular numbers, one, five, twelve, twenty-two, which make forty: and all these added together make a hundred.
In the eighth place, it is composed of four cubes taken simply beginning with the unit, for after giving one, two, three, four, their cubes one, eight, twenty-seven, sixty-four, make a hundred.
In the ninth place, it is divided into forty and sixty, each of which is a very natural number; and in accordance with the first order of decimals up to ten thousand in a quinquangular figure the number a hundred holds the middle place; for instance: one, ten, a hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, where a hundred is the middle number of one, ten, a hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand.
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