Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/70

 seventh day, the state of regeneration is attained, we shall look up, humbly and thankfully acknowledging that it was the Lord alone who fought for us—that he is indeed the only Savior.

"But," continues the text, "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." As the six days of labor signify the states of combat which precede and lead to regeneration, so the seventh day signifies that state of regeneration itself, with its rest and peace: hence the seventh day is called the Sabbath, which as before said, signifies rest. While man is in the process of regeneration, he acts from truth, but after he has attained regeneration, he acts from good. The only way in which regeneration can be effected, is by man's learning truths from the Divine Word, and then applying them to life, by doing them; that is, by resisting in himself the evils which those truths forbid, and compelling himself to perform the duties which those truths enjoin. Now, this is a state of effort, striving, struggling; hence these are called days of labor. But every time that man compels himself to do a truth, that is, to act as that truth teaches or commands, or to resist the evil which that truth forbids, then the Lord casts something of evil out of man's heart, and in its place sends down the opposite good affection or inclination, and conjoins it to the truth which has been thus practised, and there results a conjunction of good and truth, and with it comes a heavenly peace—an interior joy of the spirit. This is the reward of a temptation overcome. This is a little seventh day, a temporary Sabbath, let in, as it