Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/83

 signifies a spiritual state in which he was when in his visions: 'on the Lord's Day' signifies influx then received from the Lord, for in that day the Lord is present, because the day is holy." This passage alone is sufficient ground for members of the New Church accounting the Lord's Day holy, and observing it accordingly: but there are other passages which we shall proceed to adduce.

In the exposition of this Commandment, contained in the "Universal Theology," there are the following remarks in regard to keeping the Sabbath:—"'Remember the Sabbath-day that thou keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God.' By this," says the Doctrine of the New Church, "is meant, in the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, that six days are for man and his labors, and the seventh for the Lord, and for man's rest derived from Him. Sabbath, in the original tongue, signifies rest. The Sabbath, among the sons of Israel, was the sanctity of sanctities, because it represented the Lord; the six days represented his labors and combats with the hells; and the seventh represented his victory over them, and thus rest. And since that day was the representative of the close of the whole of the Lord's work of redemption, therefore it was holiness itself. But when the Lord came into the world, and thence the representatives of that day ceased, then that day was made a day of instruction in Divine things, and thus also a day of rest from labors, and of meditation on