Page:Suppressed Gospels and Epistles.djvu/139

 take thee by thy hand, and will strengthen thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people; for a light to the Gentiles. To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

22 Consider, therefore, from whence we have been redeemed. And again the prophet saith The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach glad tidings to the lowly; to heal the broken in heart; to preach remission to the captives, and give sight unto the blind; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of restitution; to comfort all that mourn.

That the sabbath of the Jews was but a figure of a more glorious sabbath to come, and their temple, of the spiritual temples of God.

FURTHERMORE it is written concerning the sabbath, in the Ten Commandments, which God spake in the mount Sinai to Moses, face to face: Sanctify the sabbath of the Lord with pure hands, and with a clean heart.

2 And elsewhere he saith; If thy children shall keep my Sabbaths, then will I put my mercy upon them.

3 And even in the beginning of the creation he makes mention of the sabbath. And God made in six days the works of his hands, and he finished them on the seventh day; and he rested the seventh day, and sanctified it.

4 Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this: that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end.

5 For with him one day is a thousand years; as himself testifieth, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall a all things be accomplished.

6 And what is that he saith, And he rested the seventh day he meaneth this: that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars; then he shall gloriously rest on that seventh day,

7 He adds, lastly: Thou shalt sanctify it with clean hands and a pure heart. Wherefore we are greatly deceived if we imagine that anyone can now sanctify that day which God has made holy, without having a heart pure in all things.

8 Behold, therefore, he will then truly sanctify it with blessed rest, when we (having received the righteous promise, when iniquity shall be no more, all things being renewed by the Lord) shall be able to sanctify it, being ourselves first made holy;

9 Lastly, he saith unto them Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot bear them. Consider what he means by it; the Sabbaths, says he, which ye now keep are not acceptable unto me, but those which I have made; when resting from all things I shall begin the eight day, that is, the beginning of the other world.

10 For which cause we observe the eight day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead; and having manifested himself to his disciples, ascended into heaven.

11 It remains yet that I