By this commandment, in the spiritual sense, the reformation and regeneration of man by the Lord is signified; the six days of labour signify his warfare against the flesh and its concupiscences, and at the same time against the evils and falsities that are in him from hell; and the seventh day signifies his conjunction with the Lord, and regeneration thereby. Man's reformation and regeneration are signified by this commandment, in the spiritual sense, because they coincide with the Lord's labours and conflicts with the hells, and with His victory over them, and the rest after victory; for the Lord reforms and regenerates man, and renders him spiritual, in the same manner that He glorified His Human and made it Divine.
In the celestial sense conjunction with the Lord is meant by this commandment, and then peace, because protection from hell; for rest is signified by the Sabbath, and in this highest sense, peace. (T. C. R. n. 301-303.)
The third and fourth commandments of the decalogue contain the things which are to be done: they enjoin that the Sabbath is to be kept holy, and that parents are to be honoured. The rest of the commandments contain what are not to be done; namely, that other gods are not to be worshipped, that the name of God is not to be profaned, that man is not to steal, nor to kill, nor to commit adulteries, nor to bear false witness, nor to covet the goods of others. The reason why these two commandments are to be done is that the keeping of the rest of the commandments depends upon them; for the Sabbath signifies the union of the very Divine and the Divine Human in the Lord, likewise His conjunction with heaven and the church, and therefore the marriage of good and truth with the man who is regenerated. Because the Sabbath signifies these things it was the chief representative of all things pertaining to worship in the Israelitish church; as is evident in Jer. xvii. 20-27, and elsewhere. The reason of its being the principal representative of all things pertaining to worship was, that the first of all things of worship is the acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord's Human; for without that acknowledgment man cannot believe and act except from himself; and to believe from himself is to believe falsities, and to act from himself is to do evils, as is evident from the words of the Lord Himself in John: "Then said they unto Him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus said, This is the work of God, that ye helieve on Him whom God hath sent" (vi. 28, 29); and again: "He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing" (xv. 3). (A. E. n. 965.)
