the Lord gradually draws man out of his unregenerate state; and after leading him through many trials and temptations, through the spiritual wilderness, brings him at length into the heavenly Canaan,—a state of regeneration, which is the heaven of the soul here, and which will be heaven in fulness hereafter. And this state is what is signified by the Sabbath.
We thus see, that, in the internal sense, the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt represented the same thing as is signified by the six days of creation, namely, the regeneration of man. By that deliverance, also, in the supreme sense, is signified the Lord's great work of Redemption, which he accomplished while in the world. That redemption consisted in the Lord's overcoming the Powers of hell, and delivering men from their influence. This he effected by admitting into himself temptations from the hells, and conquering in those temptations. By this means, while he effected man's redemption, he also accomplished his own glorification. He cast out all the hereditary evils and infirmities of his own maternal humanity, and glorified it and made it Divine. Then had he internal rest and peace after his terrible combats in temptation, and he became himself the "Prince of peace." And this holy and Divine state of the Lord was represented, in the supreme sense, by the Sabbath. Hence we see the ground of the holiness of the Sabbath in the Jewish Church, namely, that it represented the highest and holiest things, the regeneration of man, the glorification of the Lord,—heaven itself.
