told the palsied man to take up his bed and walk,—a thing which the Pharisees declared it was not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He also permitted his disciples to gather ears of corn and eat them on that day, and pronounced them "guiltless" in so doing.[1] "For," said he, "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath," by which was meant, says the Doctrine of the New Church, "that the Sabbath was representative of him;"[2] hence, that he was its Lord or Master; and implying also that now that He had come of whom the Sabbath was a mere representative, that representative was abolished.
Thus, then, the strict rules enjoined upon the Jews in regard to the observance of the Sabbath, are not applicable to Christians. Still an observance of the Sabbath is required. This Commandment is not abrogated. It is true, the day now observed by Christians is not the same with that of the Jewish Sabbath: that was on the seventh day of the week, and ours is on the first. The cause of the change was, that, in the place of observing the Jewish Sabbath, the early Christians were in the habit of meeting together to celebrate the day of the Lord's rising from the tomb, which was on the first day of the week. Hence we properly call the Sabbath the "Lord's Day," and so it is named in the Apocalypse:[3]—"I was in the spirit," says John, "on the Lord's Day." Our Author, in commenting on this passage, remarks, "The words, 'I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day,' signify a spiritual state at that time from Divine influx. 'I was in the spirit'
- ↑ Matt. xii. 7.
- ↑ True Christian Religion, n. 301.
- ↑ i. 10.
