such things as relate to salvation and eternal life, as also a day of love toward the neighbor."
In the Apocalypse Explained, in commenting on those words of John, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day," our Author thus speaks: "The Lord's Day is the day of the Sabbath; and the Sabbath, in the Ancient Churches, which were representative, was a most holy day of worship, by reason that it signified the union of the Divine and Human in the Lord, and hence, also, the conjunction of his Divine Humanity with heaven. But after the Lord united his Divine with his Human, then that holy representative ceased, and that day was made a day of instruction."[1]
Now, in these important passages we find a guide as to the manner in which the Day is to be kept in the Christian Church—in the New Church. It is here declared that by "the Lord's Day" is meant the Sabbath. Not, indeed (as before remarked), that the day we now observe, falls on the same day of the week as the Jewish Sabbath. But the particular day is of no consequence: the Institution is the same, but with the modification above given, that it is no longer merely a representative day, but a day of instruction. The command is, "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord thy God." Now, it matters not where you begin to reckon, whether from the first day of the week, or from the second, since the merely representative character of the day is abolished. It is enough that one day in seven is by Divine commandment to be devoted to the Lord,
- ↑ Ap. Ex., n. 54
