The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2 · Chapter 8 · Commandment 4
The fourth Commaundement.
Remember that thou kepe holy the Sabbat day. Sixe dayes shalt thou worke and do all thy workes. But on the seuenth day is the Sabbat of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no worke. &c.
The end of this cōmaundement is, that we beyng dead to our owne affections & workes, should be busied in meditation of the kingdome of God, & to the same meditation should be exercised, by such meanes as he hath ordeyned. But bicause this cōmaundement hath a peculiar & seueral consideration frō the rest, therfore it must hauehave also a seuerall manner of exposition. The old writers vse to call it a shadowish commaundement, for yt it conteyneth the outward obseruation of the day, whiche by the comming of Christ was taken away with the other figures. Wherin I graunt they say truely, but they touche but half the matter. Wherfore we must fetche the exposition of it farther of. And (as I think) I hauehave marked y• there are three causes to be cōsidered, wherupō this cōmaundement consisteth. For first the heauenly lawmaker meant vnderunder the rest of the seuenth daye, to set out in figure to the people of Israel the spirituall rest, whereby the faithfull ought to …esse from their owne workes, that they might suffer God to worke in them. Secondarily, his wil was to hauehave one apointed daye, wherein they should mere together to heare the lawe, and execute the ceremonies, or at leest bestowe it peculiarly to the meditation of his workes: that by such callyng to remembrance, they might be exercised to godlinesse. Thirdly, he thought good to hauehave a day of rest graunted to seruants, and such as liued vnderunder the gouernement of other, wherin the… might hauehave some cessyng from their labour.
But we are many wayes taught, that the same shadoweng of the spiritual rest,Num. xiii.xxii. Ezec. xx.xxi. &. xxiii.xxxviii. Ier. xvii.xii. &. xxvii. Exod. xxxi xiii. &. xxxv.ii. Nehe. ix.xiiij. was the principal point in the Sabbat. For y• Lorde required the keping of no cōmaūdement in a maner more seuerely, than this: when his meaning is in the Prophetes to declare that al religiō is ouerthrowen, then he cōplaineth that his Sabbates are polluted, defiled, not kept, not sanctified: as though that pece of seruice beyng omitted, there remained no more wherin he might be honored. He did set forth the obseruing therof with hie praises. For whiche cause the faithful did among other oracles maruelously esteme the reuelyng of the Sabbat. For in Nehemiah thus spake the Leuites in a solemne cōuocation, Thou hast shewed to our fathers thy holy Sabbat, & hast geuen them the cōmaundementes & the ceremonies, & the law by the hand of Moses. You see howe it is had in singular estimation among al the cōmaundementes of the law. All whiche thinges do serue to set forth the dignitie of the misterie, which is very wel expressed by Moses and Ezechiel. Thus you hauehave in Exodus. See yt ye kepe my Sabbat day, bicause it is a token betwene me & you in your generations: that you maye know that I am the Lord that sanctifie you: kepe my Sabbat, for it is holy vntounto you. Let the children of Israell kepe the Sabbat and celebrate it in their generations, it is an euerlastyng couenāt betwene me & the children of Israel, and a perpetual token. Yet Ezechiel speaketh more at large.Ezec. xx.xij. But the summe therof cometh to this effect, that it is for a token wherby Israell should knowe that God is their sanctifier. If our sanctification be the mortifiyng of our owne will, then appereth a most apt relation of the outward signe with the inward thing it self: we must altogether rest, that God may worke in vsus: we must depart from our owne wil, we must resigne vp our heart, we must banish all lustes of the …esh.Hebr. iij.xiii. &. iiii.ix. Finally, we muste cesse from all the doynges of our owne witte, that we maye hauehave God workyng in vsus, that we maye reste in him, as the Apostle also teacheth.
This perpetual cessyng was represented to the Iewes, by the kepyng of one daye among seuen: whiche daye, to make it be obserued with greater deuotion, the Lord commaunded with his owne exāple. For it auaileth not a litle to stirre vp mans endeuour, that he maye know that he tendeth to the folowyng of his creatour. If any man searche for a secret signification in the number of seuen: For asmuch as that nomber is in the Scripture the nomber of perfection, it was not without cause chosen to signifie euerlastyng continuance. Wherwith this also agreeth that Moses in the day that he declared that the Lord did rest from his workes, maketh an ende of describyng the succeding of dayes & nightes. There maye be also brought an other probable note of the number that the Lord thereby meant to shewe that the Sabbat should neuer … perfectly ended, til it came to the last day. For in it we beginne our blessed rest, in it we doe dayly procede in profityng more and more. But bicause we hauehave still a continuall warre with the flesh, it shall not be ended vntill that sayeng of Esaye be fulfilled,Esa. lxvi.x…iij. concernyng the continuyng of newe Moone with newe moone, of Sabbat with Sabbat,i. Cor. xv.xxviij. euen the… when God shalbe all in all. It may seme therfore yt the Lord hath by the .vij. day set forth to his people the perfection to come of his Sabbat at the laste daye, that our whole lite might by cōtinuall meditation of the Sabbat, aspire to this perfection.
If any man mislyke this obseruation of the number as a matter to curious, I am not agaynst him▪ but that he maye more simply take it: that the Lorde ordeyned one certaine day, wherein his people might vnderunder the scholyng of the lawe bee exercised to the continuall meditation of the spirituall reste: And that he assigned the seuenth daye, eyther bycause he thought it sufficient, or that by settynge forth the liken…se of his owne example, he might the better moue the people to kepe it: or at leaste to put them in mynde that the Sabbat tended to no other ende, but that they should become like vntounto their Creatour. For it maketh small matter, so that the misterie remayne whiche is therein principally set forth, concernynge the perpetuall reste of ou… workes. To consideration whereof the Prophetes did nowe and th… call backe the Iewes, that they shoulde not thynke themselues … charged by carnall takyng of their rest. Bys…de the places alredy … leged, you hauehave thus in Esaye:Esa. …viii, xiii. If thou turne awaye thy …oote from the Sabbat, that thou doe not thine owne will in my holy daye, and shalt call the Sabbat delicate and holy of the glorious Lorde, and shalt glorifie him while thou doest not thyne owne wayes, and sek…st not thine owne will to speake the worde, then shalt thou be de…ted in the Lord, &c. But it is no doubte, that by the commyng of our Lord Christ, so muche as was ceremoniall herein, was abrugate. For he is the truthe, by whose presence all figures do vanish awaye: he is the bodie of sight, whereof the shadowes are leite. He, I s…ye, is the …rue fulfillyng of the Sabbat,Ro. vi.iiii we beyng buryed with hym by …pti…me, are grafted into the felowship of his death, that we beyng made partakers of the resurrection, we maye walke in newnesse o… life. Therfore in an other place the Apostle writeth, that the Sabbat was a shadowe of a thing to come: and that the true bodie, that is to saye, the perfect substance of truthe is in Christ,Coloss. ii.xvi. &. xvii, whiche in the same place he hath well declared. That is not cōteyned in one day, but in the whole course of our life, vntill that we beyng vtterly dead to our selues, be filled with the life of God. Therefore superstitious obseruing of daies ought to be far from Christians.
But for asmuche as the two later causes ought not to be reckened among the olde shadowes, but doe belong a like to all ages: sins the Sabbat is abrogate, yet this hath still place with vsus, that we should mere at apointed dayes to the hearyng of the worde, to the breakyng of the misticall bread, and to publike prayer: & then, that to seruaūtes and labore…s be graunted their rest from their labour. It is out of doubt that in commaundyng the Sabbat the Lord had care of bothe th… thinges. The first of them hath suf…ic…ent testimonie by the only vse of the Iewes to proue it. The second, Moses spake of in Deuteronomie in these wordes:… that thy man seruant and thy mayde seruāt maye reste as well as thou: remember that thou thy selfe didst serue in Egypt.… Againe in Exodus: that thy Oxe and thy Asse maye rest, and the sonne of thy bo…d…woman maye take breath. Who can denie that bothe these thinges do serue for vsus aswell as for the Iewes? Me…ges at the church, are commaunded vsus by the word of God▪ and the necessitie of them is susficiently knowen in the very experience of life. … they be certainely appointed and hauehave their ordinarie daies, … can they be kept?… …or. xiiij.xl. All thinges by the sentence of the Apostle are to be done comly and in order among vsus. But so farre is it of, that cō …esse and order can be kepte without this policie and moderation, that there is at hand present trouble and ruine of the church, if it bee dissolued. Now if the same necessitie be among vsus, for relete whereof the Lord apointed the Sabbat to the Iewes: let no man saye that it belongeth nothyng vntounto vsus. For our moste prouident and tender father, willed no lesse to prouide for our necessitie than for the Iewes. …ut thou wilt saye, why do we not rather dayly mete together, that the difference of dayes maye be taken awaye? I would to God, that w…re graunted, and truely spirituall wisedome was a thynge worthy to hauehave dayly a pece of the time cut out for it. But yf it can not be obteined of the weakenesse of many to hauehave dayly metinges, and the rule of charitie doth not suffer vsus to exact more of them, why should we not … the order whiche we see layed vponupon vsus by the will of God?
I am compelled here to be somwhat long, bicause at this day many vnquiet spirites do rayse trouble, concernyng the Sondaye. They crie out that the Christian people are nourished in Iewishnesse, bicause they kepe some obseruation of dayes. But I answere, that we kepe those dayes without any Iewishnesse, bicause we do in this behalfe far differ from the Iewes. For we kepe it not with streight religion as a ceremonie, wherein we thinke a spirituall misterie to be …i…ured▪ but we reteine it as a necessarie remedie to the kepyng of order in the church.Coloss. ij.…iii. But Paul teacheth that in kepyng thereof they are not to be iudged Christians, because it is a shadow of a thing to come. Therefore he feared that he had labored in vayne amonge the Galathians bycause they did still obserue dayes.Gal. iiij.…. And to the Romanes he a…meth that it is superstition if any man do make differēce betwene daye and daye.… But whoe, sa…yng these mad men only dothe not see, of what obseruyng the Apostle meaneth? For they had no regarde to this political ende and the order of the church, but wheras they kept them still as shadowes of spirituall thinges, they did euen so muche darken the glory of Christ and the light of the Gospell. They did not therfore cesse from handy workes, bicause they were thinges that dyd call them away from holy studies and meditations, but for a certayne religion, that in cessinge from worke thei did dreame that thei still kept their misteries of olde time deliuered them. The Apostle, I saie, inueyeth against this disordered difference of daies, & not againste the lawefull choice of daies that serueth for the quietnesse of Christian feloweship, for in the Churches that he himselfe did ordeine, the Sabbat was kept to this vse. For he appoynteth the Corynthians the same daye,i. Cor. xvj ij. wherin thei shoulde gather the collection to releue the brothren at Hierusalem. If they feare superstition, there was more danger thereof in the feaste dayes of the Iewes, than in the Sundayes that the Christians nowe hauehave. For, so as was expediente for the ouerthrowinge of superstition, the daie that the Iewes religiouslye obserued is taken awaie: and, so as was necessarie for keepinge of comclinesse, ordre, and quiet in the Churche, an other daye was appoynted for the same vse.
Albeit the olde fathers hauehave not without reason of their choise, put in place of the Sabbat daie the daie that we call Sundaie. For whereas in the Resurrection of the Lorde is the ende and fullfyllinge of that reste, whereof the olde Sabbat was a shadowe: the Christians are by the very same daye that made an ende of shadowes, put in mynde that thei shoulde no longer sticke vntounto the shadowishe ceremonie. But yet I do not so reste vponupon the numbre of seuen, yt I wolde binde the Churche to the bondage thereof. Neither wil I condemne those Churches, that hauehave other solemne dayes for their meetinges, so that thei be withoute superstition, whiche shall bee, if thei be onelyonly applyed to the oseruation of Discipline and well appoynted ordre. Let the summe hereof be thys as ye trueth was geuen to ye Iewes vnderunder a figure, so is it deliuered vsus without any shadowes at all. Firste that in all oure life longe we sholde be in meditation of a continuall Sabbat or rest from oure owne workes, that the Lorde may worke in vsus by his spirit:Hist. trip. lib. 9. c. 38 then that eueryevery man priuately so ofte as he hath leysure, shoulde diligently exercise himselfe in godly calling to minde the workes of God, and also that we al sholde keepe the lawefull ordre of the Churche appoynted, for the hearinge of the woorde, for the ministration of the Sacramentes and for publike prayer: thirdely that we shoulde not vngently oppresse them that bee vnderunder vsus. And so do the trifelynges of the false prophetes vanish awaie that in the ages paste hauehave infected the people wyth a Iewyshe opinion, that so muche as was ceremoniall in this commanudement is take away, whiche thei in their tongue call the appoyntinge of the seuenth daye, but that so muche as is morall remayneth, whiche is the keeping of one daie in the weke. But that is nothinge ells in effect, than for reproche of the Iewes to change the daye, and to keepe still the same holinesse in their minde. For there still remaineth wyth vsus the lyke signification of mysterie in the daies as was amonge the Iewes. And truely we see what good thei hauehave done by such doctrine. For thei that cleaue to their constitutions, do by theise as muche as exceede the Iewes in grosse and carnall superstition of Sabbat: so that the rebukinge that are readde in Isaie,Esa. i.xiii. & lviij.xiij. do no lesse fittly serue for them at these dayes, than for those that the Prophete reproued in hys tyme. Butte this generall doctrine is principally to be kept, that leaste religion shoulde fall awaie or waxe faint among vsus, holy meetinges are to be diligently kept, and those outwarde helpes are to be vsed that are profitable for to nourishe the worshippinge of God.