appropriated to God and exclusively separated from all profane uses is sanctified or holy. Hence the expression "to sanctify," "to choose for divine uses or for the worship of God," is often applied by Moses to the sacred vessels of the sanctuary.
It follows therefore from this passage, that if Adam had stood in his innocence and had not fallen he would yet have observed the "seventh day" as sanctified, holy and sacred; that is, he would have taught his children and posterity on that day concerning the will and worship of God; he would have praised God, he would have given him thanks, and would have brought to him his offerings, etc., etc. On the other days he would have tilled his land and attended to his cattle. Nay, even after the fall he held the "seventh day" sacred; that is, he taught on that day his own family. This is testified by the offerings made by his two sons, Cain and Abel. The Sabbath therefore has, from the beginning of the world, been set apart for the worship of God. In this manner nature in its innocency, had it continued unfallen, would have proclaimed the glory and blessings of God. Men would have talked together on the Sabbath day concerning the goodness of their Creator, would have prayed to him, and would have brought to him their offerings, etc. For all these things are implied and signified in the expression "sanctified."
Moreover in this same sanctification of the Sabbath is included and implied the immortality of the human race. Hence the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks most beautifully concerning the rest of God, from the 95th Ps.: "If they shall enter into my rest." For the rest of God is an eternal rest. Adam therefore, had he not fallen, would have lived a certain time in paradise, according to the length of time which God pleased; and afterwards he would have been carried away into that rest of God, which rest God willed not only to intimate unto man, but highly to commend unto him by this sanctification of the Sabbath. Thus had Adam not fallen his life would have been both animal and happy, and spiritual and eternal. But now we miserable men have lost all this felicity of the animal life by sin; and while we do live, we live in the midst of death. Yet since this command of God concerning the Sabbath is left to the Church, God signifies thereby that even that spiritual life shall be restored to us through Christ. Hence the prophets have all diligently searched into these passages, in which Moses obscurely indicates also the resurrection of the flesh and the life immortal.
Further by this sanctification of the Sabbath it is also plainly shown that man was especially created for the knowledge and worship of God. For the Sabbath was not instituted on account of sheep or oxen, but for the sake of men, that the knowledge of God might be exercised and increased by them on that sacred day. Although therefore man lost the knowledge of God by sin, yet God willed that his command concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the seventh day both the Word should be preached, and also those other parts of his worship performed, which he himself instituted; to the end that by these appointed means we should first of all think solemnly on our condition in the world as men; that this nature of ours was created at first expressly for the knowledge and the glorifying of God; and also that by these same sacred means we might hold fast in our minds the sure hope of a future and eternal life.
Indeed all things which God willed to be done on the Sabbath are evident signs of another life after this present life. For what need would there be of God's speaking to us by his Word, if we were not designed to live another and eternal life after this life? And if no future life is to be hoped for by us, why do we not live as those other creatures with whom God talketh not and who have no knowledge of God? But as the divine Majesty talketh with man alone, and he alone acknowledges and apprehends God, it necessarily follows that there is for us another life after this life, to which it is our great business to attain by the Word and the knowledge of God. For as to this temporal and present life it is a mere animal life as all the beasts live, which know not God nor the Word.
This then is the meaning of the Sabbath or the "rest" of God. It is a sanctified day of rest, on which God speaks to or talks with us, and we in turn speak to and talk with him in prayer and by faith. The beasts indeed learn to hear and also to understand the voice of man, as dogs, horses, sheep, oxen; and they are also preserved and fed by man. But our condition as men is far better and higher; for we both hear God and know his will, and are called to a sure hope of immortality. This is testified by those most manifest promises concerning the life eternal, which God has plainly revealed to us by his Word, since he gave to the world the obscure significations contained in this divine Book; such as this rest of God and this sanctification of the Sabbath. However these indications concerning the Sabbath are not obscure but evident and plain. For only suppose for a moment that there were no eternal life after this. Would it not immediately follow that we should have no need either of God or his Word? For that which we merely require or do in this life we can have and do without the Word of God. Even as beasts feed, live and grow fat without the Word. For what need is there of the Word to procure meat and drink, thus created for us beforehand?
As God therefore thus giveth us the Word, as he thus commands the preaching and exercising of the Word, as he thus commands the sanctifying of the Sabbath in the worship of himself, all these things prove that there remaineth another life after this life, and that man is created not to a corporeal life only, as the beasts are, but to a life eternal, even as God, who commands and institutes these things, is himself eternal.
But here another inquiry may arise concerning the fall of Adam itself, upon which indeed we have already touched: On what day Adam fell, whether on the seventh or on some other day? Although nothing indeed can be said as certain on this matter, my free and full opinion is that his fall was on the seventh day. It was on the sixth day that he was created. And Eve was created about the evening or close of the sixth day, while Adam was asleep. On the seventh day, which by the Lord had been sanctified, God talks with Adam, gives him commandment concerning his worship, and forbids him to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For this indeed was the appropriate work or duty of the seventh day: the preaching and the hearing of the Word of God. Hence both from the Scriptures and from universal practice, hath remained the custom of appointing the morning as the time for prayer and sermons; as we have it also in the Psalms: "In the morning will I stand before Thee, and will look up," Ps. 5:3.
On the seventh day therefore, in the morning, Adam appears to have heard the Lord giving commandment concerning his domestic and national duty, the private and public worship of God, together with the prohibition concerning the fruit of the tree. Satan therefore unable to endure this most beautiful creation of man and this holy appointment of the Sabbath, and envying him so much felicity, and moreover seeing all things so abundantly provided for him on earth, and finding him in the possession of the hope of enjoying, after so happy a corporeal life, an eternal life, which he himself had lost, Satan seeing all this about the twelfth hour, perhaps after God's sermon to Adam and Eve, himself preaches to Eve. Just as he has always done to this day. Wherever the Word of God is, there he attempts also to sow lies and heresies. For it agonizes him that we by the Word become as Adam did in paradise, citizens of heaven. So Satan on this occasion tempts Eve to sin, and gains the victory over her. The sacred text before us moreover declares that when the heat of the day had subsided, the Lord came into the garden and condemned Adam with all his posterity to death. I am myself quite persuaded that all these things took place on the very day of the Sabbath, which one day only, and that not for the whole day, Adam lived in paradise, and enjoyed himself in eating its fruits.
By sin therefore did man lose all this felicity. Nor would Adam, had he remained in paradise in all his original innocence, have lived a life of idleness. He would have taught his children on the Sabbath day, he would have magnified God with worthy high-praises by public preaching, and he would have stirred up himself and others to offerings of thanks, by a contemplation of God's great and glorious works. On all other days he would have worked by tilling his ground and attending to his beasts, etc. But in a manner and from motives now wholly unknown to man. For all our labor is annoyance, but all Adam's labor was the highest pleasure, a pleasure far exceeding all the ease that is now known. Hence as all the other calamities of life remind us of sin and the wrath of God, so our labor and all our difficulty in procuring food ought to remind us of sin also and to drive us to repentance.
Moses
