The third commandment is, to keep the Sabbath holy.
The third and fourth commandments of the Decalogue contain things that
must be done, namely, that the Sabbath must be kept holy, and that
parents must be honored. The other commandments contain things that are
not to be done, namely, that other gods must not be worshipped; that the
name of God must not be profaned; that one must not steal, must not
commit adultery, must not bear false witness, must not covet the goods
of others. These two commandments are commandments to be done because
the sanctification of the rest of the commandments depends upon these,
for the "Sabbath" signifies the union in the Lord of the Divine itself
and the Divine Human, also His conjunction with heaven and the church,
and thus the marriage of good and truth in the man who is being
regenerated. This being the signification of the Sabbath, it was the
chief representative of all things of worship in the Israelitish Church,
as is evident in Jeremiah (xvii. 20-27), and elsewhere. It was the
chief representative of all things of worship, because the first thing
in all things of worship is the acknowledgment of the Divine in the
Lord's Human, for without that acknowledgment man can believe and do
only from self, and to believe from self is to believe falsities, and to
do from self is to do evils, as is also evident from the Lord's words in
John:
To those asking, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?"
Jesus said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom God
hath sent" (vi. 28, 29).
And in the same,
"He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for
apart from Me ye can do nothing" (xv. 5).
That the Sabbath represented that union and the holy acknowledgment of
it, has been fully shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that the
"Sabbath" signified in the highest sense the union of the Divine itself
and the Divine Human in the Lord, in the internal sense the conjunction
of the Lord's Human with heaven and with the church, in general the
conjunction of good and truth, thus the heavenly marriage (n. 8495,
10356, 10730). Therefore the rest on the Sabbath day signified the
state of that union, because the Lord then has rest; also through that
union there is peace and salvation in the heavens and on the earth. In
a relative sense it signified the conjunction of man with the Lord,
because man then has peace and salvation (n. 8494, 8510, 10360, 10367,
10370, 10374, 10668, 10730). The six days preceding the Sabbath
signified the labors and combats that precede union and conjunction (n.
8510, 8888, 9431, 10360, 10667). The man who is being regenerated is in
two states, the first when he is in truths and by means of truths is
being led to good and into good, the other when he is in good. When man
is in the first state he is in combats or temptations; but when he is in
the second state he is in the tranquillity of peace. The former state
is signified by the six days of labor that precede the Sabbath; and the
latter state is signified by the rest on the Sabbath day (n. 9274, 9431,
10360). The Lord also was in two states: the first when He was Divine
truth and from it fought against the hells and subjugated them, the
other when He was made Divine good by union with the very Divine in
Himself. The former state was signified in the highest sense by the six
days of labor, and the latter by the Sabbath (n. 10360). Because such
things were represented by the Sabbath, it was the chief representative
of worship, and the holiest of all (n. 10357, 10372). "To do work on
the Sabbath day" signified to be led not by the Lord but by self, thus
to be disjoined (n. 7893, 8495, 10360, 10362, 10365). The Sabbath day
is not now representative, but is a day of instruction (n. 10360 at the
end). (A.E., n. 965.)