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Which are a shadow of things to come; which, as they were but obscurer representations or shadowy resemblances of future benefits procured by Christ, Heb_8:5 9:11 10:1, whatever temporary glory they had from the former institution, till the time of reformation, Heb_9:10, yet that was done away, and they now had none, in respect of the glory that excelleth and remaineth, 2Co_3:10,11. So that this doth no way gainsay the sacraments now of Christ’s own institution, which may be called figures and shadows, not of things future, of Christ not yet come, but as already exhibited, whom they manifest to the mind and faith to be present, to those who rightly partake of them: we cannot say he condemns all distinctions of meats and drinks, viz. bread and wine in the Lord’s supper; or of days; only the decrees and ordinances of Moses, or any other which the false teachers cried up, that were not after Christ.
But the body is of Christ; who is really the substance and antitype of all the Old Testament shadows, which have completion or accomplishment in him, Joh_1:17 Rom_10:4 Gal_4:10-12; as all the promises were in him yea and Amen, Dan_9:24 2Co_1:20; all was consummated in him, Joh_19:30, who came in the place of all the shadows. He is Lord of the sabbath, Mat_12:8, and therefore, having broken the devil’s head-plot by his propitiatory sacrifice, and entered into his rest, ceasing from his own works of redemption by price, as God did from his of creation, Heb_4:10, he did away {2Co_3:7,11} all that was typical and ceremonial of the old sabbath, (as other types of himself); keeping only that which was substantial, for a holy rest of one day in seven, and appointing that in commemoration of the Father’s work and his to be, from his resurrection, observed on the first day of the week, for the edification of his church; which he honoured by his appearance amongst his apostles on that day, and that day seven-night after, which proceeded originally from his instituting of that day (to prevent dissension) for public worship in Christian assemblies. Some have observed that the Jewish doctors did foresay: That the Divine Majesty would be to Israel in a jubilee, freedom, redemption, and finisher of sabbaths: and that four sabbaths did meet together and succeed each other at the death and the resurrection of Christ, viz.
1. The sabbatical year of jubilee, Luk_4:19.
2. The high sabbath, Joh_19:31.
3. The seventh-day sabbath, when his body rested in the grave.
4. The first day of the week, when he rose a victorious conqueror of the devil, and had all put in subjection to him, unto whom all the rest did refer, and therefore they were to disappear, upon his estating his people in a rest which the law could not; whereupon his people are obliged in public adoration and praise to commemorate him on the first day of the week, or the Lord’s day, to the end of the world, 1Co_16:1,2Ki_1:10.