refore a man shall also recognise them as
holy things, be glad and thank God when they come upon him. For
when they come they make him holy, so that he fulfils this
Commandment and is saved, redeemed from all his sinful works.
Thus says David: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints." [Ps. 116:15]

In order to strengthen us thereto He has not only commanded us to
keep such a rest (for nature is very unwilling to die and to
suffer, and it is a bitter day of rest for it to cease from its
works and be dead); but He has also comforted us in the
Scriptures with many words and told us, Psalm xci, "I will be
with him in all his trouble, and will deliver him." [Ps. 91:15]
Likewise Psalm xxxiv: "The Lord is nigh unto all them that
suffer, and will help them." [Ps. 34:18]

As if this were not enough, He has given us a powerful, strong
example of it, His only, dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who on
the Sabbath lay in the tomb the entire day of rest, free from all
His works, and was the first to fulfil this Commandment, although
He needed it not for Himself, but only for our comfort, that we
also in all suffering and death should be quiet and have peace.
Since, as Christ was raised up after His rest and henceforth
lives only in God and God in Him, so also shall we by the death
of our Adam, which is perfectly accomplished only through natural
death and burial, be lifted up into God, that God may live and
work in us forever. Lo! these are the three parts of man: reason,
desire, aversion; in which all his works are done. These,
therefore, must be slain by these three exercises, God's
governance, our self-mortification, the hurt done to us by
others; and so they must spiritually rest before God, and give
Him room for His works.

[Sidenote: The Circle of the Three Commandments]

XXIV. But such works are to be done and such sufferings to be
endured in faith and in sure confidence of God's favor, in order
that, as has been said,[36] all works remain in the First
Commandment and in faith, and that faith, for the sake of which
all other commandments and works are ordained, exercise and
strengthen itself in them. See, therefore, what a pretty, golden
ring these three Commandments and their works naturally form, and
how from the First Commandment and faith the Second flows on to
the Third, and the Third in turn drives through the Second up
into the First. For the first work is to believe, to have a good
heart a