to hear the divine word: when they have thus learned the justifications of the Lord, they will be prompted to the faithful and willing observance of his holy Law. Hence the sanctification of the Sabbath is very of .en enforced in Scripture, as may be seen in Exodus, [1] Leviticus, [2] Deuteronomy, [3] and in the prophecies of Isaias, [4] Jeremiah, [5] and Ezekiel, [6] all of which contain this precept which commands the observance of the Sabbath. [7] Princes and magistrates are to be admonished and exhorted to lend the sanction and support of their authority to the pastors of the Church, particularly in upholding and extending the worship of God, and in commanding obedience to the spiritual injunctions of the pastor.
With regard to the exposition of this commandment, the faithful are to be carefully taught in what it accords with, and in what it differs from the others, in order that they may understand why Christians observe not the Sabbath, but the Lord's-day. The point of difference is evident: the other commandments of the Decalogue are precepts of the natural law, obligatory at all times and unalterable, and hence, after the abrogation of the Law of Moses, all the commandments contained in the two tables are observed by Christians, not however because their observance is commanded by Moses, but because they accord with the law of nature and are enforced by its dictate: whereas this commandment, if considered as to the time of its fulfilment, is not fixed and unalterable, but is susceptible of change, and belongs not to the moral but ceremonial Law. Neither is it a principle of the natural law: we are not instructed by the natural law to worship God on the Sabbath, rather than on any other day. The Sabbath was kept holy from the time of the liberation of the people of Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh: the obligation was to cease with the abrogation of the Jewish worship, of which it formed a part; and it therefore was no longer obligatory after the death of Christ. Having been, as it were, images which shadowed the light and the truth, these ceremonies were to disappear at the coming of that light and truth, which is Christ Jesus. Hence St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, when reproving the observers of the Mosaic rites, says: "you observe days and months and times and years; I am afraid of you lest perhaps I have laboured in vain amongst you;" [8] sentiments which are also to be found in his Epistle to the Colossians. [9] On the difference between this and the other commandments these observations will suffice.
As to their accordance, it consists not in rites and ceremonies, but in as much as this commandment, in common with the others, expresses a moral obligation, founded on the law of nature. The worship of God and the practice of religion,
- ↑ Exod. xvi. 20. 31.
- ↑ Lev. xvi. 19. 23. 26.
- ↑ Dent. v.
- ↑ Isa. lvi. 58. 66.
- ↑ Jerem. 17.
- ↑ Ezek. xx. 22, 23. 46.
- ↑ De procd. verb. Dei, vid. Trid. sess. 5. c. 2. vide et singulare hac de re libellum Caroli Borrom in actis Eccles. Mediol. vide etiarn acta eccles. Bononiens.
- ↑ Galat. iv. 10.
- ↑ Col. ii. 16.
