Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred…

§. 29 We may now look back, and take a view of what we have passed through. That one Day in seven is by virtue of a divine Law to be observed Holy unto the Lord, the original of such an observation, Gen. 2. 2. the Letter of the fourth Commandment, with the nature of the Covenant between God and man, do prove and evince. And hereunto is there a considerable suffrage given by learned men of all parties. The Doctrine of the Reformed Divines hereabouts hath been largely represented by others. They also of the Church of Rome, that is, many of them agree herein. It is asserted in the Canon Law it self. Tit. de Feriis cap. licet, where the words of Alexander the third are, Tam veteris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimum Diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputavit; where by septimus Dies he understands one Day in seven, as Suarez showeth, De Relig. lib. 2. cap. 2. And it is so by sundry Canonists reckoned up by Covarruvias. The Schoolmen also give in their consent, as Bannes in 2a. 2a. ⟨p. 393⟩g. 44. a. 1. Bellarmine contends expressly, decultsanct. lib. 3. cap. 11. that Jus divinum requirebat ut unus Dies Hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino. So doth Suarez, de dieb. sac. cap. 1. and others might be added. We have the like common consent, that whatever in the institution and observation of the Sabbath under the Old Testament was peculiar unto that state of the Church, either in its own nature, or in its use and signification, or in its manner of observance, is taken away by virtue of those Rules, Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16, 17. Nor can it be denied but that sundry things annexed unto the Sabbatical Rest, peculiar to that Church-state which was to be removed, were wholly inconsistent with the spirit, grace, and liberty of the Gospel. I have also proved, that the observation of the seventh Day precisely, was a pledge of Gods Rest in the Covenant of works, and of our Rest in him, and with him thereby; so that it cannot be retained without a re-introduction of that Covenant, and the Righteousness thereof. And therefore although the command for the observation of a Sabbath to the Lord, so far as it is moral is put over into the Rule of the new Covenant, wherein Grace is administered for the duty it requires;