Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Ver. 8. Remember the Sabbath day.] He saith not, The seventh day from the creation, but the day of religious rest; such is now our Christian Sabbath, called a "Sabbath day" by our Saviour, Mat 24:20 who is "Lord of this Sabbath," called therefore the Lord's day, Rev 1:10 as one of our sacraments is called "the Lord's supper," 1Co 11:20 and "the table of the Lord," 1Co 10:21 because instituted by him. Pope Sylvester presumed to alter the Christian Sabbath, decreeing that Thursday should be kept through the whole year; because on that day Christ ascended, and on that instituted the blessed sacrament of his body and blood. a And generally Papists press the sanctification of the Sabbath as a mere human institution in religious worship; an ordinance of the Church; and do in their celebration more solemnly observe the festivals of the saints, than the Lord's Sabbaths, making it as Bacchus's orgies, &c., that, according to what their practice is, it may more fitly be styled, Dies daemoniacus quam Dominicus, the devil's day than God's.
To keep it holy.] Let every one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually, saith Ignatius, - μελετη β νομου χαιρων ου σωματος ανεσει, - rejoicing in the meditation of Christ's law, more than in the rest of our bodies. The ox and ass must rest; we must consecrate a rest: as God on the seventh day rested not from his works of preservation. Joh 5:17 See Trapp (for summary of Law) on " Exo 20:17 "
a Hospin, De Fest. Christ.
b Epist. 3, ad Magnesian.