Sabbath and Natural Law

[Usher] contended that the Sabbath law existed from the very beginning of creation, but it was also written down when God delivered the Law upon Sinai (juris Divini naturalis and juris Divini positivi). Ceremonial aspects were added to it because it became part of the whole economy of life delivered to the nation of Israel. The substance of the law— namely, the command to set apart one day in seven for worship— was and remains valid, but the ceremonial aspects that were relevant only to the nation of Israel were abolished with the coming of Christ. The fact that the Sabbath command was a law since creation means that it is still valid and binding upon humanity, again without the ceremonial aspects that were given only to Israel as the way to keep it.

 

Harrison Perkins, Catholicity and the Covenant of Works (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020), 57