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these two days should be kept as festivals; that every sabbath in the year, except one, should be kept, not as a fast, but with joy and gladness; and that servants should cease from labour, and resort to the church on that day. But the authority of the constitutions in regard to the customs of the first three centuries, is extremely small, as they are clearly pseudepigraphal, forged, as is most probable, in the latter part of the fourth, or the beginning of the fifth century.

The principal writers in the post-Nicene ages, to whom appeal has been made in proof of the ancient practice of keeping the seventh day sabbath, are Athanasius, Epiphanius, Basil, Cassian, Socrates, Sozomen, the council of Laodicea, and Theodore Balsamon. Of these the first declares, that "They met on the sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, for they regarded not false sabbaths, but to worship Jesus the Lord of the sabbath." Though here is an acknow

• Constitut. Apostol. lib. ii. cap. lix.; lib. v. cap. xv. xx.; lib. vii. cap. xxiii. xxxvi. : lib. viii. cap. xxxiii.

* Turner, Discourse on the pretended Apostolical Constitutions; 8vo. London, 1715; Dalæus, De Pseudepigraphis Apostolicis, 12mo. Hardevic, 1653; Lardner, Credibility, cap. lxxxv.; Cotelerius, Judicium de Const. Apostol.; Le Clerc, Diss. de Constit. Apostol. in ed Patrum Apost.; Jortin, Discourses on the Christian Religion, Disc. 6; and, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, Vol. i.

ledgment of religious assemblies on the sabbath day, yet the expressions themselves imply, that Athanasius did not consider it to be binding upon Christians; which is further confirmed by his immediately adding,-" With the ancients the sabbath was held in estimation, but the Lord hath transferred the sabbath day into the Lord's day. We do not derogate from the sabbath by our own authority; it is the prophet who hath rejected it, Isa. i. 13, &c." Epiphanius merely states that, "In some places religious assemblies were held on the sabbath days;" but as to how far the custom prevailed, and when it took its rise, he is altogether silent". Basil only says that the saturday was one of the days on which, in his time, the communion was administered; and Cassian, as cited by Bingham, is not free from ambiguity. The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates and Sozomen, supply more important testimonies. The former says, "The churches throughout the world celebrated the mysteries (i. e. the communion) every week, on the sabbath day, except those in Alexandria and Rome, which, following their ancient traditions, did not adopt that cus

a Homil. de Semente, vol. ii. p. 60, A. It is very doubtful whether this be the work of Athanasius.

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Epiphanius, Epitom. vol. ii. p. 1197, C.

Basil, Epist. 289; Cassian apud Bingham, Antiquities, lib. xiii. cap. ix. § 3.

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In speaking of the hebdomadal festival under the Christian law, it is not the usual language of the Fathers to call it the sabbath, but the Lord's day, or the first, and sometimes the eighth day of the week. They seem desirous, by the distinction of the names, to preserve the distinction between the two festivals. In numbering the days of the septenary cycle, they call saturday the sabbath, and sunday, generally, the Lord's day, by which they designated the day which was consecrated to his service from the apostolic age. By the sabbath they signified the Mosaic institution, which, it is acknowledged, is abolished by Christ. Sometimes, indeed, they used the appellation" sabbath," to denote the spiritual and mystical sabbath, typified by the Levitical sabbath, and which was most commonly regarded by them as a representation of the heavenly rest of the redeemed; though occasionally they treat it as adumbrative of the spiritual blessings under the reign of the Messiah. But they were careful not to confound the different appellations, which is another strong argument, that, whenever they speak disparagingly of the sabbath, they did it in reference to the Jewish ordinance of keeping the seventh day holy.

It may be objected to the testimony derived from the concurrence of antiquity, that, in the early ages of Christianity, the last day of the

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week; or saturday, was observed as a sabbath, together with the first day of the week, or sunday; and by consequence the authority of the primitive church cannot be pleaded in favour of the one more than of the other. This objection is the more imposing, as it confessedly has some foundation in truth". Next to the Lord's day some of the ancient Christians were careful to observe the seventh day, which was the Jewish sabbath; and in many parts, particularly in the East, honoured it with the public services of religion. This custom is accounted for by the learned Dr. Cave, from the circumstance: "The Gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews, they being generally the first converts to the Christian faith, they still maintained a mighty reverence for the Mosaic institutions, and especially for the sabbath, as that which had been appointed by God himself, (as the memorial of his rest from the work of creation,) settled by their great master Moses, and celebrated by their ancestors for so many ages, as the solemn day of

"Cave, Primitive Christianity, P. 1. cap. vii.; Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, lib. xx. cap. iii.; Heylyn, History of the Sabbath, P. 2. cap. ii.; Lardner, Credibility, cap. lxxxv.; Curcellæus, De Esu Sanguinis, cap. vi.; Albaspinæus, Observat. de Vet. Eccles. Ritibus, lib. i. cap. xiii. See also Böhmer, Diss. de Stato Christianorum Die.; and the Ecclesiastical historians.

their public worship, and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside. For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times, (as in others of the Jewish rites, so in this,) to indulge the humour of that people, and to keep the Sabbath as a day for religious offices." This valuable writer, and others named in the margin, further assert, that in the Oriental church the seventh day was kept as a festival, but in the Roman, and some of the Latin churches, as a fast; yet that in both it was singled out as a day for religious solemnization.

This, it is acknowledged, appears to cast a shade of doubt over the evidence of the ancient church. It does not, it is true, in the least shake the fact that the first day of the week was observed as a sacred festival by the primitive Christians; but if they likewise observed the seventh day, it cannot be inferred from their practice, whether one or both of these days were appointed by the immediate disciples of Christ. If, moreover, they were so far mistaken as to keep two days holy, for which there is no authority in the sacred Scriptures, they can scarcely be credible witnesses to the apostolical doctrine and practice. Such is the unavoidable inference, supposing that saturday and sunday were observed ás festivals universally in the ancient church; and it must be allowed to be more formidable than

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