ORIGIN OF FIRST-DAY OBSERVANCE.
Sunday a heathen festival from remote antiquity—Origin of the
name—Reasons which induced the leaders of the church to adopt
this festival—It was the day generally observed by the Gentiles
in the first centuries of the Christian era—To have taken a
different day would have been exceedingly inconvenient—They
hoped to facilitate the conversion of the Gentiles by keeping
the same day that they observed—Three voluntary weekly
festivals in the church in memory of the Redeemer—Sunday soon
elevated above the other two—Justin Martyr—Sunday observance
first found in the church of Rome—Irenæus—First act of papal
usurpation was in behalf of Sunday—Tertullian—Earliest trace of
abstinence from labor on Sunday—General statement of facts—The
Roman church made its first great attack upon the Sabbath by
turning it into a fast.
The festival of Sunday is more ancient than the Christian religion, its
origin being lost in remote antiquity. It did not originate, however,
from any divine command nor from piety toward God: on the contrary, it
was set apart as a sacred day by the heathen world in honor of their
chief god, the sun. It is from this fact that the first day of the week
has obtained the name of Sunday, a name by which it is known in many
languages. Webster thus defines the word:—
“Sunday; so called because this day was anciently dedicated
to the sun or to its worship. The first day of the week; the
Christian Sabbath; a day consecrated to rest from secular
employments, and to religious worship; the Lord’s day.”
And Worcester, in his large dictionary, uses similar language:—
“Sunday; so named because anciently dedicated to the sun or to
its worship. The first day of the week; the Christian Sabbath,
consecrated to rest from labor and to religious worship; the
Lord’s day.”
These lexicographers call Sunday the Christian Sabbath, etc., because
in the general theological literature of our language, it is thus
designated, though never thus in the Bible. Lexicographers do not
undertake to settle theological questions, but simply to define terms as
currently used in a particular language. Though all the other days of the
week have heathen names, Sunday alone was a conspicuous heathen festival
in the days of the early church. The _North British Review_, in a labored
attempt to justify the observance of Sunday by the Christian world,
styles that day, “THE WILD SOLAR HOLIDAY [_i. e._, festival in honor of
the sun] OF ALL PAGAN TIMES.”[534]
Verstegan says:—
“The most ancient Germans being pagans, and having appropriated
their first day of the week to the peculiar adoration of the
sun, whereof that day doth yet in our English tongue retain the
name of Sunday, and appropriated the next day unto it unto the
especial adoration of the moon, whereof it yet retaineth with
us, the name of Monday; they ordained the next day to these
most heavenly planets to the particular adoration of their
great reputed god, Tuisco, whereof we do yet retain in our
language the name of Tuesday.”[535]
The same author thus speaks concerning the idols of our Saxon ancestors:—
“Of these, though they had many, yet seven among the rest they
especially appropriated unto the seven days of the week....
Unto the day dedicated unto the especial adoration of the idol
of the sun, they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say
the sun’s day or the day of the sun. This idol was placed in
a temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they
believed that the sun in the firmament did with or in this idol
correspond and co-operate.”[536]
Jennings makes this adoration of the sun more ancient than the
deliverance of Israel from Egypt. For, in speaking of the time of that
deliverance, he speaks of the Gentiles as,
“The idolatrous nations who in honor to their chief god, the
sun, began their day at his rising.”[537]
He represents them also as setting apart Sunday in honor of the same
object of adoration:—
“The day which the heathens in general consecrated to the
worship and honor of their chief god, the sun, which, according
to our computation, was the first day of the week.”[538]
The _North British Review_ thus defends the introduction of this ancient
heathen festival into the Christian church:—
“That very day was the Sunday of their heathen neighbors and
respective countrymen; and patriotism gladly united with
expediency in making it at once their Lord’s day and their
Sabbath.... If the authority of the church is to be ignored
altogether by Protestants, there is no matter; because
opportunity and common expediency are surely argument enough
for so ceremonial a change as the mere day of the week for
the observance of the rest and holy convocation of the Jewish
Sabbath. That primitive church, in fact, was shut up to the
adoption of the Sunday, until it became established and
supreme, when it was too late to make another alteration;
and it was no irreverent nor undelightful thing to adopt it,
inasmuch as the first day of the week was their own high day at
any rate; so that their compliance and civility were rewarded
by the redoubled sanctity of their quiet festival.”[539]
It would seem that something more potent than “patriotism” and
“expediency” would be requisite to transform this heathen festival into
the Christian Sabbath, or even to justify its introduction into the
Christian church. A further statement of the reasons which prompted its
introduction, and a brief notice of the earlier steps toward transforming
it into a Christian institution, will occupy the remainder of this
chapter. Chafie, a clergyman of the English Church, in 1652, published a
work in vindication of first-day observance, entitled, “The Seventh-day
Sabbath.” After showing the general observance of Sunday by the heathen
world in the early ages of the church, Chafie thus states the reasons
which forbid the Christians attempting to keep any other day:—
“1. Because of the contempt, scorn, and derision they thereby
should be had in, among all the Gentiles with whom they
lived.... How grievous would be their taunts and reproaches
against the poor Christians living with them and under their
power for their new set sacred day, had the Christians chosen
any other than the Sunday.... 2. Most Christians then were
either servants or of the poorer sort of people; and the
Gentiles, most probably, would not give their servants liberty
to cease from working on any other set day constantly, except
on their Sunday.... 3. Because had they assayed such a change
it would have been but labor in vain; ... they could never have
brought it to pass.”[540]
Thus it is seen that at the time when the early church began to
apostatize from God and to foster in its bosom human ordinances, the
heathen world—as they had long done—very generally observed the first day
of the week in honor of the sun. Many of the early fathers of the church
had been heathen philosophers. Unfortunately they brought with them into
the church many of their old notions and principles. Particularly did
it occur to them that by uniting with the heathen in the day of weekly
celebration they should greatly facilitate their conversion. The reasons
which induced the church to adopt the ancient festival of the heathen as
something made ready to hand, are thus stated by Morer:—
“It is not to be denied but we borrow the name of this day
from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and we allow that the old
Egyptians worshiped the sun, and as a standing _memorial_ of
their veneration, dedicated this day to him. And we find by the
influence of their examples, _other_ nations, and among them
the Jews themselves, doing him homage;[541] yet these abuses
did not hinder the fathers of the Christian church simply to
repeal, or altogether lay by, the day or its name, but only to
sanctify and improve both, as they did also the pagan temples
polluted before with idolatrous services, and other instances
wherein those good men were always tender to work any other
change than what was evidently necessary, and in such things
as were plainly inconsistent with the Christian religion; so
that Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored
that planet, and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on
that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body
(as they conceived it), the Christians thought fit to keep the
same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear
causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion
of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be
otherwise taken against the gospel.”[542]
In the time of Justin Martyr, Sunday was a weekly festival, widely
celebrated by the heathen in honor of their god, the sun. And so, in
presenting to the heathen emperor of Rome an “Apology” for his brethren,
Justin takes care to tell him thrice that the Christians held their
assemblies on this day of general observance.[543] Sunday therefore makes
its first appearance in the Christian church as an institution identical
in time with the weekly festival of the heathen, and Justin, who first
mentions this festival, had been a heathen philosopher. Sixty years
later, Tertullian acknowledges that it was not without an appearance of
truth that men declared the sun to be the god of the Christians. But he
answered that though they worshiped toward the east like the heathen,
and devoted Sunday to rejoicing, it was for a reason far different from
sun-worship.[544] And on another occasion, in defending his brethren
from the charge of sun-worship, he acknowledges that these acts, prayer
toward the east, and making Sunday a day of festivity, did give men a
chance to think the sun was the God of the Christians.[545] Tertullian is
therefore a witness to the fact that Sunday was a heathen festival when
it obtained a foothold in the Christian church, and that the Christians,
in consequence of observing it, were taunted with being sun-worshipers.
It is remarkable that in his replies he never claims for their observance
any divine precept or apostolic example. His principal point was that
they had as good a right to do it as the heathen had. One hundred and
twenty one years after Tertullian, Constantine, while yet a heathen, put
forth his famous edict in behalf of the heathen festival of the sun,
which day he pronounced “venerable.” And this heathen law caused the
day to be observed everywhere throughout the Roman Empire, and firmly
established it both in Church and State. It is certain, therefore, that
at the time of its entrance into the Christian church, Sunday was an
ancient weekly festival of the heathen world.
That this heathen festival was upon the day of Christ’s resurrection
doubtless powerfully contributed to aid “patriotism” and “expediency” in
transforming it into the Lord’s day or Christian Sabbath. For, with pious
motives, as we may reasonably conclude, the professed people of God early
paid a voluntary regard to several days, memorable in the history of the
Redeemer. Mosheim, whose testimony in behalf of Sunday has been presented
already, uses the following language relative to the crucifixion day:—
“It is also probable that Friday, the day of Christ’s
crucifixion, was early distinguished by particular honors from
the other days of the week.”[546]
And of the second century, he says:—
“Many also observed the fourth day of the week, on which
Christ was betrayed; and the sixth, which was the day of his
crucifixion.”[547]
Dr. Peter Heylyn says of those who chose Sunday:—
“Because our Saviour rose that day from amongst the dead, so
chose they Friday for another, by reason of our Saviour’s
passion; and Wednesday on the which he had been betrayed: the
Saturday, or ancient Sabbath, being meanwhile retained in the
eastern churches.”[548]
Of the comparative sacredness of these three voluntary festivals, the
same writer testifies:—
“If we consider either the preaching of the word, the
ministration of the sacraments, or the public prayers: the
Sunday in the eastern churches had no great prerogative above
other days, especially above the Wednesday and the Friday, save
that the meetings were more solemn, and the concourse of people
greater than at other times, as is most likely.”[549]
And besides these three weekly festivals, there were also two annual
festivals of great sacredness. These were the Passover and the Pentecost.
And it is worthy of special notice that although the Sunday festival can
be traced no higher in the church than Justin Martyr, A. D. 140, the
Passover can be traced to a man who claimed to have received it from
the apostles. See chapter thirteen. Among these festivals, considered
simply as voluntary memorials of the Redeemer, Sunday had very little
pre-eminence. For it is well stated by Heylyn:—
“Take which you will, either the fathers or the moderns, and
we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any apostolical
mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of
the week.”[550]
Domville bears the following testimony, which is worthy of lasting
remembrance:—
“Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries
attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or
to his apostles.”[551]
“Patriotism” and “expediency,” however, erelong elevated immeasurably
above its fellows that one of these voluntary festivals which
corresponded to “the wild solar holiday” of the heathen world, making
that day at last “the Lord’s day” of the Christian church. The earliest
testimony in behalf of first-day observance that has _any_ claim to be
regarded as genuine is that of Justin Martyr, written about A. D. 140.
Before his conversion, he was a heathen philosopher. The time, place, and
occasion of his first Apology or Defense of the Christians, addressed to
the Roman Emperor, is thus stated by an eminent Roman Catholic historian.
He says that Justin Martyr
“Was at Rome when the persecution that was raised under the
reign of Antoninus Pius, the successor of Adrian, began to
break forth, where he composed an excellent apology in behalf
of the Christians.”[552]
Of the works ascribed to Justin Martyr, Milner says:—
“Like many of the ancient fathers he appears to us under the
greatest disadvantage. Works really his have been lost; and
others have been ascribed to him, part of which are not his;
and the rest, at least, of ambiguous authority.”[553]
If the writings ascribed to him are genuine, there is little propriety
in the use made of his name by the advocates of the first-day Sabbath.
He taught the abrogation of the Sabbatic institution; and there is no
intimation in his words that the Sunday festival which he mentions was
other than a voluntary observance. Thus he addresses the emperor of Rome:—
“And upon the day called Sunday, all that live either in city
or country meet together at the same place, where the writings
of the apostles and prophets are read, as much as time will
give leave; when the reader has done, the bishop makes a
sermon, wherein he instructs the people, and animates them
to the practice of such lovely precepts: at the conclusion
of this discourse, we all rise up together and pray; and
prayers being over, as I now said, there is bread and wine and
water offered, and the bishop, as before, sends up prayers
and thanksgivings, with all the fervency he is able, and the
people conclude all with the joyful acclamation of Amen. Then
the consecrated elements are distributed to, and partaken of,
by all that are present, and sent to the absent by the hands
of the deacons. But the wealthy and the willing, for every
one is at liberty, contribute as they think fitting; and this
collection is deposited with the bishop, and out of this he
relieves the orphan and the widow, and such as are reduced to
want by sickness or any other cause, and such as are in bonds,
and strangers that come from far; and, in a word, he is the
guardian and almoner to all the indigent. Upon Sunday we all
assemble, that being the first day in which God set himself
to work upon the dark void, in order to make the world, and
in which Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead;
for the day before Saturday he was crucified, and the day
after, which is Sunday, he appeared unto his apostles and
disciples, and taught them what I have now proposed to your
consideration.”[554]
This passage, if genuine, furnishes the earliest reference to the
observance of Sunday as a religious festival in the Christian church.
It should be remembered that this language was written at Rome, and
addressed directly to the emperor. It shows therefore what was the
practice of the church in that city and vicinity, but does not determine
how extensive this observance was. It contains strong incidental proof
that apostasy had made progress at Rome; the institution of the Lord’s
supper being changed in part already to a human ordinance; water being
now as essential to the Lord’s supper as the wine or the bread. And
what is still more dangerous as perverting the institution of Christ,
the consecrated elements were sent to the absent, a step which speedily
resulted in their becoming objects of superstitious veneration, and
finally of worship. Justin tells the emperor that Christ thus ordained;
but such a statement is a grave departure from the truth of the New
Testament.
This statement of reasons for Sunday observance is particularly worthy
of attention. He tells the emperor that they assembled upon the day
called Sunday. This was equivalent to saying to him, We observe the day
on which our fellow-citizens offer their adoration to the sun. Here
both “patriotism” and “expediency” discover themselves in the words
of Justin, which were addressed to a persecuting emperor in behalf of
the Christians. But as if conscious that the observance of a heathen
festival as the day of Christian worship was not consistent with their
profession as worshipers of the Most High, Justin bethinks himself for
reasons in defense of this observance. He assigns no divine precept nor
apostolic example for this festival. For his reference to what Christ
taught his disciples, as appears from the connection, was to the general
system of the Christian religion, and not to the observance of Sunday.
If it be said that Justin might have learned from tradition what is
not to be found in the New Testament relative to Sunday observance,
and that after all Sunday may be a divinely-appointed festival, it is
sufficient to answer, 1. That this plea would show only tradition in
favor of the Sunday festival. 2. That Justin Martyr is a very unsafe
guide; his testimony relative to the Lord’s supper differs from that of
the New Testament. 3. That the American Tract Society, in a work which it
publishes against Romanism, bears the following testimony relative to the
point before us:—
“Justin Martyr appears indeed peculiarly unfitted to lay claim
to authority. It is notorious that he supposed a pillar erected
on the island of the Tiber to Semo Sanchus, an old Sabine
deity, to be a monument erected by the Roman people in honor of
the impostor Simon Magus. Were so gross a mistake to be made by
a modern writer in relating a historical fact, exposure would
immediately take place, and his testimony would thenceforward
be suspected. And assuredly the same measure should be meted to
Justin Martyr, who so egregiously errs in reference to a fact
alluded to by Livy the historian.”[555]
Justin assigns the following reasons in support of Sunday observance:
“That being the first day in which God set himself to work upon the dark
void in order to make the world, and in which Jesus Christ our Saviour
rose again from the dead.” Bishop Jeremy Taylor most fittingly replies to
this:—
“The first of these looks more like an excuse than a just
reason; for if anything of the creation were made the cause of
a Sabbath, it ought to be the end, not the beginning; it ought
to be the rest, not the first part of the work; it ought to be
that which God assigned, not [that] which man should take by
way of after justification.”[556]
It is to be observed, therefore, that the first trace of Sunday as a
Christian festival is found in the church of Rome. Soon after this time,
and thenceforward, we shall find “the bishop” of that church making
vigorous efforts to suppress the Sabbath of the Lord, and to elevate in
its stead the festival of Sunday.
It is proper to note the fact also that Justin was a decided opponent
of the ancient Sabbath. In his “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew” he thus
addressed him:—
“This new law teaches you to observe a perpetual Sabbath; and
you, when you have spent one day in idleness, think you have
discharged the duties of religion.... If any one is guilty
of adultery, let him repent, then he hath kept the true and
delightful Sabbath unto God.... For we really should observe
that circumcision which is in the flesh, and the Sabbath,
and all the feasts, if we had not known the reason why they
were imposed upon you, namely, upon the account of your
iniquities.... It was because of your iniquities, and the
iniquities of your fathers, that God appointed you to observe
the Sabbath.... You see that the heavens are not idle, nor do
they observe the Sabbath. Continue as ye were born. For if
before Abraham there was no need of circumcision, nor of the
sabbaths, nor of feasts, nor of offerings before Moses; so now
in like manner there is no need of them, since Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, was by the determinate counsel of God, born of
a virgin of the seed of Abraham without sin.”[557]
This reasoning of Justin deserves no reply. It shows, however, the
unfairness of Dr. Edwards, who quotes Justin Martyr as a witness for the
change of the Sabbath;[558] whereas Justin held that God made the Sabbath
on account of the wickedness of the Jews, and that he totally abrogated
it in consequence of the first advent of Christ; the Sunday festival of
the heathen being evidently adopted by the church at Rome from motives
of “expediency” and perhaps of “patriotism.” The testimony of Justin, if
genuine, is peculiarly valuable in one respect. It shows that as late as
A. D. 140 the first day of the week had acquired no title of sacredness;
for Justin several times mentions the day: thrice as “the day called
Sunday” and twice as “the eighth day;” and by other terms also, but never
by any sacred name.[559]
The next important witness in behalf of first-day sacredness is thus
presented by Dr. Edwards:—
“Hence Irenæus, bishop of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp, who
had been the companion of the apostles, A. D. 167, says that
the Lord’s day was the Christian Sabbath. His words are, ‘On
the Lord’s day every one of us Christians keeps the Sabbath,
meditating on the law and rejoicing in the works of God.’”[560]
This testimony is highly valued by first-day writers, and is often and
prominently set forth in their publications. Sir Wm. Domville, whose
elaborate treatise on the Sabbath has been several times quoted, states
the following important fact relative to this quotation:—
“I have carefully searched through all the extant works of
Irenæus and can with certainty state that no such passage, or
any one at all resembling it, is there to be found. The edition
I consulted was that by Massuet (Paris, 1710); but to assure
myself still further, I have since looked to the editions by
Erasmus (Paris, 1563), and Grabe (Oxford, 1702), and in neither
do I find the passage in question.”[561]
It is a remarkable fact that those who quote this as the language of
Irenæus, if they give any reference, cite their readers to Dwight’s
Theology instead of referring them to the place in the works of Irenæus
where it is to be found. It was Dr. Dwight who first enriched the
theological world with this invaluable quotation. Where, then, did Dwight
obtain this testimony which has so many times been given as that of
Irenæus? On this point Domville remarks:—
“He had the misfortune to be afflicted with a disease in his
eyes from the early age of twenty-three, a calamity (says
his biographer) by which he was deprived of the capacity for
reading and study.... The knowledge which he gained from books
after the period above mentioned [by which the editor must mean
his age of twenty-three] was almost exclusively at second hand,
by the aid of others.”[562]
Domville states another fact which gives us unquestionably the origin of
this quotation:—
“But although not to be found in Irenæus, there are in
the writings ascribed to another father, namely, in the
interpolated epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, and in one
of its interpolated passages, expressions so clearly resembling
those of Dr. Dwight’s quotation as to leave no doubt of the
source from which he quoted.”[563]
Such, then, is the end of this famous testimony of Irenæus, who had
it from Polycarp, who had it from the apostles! It was furnished the
world by a man whose eyesight was impaired; who in consequence of this
infirmity took at second hand an interpolated passage from an epistle
falsely ascribed to Ignatius, and published it to the world as the
genuine testimony of Irenæus. Loss of eyesight, as we may charitably
believe, led Dr. Dwight into the serious error which he has committed;
but by the publication of this spurious testimony, which seemed to
come in a direct line from the apostles, he has rendered multitudes as
incapable of reading aright the fourth commandment, as he, by loss of
natural eyesight, was of reading Irenæus for himself. This case admirably
illustrates tradition as a religious guide; it is the blind leading the
blind until both fall into the ditch.
Nor is this all that should be said in the case of Irenæus. In all his
writings there is _no instance_ in which he calls Sunday the Lord’s day!
And what is also very remarkable, there is no sentence extant written
by him in which he even mentions the first day of the week![564] It
appears, however, from several statements in ancient writers, that he did
mention the day, though no sentence of _his_ in which it is mentioned
is in existence. He held that the Sabbath was a typical institution,
which pointed to the seventh thousand years as the great day of rest
to the church;[565] he said that Abraham was “without observance of
Sabbaths;”[566] and yet he makes the origin of the Sabbath to be the
sanctification of the seventh day.[567] But he expressly asserts the
perpetuity and authority of the ten commandments, declaring that they
are identical with the law of nature implanted from the beginning in
mankind, that they remain permanently with us, and that if any one does
not observe them he has no salvation.[568]
It is a remarkable fact that the first instance upon record in which the
bishop of Rome attempted to rule the Christian church was by AN EDICT IN
BEHALF OF SUNDAY. It had been the custom of all the churches to celebrate
the passover, but with this difference: that while the eastern churches
observed it upon the fourteenth day of the first month, no matter what
day of the week this might be, the western churches kept it upon the
Sunday following that day; or rather, upon the Sunday following Good
Friday. Victor, bishop of Rome, in the year 196,[569] took upon him to
impose the Roman custom upon all the churches; that is, to compel them to
observe the passover upon Sunday. “This bold attempt,” says Bower, “we
may call the first essay of papal usurpation.”[570] And Dowling terms it
the “earliest instance of Romish assumption.”[571] The churches of Asia
Minor informed Victor that they could not comply with his lordly mandate.
Then, says Bower:—
“Upon the receipt of this letter, Victor, giving the reins
to an impotent and ungovernable passion, published bitter
invectives against all the churches of Asia, declared them cut
off from his communion, sent letters of excommunication to
their respective bishops; and, at the same time, in order to
have them cut off from the communion of the whole church, wrote
to the other bishops, exhorting them to follow his example,
and forbear communicating with their refractory brethren of
Asia.”[572]
The historian informs us that “not one followed his example or advice;
not one paid any sort of regard to his letters, or showed the least
inclination to second him in such a rash and uncharitable attempt.” He
further says:—
“Victor being thus baffled in his attempt, his successors
took care not to revive the controversy; so that the Asiatics
peaceably followed their ancient practice till the Council
of Nice, which out of complaisance to Constantine the Great,
ordered the solemnity of Easter to be kept everywhere on the
same day, after the custom of Rome.”[573]
The victory was not obtained for Sunday in this struggle, as Heylyn
testifies,
“Till the great Council of Nice [A. D. 325] backed by the
authority of as great an emperor [Constantine] settled it
better than before; none but some scattered schismatics, now
and then appearing, that durst oppose the resolution of that
famous synod.”[574]
Constantine, by whose powerful influence the Council of Nice was induced
to decide this question in favor of the Roman bishop, that is, to fix the
passover upon Sunday, urged the following strong reason for the measure:—
“Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile
rabble of the Jews.”[575]
This sentence is worthy of notice. A determination to have nothing in
common with the Jews had very much to do with the suppression of the
Sabbath in the Christian church. Those who rejected the Sabbath of the
Lord and chose in its stead the more popular and more convenient Sunday
festival of the heathen, were so infatuated with the idea of having
nothing in common with the Jews, that they never even questioned the
propriety of a festival in common with the heathen.
This festival was not weekly, but annual; but the removal of it from the
fourteenth of the first month to the Sunday following Good Friday was the
first legislation attempted in honor of Sunday as a Christian festival;
and as Heylyn quaintly expresses it, “The Lord’s day found it no small
matter to obtain the victory.”[576] In a brief period after the Council
of Nice, by the laws of Theodosius, capital punishment was inflicted upon
those who should celebrate the feast of the passover upon any other day
than Sunday.[577] The Britons of Wales were long able to maintain their
ground against this favorite project of the Roman church, and as late as
the sixth century “obstinately resisted the imperious mandates of the
Roman pontiffs.”[578]
Four years after the commencement of the struggle just narrated, bring
us to the testimony of Tertullian, the oldest of the Latin fathers, who
wrote about A. D. 200. Dr. Clarke tells us that the fathers “blow hot
and cold.” Tertullian is a fair example of this. He places the origin
of the Sabbath at the creation, but elsewhere says that the patriarchs
did not keep it. He says that Joshua broke the Sabbath at Jericho, and
afterward shows that he did not break it. He says that Christ broke the
Sabbath, and in another place proves that he did not. He represents the
eighth day as more honorable than the seventh, and elsewhere states the
reverse. He states that the law is abolished, and in other places teaches
its perpetuity and authority. He declares that the Sabbath was abrogated
by Christ, and afterward asserts that “Christ did not at all rescind
the Sabbath,” but imparted “an additional sanctity” to “the Sabbath day
itself, which from the beginning had been consecrated by the benediction
of the Father.” And he goes on to say that Christ “furnished to this day
divine safeguards—a course which his adversary would have pursued for
some other days, to avoid honoring the Creator’s Sabbath.”
This last statement is very remarkable. The Saviour furnished additional
safeguards to the Creator’s Sabbath. But “his adversary” would have done
this to some other days. Now it is plain, first, that Tertullian did
not believe that Christ sanctified some other day to take the place of
the Sabbath; and second, that he believed the consecration of another
day to be the work of the adversary of God! When he wrote these words
he certainly did not believe in the sanctification of Sunday by Christ.
But Tertullian and his brethren found themselves observing as a festival
that day on which the sun was worshiped, and they were, in consequence,
taunted with being worshipers of the sun. Tertullian denies the charge,
though he acknowledges that there was some appearance of truth to it. He
says:—
“Others, again, certainly with more information and greater
verisimilitude, believe that the sun is our God. We shall be
counted Persians, perhaps, though we do not worship the orb
of day painted on a piece of linen cloth, having himself
everywhere in his own disk. The idea, no doubt, has originated
from our being known to turn to the east in prayer. But you,
many of you, also, under pretense sometimes of worshiping
the heavenly bodies, move your lips in the direction of the
sunrise. In the same way, if we devote Sunday to rejoicing,
from a far different reason than sun-worship, we have some
resemblance to those of you who devote the day of Saturn to
ease and luxury, though they, too, go far away from Jewish
ways, of which they are ignorant.”[579]
Tertullian pleads no divine command nor apostolic example for this
practice. In fact, he offers no reason for the practice, though he
intimates that he had one to offer. But he finds it necessary in another
work to repel this same charge of sun-worship, because of Sunday
observance. In this second answer to this charge he states the ground of
defense more distinctly, and here we shall find his best reason. These
are his words:—
“Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be
confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians,
because it is a well-known fact that we pray toward the east,
or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you
do less than this? Do not many among you, with an affectation
of sometimes worshiping the heavenly bodies likewise, move
your lips in the direction of the sunrise? It is you, at all
events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the
week; and you have selected its day [Sunday], in preference to
the preceding day, as the most suitable in the week for either
an entire abstinence from the bath, or for its postponement
until the evening, or for taking rest, and for banqueting. By
resorting to these customs, you deliberately deviate from your
own religious rites to those of strangers.”[580]
Tertullian, in this discourse, addresses himself to the nations still
in idolatry. With some of these, Sunday was an ancient festival; with
others, it was of comparatively recent date. But some of these heathen
reproached the Sunday Christians with being sun-worshipers. And now
observe the answer. He does not say, “We Christians are commanded to
celebrate the first day of the week in honor of Christ’s resurrection.”
His answer is doubtless the best that he knew how to frame. It is a mere
retort, and consists in asserting, first, that the Christians had done no
more than their accusers, the heathen; and second, that they had as good
a right to make Sunday a day of festivity as had the heathen!
The origin of first-day observance has been the subject of inquiry in
this chapter. We have found that Sunday from remote antiquity was a
heathen festival in honor of the sun, and that in the first centuries
of the Christian era this ancient festival was in general veneration in
the heathen world. We have learned that patriotism and expediency, and a
tender regard for the conversion of the Gentile world, caused the leaders
of the church to adopt as their religious festival the day observed by
the heathen, and to retain the same name which the heathen had given
it. We have seen that the earliest instance upon record of the actual
observance of Sunday in the Christian church, is found in the church of
Rome about A. D. 140. The first great effort in its behalf, A. D. 196,
is by a singular coincidence the first act of papal usurpation. The
first instance of a sacred title being applied to this festival, and the
earliest trace of abstinence from labor on that day, are found in the
writings of Tertullian at the close of the second century. The origin of
the festival of Sunday is now before the reader; the steps by which it
has ascended to supreme power will be pointed out in their proper order
and place.
One fact of deep interest will conclude this chapter. The first great
effort made to put down the Sabbath was the act of the church of Rome in
turning it into a fast while Sunday was made a joyful festival. While the
eastern churches retained the Sabbath, a portion of the western churches,
with the church of Rome at their head, turned it into a fast. As a part
of the western churches refused to comply with this ordinance, a long
struggle ensued, the result of which is thus stated by Heylyn:—
“In this difference it stood a long time together, till in the
end the Roman church obtained the cause, and Saturday became
a fast almost through all the parts of the western world. I
say the western world, and of that alone: the eastern churches
being so far from altering their ancient custom that in the
sixth council of Constantinople, A. D. 692, they did admonish
those of Rome to forbear fasting on that day upon pain of
censure.”[581]
Wm. James, in a sermon before the University of Oxford, thus states the
time when this fast originated:—
“The western church began to fast on Saturday at the beginning
of the third century.”[582]
Thus it is seen that this struggle began with the third century, that is,
immediately after the year 200. Neander thus states the motive of the
Roman church:—
“In the western churches, particularly the Roman, where
opposition to Judaism was the prevailing tendency, this very
opposition produced the custom of celebrating the Saturday in
particular as a fast day.”[583]
By Judaism, Neander meant the observance of the seventh day as the
Sabbath. Dr. Charles Hase, of Germany, states the object of the Roman
church in very explicit language:—
“The Roman church regarded Saturday as a fast day in direct
opposition to those who regarded it as a Sabbath. Sunday
remained a joyful festival in which all fasting and worldly
business was avoided as much as possible, but the original
commandment of the decalogue respecting the Sabbath was not
then applied to that day.”[584]
Lord King attests this fact in the following words:—
“Some of the western churches, that they might not seem to
Judaize, fasted on Saturday, as Victorinus Petavionensis
writes: We use to fast on the seventh day. And it is our custom
then to fast, that we may not seem, with the Jews, to observe
the Sabbath.”[585]
Thus the Sabbath of the Lord was turned into a fast in order to render
it despicable before men. Such was the first great effort of the Roman
church toward the suppression of the ancient Sabbath of the Bible.