CATALOGUE
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HYMN AND TUNE BOOK.--536 hymns--147 tunes. $1.00.
THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH AND FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. By J. N. Andrews.
528 pp., $1.25.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND PUBLIC LABORS OF WM. MILLER, the noted Lecturer
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THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK OF DANIEL, critical and practical. By U. Smith.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: or a Discussion between W. H. Littlejohn
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LIFE OF ELDER JOSEPH BATES. $1.25.
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(POEM.) A WORD FOR THE SABBATH: or False Theories Exposed. By U. Smith.
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" " " Children, " 35 cts.
(See third page of cover.)
THE COMPLETE
TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS
OF THE
_First Three Centuries_
CONCERNING
The Sabbath and First Day
BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS
SECOND EDITION.
STEAM PRESS
OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.:
1876.
PREFACE.
The testimony for first-day sacredness is very meager in the
Scriptures, as even its own advocates must admit. But they have been
wont to supply the deficiency by a plentiful array of testimonies from
the early fathers of the church. Here, in time past, they have had
the field all to themselves, and they have allowed their zeal for the
change of the Sabbath to get the better of their honesty and their
truthfulness. The first-day Sabbath was absolutely unknown before the
time of Constantine. Nearly one hundred years elapsed after John was in
vision on Patmos before the term "Lord's day" was applied to the first
day. During this time, it was called "the day of the sun," "the first
day of the week," and "the eighth day." The first writers who gave
it the name of "Lord's day," state the remarkable fact that in their
judgement the true Lord's day consists of every day of a Christian's
life, a very convincing proof that they did not give this title to
Sunday because John had so named it on Patmos. In fact, no one of those
who give this title to Sunday ever assigned as a reason for so doing
that it was thus called by John. Nor is there any intimation in one
of the fathers that first-day observance was an act of obedience to
the fourth commandment, nor one clear statement that ordinary labor on
that day was sinful. In order to show these facts, I have undertaken to
give every testimony of every one of the fathers, prior to A. D. 325,
who mentions either the Sabbath or the first day. Though some of these
quotations are comparatively unimportant, others are of very great
value. I have given them all, in order that the reader may actually
possess their entire testimony. I have principally followed the
translation of the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library," and have in every
case made use of first-day translations. The work has been one of great
labor to me, and I trust will be found of much profit to the candid
reader.
J. N. ANDREWS.
_Lancaster, Mass., Jan. 1, 1873._
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In this edition every quotation has been carefully compared with the
works of the fathers from which they were taken. A few minor errors
have been detected, but none of importance. The work is commended to
the attention of candid inquirers with the prayer that God will make it
instrumental in opening the eyes of many to the truth concerning his
holy day.
J. N. A.
_Neuchátel, Switzerland, April 7, 1876._
TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT.
With respect to the Sabbath, the religious world may be divided into
three classes:--
1. Those who retain the ancient seventh-day Sabbath.
2. Those who observe the first-day Sabbath.
3. Those who deny the existence of any Sabbath.[A]
It is inevitable that controversy should exist between these parties.
Their first appeal is to the Bible, and this should decide the case;
for it reveals man's whole duty. But there is an appeal by the second
party, and sometimes by the third, to another authority, the early
fathers of the church, for the decision of the question.
The controversy stands thus: The second and third parties agree with
the first that God did anciently require the observance of the seventh
day; but both deny the doctrine of the first, that he still requires
men to hallow that day; the second asserting that he has changed the
Sabbath to the first day of the week; and the third declaring that he
has totally abolished the institution itself.
The first class plant themselves upon the plain letter of the law
of God, and adduce those scriptures which teach the perpetuity and
immutability of the moral law, and which show that the new covenant
does not abrogate that law, but puts it into the heart of every
Christian.
The second class attempt to prove the change of the Sabbath by quoting
those texts which mention the first day of the week, and also those
which are said to refer to it. The first day is, on such authority,
called by this party the Christian Sabbath, and the fourth commandment
is used by them to enforce this new Sabbath.
The third class adduce those texts which assert the dissolution of the
old covenant; and those which teach the abolition of the ceremonial
law with all its distinction of days, as new moons, feast days, and
annual sabbaths; and also those texts which declare that men cannot be
justified by that law which condemns sin; and from all these contend
that the law and the Sabbath are both abolished.
But the first class answer to the second that the texts which they
bring forward do not meet the case, inasmuch as they say nothing
respecting the change of the Sabbath; and that it is not honest to use
the fourth commandment to enforce the observance of a day not therein
commanded. And the third class assent to this answer as truthful and
just.
To the position of the third class, the first make this answer: That
the old covenant was made between God and his people _concerning_ his
law;[B] that it ceased because the people failed in its conditions, the
keeping of the commandments; that the new covenant does not abrogate
the law of God, but secures obedience to it by putting it into the
heart of every Christian; that there are two systems of law, one being
made up of typical and ceremonial precepts, and the other consisting of
moral principles only; that those texts which speak of the abrogation
of the handwriting of ordinances and of the distinction in meats,
drinks, and days, pertain alone to this shadowy system, and never to
the moral law which contains the Sabbath of the Lord; and that it is
not the fault of the law, but of sinners, that they are condemned by
it; and that justification being attained only by the sacrifice of
Christ as a sin offering, is in itself a most powerful attestation to
the perpetuity, immutability, and perfection, of that law which reveals
sin. And to this answer the second class heartily assent.
But the second class have something further to say. The Bible, indeed,
fails to assert the change of the Sabbath, but these persons have
something else to offer, in their estimation, equally as good as the
Scriptures. The early fathers of the church, who conversed with the
apostles, or who conversed with some who had conversed with them, and
those who followed for several generations, are by this class presented
as authority, and their testimony is used to establish the so-called
Christian Sabbath on a firm basis. And this is what they assert
respecting the fathers: That they distinctly teach the change of the
Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, and that the
first day is by divine authority the Christian Sabbath.
But the third class squarely deny this statement, and affirm that the
fathers held the Sabbath as an institution made for the Jews when they
came out of Egypt, and that Christ abolished it at his death. They
also assert that the fathers held the first day, not as a Sabbath in
which men must not labor lest they break a divine precept, but as an
ecclesiastical institution, which they called the Lord's day, and
which was the proper day for religious assemblies because custom and
tradition thus concurred. And so the third class answer the second by
an explicit denial of its alleged facts. They also aim a blow at the
first by the assertion that the early fathers taught the no-Sabbath
doctrine, which must therefore be acknowledged as the real doctrine of
the New Testament.
And now the first class respond to these conflicting statements of the
second and the third. And here is their response:--
1. That our duty respecting the Sabbath, and respecting every other
thing, can be learned only from the Scriptures.
2. That the first three hundred years after the apostles nearly
accomplished the complete development of the great apostasy, which had
commenced even in Paul's time; and this age of apostatizing cannot be
good authority for making changes in the law of God.
3. That only a small proportion of the ministers and teachers of
this period have transmitted any writings to our time; and these are
generally fragments of the original works, and they have come down to
us mainly through the hands of the Romanists, who have never scrupled
to destroy or to corrupt that which witnesses against themselves,
whenever it has been in their power to do it.
4. But inasmuch as these two classes, viz., those who maintain the
first-day Sabbath, and those who deny the existence of any Sabbath,
both appeal to these fathers for testimony with which to sustain
themselves, and to put down the first class, viz., those who hallow
the ancient Sabbath, it becomes necessary that the exact truth
respecting the writings of that age, which now exist, should be shown.
There is but one method of doing this which will effectually end the
controversy. This is to give every one of their testimonies concerning
the Sabbath and first-day in their own words. In doing this the
following facts will appear:--
1. That in some important particulars there is a marked disagreement
on this subject among them. For while some teach that the Sabbath
originated at creation and should be hallowed even now, others assert
that it began with the fall of the manna, and ended with the death
of Christ. And while one class represent Christ as a violator of the
Sabbath, another class represent him as sacredly hallowing it, and
a third class declare that he certainly did violate it, and that
he certainly never did, but always observed it! Some of them also
affirm that the Sabbath was abolished, and in other places positively
affirm that it is perpetuated and made more sacred than it formerly
was. Moreover, some assert that the ten commandments are absolutely
abolished, whilst others declare that they are perpetuated, and are
the tests of Christian character in this dispensation. Some call the
day of Christ's resurrection the first day of the week; others call
it the day of the sun, and the eighth day; and a larger number call
it the Lord's day, but there are no examples of this application till
the close of the second century. Some enjoin the observance of both
the Sabbath and the first day, while others treat the seventh day as
despicable.
2. But in several things of great importance there is perfect unity of
sentiment. They always distinguish between the Sabbath and the first
day of the week. The change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the
first is never mentioned in a single instance. They never term the
first day the Christian Sabbath, nor do they treat it as a Sabbath of
any kind. Nor is there a single declaration in any of them that labor
on the first day of the week is sinful; the utmost that can be found
being one or two vague expressions which do not necessarily have any
such sense.
3. Many of the fathers call the first day of the week the Lord's day.
But none of them claim for it any scriptural authority, and some
expressly state that it has none whatever, but rests solely upon custom
and tradition.
4. But the writings of the fathers furnish positive proof that the
Sabbath was observed in the Christian church down to the time when they
wrote, and by no inconsiderable part of that body. For some of them
expressly enjoined its observance, and even some of those who held that
it was abolished speak of Christians who observed it, whom they would
consent to fellowship if they would not make it a test.
5. And now mark the work of apostasy: This work never begins by
thrusting out God's institutions, but always by bringing in those of
men and at first only asking that they may be tolerated, while yet
the ones ordained of God are sacredly observed. This, in time, being
effected, the next effort is to make them equal with the divine. When
this has been accomplished, the third stage of the process is to honor
them above those divinely commanded; and this is speedily succeeded
by the fourth, in which the divine institution is thrust out with
contempt, and the whole ground given to its human rival.
6. Before the first three centuries had expired, apostasy concerning
the Sabbath had, with many of the fathers, advanced to the third stage,
and with a considerable number had already entered upon the fourth. For
those fathers who hallow the Sabbath do generally associate with it the
festival called by them the Lord's day. And though they speak of the
Sabbath as a divine institution, and never speak thus of the so-called
Lord's day, they do, nevertheless, give the greater honor to this human
festival. So far had the apostasy progressed before the end of the
third century, that only one thing more was needed to accomplish the
work as far as the Sabbath was concerned, and this was to discard it,
and to honor the Sunday festival alone. Some of the fathers had already
gone thus far; and the work became general within five centuries after
Christ.
7. The modern church historians make very conflicting statements
respecting the Sabbath during the first centuries. Some pass over it
almost in silence, or indicate that it was, at most, observed only by
Jewish Christians. Others, however, testify to its general observance
by the Gentile Christians; yet some of these assert that the Sabbath
was observed as a matter of expediency and not of moral obligation,
because those who kept it did not believe the commandments were
binding. (This is a great error, as will appear in due time.) What is
said, however, by these modern historians is comparatively unimportant
inasmuch as their sources of information were of necessity the very
writings which are about to be quoted.
8. In the following pages will be found, in their own words, every
statement[C] which the fathers of the first three centuries make by
way of defining their views of the Sabbath and first-day. And even
when they merely allude to either day in giving their views of other
subjects, the nature of the allusion is stated, and, where practicable,
the sentence or phrase containing it is quoted. The different writings
are cited in the order in which they purport to have been written. A
considerable number were not written by the persons to whom they were
ascribed, but at a later date. As these have been largely quoted by
first-day writers, they are here given in full. And even these writings
possess a certain historical value. For though not written by the ones
whose names they bear, they are known to have been in existence since
the second or third century, and they give some idea of the views which
then prevailed.
First of all let us hear the so-called "Apostolical Constitutions."
These were not the work of the apostles, but they were in existence
as early as the third century, and were then very generally believed
to express the doctrine of the apostles. They do therefore furnish
important historical testimony to the practice of the church at that
time. Mosheim in his Historical Commentaries, Cent. 1, sect. 51, speaks
thus of these "Constitutions":--
"The matter of this work is unquestionably ancient; since the
manners and discipline of which it exhibits a view are those which
prevailed amongst the Christians of the second and third centuries,
especially those resident in Greece and the oriental regions."
Of the "Apostolical Constitutions," Guericke's Church History speaks
thus:--
"This is a collection of ecclesiastical statutes purporting to be
the work of the apostolic age, but in reality formed gradually
in the second, third, and fourth centuries, and is of much value
in reference to the history of polity, and Christian archæology
generally."--_Ancient Church_, p. 212.