One of the greatest difficulties to modern readers in the history of the
primitive Church is the state of feeling and opinion on the subject of the
Sabbath. We have been in the habit of arguing from the primitive
institution of a holy day (which we have called a sabbath), and of viewing
the Lord’s day as answering to it; and if we may judge by the language of
the earliest writers, they did not consider the Lord’s day as intended to
be a sabbath in itself, although some of them regarded it as being
appointed instead of the Sabbath(462). Irenæus certainly viewed the
institution of the Sabbath as entirely Mosaical, and thought that Abraham
and the patriarchs before the Law did not keep it(463).
It must not, however, be thence hastily concluded that he believed that
Abraham and the patriarchs knew nothing of the seventh day as a day of
divine worship. The primary and leading idea of a _sabbath_, properly so
called, is (not _holiness_ but) _rest_; that is, abstinence from any
employment that can be construed into labour. Now Irenæus might very well
deny that the Patriarchs kept a day of rest from all employment, without
in any degree intending to deny that they devoted the seventh day
especially to religious worship.
An illustration of my meaning will be found in the admission of Justin
Martyr, that Christians did not keep the Sabbath(464), coupled with the
well‐ascertained fact(465), that a very large proportion of them indeed
were in the habit of attending divine service on the seventh day. Perhaps
a still closer illustration is seen in the Canons of the Council of
Laodicea, which expressly forbid Christians to keep the Sabbath like
Jews(466), and at the same time direct the Eucharistic offering to be made
on that day as well as on the Lord’s day(467). If then many of the early
Christians devoted a portion of the Saturday statedly to public religious
exercises, and yet did not consider themselves as keeping a sabbath, it
would be very unsafe to infer from the assertion that the Patriarchs did
not keep the Sabbath, that therefore they had no day of religious worship.
In fact it seems scarcely possible that the division and numbering of the
days by sevens could have been kept up, as we know it was(468), before the
giving of the Law, without some religious observance connected with it.
Although, then, Irenæus did not regard the Mosaical Sabbath as being
observed before the giving of the Law, and consequently regarded it as
abolished with the Law, yet as he has asserted that the moral law or
decalogue was observed before Moses, and implies that _we_ are not at
liberty to reject it(469), it is very certain that he must have conceived
the fourth commandment to be in some sense or other a directory to
Christians: and it may therefore be inquired what he conceived ought to be
learnt from it. This may in some degree be gathered from his saying that
the Sabbath, like the whole Jewish Law, was symbolical, and that it was
intended to teach men to serve God every day, and to typify the kingdom of
God, when whosoever has persevered in godliness shall partake of his
table(470). For he believed that the world was destined to endure in its
present state as many thousands of years as the days of creation, and that
then God’s kingdom would be set up on earth(471), which will be the true
sabbath of the just(472). But he regarded our Lord’s apparent relaxation
of the stringency of the sabbath, not as a _direct_ instruction to
Christians, but as an explanation of the proper meaning of the fourth
commandment as addressed to the Jews(473).
I think it would appear from these passages that Irenæus was not in the
habit of regarding the Christian practice of hallowing the Lord’s day as
the explicit fulfilment of the fourth commandment. He lived so near the
apostolical times that he no doubt observed it in obedience to Christ’s
institution, without considering whether it was contemplated by the
original institution of a holy day or not. But in common with other
Christian writers, he did not think that the fulfilment of the fourth
commandment lay in devoting any particular portion of time to the service
of God; but in serving him continually as much as possible; and therefore,
as a matter of course, in observing those times of sacred repose and
divine worship which either the institution of Christ, or the common
custom of Christians, or the rules of the Church, might have
appointed(474). According to such a feeling, therefore, whilst _no_
particular portion of time would be kept with Jewish superstition, as
though it were an end of itself, whatever time was kept would be _so_ kept
as to ensure the ends proposed by its observance.
And, if we revert to what has been before observed as to Irenæus’s view of
the law of liberty, we shall see that he would be so far from supposing
that this Christian freedom authorized us to dispense with devoting one
day in seven to God’s service, that he would feel that it ought to lead
those who had it in their power to devote even a larger portion. And such
in fact was the practice of the Christians of those times. They assembled
together not only on the morning and evening of the Sunday, but also
throughout the east on the morning and evening of Saturday, and on the
morning of Wednesday and Friday. When, therefore, there was so much zeal
for the service of God, and the commandment was kept so amply in its
spirit without thinking of the letter of it,—the warm feeling of
Christians making them a law to themselves,—there was nothing to lead them
to inquire critically how much the commandment actually required of them;
and to have instituted such an inquiry would have appeared like putting a
restriction upon the ardour of Christian love, and returning to the spirit
of the Law of Moses.
The true question, then, to ask is, _not_ why the first Christians did not
put the Lord’s day upon the footing of the paradisiacal sabbath, _but_ why
we are _called upon_ to do so in these latter days? And the true answer
will be found in the fact that the great body of us have abused the law of
liberty, as the Israelites of old had done, and therefore, like them, have
need, in the providential dealings of God, to be put back under rules and
restrictions again, until we are become fitted to act as _children_ of
God: and when we are so, we have no wish to shake off such restrictions,
but of our own accord go beyond them.
In connection with this subject it is very remarkable that the Church of
England in her catechism has not thought proper to connect the Lord’s day
in particular with the fourth commandment; although most of our writers
for the last three hundred years have found it necessary so to do. It is
true that we have done no more than our duty by pointing out to our people
that God from the beginning has hallowed one day in seven, in order to
prevent them from relapsing into absolute heathenism;—the error has been
that we have too much omitted to show that this was the least he would be
satisfied with. We have too much written as though those who fully
observed one day in seven had done their duty, instead of leading them to
feel that they cannot be possessed of the spirit of true Christian
obedience so long as they confine themselves to the _letter_ of the law,
and do not of their own accord embrace _every_ means of grace and
spiritual improvement.