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 enjoin 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.
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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,
12
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 iii1
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 from 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
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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, 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."
http://alfaempresa.com.br/tunel.php
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