the manner of celebrating it, the only thing which he sets forth is "not
bending the knee upon Sunday."
In the thirty-eighth fragment of his "Lost Writings" he quotes Col.2:16, but
whether with reference to the seventh day, or merely respecting the ceremonial
sabbaths, his comments do not determine. We have now given every statement
of Irenaeus which bears upon the Sabbath and the Sunday. It is manifest that the
advocates of first-day sacredness have made Irenaeus testify in its behalf to suit
themselves. He alludes to the first day of the week once or twice, but never uses
for it the title of Lord's day or Christian Sabbath, and the only thing which he
mentions as entering into the celebration of the festival was that Christians
should not kneel in prayer on that day! By first-day writers, Irenaeus is made to
bear an explicit testimony that Sunday is the Lord's day and the Christian
Sabbath! And to give great weight to this alleged fact, they
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say that he was the disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple of John: and
whereas John speaks of the Lord's day, Irenaeus, who must have known what he
meant by the term, says that the Lord's day is the first day of the week! But
Polycarp, in his epistle, does not even mention the first day of the week, and
Irenaeus, in his extended writings, mentions it only twice, and that in "lost
fragments" preserved at second hand, and in neither instance does he call it
anything but plain "first day of the week." And the only honor which he mentions
as due this day is that the knee should not be bent upon it! And even this was not
spoken of every Sunday in the year, but only of "Easter Sunday," the anniversary
of Christ's resurrection!
Here we might dismiss the case of Irenaeus. But our first-day friends are
determined at least to connect him with the use of Lord's day as a name for
Sunday. They, therefore, bring forward Eusebius, who wrote 150 years later than
Irenaeus, to prove that he did call Sunday by that name. Eusebius alludes to the
controversy in the time of Irenaeus, respecting the annual celebration of Christ's
resurrection in what was called the festival of the passover. He says (Eccl.Hist. b.
v. chap. xxiii.) that the bishops of different countries, and Irenaeus was of the
number, decreed that the mystery of our Lord's resurrection should be celebrated
on no other day than the Lord's day; and that on this day alone we should
observe the close of the paschal fasts, and not on the fourteenth of the first
month as practiced by the other party. And in the next chapter, Eusebius
represents Irenaeus as writing a letter to this effect to the Bishop of Rome. But
observe,
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Eusebius does not quote the words of any of these bishops, but simply gives
their decisions in his own language. There is therefore no proof that they used
the term Lord's day instead of first day of the week. But we have evidence that in
the decision of this case which Irenaeus sent forth, he used the term "first day of
the week." For the introduction to the fiftieth fragment of his "Lost Writings,"
already quoted, gives an ancient statement of his words in this decision, as plain
"first day of the week." It is Eusebius who gives us the term Lord's day in
recording what was said by these bishops concerning the first day of the week. In
his time, A. D. 324, Lord's day had become a common designation of Sunday.
But it was not such in the time of Irenaeus, A. D. 178. We have found no writer
who flourished before him who applies it to Sunday; it is not so applied by
Irenaeus; and we shall find no decisive instance of such use till the close of the
second century.
TESTIMONY OF DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF CORINTH
This father, about A. D. 170, wrote a letter to the Roman church, in which are
found these words:-
"We passed this holy Lord's day, in which we read your letter, from the
constant reading of which we shall be able to draw admonition, even as from the
reading of the former one you sent us written through Clement."
This is the earliest use of the term Lord's day to be found in the fathers. But it
cannot be called a decisive testimony that Sunday was thus called at this date,
inasmuch as every writer who precedes Dionysius calls it "first day of the week,"
"eighth day," or "Sunday," but never once by
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this title; and Dionysius says nothing to indicate that Sunday was intended, or to
show that he did not refer to that day which alone has the right to be called "the
Lord's holy day." Isa.58:13. We have found several express testimonies to the
sacredness of the Sabbath in the writers already examined.
TESTIMONY OF MELITO, BISHOP OF SARDIS
This father wrote about A. D. 177. We have nothing of this writer except the
titles of his books, which Eusebius has preserved to us. One of these titles is this:
"On the Lord's Day." But it should be remembered that down to this date no writer
has called Sunday the Lord's day; and that every one who certainly spoke of that
day called it by some other name than Lord's day. To say, therefore, as do firstday
writers, that Melito wrote of Sunday, is to speak without just warrant.
Moreover the word "day" is omitted in the original Greek of Eusebius. It is not
certain, therefore, that Melito wrote of the Lord's day. He wrote of something
pertaining to the Lord. It may have been the Lord's Supper, as Paul wrote, or the
Lord's life, as wrote Ignatius.
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TESTIMONY OF THE HERETIC BARDESANES