TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS
"Have before thine eyes the fear of God, and always remember the ten
commandments of God, - to love the one and only Lord God with all thy strength;
to give no heed to idols, or any other beings, as being lifeless gods, or irrational
beings or demons. Consider the manifold workmanship of God, which received
its beginning through Christ. Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him
who ceased from his work of creation, but ceased not from his work of
providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands."
Book ii. sect. 4, par. 36.
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This is sound Sabbatarian doctrine. But apostasy had begun its work in the
establishment of the so-called Lord's day, which was destined in time to drive out
the Sabbath. The next mention of the Sabbath also introduces, the festival called
Lord's day, but the reader will remember that this was written, not in the first
century, but the third:-
"Let your judicatures be held on the second day of the week, that if any
controversy arise about your sentence, having an interval till the Sabbath, you
may be able to set the controversy right, and to reduce those to peace who have
the contests one with another against the Lord's day." Book ii. sect. 6, par. 47.
By the term Lord's day the first day of the week is here intended. But the
writer does not call the first day the Sabbath, that term being applied to the
seventh day.
In section 7, paragraph 59, Christians are commanded to assemble for
worship "every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the
Lord's house: in the morning saying the sixty-second psalm, and in the evening
the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath day. And on the day of
our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending
praise to God that made the universe by Jesus and sent him to us." "Otherwise
what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear
the saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray thrice standing, in
memory of him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the
prophets, the preaching of the gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the
holy food."
The writer of these "Constitutions" this time gives the first day great
prominence, though still honoring the Sabbath, and by no means giving that title
to Sunday. But in book v., section 2, paragraph 10, we have a singular testimony
to
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the manner in which Sunday was spent. Thus the writer says:-
"Now we exhort you, brethren and fellow-servants, to avoid vain talk and
obscene discourses, and jestings, drunkenness, lasciviousness, luxury,
unbounded passions, with foolish discourses, since we do not permit you so
much as on the Lords' days, which are days of joy, to speak or act anything
unseemly."
From this it appears that the so-called Lord's day was a day of greater mirth
than the other days of the week. In book v., section 3, paragraph 14, it is said:-
"But when the first day of the week dawned he arose from the dead, and
fulfilled those things which before this passion he foretold to us, saying: 'The son
of man must continue in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.'"
In book v., section 3, paragraph 15, the writer names the days on which
Christians should fast:-
"But he commanded us to fast on the fourth and sixth days of the week; the
former on account of his being betrayed, and the latter on account of his passion.
But he appointed us to break our fast on the seventh day at the cock-crowing, but
to fast on the Sabbath day. Not that the Sabbath day is a day of fasting, being the
rest from creation, but because we ought to fast on this one Sabbath only, while
on this day the Creator was under the earth."
In paragraph 17, Christians are forbidden to "celebrate the day of the
resurrection of our Lord on any other day than a Sunday." In paragraph 18, they
are again charged to fast on that one Sabbath which comes in connection with
the anniversary of our Lord's death. In paragraph 19, the first day of the week is
four times called the Lord's day. The period of 40 days from his resurrection to
his ascension is to be observed. The
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anniversary of Christ's resurrection is to be celebrated by the supper.
"And let this be an everlasting ordinance till the consummation of the world,
until the Lord come. For to Jews the Lord is still dead, but to Christians he is
risen; to the former, by their unbelief; to the latter, by their full assurance of faith.
For the hope in him is immortal and eternal life. After eight days let there be
another feast observed with honor, the eighth day itself, on which he gave me,
Thomas, who was hard of belief, full assurance, by showing me the print of the
nails, and the wound made in his side by the spear. And again, from the first
Lord's day count forty days, from the Lord's day till the fifth day of the week, and
celebrate the feast of the ascension of the Lord, whereon he finished all his
dispensation and constitution," etc.
The things here commanded can come only once in a year. These are the
anniversary of Christ's resurrection, and of that day on which he appeared to
Thomas, and these were to be celebrated by the supper. The people were also to
observe the day of the ascension on the fifth day of the week, forty days from his
resurrection, on which day he finished his work. In paragraph 20, they are
commanded to celebrate the anniversary of the Pentecost.
"But after ten days from the ascension, which from the first Lord's day is the
fiftieth day, do ye keep a great festival; for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord
Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost."
This was not a weekly but a yearly festival. Fasting is also set forth in this
paragraph, but every Sabbath except the one Christ lay in the tomb is exempted
from this fast, and every so-called Lord's day:-
"We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day of the
preparation [the sixth day], and the surplusage of your fast bestow upon the
needy; every
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Sabbath day excepting one, and every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies
