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of soldiers with arms, drawn swords, bows and spears, proceeding to attack the people, though it was the Lord's day."1 Cyril thus addressed his hearers: "Manual labour is forbidden on a feastday, that you may exercise yourselves more entirely in Divine matters."2 The Council of Laodicea, while they repudiated the regular cessation of work on Saturday, enjoined abstinence from labour on the Lord's day. In unison with these sentiments is the language of Chrysostom in the following exhortation to his flock : "You ought not, when you have retired from the church assembly, to involve yourselves in engagements contrary to the exercises in which you have been occupied, but immediately on coming home read the sacred Scriptures, and call together the family, wife and children, to confer about the things that have been spoken, and after they have been more deeply and thoroughly impressed upon the mind, then proceed to attend to such matters as are necessary for this life."3 The last clause has, in the absence of better arguments, been eagerly laid hold of to show that the preacher approved of a return to worldly business after the public and private duties of religion had been discharged. Not to mention the incompatibility of such a recommendation with the moral object aimed at in the homily, if not even with the physical powers of his hearers, Chrysostom has elsewhere stated enough to satisfy us that he had no such meaning. In other passages of his works he says, "The Lord's day hath rest and immunity from toils ;"4 and holds abstinence from worldly affairs on the day to be "an immoveable law." To these might be added a variety of statements by the Fathers, which imply their conviction that worldly pleasures were to be shunned at the times sacred to heaven. cite two or three in which that conviction is clearly expressed. "The sanctification of the Sabbath," says Gregory Nazianzen, "consists not in the hilarity of our bodies, nor in the variety of glorious garments, nor in eatings, the fruit whereof we know to be wantonness, nor in strewing of flowers in the way, which we know to be the manner of the Gentiles, but rather in the purity of the soul, and the cheerfulness of the mind, and pious meditations, as when we use holy hymns instead of tabors, and psalms

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2 Lib. viii. c. 5, In Joan.

5 Hom. 5, in Matt.

averse to the indul

His saying, "It is

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instead of wicked songs and dancings."1 Opposed though Augustine was to secular work, he was still more gence of worldly pleasure on the Lord's day. better to plough than to dance," is well known. It occurs in connexion with a reference to the Jews, as in his time spending their Sabbath in idleness and pleasure: "They are at leisure for trifles, and spend the Sabbath in such things as God forbids. Our rest is from evil works, theirs from good works. For it is better to plough than to dance."2 But it was still better, in his view, to abstain from both, and to act in the spirit of his own words, "Let us show ourselves Christians by keeping holy the Lord's day." The same spirit breathes in the words of Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chrysostom. The Bishop of Cæsarea, having given as a reason for the practice of standing in prayer on the Lord's day, not only that Christians are risen together with Christ, but that the day seems in some measure an image of the world to come, adds: "The Church instructs her disciples to offer their prayers standing, that by being from day to day reminded of the life that will never end, we may not neglect to make provision for the change of habitation."4 In a similar spirit writes his friend of Nazianzum : "But we who worship the Word should find our only pleasure in the Scriptures, in the Divine law, and in narrating the events relative to the feast."5 “The Sabbath,” remarks Chrysostom," is not a day of idleness, but of spiritual action."6 In its duties, as in other things, the weekly holy day has ever been in substance the same institution. The objection, that Moses and Christ had different doctrines, Augustine does not hesitate to repel with the assertion, "The doctrine was the same, the difference respected only the time.”7 Passing to later centuries, we find that such views continued to be held. Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, rebukes the impiety of Christians who do not entertain the reverence for the Lord's day which the Jews appear to have for their Sabbath." The testimony of Columba is specially interesting, as it expresses the feelings of the heart at a moment which tests the sincerity of faith, and the value of a creed: "This day," he said

1 Quoted by Twisse in Mor. of the Fourth Commandment, p. 173.

8 Ad Casul., Epist. 86.

6 De Laz. Conc. 1.

2 In Ps. xcii. 5 Orat. 38.

4 De Spirit. Sanct. c. 27.

7 Contr. Faust. lib. xvi. c. 28.

8 Hom. 12.

to his servant, "in the Sacred Volume is called the Sabbath, that is, rest; and will indeed be a Sabbath to me, for it is to me the last day of this toilsome life, the day on which I am to rest (sabbatize) after all my labours and troubles, for on this coming sacred night of the Lord (Dominicâ nocte), at the midnight hour, I shall, as the Scriptures speak, go the way of my fathers."1 According

to Isidore of Spain, "the observance of the apostolic institution, with religious solemnity," is to "rest on that day from all earthly acts, and the temptations of the world, that we may apply ourselves to God's holy worship, giving this day due honour for the hope of the resurrection we have therein."2 Aquinas held that "such a day was appointed not for play, but for praise and prayer."3 And in harmony on this subject, with good men of every age and clime, was Wycliffe, who, in his Exposition of the Decalogue, remarks on the precept concerning the Sabbath-day, that this day should be kept by "three manners of occupations, 1st, In thinking,-how God is Almighty, All-knowing, All-good, Alljust, All-merciful—and thinking, that creation was completed on that day, that Christ rose from the dead on that day, that knowledge and wisdom came to the earth by the descent of the Holy Spirit on that day, and that on that day, as many clerks say, shall be doom'sday, for Sunday was the first day, and Sunday shall be the last day." He concludes an exhortation to his reader, to "bethink" him of redemption, with the words, "It should be full sweet and delightful to us, to think thus on this great kindness, and this great love of Jesus Christ." 2d, In speaking,-speaking in confession of sin to God, in "crying heartily to God, for grace and power to leave all sin, and ever after to live in virtue," and in urging neighbours to better living. 3d, In carefully attending public worship,-preparing for it by endeavouring to bring to it pure motives, and by avoiding indulgence in the pleasures of the table, that the mind may be in its best state for performing the duties of the day, and following up the services of the house of God, by visiting the sick and the infirm, and relieving the poor with our goods. " And so," he adds, 66 men should not be idle, but busy on the Sabbath-day about the soul, as men are on the week-day about the body." "4

1 Life, by Adamna (1857), p. 230. 3 Opusc. De Præc. 10.

2 Opera, p. 396.

4 Tracts and Treatises of John de Wycliffe, pp. 4-6.

SECTION IV.

THE SABBATH IN CENTURIES IV.-XV.--(Continued.)

ECCLESIASTICAL MEASURES.

THE means employed by the Church in centuries IV.-XV. for restraining the abuse and promoting the observance of the Lord's day, though liable to exception in several particulars, concur with contemporary writings in showing that the institution continued to be generally regarded as of Divine appointment and sacred obligation. Minute detail here would not be necessary, were it practicable. It is sufficient to refer to the leading facts.

From a list before us, admitting, probably, of considerable enlargement, it appears that, during the above-mentioned centuries, no fewer than about seventy councils and synods recognised the weekly holy day as a Christian ordinance, most of them adopting canons on its behalf. These conventions extended over the whole period, there having been no century in which some assemblage of the clergy did not express respect for the Lord's day; and they were spread over the then known world, particularly Europe. They were attended by the most eminent ecclesiastics, and from the number as well as from the character of the members, their canons may be considered as among the best means of ascertain⚫ing the state of opinion at their respective dates. To these collective indications of the general doctrine respecting the institution, and to the united measures adopted to promote its better observance, we have to add the services rendered in both respects to its cause by the ministers of religion in their several charges, by the Fathers, as Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrysostom, and by such men as Ecgbright, Egbert, and Alcuin.

Both councils and individuals exerted themselves from time to

In

time to remedy indolent neglect in reference to the Lord's day. The twenty-first canon of the Council of Eliberis (A.D. 305) ordained that, for absence from church three successive Lord's days, a layman should be temporarily excluded from communion. 347, the Council of Sardica decreed that no bishop should be permitted to be absent from his church for more than three weeks; and the Council in Trullo (A.D. 691), combining the two canons, enacted that a clergyman, necessarily absent from his own church more than three Lord's days, should be deposed, and a similarly negligent layman cut off from communion.1 One great object, indeed, of the councils, and of bishops in their respective spheres, was to secure the attendance of the people in the house of God; and in their canons and constitutions they sometimes descended to such particulars as that the hearers should remain to the close of the service.

Secular labour on the Lord's day was inhibited.

Husbandry

in its various operations, all mechanical works, merchandise, and unnecessary travelling, were forbidden. Legal proceedings must "cease and determine." No folkmote or political assembly must hold. Marriages were not to be solemnized, criminals were not to be executed. In a word, persons, of whatever country or quality, were required to forbear servile work, that they might have leisure for the worship of God.

Worldly amusements, moreover, were condemned. We meet with frequent denunciations against the exhibitions and encouragement of theatrical shows and dancings, as well as against hunting and various pastimes, on the sacred day. When the Bulgarians sent questions on this and other matters to Pope Nicholas, in A.D. 858, his reply was, "That they should desist from all secular work and carnal pleasure, or whatever contributed to defile the body; and do nothing but what was suitable to the day." Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, did himself honour by issuing a special order, that "King Edgar should not continue to hunt on the Lord's day."

Such things were enjoined as included or furthered the positive

1 Our facts have been derived from several works on the councils; but to save a multitude of references, we may state, that in Neale's Feasts and Fasts, and Morer on the Lord's Day, may be found the chief heads of what relates to our subject, with the authorities.

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