produce the first instances of the week in heathendom. Finally, the greater prevalence of this division of time in the East seems to point to its origin in that direction.

All these conditions are fulfilled by the account in the Pentateuch, the oldest of books, which relates, that the Creator having made the world in six days, rested on, blessed, and sanctified the seventh ; and which, after repeated notices of worship, and of respect for the number seven, as applied to time as to other things, acquaints us with the dispersion from Shinar, into all countries, of the descendants of the only family that had survived the desolating flood. By them were the creation, the week, the state of innocence, the fall, the deluge, and other subjects-all recorded afterwards by Moses, and found pervading and partially redeeming so many heathen mythologies-made known throughout the world. In the relation of septenary observances to religion, creation, and the flood, aided by the proverbial power of customs derived from ancestors, we find the moral force adequate to the conveyance of these observances, despite of many hostile influences, over thousands of years. But a momentum, depending upon fading traditions, must decrease; and hence changes have come over the week and Sabbath of Paganism, while in countries enjoying a written revelation, they have remained in their integrity and power.

If philosophy, which disclaims the fanciful and the intricate, when she has found the simple and the satisfactory, be listened to, it will be admitted that the traces of pagan rites confirm the Mosaic record, and the doctrine of a primal, Divine Sabbath, by an amount of evidence which, in a matter involving no fierce antipathies, would command an unhesitating and unqualified belief. "Many vain conjectures have been formed concerning the reasons and motives which determined all mankind to agree in this primitive division of their time. Nothing but tradition concerning the space of time employed in the creation of the world, could give rise to this universal, immemorial practice."1

▲ President de Goguet. Origin of Laws, vol. i. p. 282.

THE SABBATH OR LORD'S DAY IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY.

A statement of the evidence for the authority and value of the Sabbath would be incomplete without some account of its history. The Word of God, indeed, is the standard of all religious faith and practice, but we must be indebted to the annals of the world, and especially of the Church, for help in ascertaining the canon of revelation, in interpreting its language, and in verifying its declarations and prophecies, its promises and warnings. In the aid derived from these annals our subject largely shares. The manifold vestiges of the Sabbatic institution, traceable in the written remains of heathen nations, strikingly confirm the doctrine of its primæval and Divine appointment. And as we follow its track in Christendom, we find that ecclesiastical records render, in various forms, still more important service.

The history of the earlier centuries of Christianity throws light on the meaning of certain Scripture terms which have been the occasion of a vexed question among controversialists. In designating what is now known amongst us as the Christian Sabbath, the Fathers make use of names which they never apply to any other day of the week. With them" the eighth day," "the day of the Sun," "the first day of the week," and "the Lord's Day," signify one particular day and no other. Barnabas, or whoever was the author of the Catholic Epistle ascribed to him, mentions "the eighth day" as that on which "Jesus rose from the dead," and which the Christians of his time observed as a festal day.1 We are informed by Justin Martyr, that the Christians of the second century assembled on "the day of the Sun," and that they did So, "because on this first day God made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead."2 The same Father affirms, that "Christ rose from the dead on the eighth day," which, he adds, "may be called the eighth and yet remains the first." In the third century, Cyprian represents the eighth day as both "the first after the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day."4

1 Epist. c. 15.

3 Dial. cum Tryph. c. 41.

2 Apol. 1, ad finem.
4 Epist. 64.

When we compare these passages with each other, we find that "the eighth day," "the day of the Sun," or Sunday, "the day of the Redeemer's resurrection," "the first day of the week," and "the Lord's Day," are, according to the combined testimony of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, and Cyprian, the same day. Were it not that we are limited by our theme to a certain period, we might enlarge the proof from the language of Hilary, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine. Theorists, who affirm that the Jewish seventh day continues the day of the Christian Sabbath, and others, who assert that there is no evidence in the New Testament for the Divine appointment of a day of sacred rest under Christianity at all, have thus one of the chief grounds of their opinions swept away the ground, that the expressions, "the first day of the week," and "the Lord's Day," do not denote the day to which in our time they are usually applied. There is the most satisfactory proof in Scripture itself, that the designations must be so understood; but when Christian writers-some of whom were conversant with persons that might have seen and heard the apostle John-agree with the great body of Christians in their views of such phraseology, not a shade of doubt ought to remain as to the correctness of the interpretation.

It is otherwise, as respects uniformity of meaning, with the word "Sabbath," which is not in the writings of the Fathers employed to indicate exclusively one day. The earlier Fathers appear always to express by it the "seventh" day, while they designate by some one or other of the above-mentioned terms the distinctive season of Christian worship. As "the Sabbath" had been for so long a time the well-known title of the weekly holy day among the Jews, it was obviously needful for preventing mistake, that the institution which had passed to a new day should have a new name. But as time advanced, and may not we add, as the Lord's day came to be no longer in danger of being confounded with the Jewish Sabbath, the old name was gradually resumed and attached to the Christian holy day. The earliest instance of the restoration of the word to its ancient honour, that we have discovered, occurs in a passage of Irenæus (A.D. 178), where, after showing that Christ in healing the sick did nothing "beyond the law of the Sabbath-day," he draws the conclusion, that "the

"1

true sanctification of. the Sabbath consists in doing works of mercy.' He is followed by Clemens Alexandrinus, who holds the eighth day "to be properly the Sabbath, but the seventh a working day;"2 and by Origen, who says, "Leaving the Jewish observances, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be kept by a Christian;" concluding his description with the words, "This is the observance of the Christian Sabbath." "13 Examples might also be given from the writings of Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome, Augustine, Rufinus, and Chrysostom, but they belong to a later date. Several instances, doubtless, exist in which Augustine and others employ the word "Sabbath" in its original acceptation. But this they do when they have occasion to mention and discriminate the Jewish and Christian weekly days of rest; and, even in this case, they sometimes say, "the Jewish Sabbath." On other occasions, they feel that there is no need of any explanatory or qualifying epithet when they call the Lord's day the Sabbath; a fact which is only in harmony with the conviction, everywhere manifest in their writings, that the Sabbatic institution had, besides specific relations to the Mosaic and Christian economies, a generic rest and sacredness common to all times. The Fathers might conceive, as many since their days have done, that there is something in a name, and that though circumstances required them for a time to restrict themselves to certain expressions, they could not, in justice to ancient rights, or dutifully to the immutable Decalogue, surrender a word so significant of their privileges and obligations as "the Sabbath."

There is a particular instance of the employment of the word "Sabbath-day," in the New Testament, as to the reference of which, whether to the seventh-day or to the first-day Sabbath, there has been some controversy. It has occurred to us that a solution of the difficulty may be found in the following remarks. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70. Our Lord had, in reference to that event, said to his disciples, "There shall not an hair of your head perish. When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the

1 Adv. Hæres, lib. iv. c. 19.

Hom. 23, in Num.

2 Strom. lib. vi. c. 16.

mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out" (Luke xxi. 18, 20, 21). In fulfilment of these words, both of promise and command, the Christians had escaped and taken refuge at Pella. From the tactics employed by the Roman general, we learn what day was intended in another command of our Lord to his disciples: "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day" (Matt. xxiv. 20). We are nowhere informed of the precise time at which the Christians left the city. It is only in general terms stated by Eusebius that they did so after the war had commenced under the conduct of Titus. It has often been affirmed that they left the city at the time of the retreat of Cestius Gallus, when, according to Josephus, many of the most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city as from a sinking ship.2 But the departure of the Christians is not mentioned by that historian as having then occurred, nor does the supposition agree with the language either of Eusebius or of the evangelists, the latter defining the time as that when Jerusalem was to be encompassed with armies, and the abomination of desolation should stand in the holy place (Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 14; Luke xxi. 20). The military ensigns were the chief objects of Roman idolatry, and when these were brought to the temple, and sacrifices were offered to them, "the abomination of desolation stood in the holy place." This was the signal for flight to the followers of Christ. The season was summer, and the day was not the Lord's day,-for on that day Titus made his attacks, -but a Jewish Sabbath-day, when, knowing that the inhabitants would not desecrate the time by any military or other work, he employed himself in constructing machines, and making his preparations for the active prosecution of the siege on the other days.3 Saturday was the most convenient, if not the only possible day, on which the Christians could leave the city. In their situation, it is not conceivable that they could forget their Lord's command to them to pray. Their supplications were heard as

1 Euseb. Hist. lib. ii. c. 5.

2 Wars of the Jews, B. ii. ch. 20.

Titus employed the Sabbath-days in constructing machines, etc., previous to his attacks on the following Sundays. His first assault was on Sunday, April 22, A. D. 70. Part of the lower city was taken, Sunday, May 6; the temple was burnt, Sunday. August 5; and the upper city was taken and destroyed, Sunday, Sept. 2.-Kitto's History of Palestine, vol. ii. p. 756.