the seventh day to the first day. I shall adduce them also, but with a totally different purpose. They will show, first, that peculiar associations would be necessarily connected in the minds of the Apostles with the first day of the week. Secondly, that on this day they were accustomed to meet, and recommended their followers to meet, and for certain religious objects. Thirdly, that whether from such associations or from the nature of the relation to their Lord into which they were thus brought on it, or from both united, the term "Lord's Day" was actually applied by them to it. This I think will at least amount to a high probability that the day would be chosen by the Apostles as characteristic of the New Dispensation, and to an evidence that it was so chosen. At any rate, if we may judge from parallel instances, it is all that the nature of the case allows. If you desire dogmatic statements on this class of subjects, I may say to the Sabbatarians, you will not find them in Scripture, in reference to Confirmation, Orders, Infant Baptism, any more than in reference to the ordinance now in question. And I may say to the Dominicals, you may desert Scripture if you please, and resort only to the Church of the next two centuries for authorities on these matters, but you will find there not dogmatic statements, but simply testimonies to the facts that the customs just mentioned were practised, "the Lord's Day" honoured.

On the first day of the week, then, our Lord rose from the dead, and appeared on five different occasions to His followers to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to the two disciples on their road to Emmaus, to St. Peter separately, to the Apostles collectively. After eight daysthat is, according to the ordinary way of reckoning, on the first day of the next week,-He appeared to the Eleven. There is no record of His having appeared in the interval, it may be, (as Dean Owen and Bishop Horsley conjecture),

to render that day especially noticeable by the Apostles, or it may be because they had already determined to meet on that day. But, however this may have been, on the day of Pentecost, which in that year occurred on the first day of the week, "they were all with one accord in one place." Thus, the day already associated with the fulfilment of one of our Lord's promises, His Resurrection, received a most signal mark in addition by the fulfilment of a second promise, the descent of the Holy Spirit.

We dwell not, however, on these facts, except to urge, first, that whether from accident,76 (so to speak), or from intention, the main body of believers at Jerusalem were, on the first day of the week, assembled, and had religious communications made to them, or religious impressions wrought on them; and that, on the last occasion of the three, they began, having been benefited themselves, to convey religious instruction and religious gifts to the multitude who witnessed the effects of a certain miracle: and further, that if the Apostles be considered to be merely uninspired persons, and in that capacity to have debated by what day they should mark their religion, and carry out what may be conceived to be a religious instinct, the duty of worshipping God specially on one day, (the cycle of seven being suggested by the form of religion from which they were gradually emancipating themselves), they would have been likely to choose the day of the Resurrection. Christianity was in especial the "Gospel of the Resurrection."

But we proceed. At Troas, (Acts xx. 7), many years after the occurrence at Pentecost, when Christianity had begun to assume a more settled form, we find that something of this sort occurred. St. Paul and his companions arrived there, and "abode seven days, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." Now one would think

that unless the first day of the week had been already the stated day of Christian assembling, St. Luke's narrative would have run thus, "On the last day of Paul's stay, he called the disciples together to break bread, and preached unto them." But his language is very different "the first day of the week," evidently their usual day of meeting for the religious purposes of "breaking bread," and of receiving instruction, if there was any one present to instruct them. The matter of course way in which these circumstances are introduced seems to indicate that these were points already established.

It is fair to remark here that the phrase "breaking bread "a includes both the Holy Communion" and the άyáπaι, or Feasts of Charity, which at that time were invariably connected, though the latter are now disused. And if it be argued that aɣámai were an Apostolic custom or institution, and so must be continued in the Church upon the principle given above, an answer is ready. The same authority which instituted them can annul them. Certain words are written by St. Paul to the Corinthians : "When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating every one. taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." The ayánaι are also glanced at by St. Jude, "These are spots in your Feasts of Charity," with at least a misgiving of evil. Now these two passages taken together prove satisfactorily, that though that custom was Apostolic, it was abused, and by Apostolic authority so discouraged that, on the abuse continuing, the Church was justified in disusing

4 κλάσαι τὸν ἄρτον.

» Οὗτοί εἰσιν ἐν ταῖς ἀγάπαις ὑμῶν σπιλάδες, verse 12.

it. But a simpler method of reconciling our theory with the disuse of ayάπαι would be this. To consider them an accompaniment of the Holy Eucharist, in fact, an accessory of its ceremonial, suitable in the earliest times, but, from the nature of the case, unsuitable afterwards. For the same reason, certain regulations about apparel, salutation ev φιλήματι ἁγίῳ οι ἐν φιλήματι ἀγάπης, and having all things common," have naturally disappeared. Practices or injunctions also necessarily involving miraculous powers, Unction of the sick, for instance, are no longer to be used. To retain such Unction, now that either miraculous powers have ceased, or miraculous results are no longer expected, would be, as our Church justly styles it, "a corrupt following of the Apostles." "This," (says Thorndike very pertinently),78 "is laid aside in all the Reformed Churches, upon presumption of common sense, that the reason is no longer in force; being ordained, as you see, to restore health by the grace of miracles that no more exist." It is mere childishness to say with the authorised Italian Catechism, that it also assists in the recovery of bodily health, if that should be useful to the health of the soul." a

I am perfectly aware that some have contended that "the first day of the week" cannot mean the first day, but must be either the end of the Sabbath, or the commencement of the second day. I am content, however, to take the Scripture as it stands. Those who are curious on this question may see what Augustine says in his thirty-sixth Epistle (ad Casulanum); and also Chrysostom on Acts xx. 7, and on 1 Cor. xvi. 2.

An additional feature connected with "the first day of the week" is introduced in the same unstudied manner in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2: "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the Churches in Galatia,

a Ed ancora ajuta a ricevere la sanità del corpo; se quella sia utile alla salute dell' anima.

80

even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." St. Paul seems here to allude to the first day of the week as one already known for the celebration of religious duties, and which he need not therefore recommend for the first time. "On that day, then," he says, "let each of you add to the other duties performed upon it, the duty of almsgiving." And though he does not expressly say that the Xoyía, or collection of alms, is to be made in the assembly taking place on that day, it seems reasonable to suppose that this would be the case. Every man would naturally determine Tap' ἑαυτῷ, by himself, what to give, and give ἕκαστος καθὼς προῄρηται τῇ καρδίᾳ, as he had determined in his heart, 2 Cor. ix. 7. The words ekaσTOS TilέTw Onσavpičwv, let each lay by in store, would thus apply to his assigning and devoting in his own mind, not to his house, as to the place in which the offering was made. For if it was made anywhere but in the assembly, St. Paul's wish would be frustrated, and the Xoyía from each of the houses would have to take place on his arrival. "This duty," he adds, " I have already enjoined in similar terms on the Galatians." (Afterwards he inculcated it, though more generally, on the Romans, enforcing it by the example of the Macedonians and Achæans.) It is as if he had said, "Do you sanctify your gifts by offering them on the day which you already reverence."

81

The next passage that I would cite is that well-known one in Heb. x. 25: "Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another." It is true that the first day is not mentioned here in express terms, and that hence some have said that the passage is not fairly adducible for our purpose. To my mind it seems very apposite. It alludes to an existing practice too well known to need describing, éπovvaywyn, 82

D