some bringing out its allegorical and typical character. And they speak variously of the Lord's Day; 137 some referring to the Circumcision day as a type of it; some to the commencement of the manna shower, as an honor conferred by anticipation upon it; some to the primeval creation of light for its sanction; some, in fact the great majority, to the Lord's Resurrection as having been its reason. They are not critics, 138 and perhaps we cannot always coincide with their exegesis of Scripture, or sympathise with all their expressions, either in the passages now adduced or in the rest of their compositions. But with every abatement, their negative agreement is most valuable. None of them speak of the Sabbath as binding upon Christians, or as connected with the Christian life, except in a typical and instructive sense; none of them identify it with the Lord's Day; none of them transfuse the spirit of the Sabbath into the Lord's Day, or refer either to the Fourth Commandment, or to God's rest after the Creation, for the sanctions of the Lord's Day. With the exception perhaps of what is said in that one passage of Tertullian, (which however need mean no more than I have attributed to it), and with merely this difference, that a form of worship, an orderly arrangement of teaching and of administration of the Lord's Supper, have sprung up, and that recognized buildings 130 for the holding of its Christian assemblies now exist, the Lord's Day is the same free and purely Christian institution, after the lapse of so long a time, as it was when St. Paul preached at Troas, or St. John was in the Spirit on the desert rock in the Egæan.

The Sabbath, it is true, either through the charity of the orthodox Christians, or through the pertinacity with which Christians of Jewish descent adhered to their ancestral prepossessions, (as in an instance which I shall mention directly), for a time obtained a partial respect. And, provided that it was not insisted upon as necessary to be

Be

imposed on Gentile Christians, but only cherished as a matter of private regard, the Church did not seriously object to this. It was natural enough that, in the words of Hooker,140 So long as the glory of the Temple continued, and until the time of that final desolation was accomplished, the [very] Christian Jews should continue with their sacrifices and other parts of legal service." They did so continue. The Apostles did not interefere with them; and even showed, by their own occasional conformity, that they considered their prepossessions to be, under the circumstances, excusable, and in themselves harmless. sides, as, in the words of Bishop Stillingfleet,141 "The laws of Moses were incorporated into the very republic of the Jews, and their subsistence and government depended upon them, and their religion and laws were so interwoven one with the other, that one could not be broken off from the other," the Apostles no doubt considered this adherence to the old forms to be a matter of national usage, with which, so long as it was not absolutely anti-Christian, Christianity was not bound to meddle. The Jewish ceremonies,142 (says one of old), though mortua, were not mortifera. And the same charitable and wise forbearance was exercised even after the destruction of the Temple. The Nazarenes,143 (a name at first applied to all Christians, but eventually limited to Judaizing Christians, especially those who withdrew to Pella as the last days of Jerusalem seemed nigh), were connived at, and, in their origin at least, considered to be orthodox, on this principle, that they merely took the law upon themselves, without making any attempt to impose it on the Gentiles. But forbearance had its limits, even in Apostolic times. St. Paul would not circumcise Titus, who was a Greek; and so the Ebionites of the second century and later, who, besides their other errors, considered the Sabbath, which they rigorously observed themselves, to be of universal obligation, were held to be heretics. It is one

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argument against the genuineness both of the larger edition of Ignatius' Epistles, and of the document called "the Apostolic Constitutions," that they go counter to the whole stream of ante-Nicene testimony and teaching,the former in asserting that the early Church observed, the latter in asserting that it ought to observe, the Sabbath as well as the Lord's Day. (See Lardner, c. 85, and PseudoIgn. to Magn. μEтà Tò σаßßаTíoai, &c.). It is true, again, that other Festivals began to be added to the Christian ritual, and that certain Fasts began to be instituted, probably in development of an idea which is apparent in the New Testament, and which no doubt, under the Divine guidance, influenced the Apostles in the choice of the day of the Resurrection as a weekly Christian Festival; that Christ is to be seen in everything, and that His course is a type and allegory and earnest of the Christian's life. But side-shoots from a tree, so far from altering the character of the parent stem, rather evidence its vigorous existence, and the distance to which its roots have spread themselves in the adjacent soil.

And what if the Sabbath was considered in the Western Church, (with the exception perhaps of the Church at Milan), to be a Fast, before the end of the third century had quite set in? It was so considered, not in right of its being a Jewish institution, i.e. not as the Sabbath, but in connexion with something altogether Christian. Friday had become a Fast, in commemoration of our Lord's Crucifixion; bye and bye this Fast was continued into the Saturday. Thus the Sabbath came to be observed by way of vπéρleois, or super-positio, not for its own sake, but as a corollary to the day which preceded it. Somewhat later it formed a recognised part of the discipline and preparation for the Kupiakn, the day of joy. The Eastern Church, professedly for reasons of its own, which will be noticed hereafter, but no doubt in consequence of the greater proportion

of Jewish elements in its composition, gradually came to rank the Sabbath as a Festival, co-ordinate, or nearly so, with the Lord's Day. It is not exactly known when this became general in that branch of the Church. It may have become so in the ante-Nicene period; but probably not for some time afterwards. It finds its chief encouragement in the Apostolical Constitutions, which relate principally to the Eastern Church. For the Western practice of fasting on the Sabbath another excuse was discovered in later times: "St. Peter fasted 145 on that day to prepare himself for the dispute with Simon Magus." With such points, however, as the origin and obligation of Holy Seasons and Holy Days, beyond and besides the Lord's Day, we are not here concerned. The sole object of the latter part of this present Lecture has been to inquire whether at the end of the third century the Lord's Day remained the same simple and unencumbered ordinance which the Apostles bequeathed to the Church. I think we have answered this question in the affirmative. Whether it continued such, in the centuries from that date to the Reformation, I shall consider in the next Lecture.

LECTURE III.

GALATIANS II. 18.

FOR IF I BUILD AGAIN THE THINGS WHICH I DESTROYED, I MAKE MYSELF A TRANSGRESSOR.

Εἰ γὰρ ἃ κατέλυσα, ταῦτα πάλιν οἰκοδομῶ, παραβάτην ἐμαυτὸν συνιστάνω. It is very difficult to determine in what manner the celebrated edict of Constantine, which introduces a new era in the history of the Lord's Day, should be regarded, or how his motives should be interpreted. There is scarcely a single portion of it which has not been criticised, and criticised in different ways. The document itself is as follows :

IMPERATOR CONSTANTINUS AUG. HELPIDIO.

Omnes judices 146 urbanæque plebes et cunctarum artium officia venerabili die Solis quiescant. Ruri tamen positi agrorum culturæ liberè licenterque inserviant, quoniam frequenter evenit ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulcis aut vineæ scrobibus mandentur, ne occasione momenti pereat commoditas cœlesti provisione concessa. Dat. Non. Mart. Crispo II. et Constantino II. Coss.

THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE TO HELPIDIUS.

On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in the work of cultivation may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. Given, the seventh day of March. Crispus and Constantine being Consuls each of them for the second time. (A.D. 321.)