HISTORY OF THE SABBATH - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

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History of the Sabbath by J.N AndrewsCHAPTER 18THE SABBATH IN THE RECORD OF THE EARLY FATHERSThe first reasons for neglecting the Sabbath are now mostly obsolete - A portion of theearly fathers taught the perpetuity of the decalogue, and made it the standard of moralcharacter - What they say concerning the origin of the Sabbath at Creation - Theirtestimony concerning the perpetuity of the ancient Sabbath, and concerning itsobservance - Enumeration of the things which caused the suppression of the Sabbathand the elevation of Sunday.The reasons offered by the early fathers for neglecting the observance of the Sabbath showconclusively that they had no special light on the subject by reason of living in the firstcenturies, which we in this later age do not possess. The fact is, so many of the reasonsoffered by them are manifestly false and absurd that those who in these days discard theSabbath, do also discard the most of the reasons offered by these fathers for this same course.We have also learned from such of the early fathers as mention first-day observance, the exactnature of the Sunday festival, and all the reasons which in the first centuries were offered inits support. Very few indeed of these reasons are now offered by modern first-day writers.But some of the fathers bear emphatic testimony to the perpetuity of the ten commandments,and make their observance the condition of eternal life. Some of them also distinctly assert theorigin of the Sabbath at creation. Several of them moreover either bear witness to theexistence of Sabbath-keepers, or bear decisive testimony to the perpetuity and obligation ofthe Sabbath, or define the nature of proper Sabbatic observance, or connect the observance ofthe Sabbath and first day together. Let us now hear the testimony of those who assert theauthority of the ten commandments. Irenaeus asserts their perpetuity, and makes them a testof Christian character. Thus he says:"For God at the first, indeed, warning them [the Jews] by means of naturalprecepts, which from the beginning he had implanted in mankind, that is, bymeans of the DECALOGUE (which, if any one does not observe, he has nosalvation,) did then demand nothing more of them. 1This is a very strong statement. He makes the ten commandments the law of nature implantedin man's being at the beginning; and so inherited by all mankind. This is no doubt true. It isthe presence of the carnal mind or law of sin and death, implanted in man by the fall, that haspartially obliterated this law, and made the work of the new covenant a necessity. 2 He againasserts the perpetuity and authority of the ten commandments:"Preparing man for this life, the Lord himself did speak in his own person to allalike the words of the Decalogue: and therefore, in the like manner, do theyremain permanently with us, receiving, by means of his advent in the flesh,extension and increase, but not abrogation." 3174
Chapter Eighteen – The Sabbath in the Record of the Early FathersBy the "extension" of the decalogue, Irenaeus doubtless means the exposition which theSaviour gave of the meaning of the commandments in his sermon on the mount. 4 Theophilusspeaks in like manner concerning the decalogue:-"For God has given us a law and holy commandments; and every one whokeeps these can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inheritincorruption." 5"We have learned a holy law; but we have as lawgiver him who is really God,who teaches us to act righteously, and to be pious, and to do good." 6"Of this great and wonderful law which tends to all righteousness, the TENHEADS are such as we have already rehearsed." 7Tertullian calls the ten commandments "the rules of our regenerate life," that is to say, therules which govern the life of a converted man:"They who theorize respecting numbers, honor the number ten as the parent ofall the others, and as imparting perfection to the human nativity. For my ownpart, I prefer viewing this measure of time in reference to God, as if implyingthat the ten months rather initiated man into the ten commandments; so that thenumerical estimate of the time needed to consummate our natural birth shouldcorrespond to the numerical classification of the rules of our regenerate life." 8In showing the deep guilt involved in the violation of the seventh commandment, Tertullianspeaks of the sacredness of the commandments which precede it, naming several of them inparticular, and among them the fourth, and then says of the precept against adultery thatIt stands "in the very forefront of the most holy law, among the primary countsof the celestial edict." 9Clement of Rome, or rather the author whose works have been ascribed to this father, speaksthus of the decalogue as a test:"On account of those, therefore, who, by neglect of their own salvation, pleasethe evil one, and those who, by study of their own profit, seek to please thegood One, ten things have been prescribed as a test to this present age,according to the number of the ten plagues which were brought upon Egypt." 10Novation, who wrote about A.D. 250, is accounted the founder of the sect called Cathari orPuritans. He wrote a treatise on the Sabbath, which is not extant. There is no reference toSunday in any of his writings. He makes the following striking remarks concerning the morallaw:"The law was given to the children of Israel for this purpose, that they mightprofit by it, and RETURN to those virtuous manners which, although they hadreceived them from their fathers, they had corrupted in Egypt by reason oftheir intercourse with a barbarous people. Finally, also, those tencommandments on the tables teach nothing new, but remind them of what hadbeen obliterated - that righteousness in them, which had been put to sleep,might revive again as it were by the afflatus of the law, after the manner of afire [nearly extinguished]." 11 175
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