Facts for the Times

THE SABBATH CHANGED BY HUMAN AUTHORITY

“Think to change times and laws.” DR. STONE in his work on the change of the Sabbath, p. 15, says: FT 90.3

“No precept enjoining the change was given, for the very reason, evidently, that Divine Wisdom saw it was not best to issue such a precept.” FT 90.4

Very true, Mr. Stone; and we may add that Divine Wisdom saw it was not best to issue such a precept for the very reason, evidently, that no such change was intended. FT 90.5

DR. NEANDER says: FT 90.6

“Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early.” FT 90.7

DR. CHAMBERS says: FT 90.8

“It was Constantine the Great who first made a law for the observance of Sunday, and who, according to Eusebius, appointed that it should be regularly celebrated throughout the Roman Empire.” FT 90.9

He adds, “Indeed, some are of the opinion that the Lord’s day mentioned in the Apocalypse, is our Sunday; which they will have to have been so early instituted.” “By Constatine’s laws made in 321, it was decreed that for the future the Sunday should be kept a day of rest in all cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow their work. In 538, the Council of Orleans prohibited this country labor. FT 91.1

“To give the more solemnity to the first day of the week, (as we learn from Lucius’ Ecclesiastical History,) Sylvester who was bishop of Rome while Constantine was Emperor, changed the name of Sunday, giving it the more imposing title of Lord’s day.” Ency., Art. Sunday. FT 91.2

Constantine’s Decree says: FT 91.3

“Let all the Judges and town-people, and the occupations of all trades, rest on the venerable day of the sun.” FT 91.4

The Council of Laodicea, held A. D. 668, says: FT 91.5

“Christians must not Judaize and remain Idle on the Sabbath, but apply to work: let them prefer the Sunday, and show their respect for that day as Christians by abstaining from work on that day, if they choose. If they be found Judaizing, let them be anathema.” FT 91.6

The Historian says: FT 91.7

“Constantine styles the Lord’s day, dies solis, (day of the sun,) a name which could not offend the ears of his Pagan subjects.” He artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year two edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, etc.” Gibsons’s Rome, Chap. XX. FT 91.8

Baronius in his Councils, says: FT 92.1

“This year [903] at Rome, St. Gregory, the Pope, corrected that error which some preached, by Jewish superstition, or the Grecian custom, that it was duty to workship on the Sabbath.” FT 92.2

Melancthon says: FT 92.3

“Those who judge that by the authority of the church the observance of the Lord’s day has been substituted for that of the Sabbath, as if necessary, greatly err.” FT 92.4

Thomas Arnold, D. D., Professor in the University of Oxford, so lat as 1840, writes as follows: FT 92.5

“It is true no doubt, that the Lord’s day was kept from time immemorial in the church as a day of festival, and connected with the notion of festival, the abstinence from wordly business naturally followed. A weekly religious festival, in which wordly business was suspended, bore such a resemblance to the Sabbath, that the analogy of the Jewish Law was often urged as a reason for its observance.” Arnold’s Life, pp. 204-6. FT 92.6

Bishop CRANMER’S Catechism. A. D. 1548, says: FT 92.7

“The Jews were commanded in the Old Testament to keep the Sabbath day, and they observed it every seventh day, called the Sabbath, or Saturday; but we Christian men are not bound to such commandments in Moses’ law, and therefore we now keep no more the Sabbath, or Saturday, as the Jews did, but we observe the Sunday, and some other days, as the magistrates do judge convenient.” FT 92.8

WM. TYNDALE says: FT 93.1

“Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday, other than to put a difference between us and the Jews, and lest we should become servants to the day after their superstition.” FT 93.2

BINIUS relates that Eustachius, Abbot of Flay, a popish Monk, in A. D. 1201 introduced Sunday-keeping into England, by virtue of a letter which he pretended came from Heavens to Jerusalem, and was found on St. Simeon’s tomb in Golgotha. The forged letter begins thus: FT 93.3

“I, the Lord, who commanded you that ye should observe the Dominical day, (Sunday) and ye have not kept it,” etc. FT 93.4

The miraculous things which the Monk related in regard to this letter, gradually turned the people to the observance of the first day, so that by A. D. 1470, it was observed by Parliament.” FT 93.5

The first forgery not being sufficient to awe the whole people into the observance of Sunday, in A. D. 1783 another comes from the same source as follows: FT 93.6

“A letter written by God himself, FT 93.7

“And which was handed down at Magdeburg. “It was written in golden letters, and sent from God himself, by an angel; whoever wishes to copy it, to him it shall be given; whoever despises it, from him will the Lord depart. FT 93.8

“Whosoever labors on Sunday is cursed.—Therefore I command you that you labor not on Sunday, but devoutly go to church; but not to decorate your faces; ye shall not wear false hair, nor be proud of your riches; ye shall give to the poor; give liberally, and believe that this letter is written by my own hand, sent down by Christ himself; and that ye do not as the irrational beasts. Ye have six days in the week: but the seventh (namely, Sunday,) ye shall sanctify; if ye will not do this, I will send war, famine, pestilence and scarcity among you, and punish you with many plagues. FT 93.9

“I Jesus, have written this with my own hand; whoever contradicts and blasphemes it, shall have no help to expect from me; whoever has the letter and does not reveal it, he is cursed from the CHRISTIAN CHURCH; and if your sins be ever so great, they shall be forgiven if ye exercise repentance and sorrow. FT 94.1

“Whoever does not believe it, shall die, and be tormented in hell, and I too shall inquire at the last day after your sins, when ye must answer me.” FT 94.2

“And that person who carries the letter with him, or keeps it in his house, shall not be injured by any thunder-gust; he shall be secure from fire and water; and whoever shall reveal it before the children of men, shall have his reward, and obtain a blessed departure from this world. FT 94.3

“Keep my commandment which I have sent to you through my angel. I, true God of the Throne of Heaven, Son of God and of Mary. Amen.” FT 94.4

Sunday-keeping has been introduced and defended on the principle of the following FT 94.5