Facts of Faith

The Primitive Christians

Bishop Jeremy Taylor says: FAFA 85.1

“The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews; ... therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council; which also took care that the reading of the Gospels should be mingled with their reading of the law.” — “The Whole Works” of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX, p. 416 (R. Heber’s Edition, Vol. XII, P. 416). London: 1822.

The edict here mentioned is “Canon XVI, ” which reads: FAFA 85.2

“Canon XVI. - The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath Day, with the other Scriptures.” — “Index Canonum,” — John Fulton, D. D., LL. D., p. 255. New York: 1883.

Dr. T. H. Morer (a Church of England divine) says: FAFA 85.3

“The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the apostles themselves, as appears by several Scriptures to that purpose.” — “Dialogues on the Lord’s Day,” p. 189. London: 1701.

Dr. Theodore Zahn (Lutheran Professor in Theology at the University of Erlangen) says: “The Apostles could not have conceded to any other than one man the right to ‘change the customs Moses had given:’ the Son of Man, who had called Himself Lord also of the Sabbath day; but of Him they knew that He had neither transgressed nor abolished the Jewish Sabbath, but truly sanctified it. And they knew also, how He had threatened any of His disciples who might dare to abolish even one of the least of the commands of Moses. FAFA 85.4

“But this has no one dared to do with the Sabbath commandment during the time of the Apostles. Certainly not within the territory of the Jewish Christendom; for they continued to keep the actual Sabbath.... Nor could any one have thought of such a thing within the Gentile Christian domain as far as Paul’s influence reached.” — “Sondagens Historie” (History of Sunday), pp. 83, 84. Christiania: P. T. Mallings, 1879. FAFA 86.1