And Heylyn says of the term Sabbath in the ancient church:—
“The Saturday is called amongst them by no other name than that which formerly it had, the Sabbath. So that whenever for a thousand years and upwards, we meet with Sabbatum in any writer of what name soever, it must be understood of no day but Saturday.”[791]
Dr. Francis White, bishop of Ely, also testifies:—
“When the ancient fathers distinguish and give proper names to the particular days of the week, they always style the Saturday, Sabbatum, the Sabbath, and the Sunday, or first day of the week, Dominicum, the Lord’s day.”[792]
It should be observed, however, that the earliest mention of Sunday as the Lord’s day, is in the writings of Tertullian; Justin Martyr, some sixty years before, styling it “the day called Sunday;” while the authoritative application of that term to Sunday was by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, more than one hundred years after the time of Tertullian. The earliest mention of Sunday as Christian Sabbath is thus noted by Heylyn:—
“The first who ever used it to denote the Lord’s day (the first that I have met with in all this search) is one Petrus Alfonsus—he lived about the time that Rupertus did—[which was the beginning of the twelfth century] who calls the Lord’s day by the name of Christian Sabbath.”[793]
Of Sunday labor in the eastern church, Heylyn says:—
“It was near nine hundred years from our Saviour’s birth if not quite so much, before restraint of husbandry on this day had been first thought of in the east; and probably being thus restrained did find no more obedience there than it had done before in the western parts.”[794]
Of Sunday labor in the western church, Dr. Francis White thus testifies:—