4. “The command of circumcision, again, bidding [them] always circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and iniquity through Him who rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath.”[607]
Clement, of Alexandria, appears to treat solely of a mystical eighth day or Lord’s day. It is perhaps possible that he has some reference to Sunday. We therefore quote what he says in behalf of this day, calling attention to the fact that he produces his testimony, not from the Bible, but from a heathen philosopher. Thus he says:—
“And the Lord’s day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: ‘And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow on the eighth day they are to set out and arrive in four days.’”[608]
Clement’s reasons for Sunday are found outside the Scriptures. The next father will give us a good reason for Clement’s action in this case.
Tertullian is the next writer who gives reasons for the Sunday festival. He is speaking of “offerings for the dead,” the manner of Sunday observance, and the use of the sign of the cross upon the forehead. Here is the ground on which these observances rest:—
“If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom, as their strengthener, and faith, as their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself perceive, or learn from some one who has.”[609]
Tertullian’s frankness is to be commended. He had no Scripture to offer, and he acknowledges the fact. He depended on tradition, and he was not ashamed to confess it. The next of the fathers who gives Scripture evidence in support of the Sunday festival, is Origen. Here are his words:—
“The manna fell on the Lord’s day, and not on the Sabbath to show the Jews that even then the Lord’s day was preferred before it.”[610]
Origen seems to have been of Tertullian’s judgment as to the inconclusiveness of the arguments adduced by his predecessors. He therefore coined an original argument which seems to have been very conclusive in his estimation as he offers this alone. But he must have forgotten that the manna fell on all the six working days, or he would have seen that while his argument does not elevate Sunday above the other five working days, it does make the Sabbath the least reputable day of the seven! And yet the miracle of the manna was expressly designed to set forth the sacredness of the Sabbath and to establish its authority before the people. Cyprian is the next father who gives an argument for the Sunday festival. He contents himself with one of Justin’s old arguments, viz., that one drawn from circumcision. Thus he says:—