“For the better observation and keeping holy the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday: be it enacted ... that all the laws enacted and in force concerning the observation of the day, and repairing to the church thereon, be carefully put in execution; and that all and every person and persons whatsoever shall on every Lord's day apply themselves to the observation of the same, by exercising themselves thereon in the duties of piety and true religion, publicly and privately.”—“Revised Statutes of England From 1235-1685 a.d.” (London, 1870), pages 779, 780; cited in “A Critical History of Sunday Legislation,” by A. H. Lewis, D. D., pages 108, 109.
17. What did the first Sunday law enacted in America, that of Virginia, in 1610, require?
“Every man and woman shall repair in the morning to the divine service and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and catechizing, upon pain for the first fault to lose their provision and the allowance for the whole week following; for the second, to lose the said allowance and also be whipped; and for the third to suffer death.”—Articles, Laws, and Orders, Divine, Politique, and Martial, for the Colony in Virginia: first established by Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, Lieutenant-General, the 24th of May, 1610.
Notes.—These are the original Sunday laws, after which all the Sunday laws of Europe and America have been modeled. Church attendance is not generally required by the Sunday laws of the present day, nor was it required, in terms, by the earliest Sunday laws; but that is and ever has been the chief object of all Sunday legislation from Constantine's time on, and it is as much out of place today as it ever was.
Who Persecute And Why
The Stoning Of Stephen. "Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." John 16:2.
1. Because Jesus had not kept the Sabbath according to their ideas, what did the Jews do?