Lest his statements might be understood to be opposed to the authority of the ten commandments, Irenæus adds the following sentences: “The Lord spoke the words of the decalogue in like manner to all. They remain, therefore, permanently with us, receiving, through the Lord’s advent in the flesh, extension and increase, not abrogation.” (Book iv. ch. 31, p. 320.) Thus the law of the Sabbath remains, though not binding to the observance of the seventh day.
We now come to this writer’s clear and distinct testimony, in its more positive aspect, to the Lord’s day. Irenæus took a prominent part in what has been called the Quarta-Deciman controversy. The question at issue was—Should the anniversary of the Lord’s resurrection be in connection with the Jewish passover, on whatever day of the week that might occur, or on the Lord’s day invariably? This question first arose on a visit of Polycarp, bishop or presbyter of Smyrna, to Aniest, bishop of Rome, about 160, and was discussed for many years. Irenæus, acting as the representative of the Christians in Gaul, wrote to Victor, then bishop of Rome, in these terms: “The mystery of the Lord’s resurrection should be celebrated only on the Lord’s day.” (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. book v. chap. 23, 24; Paris ed., 1678, pp. 155, 156.) It will be remarked here that while there was diversity of view in regard to the yearly celebration of the Lord’s resurrection—a celebration of which we have no account whatever until the year 160, there was no question concerning the sacred observance of the first day as the weekly commemoration of the Lord’s rising from the dead.
“We simply add a reference to one of the best known of the fragments of Irenæus in which there is further explicit testimony to the Lord’s day—testimony all the more important, because it occurs incidentally in a treatise concerning the passover, and in connection with a statement in regard to Pentecost.” (Fragmentum lib. de Pascha, Bened. ed., Paris, 1742, p. 490.[[12]])
For the sake of presenting a complete view of the testimony of the fathers for the first three centuries, we had thought of quoting from Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 194; Minucius Felix, 210; Commodian, about 270; Victorinus, 290; and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, 300. But as the testimony will be perfectly conclusive without these witnessess, and as space is valuable, we shall cite only three more authorities—three well-known fathers, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian.
At the close of the second century, Carthage, the metropolis of Northern Africa, was the center of numerous flourishing Christian congregations. Living in Carthage for many years, Tertullian knew well the practice of the African churches. And although he became, about 202, one of the errorists known as Montanists, his testimony, however unreliable as to doctrines, is still indisputable as to facts. From the frequent references to the Lord’s day in this author we select the following: “By us, to whom the [Jewish] Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons and festivals once pleasing to God, the Saturnalia, January, and mid-winter feasts, and Matronalia [of the heathen] are frequented. O better fidelity of the heathen to their own religion! They would not share with us the Lord’s day, nor Pentecost, even if they knew them, for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians.” (De Idolatria, cap. xiv, Semler’s edit., Halæ Magdeburg, vol. iv., pp., 167, 168.) The testimony of this passage is decisive in three points: (1.) The Jewish, or seventh-day, Sabbath was not observed by Christians. (2.) They were enjoined not to observe heathen festivals. (3.) To the Lord’s day, as the proper day for Christian service, belonged the honor to which Jewish and heathen days had no claim.
The exercises of the Lord’s day, when Christians assembled for public service, are described by Tertullian in a manner very similar to that of Justin Martyr, whose account has already been quoted. Prayer, reading the Scriptures, exhortation, and collections for benevolent purposes are all mentioned. (Apol., cap. xxxix, vol. v., pp. 92-94.) It is to be noted that Tertullian, like Justin Martyr, in addressing the heathen, calls the first day of the week “the day of the Sun,” as he also designates the Jewish Sabbath by its heathen name. (See Apol., cap. xvi.)
We close these citations from Tertullian, with one which is of the greatest importance in proving that the early Christians observed the first day of the week, not as a mere holiday, but as a day of rest and worship—a holy Sabbath to the Lord. “On the Lord’s day, the day of the Resurrection, we should not only abstain from that,[[13]] [bending the knee,] but also from all anxiety of feeling, and from employments, setting aside all business, lest we should give place to the devil.” (De Oratione, cap. xxiii., vol. iv., p. 22.)
Contemporary with Tertullian at the beginning of the third century was Origen of Alexandria, one of the most scholarly and learned of all the early fathers. This writer contrasts the Lord’s day with the Jewish Sabbath, and shows the superiority of the former. We may not agree with him when he maintains that the superiority was indicated by the giving of manna to the Israelites on the first day of the week, while it was withheld on the seventh. His testimony to the fact of the sacred observance of the Lord’s day instead of the seventh-day Sabbath is valid, though his reasons for the admitted superiority may not all be satisfactory. In the same connection he remarks: “On our Lord’s day the Lord always rains manna from heaven.” (Comment on Exodus, Delarue’s ed. of Works of Origen, Paris, 1733, vol. ii., p. 154.) In another of his works he contends that it is one of the evidences of a true Christian “always to keep the Lord’s day.” (Contra Celsum lib. viii, vol. i., pp. 758, 759.)
The most important passage in the writings of Origen is found in his Homilies on the Book of Numbers. Here we first meet with the name “Christian Sabbath” for the first day of the week, or the Lord’s day: “Leaving, then, the Jewish observance of the Sabbath, let us see what the observance of the Sabbath by the Christian ought to be. On the Sabbath should be performed no worldly acts. If, therefore, you desist from all secular works, and do nothing of a worldly nature, but occupy yourselves with spiritual duties, assembling at the church, listening to the sacred readings mad instructions, thinking of celestial things, concerned for the hopes of another life, keeping before your eyes the Judgment to come, and looking not at the things which are present and visible, but at those which are invisible and future—this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath.” (Hom. xxiii in Numeros, vol. ii., p. 358.)
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, about the third century, gives this explicit testimony to the Lord’s day: “Since in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh the eighth day was celebrated, the ordinance was foreshadowed in the future, but completed in truth at the coming of Christ. For inasmuch as the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was the day on which the Lord rose and gave us life and spiritual circumcision, this eighth day, that is the first after the Sabbath and the Lord’s day, preceded in an image, which image ceased when the truth afterwards came, and spiritual circumcision was given to us.” (Epistle lxiv., Works of Cyprian, Bremæ, 1690, vol. ii., p. 161) The weight of this testimony is not a little augmented by the fact that the epistle, in which it is found is a synodical epistle, which was sent forth in the name and with the authority of the Third Council of Carthage, A. D. 253. The epistle bears this inscription at its head: “Cyprianus et ceteri Collegæ qui in concilio affuerant numero LXIV. Fido patri Salutem.”