(20), S. Melito of Sardis (21), Origen (22), S. Cyprian, and others (23).

Various motives are affigned for changing the Jewish Sabbath into Sunday: The firft and principal was in honour of the great mysteries of the refurrection of Christ, and the defcemt of the Holy Ghoft, which happened on Sunday. By the latter, the new law of grace was promulg; and by Chrift's refurrection, his victory over fin and hell was completed, and the great work of man's redemption finished. To praife God for the creation of the world was the primary motive for the determination of the weekly festival on Saturday; which law was more particularly confirmed by God to the Jews, on account of the promulgation which he made to them of the Motaic law and difpentation, and their deliverance out of Egypt. Now the redemption of mankind and the reparation of the world by the incarnation, death, and refurrection of the Son of God, was a far greater myflery, and a mercy infinitely brighter: it claims our homages upon a far ftricter title than the creation; nor can the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage bear the leaft proportion to this immenfe benefit, the higheft effort, and utmoft exertion of divine omnipotence and goodness in fayour of a meft finful race of creatures. S. Ignatius Martyr (24), Clemens of Alexandria (25), and other primitive Fathers are vouchers that Sunday is an univerfal weekly feftival among Chriftians in honcur of the glorious mystery of 'Chrift's refurrection.

"The first day of the week was confecrated by the greatest gifts of divine grace, which on it were conferred upon us," fays S. Leo: "for the principal myfteries which God, in the difpenfations of his mercy, has wrought ❝in our favour, give a luftre to the dignity of this day. On "it the world received a beginning; on it death was vanquish"ed, and life began to reign through the refurrection of "Chrift: on it the Holy Ghoft defcended upon the Apostles,

(20) ib. I. c. 24. (21) ib. 1. 4. c. 26. (22) Hom. 7. in Exod. 15. T. 1. p. 82. (23) See Thomaffin Tr. des fetes 1. 2. c. 1. 12. 164.

(24) S. Ign. Ep. ad Magnef. n. 9. (25) Cl. Alex. Strom. 1. 7. p. 877. Ed. Oxon. S. Ambrof. Serm. 61. See Coteler. in Ep. S. Barnabe T. 1. Patr. Apoft. p. 47. Mendoza in Concil. Illiber. T. 1. p. 116. 4. ed. Labbci. Valefius ad Eufeb. p. 279. Conringii Programata Sacra p. 113. Joan. Gul. Janus, p. 16. ad Eufebii.Alexandrini Sermonem infignem de Die Dominico celebrando, quem e Codice Bodleiano et Vaticano, edidit Lipfiæ Anno 1720.

"deli

delivering to us an heavenly rule (26)." A fecond motive for this change of the Jewish Sabbath was to fhew, that under the light of the gofpel, the figures and fhadows of the Old Law are paffed away by giving way to the new; and that its typical ceremonial precepts ceafed to oblige upon the promulgation of the gofpel (d)."

(26) S. Leo Ep. 11. al. 81. ad Diofcorum, Alexdr. Epifc.

(d) The Jewish Law was to be buried with honour, as S. Auftin obferves. When its typical rites and figures which reprefented Chrift to come, were completed in his death and refurrection, and in the eftablishment of his church; they cealed only by being fulfilled, and by the perfecting of all that was in them defective and imperfe&t, Mat. v. 17. From this time the Jewish facrifices loft their efficacy, and the ceremonial rites were no longer of force: they even became immediately superstitious and finful in those who having received the gofpel, maintained them to be still obligatory by virtue of the old law; nevertheless without this fuperftitious error of their neceffity and obligation, fome of those rites were ftill occafionally observed by the Apostles and their difciples, not to offend the Jewish converts, and not to give occafion to imagine that they condemned the Mofaic difpenfation as evil in itself, as certain heretics did who blafphemously pretended, that it was derived from an evil principle, and was in its origin, evil. S. Paul himself, though the Apoftle of the Gentiles, ftrenuously ftood up for the liberty of the gofpel against thofe who endeavoured to infringe upon it, by maintaining the herefy, that there was an obligation of fome fubjection to the Jewish rites, Gal. 11. 5. Yet he often complied with the Jews in many legal obfervances, I Cor. ix. 20. Acts xvi. 3. xxi. 26. Hence the Oriental Chriftians, among whom the Jews were the first converts, ftill kept the Saturday or Sabbath a kind of weekly festival, on which all the people affembled at public prayer, &c. (See Conftit. Apoftol. 1. 2. c. 59. l. 5. c. 15. & 20. l. 7. c. 23. 1. 8. c. 33. tes 1. 5. hift. c. 22. l. 6. c. 8. Cassian Inflit. I. 3. c. 2. l. 5. c. 26. S. Bafil Ep. 289. Conc. Laodic. c. 16. & 52. &c. Yet the preference was always given in many refpects to the Sunday, as the chief weekly feftival. (See Bingham, Origines Ecclef. Vol. ix. 1. 20. ch. 3. Sect. 3. p. 60. Thomaffin Tr. des Fetes 1. 2. c. 2. p. 17.) To oppose the Ebionites and fome other Judaizing heretics who pretended that the obligation of the ceremonial precepts of the old law had not ceased, the chief paftors of the church abated more and more of the Jewish feftival of the Sabbath. The Apoftolic Conftitutions command reft from manual labour on both Saturdays and Sundays; but the faithful prayed standing only on Sundays, befides feveral other marks of distinction and of a preference to the latter. And against the Ebionites and Nazareans about the year 363, the council of Laodicea exprefsly defines, That Chriftians must not judaize, and refrain from manual labour on Saturday, but work on that day: and that preferring the Lord's Day, they then must reft, if this can be done as becomes Chriftians (Can. 29). A remnant of this difcipline ftill fubfifts among the Greeks in their never fafting on a Saturday even in Lent, except on Eafter eve, the day on which Chrift lay in the grave. And on all other Saturdays the faithful affemble to mafs. (See Goar in Euchologium, & Heineck, De

Socra

fcript.

CHA P. III.

Motives for keeping the LORD'S DAY.

T is the first and most indifpenfable duty of every crea❤ ture that is endowed with reafon and free-will, and conquently capable of knowing and loving God, and confcious that he owes to him all that he is, or poffeffes, to pay to him a rational homage as to the God of infinite Majefty, his Creator, fovereign Lord, moft gracious Benefactor, and laft End. Though this homage is a daily, yea a continual debt, man is bound to fet apart certain days, as one in seven, in which he lays afide all diftracting temporal employments, and difengages himself as much as this mortal ftate will perfcript. Eccl. Græca Part. 3. p. 152, &c.) It is not clear whether allo the Western church did not at first keep the Sabbath in fome degree a feftival. Albafpinæus makes no doubt but it was fo, (Obferv. in S. Optat. 1. 1. c. 13.) Tertullian, at leaft is our voucher, that in his time neither Catholics nor Montanists in the Weft ever fafted on Saturdays, except on Eafter-eve, (Tert. de Jejun. c. 14. & 15.) Some churches in the Weft, as that of Milan, always excepted Saturdays from the faft, as S. Auftin. (Ep. 86. ad Cafulanum, & Ep. 118. ad Jannan), and others mention. The faft of ftations on Wednesdays and Fridays was established in honour of Chrift's paffion, which he began on the former, and ended on the latter of thefe days. At Rome, Saturday was added because Chrift on that day lay in the grave: and very foon the faft of Wednesday was removed to the Saturday, though in certain churches, for fome time, all three days were kept as weekly fafts of the ftations, as appears from Bede, as to England. The church of Alexandria and all Egypt conformed to the Roman cuftom in not keeping the Saturday a feftival, as Socrates attefts, (Hift. 1. 5. c. 21). And S. Epiphanius fays, that the repofe of the Sabbath is no longer kept fince the death of Chrift, who is our reft and Sabbath, (Hær. 66). This father obferves, (Epitom. T. 1. p. 1107.) that where it was kept a festival (in the Oriental Churches), this was done not out of Judaism, but to worship the Lord of the Sabbath, and in honour of the creation, as Sunday is fanctified particularly in honour of Chrift's refurrection. The fame remark had been made more at large by S. Athanafius. Marcion established an obligation of fafting on the Sabbath, upon an impious heretical principle of oppofition to the God of the Jews, whom he pretended to be an evil principle, as S. Epiphanius mentions, (Hær. xlii. n. 3.) In abhorrence of this blafphemy, the church then forbad any one to faft on a Saturday (except on Eafter-eve) or on a Sunday, (Can. Apoft. 64. alias 66). It is not, however, forbid to fast on a Sunday, provided it be not done out of fingularity or fome fuperftitious motive: nor even if a perfon who should faft every day upon prudent motives of virtue, fhould include alfo the Sunday, though the contrary is in general adviseable in honour of the feaft. (See Lugo, Bonacina, &c. de Jejunio.) mit,

mit, from all hindrances, in order to give his whole attention to this first and most indifpenfable duty. God's fupreme excellence and infinite perfections claim this acknowledgment of his fovereignty by our most profound homages. The particular relations in which we stand to Him, infinitely enhance this duty, and bind it upon us by innumerable titles and the strongest ties. If we owe duty to a parent, gratitude to a benefactor, homage to a king, how much more are we bound to worship God, the fupreme Parent, Creator, and Lord of all things? Of whom every moment we hold our life, to whom we stand indebted for all we poffefs in the order of nature and for the incomprehenfible advantages of grace, and from whom we expect all those which are to come. To allow that we are made by him, and depend continually upon him, and at the fame time to pretend that we are not bound to testify this dependance, and acknowledge his fovereignty by a fuitable homage, would be a plain contradiction (c); as all who confefs a God, even they who most inconfiftently deny any revealed religion, are obliged to confefs (26). For fo great and folemn a duty, fet times must be allotted. Secondly, this is again neceffary that we may give due attention to the concerns of our fouls, may procure all neceffary helps, and make provifion of all proper remedies for our fpiritual neceffities. Our fanctification and falvation is our main, nay, our only affair, and requires our conftant and most diligent care, both from its infinite importance, and from the great dangers to which it is continually expofed, from the precept of Chrift, and the end of our creation, redemption, and all the mysteries of the divine mercy in our favour. If a proper time is to be given to every function and bufinefs which concerns us, as to all our temporal affairs, our corporal refreshment, &c. this is due in the first place to our fouls. Therefore by the law of nature, and the duty which we owe both to God and ourfelves, we are obliged, as S. Thomas Aquinas demonftrates (27), to confecrate fet days to the fervice of God, and to

(c) " Dependency in a creature, without fome mark or manifestation "of fuch a ftate, is utterly unintelligible, or to speak more properly, a contradiction; because it is to that creature to all intents and pur"poses a state of independency." Revelation examined with Candour. Vol. I. p. 89.

(26) Matthew Tindal, Chriftianity as old as the Creation, p. 115. Hobb's Leviathan, ch. xxxi. p. 192. And Lord Shaftesbury in the Characteristics, &c.

(27) S. Tho, 2. ada adæ qu. xxii. art. 45

C

the

Tr. 1. the exercises of religion. We indeed every day give some time with serious attention to religious exercifes, and to the making a tender of the fpiritual homage of our affections to God. But to fatisfy thefe great duties, it is moreover neceffary to dedicate to them certain feftivals, on which, freed from the distractions of worldly affairs, we may devote ourfelves wholly to them. If God has reserved to himself part of our eftates, can we refuse him this without facrilege? He has a juft claim to all our time, and to all that we are or have. But he allows us to give fix days in the week to our temporal concerns, so as even yet in them to have him, his honour, and his will folely in view: only he referves the feventh day entirely to himself. Alas! fo weak is faith now become in the hearts of the generality of the faithful, that they feem to live almoft in a total oblivion of their God, and all his wonderful mysteries and mercies. Far from making these the only object of their thoughts and defires at all times, even in the midst of their labour and employments, as they ought to do with the faints, they give them their attention only by halves, even on those days, which are particularly confecrated to the exercifes of religion, and the work of their fanctification. Their minds are fo full of their temporal concerns, of their pleafures and diverfions, and of the means of gratifying their paffions, that by the diffipations in which they live even on the festivals of our holy religion, they make these sacred folemnities themselves, on which the greatest treasures of heaven are open to them, and which are the favourable times for obtaining the divine mercy, and the times appointed by God for us to pay him our moft fervent and best homages, days of irreligion, profaneness and fin. Those who abufe the very times of mercy and grace, who deftroy the very means of fanctification which religion affords them, and trample under foot its most holy precept, ftand condemned by that religion which was given to fave them. The neceffity and advantages of this holy law and inftitution of the Sabbath arife not only from the private, but alfo from the public duties of religion. Hence a third motive for the institution and keeping of the Lord's Day is drawn from the obligation of public prayer. Man lies under various obligations both in his private capacity, as he is a particular perfon or individual, and in a public capacity, as he is a member of the commonwealth of mankind. It is not enough to praise God in private; we are bound frequently to offer him a public homage. This we owe to him

both