98 ABROGATION Or THE SABBATE. 



A false quotation. Tertullia:^. 



was called tlie friend of God.' So Noah, without circumcision, 

 and without the Sabbath, pleased God ; and so Enoch ; — and 

 so all of those who, before Moses, were accepted without any 

 observance of the Mosaic law.'' {Advers. Hæres. lib. iv. cap. 

 80.) In the next chapter, on " the Decalogue/' Irenæus, 

 after noticing that natural and moral duties were constantly 

 conjoined with positive and ceremonial precepts in the Mosaic 

 code, adds that, " whatever was given to the Jews as a badge 

 of servitude, or whatever was given them for a ' sign,' was 

 erased from the New Testament, which was one of liberty.'' 

 (Ihid. lib. iv. cap. 31.) And yet my friend claims his 

 authority ! (p. 52.)* 



Tertullian (a. d. 200) strongly contends with the Jews, 

 that Christians observe circumcision and the Sabbath spiritu- 

 ally, as foreshadowed by their prophets ; and he argues that, 

 since God gave neither circumcision nor the Sahhath to Adam, 

 — or to Abel — or to Enoch — or to Noah,&c., and yet "praised" 

 them, so '^ we also, without the law of Moses, can please 

 God .... Thus it follows that, as the abolition of carnal cir- 

 cumcision, and the Law, is proved to have been completed in 



* It is peculiarly unfortunate that the only actual quotation from 

 the "Fathers" attempted by my friend should be an erroneous one. 

 He quotes Irenæus as saying: "On the Lord's day we Christians 

 keep the Sabbath:" and he asks with some triumph — "Were the first 

 Christians Anti-sabbatarians? So far from it, a man who refused to 

 keep the Sabbath on the Lord's day would not have been easily recog- 

 nized by Irenæus as a Christian. Let W. B. T. think of this." (p. 

 52.) My friend has quoted at second-hand ; — he will excuse me for 

 saying that no such passage can be found in Irenæus ! — nor anything 

 at all similar to it. It is directly contradictory to his true sentiments ! 

 That the first Christians most decidedlj were Anti-sabbatarians, is 

 proved by all the New Testament writers — and all the apostolic 

 Fathers. And I believe no solitary writer can be found, in the first 

 two centuries of the Christian era, who ever calls Sunday the "Sab- 

 bath ;" or ever claims the fourth commandment as authorizing Sun- 

 day observance. " Let J. N. B. think of this !" 



