122 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Testimony of Clement : and of Eusebius. 



'' The learned Clement, of Alexandria/' continues J. N. B. 

 {p. 50), ^' a witness of the highest competencj_, says : ' The 

 Greeks, as well as the Hebrews, observe the seventh day as 

 holj/ '' Not quite ) the word " day'' is interpolated. The 

 language of Clement is : '^ Not only the Hebrews, but even 

 the Greeks, recognize the seventh as a sacred [number], ac- 

 cording to which the whole universe revolves. For Hesiod 

 says of it: 'The first, the fourth, and the seventh, are sacred 

 days,' &c. Callimachus alsowrites: 'The seventh is among the 

 good things,' &c., 'the starry heavens have sereji revolutions,' 

 &c. So also the elegies of Solon greatly distinguish the 

 number sei?e??." {Stromat. Yih. \.) Clement never inculcated 

 — either in this work or elsewhere — the universality of the 

 Sabbath, or its moral obligation. On the contrary, he evi- 

 dently considered it altogether a Jewish and ceremonial insti- 

 tution ; remarkiug that " those renewed, observe the Sabbath 

 by abstinence from evil" {Stromat. lib. iii.), and that the 

 spiritual purport of the ordinance is righteousness and con- 

 tinence. {Stromat. lib. iv.) 



"And, finally," says J. N. B. (p. 50), "the learned Euse- 

 bius affirms that ' almost all the philosophers and poets ac- 

 knowledge the seventh day as holy.' '' Eusebius does not say 

 so ; he merely quotes Aristobulus as saying so {^Evangel. 

 Præpar. lib. xiii. cap. 12) ; the whole of this chapter being 

 directly transferred from that writer, as Eusebius explicitly 

 declares, both at its commencement and at its termination !'*■' 



con trast between Jewish and Gentile practice on this subject [Antiq. 

 B. xii. ch. vi. 2 ; B. xiii. ch. i. 3 ; B. xiv. ch. iv. 3 ; B. xviii. ch. ix. 

 2 ; J. War, B. i. ch. vii. 3 ; B. iv. ch. ii. 3) ; — and carefnlly recording 

 that, in the Jewish appeals for religions liberty, or in the edicts of 

 toleration accorded to them, the privilege of this national custom was 

 especially indicated. [Aniiq. B. xiv. ch. x. 20, 21, 23, 25 ; B. xvi. 

 ch. ii. 3, 4 ; ch. vi. 2, 4, 8.) 



* Aristobulus cannot escape the dilemma of having been either 

 convei-sant with the Greek writers, or ignorant of them ; he is charge- 



