146 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



An improiier coloring of evidence. Church History — anti-?alibatarian. 



day ; it is the Scriptural authority for a " Sabbath-day/' — a 

 day Divinely ajypointed, in which '^ thou shalt not do any 

 worh /"* Why then has my friend ventured upon this fahe 

 issue ? 



When, however, suddenly reverting from this, he drops the 

 point really attested, and assuming the true question as there- 

 by confirmed, compiacently sums up : '' The only thing ' burden- 

 some' would be to quote all their various expressions of devout 

 recognition of the Christian Sahhatli' (p. 76), he is chargeable 

 with coloi^ing his evidence ! Not one of his witnesses says a 

 word in "recognition of the JSabhath;" and almostall of them 

 do testify clearly and strongly against the ohligation of the 

 Sahhath! Let him assume the slight "hurden" of quoting 

 one of the early " Fathers/' recoguizing the obligation of the 

 fourth commandmcnt, or expressly designating Sunday " the 

 Sabbath/' and he will have contributed something in support 

 of his assumption. Such an appeal he has very prudently 

 avoided. Such an authority (in " devout recognition of the 

 Sabbath") he will find it a truly "burdensome" task to discover. 



The true " Scriptural vie w is confirmed in the clearest man- 

 ner by Ecclesiastical History." The leading Fathers aJl 

 speak of the fourth commandment as abrogated. As the 

 Bishop of Lincoln remarks (^Account of Justin Martyr, p. 96, 

 97): "The admission of Gentiles into the Church was 

 quickly foUowed by the coutroversy respecting the necessity of 

 observing the Mosaic ritual. . . . One consequence of which 

 was that the converts, whether Jew or Gentile, who believed 

 that the injunctions of the ceremonial law were no longer ob- 

 ligatory, soon ceased to ohserve the Sahhath.'^ 



EusEBius — the father of Church History — affirms the early 

 Christian practice, most decisively : he says that, as the pa- 



* " It is e\'iclent that, in the provisions of the fourth commandment, 

 God did not enjoin the exercise of any religions devotion, bnt merely 

 a corjjoreal rest." Spenger. {De Leg. Ilcb. lib. i. cap. iv. scct. 9.) 



