NOTES. 299 



NOTE D.— (From page 263.) 

 The Dominical Sabbath. 



A FULL and truthful history of the origin of the Sunday 

 Sabbath would form an interesting chapter in the Yolume of 

 Ecclesiastical Fabrications. This ^'Divine legacy'' of the 

 church owes its establishment to the inspired Emperor CoN- 

 STANTINE* (a. d. 321) j although, as a learned historian has 

 observed, even so early as "the end of the second century, a 

 false application of this kind had hegun to take place."f The 

 voluntary commemoration of the resurrection, by a celebration 

 of the Eucharist early on Sunday morning, may indeed be 

 traced back somewhat further, though with an obscurity in- 

 creasing as we ascend. 



The earliest explicit account we have of any ecclesiastical 

 observance of this day is found in the Apology of Justin 

 Martyr, about the middle of the second century. This 

 writer, while affirming that the Christians of his time ohserved 

 no Sabbath (see ante, pp. 97, 248), gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the celebration of " the day of the Sun,^' and " the 



* The edict of his Catholic Majesty Coxstantine, ordaining the 

 "Christian Sabbath," is as follows : " Let all judges, and people of the 

 town, rest, and all the various trades be suspended, on the venerable 

 day of the Sun [' venerabili die Solis^'\. Those who live in the country, 

 however, may freely and without fault attend to the cultivation of their 

 fields (since it often happens that no other day may be so suitable for 

 sowing grain and planting the vine) ; lest, with the loss of favorable 

 opportunity, the commodities offered by Divine Providence should be 

 destroyed." [Cod. Justin. lib. iii. tit. 12, sect. 2, 3.) Coxstaxtixe 

 also ordained that Friday (called generally "the day of Venus") should 

 be specially observed, and that the various days consecrated to the Saints 

 and Martyrs should be celebrated in the churches. (See Eusebius, Vit. 

 Constant. lib. iv. cap. 18 — 20 ; also, Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 8.) 



f Neander. See ante, p. 262. 



