SAHBATII SABIANS. 



minded of the Ej.i.-tle to tin- (i .Julians; hut Ter- 

 tiilliun treated the censure of St Paul as attaching 

 only to the celebration of Jewish festivals. (Ter- 

 tullian, De Jejuniis, c. 14.) The weekly and yearly 

 festivals of the Christians originated from the idea 

 of following Christ, the cruciiied and the arisen ; 

 hence the festival of the resurrection, and the fasts 

 preparatory thereto. In each week, the joyous 

 festival was on Sunday, and the preparation for it 

 :i Wednesday and Friday, the days of the 

 Saviour's passion. This point of view is necessary 

 for a right understanding of the early festivals. 

 The desire of distinguishing the Christian from the 

 Jewish observance, early gave rise to the celebra- 

 tion of Sunday, the first day of the week, instead 

 of the Jewish Sabbath ; the first trace of which is 

 found in Acts xx. 7. This, however, is by no 

 means conclusive, because the community, collected 

 on the first day of the week, might easily have been 

 :is-rinl)led by the near departure of St Paul; and 

 still less can be proved from 1 Corinth, xvi. 2. 

 Another trace is in the Apocalypse, i. 10, as here 

 we cannot suppose that by Lord's day is meant day 

 of judgment. In the letter of Ignatius to the 

 Magnesians (chap, ix.), allusion is made to the 

 Sunday celebration, as the symbol of a new life, 

 consecrated to the Lord, in contradistinction to the 

 former Sabbath. Sunday was distinguished as a 

 day of joy, so that none fasted on it; people prayed 

 standing, and not kneeling, in allusion to Christ 

 having raised fallen man. Wednesday and Friday, 

 the latter particularly, were sacred to the memory 

 of the Saviour's passion. Jewish-Christian com- 

 munities, however, retained the celebration of the 

 Sabbath, though they adopted also that of Sunday, 

 and thus it became customary, in the Oriental 

 church, to distinguish this day, also, by not fasting, 

 and by praying in a standing posture : on the other 

 hand, in the Western and particularly in the Roman 

 church, in which the opposition to Judaism pre- 

 vailed, the custom grew up of using the Sabbath 

 particularly as a fast-day. (Tertullian, De Jej., 

 chap. 14.) And when, at a later period, the causes 

 of this fasting on Saturday were lost, legends were 

 invented to explain it, such as that Peter had fasted 

 on this day to prepare himself for the disputation 

 with Simon Magus. Tertullian speaks of this dif- 

 ference between the Oriental and Western churches 

 with much moderation. The learned Hippolytus 

 wrote, at the beginning of the third century, on 

 this point of dispute. (Hieronymus, Ep. 72, ad 

 Vital.) Constantino the Great made a law for the 

 whole empire (321 A. D.), that Sunday should be 

 kept as a day of rest in all cities and towns; but he 

 allowed the country people to follow their work on 

 that day. In the year 538 (A. D.), however, the 

 council of Orleans prohibited country labour; but 

 because there were still many Jews in Gaul, and 

 the people fell into many superstitious uses in the 

 celebration of the new Sabbath, in imitation of the 

 practices of the Jews, the council declares that to 

 hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle and 

 carriages, to prepare food, or to do any thing neces- 

 sary to the cleanliness and decency of houses or 

 persons, savours more of Judaism than of Christiani- 

 ty.* The reformation, abolishing so many of the 



* In the fourth volume of Blackstone's Commentaries, j>. G3, 

 the commentator says that the profanation of the Lord's day is 

 vulgarly but improperly, called Sabbafh-brealemf. and is 

 WUahed by the municipal law by a fine of three shillings and 

 four p"nce ; and that, by the laws of England, no fair or mar- 

 ket is allowed to be hela on any Sunday, except the four Sun- 

 day* in harvett, on prill of forfeiting the goods exposed for 



festivals, which had increased in the Roman church 

 to an immense number, naturally elevated the char- 

 acter of those which it left, as Easter, Christmas, 

 &c., and Sunday; but Sunday, though considered 

 by the Lutherans as a proper day for religious ser- 

 vice, was never regarded by them with that awe 

 which was connected with its observance in the 

 Old Testament. It is with them a day of rest and 

 enjoyment, and many amusements are taken by 

 Protestants on the European continent, during that 

 day, which people there would think improper on 

 week days appropriated for labour. Calvinism, 

 which is altogether of a sterner character than 

 Lutheranism, may have induced its adherents to 

 observe Sunday more strictly ; but even at Geneva, 

 the Sunday evening is spent in various amusements, 

 in visiting, dancing, playing foot-ball, &c., and the 

 labours of husbandry are permitted in harvest on 

 Sundays. The custom of calling Sunday Sabbath 

 indicates the inclination to transfer the character 

 of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. 

 In fact, the Puritans, from whom it has descended, 

 showed, in many respects, a decided inclination to 

 the sternness of the Old Testament. (See Sab- 

 batarians.) So much did they consider the Chris- 

 tian Sunday as a Jewish Sabbath, that a controversy 

 has existed as to the time when the Christian Sab- 

 bath begins, many clergymen maintaining that it 

 begins at sunset on Saturday ; and some communi- 

 ties have acted on this view in their mode of ob- 

 serving it. 



SABELLIANS. See Sabellius. 



SABELLIUS, a Christian teacher at Ptolemais, 

 a native of Africa, lived about 250, and is known 

 as the founder of a sect, who considered the Son 

 and Holy Ghost only as different revelations or 

 manifestations of the Godhead, but not as separate 

 persons. The Trinity, according to them, is but a 

 threefold relation of God to the world. The Logos 

 of John, called, by the church, the Son, was com- 

 pared by Sabellius to a ray emitted from the sun, 

 active in and through the man Jesus Christ, but by 

 no means a separate existence from the one God. 

 The Sabellians were suppressed in the fourth cen- 

 tury by the orthodox church, but their views have 

 always found adherents, and, even now, theologians 

 exhibit conceptions of the Trinity, coinciding with 

 that of Sabellius, in order to make it intelligible 

 by reason. 



SABIANS, OR CHRISTIANS OF ST JOHN 

 (likewise called Nazoraeans and Mendceans) ; a sect 

 which, according to tradition, has existed from the 

 time of John the Baptist. The members at present 

 afe found chiefly in Persia, and consider their ori- 

 ginal country to have been on the Jordan, whence, 

 they say, they were driven by the Mohammedans 

 before the destruction of Jerusalem, and, being 

 persecuted by the first caliphs, their temples de- 

 stroyed, and their sacred books burnt, they fled to 

 their present residence, and some also to India. 

 Having been again persecuted, they submitted to 

 the Nestorian bishop in Chaldtca, and allowed them- 

 selves to be called Christians, but have been sepa- 

 rated from them for more than three hundred years. 

 The question, whether they are really of Galilaean 

 origin, and are derived from tLe disciples of John 



sale. The law, however, does not prohibit (the commentator 

 adds), but rather allows, any innocent recreation or / mint 

 on t ho Lord's day. after service is over. But it prohibits work 

 on that day, or exposure of goods for sale, except mackerel, 

 milk, meat, &c.. under the penalty of five shillings. He COHST- 

 ttcv- Sunday as a civil institution, to be regulated by the muni- 

 cipal law. 



