tinian, inserted at large into the Theodosian code.' But of this we may probably speak more, when we come to treat of the manner of their public adoration.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Lord's-day, and the Fasts and Festivals of the ancient Church.

TIME is a circumstance no less inseparable from religious actions than place, for man consisting of a soul and body cannot always be actually engaged in the service of God: that is the privilege of angels, and souls freed from the fetters of mortality. So long as we are here, we must worship God with respect to our present state, and consequently of necessity have some definite and particular time to do it in. Now, that man might not be left to a floating uncertainty in a matter of so great importance, in all ages and nations men have been guided by the very dictates of nature to pitch upon some certain seasons, wherein to assemble and meet together to perform the public offices of religion. What and how many were the public festivals instituted and observed either amongst Jews or Gentiles, I am not concerned to take notice of For the ancient Christians, they ever had their pe

1 Lib. ix. Tit. 45, leg. 4. Vid. Chrysost. Orat. post redit. ab exil. tom. iv. p. 850.

culiar seasons, their solemn and stated times of meeting together to perform the common duties of

ine worship; of which, because the Lord's-day challenges the precedency of all the rest, we shall begin first with that. And being unconcerned in all the controversies' which in the late times were raised about it; I shall only note some instances of the piety of Christians in reference to this day, which I have observed in passing though the writers of those times.

For the name of this day of public worship, it is sometimes, especially by Justin Martyr and Tertullian, called Sunday, because it happened upon that day of the week, which by the heathens was dedicated to the sun; and therefore as being best known to them, the Fathers commonly made use of it in their Apologies to the heathen governors. This title continued after the world became Christian, and seldom it is that it passes under any other name in the imperial edicts of the first Christian emperors. But the more proper and prevailing name was Kupiaкn, or Dies Dominica, the Lord'sday, as it is called by St. John himself, as being that day of the week whereon our Lord made his triumphant return from the dead. This Justin Martyr assures us was the true original of the title. "Upon Sunday," says he, "we all assemble and meet together, as being the first day wherein God,

3

Controversies of a like nature have recently been again agitated; but the obligatory observance of the Lord's-day can only be given up with the Bible.-ED.

It should be associated in the mind of the Christian with that Sun of Righteousness, the great Light of the world, who has chased away the darkness of superstition, and illumined the world with the knowledge of salvation —ED.

3 Rev. i. 10.

parting the darkness from the rude chaos, created the world, and the same day whereon Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead; for he was crucified the day before Saturday, and the day after (which is Sunday) he appeared to his apostles and disciples:" by this means observing a kind of analogy and proportion with the Jewish sabbath which had been instituted by God himself. For as that day was kept as a commemoration of God's sabbath, or resting from the work of creation, so was this set apart to religious uses, as the solemn memorial of Christ's resting from the work of our redemption in this world, completed upon the day of his resurrection. Which brings into my mind that custom of theirs so universally common in those days, that whereas at other times they kneeled at prayers, on the Lord's-day they always prayed standing, as is expressly affirmed both by Justin Martyr and Tertullian; the reason of which we find in the author of the Questions and Answers in Justin Martyr. "It is," says he, "that by this means we may be put in mind both of our fall by sin, and our resurrection or restitution by the grace of Christ; that for six days we pray upon our knees, is in token of our fall by sin; but that on the Lord's-day we do not bow the knee, does symbolically represent our resurrection, by which through the grace of Christ we are delivered from our sins, and the powers of death." This he there tells us was a custom derived from the very times of the apostles, for which he cites Irenæus in his book concerning Easter; and this custom was maintained with so much vigour, that when

1 Ap. 2, p. 99.

2 Ap. 2, p. 98; De Coron. c. 3, p. 102; Resp. ad Quest. 115, p. 468.

some began to neglect it, the great council of Nice took notice of it, and ordained that there should be a constant uniformity in this case, and that on the Lord's-day (and at such other times as were usual) men should stand when they made their prayers to God. So fit and reasonable did they think it to do all possible honour to that day, on which Christ rose from the dead. Therefore we may observe, all along in the sacred story, that after Christ's resurrection the apostles and primitive Christians did especially assemble upon the first day of the week and whatever they might do at other times, yet there are many passages that intimate, that the first day of the week was their more solemn time of meeting. On this day it was that they were met together, when our Saviour first appeared to them, and so again the next week after: and on this day they were assembled when the Holy Ghost so visibly came down upon them, when Peter preached that excellent sermon, converted and baptized three thousand souls. Thus when St. Paul was taking his leave at Troas, upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, i. e. as almost all agree, to celebrate the holy sacrament, he preached to them, sufficiently intimating that upon that day it was their usual custom to meet in that manner; and elsewhere giving directions to the church of Corinth (as he had done in the like case to other churches) concerning their contributions to the poor suffering brethren, he bids them lay it aside upon the first day of the

1 Can. 20.

4

3 Acts, ii. 1, 41.

3

2 John, xx. 19, 26.

Rather, to partake of the agape, or love-feast, which preceded the celebration of the Eucharist. See 1 Cor. x. 16.-ED.

week,' which seems plainly to respect their religious assemblies upon that day, for then it was that every one according to his ability deposited something for the relief of the poor, and the uses of the church.

"

2

After the apostles the Christians constantly observed this day, meeting together for prayer, expounding and hearing of the Scriptures, celebration of the sacraments, and other public duties of religion. Upon the day called Sunday," says Justin Martyr, "all of us that live either in city or country meet together in one place;" and what they then did, he there describes, of which afterwards. This doubtless Pliny meant, when giving Trajan an account of the Christians, he tells him that they were wont to meet together to worship Christ stato die, upon a set certain day;3 by which he can be reasonably understood to design no other but the Lord's-day; for though they probably met at other times, yet he takes notice of this only, either because the Christians, whom he had examined, had not told him of their meeting at other times, or because this was their most public and solemn convention, and which in a manner swallowed up the rest. By the violent persecutions of those times the Christians were forced to meet together before day. So Pliny in the same place tells the emperor, that they assembled before daylight, to sing their morning-hymns to Christ.* Whence it is that Tertullian so often mentions their nocturnal convocations. This gave occasion to their spiteful adversaries to calumniate and as

1 Cor. xv. 1, 2. 3 Lib. x. Ep. 97.

2 Ap. 2, p. 98.

Ad Uxor. lib. ii. c. 4, p. 168