Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Apr 28, 1853
THE WARNING VOICE
By Uriah Smith
— OF —
TIME AND PROPHECY.
BY URIAH SMITH.
[Continued.]
Now clearer still, the effects of Satan's plans,
Themselves develop, and the symptoms sure,
Of ultimate success, accumulate.
Now Popularity herself arrays
In open opposition, and draws forth
Her votaries all against; now turns adverse,
The sweeping tide of public sentiment:
A world all unprepared to welcome Christ,
Unwilling, all its pleasures to resign,
Its fabled dreams too readily resume,
And side away with Satan's mustering host;
Whom to arrange, he, crafty, now begins,
With art consummate, and well-practiced skill.
Many there are who hear the notes of truth,
"Start up alarmed," and fain would well regard;
But when their fellow-men they see oppose—
Whom more they fear, than fear to incense Heaven—
Their moral courage fails, and back they fall,
An easy prey to Satan's wily schemes.
Others there are, for whom earth's treasures shine
With attributes of deity; who gold,
That glittering dust, and lands, more value, than,
They value truth with all its promised joys;
All such with golden chains, Satan binds down,
To his infernal purpose. But behold
Yet others, who of themselves no root possess,
Nor yet belief, on principle well based;
Fickle; who, ere they for themselves reflect,
In matters new, trust to the word of man;
So, when some high-ranked one, respectable,
Upon the truth "delusion" brands, they straight,
With insolence unutterable, give vent
To jeering mockeries; o'er all such dupes,
And many such there are, foolish and proud,
Satan hangs fond, and with triumphant leer,
Leads them away among his company.
Another class there is, the very dregs
Of all humanity—unfit for Heaven,
A gross disgrace to earth, who of the low,
Are lowest; of the vile, the vilest; these—
As most congenial to their nature is—
Of their own will the hosts of Satan join.
Thus, some in one way, in another some,
Innumerable and various as mankind—
Unto the subject suiting well the means—
The Arch-Deceiver lures along his prey.
With this promiscuous host, where, well defined,
Reigned every trait of human character,
Where sins, the grossest and most glaring sins,
That ever planted in the heart of man
Their putrid nests, brooded and multiplied—
Where black corruption, 'neath exteriors fair,
Rowed and rankled—even as sepulchres,
Whitened without, contain but dead men's bones.—
With such a mass the Church, at last, chimed in,
T' oppose the message of her coming King.
A mass of men against the truth of God.
Thus with the Church, thus, but too fearfully,
Had Satan his designs accomplished now—
Too fearfully fulfilled his fiendish threats;
And in a fatal moment had he cast,
Too strong a snare, around her careless step.
Wandered from God! Deep, ay, too deep had struck,
And rank, the growth of pride and worldliness;
Even as some gnarled oak, its massy roots,
Far in the bosom of the solid earth
Strikes down, deriving strength invincible.—
Wandered from God! Their gaudy dress this proved,
And this, their love of show, and rich display,
And this, the gilded ornaments that hung,
Costly, but useless, in her synagogues.
And all the loves, ambitions, and desires,
And fears, and passions, base-born, of the earth,
With stealthy pace, into her midst had crept,
And sown their poisonous seeds, which wide around
Had shot pernicious root, innumerable,
Innumerable in size, and form, and strength,
And in the course they took, innumerable;
Each crossing each, and crossing others still,
Wove out their web, most complicate and thick,
Most strong, and most entangling, o'er the Church,
And thus was she close matted down to earth.
But long continue thus, the Church of God
Cannot; for Truth slacks not her onward pace—
Truth is not bound by earthly fetters down,
And he who follows Truth, must break them too;
So came the crisis—so the message came;
A cleaver by the Angel brought, direct
From God, her fettering hands to cut apart,
And her set free again; a medicine,
From Heaven sent down, which, if received, would
Free from her veins, the stagnate influence
Of Satan's opiates, and give new life,
New strength and vigor to her system give;
An incense, which, if offered in her midst,
The dead, corrupted air would purify,
Which now she breathed to suffocation near.
Such was the message, and its office such,
Would they the proffered gift but humbly take;
But ah! with one consent, they all began
Excuse to make, and pass the subject by;
The overwhelming flood of worldly cares,
No time or place for weightier subjects left;
Thus, soon they, as a body, closed their ears,
And shut their doors, and barred the message out.
At this denial of their faith, this
Unchristian act, Truth turned away and wept—
A long, low, chuckle did the Devil give,
Of satisfied success; this was the act,
The trait'rous act, that sealed her destiny;
This rose to Heaven, and incensed Heaven, full soon,
With speediest messenger pronounced her doom;
He, following the first, wide through mid heaven,
This second message to the world proclaimed;
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen!" dread words,
With solemn import full, and terrible
In meaning; message fearful, to proclaim
A fearful end; a sad description of
A sadder state: but forth the accents rolled,
Swelling in tone, and farther echoing,
They penetrated all her temples fair,
And from the gilded galleries where rose,
In worldly pomp, the measured anthem, deep,
Now beating back in mournful notes, and slow—
To which the vaulted ceiling, high, returned,
In corresponding tones, the notes again—
These startling words fell heavy on the ear:
Babylon is fallen, is fallen! At once,
With simultaneous impulse, thousands rose,
And broke, with her, their bonds of intercourse;
Left the dull place where they no food received,
No spiritual benefit, no life, no light,
Left and unshackled, free, themselves declared;
Free from her sects, unfettered by her creeds;
And they were free; for Truth had made them so;
She led them forth into the liberty;
To life, and light, on higher, holier ground;
And then they saw the moral wastes from which,
Their timely 'scape, they happily had made.
There stood her fanes of formal worship grand,
Her towers of wealth, her monuments of pride,
'Gainst which as fell the deep, portentous sounds,
The message of her fall, they trembling rocked—
As though some slumbering earthquake, far beneath,
Had sudden waked, to fierce convulsions given—
Would it had shook more mighty, till each soul
Was shaken from the lethargy that bound,
To see its true condition; but not so,
In Satan steps, with artifice most sly,
Advantage takes, and rocks them all asleep.
Lo! now on all her shrines there settled down
The speedy gath'ring death-mould, thick and fast;
A death-damp issued forth in all her aisles,
And all her lamps of piety and love,
Of godliness and truth, for ever quenched.
Behold, through all her courts, now reigned alone,
The blackest, moral darkness, deep and dead;
By one most fit described, as thus he sings,
"Silence how dead! and darkness how profound!"
As erst the Jewish Church, when they refused
The true Messiah to own, on earth had come,
At his first Advent, were rejected all—
So for denying that plain message now,
That he the second time would soon return,
God from the Gentile Churches turned away;
Withdrew his Spirit and forsook their midst.
Him they refused to own, he, therefore, them.
A moral change came o'er them, which, the most
Perceptive of their numbers soon perceived,
And in desponding accents thus deplored:
"On every breeze are borne the dolorous sounds,
As chilling as the northern iceburg's blast,
And like an incubus fast settling on
The timid, and the weak depriving of
Their energy, that lukewarmness wide-spread,
Division, desolation, anarchy,
The borders now distress of Zion's hill.
Nor long ago, and all the whole extent
Of our broad land, rang with triumphant peals
Of joy and victory, from christian hearts.
And is the scene so wholly changed become?
It is a fact, lamentable, from which,
Our eyes we cannot shut, that moral dearth,
And spiritual barrenness, alarming broods
O'er all the Church; such coldness as prevails,
Was never known, such lack of piety;
As worldly prospects, bright'ning, fast arise,194
And manufactures grow, and commerce spreads,
So worldly-mindedness makes even strides,
Through all denominations equally."
Such is the testimony of themselves
They give; such the impression that was made
On some of her own members; thus were some,
At her sad destitution, well alarmed;
But conquered soon their fears, and, with the rest,
Fell in perpetual sleep—so Satan aimed.
Ah! when their state they saw, and thus bewailed,
Why fled they not themselves to join the band,
Of God's true worshippers, with whom was life,
And Christ's true Church? for such, indeed, he had—
To whom we now delight to turn again.
Thus, separate from the world, with all its charms,
And false allurements, spread but to deceive—
Thus having sundered all the cords that bound,
Within the precincts of a fallen Church,
The Advent Band still held its onward course,
Straight in the path of Truth: a glorious band,
Humble, devoted, true, their God, alone,
Striving to please, and trusting in his word,
That what he promises he will fulfill.—
That zealous band, to whom the Saviour speaks:
"Ye of the world are not, but from the world
I've chosen, ye therefore will they hate.—"
And who from those who have of godliness
The form alone, while they the power thereof
Deny, obeying the divine behest,
Had turned away; of this full well assured,
That all who in Christ Jesus godly live,
Shall persecution suffer, willing, then,
If aught they might endure for him their King.
But not from worldly malice, wrath and hate,
And open persecution, fiercely waged,
Are they, alone, sharp trials to receive;
Others there are, of sorts more fiery still,
Experience must prove; which e'en will make
Of their belief the firmest pillars shake,
And to their faith a test more searching prove,
Than simply to withstand the world's vain scorn.
Nor long for such will their experience wait,
Whose shadows now begin to dim the way.
Based on prophetic times, interpreted
As best they then perceived, firm trust had they,
That ere Time registered that year entire—
Then swiftly passing, they their fondest hopes
Should see fulfilled, and heaven would then reveal,
Throned on a golden cloud, the King of kings.
But Time passed not, to realize to them
Their expectations; which unanswered stood;
Hence, Doubt, fell canker-worm of Truth, crept in,
And striking boldly at the inmost roots
Of their belief, there gnawed assiduous.
Now in their path, with thorns already set,
This other thorn, blank disappointment, sprung.
And many who the world's assaults had borne
With strength heroic, this could ill sustain,
And, well nigh falling, staggered on the way.
And many, gazing vacant, wavering stood,
As some ship's canvas, idly fluttering, hangs,
When two opposing winds strive opposite.
Nor were there wanting some, who, quite aside,
Turned from the path, to join the world again.
And darkly lowering, o'er them settled now,
A chilling mist, uncertainty, which left
Them all at loss, unsettled, undefined;
Checked their bold ardor, and damped their ardor quite,
And dimm'd their vision, dubious with gloom:
While, multiplied an hundred fold, and strong,
The bland allurements, artful heaped around,
Betokened, sure, the ceaseless vigilance
Of their grand Foe, to turn them from their course.
Such, now, was their position; and while, thus,
Time swept along, a heaviness crept on
And weighed their spirits, till they all began
To droop and slumber—such as oft is wont
Upon the phys'cal frame to hold its sway.
Weary with watching, when the midnight hours
Stilly approach;—but destined now not long
T' assert dominion; for the hour draws on,
Which shall dispel all doubt, all heaviness,
Uncertainty and fear.
The hour came on,
And with it came, as on the whirlwind borne,
"Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out
To meet him!" Then, swift as the lightning shoots
From cloud to cloud, quick as the thunder bursts,
Deaf'ning through all the air—so quickly ran
The spirit of that cry throughout the land,
So quickly utterance found in one great shout,
That, rising, shook, throughout, heaven's lofty dome,
"Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out
To meet him;" nor could a shock, electric,
Sooner have roused to life a faltering band,
Who now immediate from slumber sprung,
And with full many a cheer, rallied again,
With ten-fold vigor 'round their standard bright,
Now brighter, far, than ever, gleaming forth,
The Lord is coming, while all doubts and fears,
And ghostly shadows gath'ring fast around,
Scattered precipitate, with headlong route.
And Prophecy raised high her gilded page,
From which blazed forth, at once, redoubled light,
Clear as the sun, and unmistakable;
But most conspicuous, this, 'bove all the rest;
"Unto two thousand and three hundred days;
And cleansed shall then the Sanctuary be."
Then, waving her bright wand, time definite,
She pointed to, and said, "On the tenth day,
The seventh month, of eighteen forty-four,
This period shall end."
Now once again
List to the voice of Time, while he confirms
This statement, and her words establishes:
"The vision ye have heard, wherein was given
The time determined, and th' appointed days—
Two thousand and three hundred, at whose end
Cleansed should the Sanctuary be—unto
The Hebrew Prophet, Daniel, well-beloved:
To whom, while yet he understood it not,
Gabriel came swiftly flying, and thus said:
'These understanding have I come to give,
And skill, O Daniel, that thou may'st perceive
The vision, and the matter understand.
Lo! seventy weeks upon thy people, and
Upon thy holy city, are cut off;
To finish full transgression, and to make
Of sin an end, and for iniquity
A reconciliation bring, and seal
The vision and the prophecy make sure.
This, therefore, know, that from the time wherein
The going forth commandment dates its birth,
Jerusalem to build, and to restore,
From that time shall there be unto the Prince
Messiah, seven weeks, and three-score weeks,
And two; and one week he, with many, shall
The covenant confirm; but soon shall cause,
In midst of this, the sacrifice to cease.'"
Thus on the track are we directly set—
The track of Prophecy—with no false guide.
Thus to our hand is given, a giant-hold
Of the great chain, prophetic, whence we know
Where it begins, where, therefore, it must end.
While Artaxerxes, reigning, now had passed
Six times the measured space that spans, entire,
The four revolving seasons, and was yet
Within the seventh, then the decree went forth,
Jerusalem to build, and to restore.
Here, then, the point is, well defined and clear;
Here is the starting-post, deep-set and firm,
Whence to pursue our reckoning. Following down,
Along my course, the chain of Prophecy,
Through seven weeks, and three-score weeks, and two,
(Which my all demonstrating march has proved
Clearly to be prophetic weeks, of years;
Hence argues how the whole to understand,)
Behold, concurrent with the Angel's words,
The Prince Messiah, who the covenant,
Now to confirm, begins accordingly:
But farther on, three circling years and half,
(Of this last week the midst,) the sacrifice,
Behold, he makes to cease, himself for sin
Offering a sacrifice upon the cross.
Henceforth, an equal space, the week to end,
As from beginning to the middle reached,
Th' apostles still the covenant confirm;
'Till by the Jews rejected formally,
Lo! to the Gentiles, then the gospel turned,
And ended now the seventy weeks their course.
Here pause, and of our journey back, thus far,
Taking a retrospect, mark how we stand.
Lo! at th' appointed time, from the decree,
In order as foretold, see all fulfilled;
The Prince revealed, the sacrifice annulled,
The covenant its given time confirmed,
The Jews rejected, and the gospel turned
Unto the Gentiles; and of Prophecy,
At th' appointed time, ne'er can occur
A false fulfillment. Thus, then, may we know;
Rightly, at first, is fixed the starting point;
Since this, alone, will the conditions serve,
And satisfy the terms revealed therein.
This, then, the vision seals, and makes it sure;
This is the scale Eternal Wisdom gives—
That we fail not to understand the times
That God designs his purpose to fulfill—
By this fixed rule, to this established point,
What now remains, adding, conclusive gives,
When the appointed days shall terminate,
And cleansed shall then the Sanctuary be.
What further learned would be, from this now learn.
From the atonement type, where shadowed forth,
The cleansing of the Sanctuary stands,
The tenth day of the seventh month, heed well;
For this, that day, its antitype shall meet,
As at their times, others have done before.
True, then, we've found the voice of Prophecy,
When waving her bright wand, time definite,
As definite she spoke; this much is given,
For every honest heart enough to know;
For if men this reject, despise, and scorn,
And say that none can understand, then know,
Though from the dead one rose, they would not hear."
[To be continued.]
THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH.
[Continued.]
THE SABBATH FROM THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE TO THE REFORMATION.
We have seen how the matter stood until the commencement of Constantine's career. The Sabbath was generally observed, while the Lord's day was regarded as a festival of no greater importance or authority than Good Friday or Holy Thursday. No text of Scripture, or edict of emperor, or decree of council, could be produced in its favor. But from this time forth may be found emperors and councils combining to give importance to the Lord's day and to oppose the Sabbath.
An important change in the regard paid to the first day, was produced soon after the accession of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, in the early part of the fourth century. When he became master of Rome, he soon gave himself up to the guidance of the Christian clergy. According to Jones' Church History, "He built places of public worship. He encouraged the meeting of synods and bishops—honored them with his presence, and employed himself continually in aggrandizing the church. He was scrupulously attentive to the religious rites and ceremonies which were prescribed to him by the clergy. He fasted, observed the feasts in commemoration of the martyrs, and devoutly watched the whole night on the vigils of the saints," and showed great anxiety for uniformity in the doctrines and observances of religion in the church. He was, therefore, exactly suited to the wishes of the Roman195bishop and clergy, in establishing, by his imperial authority, what they had no Scripture to support, and what their influence had hitherto been unable to effect, viz. a uniformity in the celebration of Easter and the first day. In 321, Constantine first published his edicts enjoining upon his subjects these superstitious celebrations.
Eusebius in his life of Constantine, says, "He appointed as a suitable time for prayers the Dominical day, which was then an especial day, and now is undoubtedly the very first. His body guard observed the day, and offered on it prayers written by the emperor. The happy prince endeavored to persuade all to do this, and by degrees to lead all to the worship of God; wherefore he determined that those obeying Roman power should abstain from every work upon the days named after the Saviour, that they should venerate also the day before the Sabbath, in memory, as seems to me, of the events occurring in those days to our common Saviour." He says again, "An edict also, by the will and pleasure of the emperor, was transmitted to the Prefects of the provinces, that they thenceforth should venerate the Dominical day; that they should honor the days consecrated to the martyrs, and should celebrate the solemnities of the festivals in the churches, all which was done according to the will of the emperor." And as quoted by Lucius, he says, that he admonished his subjects likewise that those days which were Sabbaths should be honored, or worshipped.
Sozomen in his Ecclesiastical History, b. 1, c. 8, says, "He (Constantine) also made a law that on the Dominical day, which the Hebrews call the first day of the week, the Greeks the day of the Sun, and also on the day of Venus, (i. e. Friday) judgments should not be given, or other business transacted, but that all should worship God with prayer and supplications, and venerate the Dominical day, as on it Christ rose from the dead; and the day of Venus, as the day on which he was fixed to the cross."
Dr. Chambers says, "It was Constantine the Great who first made a law for the observance of Sunday, and who, according to Eusebius, appointed that it should be regularly celebrated throughout the Roman Empire. Before him, and even in his time, they observed the Jewish Sabbath as well as Sunday; both to satisfy the law of Moses, and to imitate the apostles, who used to meet together on the first day." He adds, "Indeed, some are of opinion that the Lord's day mentioned in the Apocalypse, is our Sunday; which they will have to have been so early instituted." "By Constantine's laws, made in 321, it was decreed that for the future the Sunday should be kept a day of rest in all cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow their work. In 538, the Council of Orleans prohibited this country labor.
To give the more solemnity to the first day of the week, (as we learn from Lucius' Ecclesiastical History,) Sylvester, who was bishop of Rome while Constantine was Emperor, changed the name of Sunday, giving it the more imposing title of Lord's day.
It cannot be doubted, that the laws of Constantine did much to make the first day conspicuous throughout the empire, as all public business was forbidden upon it. They changed its character from a special day, in which, as a weekly festival, all kinds of business and labor were performed in city and country, to be, as Eusebius says, the very first. This imperial favor for the first day operated against all who conscientiously regarded the Sabbath from respect to the fourth commandment, in obedience to which the seventh day had always been observed; and if it had produced a general abandonment of its observance, it would not have been very surprising, considering the influence of court example, and the general ignorance and darkness of the age. This, however, does not appear to have been the case. The Sabbath was still extensively observed; and to counteract it the Council of Laodicea, about A. D. 350, passed a decree, saying, "It is not proper for Christians to Judaize, and to cease from labor on the Sabbath, but they ought to work on that day, and put especial honor upon the Lord's day, as Christians. If any be found Judaizing, let him be anathematized."
But this did not produce any material change, for Socrates, a writer of the fifth century, who resided at Constantinople, makes the following remarks upon the celebration of the Sabbath at the time he wrote, A. D. 440. He says, "There are various customs concerning assembling; for though all the churches throughout the whole world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath day, yet the Alexandrians and the Romans, from an ancient tradition, refuse to do this; but the Egyptians who are in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and those inhabiting Thebais, indeed have assemblies on the Sabbath, but do not participate in the mysteries, as is the custom of the Christians. At Cæsarea, Cappadocia, and in Cyprus, on the Sabbath and Dominical day, at twilight, with lighted lamps, the presbyters and bishops interpret the Scriptures At Rome they fast every Sabbath."
This account of the manner of celebrating the Sabbath in the fifth century, is corroborated by Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History, b. 7, c. 9. He says, "At Constantinople, and almost among all, the Christians assembled upon the Sabbath, and also upon the first day of the week, except at Rome and Alexandria; the ecclesiastical assemblies at Rome were not upon the Sabbath, as in almost all other churches of the rest of the world; and in many cities and villages in Egypt, they used to commune in the evening of the Sabbath, on which day there were public assemblies."
In regard to fasting on the Sabbath at Rome, referred to by Socrates, it ought to be said, that from the earliest times to the fourth century, the practice had been to observe the Sabbath as a holiday. But the Church of Rome, in its opposition to the Jews, made it a fast day, that the separation might be marked and strong. In the eastern churches they never fasted upon the Sabbath, excepting one Sabbath in the year, which was the day before the Passover. But in the western churches they celebrated a fast every week. It was in reference to this that Ambrose said, "When I come to Rome, I fast upon the Sabbath; when I am here, I do not fast." Augustine also said concerning this, "If they say it is sinful to fast on the Sabbath, then they would condemn the Roman Church, and many places near to and far from it. And if they should think it a sin not to fast on the Sabbath, then they would blame many eastern churches, and the far greater part of the world." This Sabbath fasting was opposed by the eastern church; and in the sixth general council, held at Constantinople, it was commanded that the Sabbath and Dominical days be kept as festivals, and that no one fast or mourn upon them. The practice of fasting, therefore, was chiefly in the western churches, about Rome.
It is perhaps difficult to determine exactly the relative importance attached to the seventh and first days of the week at this time. Sufficient may be found, however, to assure us, that the Sabbath was observed, and that no one regarded Sunday as having taken its place. This is shown by the provision of the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 365, that the Gospels should be read on that day. It is shown by the action of a Council in 517, (mentioned in Robinson's History of Baptism,) which regulated and enforced the observance of the Sabbath. It is shown by the expostulation of Gregory of Nyssa, "How can you look upon the Lord's day, if you neglect the Sabbath? Do you not know that they are sisters, and that in despising the one you affront the other?" And as sisters we find them hand in hand in the ecclesiastical canons. Penalties were inflicted by the councils both of Laodicea and Trullo, on clergymen who did not observe both days as festivals.
How the first day of the week, or Lord's day, was observed in the early part of the fifth century, we may learn from the words of St. Jerome. In a funeral oration for the Lady Paula, he says: "She, with all her virgins and widows who lived at Bethlehem in a cloister with her, upon the Lord's day, repaired duly to the church, or house of God, which was near to her cell; and after her return from thence to her own lodgings, she herself and all her company fell to work, and they all performed their task, which was the making of clothes and garments for themselves and for others, as they were appointed."
St. Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople, "recommended to his audience, after impressing upon themselves and their families what they had heard on the Lord's day, to return to their daily employments and trades."
Dr. Francis White, Lord Bishop of Ely, speaking of this matter, says, "The Catholic Church, for more than six hundred years after Christ, permitted labor, and gave license to many Christian people to work upon the Lord's day, at such hours as they were not commanded to be present at the public service by the precepts of the church."
In the sixth century efforts were made to prevent this labor. The following promulgation of a synod held by command of King Junthran, of Burgundy, will show the condition of things, and the means used to improve it: "We see the Christian people, in an unadvised manner, deliver to contempt the Dominical day, and, as in other days, indulge in continual labor." Therefore they determined to teach the people subject to them to keep the Dominical day, which, if not observed by the lawyer, he should irreparably lose his cause, and if a countryman or servant did not keep it, he should be beaten with heavier blows of cudgels. The council of Orleans, held 538, prohibited the country labor on Sunday which Constantine by his laws permitted. According to Chambers, this council also declared, "that to hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle, and carriages, to prepare food, or to do any thing necessary to the cleanliness and decency of houses or persons, savors more of Judaism than Christianity." According to Lucius, in another council held in Narbonne, in France, in the seventh century, they also forbid this country work.
Early in the seventh century, in the time of Pope Gregory I, the subject of the Sabbath attracted considerable attention. There was one class of persons who declared, "that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday, or the old Sabbath; another, that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lord's day, or their new Sabbath." Against both of these doctrines Pope Gregory wrote a letter to the Roman citizens. Baronius, in his Councils, says, "This year [603] at Rome, St. Gregory, the Pope, corrected that error which some preached, by Jewish superstition, or the Grecian custom, that it was a duty to worship on the Sabbath, as likewise upon the Dominical day;" and he calls such preachers the preachers of Antichrist. Nearly the same doctrine was preached again in the time of Gregory VII., A. D. 1074, about five hundred years after what we are now speaking of. This is sufficient to show that the Sabbath was kept until those times of decline which introduced so many errors in faith and practice. Indeed, it is sufficient to show, that wherever the subject has been under discussion, the Sabbath has found its advocates, both in theory and in practice.
According to Lucius, "Pope Urban II., in the eleventh century, dedicated the Sabbath to the Virgin Mary, with a mass. Binius says, "Pope Innocent I. constituted a fast on the Sabbath day, which seems to be the first constitution of that fast; but dedicating the Sabbath to the Virgin Mary was by Urban II., in the latter part of the eleventh century." About this time we find Esychius teaching the doctrine that the precept for the observance of the Sabbath is not one of the commandments, because it is not at all times to be observed according to the letter; and Thomas Aquinas, another Romish Ecclesiastic, saying, "that it seems to be inconvenient that the precept for observing the Sabbath should be put among the precepts of the Decalogue, if it do not at all belong to it; that the precept, 'Thou shalt not make a graven image,' and the precept for observing the Sabbath, are ceremonial."
FIRST DAY OBSERVANCE INTRODUCED INTO GREAT BRITAIN.
First day observance in this country being derived from England, mainly, we are interested in learning the origin of the observance in that coun-196try. As the great body of the professed church, drink from this stream, a knowledge of its fountain head is of much value. The "History of the Sabbath" testifies to the point:
The observance of the first day was not so early in England and in Scotland as in most other parts of the Roman Empire. According to Heylyn, there were Christian societies established in Scotland as early as A. D. 435; and it is supposed that the gospel was preached in England in the first century by St. Paul. For many ages after Christianity was received in those kingdoms, they paid no respect to the first day. Binius, a Catholic writer, in the second volume of his works, gives some account of the bringing into use of the Dominical day [Sunday] in Scotland, as late as A. D. 1203. "This year," he says, "a council was held in Scotland concerning the introduction of the Lord's day, which council was held in 1203, in the time of Pope Innocent III.," and he quotes as his authority Roger Hoveden, Matth. Paris, and Lucius' Eccl. Hist. He says, "By this council it was enacted that it should be holy time from the twelfth hour on Saturday noon until Monday."
Boethus (de Scottis, page 344,) says, "In 1203, William, king of Scotland, called a council of the principal of his kingdom, by which it was decreed, that Saturday, from the twelfth hour at noon, should be holy, that they should do no profane work, and this they should observe until Monday."
Binius says that in 1201, Eustachius, Abbot of Flay, came to England, and therein preached from city to city, and from place to place. He prohibited using markets on Dominical days; and for this he professed to have a special command from heaven. The history of this singular document, entitled, A holy Command of the Dominical Day, the pious Abbot stated to be this: "It came from Heaven to Jerusalem, and was found on St. Simeon's tomb in Golgotha. And the Lord commanded this epistle, which for three days and three nights men looked upon, and falling to the earth, prayed for God's mercy. And after the third hour, the patriarch stood up; and Akarias the archbishop stretched out his mitre, and they took the holy epistle of God and found it thus written."
"I, the Lord, who commanded you that ye should observe the Dominical day, and ye have not kept it; and ye have not repented of your sins, as I said by my gospel, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away; I have caused repentance unto life to be preached unto you, and ye have not believed; I sent pagans against you, who shed your blood, yet ye believed not; and because ye kept me the Dominical day, for a few days ye had famine; but I soon gave you plenty, and afterwards ye did worse; I will again, that none from the ninth hour of the Sabbath until the rising of the sun on Monday, do any thing unless what is good, which if any do, let him amend by repentance; and if ye be not obedient to this command, amen, I say unto you, and I swear unto you by my seat, and throne, and cherubim, who keep my holy seat, because I will not change any thing by another epistle; but I will open the heavens, and for rain I will rain upon you stones, and logs of wood, and hot water by night, and none may be able to prevent, but that I may destroy all wicked men. This I say unto you, ye shall die the death, because of the Dominical holy day and other festivals of my saints which ye have not kept. I will send unto you beasts having the heads of lions, the hair of women, and tails of camels; and they shall be so hunger-starved that they shall devour your flesh, and ye shall desire to flee to the sepulchres of the dead, and hide you for fear of the beasts; and I will take away the light of the sun from your eyes; and I will send upon you darkness, that without seeing ye may kill one another; and I will take away my face from you, and will not show you mercy; for I will burn the bodies and hearts of all who keep not the Dominical holy day. Hear my voice, lest ye perish in the land because of the Dominical holy day. Now know ye, that ye are safe by the prayers of my most holy mother Mary, and of my holy angels who daily pray for you. I gave you the law from Mount Sinai, which ye have not kept. For you I was born into the world, and my festivals ye have not known; the Dominical day of my resurrection ye have not kept; I swear to you by my right hand, unless ye keep the Dominical day and the festivals of my saints, I will send pagans to kill you."
Provided with this new command from heaven, "Eustachius preached in various parts of England against the desecration of the Dominical day, and other festivals; and gave the people absolution upon condition that they hereafter reverence the Dominical day, and the festivals of the saints." And the people vowed to God, that thereafter they would neither buy nor sell any thing but food on Sunday.
"Then," says Binius, "the enemy of man, envying the admonitions of this holy man, put it into the heart of the king and nobility of England, to command that all who should keep the aforesaid traditions, and chiefly all who had cast down the markets for things vendible upon the Dominical day, should be brought to the king's court to make satisfaction about observing the Dominical day."
Binius relates many miraculous things that occurred on the Sabbath to those that labored after the ninth hour (i. e. after three o'clock in the afternoon) of the seventh day, or Saturday. He says, that upon a certain Sabbath, after the ninth hour, a carpenter, for making a wooden pin, was struck with the palsy; and a woman, for knitting on the Sabbath, after the ninth hour, was also struck with the palsy. A man baked bread, and when he broke it to eat, blood came out. Another, grinding corn, blood came in a great stream instead of meal, while the wheel of his mill stood still against a vehement impulse of water. Heated ovens refused to bake bread, if heated after the ninth hour of the Sabbath; and dough, left unbaked, out of respect to Eustachius' new doctrine, was found on Monday morning well baked without the aid of fire. These fables were industriously propagated throughout the kingdom; "yet the people," says Binius, "fearing kingly and human power more than divine, returned as a dog to his own vomit, to keep markets of saleable things upon the Dominical day."
Mr. Bampfield, in his Enquiry, page 3, says, "The king and princes of England, in 1203, would not agree to change the Sabbath, and keep the first day, by this authority. This was in the time of King John, against whom the popish clergy had a great pique for not honoring their prelacy and the monks, by one of whom he was finally poisoned."
Binius (Councils, cent. 13,) states that King John of England, in 1208, in the tenth year of his reign, for not submitting to popish impositions upon his prerogatives, was excommunicated by the Pope, and his kingdom interdicted, which occasioned so much trouble at home and abroad, that it forced him at last to lay down his crown at the feet of Pandulphus, the Pope's agent. After he was thus humbled by that excommunication and interdiction, the king, in the fifteenth year of his reign, by writ, removed the market of the city of Exon from Sunday, on which it was held, to Monday. The market of Lanceston was removed from the first to the fifth day of the week. In the second and third years of Henry III. many other markets were removed from the first to other days of the week, which the King at first would not permit. He also issued a writ which permitted the removal of markets from the first day to other days without special license.
The Parliament of England met on Sundays until the time of Richard II., who adjourned it from that to the following day.
In 1203, according to Boethus, "a council was held in Scotland to inaugurate the king, and concerning the feast of the Sabbath; and there came also a legate from the Pope, with a sword and purple hat, and indulgences and privileges to the young king. It was also there decreed, that Saturday, from the twelfth hour at noon, should be holy."—The Magdeburgenses say that this Council was about the observance of the Dominical day nearly brought in, and that they ordained that it should be holy from the twelfth hour of Saturday even till Monday."
Binius says, "A synod was held in Oxford, A. D. 1293, by Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, where they determined that the Dominical day be kept with all veneration, and a fast upon the Sabbath."
[Concluded in our next.]
Articles Omitted for Want of Room
By Editor
We have several excellent articles on hand that we shall not be able to publish at present for want of room. Also, excellent epistles from the brethren are left out for the same reason.