@Verifyveritas76
I don't know much about the author or his beleifs but I wanted to point this out about the beleifs about the Early Fathers.
Chapter 18: The Sabbath in the Record of the Early Fathers
The first reasons for neglecting the
Sabbath are now mostly obsolete—A portion of the early Fathers taught the perpetuity of the Decalogue, and made it the standard of moral character-What they say concerning the perpetuity and observance of the ancient Sabbath—Enumeration of the things which caused the suppression of the Sabbath, and the elevation of Sunday.
The reasons offered by the early Fathers for neglecting the observance of the Sabbath, show conclusively that they had no special light on the subject by reason of living in the first centuries, which we in this later age do not possess.
The fact is, so many of the reasons offered by them are manifestly false and absurd that those who in these days discard the Sabbath, do also discard the most of the reasons offered by these Fathers for this same course. We have also learned from such of the early Fathers as mention first-day observance, the exact nature of the Sunday festival, and all the reasons which in the first centuries were offered in its support. Very few indeed of these reasons are now offered by modern first-day writers.
But some of the Fathers bear emphatic testimony to the perpetuity of the ten commandments, and make their observance the condition of eternal life. Some also distinctly assert the origin of the Sabbath at creation. Several of them, moreover, bear witness to the existence of Sabbath-keepers, or give decisive testimony to the perpetuity and obligation of the Sabbath, or define the nature of proper Sabbatic observance, or connect the observance of the Sabbath and first-day together. Let us now hear the testimony of those who assert the authority of the ten commandments. Irenaeus asserts their perpetuity, and makes them a test of
Christian character. Thus he says:—
"For God at the first, indeed, warning them [the Jews] by means of
natural precepts, which
from the beginning he had implanted in mankind, that is, by means of
the Decalogue (which, if any one does not observe, he has no salvation), did then demand nothing more of them."
1 This is a very strong statement. He makes the ten commandments the law of nature implanted in man's being at the beginning; and so inherited by all mankind. This is no doubt true. It is the presence of the carnal mind or law of sin and death, implanted in man by the fall, that has partially obliterated this law, and made the work of the new covenant a necessity.
2 He again asserts the perpetuity and authority of the ten commandments in the following words:—
"Preparing man for this life, the Lord himself did speak in his own person to all alike the words of the Decalogue: and therefore, in like manner, do they remain permanently with us, receiving, by means of his advent in the flesh, extension and increase, but not abrogation."
3 By the "extension" of the Decalogue, Irenaeus doubtless means the exposition which the Saviour gave of the meaning of the commandments in his sermon on the mount.
4 Theophilus speaks in like manner concerning the Decalogue:—
"For God has given us a law and holy commandment; and
every one who
keeps these
can be saved, and, obtaining the resurrection, can inherit incorruption."
5 "We have learned a holy law; but we have as Lawgiver him who is really God, who teaches us to act righteously, and to be pious, and to do good."
6 "of this great and wonderful law which tends to all righteousness, the TEN HEADS are such as we have already rehearsed."
7 Tertullian calls the ten commandments "the rules of our regenerated life," that is to say, the rules which govern the life of a converted man:—
"They who theorize respecting numbers, honor the number ten as the parent of all the others, and as imparting perfection to the human nativity. For my own part, I prefer viewing this measure of time in reference to God, as if implying that the ten months rather initiated man into
the ten commandments; so that the numerical estimate of the time needed to consummate our natural birth should correspond to the numerical classification of
the rules of our regenerate life."
8 In showing the deep guilt involved in the violation of the seventh commandment, Tertullian speaks of the sacredness of the commandments which precede it, naming several in particular, and among them the fourth, and then says of the precept against adultery that ?
It stands "in the very forefront of
the most holy law, among the
primary counts of the
celestial edict."
9 Clement of Rome, or rather the author whose works have been ascribed to this Father, speaks thus of the Decalogue as a test:—
"On account of those, therefore, who, by neglect of their own salvation, please the evil one, and those, who, by study of their own profit, seek to please the good One, ten things have been prescribed as a test to this present age, according to the number of ten plagues which were brought upon Egypt."
10 Novatian, who wrote about A. D. 250, is accounted the founder of the sect called
Cathari, or Puritans. He wrote a treatise on the Sabbath, which is not extant. There is no reference to Sunday in any of his writings. He makes the following striking remarks concerning the moral law:—
"The law was given to the children of Israel for this purpose, that they might profit by it and RETURN
to those virtuous manners which, although
they had received them from their fathers, they had corrupted in Egypt, by reason of their intercourse with a barbarous people. Finally, also, those
ten commandments on the tables teach nothing
new, but
remind them of what had been obliterated—that righteousness in them, which had been put to sleep, might revive again, as it were, by the afflatus of the law, after the manner of a fire [nearly extinguished]."
11 It is evident that in the judgment of Novatian, the ten commandments enjoined nothing that was not sacredly regarded by the patriarchs before Jacob went down into Egypt. It follows, therefore, that in his opinion the Sabbath was made, not at the fall of the manna, but when God sanctified the seventh day; and that holy men from the earliest ages observed it.
The Apostolical Constitutions, written about the third century, give us an understanding of what was widely regarded in the third century as apostolic doctrine. They speak thus of the ten commandments:—
"3 Have before thine eyes the fear of God, and always remember the ten commandments of God—to love the one and only Lord God with all they strength; to give no heed to idols, or any other beings, as being lifeless gods, or irrational beings or daemons."
12 This writer, like Irenaeus, believed in the identity of the Decalogue with the law of nature. These testimonies show that in the writings of the early Fathers are some of the strongest utterances in behalf of the perpetuity and authority of the ten commandments.
13 Now let us hear what they say concerning the origin of the Sabbath at creation. The epistle ascribed to Barnabas says:—
"And he says in another place, 'If my sons keep the Sabbath, then will I cause my mercy to rest upon them.' The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: 'And God made in six days the works of his hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.'"
14 Irenaeus seems plainly to connect the origin of the Sabbath with the sanctification of the seventh day:—
"These [things promised] are [to take place] in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day, which has been sanctified, in which God rested from all his works which he created, which is the true Sabbath, in which they shall not be engaged in any earthly occupation."
15 Tertullian, likewise, refers the origin of the Sabbath to "the benediction of the Father":—
"But inasmuch as birth is also completed with the seventh month, I more readily recognize in this number than in the eighth the honor of a numerical agreement with the Sabbatical period; so that the month in which God's image is sometimes produced in a human birth, shall in its number tally with the day on which God's creation was completed and
hallowed."
16 "For even in the case before us, he [Christ] fulfilled the law, while interpreting its condition; [moreover] he exhibits in a clear light the different kinds of work, while doing what the law excepts from the sacredness of the Sabbath, [and] while imparting to the Sabbath-day itself which
from the beginning had been consecrated by the benediction of the Father, and additional sanctity by his own beneficent action."
17 Origen, who, as we have seen, believed in a mystical Sabbath, did nevertheless fix its origin at the sanctification of the seventh day:—
"For he [Celsus] knows nothing of the day of the Sabbath and rest of God, which follows the completion of the world's creation, and which lasts during the duration of the world, and in which all those will keep festival with god who have done all their works in their six days."
18 The testimony of Novatian, which has been given relative to the sacredness and authority of the Decalogue, plainly implies the existence of the Sabbath in the patriarchal ages, and its observance by those holy men of old. It ws given to Israel that they might "RETURN to those
virtuous manners which, although
they had received them from their fathers, they had corrupted in Egypt." And he adds, "Those ten commandments on the tables teach
nothing new, but
remind them of what had been obliterated."
19 He did not, therefore, believe the Sabbath to have originated at the fall of the manna, but counted it one of those things which were practiced by their fathers before Jacob went down to Egypt.
Lantantius places the origin of the Sabbath at creation:—
"God completed the world and this admirable work of nature in the space of six days(as is contained in the secrets of holy Scripture), and CONSECRATED the seventh day, on which he had rested from his works. But this is the Sabbath-day, which, in the language of the Hebrews, received its name from the number, whence the seventh is the legitimate and complete number."
20 In a poem on Genesis, written about the time of Lactantius, but by an unknown author, we have an explicit testimony to the divine appointment of the seventh day to a holy use while man was yet in Eden, the garden of God:—
"The seventh came, when God
At his work's end did rest, DECREEING IT
SACRED UNTO THE COMING AGE'S JOYS."
21 The Apostolical Constitutions, while teaching the present obligation of the Sabbath, plainly indicate its origin to have been at creation:—
"O Lord Almighty, thou has created the world by Christ, and
hast appointed the Sabbath in memory thereof, because that day thou has made us rest from our works, for the meditation upon thy laws."
22 Such are the testimonies of the early Fathers to the primeval origin of the Sabbath, and to the sacredness and perpetual obligation of the ten commandments. We now call attention to what they say relative to the perpetuity of the Sabbath, and to its observance in the centuries during which they lived. Tertullian defines Christ's relation to the Sabbath:—
"He was called 'Lord of the Sabbath' because he maintained the Sabbath as his own institution."
23 He affirms that Christ did not abolish the Sabbath:—
"Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath: he kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which was beneficial to the life of his disciples (for he indulged them with the relief of food when they were hungry), and in the present instance, cured the withered hand; in each case intimating by facts, 'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.'"
