are not the only instances in which human traditions have superseded a divine precept. The persecutions every where raised against the Jews after the destruction of their city and temple by the Romans, and the risk run by the Christians of being confounded with them and of being treated like them, on account of their keeping the same sabbath, tended greatly to facilitate and extend the observance of the first day festival, as it was called. The festival being weekly, as well as the seventh day sabbath-its services being the same-the respect it apparently showed to Christ-and the inconvenience of keeping two days together, strengthened this tendency. To the decrees of Constantine, however, in favour of this day exclusively, in opposition to the Fathers and Councils that had preceded, and, so far as is known, without even taking the sense of any council as he did at Nice, is chiefly to be attributed, in my opinion, that prevalence throughout Christendom which it has ever since possessed.

If this account of the origin whence proceeded this regard paid in the early ages of Christianity to the first day be objected to as resting on conjecture, I reply, that I do not pretend to state the precise fact, of which history gives no information. In a case where (as I have shown) I am not obliged to give any account at all, conjecture is quite sufficient. The supposition is not like

that by which the prevalence of Sabbatarianism in the ages before Constantine has been attempted to be accounted for, namely, the accommodating spirit of the Gentile converts toward their brethren from among the Jews, about which the New Testament and the Fathers are equally silent, and which, till the repeal of the old sabbath be proved, may be accounted for much more naturally and satisfactorily. The conjecture I have hazarded is possible, and even highly probable, considering the numerous declarations made by individuals and public bodies of the greatest respectability who kept the first day, that its claim rested entirely on the authority of the Church. In short, the Scriptures were never appealed to on the subject till the time of the Puritans. St. Ignatius, as already noticed, states his recommendation of it only as an idea of his own; and the subsequent writers either express their own opinion in like manner, or follow his.

I wish to remind my Baptist friends of the accounts given, by them, of the origin of Pædobaptism, and the Dissenters in general of the sources whence, in their opinion, Episcopacy, together with the fasts and feasts observed in the primitive Church, particularly Easter Sunday, had their rise. They are mentioned as early in Ecclesiastical History as the first day is. I perfectly agree with my friends respecting the probability of these

accounts: but they are as incapable of being proved, as my hypothesis concerning the origin of sanctifying the first day.

I observe, finally, that my pious friends in the Establishment no more approve than I do of the corruptions of Christianity in the second and third centuries noticed by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and others: such as carrying the Eucharist to private houses after it had been consecrated at Church; mingling water with the wine used in the Holy Supper; and the invocation of departed saints. But their modes of accounting for these abuses, though extremely probable, can no more be proved to the satisfaction of an opponent, than my conjecture relative to Sunday.

CHAPTER IX.

Differences of Opinion concerning the Commencement and Termination of the Scriptural Weekly Sabbath.

It has already been noticed, that in England, between the time of Edgar (before the Norman conquest) and the reign of King John, that is, for more than 200 years, the weekly sabbath began

at three o'clock on the seventh day afternoon, and continued till twelve o'clock on Sunday night. [See Rapin's History of the Church.] In Scotland, during a part at least of this period, in the reign of William the Lion, cotemporary with Henry the Second of England, the sabbath ended at the same time that it did here: but it began earlier, namely, at twelve o'clock at noon, on the. seventh day. [See Morer, p. 290.] With these exceptions, so far as I know, all Christians who observed the first day have ever included it between the seventh day at midnight and the midnight following.

The Sabbatarians begin and end their sabbath differently; observing it from the evening of Friday, till the evening of the day following. They do not agree with the modern Jews in this point, if what is reported of them be true, that they keep their sabbath from six on the former of these evenings, till six on the latter of them.

I propose to make a few remarks on the arguments adduced by the different parties in favour of their respective practices. Whatever reason our English ancestors and the Scots had for commencing their sabbath so many hours before the time of its present beginning-whether it was a relic of the ancient practice among Christians in general till the fourth century of keeping the seventh day, as well as the first day, or whether

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the extraordinary hours were intended to be em ployed in preparing for the sabbath rather than to be a part of it, it is now agreed by all, I believe, who think the seventh day sabbath is repealed, that the custom has no foundation in Scripture.

I proceed to examine the grounds for the general practice among Christians for keeping the sabbath from midnight to midnight. The cause must be looked for, I suppose, in the civil mode of reckoning the beginning and ending of the days among the Jews and in the time of the apostles, which appears to be the same as that used chiefly in the civilized world at the present time. Thus in John, chap. 20. what is called the evening of the first day when Christ visited his disciples who were assembled together, was precisely the portion of time that would now be called the Sunday evening. At first view, therefore, it would seem that the observer of the first day acted rightly in beginning and ending his sabbath at the times when, according to the civil account, Sunday is reckoned to begin and end. If, however, the seventh day sabbath was reckoned by the divine command from evening to evening, and if this time of keeping it was founded not on any custom peculiar to the Jews, or on the ceremonial law, but on the order in which it pleased the Blessed God to reckon the parts of the natu