About the year of our Lord, 248, flourished Cyprian, a prelate not more illustrious for his learning, virtues, and episcopal labours, than for the dangers and persecutions to which he was exposed, and the unshaken constancy with which he braved them. He unites in the general suffrage in favour of a septenary Christian festival. Asserting that the Jewish circumcision, being on the eighth day, contained a mystery fulfilled in Christ, he argues, "Because the eighth day, that is, the first after the sabbath, was to be the day on which our Lord should rise and quicken us, and give us the spiritual circumcision, this eighth day, that is, the first after the sabbath, and the Lord's day, preceded in the image, which image ceased when the truth supervened, and the spiritual circumcision was given to us This testi m " enim resurrectio Domini semel in anno, et non semper post septem dies celebratur) orate Deum omnipotentem, ut veniat ad nos sermo ejus." m Cyprian, Epist. 64. p. 161. ed. Fell. Oxon. 1682. Also apud Routh, Reliquiæ Sacræ, vol. iii. p. 74, et seq. Several of the Fathers give a mystical interpretation to the rite of circumcision. Thus Justin Martyr says, "The command to circumcise infants on the eighth day was a type of the true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from error and wickedness, through Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the first day of the week; therefore it remains the first and chief of all the days. Dial. c. Tryph. p. 260. mony is of the greater value, since it is not the testimony of one Father alone, but of many; for it is taken from a synodical epistle of Cyprian and his colleagues, who were present at the third Carthaginian council under the episcopate of Cyprian, A.D. 253. The learned men of whom this council consisted, could not be ignorant of the general practice in the church, and they would not have sanctioned the Lord's day festival by a mystical interpretation of the rite of circumcision, unless they had believed it to be founded on divine authority. Again Cyprian speaks of one Aurelius, who was ordained a clerk, and "read on the Lord's day";" though the original it must be acknowledged, may be rendered "in the church," and not "on the Lord's day." The same doubt applies to another passage, where, speaking of a certain person, he says, "You are rich, and believe that you celebrate the Lord's day," &c. The word used in these two latter passages denotes sometimes the Lord's day, sometimes the church, and sometimes the mysteries of our religion celebrated on that day in the church, as is remarked by Bishop Fell in his note upon the place last cited. the year 270, mentions the Lord's day. It is also mentioned by Victorine, Bishop of Pettaw upon the Drave, in Germany, A.D. 290; and about the same period by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, and Martyr, who says, "We keep the Lord's day as a day of joy, because of him who rose on it; neither is it the received custom among us to kneel upon that day"." To the Fathers already cited may be added Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, who was born, as is thought, about A.D. 270. He mentions the Lord's day as a festival dedicated to Christ, without the slightest hint of its being a recent institution'. He says, "Constantine appointed for prayer that day which is really the first and chief of days, which is truly the Lord's day, and a day of salvation;" and in another place he repeats the same sentiment, in the same words, together with some enlargements". Again, he eulogizes Constantine for commanding, that, "all should assemble together every week, and keep that which is called the Lord's day as a festival, to Apud Lardner, Works, vol. 2. p. 73. edit. 4to. Apud Routh, Reliquiæ Sacræ, vol. iii. p. 237. • Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. v. cap. xxiii. ed. Valesius, Paris. 1659. t De Vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. xviii. p. 534. B. De Laudibus Constantini, cap. ix. p. 628. C. 9 refresh their bodies, and to stir up their minds with divine precepts and instruction *." Constantine was born about A.D. 273, and died A.D. 337. He was the first emperor who made public profession of Christianity; and he promulged several laws for the regular and orderly observance of the Lord's day. By a general enactment he commanded, as Eusebius expresses it, "that those who lived within the Roman empire should rest on the day entitled from our Saviour," i. e. the Lord's day". He likewise * Ibid. cap. xvii. p. 664. C. The text is καὶ αὐτὰ σώματα maively, upon which Valesius remarks, "Scio quidem Christianos diebus Dominicis lautius epulari solitos. Verum Tò πiaivav non convenit Christianis. Quare no dubito quin Eusebius scripserit, καὶ οὐ τὰ σώματα πιαίνειν.” But I see not why waiver may not be used figuratively in the sense expressed in my version. (See Hederici Lex. ed. 1821.) This is preferable to altering the text upon conjecture. De Vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. xviii. p. 534. C. Eusebius adds, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὰς τοῦ σαββάτου τιμᾷν, where Valesius says, "Scribendum est procul dubio rv po тou daßßárov." This certainly derives some confirmation from Sozomen, who says, that Constantine "ordered that on the Lord's day, which the Hebrews call the first day of the week, but the Greeks, sunday, and on the day before the seventh, (ry po τñs ¿ßdóμns) all should rest from their labours, and address the Deity in prayer and supplication." (Hist. lib. i. cap. vii. apud Valesium.) So Pollux in Chronico as cited by Suicer. (Thesaur. Ecclesiast. vol. ii. p. 185.) Be this as it may, the expressions of Eusebius do not imply that they should honour the sabbath, i. e. the saturday, passed a law that those who governed in the provinces should reverence the Lord's day. In the Justinian code there is an edict of Constantine which enacts, that "all judges, inhabitants, of the cities, and artificers, should rest on the venerable sunday; but that husbandmen might freely and safely apply to the business of agriculture; since it often happens that the sowing of corn and planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other day: lest by neglecting the opportunity, they should lose the benefits granted by heaven." In particular, he ordered all legal proceedings to be suspended on that day, except such as required immediate execution, and such as could not be deferred without intrenching upon charity and justice. He commanded his army to rest on sunday from all military exercises; and he ordered the Christians who were soldiers, as they were discharged from any other business and employment, to perform their devotions agreeably to the institutions of the church in like manner as sunday, but that they should likewise honour it ; opoiws dè. See Hoogeveen, De Particulis, in öμws. Eusebius, De Vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. xxiii. p. 536. C. a Cod. Justin. lib. iii. Tit. 12. de Feriis, Leg. 3. b Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. viii. Cod. Theodos. lib. ii. Tit. 8. de Feriis. See other laws to the same effect cited by Bingham, Antiquities, lib. xx. cap. ii. § 2., and Siucer, Thesaur. Ecclesiast. vol. ii. p. 185. |