Sabbath Historical Highlights

It is absurd to maintain that Jehova in the O.T. would write: remember the seventh day, because I rested on it, and in the N.T. would say: you shall rest on the first day, because I rested on the seventh day ...

- Jodocus van Lodenstein, Kort en Zedig Onderzoek Van ‘t Berigt Nopende Den Sabbath

... our author seems to want us to observe Sabbath with Sunday.

- Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux

. . . a Minister that held opinion that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed, and not ours, and that we ought to abstain from all manner of swines flesh. Being examined upon these these, he confessed that he had divulged these opinions and had labored so having as many to his opinion as he could ...

The Gospel owns no other times than the sanctified Sabbath, in honour of the most glorious work of Creation ...

Upon this or some equal account, the primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews; not only for their compliance with the Jews till the distinction were confessed and notorious; but because the moral religion, which was served by that day, was not brought into the religion of the Lord's day as yet; therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean Council; which also took care that the reading of the Gospels should be mingled with their reading of the law: which was, in a manner, the first public reasonable essay of uniting the religion of both days into one.

I hear the Ethiopians use these constitutions as truly apostolic, & for the reason of being more mistaken about the worship of the Sabbath and Sunday; and concerning the minister of the sacrament of baptism, and certain other dogmas. For in the 7th chapter of the book 24 they command to observe the Sabbath. . .

- Robert Bellarmine De Scriptoribvs Ecclesiasticis Liber Vnus Adiunctis Indicibus Vndecim & Breui Chronologia Ab Orbe Condito Vsque Ad Annum MDCXII

The Old Sabbath Songbook consisted of one hundred and two hymns. Forty-four for the Sabbath. . . They sanctified the Sabbath because one who does not do so does ‘not participate with Christ in eternal life’.

S. Athanafius Patriarch there, affirms that they assembled on the Sabbath days, not that they were infected any whit with Judaism, which was far from them; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Christ the Lord of The Sabbath ...

- The History of the Sabbath In Two books by Peter Heylyn

Chapter X. You wish to know if anyone is permitted to perform any labor on Saturday or Sunday. Concerning this matter the oft-remembered holy Pope Gregory said, while addressing the Romans: It has come to my attention that certain men of a perverse spirit have sowed some depraved things among you which are contrary to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on Saturday. What else should I call such people except preachers of the Antichrist, who shall, when he comes, make Saturday and Sunday be kept free from any work?

- Labbe, Sacrosancta concilia ad regiam editionem, volume 8, p 521

Euerie man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towing of the bell, shall upon the working days repair unto the church to hear Divine Service upon pain of losing his or her days allowance for the first omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third to be condemned to the gallies for six months.

Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate or break the Sabbath by any gaming, public or private abroad, or at home, but duly sanctify and observe the same both himself and his family, by preparing themselves at home with private prayers, that they may be the better fitted for the public according to the commandments of God, and the orders of our church, as also every man and woman shall repair in the morning to the Divine Service, and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to Divine Service, and catechising upon pain for the first fault to lose their provision and allowance for the whole week following, for the second to lose the said allowance and also to be whipped, and for the third to suffer death.

In the month of May the same year, the pastor of Maneille, Valere Gros, was called to take part in a dispute with some of the neighbouring monks, who accused him of holding false doctrines, and of being, not a Christian, but a Jew, because he observed no other holydays than the weekly Sabbath; also of being offended with those who spoke of eating that flesh of Christ, and because he refused the apocryphal books.

They keep Saturday holy, nor esteem the Saturday fast lawful, but on Easter even. They have solemn service on Saturdays. . .like the Jews ...

- Samuel Purchas his Pilgrimes, 1625

. . . there is two laws, a moral law consisting of 10 commandments: all written by the finger of God, upon tables of stone, and a ceremonial law written by Moses and delivered to the people; so are there sabbaths moral. . . and sabbaths ceremonial. . .by Sabbaths here is meant only ceremonial sabbaths. . .

- Theophilus Brabourne, A Discourse Upon The Sabbath Day, 1628

... that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed (together with the celebration of the Lord's day) by the Christians of the early church above 300 years after our Saviour's death and beside that, no other day for more hundred of years than I spake of before ...

In St. Jerome's days, and in the very place where he was residing, the devoutest Christians did ordinarily work upon the Lord’s day.

- Bishop Francis White, 1635, A Treatise of the Sabbath-day : Containing a Defence of the Orthodoxall Doctrine of the Church of England, Against Sabbatarian-novelty, 1635

By the Authority and consent aforesaid that every person and persons within this Province that shall at any time hereafter prophane the . . . Lords day called Sunday by frequent swearing, drunkenness or by any uncivil or disorderly recreation, or by working on that day when absolute necessity doth not require, . . . for the third offense and for every time after shall also be publicly whipped.

The change of times and laws what! charge that upon Christ which is the proper presumption of anti-christ! is not this the whore's mark to change the Saint's time?

- Thomas Tillam, The Seventh-Day Sabbath Sought Out and Celebrated, 1657

Now if the Ten Commandments be in force every jot and tittle of them, it most necessarily follow that the Seventh day is the Sabbath, and is to be observed according to the commandment. But because there is much opposition against this truth, I shall offer something in particular to it, which may tend to the clearing of it.

- The Royal Law Contended For. . . Also The Seventh Day Sabbath proved from the beginning. 1658

A boy in Agumaryd, Vexio diocese, saw (A.D. 1667), in a vision, an angel who exhorted him to be converted, to forsake pride,— the most wide-spread sin,— and who taught him that Saturday should be kept holy, and that it is sin to work on that day.

. . .to unite all the churches of Europe into a Reformation, by Advising about the Angels coming to the greatly beloved Prophet Daniel concerning the little triple crowned horn's change of times & laws Which being discovered what times & lawes those are. Good counsel may be taken from those angels that appeared to the beloved disciple John, to blot out & escape the Mark of the Beast: & return to the keeping of the laws of God, & the faith of Jesus, as celebrated by the angels.

- Peter Chamberlen, Letter to Archbishop Sheldon, October 2nd, 1673

This Night-part belonging to the after day-part, as making up the whole next day after the Sabbath, was not observed by Paul as the weekly-Sabbath: for you may there Read how some of the disciples went before to ship, and sailed to Assos, there intending to take in Paul : For, so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot ...

- Σαββατικη Ἡμερα, Ἡμερα Ἱμερα, Septima Dies, Dies Desiderabilis, Sabbatum Jehovæ. The Seventh-Day-Sabbath the desirable day, 1677

When the period of the Auto da Fé approaches the Proctor waits upon him and declares that he is charged by a great number of witnesses of having Judaized which means having conformed to the ceremonies of the Mosaic law such as not eating pork hare fish without scales & of having attended the solemnization of the sabbath . . .

- French Physician and Author, Charles Gabriel Dellon 1687

It is my lot to sit here alone in the observation of God's holy Sabbath, yet not without some precious tokens of his presence, which makes a wilderness like an Eden, and a desert like a garden of the Lord.

Humbly offered, not imposed; showing by Scripture, why the Seventh day of the Lord's Rest is to be kept in Christ, under the name Christian and Gospel Dispensation, and that Christ, which is Spirit, was one with the Father in creating, when God said, Come let Us make man, Gen. 1:26, and their Sabbath of Rest, after six days of their creating, ch.2:2,3 and Exodus 16:23 and ch. 20:10 and many more Scriptures; the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, not Jewish seventh day, and was before Jew or Gentile by Name was upon the Earth, or sin entered the world; and the day of their rest hath never been abolished and the commandments and good, and are taught to this day as Exodus 20 shows.

We. . . are bound by the Institution of the Apostles to observe two days, to wit, the Sabbath, and Lord’s Day, on which it is not lawful for us to do any work . . . it is not therefore in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ, and his holy Apostles, that we observe that day, the favor that was shewed herein to the Jews being transferred to us Christians ...

- Michael Geddes, The Church History of Ethiopia, 1696