Tertullian again declares that his brethren did not observe the days held sacred by the Jews.
"We neither accord with the Jews in their peculiarities in regard to food, nor in their sacred days."--_Apology_, sect. 21.
But those Christians who would not keep the Sabbath because the festival of Sunday was in their estimation more worthy of honor, or more convenient to observe, were greatly given to the observance of other days, in common with the heathen, besides Sunday. Thus Tertullian charges home upon them this sin:--
"The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy days. 'Your sabbaths, and new moons, and ceremonies,' says he, 'my soul hateth.' By us (to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons, and festivals formerly beloved by God) the Saturnalia and New Year's and mid-winter's festivals and Matronalia are frequented--presents come and go--New Year's gifts--games join their noise--banquets join their din! Oh! better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord's day, not Pentecost, even if they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. _We_ are not apprehensive lest we seem to be _heathens_! If any indulgence is to be granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say your own days, but more too; for to the _heathens_ each festive day occurs but once annually; _you_ have a festive day every eighth day."--_On Idolatry_, chap. xiv.
These Sunday-festival Christians, "to whom Sabbaths" were "strange," could not have kept Sunday as a Sabbath. They had never heard that by divine authority the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, and that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. Let any candid man read the above words from Tertullian, and then deny, if he can, that these strangers to the Sabbath, and observers of heathen festivals, were not a body of apostatizing Christians!
Hereafter Tertullian will give an excellent commentary on his quotation from Isaiah. It seems from him that the so-called Lord's day came once in eight days. Were these words to be taken in their most obvious sense, then it would come one day later each week than it did the preceding week, and thus it would come successively on all the days of the week in order, at intervals of eight days. He might in such case well say:--