Besides these important facts, we have decisive evidence that Sunday was not a day of abstinence from labor, and our first witness is Justin, the earliest witness to the Sunday festival in the Christian church. Trypho the Jew said to Justin, by way of reproof, “You observe no festivals or Sabbaths.”[626] This was exactly adapted to bring out from Justin the statement that, though he did not observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, he did thus rest on the first day of the week, if it were true that that day was with him a day of abstinence from labor. But he gives no such answer. He sneers at the very idea of abstinence from labor, declaring that “God does not take pleasure in such observances.” Nor does he intimate that this is because the Jews did not rest upon the right day, but he condemns the very idea of refraining from labor for a day, stating that “the new law,” which has taken the place of the commandments given on Sinai[627] requires a perpetual Sabbath, and this is kept by repenting of sin and refraining from its commission. Here are his words:— “The new law requires you to keep a perpetual Sabbath, and you, _because you are idle for one day_, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this has been commanded you; and if you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances: if there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God.”[628] This language plainly implies that Justin did not believe that any day should be kept as a Sabbath by abstinence from labor, but that all days should be kept as sabbaths by abstinence from sin. This testimony is decisive, and it is in exact harmony with the facts already adduced from the fathers, and with others yet to be presented. Moreover, it is confirmed by the express testimony of Tertullian. He says:— “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.”[629] And he adds in the same paragraph, in words already quoted:— “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_.”[630]