Those who acted at Jericho did “not do their own work, but God’s, which they executed, and that, too, from his express commandment.”[653] He also both asserts and denies that Christ violated the Sabbath.[654] Tertullian was a double-minded man. He wrote much against the law and the Sabbath, but he also contradicted and exposed his own errors. Origen attempts to prove that the ancient Sabbath is to be understood mystically or spiritually, and not literally. Here is his argument:— “‘Ye shall sit, every one in your dwellings: no one shall move from his place on the Sabbath day.’ Which precept it is impossible to observe literally; for no man can sit a whole day so as not to move from the place where he sat down.”[655] Great men are not always wise. There is no such precept in the Bible. Origen referred to that which forbade the people to go out for manna on the Sabbath, but which did not conflict with another that commanded holy convocations or assemblies for worship on the Sabbath.[656] Victorinus is the latest of the fathers before Constantine who offers reasons against the observance of the Sabbath. His first reason is that Christ said by Isaiah that his soul hated the Sabbath; which Sabbath he in his body abolished; and these assertions we have seen answered by Tertullian.[657] His second reason is that “Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nave [Nun], the successor of Moses, himself broke the Sabbath day,”[658] which is false. His third reason is that “Matthias [a Maccabean] also, prince of Judah, broke the Sabbath,”[659] which is doubtless false, but is of no consequence as authority. His fourth argument is original, and may fitly close the list of reasons assigned in the early fathers for not observing the Sabbath. It is given in full without an answer:— “And in Matthew we read, that it is written Isaiah also and the rest of his colleagues broke the Sabbath.”[660] CHAPTER XVIII. THE SABBATH IN THE RECORD OF THE EARLY FATHERS. The first reasons for neglecting the Sabbath are now mostly obsolete—A portion of the early fathers taught the perpetuity of the decalogue, and made it the standard of moral character—What they say concerning the origin of the Sabbath at Creation—Their testimony concerning the perpetuity of the ancient Sabbath, and concerning its observance—Enumeration of the things which caused the suppression of the Sabbath and the elevation of Sunday.