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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
Sunday with other papal festivals. They did not, indeed, regard it as
possessing divine authority, but believed that it should be observed
as a generally accepted day of worship.
There were some among them, however, who honored the Sab-
bath of the fourth commandment. Such was the belief and practice
of Carlstadt, and there were others who united with him. John Frith,
who aided Tyndale in the translation of the Scriptures, and who was
martyred for his faith, thus states his views respecting the Sabbath:
“The Jews have the word of God for their Saturday, since it is the
seventh day, and they were commanded to keep the seventh day
solemn. And we have not the word of God for us, but rather against
us; for we keep not the seventh day, as the Jews do, but the first,
which is not commanded by God’s law.”
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A hundred years later, John Trask acknowledged the obligation
of the true Sabbath, and employed voice and pen in its defense. He
was soon called to account by the persecuting power of the Church
of England. He declared the sufficiency of the Scriptures as a guide
for religious faith, and maintained that civil authorities should not
control the conscience in matters which concern salvation. He was
brought for trial before the infamous tribunal of the Star Chamber,
where a long discussion was held respecting the Sabbath. Trask
would not depart from the injunctions and commandments of God
to obey the commandments of men. He was therefore condemned,
and sentenced to be set upon the pillory, and thence to be publicly
whipped to the fleet, there to remain a prisoner. This cruel sentence
was executed, and after a time his spirit was broken. He endured his
sufferings in the prison for one year, and then recanted. Oh that he
had suffered on, and won a martyr’s crown!
The wife of Trask was also a Sabbath-keeper. She was declared,
even by her enemies, to be a woman endowed with many virtues
worthy the imitation of all Christians. She was a school-teacher
of acknowledged excellence, and was noted for her carefulness in
dealing with the poor. “This,” said her enemies, “she professed to do
out of conscience, as believing she must one day come to be judged
for all things done in the flesh. Therefore she resolved to go by the
safest rule, rather against than for her private interest.” Yet it was
declared that she possessed a spirit of strange, unparalleled obstinacy
in adhering to her own opinions, which spoiled her. In truth, she
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