Nay there dwelt then at Jerusalem men of Tyre that on this Sabbath sold their Commodities to the Jews and men of Judah yet not they but the men of Judah were contended with as the breakers of this Sabbath True good Nehemiah did threaten the Gentiles that were Merchants for lying then about the Walls of the City for that by that means they were a temptation to the Jews to break their Sabbath but still he charged the breach thereof onely upon his own people Neh. 13. 15 16 17 18 19 20. But can it be imagined had the Gentiles now been concerned with this Sabbath by Law divine that so holy a man as Nehemiah would have let them escape without a rebuke for so notorious a transgression thereof especially considering that now also they were upon Gods ground to wit within and without the Walls of Jerusalem Fourthly Wherefore he saith to Israel again Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And again ye shall keep my Sabbaths And again The children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths to observe my Sabbaths thoroughout their generations Exod. 16. 29. ch 31. 14 15 16. What can be more plain these things thus standing in the Testament of God than that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such was given to Israel to Israel onely and that the Gentiles as such were not concerned therein Fifthly The very reason also of Gods giving of the Seventh-day-sabbath to the Jews doth exclude the Gentiles as such from having any concern therein For it was given to the Jews as was said before as they were considered Gods Church and for a sign and token by which they should know that he had chosen and sanctified them to himself for a peculiar people Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Ezek. 20. 12 13. And a great token and sign it was that he had so chosen them For in that he had given to them this Sabbath he had given to them his own Rest a Figure and Pledge of his sending his Son into the world to redeem them from the Bondage and Slavery of the Devil of whom indeed this Sabbath was a shadow or type Coloss. 2. 16 17. Thus have I concluded my ground for this third Question I shall therefore now propound another QUEST IV. Whether the Seventh day-Sabbath did not fall as such with the rest of the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies Or whether that day as a Sabbath was afterwards by the Apostles imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles I Would now also before I shew the grounds of my proposing this Question premise what is necessary thereunto to wit That Time and Day were both fixed upon by Law for the solemn performance of Divine Worship among the Jews And that Time and Day is also by Law fixed for the solemnizing of Divine Worship to God in the Churches of the Gentiles But that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such is that Time that Day that still I question Now before I shew the grounds of my questioning of it I shall enquire into the nature of that ministration in the bowels of which this Seventh-day-sabbath is placed And First I say as to that the nature of that Law is moral but the ministration and Circumstances thereunto belonging are shadowish and figurative By the nature of it I mean the matter thereof By the Ministration and Circumstances thereto belonging I do mean the giving of it by such hands at such a Place and time in such a Mode as when 't was given to Israel in the Wilderness The matter therefore to wit Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self is everlasting Mark 12. 29 30 31. and is not from Sinai nor from the two Tables of stone but in Nature for this Law commenced and took being and place that day in which man was created Yea it was concreate with him and without it he cannot be a rational creature as he was in the day in which God created him But for the ministration of it from Sinai with the Circumstances belonging to that ministration they are not Moral not Everlasting but Shadowish and Figurative onely That Ministration cannot be Moral for three Reasons 1. It commenced not when Morality commenced but two thousand years after 2. It was not universal as the Law as moral is 't was given onely to the Church of the Jews in those Tables 3. It s end is past as such a ministration though the same Law as to the morality thereof abides Where are the Tables of Stone and this Law as therein contained We onely as to that have the notice of such a ministration and a rehearsal of the Law with that mode of giving of it in the testament of God But to come to Particulars 1. The very Preface to that Ministration carrieth in it a type of our deliverance from the Bondage of Sin the Devil and Hell Pharaoh and Egypt and Israels bondage there being a type of these 2. The very Stones in which this Law was engraven was a figure of the Tables of the Heart The first two were a figure of the Heart carnal by which the Law was broken The last two of the Heart spiritual in which the new Law the Law of Grace is written and preserv'd Exod. 34. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 3. The very Mount on which this Ministration was given was typical of Mount Zion See Heb. 12. where they are compared vers 18 19 20 21 22. 4. Yea the very Church to whom that Ministration was given was a figure of the Church of the Gospel that is on Mount Zion See the same Scripture and compare it with Acts 7. 38. Revel 14. 1 2 3 4 5. 5. That Ministration was given in the hand and by the disposition of Angels to prefigure how the new Law or Ministration of the Spirit was to be given afterwards to the Churches under the New Testament by the hands of the Angel of Gods everlasting Covenant of Grace who is his onely begotten Son Isai. 63. 9. Matth. 3. 1. Acts 3. 22 23. 6. It was given to Israel also in the hand of Moses as Mediator to shew or typisie out that the Law of Grace was in after-times to come to the Church of Christ by the hand and mediation of Jesus our Lord Gal. 3. 19. Deut. 5. 5. Heb. 8. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 9. 15. ch 12. 24. 7. As to this Ministration it was to continue but till the Seed should come and then must as such give place to a better Ministration Gal. 3. 19. A better Covenant established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. From all this therefore I conclude that there is a difference to be put between the morality of the Law and the ministration of it upon Sinai The Law as to its morality was before but as to this ministration 't was not till the Church was with Moses and he with the Angels on Mount Sinai in the
QUESTIONS About the NATURE AND PERPETUITY OF THE Seventh-day-Sabbath And Proof That the First day of the Week Is the true Christian-Sabbath By JOHN BUNYAN The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day LONDON Printed for Nath. Pondâ—r at the Peacock in the Poultry 1685. TO THE READER SOME may think it strange since Gods Church has already been so well furnished with sound Grounds and Reasons by so many wise and godly men for proof that the first day of the week is our true Christian Sabbath that I should now offer this small Treatise upon the same account But when the Scales are even by what already is put in a little more you know makes the weight the better Or grant we had down weight before yet something over and above may make his work the harder that shall by hanging Fictions on the other end endeavour to make things seem too light Besides This Book being little may best sute such as have but shallow Purses short Memories and but little Time to spare which usually is the lot of the mean and poorest sort of men I have also written upon this Subject for that I would as in other Gospel-truths be a fellow witness with good men that the day in which our Lord rose from the dead should be much set by of Christians I have observed that some otherwise sound in faith are apt to be entangled with a Jewish Sabbath c. and that some also that are far off from the observation of that have but little to say for their own practice though good and might I help them I should be glad A Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath has no promise of Grace belonging to it if that be true as to be sure it is where Paul says The command to honour Parents is the first Commandment with promise Ephes. 6. 1 2 3. Also it follows from hence that the Sabbath that has a promise annexed to the keeping of it is rather that which the Lord Jesus shall give to the Churches of the Gentiles Isai. 56. Perhaps my Method here may not in all things keep the common path of Argumentation with them that have gone before me But I trust the godly-wise will find a taste of Scripture-truth in what I present them with as to the sanction of our Christian-sabbath I have here by handling four Questions proved that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was not moral For that must of necessity be done before it can be made appear that the First day of the week is that which is the Sabbath day for Christians But withal it follows that if the Seventh-day-sabbath was not moral the first day is not so What is it then Why a Sabbath for holy worship is moral but this or that day appointed for such service is sanctified by Precept or by approved Example The timeing then of a Sabbath for us lies in God not man in Grace not Nature nor in the ministration of death written and engraven in stones God always reserving to himself a power to alter and change both time and modes of worship according to his own will A Sabbath then or day of rest from worldly affairs to solemnize worship to God in all good men do by nature conclude is meet yea necessary yet that not Nature but God reveals Nor is that day or time by God so fixed on in its own nature better than any other the holiness then of a Sabbath lies not in the Nature or Place of a day but in the Ordinance of God Nor doth our sanctifying of it to the ends for which it is ordained lie in a bare confession that it is such but in a holy performance of the Duty of the day to God by Christ according to his Word But I will not enlarge to detain the Reader longer from the following Sheets but shall commit both him and them to the wise dispose of God and rest Thine to serve thee Joh. Bunyan QUESTIONS About the NATURE and PERPE TUITY Of the Seventh-day-Sabbath QUEST 1. Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath is Of or made known to man by the Law and Light of Nature SOmething must be here premised before I shew the grounds of this Question First then By the Law or Light of Nature I mean that Law which was concreat with man that which is natural to him being Original with and Essential to himself consequently that which is invariable and unalterable as is that Nature Secondly I grant that by this Law of Nature man understands that there is one eternal God that this God is to be worshiped according to his own will consequently that time must be allowed to do it in But whether the Law or Light of Nature teacheth and that of it self without the help of Revelation that the Seventh day of the week is that time sanctified of God and set apart for his Worship that 's the Question and the grounds of it are thefe First Because the Law of Nature is anticedent to this day yea compleated as a Law before 't was known or revealed to man that God either did or would sanctifie the Seventh day of the week at all Now this Law as was said being natural to a man for man is a Lâ—m unto himself Rom. 2. could onely teach the things of a man and there the Apostle stints it 1 Cor. 2. 11. But to be able to determine and that about things that were yet without being either in Nature or by Revelation is that which belongs not to a man as a man and the Seventh-day-Sabbath as yet was such For Adam was compleatly made the day before and God did not sanctifie the Seventh day before it was none otherwise than by his secret Decree Therefore by the Law of Nature Adam understood it not it was not made known to him thereby Secondly To affirm the contrary is to make the Law of Nature Supernatural which is an impossibility Yea they that do so make it a Predictor a Prophet a Prophet about divine things to come yea a Prophet able to foretel what shall be and that without a Revelation which is a strain that never yet Prophet pretended to Besides to grant this is to run into a grievous errour for this doth not onely make the Law of Nature the first of Prophets contrary to Gen. 3. 10. compared with Joh. 1. 1. but it seems to make the will of God made known by Revelation a needless thing For if the Law of Nature as such can predict or foretel Gods Secrets and that before he reveals them and this Law of Nature is universal in every individal man in the world what need is there of particular Prophets or of their holy writings and indeed here the Quakers and others split themselves For if the Law of Nature can of it self reveal unto me one thing pertaining to instituted Worship for that we are treating of now and the exact time which God has not yet sanctified and set apart for the performance thereof why may it not reveal unto
is the sanction of the day in which they were to be performed I would gradly see the place if it is to be found where 't is said That day retains its sanction which yet has lost that method of service which was of God appointed for the performance of worship to him thereon When Canaan-worship fell the Sanction of Canaan fell When Temple-worship and Altar-worship and the Sacrifices of the Levitical Priesthood fell down also came the things themselves Likewise so when the service or shadow and ceremonies of the Seventh-day-sabbath fell the Seventh-day-Sabbath fell likewise On the Seventh-day-sabbath as I told you Manna was not to be found But why for that that day was of Moses and of the Ministration of death But Manna was was not of him Moses saith Christ gave you not that bread from Heaven Joh. 6. 31 32. Moses as was said gave that Sabbath in Tables of stone and God gave that Manna from Heaven Christ nor his Father gives grace by the Law no not by that Law in which is contained the old Seventh-day-sabbath it self The Law is not of Faith why then should Grace be by Christians expected by observation of the Law The Law even the Law written and engraven in stones enjoyns perfect obedience thereto on pain of the curse of God Nor can that part of it now under consideration according as is required be fulfilled by any man was the Ceremony thereto belonging allowed to be laid aside Isai. 58. 13. Never man yet did keep it perfectly except he whose name is Jesus Christ in him therefore we have kept it and by him are set free from that Law and brought under the ministration of the Spirit But why should we be bound to seek Manna on that day on which God saies None shall be found Perhaps it will said that the sanction of THAT day would not admit that Manna should be gathered on it But that was not all for on that day there was none to be found And might I chuse I had rather sanctific that day to God on which I might gather this bread of God all day long than set my mind at all upon that in which no such bread was to be had The Lords day as was said is to the Christians the principal Manna-day On this day even on it Manna in the morning very early gathered was by the Disciples of our Lord as newly springing out of the ground The true bread of God The sheaf of First-fruits which is Christ from the dead was ordained to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath the day on which our Lord ceased from his own OWN Work as God did from HIS Levit. 23. Now therefore the Disciples found their green Ears of Corn indeed Now they read life both IN and OUT of the Sepulchre in which the Lord was laid Now they could not come together nor speak one to another but either their Lord was with them or they had heart-enflaming tidings from him Now cries one and says The Lord is risen And then another and says He hath appeared to such and such Now comes tidings to the Eleven that their women was early at the Sepulchre where they had a Vision of Angels that told them their Lord was risen Then comes another and says The Lord is risen indeed Two also comes from Emmaus and cries We have seen the Lord and by and by while they yet were speaking their Lord shews himself in the midst of them Now he calls to their mind some of the eminent passages of his life and eats and drinks in their presence and opens the Scriptures to them Yea and opens their Understanding too that their hearing might not be unprofitable to them all which continued from early in the morning till late at night Oh! what a Manna-day was this to the Church And more than all this you will find if you read but the four Evangelists upon this Subject Thus began the day after the Sabbath and thus it has continued thorough all Ages to this very day Never did the Seventh-day-sabbath yield Manna to Christians A new world was now begun with the poor Church of God for so said the Lord of the Sabbath Behold I make all things new A new Covenant and why not then a new resting-day to the Church or why must the old Sabbath be joyned to this new Ministration let him that can shew a reason for it Christians if I have not been so large upon things as some might expect know that my brevity on this Subject is from consideration that much needs not be spoken thereto and because I may have occalion to write a second Part. Christians beware of being entangled with Old Testament Miniserations left ' by ' one you be brought into many Inconveniencies I have observed that though the Jewish Rites have lost their Sanction yet some that are weak in Judgement do bring themselves into bondage by them Yea so high have some been carried as to a pretended Conscience to these that they have at last proceeded to Circumcision to many Wives and the observation of many bad things besides Yea I have talked with some pretending to Christianity who have said and affirmed as well as they could that the Jewish Sacrifices must up again But do you give no heed to these Jewish Fables That turn from the truth Tit. 1. 14. Do you I say that love the Lord Jesus keep close to his Testament his Word his Gospel and observe HIS Holy-day And this Caution in conclusion I would give to put stop to this Jewish Ceremony to wit That a Seventh-day-Sabbath pursued according to its imposition by Law and I know not that it is imposed by the Apostles leads to bloud and stoning to death those that do but gather Sticks thereon Numb 15. 32 33 34 35 36. A thing which no way becomes the Gospel that Ministration of the Spirit and of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3. nor yet the professors thereof Luke 9. 54 55 56. Nor can it with fairness be said that that Sabbath day remains though the Law thereof is repealed For consident I am that there is no more ground to make such a conclusion than there is to say that Circumcision is still of force though the Law for cutting of the uncircumcised is by the Gospel made null and void I told you also in the Epistle That if the Fifth Commandment was the first that was with promise then it follows that the Fourth or that Seventh-day-Sabbath had no promise intailed to it Whence it follows that where you read in the Prophet of a Promise annexed to a Sabbath it is best to understand it of our Gospel-Sabbath Isai. 56. Now if it be asked What Promise is intailed to our First-day-sabbath I answer The bigest of Promises For First The Resurrection of Christ was tyed by Promise to this day and to none other He rose the Third day after his death and that was the First day of the week