QUESTIONS About the NATURE AND PERPETUITY OF THE Seventh-day-Sabbath And Proof That the First day of the Week Is the true christian-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-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
me more and so still more and at last all that is requisite for me to know both as to my Salvation and how God is to be worshipped in the Church on Earth Thirdly If it be of the Law of Nature then all men by nature are convinced of the necessity of keeping it and that though they never read or heard of the revealed Will of God about it but this we find not in the world For though it is true that the Law of Nature is common to all and that all men are to this day under the power and command thereof yet we find not that they are by nature under a conviction of the necessity of keeping of a Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea the Gentiles though we read not that they ever despised the Law of Nature yet never had as such a reverence of a Seventh-day-Sabbath but rather the contrary Fourthly If therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature then it should seem not to be obligatory to all For instituted Worship and the necessary circumstances thereunto belonging is obligatory but to some The Tree that Adam was forbid to eat of we read not but that his Children might have eat the fruit thereof and Circumcision the Passover and other parts of instituted Worship was enjoyned but to some Fifthly I doubt the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature and so not moral because though we read that the Law of Nature and that before Moses was charged upon the world yet I fiâ—d not till then that the prophanation of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon the world and indeed to me this very thing makes a great scruple in the case A Law as I said we read of and that from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 13 14. The transgressions also of that Law we read of them and that particularly as in Gen. 4. 8. ch 6. 5. ch 9. 21 22. ch 12. 13. ch 13. 13. ch 18. 12 13 14 15. ch 19. 5. Ezek. 49. 50. ch 31. 30. ch 35. 2. ch 40. 15. ch 44. 8 9 10. Deut. 8. 19 28. ch 12. 2. Psal. 106. 35 36 37. and Romans the first and second Chapters But in all the Scriptures we do not read that the breach of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon men as men all that time Whence I gather that either a Seventh-day-Sabbath was not discerned by the Light of Nature and so not by that Law imposed or else that men by the help and assistance of that for we speak of men as men in old time kept it better than in after Ages did the Church of God with better assistance by far For they are there yet found fault with as breakers of that Sabbath Ezekel 20. 13. It follows therefore that if the Law of Nature doth not of it self reveal to us as men that the Seventh day is the holy Sabbath of God That that day as to the sanction of it is not Moral but rather Arbitrary to wit imposed by the will of God upon his people until the time he thought fit to change it for another day And if so it is hence to be concluded that though by the Light of Nature men might see that time must be allowed and set apart for the performance of that Worship that God would set up in his House yet as such it could not see what time the Lord would to that end chuse Nature therefore saw that by a positive Precept or a Word revealing it and by no other means Nor doth this at all take away a whit of that Sanction which God once put upon the Seventh-day-Sabbath unless any will say and by sufficient Argument prove that an Ordinance for divine Worship receiveth greater Sanction from the Law of Nature than from a divine Precept or standeth stronger when 't is established by a Law humane for such is the Law of Nature than when imposed by Revelation of God But the Text will put this controversie to an end The Sanction of the Seventh-day-Sabbath even as it was the Rest of God was not till after the Law of Nature was compleated God rested the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2. 3. Sanctified it that is set it apart to the end there mentioned to wit to rest thereon Other grounds of this Question I might produce but at present I will stop here and conclude That if a seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was an essential necessary to the instituted Worship of God then it self also as to its sanction for that Work was not founded but by a positive Precept consequently not known of man at first but by revelation of God QUEST II. Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath as to Mans keeping of it holy was ever made known to or imposed by a positive Precept upon him until the time of Moses which from Adam was about two thousand years SOmething must also be here premised in order to my propounding of my grounds for this Question and that is That the Seventh day was sanctified so soon as it had being in the world unto the rest of God as it is Gen. 2. 2 3. and he did rest from all his works which he had made therein But the Question is Whether when God did thus sanctifie this day to his own rest be did also by the space of time above-mentioned impose it as an holy Sabbath of rest upon men to the end they might solemnize Worship to him in special manner thereon And I question this First Because we read not that it was And reading I mean of the divine Testimony is ordained of God for us to find out the mind of God both as to Faith and our performance of acceptible service to him In reading also we are to have regard to two things 1. To see if we can find a Precept or 2. A countenanced Practice for what we do For both these ways we are to search that we may find out what is that good that acceptible will of God For the first of these we have Gen. 2. 16 17. and for the second Gen. 8. 20 21. Now as to the imposing of a Seventh day-Sabbath upon men from Adam to Moses of that we find nothing in holy Writ either from Precept or Example True we find that Solemn worship was performed by the Saints that then lived for both Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob sacrificed unto God Gen. 4. 4. ch 8. 20 21. ch 12. 7. ch 13. 4. ch 35. 1. but we read not that the Seventh day was the time prefixed of God for their so worshipping or that they took any notice of it Some say that Adam in eating the forbidden Fruit brake also the Seventh-day-Sabbath because he fell on that day but we read not that the breach of a Sabbath was charged upon him That which we read is this Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Gen. 3. 11. Some say also that Cain killed Abel on a Sabbath day but we read not that in his Charge God laid any such thing
or his Apostles have been pressed upon the people when so fair an opportunity as at these times offered it self unto them But they knew what they did and wherefore they were so silent as to the mention of a Seventh-day-sabbath when they so well talked of the Law as moral Fifthly Moses and the Prophet Ezekel both do fully confirm what has been insinuated by us to wit that the Seventh day as a Sabbath was not imposed upon men until Israel was brought into the Wilderness 1. Moses saith to Israel Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm therefore the Lord thy God commandeth thee to keep the sabbath day Yea he tells us that the Covenant which God made with them in Horeb that written in stones was not made with their forefathers to wit Abraham Isaac and Jacob but with them Deut. 5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. 2. Ezekel also is punctual as to this I caused them saith God by that Prophet to go forth out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness And I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgements which if a man do he shall even live in them Moreover I gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them Ezek. 20. 10 11 12 13. Exod. 20. 8 ch 31. 13. ch 35. 2. What can be more plain And these to be sure are two notable witnesses of God who as you see do joyntly concur in this to wit that it was not from Paradise nor from the Fathers but from the Wilderness and from Sinai that men received the Seventh-day-sabbath to keep it holy True it was Gods Sabbath before for on the first Seventh day we read that God rested thereon and sanctified it Hence he calls it in the first place MY Sabbath I gave them MY Sabbath But it seems 't was not given to the Church till he had brought them into the Wilderness But I say if it had been moral it had been natural to man and by the Light of Nature men would have understood it even both before it was and otherwise But of this you see we read nothing either by positive Law or countenanced Example or any other way but rather the flat contrary to wit That Moses had the knowledge of it first from Heaven not by Tradition That Israel had it not of or from their Fathers but in the Wilderness from him to wit Moses after he had brought them out of the Land of Egypt And that that whole Law in which this Seventh-day-sabbath is placed was given for the bounding and better ordering of them in their Church-state for their time till the Messias should come and put by a better Ministration this out of his Church as we shall further shew anon The Seventh-day-sabbath therefore was not from Paradise not from Nature nor from the Fathers but from the Wilderness and from Sinai QUEST III. Whether when the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Israel in the Wilderness the Gentiles as such was concerned therein BEfore I shew my ground for this Question I must also first premise That the Gentiles as such were then without the Church of God and pale thereof consequently had nothing to do with the essentials or necessary circumstances of that Worship which God had set up for himself now among the children of Israel Now then for the ground of the Question First we read not that God gave it to any but to the Seed of Jacob. Hence it is said to Israel and to Israel onely The Lord hath given you his Sabbaths And again I also gave them my Sabbaths Exod. 16. 29. Ezek. 2. 5 12. Now if the gift of the Seventh-day-sabbath was onely to Israel as these Texts do more than seem to say then to the Gentiles as such it was not given Unless any shall conclude that God by thus doing preferred the Jew to a state of Gentilism or that he bestowed on them by thus doing some high Gentile Priviledge But this would be very fictious For to lay aside reason the Text always as to preference did set the Jew in the first of places Rom. 2. 10 nor was his giving the Seventh-day-sabbath to them but a signe and token thereof But the great Objection is Because the Seventh-day-sabbath is found amongst the rest of those Precepts which is so commonly called the Moral Law for thence it is concluded to be of a perpetual duration But I Answer That neither that as given on Sinai is moral I mean as to the manner and ends of its Ministration of which God permitting we shall say more in our Answer to the fourth Question whither I direct you for satisfaction But Secondly The Gentiles could not be concerned as such with Gods giving of a Seventh-day-sabbath to Israel because as I have shewed before it was given to Israel considered as a Church of God Acts 7. 31. Nor was it given to them as such but with Rites and Ceremonies thereto belonging so Levit. 24. 5 6 7 8 9. Numb 28. 9 10. Neh. 13. 22. Ezek. 46. 4. Now I say if this Sabbath hath Ceremonies thereto belonging and if these Ceremonies were essential to the right keeping of the Sabbath And again if these Ceremonies were given to Israel onely excluding all but such as were their Proselytes then this Sabbath was given to them as excluding the Gentiles as such But if it had been Moral the Gentiles could assoon have been deprived of their Nature as of a Seventh-day-sabbath though the Jews should have appropriated it unto themselves onely Again to say that God gave this Seventh-day-sabbath to the Gentiles as such and yet so he must if it be of the moral Law is as much as to say that God hath ordained that that Sabbath should be kept by the Gentiles without but by the Jews not without her Ceremonies And what Conclusion will follow from hence but that God did at one and the same time set up two sorts of acceptable Worships in the world one among the Jews another among the Gentiles But how ridiculous such a thought would be and how repugnant to the wisdom of God you may easily perceive Yea what a diminution would this be to Gods Church that then was for one to say the Gentiles were to serve God with more liberty than the Jew For the Law was a Yoak and yet the Gentile is called the Dog and said to be without God in the world Deut. 7. 7. Psal. 147. 19 20. Matth. 15. 26. Eph. 2. 11 12. Thirdly When the Gentiles at the Jews return from Babylon came and offered their Wares to sell to the Children of Israel at Jerusalem on this Sabbath yea and sold them to them too yet not they but the Jews were rebuked as the onely breakers of that Sabbath
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-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-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
according to what was fore-promised in the Scriptures Hos. 6. 1 2. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4 5 6. Second That we should live before God by him is a Promise to be fulfilled on this day After two days he will revive us and in the third day we shall live in his sight Hos. 6. 2. See also Isai. 26. 19. and compare them again with 1 Cor. 15. 4. Third The great promise of the New Testament to wit the pouring out of the Spirit fixeth upon these days and so he began in the most wonderful effusion of it upon Pentecost which was the first day of the week that the Scriptures might be fulfilled Acts 2. 16 17 18 19. Nor could these three Promises be fulfilled upon any other days for that the Scripture had fixed them to the First day of the Week I am of opinion that these things though but briefly touched upon cannot be fairly objected against however they may be disrelished by some Nor can I believe that any part of our Religion as we are Christians stands in not kindling of fires and not seething of Victuals or in binding of men not to stir out of those places on the Seventh day in which at the dawning thereof they were found And yet these are Ordinances belonging to that Seventh-day-Sabbath Exod. 16. 23 29. Certainly it must needs be an errour to impose these things by Divine Authority upon New Testament-Believers our Worship standing now in things more weighty spiritual and heavenly Nor can it be proved as I have hinted before that this day was or is to be imposed without those Ordinances with others in other places mentioned and adjoyned for the sanction of that day they being made necessary parts of that worship that was to be performed thereon I have charity for those that abuse themselves and their Lord by their preposterous zeal and affection for the continuing of this day in the Churches For I conclude that if they did either believe or think of the incoherence that this day with its Rites and Ceremonies has with the Ministration of the Spirit our New Testament-Ministration they would not so stand in their own light as they do nor so stifly plead for a place for it in the Churches of the Gentiles But as Paul insinuates in other cases there is an aptness in men to be under the law because they do not hear it Gal. 4. Nor will it out of my mind but if the Seventh-day-sabbath was by Divine Authority and to be kept holy by the Churches of the Gentiles it should not have so remained among the Jews Christs deadliest Enemies and a been kept so much hid from the Believers his best Friends For who has retained the pretended sanction of that day from Christs time quite down in the world but the Jews and a few Jewish Gentiles I will except some But I say since a Sabbath is that without which the great Worship of God under the Gospel cannot be well performed How can it be thought that it should as to the knowledge of it be confined to so blasphemous a generation of the Jews with whom that worship it not I will rather conclude that those Gentile-professors that adhere thereto are Jewifi'd Legaliz'd and so far gone back from the authority of God who from such bondages has set his Churches free I do at this time but hint upon things reserving a fuller Argument upon them for a time and place more fit where and when I may perhaps also shew some other wild notions of those that so stifly cleave to this Mean time I entreat those who are captivated with this opinion not to take it ill at my hand that I thus freely speak my mind I entreat them also to peruse my Book without prejudice to my person The truth is one thing that has moved me to this work is the shame that has covered the face of my Soul when I have thought of the Fictions and Fancies that are growing among Professors And while I see each Fiction turn it self to a Faction to the loss of that good spirit of Love and that oneness that formerly was with good men I doubt not but some unto whom this Book may come have had seal from God that the first day of the week is to be sanctified by the Church to Jesus Christ Not onely from his testimony which is and should be the ground of our Practice but also for that the first conviction that the Holy Ghost made upon their Consciences to make them know that they were sinners began with them for breaking this Sabbath day which day by that same Spirit was told them was that now called the first day and not the day before and the Holy Ghost doth not use to begin this work with a lye which first conviction the Spirit has followed so close with other things tending to compleat the same work that the Soul from so good a beginning could not res◠until it found rest in Christ. 〈◊〉 this then to such be a second token that the Lords day is by them to be kept in commemoration of their Lord and his Resurrection and o◠what he did on this day for their Salvation Amen FINIS
two ways 1. By an Institution of God 2. By the over-ruling power of a mans misinformed Conscience And although by vertue of an institution Divine Worship is acceptable to God by Christ yet Conscience will make that a man shall have but little ease if such rules and dictates as it imposes be not observed by him This is my answer upon a supposition that the Seventh-day-sabbath is in this Text intended and the answer I think stands firm and good Also there remains notwithstanding this Objection no divine Sanction in or upon the old Seventh-day-sabbath Some indeed will urge that Christ here meant the first day of the week which here he puts under the term of Sabbath But this is forein to me so I wave it till I receive more satisfaction in the thing Quest. But if indeed the first day of the week be the new Christian Sabbath why is there no more spoken of its iustitution in the Testament of Christ Answ. No more What need is there of more than enough yea there is a great deal found in the Testament of the Lord Jesus to prove its Authority Divine 1. For we have shewed from sundry Scriptures that from the very day our Lord did rise from the dead the Church at Jerusalem in which the Twelve Apostles were did meet together on that day and had the Lord himself for their Preacher while they were auditors and thus the day began 2. We have shewed that the Holy Ghost the Third person in the Trinity did second this of Christ in coming down from Heaven upon this day to manage the Apostles in their preaching and in that very day so managed them in that work that by his help they then did bring Three thousand Souls to God 3. We have shewed also that after this the Gentile-Churches did solemnize this day for holy Worship and that they had from Paul both Countenance and Order so to do And now I will adde that more need not be spoken For the practice of the first Church with their Lord in the head of them to manage them in that practice is as good as many Commands What then shall we say when we see a first Practice turned into holy Custom I say moreover that though a Seventh-day-sabbath is not natural to man as man yet our Christian Holy day is natural to us as Saints if our Consciences are not clogged before with some old Fables or Jewish Customs But if an old Religion shall get footing and rooting in us though the grounds thereof be vanished away yet the man concerned will be hard put to it should he be saved to get clear of his clouds and devote himself to that service of God which is of his own prescribing Luther himself though he saw many things were without ground which he had received for truth had yet work hard enough as himself intimates to get his Conscience clear from all those roots and strings of inbred errour But I say to an untainted and well-bred Christian we have good measure shaken together and running over for our Christian Lords day And I say again that the first day of the week and the spirit of such a Christian sute one another as nature suteth nature for there is as it were a natural instinct in Christians as such when they understand what in a first day was brought forth to fall in therewith to keep it holy to their Lord. 1. The first day of the week why it was the day of our life After two days he will revive us and in the third day we shall live in his sight After two days there is the Jews preparation and Seventh-day-sabbath quite passed over and in the third day that 's the first day of the week which is the day our Lord did rise from the dead we began to live by him in the sight of God Hos. 6. 2. Joh. 20. 1. 1 Cor. 15. 4. 2. The first day of the week That 's the day in which as I hinted before our Lord was wont to preach to his Disciples after he rose from the dead in which also he did use to shew them his Hands and his Feet Luk. 24. 38 39. Joh. 20. 25. to the end they might be confirmed in the truth of his victory over Death and the Grave for them The day in which he made himself known to them in breaking bread The day in which he so plentifully poured out the Holy Ghost upon them The day in which the Church both at Jerusalem and those of the Gentiles did use to perform to God Divine Worship all which has before been sufficiently proved And shall we not imitate our Lord nor the Church that was immediately acted by him in this and the Churches their fellows Shall I say the Lord Jesus do all this in his Church and they together with him Shall the Churches of the Gentiles also fall in with their Lord and with their Mother at Jerusalem herein And again shall all this be so punctually committed to sacred Story with the day in which these things were done under denomination over and over saying These things were done on the first day on the first day on the first day of the week while all other days are as to name buried in everlasting oblivion and shall we not take that notice thereof as to follow the Lord Jesus and the Churches herein oh stupidity 3. This day of the week They that make but observation of what the Lord did of old to a many siuners with his Churches on this day must needs conclude that in this day the Treasures of Heaven were broken up and the richest things therein communicated to his Church Shall the children of this world be as to this also wiser in their generations than the children of Light and former Saints upon whose shoulders we pretend to stand go beyond us here also Jacob could by observation gather that the place where he lay down to sleep was no other but the House of God and the very Gate of Heaven Gen. 28. 17. Laban could gather by observation that the Lord blessed him for Jacob's sake Gen. 30. 27. David could gather by what he met with upon Mount Moriah that that was the place where God would have the Temple builded therefore he sacrificed there 1 Chro. 21. 26 27 28. ch 22. 1 2. 2 Chr. 3. 1. Ruth was to mark the place where Baaz lay down to sleep and shall not Christians also mark the day in which our Lord rose from the dead Ruth 3. 4. I say shall we not mark it when so many memorable things was done on it for and LO and IN the Churches of God! Let Saints be ashamed to think that such a day should be looked over or counted common when tempted to it by Satan when kept to religious Service of old and when beautifled with so many divine Characters of sanctity as we have proved by Christ his Church the Holy Ghost and the command of Apostolical Authority
it was But why I say is this day on which our Lord rose from the dead Nominated as it is Why was it not sufficient to say he rose again or be rose again the third day without a specification of the very name of the day For as was said afore Christ appeared to his Disciples after his resurrection on other days also yea and thereon did Miracles too Why then did not these days live why was their name for all that blotted out and this day onely kept alive in the Churches The day on which Christ was born of a Virgin the day of his Circumcision the day of his Baptism and Transfiguration are not by their names committed by the Holy Ghost to holy Writ to be kept alive in the world nor yet such days in which he did many great and wonderful thing But THIS day this day is still nominated the first day of the week is the day I say why are things thus left with us but because we as Saints of old should gather and separate what is of divine Authority from the rest For in that this day is so often nominated while all other days lie dead in their Graves 't is as much as if God should say Remember the First day of the week to keep it holy to the Lord your God And set this aside and I know not what reason can be rendred or what Prophecy should be fulfilled by the bare naming of the day When God of old did sanctifie for the use of his Church a day as he did many he always called them either by the name of the day of the Month or of the Week or by some other signal by which they might be certainly known Why should it not then be concluded that for this very reason the first day of the week is thus often nominated by the Holy Ghost in the Testament of Christ Moreover he that takes away the first day as to this Service leaves us now NO day as sanctified of God for his solemn Worship to be by his Churches performed in As for the Seventh-day-sabbath that as we see is gone to its grave with the Signs and Shadows of the Old Testament Yea and has such a dash left upon it by Apostolical Authority that 't is enough to make a Christian fly from it for ever 2 Cor. 3. Now I say since that is removed by God If we should suffer the first day also to be taken away by man What day that has a divine stamp upon it would be left for us to worship God in Alass the first day of the week is the Christians Market-day that which they so solemnly trade in for sole provision for all the week following This is the day that they gather Manna in To be sure the Seventh-day-sabbath is not that For of old the people of God could never find Manna on that day On the seventh day said Moses which is the Sabbath in it there shall be none Exod. 16. 26. Any day of the week Manna could be found but on that day it was not to be found upon the face of the ground But now our first day is the Manna-day the onely day that the Churches of the New Testament even of old did gather Manna in But more of this anon Nor will it out of my mind but that it is a very high piece of ingratitude and of uncomly behaviour to deny the Son of God his day the Lords day the day that he has made And as we have shewed already this first day of the week is it yea and a great piece of unmannerliness is it too for any notwithstanding the old Seventh day is so degraded as it is to attempt to impose it on the Son of God To impose a day upon him which yet Paul denies to be a branch of the Ministration of the Spirit and of righteousness Yea to impose a part of that Ministration which HE says plamly Was to be done away for that a better Ministration stript it of its glory is a high attempt indeed 2 Cor. 3. Yet again the Apostle finites the teachers of the Law upon the mouth saying They understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1. 7. The Seventh-day-sabbath was indeed Gods Rest from the works of Creation but yet the Rest that he found in what the first day of the week did produce for Christ was born from the dead in it more pleased him than did all the Seventh days that ever the world brought forth wherefore as I said before it cannot be but that the well-bred Christian must set apart this day for solemn Worship to God and to sanctifie his name therein Must the Church of old be bound to remember that might in which they did come out of Egypt must Jeptha's daughter have four days for the Virgins of Israel yearly to lament her hard case in Yea must two days be kept by the Church of old yearly for their being delivered from Hamon's fury And must not one to the worlds end be kept by the Saints for the Son of God their Redeemer for all he has delivered them from a worse than Pharaob or Haman even from the Devil and Death and Sin and Hell oh stupidity Exod. 12. 24. Judg. 11. 39 40. Esth. 9. 26. 32. A day say some God forbid but he should have a day But what day oh the old day comprized within the bounds and bowels of the Ministration of death And is this the love that thou hast to thy Redeemer to keep that day to him for all the service that hath done for thee which has a natural tendancy in it to draw thee off from the consideration of the works of thy redemption to the creation of the world oh stupidity But why must he be imposed upon has he chosen that day did he finish HIS work thereon Is there in all the New Testament of our Lord from the day he rose from the dead to the end of his holy Book one syllable that signifies in the least the tenth part of such a thing Where is the Scripture that saith that this Lord of the Sabbath commanded his Church from that time to do any part of Church-service thereon Where do we find the Churches to gather together thereon But why the Seventh day What is it Take but the shadow thereof away Or what shadow now is left in it since its institution as to Divine Service is taken long since from it Is there any thing in the works that was done in that day more than shadow or that in the least tends otherwise to put us in mind of Christ and he being come what need have we of that shadow And I say again since that day was to be observed by a ceremonial method and no way else as we find and since Ceremonies are ceased what way by divine appointment is there left to keep that old Sabbath by Christians in If they say Ceremonies are ceased By the same Argument so
at his door This was it of which he stood guilty before God namely That his brothers bloud cried unto God against him from the ground Gen. 4. 10. I therefore take little notice of what a man saith though he flourisheth his matter with many brave words if he bring not with him Thus saith the Lord. For that and that onely ought to be my ground of Faith as to how my God would be worshipped by me For in the matters material to the Worship of God 't is safest that thus I be guided in my Judgement for here onely I perceive the footsteps of the Flock Ezek. 3. 11. Song 1. 8. They say further that for God to sanctifie a thing is to set it apart This being true then it follows that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was sanctified that is set apart for Adam in Paradise and so that it was ordained a Sabbath of rest to the Saints from the beginning But I answer as I hinted before that God did sanctifie it to his own rest The Lord also hath set apart him that is godly for himself But again 't is one thing for God to sanctifie this or that thing to an use and another thing to command that that thing be forthwith in being to us As for instance the Land of Canaan was set apart many years for the Children of Israel before they possessed that Land Christ Jesus was long sanctified that is set apart to be our Redeemer before he sent him into the world Deut. 32. 8. Joh. 10. 36. If then by Gods sanctifying of the Seventh day for a Sabbath you understand it for a Sabbath for man but the Text saith not so yet it might be so set apart for man long before it should be as such made known unto him And that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was not as yet made known to men consider Secondly Moses himself seems to have the knowledge of it at first not by Tradition but by Revelation as it is Exod. 16. 23. This is that saith he that the Lord hath said namely to me for we read not as yet that he said it to any body else To morrow is the Sabbath of the holy rest unto the Lord. Also holy Nehemiah suggesteth this when he saith of Israel to God Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbaths Neh. 9. 14. The first of these Texts shew us that tidings of a Seventh-day-Sabbath for men came first to Moses from Heaven and the second that it was to Israel before unknown But how could be either the one or the other if the Seventh day-Sabbath was taught men by the Light of Nature which is the moral Law or if from the beginning it was given to men by a positive Precept for to be kept This therefore strengthning my doubt about the affirmative of the first Question and also prepareth an Argument for what I plead as to this we have now under consideration Thirdly This yet seems to me more scrupulous because that the punishment due to the breach of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was hid from men to the time of Moses as is clear for that 't is said of the breaker of the Sabbath They put him in ward because it was not as yet declared what should be done unto him Numb 15. 32 33 34 35 36. But methinks had this Seventh-day-Sabbath been imposed upon men from the beginning the penalty or punishment due to the breach thereof had certainly been known before now When Adam was forbidden to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil the Penalty was then if he disobeyed annexed to the Prohibition So also it was as to Circumcision the Passover and other Ordinances for Worship How then can it be thought that the Seventh-day-Sabbath should be imposed upon men from the beginning and that the Punishment for the breach thereof should be hid with God for the space of Two thousand years Gen. 2. 16 17. ch 17. 13 14. Exod. 12. 43 44 45 46 47 48. and the same Chapter vers 19. Fourthly Gods giving of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was with respect to stated and stinted Worship in his Church the which until the time of Moses was not set up among his people Things till then were adding or growing Now a Sacrifice then Circumcision then again long after that the Passover c. But when Israel was come into the Wilderness there to receive as Gods Congregation a stated stinted limited way of Worship then he appoints them a time and times to perform this Worship in but as I said afore before that it was not so as the whole five Books of Moses plainly shew wherefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath as such a limited day cannot be Moral or of the Law of Nature nor imposed till then And methinks Christ Jesus and his Apostles do plainly enough declare this very thing For that when they repeat unto the people or expound before them the Moral Law they quite exclude the Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea Paul makes that Law to us compleat without it We will first touch upon what Christ doth in this case As in his Sermon upon the Mount Matthew chap. 5. chap. 6. chap. 7. in all that large and heavenly Discourse upon this Law you have not one syllable about the Seventh-day-Sabbath So when the Young man came running and kneeling and asking what good thing he should do to inherit eternal Life Christ bids him keep the Commandments but when the Young man asked which Christ quite leaves out the seventh day and puts him upon the other As in Matth. 19. 17 18 19. As in Mark 10. 18 19 20. As in Luke 18. 18 19 20. You will say he left out the first and second and third likewise To which I say that was because the Young man by his Question did presuppose that he had been a doer of them For he profess'd in his Supplication that he was a lover of that which is naturally good which is God in that his Petition was so universal for every thing which he had commanded Paul also when he makes mention of the moral Law quite leaves out of that the very name of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and professeth that to us Christians the Law of Nature is compleat without it As in Rom. 3. 7 19. As in Rom. 13. 7 8 9 10. As in 1 Tim. 1. 8 9 10 11. He that loveth another saith he hath fulfilled the law For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended under this saying Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law I make not an Argument of this but take an occasion to mention it as I go But certainly had the Seventh-day-Sabbath been moral or of the Law of Nature as some would fain perswade themselves it would not so slenderly have been passed over in all these repetitions of this Law but would by Christ