Wilderness Now in the Law as moral we conclude a time propounded but no Seventh-day-sabbath enjoyned But in that Law as thus ministred which Ministration is already out of doors we find a seventh day that seventh day on which God rested on which God rested from all his works enjoyned What is it then why the whole Ministration as written and engraven in stones being removed the Seventh-day-sabbath must also be removed for that the time nor yet the day was as to our holy Sabbath or rest moral but imposed with that whole Ministration as such upon the Church until the time of Reformation Which time being come this Ministration as I said as such ceaseth and the whole Law as to the morality of it is delivered into the hand of Christ who imposes it now also but not as a Law of Works nor as that Ministration written and engraven in Stones but as a Rule of life to those that have believed in him 1 Cor. 9. 21. So then that Law is still moral and still supposes since it teaches that there is a God that time must be set apart for his Church to worship him in according to that will of his that he hath revealed in his Word But though by that Law time is required yet by that as moral the time never was prefixed The time then of old was appointed by such a ministration of that Law as we have been now discoursing of and when that Ministration ceased that time did also vanish with it And now by our new Law-giver the Son of God he being Lord also of the sabbath-Sabbath-day we have a time prefixed as the Law of Nature requireth a new day by him who is the Lord of it I say appointed wherein we may worship not in the oldness of that Letter written and engraven in Stones but according to and most agreeing with his new and holy Testament And this I confirm further by those reasons that now shall follow First Because we find not from the resurrection of Christ to the end of the Bible any thing written by which is imposed that seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath upon the Churches Time as I said the Law as moral requires but that time we find no longer imposed And in all duties pertaining to God and his true Worship in his Churches we must be guided by his Laws and Testaments By his old Laws when his old Worship was in force and by his new Laws when his new Worship is in force And he hath verily now said Behold I make all things new Secondly I find as I have shewed that this Seventh-day-sabbath is confined not to the Law of Nature as such but to that ministration of it which was given on Sinai which Ministration as it is come to an end as such so it is rejected by Paul as a Ministration no ways capable of abiding in the Church now since the ministration of the Spirit also hath taken its place 2 Cor. 3. Wherefore instead of propounding it to the Churches with Arguments tending to its reception he seeks by degrading it of its old lustre and glory to wean the Churches from any likement thereof 1. By calling of it the ministration of Death of the Letter and of Condemnation a term most frightful but no ways alluring to the godly 2. By calling it a Ministration that now has NO glory by reason of the exceeding glory of that Ministration under which by the holy Spirit the New Testament-Churches are And these are weaning Considerations 2 Cor. 3. 3. By telling of them it is a Ministration that tendeth to blind the Mind and to veil the Heart as to the knowledge of their Christ So that they cannot while under that behold his beauteous face but as their heart shall turn from it to him 2 Cor. 3. 4. And that they might not be left in the dark but perfectly know what Ministration it is that he means he saith expresly it is that written and engraven in stonès See again 2 Cor. 3. And in that Ministration it is that this Seventh-day-sabbath is found But shall we think that the Apostles speaks any thing of all here said to wean Saints off from the Law of Nature as such No verily that he retains in the Church as being managed there by Christ But THIS Ministration is dangerous now because it cannot be maintained in the Church but in a way of contempt to the Ministration of the Spirit and is derogatory to the glory of that Now these as I said are weaning Considerations No man I do think that knows himself or the glory of a Gospel-ministration can if he understands what Paul says here desire that such a Ministration should be retained in the Churches Fourthly This Seventh-day-sabbath has lost its ceremonies those unto which before you are cited by the Texts which was with it imposed upon the old Church for her due performance of Worship to God thereon How then can this Sabbath now he kept Kept I say according to Law For it the Church on which it was at first imposed was not to keep it yea could not keep it legally without the practising of those Ceremonies And if those Ceremonies are long ago dead and gone how will those that pretend to a belief of a continuation of the Sanction thereof keep it I say according as it is written If they say they retain the day but change their manner of observation thereof I ask Who has commanded them so to do This is one of the Laws of this Sabbath Thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof two tenth deals shall be in one cake And thou shalt set them in two rows six on a row upon the pure Table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row that it may be on the bread for a memorial even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant Levit. 24. 5 6 7 8 9. You may see also other places as Numb 28. 9 10. Neh. 13. 22. and Ezek. 46. 4. Now if these be the Laws of the Sabbath this Seventh-day-sabbath And if God did never command that this Sabbath should by his Church be sanctified without them And as was said before if these Ceremonies have been long since dead and buried how must this Sabbath be kept Let men take heed lest while they plead for Law and pretend themselves to be the onely doers of Gods will they be not found the biggest transgressors thereof And why can they not as well keep the other Sabbaths as the Sabbaths of Months of Years and the Jubilee For this as I have shewed is no moral Precept 't is onely a branch of the ministration of Death and Condemnation Fifthly The Seventh-day-sabbath as such was a sign and shadow of things to come and a sign cannot be the thing signified and substance too Wherefore when the thing signified or
they were not so assembled together again till then After eight days saith he again the Disciples were within clearly concluding that they were not so on the days that were between no not on the old Seventh day Now why should the Holy Ghost thus precisely speak of their assembling together upon the first day if not to confirm us in this that the Lord had chosen that day for the new Sabbath of his Church Surely the Apostles knew what they did in their meeting together upon that day yea and the Lord Jesus also for that he used SO to visit them when SO assembled made his practice a Law unto them For Practice is enough for us New Testament Saints specially when the Lord Jesus himself is in the head of that practice and that after he rose from the dead Perhaps some may stumble at the word after after eight days but the meaning is at the conclusion of the eighth day or when they had spent in a manner the whole of their Sabbath in waiting upon their Lord then in comes their Lord and finisheth that their days service to him with confirming of Thomas's faith and by letting drop other most heavenly treasure among them Christ said he must lie three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth yet 't is evident that he rose the third day 1 Cor. 15. 4. We must take then a part for the whole and conclude that from the time that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead to the time that he shewed his Hands and his Side to Thomas eight days were almost expired that is he had sanctified unto them two first days and had accepted that service they had performed to him therein as he testified by giving of them so blessed a farewel at the conclusion of both those days Hence now we conclude that this was the custom of the Church at this day to wit upon the first day of the week to meet together and to wait upon their Lord therein For the Holy Ghost counts it needless to make a continued repetition of things 't is enough therefore if we have now and then mention made thereof Obj. But Christ shewed himself alive to them at other times also as in Joh. 21 c. Answ. The names of all those days in which he so did are obliterate and blotted out that they might not be idolized for Christ did not set them apart for worship but this day the first day of the Week by its name is kept alive in the Church the Holy Ghost surely signifying thus much that how hidden soever other days were Christ would have his day the first day had in everlasting remembrance among Saints Churches also meet together now on the Week-days and have the presence of Christ with them too in their employments but that takes not off from them the sanction of the first day of the Week no more than it would take away the sanction of the old Seventh day had it still continued holy to them wherefore this is no let or objection to hinder our sanctifying of the first day of the Week to our God But Thirdly Adde to this that upon Pentecost which was the first day of the Week mention is made of their being together again For Pentecost was always the morrow after the Sabbath the old Seventh-day-sabbath Upon this day I say the Holy Ghost saith they were again with one accord together in one place But oh the glory that then attended them by the presence of the Holy Ghost among them Never was such a thing done as was done on that first day till then We will read the Text And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire And it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 1 2 3 4. Here 's a first day glorified Here 's a countenance given to the day of their Christian assembling But we will note a few things upon it First The Church was now as on other first days all with one accord in one place We read not that they came together by vertue of any precedent Revelation nor by Accident but contrarywise by Agreement they was to gather with one accord or by appointment in pursuance of their duty setting apart that day as they had done the first days afore to the holy service of their blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Secondly We read that this meeting of theirs was not begun on the old Sabbath but when Pentecost was fully come the Holy Ghost intimating that they had left now and begun to leave the Seventh-day-sabbath to the unbelieving Jews Thirdly Nor did the Holy Ghost come down upon them till every moment of the old Sabbath was past Pentecost as was said was FULLY come first And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and then c. And why was not this done on the Seventh-day-sabbath but possibly to shew that the Ministration of Death and Condemnation was not that by or thorough which Christ the Lord would communicate so good a gift unto his Churches Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4. This Gift must be referred to the Lords day the first day of the week to fulfil the Scripture and to sanctifie yet further this holy day unto the use of all New Testament Churches of the Saints For since on the first day of the week our Lord did rise from the dead and by his special presence I mean his personal did accompany his Church therein and SO preach as he did his holy truths unto them it was most meet that they on the same day also should receive the first-fruits of their eternal Life most gloriously And I say again since from the resurrection of Christ to this day the Church then did receive upon the first day but as we read upon no other such glorious things as we have mentioned it is enough to beget in the hearts of them that love the Son of God a high esteem of the first day of the week But how much more when there shall be joyned to these proof that it was the custom of the first Gospel-Church the Church of Christ at Jerusalem after our Lord was risen to assemble together to wait upon God on the first day of the Week with their Lord as leader To say little more to this head but onely to repeat what is written of this day of old to wit that it should be proclaimed the self same day to wit the morrow after the Sabbath which is the first day of the Week that it may be an holy convocation unto you you shall do no servile work therein it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings Levit. 23. 16 17 18
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-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-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-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
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-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-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-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-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
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
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-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-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
also entred into his Rest having by his rising again finished his Work viz. made a Conquest over the Powers of darkness and brought Life and Immortality to light through his so doing So then that being the day of the Rest of the Son of God it must needs be the day of the Rest of his Churches also For God gave his resting day to his Church to be a Sabbath and Christ rested from his own works as God did from his therefore he also gave the day in which he rested from his Works a Sabbath to the Churches as did the Father Not that there are TWO Sabbaths at once The Fathers was imposed for a time even until the Son's should come yea as I have shewed you even in the very time of its imposing it was also ordained to be done away Hence he saith that Ministration was to be done away 2 Cor. 3. Therefore we plead not for two Sabbaths to be at one time but that a succession of time was ordained to the New Testament-Saints or Churches of the Gentiles to worship God in which time is that in which the Son rested from his own Works as God did from his Secondly Hence he calls himself The Lord even of the Sabbath day as Luke 5. Matth. 12. shews Now to be a LORD is to have Dominion Dominion over a thing and so power to alter or change it according to that power and where is he that dares say Christ has not this absolutely We will therefore conclude that it is granted on all hands he hath The Question then is Whether he he hath exercised that power to the demolishing or removing of the Jews Seventh day and establishing another in its room The which I think is easily answered in that he did not rest from his own Works therein but chose for his own Rest to himself another day Surely had the Lord Jesus intended to have established the Seventh day to the Churches of the Gentiles he would himself in the first place have rested from his own Works therein but since he passed by that day and took no notice of it as to the finishing of his own Works as God took notice of it when he had finished his it remains that he fixed upon another day even the First of the Week on which by his rising again and shewing himself to his Disciples before his Passion he made it manifest that he had chosen as Lord of the Sabbath that day for his own Rest. Consequently and for the Rest of his Churches and for his Worship to be solemnized in Thirdly And on THIS day some of the Saints that slept arose and began their eternal Sabbath Matth. 27. 52 53. See how the Lord Jesus had glorified this day Never was such a stamp of divine Honour put upon any other day no not since the world began And the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection c. That is they rose as soon as he was risen But why was not all this done on the Seventh day No that day was set apart that Saints might adore God for the works of Creation and that Saints thorough that might look for Redemption by Christ But now a work more glorious than that is to be done and therefore another day is assigned for the doing of it in A work I say of Redemption compleated a day therefore by it self must be assigned for this and some of the Saints to begin their eternal Sabbath with God in Heaven therefore a day by it self must be appointed for this Yea and that this day might not want that glory that might attract the most dim-sighted Christian to a desire after the sanction of it the Resurrection of Christ and also of those Saints met together on it Yea they both did begin their eternal rest thereon Fourthly The Psalmist speaks of a day that the Lord Jehovah the Son of God has made and saith We will rejoyce and be glad in it But what day is this Why the day in which Christ was made the head of the corner which must be applied to the day in which he was raised from the dead which is the first of the Week Hence Peter saith to the Jews when he treateth of Christ before them and particularly of his Resurrection This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of thâ— corner He was set at nought bâ— them the whole course of his Ministry unto his death and was mad the head of the Corner by God that day he rose from the dead This day therefore is the day that thâ— Lord Jehovah has made a day oâ— rejoycing to the Church of Christ and we will rejoyce and be glad iâ— it For can it be imagined that the Spirit by the Prophet should thus signalize this day for nothing saying This is the day which the Lord hath made to no purpose Yes you may say for the resurrection of his Son But I adde that that is not all 't is a day that the Lord has both made for that and that we might rejoyce and be glad in it Rejoyce that is before the Lord while solemn divine Worship is performed on it by all the people that shall partake of the Redemption accomplished then Fifthly God the Father again leaves such another stamp of divine note and honour upon this day as he never before did leave upon any where he saith to our Lord Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13. 33. still I say having respect to the first day of the week for that and no other is the day here intended by the Apostle This day saith God is the day And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he saith on this wise I will give thee the sure mercies of David wherefore he saith in another Psalm Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption Wherefore the day in which God did this work is greater than that in which he finished the work of Creation for his making of the Creation saved it not from corruption but now he hath done a work which corruption cannot touch wherefore the day on which he did this haâ— this note from his own mouth This day as a day that doth transcend And as I said this day is the Firâ—â— of the Week for 't was in that daâ— that God begat his beloved So from the dead This first day oâ— the week therefore on it God founâ— that pleasure which he found not iâ— the Seventh day from the World Creation for that in it his Son did live again to him Now shall not Christians when they do read that God saith This day and that too with reference to a work done on it by him so full of delight to him and so full of life and Heaven to them set also a remark upon it saying This was the
19 20 21. This Ceremony was about the Sheaf that was to be waved and Bread of First-fruits which was a type of Christ for he is unto God the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. This Sheaf or Bread must not be waved on the old Seventh day but on the morrow after which is the first-day of the Week the day in which Christ rose from the dead and waved himself as the First-fruits of the Elect unto God Now from this day they were to count seven Sabbaths compleat and on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was the first day of the week again and this Pentecost upon which we now are then they was to have a new Meat-offering with Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings c. And on the self same day they were to proclaim that that first day should be a holy Convocation unto them The which the Apostles did and grounded that their Proclamation so on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ not on Ceremonies that at the same day they brought three thousand Souls to God Acts 2. 41. Now what another signal was here put upon the first day of the week the day in which our Lord rose from the dead assembled with his Disciples poured out so abundantly of the Spirit and gathered even by the first draught that his Fishermen made by the Gospel such a number of Souls to God Thus then they proclaimed and thus they gathered sinners on the first First day that they preached for though they had assembled together over and over with their Lord before therein yet they began not joyntly to preach until this first day Pentecost Now after this the Apostles to the Churches did never make mention of a seventh-day-Seventh-day-sabbath For as the Wave-sheaf and the Bread of First-fruits were a figure of the Lord Jesus and the waving of his life from the dead So that morrow after the Sabbath on which the Jews waved their Sheaf was a figure of that in which our Lord did rise consequently when their morrow after the Sabbath ceased our morrow after that began and so has continued a blessed morrow after their Sabbath as a holy Sabbath to Christians from that time ever since Fourthly We come yet more close to the custom of Churches I mean to the custom of the Churches of the Gentiles for as yet we have spoken but of the practice of the Church of God which was at Jerusalem only we will add that the Customs that were laudable binding with the Church at Jerusalem were with reverence to be imitated by the Churches of the Gentiles for there was but one Law of Christ for them both to worship by Now then to come to the point to wit that it was the custom of the Churches of the Gentiles on the first day of the week but upon no other that we read of to come together to perform divine Worship to their Lord. Hence it is said And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples were come together to break bread c. Acts 20. 7. This is a Text that as to matter of fact cannot be contradicted by any for the Text saith plainly they did so the Disciples then came together to break bread the Disciples among the Gentiles did so Thus you see that the solemnizing of a first day to holy uses was not limited to though first preached by the Church that was at Jerusalem The Church at Jerusalem was the Mother-church and not that at Rome as some falsely imagine for from this Church went out the Law and the holy Word of God to the Gentiles Wherefore it must be supposed that this meeting of the Gentiles on the first day of the Week to break bread came to them by holy tradition from the Church at Jerusalem since they were the first that kept the first day as holy unto the Lord their God And indeed they had the best advantage to do it for they had their Lord in the head of them to back them to it by his presence and preaching thereon But we will a little comment upon the Text. Upon the first day of the Week Thus you see the day is nominated and so is kept alive among the Churches For in that the day is nominated on which this religious Exercise was performed it is to be supposed that the Holy Ghost would have it live and be taken notice of by the Churches that succeed It also may be nominated to shew that both the Church at Jerusalem and those of the Gentiles did harmonize in their Sabbath joyntly concluding to solemnize Worship on a day And then again to shew that they all had left the old Sabbath to the unbelievers and joyntly chose to sanctifie the day of the rising of their Lord to this work They came together to break bread to partake of the Supper of the Lord. And what day so fit as the Lords day for this This was to be the work of that day to wit to solemnize that Ordinance among themselves adjoyning other solemn Worship thereto to fill up the day as the following part of the verse shews This day therefore was designed for this work the whole day for the Text declares it The first day of the week was set by them apart for this work Upon the first day not upon A first day or upon ONE first day or upon SUCH a first day for had he said so we had had from thence not so strong an argument for our purpose But when he saith upon the first day of the week they did it he insinuates It was their custom also upon one of these Paul being among them preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow Upon the first day what or which first day of this or that of the third or fourth week of the month No but upon the first day every first day for so the Text admits us to judge Upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples were come together supposes a Custom when or as they were wont to come together to perform such service among themselves to God then Paul preached to them c. It is a Text also that supposes an agreement among themselves as to this thing They came together then TO break bread they had appointed to do it then for that then was the day of their Lords Resurrection and that in which he himself congregated after he revived with the first Gospel-Church the Church at Jerusalem Thus you see breaking of bread was the work the work that by general consent was agreed to be by the Churches of the Gentiles performed upon the first day of the week I say by the Churches for I doubt not but that the practice here was also the practice of the rest of the Gentile-Churches even as it had been before the practice of the Church at Jerusalem For this practice now did become universal and so this Text implies for he speaks here universally of the practice of all Disciples as such
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
substance is come the signe or thing shadowing ceaseth And I say the Seventh-day-sabbath being so as a Seventh-day-sabbath it ceaseth also See again Exod. 31. 13 14. Ezek. 20. 12 21. Coloss. 2. 14. Nor do I find that our Protestant Writers notwithstanding their reverence of the Sabbath do conclude otherwise but that though time as to worshipping God must needs be contained in the bowels of the moral Law as moral yet they for good reasons forbear to affix the seventh day as that time there too They do it I say for good reasons reasons drawn from the Scripture or rather for that the Scripture draws them so to conclude yet they cast not away the morality of a Sabbath of rest to the Church It is to be granted then that time for Gods Worship abideth for ever but the seventh day vanishes as a shadow and sign because such indeed it was as the Scripture above cited declares as to the Sanction thereof as a Sabbath The Law of Nature then calls for Time but the God of Nature assigns it and has given power to his Son to continue SUCH time as himself shall by his eternal Wisdom judge most meet for the Churches of the Gentiles to solemnize Worship to God by him in Hence he is said to be Lord even of the sabbath day Matth. 12. 9. Sixthly I find by reading Gods Word that Paul by Authority Apostolical takes away the Sanctions of all the Jews Festivals and Sabbaths This is manifest for that he leaves the observation or non-observation of them as things indifferent to the Mind and Discretion of the Believers One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Rom. 14. 5. By this last clause of the Verse Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind he doth plainly declare that such days are now stript of their Sanction For none of Gods Laws while they retain their Sanction are left to the will and mind of the believers as to whether they will observe them or no. Men I say are not left to their liberty in such a case for when a stamp of Divine Authority is upon a Law and abides so long we are bound not to our mind but to that Law But when a thing once sacred has lost its sanction then it falls as to Faith and Conscience among other common or indifferent things And so the Seventh-day-sabbath did Again Seventhly Thus Paul writes to the Church of Coloss. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of any holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the body is Christ Coloss. 2. 16 17. Here also as he serveth other Holy-days he serveth the Sabbath He gives a liberty to believers to refuse the observation of it and commands that no man should judge against them for their so doing And as you read the reason of his so doing is because the body the substance is come Christ saith he is the Body or that which these things were a shadow or figure of The Body is Christ. Nor hath the Apostle since he saith or of the Sabbath one would th 〈…〉 left any hole out at which mens inventions could get but man has sought out many and so many he will use But again That the Apostle by this word Sabbath intends the Seventh-day-sabbath is clear for that it is by Moses himself counted for a sign as we have shewed and for that none of the other Sabbaths were a more clear shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ than this For that and that alone is called the Rest of God in it God rested from all his works Hence he calls it by way of eminency MY Sabbath and MY Holy-day Isai. 58. 13. Yet could that Rest be nothing else but typical for God never since the world began really rested but in his Son This is he saith God in whom I am well pleased This Sabbath then was Gods Rest typically and was given to Israel as a sign of his Grace towards them in Christ Wherefore when Christ was risen it ceased and was no longer of obligation to bind the Conscience to the observation thereof Or of the Sabbath He distinctly singleth out THIS Seventh day as that which was a most noble shadow a most exact shadow And then puts that with the other together saying they are a shadow of things to come and that Christ has answered them all The body is Christ. Eighthly No man will I think deny but that Heb. 4. 4. intends the Seventh-day-sabbath on which God rested from all his works for the Text doth plainly say so Yet may the observing Reader easily perceive that both it and the Rest of Canaan also made mention of vers 5. were typical as to a day made mention of vers 7 and 8. which day he calls another He would not afterwards have made mention of another day If Joshuah had given them rest he would not Now if they had not that Rest in Joshuah's days be sure they had it not by Moses for he was still before All the Rests therefore that Moses gave them and that Joshua gave them too were but typical of another day in which God would give them rest vers 9 10. And whether the day to come was Christ or Heaven it makes no matter 'T is enough that they before did fail as always Shadows do and that therefore mention by David is and that afterward made of another day There remains therefore a rest to the people of God A Rest to come of which the Seventh day in which God rested and the Land of Canaan was a type which Rest begins in Christ now and shall be consummated in glory And in that he saith There remains a Rest referring to that of David What is it if it signifies not that the other Rests remain not There remains therefore a Rest a Rest prefigured by the Seventh day and by the Rest of Canaan though they are fled and gone There remains a Rest a Rest which stands not now in signs or shadows in the Seventh day or Canaan but in the Son of God and his Kingdom to whom and to which the weary are invited to come for rest Isai. 28. 12. Matth. 11. 28. Heb. 4. 11. Yet this casts not out the Christians Holy-day or Sabbath For that was not ordained to be a Type or Shadow of things to come but to sanctifie the Name of their God in and to perform that worship to him which was also in a shadow signified by the ceremonies of the Law as the Epistle to the Hebrews doth plentifully declare And I say again the Seventh-day-sabbath cannot be it for the reasons shewed afore Ninthly Especially if you adde to all this that nothing of the ministration of Death written and engraven in stones is brought by Jesus or by his Apostles into the Kingdom of Christ as a part of his instituted
day of Gods pleasure for that his Son did rise thereon and shall it not be the day of my delight in him This is the day in which his Son was both begotten and born and became the first-Fruits to God of them that sleep yea and in which also he was made by him the chief and head of the corner and shall not we rejoyce in it Acts 13. 33. Heb. 1. 5. Coloss. 1. 18. Revel 1. 5. Shall Kings and Princes and Great men set a remark upon the day of their Birth and Coronation and expect that both Subjects and Servants should do them high honour on that day and shall the day in which Christ was both begotten and born be a day contemned by Christians and his Name not be but of a common regard on that day I say again Shall God as with his finger point and that in the face of the world at this day saying Thou art my Son this day c. and shall not Christians fear and awake from their employments to worship the Lord on this day If God remembers it well may I If God says and that with all gladness of heart Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee may not ought not I also to set this day apart to sing the songs of my Redemption in This day my Redemption was finished This day my dear Jesus revived This day he was declared to be the Son of God with power Yea this is the day in which the Lord Jesus finished a greater work than ever yet was done in the world yea a work in which the Father himself was more delighted than he was in making of Heaven Earth And shall Darkness and the shadow of Death stain this day Or shall a Cloud dwell on this day Shall God regard this day from above and shall not his Light shine upon this day What shall be done to them that curse this day and would not that the Stars should give their light thereon This day after this day was come God never that we read of made mention with delight of the old Seventh-day-sabbath more Sixthly Nor is that altogether to be slighted when he saith When he bringeth his first begotten into the world Let all the Angels of God worship him to wit at that very time and day Heb. 1. 6. I know not what our Expositors say of this Text but to me it seems to be meant of his Resurrection from the dead both because the Apostle is speaking of that vers 5. and closes that Argument with this Text Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again I will be his Father and he shall be my Son And again when he bringeth his first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him So then for Gods bringing of his first-begotten now into the world was by his raising him again from the dead after they by crucifying of him had turned him out of the same Thus then God brought him into the world never by them to be hurried out of it again For Christ being now raised from the dead dies no more death hath no more dominion over him Now saith the Text when he bringeth him thus into the world he requireth that worship be done unto HIM When that very day and that by all the Angels of God And if by ALL then Ministers are not excluded and if not Ministers then not Churches for what is said to the Angel is said to the Church it self Rev. 2. 1 7. ch 2. 8 11. ch 2. 12 17. ch 2. 18 29. ch 3. 1 6. ch 3. 7 13. ch 3. 14 and 22. So then if the Question be asked when they must worship him the Answer is When he brought him into the world which was on the first day of the week for then he bringeth him again from the dead and gave the whole World and the Government thereof into his holy hand This Text therefore is of weight as to what we have now under consideration to wit that the First day of the Week the day in which God brought his First-begotten into the world should be the day of worshipping him by all the Angels of God Seventhly Hence this day is called the Lords day as John saith I was in the spirit on the Lords day the day in which he rose from the dead Rev. 1. 10. The Lords day Every day say some is the Lords day Indeed this for discourse-sake may be granted but strictly no day can so properly by called the Lords day as this First day of the week for that no day of the Week or of the Year has those badges of the Lords glory upon it nor such divine Grace put upon it us has the First day of the Week This we have already made appear in part and shall make appear much more before we have done therewith There is nothing as I know of that bears this title but the Lords Supper and this day 1 Cor. 11 20. Rev. 1. 10. And since Christians count it an abuse to allegorize the first let them also be ashamed to santasticalize the last The Lords day is doubtless the day in which he rose from the dead To be sure it is not the old Seventh day for from the day that he arose to the end of the Bible we find not that he did hang so much as one twist of glory upon that but this day is beautified with glory upon glory and that both by the Father and the Son by the Prophets and those that were raised from the dead thereon therefore THIS day must be more than the rest But we are as yet but upon divine Intimations drawn from such Texts which if candidly considered do very much smile upon this great truth namely that the First day of the week is to be accounted the Christian Sabbath or Holy day for Divine Worship in the Churches of the Saints And now I come to the Texts that are more express Secondly then First This was the day in the which he did use to shew himself to his people and to congregate with them after he rose from the dead On the first first day even on the day on which he rose from the dead he visited his people both when together and apart over and over and over as both Luke and John do testifie Luk. 24. Joh. 2. And preached such sermons of his resurrection and gave unto them yea and gave them such demonstration of the truth of-all as was never given them from the foundation of the world Shewing he shewed them his risen body opening he opened their Understandings and dissipating he so scattered their Unbelief on THIS day as he never had done before And this continued one way or another even from before day until the evening Secondly On the next first day following the Church was within again that is congregated to wait upon their Lord. And John so relates the matter as to give us to understand that
though he limits Paul preaching to that Church with whom he at present personally was Upon the first day of the week when the Disciples were come together to break bread Paul being at that time at Troas preached to them on that day Thus then you see how the Gentile-Churches did use to break bread not on the old Sabbath but on the first day of the week And I say they had it from the Church of Jerusalem where the Apostles were first seated and beheld the way of their Lord with their eyes Now I say since we have so ample an example not onely of the Church at Jerusalem but also of the Churches of the Gentiles for the keeping of the first day to the Lord and that as countenanced by Christ and his Apostles we should not be afraid to tread in their steps for their practice is the same with Law and Commandment But Fifthly We will adde to this another Text Now saith Paul concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him as God has prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. This Text some have greatly sought to evade counting the duty here on this day to be done a duty too inferiour for the sanction of an old Seventh-day-sabbath when yet to shew mercy to an Ass on the old Sabbath was a work which our Lord no ways condemns Luke 13. 15. ch 14. 15. But to pursue our design we have a Duty enjoyned and that of no inferiour sort If charity be indeed as it is the very bond of perfectness and if without it ALL our doings yea and sufferings too are not worth so much as a rush 1 Cor. 13. Coloss. 3. 14. We have here a Duty I say that a Seventh-day-sabbath when enforce was not too big for it to be performed in The work now to be done was as you see to bestow their charity upon the Poor yea to provide for time to come And I say it must be collected upon the first day of the week Upon THE first day not A first day as signifying one or two but upon THE first day even every first day for so your ancient Bibles have it also our later must be so understood or else Paul had left them to whom he did write utterly at a loss For if he intended not every first day and yet did not specifie a particular one it could hardly even a been understood which first day he meant But we need not stand upon this This work was a work for A first day for EVERY first day of the week Note again that we have this duty here commanded and enforced by an Apostolical Order I have given order saith Paul for this and his Orders as he saith in another place are the commandments of the Lord you have it in the same Epistle chap. 14. vers 37. Whence it follows that there was given even by the Apostles themselves a holy respect to the first day of the week above all the days of the week yea or of the Year besides Further I find also by this Text that this Order is universal I have saith he given this order not onely to you but to the Churches in Galatia Consequently to all other that were concerned in this Collection 2 Cor. 8. and 9. chap. c. Now this whatever others may think puts yet more glory upon the first day of the week For in that all the Churches are commanded as to make their Collections so to make them on THIS day what is it but that this day by reason of the Sanction that Christ put upon it was of vertue to sanctifie the Offering thorough and by Christ Jesus as the Altar and Temple afore did sanctifie the Gift and Gold that was and was offered on them The Proverb is The better Day the better Deed. And I believe that things done on the Lords day are better done than on other days of the week in his Worship Obj. But yet say some here are no Orders to keep this first day holy to the Lord. Answ. 1. That is supplied for that by this very Text this day is appointed above all the days of the week to do this holy duty in 2. You must understand that this Order is but additional and now enjoyned to fill up that which was begun as to holy Exercise of religious Worship by the Churches long before 3. The universality of the duty being enjoyned to this day supposes that this day was universally kept by the Churches as holy already 4. And let him that scrupleth this shew me if he can that God by the mouth of his Apostles did ever command that all the Churches should be confined to this or that duty on such a day and yet put no Sanction upon that day or that he has commanded that this work should be done on the first day of the week and yet has reserved other Church-Ordinances as a publick solemnization of Worship to him to be done of another day as of a day more fit more holy 5. If Charity if a general Collection for the Saints in the Churches is commanded on this day and on no other day but this day for Church-collection is commanded on no other there must be a reason for it And if that reason had not respect to the sanction of the day I know not why the duty should be so strictly confined to it 6. But for the Apostle now to give with this a particular command to the Churches to sanctifie that day as holy unto the Lord had been utterly superfluous for that they already and that by the countenance of their Lord and his Church at Jerusalem had done Before now I say it was become a custom as by what hath been said already is manifest wherefore what need that their so solemn a practice be imposed again upon the Brethren An intimation now of a continued respect thereto by the very naming of the day is enough to keep the Sanctity thereof on foot in the Churches How much more then when the Lord is still adding holy duty to holy duty to be performed upon that day So then in that the Apostle writes to the Churches to do this holy duty on the first day of the week he puts them in mind of the Sanction of the day and insinuates that he would still have them have a due respect thereto Quest. But is there yet another reason why this holy duty should in special as it is be commanded to be performed on the first day of the week Answ. Yes For that now the Churches were come together in their respective places the better to agree about Collections and to gather them You know Church-worship is a duty so long as we are in the world and so long also is this of making Collections for the Saints And for as much as
the Apostle speaks here as I have hinted afore of a Church-collection When is it more fit to be done than when the Church is come together upon the first day of the Week to worship God 2. This part of Worship is most comely to be done upon the first day of the week and that at the close of that days work For thereby the Church shews not onely her thankfulness to God for a Sabbath-days mercy but also returneth him by giving to the Poor that Sacrifice for their benefit that is most behoveful to make manifest their professed subjection to Christ Prov. 19. 17. 2 Cor. 9. 12 13 14 15. It is therefore necessary that this work be done on the first day of the week for a comely close of the worship that we perform to the Lord our God on that day 3. On the first day of the week when the Church is performing of holy worship unto God then that of Collection for the Saints is most meet to be performed because then in all likelihood our hearts will be most warm with the divine Presence consequently most open and free to contribute to the necessity of the Saints You know that a man when his heart is open is taken with some excellent thing then if at all it is most free to do something for the promoting thereof Why waiting upon God in the way of his appointments opens and makes freâ— the heart to the Poor And because the first day of the week was it in which now such solemn Service to him was done therefore also the Apostle commanded that upon the same day also as on a day most fit this duty of collecting for the Poor should be done For the Lord loves a cheerful giver 2 Cor. 9. 6 7. Wherefore the Apostle by this takes the Churches as it were at the advantage and as we say while the Iron is hot to the intent he might what in him lay make their Gollections not sparing nor of a grudging mind but to flow from cheerfulness And the first day of the week though its institution was set aside doth most naturally tend to this because it is the day the onely day in which we received such blessings from God Acts 3. 26. This is the day on which at first it rained Manna all day long from Heaven upon the New Testament-Church and so continues to do this day Oh! the resurrection of Christ which was on this day and the riches that we receive thereby Though it should be and is I hope thought on every day yet when the First of the week is fully come Then To day This day This is the day to be warmed this day he was begotten from the dead The thought of this will do much with an honest mind This is the day I say that the first Saints DID find and that after-Saints DO find the blessings of God come down upon them and therefore this is the day here commanded to be set apart for holy Duties And although what I have said may be but little set by of some yet for a closing word as to this I do think could but half so much be produced from the day Christ rose from the dead quite down for the sanction of a Seventh-day-sabbath in the Churches of the Gentiles it would much sway with me But the truth is neither doth the Apostle Paul nor any of his fellows so much as once speak one word to the Churches that shews the least regard as to conscience to God of a Seventh-day-sabbath more No the first day the first day the first day is now all the cry in the Churches by the Apostles for the performing Church-worship in to God Christ began it on THAT day Then the Holy Ghost seconded it on THAT day Then the Churches practised it on THAT day And to conclude the Apostle by the command now under consideration continues the sanction of THAT day to the Churches to the end of the world But as to the old Seventh-day-sabbath as hath been said afore in this Treatise Paul who is the Apostle of the Gentiles has so taken away that whole Ministration in the bowels of which it is yea and has so stript it of its Old Testament-grandeur both by Terms and Arguments that it is strange to me it should by any be still kept up in the Churches specially since the same Apostle and that at the same time has put a better Ministration in its place 2 Cor. 3. But when the Consciences of good men are captivated with an errour none can stop them from a prosecution thereof as if it were it self of the best of truths Obj. But Paul preached frequently on the old Sabbath and that after the Resurrection of Christ. Answ. To the unbelieving Jews and their Proselytes I grant he did But we read not that he did it to any New Testament-Church on that day nor did he celebrate the instituted worship of Christ in the Churches on that day For Paul who had before cast out the Ministration of death as that which had no glory would not now take thereof any part for New Testament instituted worship for he knew that that would veil the Heart and blind the Mind from that which yet instituted Worship was ordained to discover He preached then on the Seventh-day-sabbath of a divine and crafty love to the salvation of the unbelieving Jews I say he preached now on that day to them and their Proselytes because that day was theirs by their estimation He did it I say of great love to their Souls that if possible he might save some of them Wherefore it you observe you shall still find that where 't is said that he preached on that day it was to that people not to the Churches of Christ. See Acts 9. 20. ch 13. 14 15 16. ch 16. 13. ch 17. 1 2 3. ch 18. 4. Thus though he had put away â—e sanction of that day as to himself and had left the Christians that were weak to their liberty as to conscience to it yet he takes occasion upon it to preach to the Jews that still were wedded to it the Faith that they might be saved by Grace Paul did also many other things that were Jewish and Ceremonial for which he had as then no conscience at all as to any Sanction that he believed was in them As his Circumcising of Timothy His Shaving of his Head His submitting to Jewish Purifications His acknowledging of himself a Pharisee His implicite owning of Ananias for High Priest after Christ was risen from the dead Acts 16. 1 2 3. chap. 18. 18. chap. 21. 24 25 26. chap. 23. 6. chap. 23. 1 2 3 4 5. He tells us also that to the Jew he became as a Jew that he might save the Jew And without Law to them that were without Law that also he might gain them Yea he became as he saith all things to all men that he might gain the more as it is 1 Cor. 9. 19 20 21
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