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
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
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
Nay there dwelt then at Jerusalem men of Tyre that on this Sabbath sold their Commodities to the Jews and men of Judah yet not they but the men of Judah were contended with as the breakers of this Sabbath True good Nehemiah did threaten the Gentiles that were Merchants for lying then about the Walls of the City for that by that means they were a temptation to the Jews to break their Sabbath but still he charged the breach thereof onely upon his own people Neh. 13. 15 16 17 18 19 20. But can it be imagined had the Gentiles now been concerned with this Sabbath by Law divine that so holy a man as Nehemiah would have let them escape without a rebuke for so notorious a transgression thereof especially considering that now also they were upon Gods ground to wit within and without the Walls of Jerusalem Fourthly Wherefore he saith to Israel again Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And again ye shall keep my Sabbaths And again The children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths to observe my Sabbaths thoroughout their generations Exod. 16. 29. ch 31. 14 15 16. What can be more plain these things thus standing in the Testament of God than that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such was given to Israel to Israel onely and that the Gentiles as such were not concerned therein Fifthly The very reason also of Gods giving of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-sabbath to the Jews doth exclude the Gentiles as such from having any concern therein For it was given to the Jews as was said before as they were considered Gods Church and for a sign and token by which they should know that he had chosen and sanctified them to himself for a peculiar people Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Ezek. 20. 12 13. And a great token and sign it was that he had so chosen them For in that he had given to them this Sabbath he had given to them his own Rest a Figure and Pledge of his sending his Son into the world to redeem them from the Bondage and Slavery of the Devil of whom indeed this Sabbath was a shadow or type Coloss. 2. 16 17. Thus have I concluded my ground for this third Question I shall therefore now propound another QUEST IV. Whether the Seventh day-Sabbath did not fall as such with the rest of the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies Or whether that day as a Sabbath was afterwards by the Apostles imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles I Would now also before I shew the grounds of my proposing this Question premise what is necessary thereunto to wit That Time and Day were both fixed upon by Law for the solemn performance of Divine Worship among the Jews And that Time and Day is also by Law fixed for the solemnizing of Divine Worship to God in the Churches of the Gentiles But that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such is that Time that Day that still I question Now before I shew the grounds of my questioning of it I shall enquire into the nature of that ministration in the bowels of which this Seventh-day-sabbath is placed And First I say as to that the nature of that Law is moral but the ministration and Circumstances thereunto belonging are shadowish and figurative By the nature of it I mean the matter thereof By the Ministration and Circumstances thereto belonging I do mean the giving of it by such hands at such a Place and time in such a Mode as when 't was given to Israel in the Wilderness The matter therefore to wit Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self is everlasting Mark 12. 29 30 31. and is not from Sinai nor from the two Tables of stone but in Nature for this Law commenced and took being and place that day in which man was created Yea it was concreate with him and without it he cannot be a rational creature as he was in the day in which God created him But for the ministration of it from Sinai with the Circumstances belonging to that ministration they are not Moral not Everlasting but Shadowish and Figurative onely That Ministration cannot be Moral for three Reasons 1. It commenced not when Morality commenced but two thousand years after 2. It was not universal as the Law as moral is 't was given onely to the Church of the Jews in those Tables 3. It s end is past as such a ministration though the same Law as to the morality thereof abides Where are the Tables of Stone and this Law as therein contained We onely as to that have the notice of such a ministration and a rehearsal of the Law with that mode of giving of it in the testament of God But to come to Particulars 1. The very Preface to that Ministration carrieth in it a type of our deliverance from the Bondage of Sin the Devil and Hell Pharaoh and Egypt and Israels bondage there being a type of these 2. The very Stones in which this Law was engraven was a figure of the Tables of the Heart The first two were a figure of the Heart carnal by which the Law was broken The last two of the Heart spiritual in which the new Law the Law of Grace is written and preserv'd Exod. 34. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 3. The very Mount on which this Ministration was given was typical of Mount Zion See Heb. 12. where they are compared vers 18 19 20 21 22. 4. Yea the very Church to whom that Ministration was given was a figure of the Church of the Gospel that is on Mount Zion See the same Scripture and compare it with Acts 7. 38. Revel 14. 1 2 3 4 5. 5. That Ministration was given in the hand and by the disposition of Angels to prefigure how the new Law or Ministration of the Spirit was to be given afterwards to the Churches under the New Testament by the hands of the Angel of Gods everlasting Covenant of Grace who is his onely begotten Son Isai. 63. 9. Matth. 3. 1. Acts 3. 22 23. 6. It was given to Israel also in the hand of Moses as Mediator to shew or typisie out that the Law of Grace was in after-times to come to the Church of Christ by the hand and mediation of Jesus our Lord Gal. 3. 19. Deut. 5. 5. Heb. 8. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 9. 15. ch 12. 24. 7. As to this Ministration it was to continue but till the Seed should come and then must as such give place to a better Ministration Gal. 3. 19. A better Covenant established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. From all this therefore I conclude that there is a difference to be put between the morality of the Law and the ministration of it upon Sinai The Law as to its morality was before but as to this ministration 't was not till the Church was with Moses and he with the Angels on Mount Sinai in the
22 23. But these things as I said he did not of Conscience to the things for he knew that their sanction was gone Nor would he suffer them to be imposed upon the Churches directly or indirectly no not by Peter himself Gal. 2. Were I in Turkie with a Church of Jesus Christ I would keep the first day of the week to God and for the edification of his people And would also preach the Word to the Infidels on their Sabbath day which is our Friday and be glad too if I might have such opportunity to try to perswade them to a love of their own salvation Obj. But if the Seventh-day-sabbath is as you say to be laid aside by the Churches of the Gentiles Why doth Christ say to his Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day For say some by this saying it appears that the old Seventh-day-sabbath as you have-called it will as to the Sanction of it abide in force after Christ is ascended into heaven Answ. I say first These words was spoken to the Jewish Christians not to the Gentile-churches And the reason of this first hint you will see clearer afterwards The Jews had several Sabbaths as their Seventh-day-sabbath their Monthly Sabbaths their Sabbath of Years and their Jubile Levit. 25. Now if he means their ordinary Sabbaths or that called the Seventh-day-sabbath why doth he joyn the Winter thereto for in that he joyneth the Winter with that Sabbath that he exhorteth them to pray their flight might not be in it should seem that the meaneth rather their Sabbath of Years or their Jubile which did better answer one to another than one day and a winter could And I say again that Christ should suppose that their flight should or might last some considerable part of a Winter and yet that then they should have their rest on those Seventh-day-sabbaths is a little besides my reason if it be considered again that the Gentiles before whom they were then to fly were Enemies to their Sabbath and consequently would take opportunity at their Sabbaths to afflict them so much the more Wherefore I would that they who plead for a continuation of the Seventh-day-sabbath from this Text would both better consider LT and the incoherence that seems to be betwixt such a Sabbath and a Winter But again were it granted that it is the Seventh-day-sabbath that Christ here intendeth yet since as we have proved the Sanction before this was taken away I mean before this flight should be he did not press them to pray thus because by any Law of Heaven they should then be commanded to keep it holy but because some would thorough their weakness have conscience of it till then And such would if their flight should happen thereon be as much grieved and perplexed as if it yet stood obligatory to them by a Law This seems to have some truth in it because among the Jews that believed there continued a long time many that were wedded yet to the Law to the ceremonial part thereof and was not so clearly Evangelized as the Churches of the Gentiles was Thou seest Brother said James to Paul how many thousands of the Jews there are that believe and they are all zealous of the Law Acts 15. 5. ch 21. 20. Of these and such weak unbelieving Jews perhaps Christ speaks when he gives this exhortation to them to pray thus whose Consciences he knew would be weak and being so would bind when they were entangled with an errour as fast as if it bound by a Law indeed Again though the Seventh-day-sabbath and Ceremonies lost their Sanction at the resurrection of Christ yet they retained some kind of being in the Church of the Jews until the desolation spoken of by Daniel should be Hence it is said that then the Oblation and Sacrifices shall cease Dan. 9. 27. And hence it is that Jerusalem and the Temple are still called the holy place even until this flight should be Matth. 24. 15. Now if Jerusalem and the Temple are still called holy even after the Body and Substance of which they were shadows was come then no marvel though some to that day that believed were entangled therewith c. For it may very well be supposed that all Conscience of them would not be quite taken away until all reason for that Conscience should be taken away also But when Jerusalem and the Temple and the Jews Worship by the Gentiles was quite extinct by ruines then in reason that Conscience did cease And it seems by some Texts that all Conscience to them was not taken away till then Quest. But what kind of being had the seventh-day-Seventh-day-sabbath and other Jewish Rites and Ceremonies that by Christs Resurrection was taken away Answ. These things had a vertual and a nominal being As to their vertual being that died that day Christ did rise from the dead they being crucified with him on the Cross Coloss. 2. But now when the vertual being was gone they still with the weak retained their name among many of the Jews that believed until the abomination that maketh desolate stood in the holy place for in Paul's time they were as to that but ready to vanish away Now I say they still retaining their nominal grandeur though not by vertue of a Law they could not till Time and Dispensation came be swept out of the way We will make what hath been said as to this out by a familiar similitude There is a Lord or great man dies now being dead he has lost his vertual life He has now no relation to a Wife to Children vertually yet his Name still abides and that in that Family to which otherwise he is dead Wherefore they embalm him and also keep him above ground for many days Yea he is still reverenced by those of the family and that in several respects Nor doth any thing but time and dispensation wear this name away Thus then the Old Testament-signs and shadows went off the stage in the Church of Christ among the Jews They lost their vertue and signification when Christ nailed them to his Cross Coloss. 2. But as to their Name and the Grandeur that attended that it continued with many that were weak and vanished not but when the abomination that made them desolate came The sum then and conclusion of the matter is this the Seventh-day-sabbath lost its glory when that Ministration in which it was lost its But yet the name thereof might abide a long time with the Jowish legal Christians and so might become obligatory still though not by the Law to their Conscience even as Circumcision and other Ceremonies did and to them it would be as grievous to fly on that day as if by Law it was still in force For I say to a weak Conscience that Law which has lost its life may yet thorough their ignorance be as binding as if it stood still upon the authority of God Things then become obligatory these
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-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
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
it was But why I say is this day on which our Lord rose from the dead Nominated as it is Why was it not sufficient to say he rose again or be rose again the third day without a specification of the very name of the day For as was said afore Christ appeared to his Disciples after his resurrection on other days also yea and thereon did Miracles too Why then did not these days live why was their name for all that blotted out and this day onely kept alive in the Churches The day on which Christ was born of a Virgin the day of his Circumcision the day of his Baptism and Transfiguration are not by their names committed by the Holy Ghost to holy Writ to be kept alive in the world nor yet such days in which he did many great and wonderful thing But THIS day this day is still nominated the first day of the week is the day I say why are things thus left with us but because we as Saints of old should gather and separate what is of divine Authority from the rest For in that this day is so often nominated while all other days lie dead in their Graves 't is as much as if God should say Remember the First day of the week to keep it holy to the Lord your God And set this aside and I know not what reason can be rendred or what Prophecy should be fulfilled by the bare naming of the day When God of old did sanctifie for the use of his Church a day as he did many he always called them either by the name of the day of the Month or of the Week or by some other signal by which they might be certainly known Why should it not then be concluded that for this very reason the first day of the week is thus often nominated by the Holy Ghost in the Testament of Christ Moreover he that takes away the first day as to this Service leaves us now NO day as sanctified of God for his solemn Worship to be by his Churches performed in As for the Seventh-day-sabbath that as we see is gone to its grave with the Signs and Shadows of the Old Testament Yea and has such a dash left upon it by Apostolical Authority that 't is enough to make a Christian fly from it for ever 2 Cor. 3. Now I say since that is removed by God If we should suffer the first day also to be taken away by man What day that has a divine stamp upon it would be left for us to worship God in Alass the first day of the week is the Christians Market-day that which they so solemnly trade in for sole provision for all the week following This is the day that they gather Manna in To be sure the Seventh-day-sabbath is not that For of old the people of God could never find Manna on that day On the seventh day said Moses which is the Sabbath in it there shall be none Exod. 16. 26. Any day of the week Manna could be found but on that day it was not to be found upon the face of the ground But now our first day is the Manna-day the onely day that the Churches of the New Testament even of old did gather Manna in But more of this anon Nor will it out of my mind but that it is a very high piece of ingratitude and of uncomly behaviour to deny the Son of God his day the Lords day the day that he has made And as we have shewed already this first day of the week is it yea and a great piece of unmannerliness is it too for any notwithstanding the old Seventh day is so degraded as it is to attempt to impose it on the Son of God To impose a day upon him which yet Paul denies to be a branch of the Ministration of the Spirit and of righteousness Yea to impose a part of that Ministration which HE says plamly Was to be done away for that a better Ministration stript it of its glory is a high attempt indeed 2 Cor. 3. Yet again the Apostle finites the teachers of the Law upon the mouth saying They understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1. 7. The Seventh-day-sabbath was indeed Gods Rest from the works of Creation but yet the Rest that he found in what the first day of the week did produce for Christ was born from the dead in it more pleased him than did all the Seventh days that ever the world brought forth wherefore as I said before it cannot be but that the well-bred Christian must set apart this day for solemn Worship to God and to sanctifie his name therein Must the Church of old be bound to remember that might in which they did come out of Egypt must Jeptha's daughter have four days for the Virgins of Israel yearly to lament her hard case in Yea must two days be kept by the Church of old yearly for their being delivered from Hamon's fury And must not one to the worlds end be kept by the Saints for the Son of God their Redeemer for all he has delivered them from a worse than Pharaob or Haman even from the Devil and Death and Sin and Hell oh stupidity Exod. 12. 24. Judg. 11. 39 40. Esth. 9. 26. 32. A day say some God forbid but he should have a day But what day oh the old day comprized within the bounds and bowels of the Ministration of death And is this the love that thou hast to thy Redeemer to keep that day to him for all the service that hath done for thee which has a natural tendancy in it to draw thee off from the consideration of the works of thy redemption to the creation of the world oh stupidity But why must he be imposed upon has he chosen that day did he finish HIS work thereon Is there in all the New Testament of our Lord from the day he rose from the dead to the end of his holy Book one syllable that signifies in the least the tenth part of such a thing Where is the Scripture that saith that this Lord of the Sabbath commanded his Church from that time to do any part of Church-service thereon Where do we find the Churches to gather together thereon But why the Seventh day What is it Take but the shadow thereof away Or what shadow now is left in it since its institution as to Divine Service is taken long since from it Is there any thing in the works that was done in that day more than shadow or that in the least tends otherwise to put us in mind of Christ and he being come what need have we of that shadow And I say again since that day was to be observed by a ceremonial method and no way else as we find and since Ceremonies are ceased what way by divine appointment is there left to keep that old Sabbath by Christians in If they say Ceremonies are ceased By the same Argument so
is the sanction of the day in which they were to be performed I would gradly see the place if it is to be found where 't is said That day retains its sanction which yet has lost that method of service which was of God appointed for the performance of worship to him thereon When Canaan-worship fell the Sanction of Canaan fell When Temple-worship and Altar-worship and the Sacrifices of the Levitical Priesthood fell down also came the things themselves Likewise so when the service or shadow and ceremonies of the Seventh-day-sabbath fell the Seventh-day-Sabbath fell likewise On the Seventh-day-sabbath as I told you Manna was not to be found But why for that that day was of Moses and of the Ministration of death But Manna was was not of him Moses saith Christ gave you not that bread from Heaven Joh. 6. 31 32. Moses as was said gave that Sabbath in Tables of stone and God gave that Manna from Heaven Christ nor his Father gives grace by the Law no not by that Law in which is contained the old Seventh-day-sabbath it self The Law is not of Faith why then should Grace be by Christians expected by observation of the Law The Law even the Law written and engraven in stones enjoyns perfect obedience thereto on pain of the curse of God Nor can that part of it now under consideration according as is required be fulfilled by any man was the Ceremony thereto belonging allowed to be laid aside Isai. 58. 13. Never man yet did keep it perfectly except he whose name is Jesus Christ in him therefore we have kept it and by him are set free from that Law and brought under the ministration of the Spirit But why should we be bound to seek Manna on that day on which God saies None shall be found Perhaps it will said that the sanction of THAT day would not admit that Manna should be gathered on it But that was not all for on that day there was none to be found And might I chuse I had rather sanctific that day to God on which I might gather this bread of God all day long than set my mind at all upon that in which no such bread was to be had The Lords day as was said is to the Christians the principal Manna-day On this day even on it Manna in the morning very early gathered was by the Disciples of our Lord as newly springing out of the ground The true bread of God The sheaf of First-fruits which is Christ from the dead was ordained to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath the day on which our Lord ceased from his own OWN Work as God did from HIS Levit. 23. Now therefore the Disciples found their green Ears of Corn indeed Now they read life both IN and OUT of the Sepulchre in which the Lord was laid Now they could not come together nor speak one to another but either their Lord was with them or they had heart-enflaming tidings from him Now cries one and says The Lord is risen And then another and says He hath appeared to such and such Now comes tidings to the Eleven that their women was early at the Sepulchre where they had a Vision of Angels that told them their Lord was risen Then comes another and says The Lord is risen indeed Two also comes from Emmaus and cries We have seen the Lord and by and by while they yet were speaking their Lord shews himself in the midst of them Now he calls to their mind some of the eminent passages of his life and eats and drinks in their presence and opens the Scriptures to them Yea and opens their Understanding too that their hearing might not be unprofitable to them all which continued from early in the morning till late at night Oh! what a Manna-day was this to the Church And more than all this you will find if you read but the four Evangelists upon this Subject Thus began the day after the Sabbath and thus it has continued thorough all Ages to this very day Never did the Seventh-day-sabbath yield Manna to Christians A new world was now begun with the poor Church of God for so said the Lord of the Sabbath Behold I make all things new A new Covenant and why not then a new resting-resting-day to the Church or why must the old Sabbath be joyned to this new Ministration let him that can shew a reason for it Christians if I have not been so large upon things as some might expect know that my brevity on this Subject is from consideration that much needs not be spoken thereto and because I may have occalion to write a second Part. Christians beware of being entangled with Old Testament Miniserations left ' by ' one you be brought into many Inconveniencies I have observed that though the Jewish Rites have lost their Sanction yet some that are weak in Judgement do bring themselves into bondage by them Yea so high have some been carried as to a pretended Conscience to these that they have at last proceeded to Circumcision to many Wives and the observation of many bad things besides Yea I have talked with some pretending to Christianity who have said and affirmed as well as they could that the Jewish Sacrifices must up again But do you give no heed to these Jewish Fables That turn from the truth Tit. 1. 14. Do you I say that love the Lord Jesus keep close to his Testament his Word his Gospel and observe HIS Holy-day And this Caution in conclusion I would give to put stop to this Jewish Ceremony to wit That a Seventh-day-Sabbath pursued according to its imposition by Law and I know not that it is imposed by the Apostles leads to bloud and stoning to death those that do but gather Sticks thereon Numb 15. 32 33 34 35 36. A thing which no way becomes the Gospel that Ministration of the Spirit and of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3. nor yet the professors thereof Luke 9. 54 55 56. Nor can it with fairness be said that that Sabbath day remains though the Law thereof is repealed For consident I am that there is no more ground to make such a conclusion than there is to say that Circumcision is still of force though the Law for cutting of the uncircumcised is by the Gospel made null and void I told you also in the Epistle That if the Fifth Commandment was the first that was with promise then it follows that the Fourth or that Seventh-day-Sabbath had no promise intailed to it Whence it follows that where you read in the Prophet of a Promise annexed to a Sabbath it is best to understand it of our Gospel-Sabbath Isai. 56. Now if it be asked What Promise is intailed to our First-day-sabbath I answer The bigest of Promises For First The Resurrection of Christ was tyed by Promise to this day and to none other He rose the Third day after his death and that was the First day of the week