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
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
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-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-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
Nay there dwelt then at Jerusalem men of Tyre that on this Sabbath sold their Commodities to the Jews and men of Judah yet not they but the men of Judah were contended with as the breakers of this Sabbath True good Nehemiah did threaten the Gentiles that were Merchants for lying then about the Walls of the City for that by that means they were a temptation to the Jews to break their Sabbath but still he charged the breach thereof onely upon his own people Neh. 13. 15 16 17 18 19 20. But can it be imagined had the Gentiles now been concerned with this Sabbath by Law divine that so holy a man as Nehemiah would have let them escape without a rebuke for so notorious a transgression thereof especially considering that now also they were upon Gods ground to wit within and without the Walls of Jerusalem Fourthly Wherefore he saith to Israel again Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And again ye shall keep my Sabbaths And again The children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths to observe my Sabbaths thoroughout their generations Exod. 16. 29. ch 31. 14 15 16. What can be more plain these things thus standing in the Testament of God than that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such was given to Israel to Israel onely and that the Gentiles as such were not concerned therein Fifthly The very reason also of Gods giving of the Seventh-day-sabbath to the Jews doth exclude the Gentiles as such from having any concern therein For it was given to the Jews as was said before as they were considered Gods Church and for a sign and token by which they should know that he had chosen and sanctified them to himself for a peculiar people Exod. 31. 13 14 15 16 17. Ezek. 20. 12 13. And a great token and sign it was that he had so chosen them For in that he had given to them this Sabbath he had given to them his own Rest a Figure and Pledge of his sending his Son into the world to redeem them from the Bondage and Slavery of the Devil of whom indeed this Sabbath was a shadow or type Coloss. 2. 16 17. Thus have I concluded my ground for this third Question I shall therefore now propound another QUEST IV. Whether the Seventh day-Sabbath did not fall as such with the rest of the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies Or whether that day as a Sabbath was afterwards by the Apostles imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles I Would now also before I shew the grounds of my proposing this Question premise what is necessary thereunto to wit That Time and Day were both fixed upon by Law for the solemn performance of Divine Worship among the Jews And that Time and Day is also by Law fixed for the solemnizing of Divine Worship to God in the Churches of the Gentiles But that the Seventh-day-sabbath as such is that Time that Day that still I question Now before I shew the grounds of my questioning of it I shall enquire into the nature of that ministration in the bowels of which this Seventh-day-sabbath is placed And First I say as to that the nature of that Law is moral but the ministration and Circumstances thereunto belonging are shadowish and figurative By the nature of it I mean the matter thereof By the Ministration and Circumstances thereto belonging I do mean the giving of it by such hands at such a Place and time in such a Mode as when 't was given to Israel in the Wilderness The matter therefore to wit Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self is everlasting Mark 12. 29 30 31. and is not from Sinai nor from the two Tables of stone but in Nature for this Law commenced and took being and place that day in which man was created Yea it was concreate with him and without it he cannot be a rational creature as he was in the day in which God created him But for the ministration of it from Sinai with the Circumstances belonging to that ministration they are not Moral not Everlasting but Shadowish and Figurative onely That Ministration cannot be Moral for three Reasons 1. It commenced not when Morality commenced but two thousand years after 2. It was not universal as the Law as moral is 't was given onely to the Church of the Jews in those Tables 3. It s end is past as such a ministration though the same Law as to the morality thereof abides Where are the Tables of Stone and this Law as therein contained We onely as to that have the notice of such a ministration and a rehearsal of the Law with that mode of giving of it in the testament of God But to come to Particulars 1. The very Preface to that Ministration carrieth in it a type of our deliverance from the Bondage of Sin the Devil and Hell Pharaoh and Egypt and Israels bondage there being a type of these 2. The very Stones in which this Law was engraven was a figure of the Tables of the Heart The first two were a figure of the Heart carnal by which the Law was broken The last two of the Heart spiritual in which the new Law the Law of Grace is written and preserv'd Exod. 34. 1. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 3. The very Mount on which this Ministration was given was typical of Mount Zion See Heb. 12. where they are compared vers 18 19 20 21 22. 4. Yea the very Church to whom that Ministration was given was a figure of the Church of the Gospel that is on Mount Zion See the same Scripture and compare it with Acts 7. 38. Revel 14. 1 2 3 4 5. 5. That Ministration was given in the hand and by the disposition of Angels to prefigure how the new Law or Ministration of the Spirit was to be given afterwards to the Churches under the New Testament by the hands of the Angel of Gods everlasting Covenant of Grace who is his onely begotten Son Isai. 63. 9. Matth. 3. 1. Acts 3. 22 23. 6. It was given to Israel also in the hand of Moses as Mediator to shew or typisie out that the Law of Grace was in after-times to come to the Church of Christ by the hand and mediation of Jesus our Lord Gal. 3. 19. Deut. 5. 5. Heb. 8. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 9. 15. ch 12. 24. 7. As to this Ministration it was to continue but till the Seed should come and then must as such give place to a better Ministration Gal. 3. 19. A better Covenant established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. From all this therefore I conclude that there is a difference to be put between the morality of the Law and the ministration of it upon Sinai The Law as to its morality was before but as to this ministration 't was not till the Church was with Moses and he with the Angels on Mount Sinai in the
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
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
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
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-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