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
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
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
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
Worship Hence it is said of that Ministration in the bowels of which this Seventh-day-sabbath is sound that it has now NO glory that its glory is done away in or by Christ and so is laid aside the ministration of the Spirit that excels in glory being come in the room thereof I will read the Text to you But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away It was given at first with this Proviso that it should not always retain its glory that Sanction as a Ministration How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious For if the ministration of condemnation be glory much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelieth For if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3. What can be more plain The Text says expresly that this ministration doth NOT remain yea and insinuates that in its first institution it was ordained with this Proviso It was to be done away Now if in its first institution upon Sinai it was thus ordained and if by the coming in of the ministration of the Spirit this Ordination is now executed that is if by it and the Apostle saith it it is done away by a ministration that remains then where is that Seventh-day-sabbath Thus therefore I have discoursed upon this fourth Question And having shewed by this Discourse that the old Seventh-day-sabbath is abolished and done away and that it has nothing to do with the Churches of the Gentiles I am next to shew what day it is that must abide that must abide as holy to the Christians and for them to perform their New Testament-church-service in Take the Question thus QUEST V. Since it is denied that the Seventh-day-Sabbath is moral and is found it is not to abide as a Sabbath for ever in the Church What time is to be fixed on for New Testament-Saints to perform together Divine Worship to God by Christ in UPon this Question hangs the stress of all as to the Subject now under consideration But before I can speak distinctly to it I must premise as I have in order to my speaking to the Questions before something for the better clearing of our way 1. Then we are not now speaking of all manner of worshipping God nor of all times in which all manner of worship is to be performed but of that Worship which is Church-worship or Worship that is to be performed by the Assembly of Saints when by the will of God they in all parts of his Dominion assemble together to worship him which Worship hath a prefixed time alotted to or for its performance and without which it cannot according to the mind of God be done This is the time I say that we are to discourse of and not of ALL time appointed for all manner of Worship I do not question but that Worship by the godly is performed to God every day of the week yea and every night too and that time is appointed or allowed of God for the performance of such Worship But this time is not fixed to the same moment or hoâ—â— universally but is left to the discretion of the Believers as their frame of Spirit or Occasions or Exigencies or Tenptations or Duty shall require We meddle then onely with that time that the Worship aforesaid is to be performed in which time the Law of Nature as such supposes but the God of Nature chuses And this time as to the Churches of the Gentiles we have proved is not that time which was assigned to the Jews to wit THAT Seventh day which was imposed upon them by the ministration of death for as we have shewed already that Ministration indeed is done away by a better and more glorious Ministration the Ministration of the Spirit which Ministration surely would be much more inferiour than that which has now no glory was it defective as to this That is if it imposed a Gospel-service but appointed not time to perform that Worship in or if notwithstanding all its commendation it should be forced to borrow of a Ministration inferiour to it self that to wit the time without which by no means its most solemn worship can be performed This then is the Conclusion that TIME to worship God in is required by the Law of Nature but that the Law of Nature doth as such fix it on the Seventh day from the Creation of the World that I utterly deny by what I have said already and have yet to say on that behalf Yea I hope to make it manifest as I have that this Seventh day is removed that God by the ministration of the Spirit has changed the time to another day to wit The first day of the week Therefore we conclude the time is fixed for the worship of the New Testament-Christians or Churches of the Gentiles unto that day Now in my discourse upon this Subject I shall 1. Touch upon those Texts that are more close yet have a divine intimation of this thing in them 2. And then I shall come to Texts more express First for those Texts that are more close yet have a divine intimation of this thing in them First The comparison that the Holy Ghost makes between the Rest of God from his Works and the Rest of Christ from his doth intimate such a thing He that hath entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. 10. Now God rested from his Works and sanctified a day of rest to himself as a signal of that Rest which day he also gave to his Church as a day of holy rest likewise And if Christ thus rested from his own Works and the Holy Ghost says he did thus rest he also hath sanctified a day to himself as that in which he hath finished his Work and given it also to his Church to be an everlasting Memento of his so doing and that they should keep it holy for his sake And see as the Fathers work was first so his day went before and as the Sons work came after so his day accordingly succeeded The Fathers day was on the Seventh day from the Creation the Sons the First day following Nor may this be slighted because the Text says as God finished his Work so Christ finished his He also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his He rested I say as God did but God rested on his resting day and therefore so did Christ. Not that he rested on the Fathers resting day for 't is evident that then he had great part of his work to do for he had not as then got his conquest over Death but the next day he
19 20 21. This Ceremony was about the Sheaf that was to be waved and Bread of First-fruits which was a type of Christ for he is unto God the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. This Sheaf or Bread must not be waved on the old Seventh day but on the morrow after which is the first-day of the Week the day in which Christ rose from the dead and waved himself as the First-fruits of the Elect unto God Now from this day they were to count seven Sabbaths compleat and on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was the first day of the week again and this Pentecost upon which we now are then they was to have a new Meat-offering with Meat-offerings and Drink-offerings c. And on the self same day they were to proclaim that that first day should be a holy Convocation unto them The which the Apostles did and grounded that their Proclamation so on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ not on Ceremonies that at the same day they brought three thousand Souls to God Acts 2. 41. Now what another signal was here put upon the first day of the week the day in which our Lord rose from the dead assembled with his Disciples poured out so abundantly of the Spirit and gathered even by the first draught that his Fishermen made by the Gospel such a number of Souls to God Thus then they proclaimed and thus they gathered sinners on the first First day that they preached for though they had assembled together over and over with their Lord before therein yet they began not joyntly to preach until this first day Pentecost Now after this the Apostles to the Churches did never make mention of a Seventh-day-sabbath For as the Wave-sheaf and the Bread of First-fruits were a figure of the Lord Jesus and the waving of his life from the dead So that morrow after the Sabbath on which the Jews waved their Sheaf was a figure of that in which our Lord did rise consequently when their morrow after the Sabbath ceased our morrow after that began and so has continued a blessed morrow after their Sabbath as a holy Sabbath to Christians from that time ever since Fourthly We come yet more close to the custom of Churches I mean to the custom of the Churches of the Gentiles for as yet we have spoken but of the practice of the Church of God which was at Jerusalem only we will add that the Customs that were laudable binding with the Church at Jerusalem were with reverence to be imitated by the Churches of the Gentiles for there was but one Law of Christ for them both to worship by Now then to come to the point to wit that it was the custom of the Churches of the Gentiles on the first day of the week but upon no other that we read of to come together to perform divine Worship to their Lord. Hence it is said And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples were come together to break bread c. Acts 20. 7. This is a Text that as to matter of fact cannot be contradicted by any for the Text saith plainly they did so the Disciples then came together to break bread the Disciples among the Gentiles did so Thus you see that the solemnizing of a first day to holy uses was not limited to though first preached by the Church that was at Jerusalem The Church at Jerusalem was the Mother-church and not that at Rome as some falsely imagine for from this Church went out the Law and the holy Word of God to the Gentiles Wherefore it must be supposed that this meeting of the Gentiles on the first day of the Week to break bread came to them by holy tradition from the Church at Jerusalem since they were the first that kept the first day as holy unto the Lord their God And indeed they had the best advantage to do it for they had their Lord in the head of them to back them to it by his presence and preaching thereon But we will a little comment upon the Text. Upon the first day of the Week Thus you see the day is nominated and so is kept alive among the Churches For in that the day is nominated on which this religious Exercise was performed it is to be supposed that the Holy Ghost would have it live and be taken notice of by the Churches that succeed It also may be nominated to shew that both the Church at Jerusalem and those of the Gentiles did harmonize in their Sabbath joyntly concluding to solemnize Worship on a day And then again to shew that they all had left the old Sabbath to the unbelievers and joyntly chose to sanctifie the day of the rising of their Lord to this work They came together to break bread to partake of the Supper of the Lord. And what day so fit as the Lords day for this This was to be the work of that day to wit to solemnize that Ordinance among themselves adjoyning other solemn Worship thereto to fill up the day as the following part of the verse shews This day therefore was designed for this work the whole day for the Text declares it The first day of the week was set by them apart for this work Upon the first day not upon A first day or upon ONE first day or upon SUCH a first day for had he said so we had had from thence not so strong an argument for our purpose But when he saith upon the first day of the week they did it he insinuates It was their custom also upon one of these Paul being among them preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow Upon the first day what or which first day of this or that of the third or fourth week of the month No but upon the first day every first day for so the Text admits us to judge Upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples were come together supposes a Custom when or as they were wont to come together to perform such service among themselves to God then Paul preached to them c. It is a Text also that supposes an agreement among themselves as to this thing They came together then TO break bread they had appointed to do it then for that then was the day of their Lords Resurrection and that in which he himself congregated after he revived with the first Gospel-Church the Church at Jerusalem Thus you see breaking of bread was the work the work that by general consent was agreed to be by the Churches of the Gentiles performed upon the first day of the week I say by the Churches for I doubt not but that the practice here was also the practice of the rest of the Gentile-Churches even as it had been before the practice of the Church at Jerusalem For this practice now did become universal and so this Text implies for he speaks here universally of the practice of all Disciples as such
at his door This was it of which he stood guilty before God namely That his brothers bloud cried unto God against him from the ground Gen. 4. 10. I therefore take little notice of what a man saith though he flourisheth his matter with many brave words if he bring not with him Thus saith the Lord. For that and that onely ought to be my ground of Faith as to how my God would be worshipped by me For in the matters material to the Worship of God 't is safest that thus I be guided in my Judgement for here onely I perceive the footsteps of the Flock Ezek. 3. 11. Song 1. 8. They say further that for God to sanctifie a thing is to set it apart This being true then it follows that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was sanctified that is set apart for Adam in Paradise and so that it was ordained a Sabbath of rest to the Saints from the beginning But I answer as I hinted before that God did sanctifie it to his own rest The Lord also hath set apart him that is godly for himself But again 't is one thing for God to sanctifie this or that thing to an use and another thing to command that that thing be forthwith in being to us As for instance the Land of Canaan was set apart many years for the Children of Israel before they possessed that Land Christ Jesus was long sanctified that is set apart to be our Redeemer before he sent him into the world Deut. 32. 8. Joh. 10. 36. If then by Gods sanctifying of the Seventh day for a Sabbath you understand it for a Sabbath for man but the Text saith not so yet it might be so set apart for man long before it should be as such made known unto him And that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was not as yet made known to men consider Secondly Moses himself seems to have the knowledge of it at first not by Tradition but by Revelation as it is Exod. 16. 23. This is that saith he that the Lord hath said namely to me for we read not as yet that he said it to any body else To morrow is the Sabbath of the holy rest unto the Lord. Also holy Nehemiah suggesteth this when he saith of Israel to God Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbaths Neh. 9. 14. The first of these Texts shew us that tidings of a Seventh-day-Sabbath for men came first to Moses from Heaven and the second that it was to Israel before unknown But how could be either the one or the other if the Seventh day-Sabbath was taught men by the Light of Nature which is the moral Law or if from the beginning it was given to men by a positive Precept for to be kept This therefore strengthning my doubt about the affirmative of the first Question and also prepareth an Argument for what I plead as to this we have now under consideration Thirdly This yet seems to me more scrupulous because that the punishment due to the breach of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was hid from men to the time of Moses as is clear for that 't is said of the breaker of the Sabbath They put him in ward because it was not as yet declared what should be done unto him Numb 15. 32 33 34 35 36. But methinks had this Seventh-day-Sabbath been imposed upon men from the beginning the penalty or punishment due to the breach thereof had certainly been known before now When Adam was forbidden to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil the Penalty was then if he disobeyed annexed to the Prohibition So also it was as to Circumcision the Passover and other Ordinances for Worship How then can it be thought that the Seventh-day-Sabbath should be imposed upon men from the beginning and that the Punishment for the breach thereof should be hid with God for the space of Two thousand years Gen. 2. 16 17. ch 17. 13 14. Exod. 12. 43 44 45 46 47 48. and the same Chapter vers 19. Fourthly Gods giving of the Seventh-day-Sabbath was with respect to stated and stinted Worship in his Church the which until the time of Moses was not set up among his people Things till then were adding or growing Now a Sacrifice then Circumcision then again long after that the Passover c. But when Israel was come into the Wilderness there to receive as Gods Congregation a stated stinted limited way of Worship then he appoints them a time and times to perform this Worship in but as I said afore before that it was not so as the whole five Books of Moses plainly shew wherefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath as such a limited day cannot be Moral or of the Law of Nature nor imposed till then And methinks Christ Jesus and his Apostles do plainly enough declare this very thing For that when they repeat unto the people or expound before them the Moral Law they quite exclude the Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea Paul makes that Law to us compleat without it We will first touch upon what Christ doth in this case As in his Sermon upon the Mount Matthew chap. 5. chap. 6. chap. 7. in all that large and heavenly Discourse upon this Law you have not one syllable about the Seventh-day-Sabbath So when the Young man came running and kneeling and asking what good thing he should do to inherit eternal Life Christ bids him keep the Commandments but when the Young man asked which Christ quite leaves out the seventh day and puts him upon the other As in Matth. 19. 17 18 19. As in Mark 10. 18 19 20. As in Luke 18. 18 19 20. You will say he left out the first and second and third likewise To which I say that was because the Young man by his Question did presuppose that he had been a doer of them For he profess'd in his Supplication that he was a lover of that which is naturally good which is God in that his Petition was so universal for every thing which he had commanded Paul also when he makes mention of the moral Law quite leaves out of that the very name of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and professeth that to us Christians the Law of Nature is compleat without it As in Rom. 3. 7 19. As in Rom. 13. 7 8 9 10. As in 1 Tim. 1. 8 9 10 11. He that loveth another saith he hath fulfilled the law For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended under this saying Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law I make not an Argument of this but take an occasion to mention it as I go But certainly had the Seventh-day-Sabbath been moral or of the Law of Nature as some would fain perswade themselves it would not so slenderly have been passed over in all these repetitions of this Law but would by Christ
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
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