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-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
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-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-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
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
the Apostle speaks here as I have hinted afore of a Church-collection When is it more fit to be done than when the Church is come together upon the first day of the Week to worship God 2. This part of Worship is most comely to be done upon the first day of the week and that at the close of that days work For thereby the Church shews not onely her thankfulness to God for a Sabbath-days mercy but also returneth him by giving to the Poor that Sacrifice for their benefit that is most behoveful to make manifest their professed subjection to Christ Prov. 19. 17. 2 Cor. 9. 12 13 14 15. It is therefore necessary that this work be done on the first day of the week for a comely close of the worship that we perform to the Lord our God on that day 3. On the first day of the week when the Church is performing of holy worship unto God then that of Collection for the Saints is most meet to be performed because then in all likelihood our hearts will be most warm with the divine Presence consequently most open and free to contribute to the necessity of the Saints You know that a man when his heart is open is taken with some excellent thing then if at all it is most free to do something for the promoting thereof Why waiting upon God in the way of his appointments opens and makes freâ— the heart to the Poor And because the first day of the week was it in which now such solemn Service to him was done therefore also the Apostle commanded that upon the same day also as on a day most fit this duty of collecting for the Poor should be done For the Lord loves a cheerful giver 2 Cor. 9. 6 7. Wherefore the Apostle by this takes the Churches as it were at the advantage and as we say while the Iron is hot to the intent he might what in him lay make their Gollections not sparing nor of a grudging mind but to flow from cheerfulness And the first day of the week though its institution was set aside doth most naturally tend to this because it is the day the onely day in which we received such blessings from God Acts 3. 26. This is the day on which at first it rained Manna all day long from Heaven upon the New Testament-Church and so continues to do this day Oh! the resurrection of Christ which was on this day and the riches that we receive thereby Though it should be and is I hope thought on every day yet when the First of the week is fully come Then To day This day This is the day to be warmed this day he was begotten from the dead The thought of this will do much with an honest mind This is the day I say that the first Saints DID find and that after-Saints DO find the blessings of God come down upon them and therefore this is the day here commanded to be set apart for holy Duties And although what I have said may be but little set by of some yet for a closing word as to this I do think could but half so much be produced from the day Christ rose from the dead quite down for the sanction of a seventh-day-Seventh-day-sabbath in the Churches of the Gentiles it would much sway with me But the truth is neither doth the Apostle Paul nor any of his fellows so much as once speak one word to the Churches that shews the least regard as to conscience to God of a seventh-day-Seventh-day-sabbath more No the first day the first day the first day is now all the cry in the Churches by the Apostles for the performing Church-worship in to God Christ began it on THAT day Then the Holy Ghost seconded it on THAT day Then the Churches practised it on THAT day And to conclude the Apostle by the command now under consideration continues the sanction of THAT day to the Churches to the end of the world But as to the old Seventh-day-sabbath as hath been said afore in this Treatise Paul who is the Apostle of the Gentiles has so taken away that whole Ministration in the bowels of which it is yea and has so stript it of its Old Testament-grandeur both by Terms and Arguments that it is strange to me it should by any be still kept up in the Churches specially since the same Apostle and that at the same time has put a better Ministration in its place 2 Cor. 3. But when the Consciences of good men are captivated with an errour none can stop them from a prosecution thereof as if it were it self of the best of truths Obj. But Paul preached frequently on the old Sabbath and that after the Resurrection of Christ. Answ. To the unbelieving Jews and their Proselytes I grant he did But we read not that he did it to any New Testament-Church on that day nor did he celebrate the instituted worship of Christ in the Churches on that day For Paul who had before cast out the Ministration of death as that which had no glory would not now take thereof any part for New Testament instituted worship for he knew that that would veil the Heart and blind the Mind from that which yet instituted Worship was ordained to discover He preached then on the Seventh-day-sabbath of a divine and crafty love to the salvation of the unbelieving Jews I say he preached now on that day to them and their Proselytes because that day was theirs by their estimation He did it I say of great love to their Souls that if possible he might save some of them Wherefore it you observe you shall still find that where 't is said that he preached on that day it was to that people not to the Churches of Christ. See Acts 9. 20. ch 13. 14 15 16. ch 16. 13. ch 17. 1 2 3. ch 18. 4. Thus though he had put away â—e sanction of that day as to himself and had left the Christians that were weak to their liberty as to conscience to it yet he takes occasion upon it to preach to the Jews that still were wedded to it the Faith that they might be saved by Grace Paul did also many other things that were Jewish and Ceremonial for which he had as then no conscience at all as to any Sanction that he believed was in them As his Circumcising of Timothy His Shaving of his Head His submitting to Jewish Purifications His acknowledging of himself a Pharisee His implicite owning of Ananias for High Priest after Christ was risen from the dead Acts 16. 1 2 3. chap. 18. 18. chap. 21. 24 25 26. chap. 23. 6. chap. 23. 1 2 3 4 5. He tells us also that to the Jew he became as a Jew that he might save the Jew And without Law to them that were without Law that also he might gain them Yea he became as he saith all things to all men that he might gain the more as it is 1 Cor. 9. 19 20 21
me more and so still more and at last all that is requisite for me to know both as to my Salvation and how God is to be worshipped in the Church on Earth Thirdly If it be of the Law of Nature then all men by nature are convinced of the necessity of keeping it and that though they never read or heard of the revealed Will of God about it but this we find not in the world For though it is true that the Law of Nature is common to all and that all men are to this day under the power and command thereof yet we find not that they are by nature under a conviction of the necessity of keeping of a Seventh-day-Sabbath Yea the Gentiles though we read not that they ever despised the Law of Nature yet never had as such a reverence of a Seventh-day-Sabbath but rather the contrary Fourthly If therefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature then it should seem not to be obligatory to all For instituted Worship and the necessary circumstances thereunto belonging is obligatory but to some The Tree that Adam was forbid to eat of we read not but that his Children might have eat the fruit thereof and Circumcision the Passover and other parts of instituted Worship was enjoyned but to some Fifthly I doubt the Seventh-day-Sabbath is not of the Law of Nature and so not moral because though we read that the Law of Nature and that before Moses was charged upon the world yet I fiâ—d not till then that the prophanation of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon the world and indeed to me this very thing makes a great scruple in the case A Law as I said we read of and that from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 13 14. The transgressions also of that Law we read of them and that particularly as in Gen. 4. 8. ch 6. 5. ch 9. 21 22. ch 12. 13. ch 13. 13. ch 18. 12 13 14 15. ch 19. 5. Ezek. 49. 50. ch 31. 30. ch 35. 2. ch 40. 15. ch 44. 8 9 10. Deut. 8. 19 28. ch 12. 2. Psal. 106. 35 36 37. and Romans the first and second Chapters But in all the Scriptures we do not read that the breach of a Seventh-day-Sabbath was charged upon men as men all that time Whence I gather that either a Seventh-day-Sabbath was not discerned by the Light of Nature and so not by that Law imposed or else that men by the help and assistance of that for we speak of men as men in old time kept it better than in after Ages did the Church of God with better assistance by far For they are there yet found fault with as breakers of that Sabbath Ezekel 20. 13. It follows therefore that if the Law of Nature doth not of it self reveal to us as men that the Seventh day is the holy Sabbath of God That that day as to the sanction of it is not Moral but rather Arbitrary to wit imposed by the will of God upon his people until the time he thought fit to change it for another day And if so it is hence to be concluded that though by the Light of Nature men might see that time must be allowed and set apart for the performance of that Worship that God would set up in his House yet as such it could not see what time the Lord would to that end chuse Nature therefore saw that by a positive Precept or a Word revealing it and by no other means Nor doth this at all take away a whit of that Sanction which God once put upon the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath unless any will say and by sufficient Argument prove that an Ordinance for divine Worship receiveth greater Sanction from the Law of Nature than from a divine Precept or standeth stronger when 't is established by a Law humane for such is the Law of Nature than when imposed by Revelation of God But the Text will put this controversie to an end The Sanction of the Seventh-day-Sabbath even as it was the Rest of God was not till after the Law of Nature was compleated God rested the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2. 3. Sanctified it that is set it apart to the end there mentioned to wit to rest thereon Other grounds of this Question I might produce but at present I will stop here and conclude That if a Seventh-day-Sabbath was an essential necessary to the instituted Worship of God then it self also as to its sanction for that Work was not founded but by a positive Precept consequently not known of man at first but by revelation of God QUEST II. Whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath as to Mans keeping of it holy was ever made known to or imposed by a positive Precept upon him until the time of Moses which from Adam was about two thousand years SOmething must also be here premised in order to my propounding of my grounds for this Question and that is That the Seventh day was sanctified so soon as it had being in the world unto the rest of God as it is Gen. 2. 2 3. and he did rest from all his works which he had made therein But the Question is Whether when God did thus sanctifie this day to his own rest be did also by the space of time above-mentioned impose it as an holy Sabbath of rest upon men to the end they might solemnize Worship to him in special manner thereon And I question this First Because we read not that it was And reading I mean of the divine Testimony is ordained of God for us to find out the mind of God both as to Faith and our performance of acceptible service to him In reading also we are to have regard to two things 1. To see if we can find a Precept or 2. A countenanced Practice for what we do For both these ways we are to search that we may find out what is that good that acceptible will of God For the first of these we have Gen. 2. 16 17. and for the second Gen. 8. 20 21. Now as to the imposing of a Seventh day-Sabbath upon men from Adam to Moses of that we find nothing in holy Writ either from Precept or Example True we find that Solemn worship was performed by the Saints that then lived for both Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob sacrificed unto God Gen. 4. 4. ch 8. 20 21. ch 12. 7. ch 13. 4. ch 35. 1. but we read not that the Seventh day was the time prefixed of God for their so worshipping or that they took any notice of it Some say that Adam in eating the forbidden Fruit brake also the Seventh-day-Sabbath because he fell on that day but we read not that the breach of a Sabbath was charged upon him That which we read is this Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat Gen. 3. 11. Some say also that Cain killed Abel on a Sabbath day but we read not that in his Charge God laid any such thing
they were not so assembled together again till then After eight days saith he again the Disciples were within clearly concluding that they were not so on the days that were between no not on the old Seventh day Now why should the Holy Ghost thus precisely speak of their assembling together upon the first day if not to confirm us in this that the Lord had chosen that day for the new Sabbath of his Church Surely the Apostles knew what they did in their meeting together upon that day yea and the Lord Jesus also for that he used SO to visit them when SO assembled made his practice a Law unto them For Practice is enough for us New Testament Saints specially when the Lord Jesus himself is in the head of that practice and that after he rose from the dead Perhaps some may stumble at the word after after eight days but the meaning is at the conclusion of the eighth day or when they had spent in a manner the whole of their Sabbath in waiting upon their Lord then in comes their Lord and finisheth that their days service to him with confirming of Thomas's faith and by letting drop other most heavenly treasure among them Christ said he must lie three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth yet 't is evident that he rose the third day 1 Cor. 15. 4. We must take then a part for the whole and conclude that from the time that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead to the time that he shewed his Hands and his Side to Thomas eight days were almost expired that is he had sanctified unto them two first days and had accepted that service they had performed to him therein as he testified by giving of them so blessed a farewel at the conclusion of both those days Hence now we conclude that this was the custom of the Church at this day to wit upon the first day of the week to meet together and to wait upon their Lord therein For the Holy Ghost counts it needless to make a continued repetition of things 't is enough therefore if we have now and then mention made thereof Obj. But Christ shewed himself alive to them at other times also as in Joh. 21 c. Answ. The names of all those days in which he so did are obliterate and blotted out that they might not be idolized for Christ did not set them apart for worship but this day the first day of the Week by its name is kept alive in the Church the Holy Ghost surely signifying thus much that how hidden soever other days were Christ would have his day the first day had in everlasting remembrance among Saints Churches also meet together now on the Week-days and have the presence of Christ with them too in their employments but that takes not off from them the sanction of the first day of the Week no more than it would take away the sanction of the old Seventh day had it still continued holy to them wherefore this is no let or objection to hinder our sanctifying of the first day of the Week to our God But Thirdly Adde to this that upon Pentecost which was the first day of the Week mention is made of their being together again For Pentecost was always the morrow after the Sabbath the old Seventh-day-sabbath Upon this day I say the Holy Ghost saith they were again with one accord together in one place But oh the glory that then attended them by the presence of the Holy Ghost among them Never was such a thing done as was done on that first day till then We will read the Text And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire And it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 1 2 3 4. Here 's a first day glorified Here 's a countenance given to the day of their Christian assembling But we will note a few things upon it First The Church was now as on other first days all with one accord in one place We read not that they came together by vertue of any precedent Revelation nor by Accident but contrarywise by Agreement they was to gather with one accord or by appointment in pursuance of their duty setting apart that day as they had done the first days afore to the holy service of their blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Secondly We read that this meeting of theirs was not begun on the old Sabbath but when Pentecost was fully come the Holy Ghost intimating that they had left now and begun to leave the Seventh-day-sabbath to the unbelieving Jews Thirdly Nor did the Holy Ghost come down upon them till every moment of the old Sabbath was past Pentecost as was said was FULLY come first And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and then c. And why was not this done on the Seventh-day-sabbath but possibly to shew that the Ministration of Death and Condemnation was not that by or thorough which Christ the Lord would communicate so good a gift unto his Churches Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4. This Gift must be referred to the Lords day the first day of the week to fulfil the Scripture and to sanctifie yet further this holy day unto the use of all New Testament Churches of the Saints For since on the first day of the week our Lord did rise from the dead and by his special presence I mean his personal did accompany his Church therein and SO preach as he did his holy truths unto them it was most meet that they on the same day also should receive the first-fruits of their eternal Life most gloriously And I say again since from the resurrection of Christ to this day the Church then did receive upon the first day but as we read upon no other such glorious things as we have mentioned it is enough to beget in the hearts of them that love the Son of God a high esteem of the first day of the week But how much more when there shall be joyned to these proof that it was the custom of the first Gospel-Church the Church of Christ at Jerusalem after our Lord was risen to assemble together to wait upon God on the first day of the Week with their Lord as leader To say little more to this head but onely to repeat what is written of this day of old to wit that it should be proclaimed the self same day to wit the morrow after the Sabbath which is the first day of the Week that it may be an holy convocation unto you you shall do no servile work therein it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings Levit. 23. 16 17 18
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
is the sanction of the day in which they were to be performed I would gradly see the place if it is to be found where 't is said That day retains its sanction which yet has lost that method of service which was of God appointed for the performance of worship to him thereon When Canaan-worship fell the Sanction of Canaan fell When Temple-worship and Altar-worship and the Sacrifices of the Levitical Priesthood fell down also came the things themselves Likewise so when the service or shadow and ceremonies of the Seventh-day-sabbath fell the Seventh-day-Sabbath fell likewise On the Seventh-day-sabbath as I told you Manna was not to be found But why for that that day was of Moses and of the Ministration of death But Manna was was not of him Moses saith Christ gave you not that bread from Heaven Joh. 6. 31 32. Moses as was said gave that Sabbath in Tables of stone and God gave that Manna from Heaven Christ nor his Father gives grace by the Law no not by that Law in which is contained the old Seventh-day-sabbath it self The Law is not of Faith why then should Grace be by Christians expected by observation of the Law The Law even the Law written and engraven in stones enjoyns perfect obedience thereto on pain of the curse of God Nor can that part of it now under consideration according as is required be fulfilled by any man was the Ceremony thereto belonging allowed to be laid aside Isai. 58. 13. Never man yet did keep it perfectly except he whose name is Jesus Christ in him therefore we have kept it and by him are set free from that Law and brought under the ministration of the Spirit But why should we be bound to seek Manna on that day on which God saies None shall be found Perhaps it will said that the sanction of THAT day would not admit that Manna should be gathered on it But that was not all for on that day there was none to be found And might I chuse I had rather sanctific that day to God on which I might gather this bread of God all day long than set my mind at all upon that in which no such bread was to be had The Lords day as was said is to the Christians the principal Manna-day On this day even on it Manna in the morning very early gathered was by the Disciples of our Lord as newly springing out of the ground The true bread of God The sheaf of First-fruits which is Christ from the dead was ordained to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath the day on which our Lord ceased from his own OWN Work as God did from HIS Levit. 23. Now therefore the Disciples found their green Ears of Corn indeed Now they read life both IN and OUT of the Sepulchre in which the Lord was laid Now they could not come together nor speak one to another but either their Lord was with them or they had heart-enflaming tidings from him Now cries one and says The Lord is risen And then another and says He hath appeared to such and such Now comes tidings to the Eleven that their women was early at the Sepulchre where they had a Vision of Angels that told them their Lord was risen Then comes another and says The Lord is risen indeed Two also comes from Emmaus and cries We have seen the Lord and by and by while they yet were speaking their Lord shews himself in the midst of them Now he calls to their mind some of the eminent passages of his life and eats and drinks in their presence and opens the Scriptures to them Yea and opens their Understanding too that their hearing might not be unprofitable to them all which continued from early in the morning till late at night Oh! what a Manna-day was this to the Church And more than all this you will find if you read but the four Evangelists upon this Subject Thus began the day after the Sabbath and thus it has continued thorough all Ages to this very day Never did the Seventh-day-sabbath yield Manna to Christians A new world was now begun with the poor Church of God for so said the Lord of the Sabbath Behold I make all things new A new Covenant and why not then a new resting-day to the Church or why must the old Sabbath be joyned to this new Ministration let him that can shew a reason for it Christians if I have not been so large upon things as some might expect know that my brevity on this Subject is from consideration that much needs not be spoken thereto and because I may have occalion to write a second Part. Christians beware of being entangled with Old Testament Miniserations left ' by ' one you be brought into many Inconveniencies I have observed that though the Jewish Rites have lost their Sanction yet some that are weak in Judgement do bring themselves into bondage by them Yea so high have some been carried as to a pretended Conscience to these that they have at last proceeded to Circumcision to many Wives and the observation of many bad things besides Yea I have talked with some pretending to Christianity who have said and affirmed as well as they could that the Jewish Sacrifices must up again But do you give no heed to these Jewish Fables That turn from the truth Tit. 1. 14. Do you I say that love the Lord Jesus keep close to his Testament his Word his Gospel and observe HIS Holy-day And this Caution in conclusion I would give to put stop to this Jewish Ceremony to wit That a seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath pursued according to its imposition by Law and I know not that it is imposed by the Apostles leads to bloud and stoning to death those that do but gather Sticks thereon Numb 15. 32 33 34 35 36. A thing which no way becomes the Gospel that Ministration of the Spirit and of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3. nor yet the professors thereof Luke 9. 54 55 56. Nor can it with fairness be said that that Sabbath day remains though the Law thereof is repealed For consident I am that there is no more ground to make such a conclusion than there is to say that Circumcision is still of force though the Law for cutting of the uncircumcised is by the Gospel made null and void I told you also in the Epistle That if the Fifth Commandment was the first that was with promise then it follows that the Fourth or that Seventh-day-Sabbath had no promise intailed to it Whence it follows that where you read in the Prophet of a Promise annexed to a Sabbath it is best to understand it of our Gospel-Sabbath Isai. 56. Now if it be asked What Promise is intailed to our First-day-sabbath I answer The bigest of Promises For First The Resurrection of Christ was tyed by Promise to this day and to none other He rose the Third day after his death and that was the First day of the week