Seeing [that] it is not possible that the reprobate should receive
this grace and live, and also seeing [that] this is infallibly
foreseen of God; and again, seeing God hath fore-determined
to suffer it so to be; Why doth he yet will and command that the
gospel, and so grace in the general tenders thereof, should be
proffered unto them?
Why then is the gospel offered them? Well, that there is such a
thing as eternal reprobation, I have shewed you; also what this
eternal reprobation is, I have opened unto you: and shall now shew
you also, that though these reprobates will infallibly perish,
which God not only foresaw, but fore-determined to suffer them
most assuredly so to do; yet there is reason, great reason, why
the gospel, and so the grace of God thereby, should be tendered,
and that in general terms, to them as well as others.
But before I come to lay the reasons before you, I must mind you
afresh of these particulars:
1. That eternal reprobation makes no man a sinner.
2. That the fore-knowledge of God that the reprobate would perish
makes no man a sinner.
3. That God's infallibly determining upon the damnation of him
that perisheth, makes no man a sinner.
4. God's patience and long-suffering, and forbearance, until the
reprobate fits himself for eternal destruction, makes no man a
sinner.
So then, God may reprobate, may suffer the reprobate to sin, may
pre-determine his infallible damnation, through the pre-consideration
of him in sin, and may also forbear to work that effectual work
in his soul that would infallibly bring him out of this condition,
and yet neither be the author, contriver, nor means of man's sin
and misery.
Again, God may infallibly foresee that this reprobate, when he
hath sinned, will be an unreasonable opposer of his own salvation;
and may also determine to suffer him to sin, and be thus unreasonable
to the end, yet be gracious, yea very gracious, if he offer him
life, and that only upon reasonable terms, which yet he denieth
to close with (Isa 1:18; 55:12).
The reasons are,
1. Because not God, but sin, hath made him unreasonable; without
which, reasonable terms had done his work for him: for reasonable
terms are the most equal and righteous terms that can be propounded
between parties at difference; yea the terms that most suiteth and
agreeth with a reasonable creature, such as man; nay, reasonable
terms are, for terms, the most apt to work with that man whose
reason is brought into and held captive by very sense itself (Eze
18; 33).
2. God goeth yet further, he addeth promises of mercy, as those
that are inseparable to the terms he offereth, even to pour forth
his Spirit unto them; 'Turn at my reproof, and behold I will pour
forth of my Spirit unto you, and incline your ear; come unto me,
hear and your soul shall live' (Prov 1:23-27).
Now then to the question itself, to wit, that seeing it is impossible
the reprobate should be saved; seeing also this is infallibly
foreseen of God, and seeing also that God hath beforehand determined
to suffer it so to be; yet I shall shew you it is requisite, yea
very requisite, that he should both will and command that the
gospel, and so grace in the general tenders thereof should be
proffered unto them.
FIRST REASON.--And that first, to shew that this reprobation doth
not in itself make any man absolutely incapable of salvation: for
if God had intended that by the act of reprobation, the persons
therein concerned should also by that only act have been made
incapable of everlasting life, then this act must also have tied
up all the means from them, that tendeth to that end; or at least
have debarred the gospel's being offered to them by God's command,
for that intent; otherwise who is there but would have charged the
Holy One as guilty of guile, and worthy of blame, for commanding
that the gospel of grace and salvation should be offered unto
this or that man, whom yet he hath made incapable to receive it,
by his act of reprobation. Wherefore this very thing, to wit, that
the gospel is yet to be tendered to these eternally reprobated,
sheweth that it is not simply the act of God's reprobation, but
sin, that incapacitateth the creature of life everlasting. Which
sin is no branch of this reprobation, as is evident, because the
elect and reprobate are both alike defiled therewith.
SECOND REASON.--God also sheweth by this, that the reprobate do
not perish for want of the offers of salvation, though he hath
offended God, and that upon most righteous terms; according to what
is written, 'As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way,
and live' (Eze 33:11, 18:31,32). 'Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord
of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts' (Zech
1:3). So then, here lieth the point between God and the reprobate,
I mean the reprobate since he hath sinned, God is willing to save
him upon reasonable terms, but not upon terms above reason; but
not reasonable terms will [go] down with the reprobate, therefore
he must perish for his unreasonableness.
That God is willing to save even those that perish for ever, is
apparent, both from the consideration of the goodness of his
nature (Psa 145:9), of man's being his creature, and indeed in a
miserable state (Job 14:15, 3:16). But I say, as I have also said
already, there is a great difference between his being willing
to save them, through their complying with these his reasonable
terms, and his being resolved to save them, whether they, as men,
will close therewith, or no; so only he saveth the elect themselves,
even 'according to the riches of his grace' (Eph 1:7). Even
'according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus' (Phil 4:19).
Working effectually in them, what the gospel, as a condition,
calleth for from them. And hence it is that he is said to give
faith (Phil 1:29), yea the most holy faith, for that is the faith
of God's elect, to give repentance (Acts 5:31), to give a new
heart, to give his fear, even that fear that may keep them for
ever from everlasting ruin (Eph 1:4); still engaging his mercy and
goodness to follow them all the days of their lives (Jer 32:40;
Eze 36:26,27), that they may dwell in the house of the Lord for
ever (Psa 23:6), and as another scripture saith, 'Now he that hath
wrought us for the selfsame thing, is God' (2 Cor 5:5; Rom 8:26,
&c.).
But I say, his denying to do thus for every man in the world,
cannot properly be said to be because he is not heartily willing
they should close with the tenders of the grace held forth in
the gospel, and live. Wherefore you must consider that there is
a distinction to be put between God's denying grace on reasonable
terms, and denying it absolutely; and also that there is a difference
between his withholding further grace, and of hindering men from
closing with the grace at present offered; also that God may
withhold much, when he taketh away nothing; yea, take away much,
when once abused, and yet be just and righteous still. Further, God
may deny to do this or that absolutely, when yet he hath promised
to do, not only that, but more, conditionally. Which things
considered, you may with ease conclude, that he may be willing to
save those not elect, upon reasonable terms, though not without
them.
It is no unrighteousness in God to offer grace unto the world,
though but on these terms only, that they are also foreseen by him
infallibly to reject; both because to reject it is unreasonable,
especially the terms being so reasonable, as to believe the truth
and live; and also because it is grace and mercy in God, so much
as once to offer means of reconciliation to a sinner, he being
the offender; but the Lord, the God offended; they being but dust
and ashes, he the heavenly Majesty. If God, when man had broke
the law, had yet with all severity kept the world to the utmost
condition of it, had he then been unjust? Had he injured man at
all? Was not every tittle of the law reasonable, both in the first
and second table? How much more then is he merciful and gracious,
even in but mentioning terms of reconciliation? especially seeing
he is also willing so to condescend, if they will believe his word,
and receive the love of the truth. Though the reprobate then doth
voluntarily, and against all strength of reason, run himself upon
the rocks of eternal misery, and split himself thereon, he perisheth
in his own corruption, by rejecting terms of life (2 Thess 2:10;
2 Peter 2:12,13).
Object. But the reprobate is not now in a capacity to fulfil these
reasonable terms.
Ans. But I say, suppose it should be granted, is it because
reprobation made him incapable, or sin? Not reprobation, but sin:
if sin, then before he quarrel, let him consider the case aright,
where, in the result, he will find sin, being consented to by his
voluntary mind, hath thus disabled him: and because, I say, it
was sin by his voluntary consent that did it, let him quarrel with
himself for consenting, so as to make himself incapable to close
with reasonable terms; yea, with those terms because reasonable,
therefore most suitable, as terms, for him notwithstanding his
wickedness. And I say again, forasmuch as those reasonable terms
have annexed unto them, as their inseperable companions, such
wonderful mercy and grace as indeed there is, let even them that
perish, yet justify God; yea cry, 'His goodness endureth for
ever'; though they, through the wretchedness of their hearts, get
no benefit by it.
THIRD REASON.--God may will and command that his gospel, and so
the grace thereof, be tendered to those that shall never be saved,
(besides what hath been said) to shew to all spectators what an
enemy sin, being once embraced, is to the salvation of man. Sin,
without the tenders of the grace of the gospel, could never have
appeared so exceeding sinful, as by that it both hath and doth: 'If
I had not come and spoken unto them, [saith Christ] they had not
had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin' (John 15:22).
As sins that oppose the law, are discovered by the law, that is,
by the goodness, and justness, and holiness of the law (Rom 7); so
the sins that oppose the gospel, are made manifest by that, even
by the love, and mercy, and forgiveness of the gospel: If 'he
that despised Moses' law died without mercy,--of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God?' (Heb 10:28,29). Who could have thought
that sin would have opposed that which is just, but especially
mercy and grace, had we not seen it with our eyes? And how could
we have seen it to purpose, had not God left some to themselves?
Here indeed is sin made manifest: 'For all he had done so many
miracles amongst them,' (to wit, to persuade them to mercy) 'yet
they believed not on him' (John 12:37). Sin, where it reigneth, is
a mortal enemy to the soul; it blinds the eyes, holds the hands,
ties the legs, and stops the ears, and makes the heart implacable
to resist the Saviour of souls. That man will neither obey the
law nor the gospel, who is left unto his sin: which also God is
willing should be discovered and made manifest, though it cost the
damnation of some: For this very purpose, saith God to Pharaoh,
'have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my
name may be declared in all the earth' (Exo 9:16; Rom 9:17). For
God, by raising up Pharaoh to his kingdom, and suffering him to
walk to the height, according as his sin did prompt him forward,
shewed unto all beholders what a dreadful thing sin is; and that
without the special assistance of his Holy Spirit, sin would
neither be charmed by law nor gospel. This reason, though it be
no profit unto those that are damned; yet it is for the honour of
God, and the good of those he hath chosen.
It is for the honour of God, even for the honour of his power and
mercy: for his power is now discovered indeed, when nothing can
tame sin but that; and his mercy is here seen indeed; because that
doth engage him to do it. Read Romans 9:22,23.
FOURTH REASON.--God commandeth that the tender of the gospel,
and the grace thereof, be in general offered to all, that means
thereby might be sufficiently provided for the elect, both to
beget them to faith, and to maintain it in them to the end, in
what place, or state, or condition soever they are (Eph 1). God,
through the operation of his manifold wisdom, hath an end and an
end in his acts and doings amongst the children of men: and, so in
that he commandeth that his gospel be tendered to all, an end, I
say, to leave the damned without excuse, and to provide sufficiency
of means for the gathering all his elect. 'Oh that God would speak,
[saith Zophar] and open his lips against thee; and--shew thee the
secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is' (Job
11:5,6). For though God worketh with and upon the elect, otherwise
than with and upon the reprobate; yet he worketh with and upon
the elect, with and by the same word he commandeth should be held
forth and offered to the reprobate. Now the text thus running in
most free and universal terms, the elect then hearing thereof, do
through the mighty power of God close in with the tenders therein
held forth, and are saved. Thus that word that was offered to the
reprobate Jews, and by them most fiercely rejected, even that word
became yet effectual to the chosen, and they were saved thereby.
They gladly received the word, 'and as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed' (Acts 13:48).[9] 'Not as though the word
of God had taken none effect' (Rom 9:6). 'God hath not cast away
his people whom he foreknew' (11:2). The word shall accomplish
the thing for which God hath sent it, even the salvation of the
few that are chosen, when tendered to all; though rejected by most,
through the rebellion of their hearts (Acts 28:28; Heb 4:1-3).
Object. But if God hath elected, as you have said, what need he
lay a foundation so general for the begetting faith in his chosen
particulars, seeing the same Spirit that worketh in them by such
means, could also work in them by other, even by a word, excluding
the most, in the first tenders thereof, amongst men?
Ans. I told you before, that though this be a principal reason
of the general tenders of the grace of the gospel, yet it is not
all the reason why the tender should be so general, as the three
former reasons shew.
But again, in the bowels of God's decree of election, is contained
the means that are also ordained for the effectual bringing of
those elected to that glory for which they were fore-appointed;
even to gather together in one, all the children of God (John
11:52). 'Whereunto he called you, [saith Paul] by our gospel,
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess
2:14). God's decree of election then, destroyeth not the means
which his wisdom hath prepared, it rather establisheth, yea ordains
and establisheth it; and maketh that means which in the outward
sound is indefinite and general, effectual to this and that man,
through a special and particular application (Gal 2:20,21): thus
that Christ that in general was offered to all, is by a special
act of faith applied to Paul in particular; 'He loved me, and gave
himself for me.'
Further, As the design of the Heavenly Majesty is to bring his elect
to glory by means, so by the means thus universal and general, as
most behooveful and fit; if we consider not only the way it doth
please him to work with some of his chosen, in order to this their
glory, but also the trials, temptations, and other calamities they
must go through thereto.
1. Touching his working with some, how invisible is it to these
in whose souls it is yet begun? How is the word buried under the
clods of their hearts for months, yea years together? Only thus
much is discovered thereof, it sheweth the soul its sin, the which
it doth also so aggravate and apply to the conscience (Jesus still
refraining, like Joseph, to make himself known to his brethren)
that were there not general tenders of mercy, and that to the worst
of sinners, they would soon miscarry, and perish, as do the sons
of perdition. But by these the Lord upholdeth and helpeth them,
that they stand, when others fall for ever (Psa 119:49).
2. And so likewise for their trials, temptations, and other
calamities, because God will not bring them to heaven without,
but by them; therefore he hath also provided a word so large, as
to lie fair for the support of the soul in all conditions, that
it may not die for thirst.
3. I might add also in this place, their imperfect state after
grace received, doth call for such a word; yea, many other things
which might be named: which God, only wise, hath thought fit should
accompany us to the ship, yea in the sea, to our desired haven.
FIFTH REASON.--God willeth and commandeth the gospel should be
offered to all, that thereby distinguishing love, as to an inward
and spiritual work, might the more appear to be indeed the fruit
of special and peculiar love. For in that the gospel is tendered
to all in general, when yet but some do receive it; yea, and seeing
these some are as unable, unwilling, and by nature, as much averse
thereto, as those that refuse it, and perish; it is evident that
something more of heaven and the operation of the Spirit of God
doth accompany the word thus tendered for their life and salvation
that enjoy it (1 Thess 1:4-7). Not now as a word barely tendered,
but backed by the strength of heaven: 'Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God!' (1 John 3:1) even we who believe 'according to the
working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead' (Eph 1:20). This provoketh to distinguishing
admiration, yea, and also to a love like that which hath fastened
on the called, the preserved, and the glorified: 'He hath not
dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not
known them. Praise ye the Lord' (Psa 147:20). Now are the sacrifices
bound even to the horns of the altar, with a 'Lord, how is it
that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world!'
(John 14:22). He 'sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of
many waters; he delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them
that hated me; for they were too strong for me' (2 Sam 22:17; Psa
18:16).
For thus the elect considereth: though we all came alike into the
world, and are the children of wrath by nature (Eph 2:1-3); yea,
though we have alike so weakened ourselves by sin (Rom 3:9), that
the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint (Isa 1:5), being
altogether gone out of the way, and every one become altogether
unprofitable, both to God and ourselves (Rom 3:12); yet that God
should open mine eyes, convert my soul, give me faith, forgive
my sins, raise me, when I fall; fetch me again, when I am gone
astray; this is wonderful! (Psa 37:23). Yea, that he should prepare
eternal mansions for me (Psa 23:6); and also keep me by his blessed
and mighty power for that; and that in a way of believing, which
without his assistance I am no way able to perform! (2 Cor 5:5).
That he should do this notwithstanding my sins, though I had no
righteousness! (Deut 9:5-7). Yea, that he should do it according
to the riches of his grace, through the redemption that is in
Jesus Christ our Lord! Even according to an everlasting covenant
of grace, which yet the greatest part of the world are void of,
and will for ever miss and fall short of! (Eze 16:60-63). Besides,
that he should mollify my heart! break it, and then delight in it
(Psa 51:17); put his fear in it, and then look to me (Isa 66:2;
Psa 138:6), and keep me as the apple of his eye (Deut 32:10);
yea, resolve to guide me with his counsel, and then receive me to
glory! Further, that all this should be the effect of unthought
of, undeserved, and undesired love! (Mal 1:2; Deut 7:7,8). That the
Lord should think on this before he made the world (Jer 31:3), and
sufficiently ordain the means before he had laid the foundation of
the hills! For this he is worthy to be praised (1 Cor 2:9): yea,
'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; praise ye the
Lord.'
Object. But you have said before, that the reprobate is also blessed
with many gospel mercies, as with the knowledge of Christ, faith,
light, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the tastes or relish of
the powers of the world to come: if so, then what should be the
reason that yet he perisheth? Is it because the grace that he
receiveth differeth from the grace that the elect are saved by?
If they differ, where lieth the difference? Whether in the nature,
or in the degree, or in the management thereof?
Ans. To this objection I might answer many things; but, for brevity,
take this reply: That the non-elect may travel very far both in
the knowledge, faith, light, and sweetness of Jesus Christ, and
may also attain to the partaking of the Holy Ghost; yea, and by
the very operation of these things also, escape the pollutions of
the world, and become a visible saint, join in church-communion,
and be as chief amongst the very elect themselves. This the
scriptures every where do shew us.
The question then is, whether the elect and reprobate receive a
differing grace? To which I answer, Yes, in some respects, both
as to the nature thereof, and also the degree.
1. To begin then with the nature of it.
(1.) The faith that the chosen are blessed with, it goeth under
another name than any faith besides, even the faith of God's elect
(Titus 1:1), as of a faith belonging to them only, of which none
others do partake; which faith also, for the nature of it, is called
faith most holy (Jude 20); to shew it goes beyond all other, and
can be fitly matched no where else, but with their most blessed
faith who infallibly attain eternal glory: even 'like precious faith
with us,' saith Peter (2 Peter 1:1); with his elect companions.
And so of other things. For if this be true, that they differ in
their faith, they must needs therewith differ in other things: for
faith being the mother grace, produceth all the rest according to
its own nature, to wit, love that abounds, that never fails, and
that is never contented till it attain the resurrection of the
dead, &c. (2 Thess 1:3; 1 Cor 13:8; Phil 3).
(2.) They differ as to the nature, in this; the faith, and hope,
and love, that the chosen receive, it is that which floweth from
election itself; he hath blessed us 'according as he hath chosen
us' (Eph 1:4,5), even with those graces he set apart for us, when
he in eternity did appoint us to life before the foundation of the
world: which graces, because the decree in itself is most absolute
and infallible, they also, that they may completely answer the end,
will do the work infallibly likewise, still through the management
of Christ: 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not' (Luke
22:32). But,
2. As they differ in nature, they differ also in degree: for though
it be true that the reprobate is blessed with grace, yet this is
also as true, that the elect are blessed with more grace. It is
the privilege only of those that are chosen, to be blessed with
ALL spiritual blessings, and to have ALL the good pleasure of the
goodness of God fulfilled in and upon them. Those who are blessed
with ALL spiritual blessings must needs be blessed with eternal
life; and those in whom the Lord, not only works all his good
pleasure, but fulfilleth all the good pleasure of his goodness
upon them, they must needs be preserved to his heavenly kingdom
(Eph 1:4,5; 1 Thess 1:10); but none of the non-elect have these
things conferred upon them; therefore the grace bestowed upon the
one, doth differ both in nature and degree from the other.
3. There is a difference as to the management also. The reprobate
is principal for the management of the grace he receiveth, but
Jesus Christ is principal for the management of the grace the
elect receiveth. When I say principal, I mean chief; for though
the reprobate is to have the greatest hand in the management of
what mercy and goodness the Lord bestoweth on him, yet not so as
that the Lord will not help him at all; nay contrariwise he will,
if first the reprobate do truly the duty that lieth on him: 'If
thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? but if thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door' (Gen 4:7). Thus it was also with
Saul, who was rejected of God upon this account (1 Sam 13:11-14,
15:26). And I say, as to the elect themselves, though Jesus Christ
our blessed Saviour be chief, as to the management of the grace
bestowed on his chosen, yet not so as that he quite excludeth
them from 'striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily' (Col 1:29). Nay contrariwise, if those who in truth
are elect, shall yet be remiss, and do wickedly, they shall feel
the stroke of God's rod, it may be till their bones do break. But
because the work doth not lie at their door to manage as chief,
but as Christ's, therefore though he may perform his work with
much bitterness and grief to them; yet he being engaged as the
principal, will perform that which concerneth them, even until
the day (the coming) of Jesus Christ (Psa 138:8; Phil 1:6).
From what hath been said, there ariseth this conclusion:
The elect are always under eternal mercy, but those not elect
always under eternal justice; for you must consider this: there
is eternal mercy and eternal justice, and there is present mercy
and present justice. So then, for a man to be in a state of
mercy, it may be either a state of mercy present, or both present
and eternal also. And so again for a man to be in a state under
justice, it may be understood either of present justice only, or
of both present and eternal also.
That this may yet further be opened, I shall somewhat enlarge.
I begin with present mercy and present justice. That which I call
present mercy, is that faith, light, knowledge, and taste of the
good word of God, that a man may have, and perish. This is called
in scripture, Believing for a while, during for a while, and
rejoicing in the light for a season (Heb 6:4,5; 2 Peter 2:20; Matt
13:22; Luke 8:13). Now I call this mercy, both because none, as
men, can deserve it, and also because the proper end thereof is
to do good to those that have it. But I call it present mercy,
because those that are only blessed with that, may sin it away,
and perish; as did some of the Galatians, Hebrews, Alexandrians,
with the Asians, and others (Gal 5:4; Heb 12:15,16; 1 Tim 1:20; 2
Tim 2:18, 1:15; Heb 12:15). But yet observe again, I do not call
this present mercy, because God hath determined it shall last but
a while absolutely; but because it is possible for man to lose
it, yea determined he shall, conditionally (John 5:35; 1 Cor 12:7).
Again, as to present justice, it is that which lasteth but a while
also; and as present mercy is properly the portion of those left
out of God's election, so present justice chiefly hath to do with
God's beloved; who yet at that time are also under eternal mercy.
This is that justice that afflicted Job (6:4), David (Psa 88,
38:3), Heman, and the godly, who notwithstanding do infallibly
attain, by virtue of this mercy, eternal life and glory (Amos
3:2; 1 Cor 11:30,31; Psa 30:5, 103:9; 1 Peter 1:6). I call this
justice, because in some sense God dealeth with his children
according to the quality of their transgressions; and I call
it also present justice, because though the hand of God for the
present be never so heavy on those that are his by election, yet
it lasteth but a while; wherefore though this indeed be called
wrath, yet is but a little wrath, wrath for a moment, time, or
season. 'In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment;
but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer' (Isa 54:8).
Thus you see there is present mercy and present justice; also
that the elect may be under present justice, when the rest may be
under present mercy.
Again, As there is present mercy and present justice, so there
is eternal mercy and eternal justice: and I say, as the elect may
be under present justice, when the non-elect may be under present
mercy; so the elect at that time are also under eternal mercy,
but the other under eternal justice.
That the elect are under eternal mercy, and that when under present
justice, is evident from what hath been said before, namely, from
their being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world;
as also from the consideration of their sound conversion, and
safe preservation quite through this wicked world, even safe unto
eternal life; as he also saith by the prophet Jeremiah, 'Yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving
kindness have I drawn thee' (31:3). And hence it is that he calleth
the elect his sheep (John 10:16), his children (11:52), and people
(Acts 18:9,10), and that before conversion; for though none of them
as yet were his children by calling, yet were they his according
to election.
Now the elect being under this eternal grace and mercy, they must
needs be under it both before present justice seizeth upon them,
while it seizeth them, and also continueth with them longer than
present justice can, it being from everlasting to everlasting.
This being so, here is the reason why no sin, nor yet temptation
of the enemy, with any other evil, can hurt or destroy those thus
elect of God: yea this is that which maketh even those things that
in themselves are the very bane of men, yet prove very much for
good to those within this purpose (Rom 8:28). And as David saith,
'It is good for me that I have been afflicted' (Psa 119:71).
And again, 'But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world' (1 Cor 11:32).
Now afflictions, &c., in themselves are not only fruitless and
unprofitable, but, being unsanctified, are destructive; 'I smote
him, and he went on frowardly' (Isa 57:17). But now eternal mercy
working with this or that affliction, makes it profitable to the
chosen; 'I have seen his ways, and will heal him, and restore
comforts unto him and to his mourners' (v 18). As he saith in another
place, 'Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and teachest him
out of thy law' (Psa 94:12). For eternal mercy doth not look on
those who are the elect and chosen of God, as poor sinful creatures
only, but also as the generation whom the Lord hath blessed,
in whom he hath designed to magnify his mercy to the utmost, by
pardoning the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage (1 Peter
2:9; Micah 7:18,19). 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself,--wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved' (Eph 1:6). Wherefore, I say, the elect,
as they do also receive that grace and mercy that may be sinned
away, so they have that grace and mercy which cannot be lost,
and that sin cannot deprive them of, even mercy that abounds, and
goeth beyond all sin; such mercy as hath engaged the power of God,
the intercession of Christ, and the communication of the blessed
Spirit of adoption, which Spirit also engageth the heart, directs
it into the love of God, that it may not depart from God after
that rate as the reprobates do (Eph 5:29,30). 'I will make an
everlasting covenant with them, [saith God] that I will not turn
away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me' (Jer 32:40).
But now I say, God's dealing with the non-elect, is far otherwise,
they being under the consideration of eternal justice, even then
when in the enjoyment of present grace and mercy. And hence it
is that as to their standing before the God of heaven, they are
counted dogs, and sows, and devils, even then when before the elect
of God themselves they are counted saints and brethren: 'The dog
is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed
to her wallowing in the mire' (2 Peter 2:22). And the reason is,
because notwithstanding all their shew before the world, their old
nature and corruptions do still bear sway within, which in time
also, according to the ordinary judgment of God, is suffered so
to shew itself, that they are visible to saints that are elect,
as was the case of Simon Magus, and that wicked apostate Judas,
who 'went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they
went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all
of us' (1 John 2:19). They were not elect as we, nor were they
sanctified as the elect of God themselves; wherefore eternal justice
counts them the sons of perdition, when under their profession.
And I say, they being under this eternal justice, it must needs
have to do with them in the midst of their profession; and because
also it is much offended with them for conniving with their lust,
it taketh away from them, and that most righteously, those gifts
and graces, and benefits and privileges that present mercy gave
them; and not only so, but cuts them off for their iniquity, and
layeth them under wrath for ever. They 'have forsaken the right way,
[saith God]--following the way of Baalam the son of Bosor;--these
are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest';
trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked
up by the roots, 'for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
for ever' (2 Peter 2:5,16,17; Jude 11-13; John 17:12; Matt 13:12,
25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18).
These things thus considered, you see,
1. That there is present grace and present mercy, eternal grace
and eternal mercy.
2. That the elect are under eternal mercy, and THAT, when under
present justice; and that the reprobate is under eternal justice,
and THAT when under present mercy.
3. Thus you see again, that the non-elect perish by reason of
sin, notwithstanding present mercy, because of eternal justice;
and that the elect are preserved from the death, though they sin
and are obnoxious to the strokes of present justice, by reason of
eternal mercy. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid: 'He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,
and compassion on whom he will have compassion' (Rom 9:15).
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 'Shedding words' means 'scattering or spreading words,' as in
Acts 2:33; now obsolete.--Ed.
[2] As election took place before the creation of man--all men in
Adam were decreed, made and turned into the world upright.--Ed.
[3] 'Prevents our doing good.' Few words in the English language
have more altered in their meaning than 'prevent'; it is derived
from 'praevenio,' to go before. In Bunyan's time, it meant 'to go
before,' 'clear the way,' 'make the way easy' for our doing good.
Its present meaning is 'to obstruct,' by going or standing before
us.--Ed.
[4] They who diligently attend to the scriptures, will find
throughout the whole a vein of election and reprobation. The holy
seed may be traced in many instances, and in divers families, in
the Bible, from Adam to the birth of our Saviour, whose ancestors,
according to the flesh, were of the line of election or the godly;
which those who are only born after the flesh, and not after the
Spirit, namely, the reprobate, have always despised and persecuted,
and will do so to the end of time--Mason and Ryland.
[5] It is of God's mere mercy and grace that any sinners are called
and admitted to the privilege of justification and adoption, upon
God's own terms. The reason why the sinful and unworthy heathen
(of whom Britain is a part) were called to be a people, who were
not a people, while the Jews were left out and cast off for their
obstinate unbelief, was not because the Gentiles were either more
worthy or more willing (for they were all dead in trespasses and
sins), but from God's discriminating grace and mercy.--Mason and
Ryland.
[6] The final condemnation of the wicked does not spring from
God's sovereign will to destroy any of his rational creatures;
this is evident from the many pressing invitations, declarations,
and promises in the word of God: for Jehovah swears by his great
self, that he desires not the death of a sinner. Our Lord assigns
the cause of reprobation in these words, (John 5:40) 'Ye will not
come unto me, that ye might have life'; wherefore Christ, the only
remedy for their cure, being rejected, the sinner is condemned,
and rendered the object of wrath and punishment by the law and
justice of God; because the same word of truth which says, 'Whosoever
will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely,' also
says, 'The soul that sinneth [or lives and dies in sin unpardoned]
shall die.' Thus sin is the object of God's hatred, and not the
man, abstractedly considered. May we therefore each of us have
grace to look to Christ for full and complete salvation, who hath
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, whereby he has perfected
for ever them that are sanctified!--Ryland and Mason.
[7] 'Secret things belong to God, but those that are revealed
belong to us.' It is a vain thing for men to cavil at the doctrine
of peculiar election, and to quarrel with God for choosing some,
and passing by others. Their best way would be to assure themselves
of their own election, by using the means, and walking in the ways
of God's appointment, as laid down in the word, and then they will
find that God cannot deny himself, but will make good to them every
promise therein; and thus, by scripture evidence, they will find
that they are elected unto life, and will be thankful and humble.
They will then find that an hearty affectionate trusting in Christ
for all his salvation, as freely promised to us, hath naturally
enough in it to work in our souls a natural bent and inclination
to, and ability for, the practice of all holiness.--Ryland and
Mason.
[8] None are excluded the benefit of the great and precious salvation
procured and finished by the Lord Jesus Christ, but they, who
by perverseness, unbelief, and impenitency, exclude themselves.
Sinners,--miserable, helpless, and hopeless sinners, are the objects
of this salvation: whosoever is enabled to see, in the light of
God's Spirit, their wretched and forlorn state; to feel their want
of Christ as a suitable Saviour, and to repent and forsake their
sins, shall find mercy; for 'God is no respecter of persons' (Acts
10:34).--Ryland and Mason.
[9] As the same sun which softens the wax, hardens the clay, so
it is with the preached gospel, which is to some 'the savour of
death unto death, and to others the savour of life unto life' (2
Cor 2:16). The gospel is ineffectual to any saving purpose respecting
the reprobate; partly through pride, and in not enduring to be
reproved by it; partly through slothfulness, in not coming under
the sound of it; and principally through cursed infidelity, in not
believing the gracious message it brings. Let it be well attended
to, that all who hear the gospel, are obliged to the duty of
believing, as well as to all the duties of the moral law, and that
before they know their particular election; for we cannot have
a certain knowledge of our election to eternal life before we do
believe: it is a thing hidden in the unsearchable counsel of God,
until it be manifest by our effectual calling, and believing on
Christ; therefore we must believe on Christ before we know our
election; or else we shall never know it, and shall never believe.
All joy, peace, comfort, assurances, are communicated to the soul
in the way of believing. May the Lord give and increase saving
faith!--Mason and Ryland.
***
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, Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry,
1685.
EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.
All our inquiries into divine commands are required to be made
personally, solemnly, prayerful. To 'prove all things,' and 'hold
fast' and obey 'that which is good,' is a precept, equally binding
upon the clown, as it is upon the philosopher. Satisfied from our
observations of nature, that there is a God; our next inquiry is
into the revelation of his will: which, when understood, must be
implicitly obeyed, in defiance of any usages of society, and of every
erroneous pre-conceived opinion. In this important investigation,
we shall find, that the commands of God revealed to man, fall
under two classes.
First, Moral and Eternal, being essential to the happiness of all
created intelligences, whether pure or sinful. As, the fear and
love of the Creator, who preserves and bountifully blesses his
creatures; and flowing from this is love to all his creation. He
who wantonly destroys life in order that he may glut a demoniac
propensity with the agonizing death struggle, is a practical
atheist. The Christian will cherish and promote the happiness of
all; he dares only to take away life to preserve life.
Second, Ceremonial or Temporal. Those which have been commanded
by God, for local, family or national observances, and which, when
they have fulfilled their intended object, are removed or suffered
gradually to die away.
The well-being of society requires that a portion of time be set
apart for divine worship. Individuals are commanded to pray without
ceasing. An invaluable custom leads families to unite in morning
and evening prayer; and it is an important question whether the
Creator having sanctified, and rested on, the seventh day, intended
that rest as a pattern to all his rational creatures. If so, the
seventh day must depend upon our being able to fix upon which
day of the week the creation commenced. Again our inquiries will
extend to those injunctions, given to the Jews in the wilderness,
to sanctify certain days to public worship; and whether that law
was intended for all mankind. In either case it is essential that
we ascertain whether those various Sabbaths of weeks--of months
or of years--with the ceremonies to be performed on them, were to
continue to the end of time or for a limited period.
In all these inquiries we are strictly confined to revelation,
for there is no indication in nature, or in any of its laws, of
a day of rest; but on the contrary a state of progression marks
every day alike. Our Lord has taught us that 'the Sabbath was made
for man,' and therefore did not exist among the angels, prior to
the creation of man, as all moral or universal obligations must
have existed; for they are the same from eternity to eternity; and
over this, like other ceremonial or local commands, the Creator
claims dominion. 'The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.'
Researches into these questions were made in earlier times, and
some curious calculations have appeared to prove, that the work
of creation commenced on the day called Monday, so that what is
now termed the first day of the week, was originally the rest of
God from creation; as it was his rest from the work of redemption,
by rising from the tomb. But the extent of that period called a
day, in creation, has never been defined: and the terms 'work' or
'rest,' as applied to the Deity, are used in condescension to our
finite powers. The controversy upon this subject assumed a more
public and definite form at the Reformation. Sir Thomas More asserted
that the seventh day was superseded by the first, in obedience to
tradition:[1] it forms the first of the five commandments of Holy
Church--'The Sundays hear thou mass.' William Tyndale, in reply,
contends that 'we be lords over the Sabbath'; we may change it
for Monday, or any other day, as we see need, or have two every
week, if one is not enough to teach the people.[2] Calvin preferred a
daily assembling of the church, but if that was impossible, then
at stated intervals: his words are--'Since the Sabbath is abrogate,
I do not so rest upon the number of seven, that I would bind the
church to the bondage thereof; neither will I condemn those churches
that have other solemn days for their meetings.'[3] Luther considers
the observance of the Jewish Sabbath one of the 'weak and beggarly
rudiments.'[4]
The controversy became still more popular in this country, when
James the First and Charles the First put forth the book of sports to
be allowed and encouraged on Sundays. The Puritans called Sunday
'The Sabbath,' and a voluminous contest was carried on as to whether
it ought not rather to be called 'The Lord's day.' In 1628, Mr.
Brabourne, a clergyman of note, kept the Jewish Sabbath, and in
a short time several churches, in England, assembled on that day,
and were called 'seventh day, or Sabbath keepers'--many of them
were Baptists. This led to the controversy in which Bunyan took
his part, in this very conclusive and admirable treatise.
The work was first published in the year 1685, and was not reprinted
until the year 1806, when it appeared in the third volume of select
works by John Bunyan; since then it has been reprinted in two
American editions of his works. The reason why it was not republished,
probably was, that the churches of the Sabbath keepers died away.
At this time only three are known in England; one of these is
at Millyard, London, where my talented antiquarian friend, W. H.
Black, is elder and pastor. These places of worship are supported
by an endowment. Bunyan's book does not appear to have been
answered; indeed, it would require genius of no ordinary kind to
controvert such conclusive evidence.
His arguments are, that the appearances of nature shew no difference
of days--that no Sabbath or other day was set apart for worship
before the giving of the Law at Sinai. 'Thou camest down also upon
Mount Sinai, and madest KNOWN unto them thy holy Sabbaths, by the
hand of Moses' (Neh 9:13,14). 'The seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work--and remember
that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord
thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by
a stretched out arm, THEREFORE the Lord thy God commanded thee to
keep the Sabbath day' (Deut 5:14,15). While many crimes are mentioned
in patriarchal times, there is no complaint of Sabbath-breaking.
We read of fratricide, drunkenness, lying, unbelief, theft, idolatry,
slave-dealing, and other crimes, but no hint as to sanctifying or
desecrating the Sabbath. At length, a few days before the giving
of the law, a natural phenomenon announced to the Jews the great
change that was at hand--the manna fell in double quantity on Friday,
and was not found on Saturday. So new was this that, contrary to
the command, the people went out on the seventh day as on other
days, and were rebuked but not punished for it. But no sooner
is the Sabbath instituted by Moses, than it is broken, and the
Sabbath-breaker is punished with a cruel death. It was instituted
as a peculiar observance to distinguish the Jews from all other
nations--'The Lord hath given YOU the Sabbath' (Exo 16:39). 'The
children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath' (Exo 31:16,17). 'I gave
them [the Israelites who were delivered from Egypt] my Sabbaths
to be a sign between me and them' (Eze 20:12). Ceremonies were
commanded to be performed as the Sabbath worship, which cannot
now be observed (see Lev 24; Numb 28: Neh 13:22; Eze 46:4). The
Jewish Sabbath was 'a shadow of things to come, but the body is
of Christ' (Col 2:16,17). The shadows have fled away; we possess
the substance. The covenant of Moses was written on stone--the
new covenant is written on our hearts (Heb 8:9,10). Bunyan admits
no uncertainty as to a fixed day for christian worship: the law
of nature requires it; the God of nature fixes the day, without
borrowing it from the ministration of death. The Jewish passover
and Sabbaths are superseded; Christ our passover is slain, and we
have not an annual but a perpetual feast. We have an infinitely
greater deliverance to commemorate than that of the Jews from
Egypt. Released from the dominion and punishment of sin, we have
entered into a rest boundless as eternity. Manna, which never
fell on the Jewish Sabbath, falls in peculiar and rich abundance
on the first day of the week, when it first began to fall. The
first day is peculiarly sanctified and honoured of God. On this
day the Son rested from His work of redemption (Heb 4:10). He is
Lord of the Sabbath, and hath peculiarly blessed his own day.
On this day some of the saints that slept arose (Matt 27:52,53).
On this day Christ was made the head of the corner, and we will
rejoice and be glad in it. On the first day God begat his beloved
Son from the dead (Acts 13:33). Let all the angels of God worship
him (Heb 1:6). Hence it is called the Lord's day (Rev 1:10).
This day is the only one named upon which Christ appeared to his
disciples after his resurrection: it was on the evening of the
first day of the week, and on the evening of the following eighth
day, that they assembled and Christ appeared in the midst of them.
On this day he walked with his disciples to Emmaus, and made their
hearts to burn within them with holy joy and wonder. The marvels
of the day of Pentecost honoured the first day of the week. On
this day the first great conversion of 'about three thousand souls'
took place. On this day the disciples at Jerusalem came together
to break bread (Acts 20:7). Upon THE, not A, first day they broke
bread; and upon THE first day, the collections were made for the
poor saints (1 Cor 16:1,2). With such concurrent and ample testimony
we must conclude that the seventh day Sabbath, with its Jewish
ritual, is dissolved, and the first day has taken its place. The
Saviour said, 'It is finished'; and from that moment to the end
of the inspired volume, the seventh day is swallowed up in the
glories of the first day of the week. Let Jews commemorate their
temporal deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt with their divers
ceremonies; but Christians, blessed with a foretaste of eternal
glory, will commemorate the resurrection of their Lord, as the
first fruits of an unspeakable rest from the dominion of sin, of
Satan, and of hell. Our glorified Redeemer sanctioned and blessed
the first day, with his personal appearance in the assemblies of
his saints. His inspired apostles kept it, as it is recorded, and
thus it is sanctioned by the Holy Ghost; and their descendants
are bound to keep it to the end of the world. Go, little treatise,
and carry conviction with thee. Emancipate the christian mind from
all the beggarly rudiments of Jewish rites and ceremonies. Add
to the holy enjoyments of God's saints in public worship, on the
day when their eternal redemption is commemorated by the triumphant
resurrection of their Lord.--GEO. OFFOR.
TO THE READER.
Some may think it strange, since God's 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 suit such as have but
shallow purses, short memories, and but little time to spare,
which usually is the lot of the mean and poorer 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 afar 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
(Eph 6:1-3).
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 (Isa 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
[that] 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,[5] 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 timing 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 PERPETUITY OF THE SEVENTH-DAY
SABBATH.
QUESTION I.
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 show the grounds of this
question. First then, by the law or light of nature, I mean that
law which was concreate 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
itself, 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 is the question; and the grounds of it are these:
First, Because the law of nature is antecedent to this day, yea
completed as a law before it was known or revealed to man, that
God either did or would sanctify the seventh day of the week at
all.
Now this law, as was said, being natural to a man, for man is a
law unto himself (Rom 2), could only 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 completely made the day before; and God did not sanctify
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.
Second, 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 foretell 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 error; for
this doth not only make the law of nature the first of prophets,
contrary to Genesis 3:10 compared with John 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 foretell God's
secrets, and that before he reveals them, and this law of nature
is universal in every individual 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 itself 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 worshiped in the church
on earth.
Third, 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 the 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.
Fourth, 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 enjoined but to some.
Fifth, 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 find
not till then, that the profanation 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 Genesis 4:8, 6:5, 9:21, 22, 12:13,
13:13, 18:12-15, 19:5; (Eze 16:49,50[6]); Genesis 31:30, 35:2,
40:15, 44:8-10; Deuteronomy 8:19, 20, 12:2; Psalm 106:35-37 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,[7] 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 the sabbath (Eze 20:13).
It follows therefore, that if the law of nature doth not of itself
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 choose. 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 it 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 controversy 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 completed; 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 itself
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.
QUESTION II.
Whether the seventh day sabbath, as to man's 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 Genesis 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 sanctify this day to his own rest, he 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 acceptable
service to him.
In reading also, we are to have regard to two things.
I. To see if we can find a precept: or,
II. 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
acceptable will of God.
For the first of these we have Genesis 2:16, 17 and for the second,
Genesis 8:20, 21 [as to public worship but not on a stated day].
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, 8:20,21, 12:7, 13:4, 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;[8] 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;[9] but we read not that, in
his charge, God laid any such thing at his door. This was it of
which he stood guilty before God; namely, That his brother's blood
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 only, ought to be
my ground of faith as to how my God would be worshiped by me. For
in the matters material to the worship of God, it is safest that
thus I be guided in my judgment: for here only I perceive 'the
footsteps of the flock' (Cant 1:8; Eze 3:11). They say further,
that for God to sanctify 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 sanctify it to his
own rest. 'The LORD [also] hath set apart him that is godly for
himself.' But again, it is one thing for God to sanctify 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; John 10:36).
If then, by God's 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.
Second, Consider secondly, Moses himself seems to have the knowledge
of it at first, not by tradition, but by revelation; as it is
Exodus 16:23, 'This is that [saith he] which 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 unto them thy holy sabbath [by the hand
of Moses thy servant]' (Neh 9:14). The first of these texts shews
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 to 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 strengtheneth 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.
Third, 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 it is said
of the breaker of the sabbath, 'They put him in ward, because it
was not [as yet] declared what should be done to him' (Num 15:32-36).
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,
17:13,14; Exo 12:43-48) and the same chapter (v 19).
Fourth, God's 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 God's 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 complete without it.
We will first touch upon what Christ doth in this case.
As in his sermon upon the mount (Matt 5-7). 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 Matthew 19:16-19. As in Mark 10:17-20. As in Luke 18:18-20.
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 professed
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 complete without it.
As in Romans 3:7-19. As in Romans 13:7-10. As in 1 Timothy 1:8-11.
'He that loveth another, saith he, hath fulfiled 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 in this saying, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 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 persuade themselves,
it would not so slenderly have been passed over in all these
repetitions of this law, but would by Christ or his apostles have
been pressed upon the people, when so fair an opportunity as at
these times offered itself unto them. But they knew what they did,
and wherefore they were so silent as to the mention of a seventh
day sabbath when they so well talked of the law as moral.
Fifth, Moses and the prophet Ezekiel both, do fully confirm what
has been insinuated by us; to wit, that the seventh day, as a
sabbath, was not imposed upon men until Israel was brought into
the wilderness.
1. Moses saith to Israel, 'Remember that thou wast a servant int
he land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence
through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: THEREFORE the
Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.' Yea, he
tells us, that the covenant which God made with them in Horeb,
that written in stones, was not made with their forefathers, to
wit, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but with them (Deut 5:1-15).
2. Ezekiel also is punctual as to this: I caused them, saith God
by that prophet, 'to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought
them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed
them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me
and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify
them' (Eze 20:10-12; Exo 20:8, 31:13, 35:2).
What can be more plain? And these to be sure, are two notable
witnesses of God, who, as you see, do jointly concur in this; to
wit, That it was not from paradise, nor from the fathers, but from
the wilderness, and from Sinai, that men received the seventh day
sabbath to keep it holy.
True, it was God's sabbath before: for on the first seventh day we
read, that God rested thereon, and sanctified it. Hence he calls
it in the first place, MY sabbath. I gave them my sabbath: But
it seems it was not given to the church till he had brought them
into the wilderness.
But I say, if it had been moral, it had been natural to man; and
by the light of nature men would have understood it, even both
before it was, and otherwise. But of this you see we read nothing,
either by positive law, or countenanced example, or any other way,
but rather the flat contrary; to wit, that Moses had the knowledge
of it first from heaven, not by tradition. That Israel had it,
not of, or from their fathers, but in the wilderness, from him, to
wit, Moses, after he had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And
that that whole law in which this seventh day sabbath is placed,
was given for the bounding and better ordering of them in their
church state for their time, till the Messias should come and
put, by a better ministration, this out of his church, as we shall
further shew anon.
The seventh day sabbath therefore was not from paradise, nor from
nature, nor from the fathers, but from t he wilderness, and from
Sinai.
QUESTION III.
Whether when the seventh day sabbath was given to Israel in the
wilderness the Gentiles, as such, was concerned therein.
Before I shew my ground for this question, I must also first premise,
That the Gentiles, as such, were then without the church of God,
and pale thereof; consequently had nothing to do with the essentials
or necessary circumstances of that worship which God had set up
for himself now among the children of Israel.
Now then for the ground of the question.
First, we read not that God gave it to any but to the seed of
Jacob. Hence it is said to Israel, and to Israel only, 'The Lord
hath given YOU the sabbath' (Exo 16:29). And again, 'also I gave
THEM my sabbath' (Eze 20:5,12).
Now, if the gift of the seventh day sabbath was only to Israel,
as these texts do more than seem to say; then to the Gentiles, as
such, it was not given. Unless any shall conclude, that God by
thus doing preferred the Jew to a state of gentileism; or that
he bestowed on them, by thus doing, some high Gentile privilege.
But this would be very fictious. For, to lay aside reason, the text
always, as to preference, did set the Jew in the first of places
(Rom 2:10). Nor was his giving the seventh day sabbath to them
but a sign and token thereof.
But the great objection is, because the seventh day sabbath
is found amongst the rest of those precepts which is so commonly
called the moral law; for thence it is concluded to be of a
perpetual duration.
But I answer: That neither that as given on Sinai is moral; I
mean, as to the manner and ends of its ministration, of which,
God permitting, we shall say more in our answer to the fourth
question, whither I direct you for satisfaction. But,
Second, The Gentiles could not be concerned, as such, with God's
giving of a seventh day sabbath to Israel, because, as I have
shewed before, it was given to Israel, considered as a church of
God (Acts 7:32). Nor was it given to them, as such, but with rites
and ceremonies thereto belonging, so Leviticus 24:5-9; Numbers
28:9, 10; Nehemiah 13:22; Ezekiel 46:4.
Now, I say, if this sabbath hath ceremonies thereto belonging,
and if these ceremonies were essential to the right keeping of
the sabbath: and again, if these ceremonies were given to Israel
only, excluding all but such as were their proselytes, then this
sabbath was given to them as excluding the Gentiles as such. But if
it had been moral, the Gentiles could as soon have been deprived
of their nature as of a seventh day sabbath, though the Jews should
have appropriated it unto themselves only.
Again, to say that God gave this seventh day sabbath to the Gentiles,
as such, (and yet so he must, if it be of the moral law) is as
much as to say, that God hath ordained that that sabbath should
be kept by the Gentiles without; but by the Jews, not without her
ceremonies. And what conclusion will follow from hence, but that
God did at one and the same time set up two sorts of acceptable
worships in the world: one among the Jews, another among the Gentiles!
But how ridiculous such a thought would be, and how repugnant to
the wisdom of God, you may easily perceive.
Yea, what a diminution would this be to God's church that then was,
for one to say, the Gentiles were to serve God with more liberty
than the Jew! For the law was a yoke, and yet the Gentile is called
the dog, and said to be without God in the world (Deut 7:7; Psa
147:19,20; Matt 15:26; Eph 2:11,12).
Third, When the Gentiles, at the Jews' return from Babylon, came
and offered their wares to sell to the children of Israel at
Jerusalem on this sabbath; yea, and sold them to them too: yet
not they, but the Jews were rebuked as the only breakers of that
sabbath. 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 sabbaths; but
still he charged the breach thereof only upon his own people (Neh
13:15-20).
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
God's ground, to wit, within and without the walls of Jerusalem.
Fourth, Wherefore he saith to Israel again, 'Verily my sabbaths
YE shall keep.' And again, 'YE shall keep the sabbath.' And again,
'The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the
sabbath throughout THEIR generations' (Exo 31:14-16, 16:29).[10]
What can be more plain, these things thus standing int he testament
of God, than that the seventh day sabbath, as such, was given to
Israel, to Israel ONLY; and that the Gentiles, as such, were not
concerned therein!
Fifth, The very reason also of God's 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 God's 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 (Exo 31:13-17; Eze 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 which indeed this sabbath was a shadow or type (Col 2:16,17).[11]
Thus have I concluded my ground for this third question. I shall
therefore now propound another.
QUESTION 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
it 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 thyself,' is
everlasting (Mark 12:29-31), 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, nor everlasting, but
shadowish and figurative only.
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; it was given only
to the church of the Jews in those tables. 3. Its 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 only, 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 Israel's 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 preserved (Exo 34:1; 2 Cor 3:3).
3. The very mount on which this ministration was given, was typical
of Mount Zion. See Hebrews 12 where they are compared (vv 18-22).
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; Revelation 14:1-5.
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 God's everlasting covenant
of grace, who is his only begotten Son (Isa 63:9; Mal 3:1[12];
Acts 3:22,23).
6. It was given to Israel also in the hand of Moses, as mediator,
to shew, or typify 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, 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, it was not till the church was with Moses, and
he with the angels on Mount Sinai in the wilderness.
Now in the law, as moral, we conclude a time propounded, but no
seventh day sabbath enjoined. But in that law, as thus ministered,
which ministration is already out of doors;[13] we find a seventh
day; that seventh day on which God rested, on which God rested
from all his works, enjoined. What is it then? Why the whole
ministration as written and engraven in stones being removed,
the seventh day sabbath must also be removed; for that the time
nor yet the day, was as to our holy sabbath, or rest, moral; but
imposed with that whole ministration, as such, upon the church,
until the time of reformation: which time being come, this
ministration, as I said, as such, ceaseth; and the whole law,
as to the morality of it, is delivered into the hand of Christ,
who imposes it now also; but not as a law of works, nor as that
ministration written and engrave in stones, but as a rule of life
to those that have believed in him (1 Cor 9:21).
So then, that law is still moral, and still supposes, since it
teaches that there is a God, that time must be set apart for his
church to worship him in, according to that will of his that he
had revealed in his word. But though by that law time is required;
yet by that, as moral, the time never was prefixed.
The time then of old was appointed by such a ministration of that
law as we have been now discoursing of; and when that ministration
ceaseth, that time did also vanish with it. And now by our new
law-giver, the Son of God, he being 'lord also of the sabbath
day,' we have a time prefixed, as the law of nature requireth, a
new day, by him who is the lord of it; I say, appointed, wherein
we may worship, not in the oldness of that letter written and
engraven in stones, but according to, and most agreeing with,
his new and holy testament. And this I confirm further by those
reasons that now shall follow.
First, Because we find not from the resurrection of Christ to
the end of the Bible, anything written by which is imposed that
seventh day sabbath upon the churches. Time, as I said, the law
as moral requires; but that time we find no longer imposed. And in
all duties pertaining to God and his true worship in his churches,
we must be guided by his laws and testaments. By his old laws,
when his old worship was in force; and by his new laws, when his
new worship is in force. And he hath verily now said, 'Behold, I
make all things new' (Rev 21:5).
Second, I find, as I have shewed, that this seventh day sabbath is
confined, not to the law of nature as such, but to that ministration
of it which was given on Sinai: which ministration as it is come
to an end as such, so it is rejected by Paul as a ministration no
ways capable of abiding in the church now, since the ministration
of the Spirit also hath taken its place (2 Cor 3). Wherefore
instead of propounding it to the churches with arguments tending
to its reception, he seeks by degrading it of its old lustre and
glory, to wean the churches from any likement[14] thereof:
1. By calling of it the ministration of death, of the letter, and
of condemnation, a term most frightful, but no ways alluring to
the godly.
2. By calling it a ministration that now has no glory, by reason
of the exceeding glory of that ministration under which by the
Holy Spirit the New Testament churches are. And these are weaning
considerations (2 Cor 3).
3. By telling of them it is a ministration that tendeth to blind
the mind, and to veil the heart as to the knowledge of their Christ:
so that they cannot, while under that, behold his beauteous face,
but as their heart shall turn from it to him (2 Cor 3).
4. And that they might not be left in the dark, but perfectly know
what ministration it is that he means, he saith expressly, it is
that 'written and engraven in stones.' See again 2 Corinthians 3.
And in that ministration it is that this seventh day sabbath is
found.
But shall we think that the apostle speaks any thing of all here
said, to wean saints off from the law of nature, as such! No
verily, that he retains in the church, as being managed there by
Christ: but THIS ministration is dangerous now, because it cannot
be maintained in the church, but in a way of contempt to the
ministration of the Spirit, and is derogatory to the glory of
that.
Now these, as I said, are weaning considerations. No man, I do
think, that knows himself, or the glory of a gospel ministration,
can, if he understands what Paul says here, desire that such a
ministration should be retained in the churches.
Third. This seventh day sabbath has lost its ceremonies (those
unto which before you are cited by the texts) which was with it
imposed upon the old church for her due performance of worship to
God thereon. How then can this sabbath now be kept? Kept, I say,
according to law. For if the church on which it was first imposed,
was not to keep it, yea, could not keep it legally without the
practising of those ceremonies: and if those ceremonies are long
ago dead and gone, how will those that pretend to a belief of a
continuation of the sanction thereof, keep it, I say, according
as it is written?
If they say, they retain the day, but change their manner of
observation thereof; I ask, who has commanded them so to do? This
is one of the laws of this sabbath. 'Thou shalt take fine flour,
and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one
cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the
pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense
upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even
an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every sabbath he shall
set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the
children of Israel by an everlasting covenant' (Lev 24:5-8). You
may see also other places, as Numbers 28:9, 10; Nehemiah 13:22
and Ezekiel 46:4.
Now if these be the laws of the sabbath, this seventh day sabbath;
and if God did never command that this sabbath should by his
church be sanctified without them: and, as was said before, if
these ceremonies have been long since dead and buried, how must
this sabbath be kept?
Let men take heed, lest while they plead for law, and pretend
themselves to be the only doers of God's will,[15] they be not
found the biggest transgressors thereof. And why can they not as
well keep the other sabbaths? As the sabbath of months, of years,
and the jubilee? For this, as I have shewed, is no moral precept,
it is only a branch of the ministration of death and condemnation.
Fourth, The seventh day sabbath, as such, was a sign and shadow
of things to come; and a sign cannot be the thing signified and
substance too. Wherefore when the thing signified or substance,
is come, the sign or thing shadowing ceaseth. And, I say, the
seventh day sabbath being so, as a seventh day sabbath it ceaseth
also. See again Exodus 31:13, 14; Ezekiel 20:12, 21; Colossians
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; reason 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 them, that time for God's 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' (Matt 12:8).
Fifth, I find by reading God's 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 persuaded in
his own mind' (Rev 14:5).
By this last clause of the verse, 'Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind,' he doth plainly declare, that such days are
now stript of their sanction.[16] For none of God's 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,
Sixth, Thus Paul writes to the church of Colosse. 'Let no man
therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath: which are a shadow
of things to come; but the body is of Christ' (Col 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 of Christ.'
Nor hath the apostle, since he saith 'or of the sabbath' one would
think, left any hole, out at which men's 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' (Isa 56:4, 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 God's 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 of Christ.'
Seventh, No man will, I think, deny but that Hebrews 4:45 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 verse 5 were typical, as to a day made mention of verses
7 and 8 which day he calls another. He would not afterwards have
made mention of another day. If Joshua had given them rest, he
would not. Now if they had not that rest in Joshua'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 (Heb 4:9,10). And whether the day to come, was Christ,
or Heaven, it makes no matter: it 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 and
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 (Isa 28:12; Matt 11:20; Heb 4:11).
Yet this casts not out the Christians holiday or sabbath: for that
was not ordained to be a type or shadow of things to come, but
to sanctify 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.
Eighth, Especially if you add 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 worship. Hence it is said of that ministration
in the bowels of which this seventh day sabbath is found, 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
excelleth. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more
that which remaineth is glorious' (2 Cor 3:7-11).
What can be more plain? The text says expressly, 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 as holy to the Christians, and for them to perform
their New Testament church service in.
Take the question thus.
QUESTION V.
Since it is denied that the seventh day sabbath is moral, and
it is found that 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--
[Therefore I remark, that] 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
allotted 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 hour
universally, but is left to the discretion of the believers, as
their frame of spirit, or occasions, or exigencies, or temptations,
or duty shall require.
We meddle then only 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 chooses. 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 inferior 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 inferior to itself; 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,
I. Touch upon those texts that are more close, yet have a divine
intimation of this thing in them.
II. 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 is entered 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 (that day) 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 Father's work was first, so his day went before;
and as the Son's work came after, so his day accordingly succeeded.
The Father's day was on the seventh day from the creation, the
Son's 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 Father's resting day; for it 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 also entered
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
Father's 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 3:7). 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.
Second, Hence he calls himself, The 'Lord even of the sabbath
day,' as Luke 5; Matthew 12:8 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
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.
Third, And on THIS day some of the saints that slept arose, and
began their eternal sabbath (Matt 27:52,53). See how the Lord Jesus
hath 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 the saints which slept arose,
and came out of the graves after his resurrection,' &c. That is,
they arose 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 through 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 completed,
a day therefore by itself must be assigned for this; and some
of the saints to begin their eternal sabbath with God in heaven,
therefore a day by itself 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.
Fourth, The psalmist speaks of a day that the Lord Jehovah, the
Son of God, has made; and saith, 'we will rejoice 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 the croner.' He was set at nought by them, the whole course of
his ministry unto his death, and was made the head of the corner
by God, on that day he rose from the dead. This day therefore
is the day that the Lord Jehovah has made a day of rejoicing to
the church of Christ, and we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psa
118:24).
For can it be imagined, that the Spirit by the prophet should thus
signalise 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 add, that that is not all, it is a day that the Lord has both
made for that, and that we might 'rejoice and be glad in it.'[17]
Rejoice, 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.
Fifth, 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 said on this wise, I will give thee the
sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also 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,
has this note from his own mouth, THIS day, as a day that doth
transcend.
And, as I said, this day is the first of the week; for it was on
that day that God begat his beloved Son from the dead. This first
day of the week therefore, on it God found that pleasure which he
found not in the seventh day from the world's 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 God's
pleasure, for that his Son did rise thereon, and shall it not be
the day of my delight in him!
This is the day on 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 rejoice in it? (Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5; Col 1:18;
Rev 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
and 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.
Sixth, Nor is that altogether to be slighted, when he saith,
'When he bringeth in the 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 (v 5), and closes that argument
with this text, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?
and again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world,
he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.'
So then, for God's 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 angels, is said to the church itself (Rev
2:1-7,8,11,12,17,18,29, 3:1,6,7,13,14,22).
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.
Seventh, Hence this day is called 'the Lord's day,' as John saith,
'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,' the day in which Jesus
rose from the dead (Rev 1:10).
'The Lord's day.' Every day, say some, is the Lord's day. Indeed
this for discourse sake may be granted; but strictly, no day can
so properly be called the Lord's day, as this first day of the
week; for that no day of the week or of the year has those badges
of the Lord's glory upon it, nor such divine grace put upon it as
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
Lord's 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 fantasticalize the last. The Lord's 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 SECOND, Now I come to the texts that
are more express.
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 testify
(Luke 24; John 20). 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.
Second, 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 they were not
so assembled together again till then. 'After eight days,' saith
he, 'again his 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,
especially 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 day's service to him with confirming of Thomas' 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 it 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 farewell 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; it 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 John 21 &c.
Ans. The names of all those days in which he so did are obliterated
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,
Third, Add 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.'