Works of John Bunyan Volume II Part 76

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 G.o.d'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 'G.o.d 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 G.o.d, 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, a.s.surances, 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 Peac.o.c.k in the Poultry, 1685.

EDITOR'S ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT.

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 G.o.d; 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 G.o.d revealed to man, fall under two cla.s.ses.

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 G.o.d, 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 wors.h.i.+p. 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 wors.h.i.+p; 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sumed a more public and definite form at the Reformation. Sir Thomas More a.s.serted 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 ma.s.s.' 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 a.s.sembling 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, a.s.sembled 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d: 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 G.o.d brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm, THEREFORE the Lord thy G.o.d 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 quant.i.ty on Friday, and was not found on Sat.u.r.day. 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 inst.i.tuted by Moses, than it is broken, and the Sabbath-breaker is punished with a cruel death. It was inst.i.tuted 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 wors.h.i.+p: the law of nature requires it; the G.o.d of nature fixes the day, without borrowing it from the ministration of death. The Jewish pa.s.sover and Sabbaths are superseded; Christ our pa.s.sover 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d begat his beloved Son from the dead (Acts 13:33). Let all the angels of G.o.d wors.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sembled 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 h.e.l.l. Our glorified Redeemer sanctioned and blessed the first day, with his personal appearance in the a.s.semblies 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. Emanc.i.p.ate the christian mind from all the beggarly rudiments of Jewish rites and ceremonies. Add to the holy enjoyments of G.o.d's saints in public wors.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d's church has already been so well furnished with sound grounds and reasons by so many wise and G.o.dly 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 G.o.dly 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d, not man; in grace, not nature; nor in the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones: G.o.d always reserving to himself a power to alter and change both time and modes of wors.h.i.+p according to his own will.

A sabbath then, or day of rest from worldly affairs to solemnize wors.h.i.+p to G.o.d in, all good men do by nature conclude is meet; yea, necessary: yet that, not nature, but G.o.d reveals.

Nor is that day or time by G.o.d 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 G.o.d.

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d; that this G.o.d is to be wors.h.i.+ped 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 G.o.d, and set apart for his wors.h.i.+p, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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.