Works of John Bunyan Volume II Part 84

I told you also in the epistle, that if the fifth commandment was the first that was with promise; then it follows, that the fourth, or that seventh day sabbath, had no promise entailed to it. Whence it follows, that where you read in the prophet of a promise annexed to a sabbath, it is best to understand it of our gospel sabbath (Isa 56).

Now if it be asked, What promise is entailed to our first day sabbath? I answer, The biggest of promises. For,

First, The resurrection of Christ was tied by promise to this day, and to none other. He rose the third day after his death, and that was the first day of the week, 'according' to what was fore-promised in the scriptures (Hosea 6:1,2; 1 Cor 15:3-6).

Second, That we should live before G.o.d by him, is a promise to be fulfilled on this day; 'After two days will he revive us: in the third day--we shall live in his sight' (Hosea 6:2). See also Isaiah 26:19 and compare them again with 1 Corinthians 15:4.

Third, The great promise of the new testament, to wit, the pouring out of the Spirit, fixeth upon these days; and so he began in the most wonderful effusion of it upon Pentecost, which was the first day of the week, that the scriptures might be fulfilled (Acts 2:16-19).

Nor could these three promises be fulfilled upon any other days, for that the scripture had fixed them to the first day of the week.

I am of opinion that these things, though but briefly touched upon, cannot be fairly objected against, however they may be disrelished by some.

Nor can I believe, that any part of our religion, as we are Christians, stand in not kindling of fires, and not seething of victuals, or in binding of men not to stir out of those places on the seventh day, in which at the dawning thereof they were found.

And yet these are ordinances belonging to that seventh day sabbath (Exo 16:23-29).

Certainly it must needs be an error to impose these things by divine authority upon new testament believers, our wors.h.i.+p standing now in things more weighty, spiritual and heavenly.

Nor can it be proved, as I have hinted before, that this day was, or is to be imposed without those ordinances, with others in other places mentioned and adjoined, for the sanction of that day they being made necessary parts of that wors.h.i.+p that was to be performed thereon.

I have charity for those that abuse themselves and their Lord, by their preposterous zeal and affection for the continuing of this day in the churches. For I conclude, that if they did either believe, or think of the incoherence that this day with its rites and ceremonies has with the ministration of the Spirit, our new testament ministration, they would not so stand int heir own light as they do, nor so stiffly plead for a place for it in the churches of the Gentiles. But as Paul insinuates in other cases, there is an aptness in men to be under the law because they do not hear it (Gal 4).

Nor will it out of my mind, but if the seventh day sabbath was by divine authority, and to be kept holy by the churches of the Gentiles, it should not have so remained among the Jews, Christ's deadliest enemies, and have been kept so much hid from the believers, his best friends. For who has retained the pretended sanction of that day from Christ's time, quite down in the world, but the Jews, and a few Jewish Gentiles, I will except some. But, I say, since a sabbath is that without which the great wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d under the gospel cannot be well performed: how can it be thought, that it should as to the knowledge of it, be confined to so blasphemous a generation of the Jews, with whom that wors.h.i.+p is not?

I will rather conclude, that those Gentile professors that adhere thereto are Jewified, legalized, and so far gone back from the authority of G.o.d, who from such bondage has set his churches free.

I do at this time but hint upon things, reserving a fuller argument upon them for a time and place more fit; where, and when, I may perhaps also show, some other wild notions of those that so stiffly cleave to this.

Meantime, I entreat those who are captivated with this opinion, not to take it ill at my hand that I thus freely speak my mind.

I entreat them also to peruse my book without prejudice to my person. The truth is, one thing that has moved me to this work, is the shame that has covered the face of my soul, when I have thought of the fictions and fancies that are growing among professors. And while I see each fiction turn itself to a faction, to the loss of that good spirit of love, and that oneness that formerly was with good men.

I doubt not but some unto whom this book may come, have had seal from G.o.d, that the first day of the week is to be sanctified by the church to Jesus Christ. Not only from his testimony, which is, and should be, the ground of our practice; but also, for that the first conviction that the Holy Ghost made upon their consciences, to make them know that they were sinners, began with them for breaking this sabbath day; which day, by that same spirit was told them, was that now called the first day, and not the day before, and the Holy Ghost doth not use to begin this work with a lie, which first conviction the Spirit has followed so close, with other things tending to complete the same work, that the soul from so good a beginning could not rest until it found rest in Christ.

Let this then to such be a second token that the Lord's day is by them to be kept in commemoration of their Lord and his resurrection, and of what he did on this day for their salvation. Amen.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Dialogues, 1st chapter, xxv.

2. Answer to More.

3. Inst.i.tutes, b. ii. ch. 8.

4. Com. on Gal. 4:9.

5. The word 'moral' is here used to mark the difference between obligations binding on all mankind and a positive or limited command: thus, to love G.o.d is a moral or universal obligation, but to be baptized is positive and obligatory only on those who believe (Acts 8:37).--Ed.

6. The original edition refers to (Eze 49, 50), but it is evidently a typographical error in omitting the chapter.

7. Man unaided by revelation.

8. Adam is supposed by some rabbins not to have pa.s.sed one night in a state of perfection, (see Ainsworth on Gen 3:1, 28:11; Psa 49:13), and to have fallen on the Sabbath day.

9. The murder of Abel took place 'at the end of days'; see margin to Genesis 4:3. Properly rendered 'in process of time'; but by some supposed to mean at the end of the week. See Dr. Gill's Commentary.

10. 'The Lord hath given YOU the sabbath.' See also 31:17, 'It [the observance of the sabbath] is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever.'--Ed.

11. This is a striking application of Colossians 2:17. The sabbath 'a shadow of things to come'; to the Jews it was a shadow of the rest that remaineth to the children of G.o.d, reflected from the completion of the work of creation. The day of rest and wors.h.i.+p to the Christian, is a much stronger type, yet but a shadow of the holy enjoyments of his eternal rest, prefigured from the finis.h.i.+ng of the mightier work of redemption.--Ed.

12. In Bunyan's original edition it is 'Matt 3, 1,' but this must be a typographical error.--Ed.

13. 'Out of doors,' no more to be found, quite gone, fairly sent away.--Locke. 'Out of court.'--Law-term.--Ed.

14. 'Any likement,' any fondness or partiality.--Ed.

15. This spirit is not extinct. Mr. Shenston, in his 'Plea for the Seventh-day,' charges those who keep the Lord's day 'that they yield to the tide--keep their friends--riches--comforts; they believe that the seventh-day is the sabbath, and would greatly prefer keeping it, if the rulers of the nation would alter the day; they imagine that their G.o.d is some dumb idol!'+ Language most unseemly and insulting--charging all who observe the Lord's day with being hypocrites and the worst of fools. Mr. S. forgot the solemn proverb, 'with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged.'

+ Edit. 1826, pp. 41, 42.

16. This was the opinion of those great reformers, Tyndale, Calvin, and Luther; see introduction by the Editor. It was a sentiment which led to no practical evil.--Ed.

17. Psalm 118:24.

18. 'That we read of' in the New Testament; for this is our sole authority in all inquiries as to a Christian's faith and practice.--Ed.

19. 'Tradition' is a communication without writing, and when made orally by some apostle or messenger from the first church at Jerusalem, and the message so obeys as to be left upon record by the Holy Ghost, it has the same authority as if it had been commanded in an epistle. It has nothing to do with the vain traditions of the fathers (so called), which were not heard of until after the inspired volume was completed and closed. Any subsequent commands are censures upon G.o.d's omniscience, and are deserving only of contempt.--Ed.

20. The New Testament by Whittinghan, 1557; the Genevan or Puritan Bible by Knox, Coverdale, and others, 1560; and the New Testament revised by Tomson, 1576, very frequently reprinted, and very favourite translations among our puritan and pilgrim forefathers in the faith. The marginal note to the Puritan Bible, in Acts 20:7, 'first day,' is, 'which we call Sunday. Of this place, and also of the 1 Corinthians 16:2, we gather that the Christians used to have their solemn a.s.semblies this day, laying aside the ceremony of the Jewish sabbath.'--Ed.

21. 'Acted by,' a mode of speech now obsolete; it means 'actuated by' or 'influenced by.'--Ed.

OF THE TRINITY AND A CHRISTIAN, AND OF THE LAW AND A CHRISTIAN.

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

These two short treatises were found among Mr. Bunyan's papers after his decease. They probably were intended for publication, like his 'Prison Meditations' and his 'Map of Salvation,' on a single page each, in the form of a broadside, or handbill. This was the popular mode in which tracts were distributed; and when posted against a wall, or framed and hung up in a room, they excited notice, and were extensively read. They might also have afforded some trifling profit to aid this poor but eminent servant of Christ in his very limited income. They form two pages in that exceedingly interesting volume of 'The Works of Mr. John Bunyan,'

in small folio, 1692. To which is added 'The Struggler,' containing some most valuable facts, relative to the various works, imprisonment and sufferings of the author. The t.i.tles to these treatises were added by Mr. Doe, the personal friend of Bunyan, who edited the works and wrote 'The Struggler,' the author having left them without any heading or t.i.tle. They are very unfinished, and may have been intended as a syllabus or outline of more extended treatises.--GEO.

OFFOR.

OF THE TRINITY AND A CHRISTIAN

How a young, or shaken Christian should demean himself under the weighty thoughts of the doctrine of the Trinity, or plurality of persons in the eternal G.o.dhead.