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?