Change of the Sabbath

The change of this day from the last to the first day of the week, although it be confirmed by an ancient custom, yet the true reason and grounds of so great a change are not so fully known, sacred writings not so expressly setting down (as it does in some things of less concernment) the causes hereof. And many of the arguments heaped up and multiplied by some for the change of it, which may seem of very great weight, while they want an adversary at the other end of the scale to balance them; yet upon sad examination and search into them, they prove too light, and consequently occasion the temptation of scrupling the truth and validity of others more clear. We are therefore with more wariness and humility of mind to search into this controversy, and with much thankfulness and modesty to accept that little light which God gives us in greater, as well as of much light which he is pleased to lend us in smaller matters. “Pascimur opertis, exercemur obscuris, was his speech long since concerning the Scriptures. There is no truth so clear but man’s loose wit can invent and mint many pernicious cavils against it; and therefore in those things which shine forth with less evidence, it is no wonder if it casts such blots and stains upon them as that they can scarcely be discerned. Nil magis inimicum veritati, acumine nimio. We should therefore be wise with sobriety, and remember that in this and such like controversies, the Scriptures were not written to answer all the scruples and objections of cavillers, but to satisfy and establish the consciences of poor believers. And verily, when I meet with such like speeches and objections as these, viz., Where is it expressly said that the old Sabbath is abrogated? and what one scripture is there in the New Testament declaring expressly that the Lord’s day is substituted and put in its room? I can not from such expressions but think and fear that the ignorance of this change in some does not spring so much from deficiency and want of light on God’s part, but rather from perverseness on man’s part, which will not see nor own the truth, because it is not revealed and dispensed after that manner and fashion of expression as man’s wit and fantasy would have it. Like Naaman, who, because the prophet went not about the cure of his leprosy in that way and fashion which he would have him, did not therefore (for a time) see that way of cure which God had revealed to him. For the Holy Ghost is not bound to write all the principles of religion under commonplace heads, nor to say expressly, In this place of Scripture you may see the old Sabbath abrogated, and the new instituted; for we find no such kind of expressions concerning Paul’s epistles, and many books of Scripture, that this or that epistle or book is canonical, which yet we know to be so by other evidences. We know, also, that the Holy Ghost, by brief hints of truth, gives occasion of large comments, and by writing about other matters tanquam aliud agens, it brings forth to light, by the by, revelations of great concernment, which it saw meet purposely in that manner to make known. And as in many other things it has thus done, so especially in this of the Sabbath. So that if our hearts, like locks, were fitted to God’s key, they would be soon opened to see thoroughly the difficulties of this point; which I confess, of all practical points, has been most full of knots and difficulties to my own weakness.