A59693:19
Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II.…
Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II. Change, III. Beginning. IV. Sanctification, are clearly discussed, which were first handled more largely in sundry sermons in Cambridge in New-England in opening of the Fourth Commandment : in unfolding whereof many scriptures are cleared, divers cases of conscience resolved, and the moral law as a rule of life to a believer, occasionally and distinctly handled / by Thomas Shepard ...Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II. Change, III. Beginning. IV. Sanctification, are clearly discussed, which were first handled more largely in sundry sermons in Cambridge in New-England in opening of the Fourth COmmandment : in unfolding whereof many scriptures are cleared, divers cases of conscience resolved, and the morall law as a rule of life to a believer, occasionally and distinctly handled / by Thomas Shepard ...
London: printed by T.R. and E.M. for John Rothwell, 1650
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Its easy to demonstrate by Scripture and argument as well as by experience, that Religion is just as the Sabbath is, and decays and grows as the Sabbath is esteemed: the immediate honour and worship of God which is brought forth and swaddled in the three first Commandments, is nursed up and suckled in the bosom of the Sabbath: if Popery will have gross ignorance & blind devotion continued among its miserable captives, let it then be made (like the other Festivals) a merry and a sporting Sabbath; if any State would reduce the people under it to the Romish Faith and blind obedience again, let them erect (for lawful pastimes and sports) a dancing Sabbath; if the God of this world would have all Professors enjoy a total immunity from the Law of God, and all manner of Licentiousness allowed them without check of Conscience, let him then make an every-day Sabbath: if there hath been more of the power of godliness appearing in that small enclosure of the British Nation then in those vast continents elsewhere, where Reformation and more exact Church-Discipline have taken place, it cannot well be imputed to any outward means more, then their excelling care and conscience of honouring the Sabbath and although Master Rogers in his Preface ⟨image 6⟩to the 39. Articles injuriously and wretchedly makes the strict observation of the Sabbath the last refuge of lies by which stratagem the godly Ministers in former times being driven out of all their other strong holds, did hope in time to drive out the Prelacy and bring in again their Discipline; yet thus much may be gathered from the mouth of such an accuser that the worship and government of the Kingdom and Church of Christ Jesus is accordingly set forward as the Sabbath is honoured; Prelacy, Popery, Profaneness must down and shall down in time, if the Sabbath be exactly kept.
Its easie to demonstrate by Scripture and argument as well as by experience, that Religion is just as the Sabbath is, and decays and growes as the Sabbath is esteemed: the immediate honour and worship of God which is brought forth and swadled in the three first Commandments, is nurst up and suckled in the bosome of the Sabbath: if Popery will have grosse ignorance & blind devotion continued among its miserable captives, let it then be made (like the other Festivals) a merry and a sporting Sabbath; if any State would reduce the people under it to the Romish Faith and blinde obedience againe, let them erect (for lawfull pastimes and sports) a dancing Sabbath; if the God of this world would have all Professours enjoy a totall immunity from the Law of God, and all manner of Licentiousnesse allowed them without check of Conscience, let him then make an every-day Sabbath: if there hath been more of the power of godlinesse appearing in that small inclosure of the British Nation then in those vast continents elsewhere, where Reformation and more exact Church-Discipline have taken place, it cannot well be imputed to any outward meanes more, then their excelling care and conscience of honouring the Sabbath and although Master Rogers in his Preface