Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II.…

But why the Lord Christ should keep his servants in England and Scotland to clear up and vindicate this point of the Sabbath, and welcome it with more Love then some precious ones in foreign Churches, no man can imagine any other cause then Gods own Free Grace and tender Love, whose wind blows where and when it will; Deus nobis haec otia fecit, and the times are coming wherein Gods work will better declare the reason of this and some other discoveries by the British Nation, which modesty and humility would forbid all sober minds to make mention of now.

But why the Lord Christ should keep his servants in England and Scotland to cleare up and vindicate this point of the Sabbath, and welcome it with more Love then some precious ones in forraigne Churches, no man can imagine any other cause then Gods own Free Grace and tender Love, whose wind blowes where and when it will; Deus nobis haec otia fecit, and the times are coming wherein Gods work will better declare the reason of this and some other discoveries by the British Nation, which modesty and humility would forbid all sober minds to make mention of now.

That a seventh days rest hath (therefore) been of universal observation is without controversy; the Morality of it (as hath been said) is now the controversy; in the Primitive times when the Question was propounded Servasti Dominicum? hast thou kept the Lords Day? their answer was generally this, Christianus sum, intermittere non possum; i. I am a Christian, I cannot neglect it: the observation of this day was the badge of their Christianity. This was their practise; but what their judgment was about the Morality of it is not safe to enquire ⟨image 6⟩from the tractates of some of our late Writers in this controversy; for it is no wonder if they that thrust the Sabbath out of Paradise, and banish it out of the world until Moses time, and then make it a mere ceremony all his time till Christs Ascension, if since that time they bring it a peg lower, and make it to be a humane Constitution of the Church, rather then any Divine Institution of Christ Jesus; and herein, those that oppose the Morality of it by dint of argument, and out of candour and conscience propose their grounds on which they remain unsatisfied, I do from my heart both highly and heartily honour, and especially the labours of Master Primrose and Master Ironside, many of whose Arguments and Answers to what is usually said in defence of the Morality of the day, who ever ponders them, shall find them heavy; the foundations and sinews of whose discourses I have therefore had a special eye to in the ensuing Theses, with a most free submission of what is here returned in answer thereto, to the censure of better minds and riper thoughts, being verily persuaded that whoever finds no Knots or Difficulties to humble his spirit herein, either knows not himself, or not the Controversy: but as for those whose chief arguments are reproaches and revilings of embittered and corrupt hearts, rather then solid reasons of modest minds; I wholly decline the pursuit of such creatures whose weapons is their swell, and not any strength, and do leave them to his tribunal who judgeth righteously, for blearing the eyes of the world, and endeavouring to exasperate Princes, and make wise men believe that this Doctrine of the Sabbath is but a late Novelty, a Doctrine tending to a high degree of Schism, a fanatic Judaizing, like his at Tewksbury Sabbata sancta