A59693:215
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.
Thesis 73.
The fairest colour and strongest force from Gal 4.10. and §73Col. 2.16. lies in the gradation which some suppose to be intended in both those places. Ye observe (saith the Apostle) days, and months, and times, and years, Gal. 4.10. Wherein the Apostle seems to ascend from the lesser to the greater, from days (which are less then months, and therefore weekly Sabbath days) to months, from months or new moons, to times, which are higher then months, and by which is meant their annual feasts and fasts, ordered according to the [Greek or Hebrew] or fittest seasons of the year; and from times he ascends yet higher to years, viz. their Sabbatical years, because they were celebrated once in many years, sometime seven, sometime ⟨p. 60⟩fifty years: by which gradation it seems evident, that the observation of days (which are less than months) and therefore of weekly Sabbaths, are hereby condemned. The like gradation is urged from Col. 2.16. where the Apostle seems to descend from condemning the greater to the condemnation of the lesser: Let no man judge you (saith the Apostle) in respect of a holy day, new moon, or Sabbath days: there holy days seem to be their annual or Sabbatical days, their new moons are less than them, being every month; and therefore by Sabbath days (they infer) must needs be meant the weekly Sabbaths, less than new moons: Indeed some understand by days and times (in Gal. 4.) heathenish days, but he speaking of such days as are beggarly rudiments, under which not the Heathens, but the Children of the old Testament were in bondage, verse 3. he must therefore speak not of Heathenish but of Jewish days. I know also that some understand that of