A59693:237
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 81.
If sin (which is the transgression of the law) be the ⟨p. 68⟩greatest evil, then holiness (which is our conformity to the law) is our greatest good. If sin be mans greatest misery, then holiness is mans greatest happiness: It is therefore no bondage for a Christian to be bound to the observance of the law as his rule, because it only binds him fast to his greatest happiness, and thereby directs and keeps him- safe from falling into the greatest misery and woe: and if the great design of Christ in coming into the world, was not so much as to save man from affliction and sorrow (which are lesser evils) but chiefly from sin (which is the greatest evil) then the chief end of his coming was not (as some imagine) to lift his people up into the love and abstracted speculation of the Father above the law of God: but into his own bosom only, where only we have fellowship with the Father above the Law of sin.
If sinne (which is the transgression of the law) bee the ⟨p. 68⟩greatest evill, then holines (which is our conformity to the law) is our greatest good. If sin be mans greatest misery, then holinesse is mans greatest happinesse: It is therefore no bondage for a Christian to be bound to the observance of the law as his rule, because it onely binds him fast to his greatest happinesse, and thereby directs and keeps him- safe from falling into the greatest misery and woe: and if the great designe of Christ in comming into the world, was not so much as to save man from affliction and sorrow (which are lesser evils) but chiefely from sinne (which is the greatest evill) then the chiefe end of his comming was not (as some imagine) to lift his people up into the love and abstracted speculation of the Father above the law of God: but into his owne bosome onely, where only wee have fellowship with the Father above the Law of sinne.