A59693:281
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 99.
If God did work upon Believers as upon blocks or brute §99creatures, they might then have some colour •o cast off all attendance to the directive power of the law, and so leave all to the Spirits Omnipotent and immediate acts, as the Stars who being irrational and uncapable of acting by any rule, they are therefore acted and run their course by the mighty word of Gods power, and therefore attend no rule; but Believers are rational Creatures, and therefore capable of acting by rule, and they are also sanctified and delivered from the power of their corrupt nature, and therefore have some inherent power so to act, for if they be not now dead in trespasses and sins, they have then some new life, and therefore some inherent power to act, according to the rule of life; the Image of God renewed in them, is (in part) like to the same Image which they had in the first creation, which gave man some liberty and power to act according to the will of him that created him: And if the first Adam by his fall conveys to us, not only condemnation, but also an inherent power of corruption, then the second Adam, the Lord Jesus, much more conveys unto all his posterity, not only justification, but also some inherent power of grace and holiness, which is begun here and perfected in glory, for as sin hath abounded, so grace aboundeth much more: and yet suppose they had no inherent ⟨p. 84⟩power thus to act, yet they have an adherent power, the Lord Christ Jesus, by faith in whose Name they may and shall receive power to act: And therefore, although God works in us, both to will & to do of his good pleasure, yet this hinders not, but that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, by attending the rule, by virtue of which we are bound to work, both by putting forth that power which we have already received from God, as also in fetching in that power we have not yet received, but is reserved daily in Christs hands for us, to enable us thereunto.