A59693:329
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.
1. Some say this savours of an old Testament spirit, which was w•nt to wound and then to heal, to humble and then to raise, to preach law and then Gospel; but now we are to he Ministers of the new Testament; and let no law be heard of. I confess those that preach the law as the means of our justification, and as the matter of our righteousness without Christ, or together with Christ, as the false teachers did, 2 Cor. 3 6. may well be called (as Paul calls them) Ministers of the letter, not of the Spirit, of the old Testament, not of the New; but to preach Christ plainly and with open face the end of the law, and to preach the law as the means to prepare for, and advance Christ in our hearts, can never be proved to be the old Testament Ministry, or to put a veil upon mens hearts that they cannot see the end of the law (as the old Testament veil did, 2 Cor. 3.14.) but it is to take away the veil of all conceit of mans own strength and righteousness, by seeing his curse, that so he may s•• to the end thereof the Lord Jesus, and embrace him for righteousness: For the Apostle doth not call them Ministers of the letter and of the old Testament, because they did preach the law to humble and lead unto Christ; but because they preached the law for righteousness without Christ, whom he calls the spirit, vers. 17. and therefore calls them the Ministers ⟨p. 105⟩of the letter, and their Ministry of death and condemnation, there is something in the law which is of perpetual use, and something which is but for a time: the vis coactiva legis (as some call it) i. the force of the law to condemn and curse, to hold a man under the curse, and to hold a man under the power of sin, which the Apostle calls the strength of the Law, 1 Cor. 15.56. is but for a time, and is but accidental to the law, and may be separated from it, and is separated indeed from it as soon as ever the soul is in Christ, Rom. 8.1. he is then free from the obligation of it to perform personal and perfect obedience to it, that so he may be just; also from the malediction and curse of it, if he be not thus just: But that which is of perpetual use in it, is not only the directive power of it, but this preparing and humbling virtue of it;