A59693:352
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.
3. That whereas by this doctrine they would clear up the way to a full and settled evidence and Christian assurance, they do hereby utterly subvert the principal foundation of all settledness, and assurance of faith, which is this, viz. that if Jesus Christ be given to death for me, then he will certainly give all other things to me, if we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more shall we be saved by his life, if Christ hath died and risen for us, who then shall condemn? who shall then separate us from Gods love? Rom. 8.32. Rom. 6.9, 10. But if they hold no such principles, I would then know how any man can have evidence of this, viz. that God loves him, and that Christ hath died for him while he is a sinner, and as he is a sinner? or how any Minister of the New Testament can say to any man (under the power of his sins and the devil) that he is not condemned for his sins, but that God loves him, and that Christ hath died for him, without preaching falsehoods, and lies, and dreams of their own heart? for 1. God hath not loved nor elected all sinners, nor hath Christ died for all sinners. 2. If every man be in a state of condemnation before he believe the Gospel, then no man can be said to be in a state of reconciliation, and that God hath loved him until he refuse the Gospel▪ but every man is in a state of condemnation before he believe, because our Saviour expressly tell us, that by faith we pass from death to life, Joh. 5.24. and he that hath not the son, hath not life, 1 Joh. 5.12. and therefore if those be Ministers of the new Testament who first preach to all the drunkards and whoremongers and villains in a parish, that God loves them, and that they are reconciled by Christ death, and that they may know it because they are sinners, then let the heavens hear, and the earth know that all such Ministers are false Prophets, and cry Peace, Peace, where God proclaims wrath; and that they acquit them whom God condemns: and if they be Ministers of the Old Testament spirit, who first show men their condemned estate, and then present God as wroth against them, while they be in their sin, that so they may prize and fly to favour and free grace, then such are Ministers of the old Testament and not of the new, because they preach the truth;