A59693:372
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.
The free offer of grace being made to the soul because it is poor and sinful, cursed and miserable, and that therefore it would receive Christ, hence it is that in this respect the soul is not bound first to see some good in it self and so to receive him, but rather is bound (at first breathings of God upon it) rather to see no good, i. nothing but sin and perdition, death and darkness, enmity and weakness, and therefore to receive him, Luk. 14.21. Revel. 3.17, 18. Gal. 3.22. Rom. 11.32. Hos. 13.3. But the promise of free-grace being actually given to the soul (and not declared only as it is in the free offer, because it hath received Christ already by which he is actually its own) hence it is that in this respect, the soul is bound to see some good or saving work of grace in it self first, and so embrace and receive the promise and Christ Jesus in it: So that although in receiving Christ to be our own, we are to see no good in our selves wherefore we should receive him or believe in him; yet in receiving him as our own already, we must first see some good (the work of free grace in us) or else we have no just ground thus to receive him: No man can challenge any promise belonging to him without having a part in Christ the foundation of them; no man can have Christ but by receiving of him or believing in him, Joh. 1.12. Hence therefore they that say that the first evidence of Gods love and free grace or actual favour, i• to a sinner as a sinner, had need consider what they say; for is it to a sinner as possest with Christ and receiving of him, or as disposest of Christ not having of him, but rather refusing and rejecting of him. If they say the first, they then speak the truth, but then they raze down their own pernicious principle, that Christ and Gods love belongs to them As sinners: If they affirm the latter, then they do injuriously destroy Gods free grace and the glory of Christ, who think to possess promises without possessing Christ, or to have promises of grace, without having Christ the foundation of them all. For though the common love of God (as the bare offer of grace is) may be manifested without having Christ, yet special actual love cannot be actually our own, without having and first receiving of him: And if the Spirit of God convince the world of sin (and consequently of condemnation) while they do not believe,