A59693:387
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.
4. Because (we know) that ratio legis est anima legis, i. the reason of a law is the soul and life of the law: now let it be considered, why God should appoint the Seventh rather then the ninth or tenth or twentieth-day, for spiritual rest? and ⟨p. 128⟩the reason will appear not to be Gods absolute will merely, but because divine wisdom having just measures and balances in its hand, in proportioning time between God and man, it saw a seventh part of time (rather then a tenth of twentieth) to be most equal for himself to take, and for man to give: and thus much the words of the Commandment imply, viz. that it is most equal if man hath six, that God should have the seventh: now if this be the reason of the law, this must needs be the soul and substance of the morality of the law, viz. That a Seventh day be given to God, man having six, and therefore it consists not in That Seventh day only: for the primary reason, why God appointed this or that Seventh, was not because it was that seventh, but because a Seventh was now equal in the eye of God for God to take to himself, man having the full and fittest proportion of six days together for himself; and because a seventh was the fittest proportion of time for God, hence this or that individual and particular seventh in the second place fall out to be moral, because they contain the most equal and fittest proportion of a Seventh day in them; there was also another reason why That Seventh was sanctified, viz. Gods rest in it, but this reason is not primary as hath been said, and of which now we speak.
4. Because (we know) that ratio legis est anima legis, i. the reason of a law is the soul and life of the law: now let it be considered, why God should appoint the Seventh rather then the ninth or tenth or twentieth-day, for spirituall rest? and ⟨p. 128⟩the reason will appear not to be Gods absolute will meerly, but because divine wisdom having just measures and ballances in its hand, in proportioning time between God and man, it saw a seventh part of time (rather then a tenth of twentieth) to be most equall for himself to take, and for man to give: and thus much the words of the Commandment imply, viz. that it is most equall if man hath six, that God should have the seventh: now if this be the reason of the law, this must needs be the soul and substance of the morality of the law, viz. That a Seventh day be given to God, man having six, and therefore it consists not in That Seventh day only: for the primary reason, why God appointed this or that Seventh, was not because it was that seventh, but because a Seventh was now equall in the eye of God for God to take to himself, man having the full and fittest proportion of six daies together for himself; and because a seventh was the fittest proportion of time for God, hence this or that individual and particular seventh in the second place fall out to be morall, because they contain the most equall and fittest proportion of a Seventh day in them; there was also another reason why That Seventh was sanctified, viz. Gods rest in it, but this reason is not primary as hath been said, and of which now we speak.