A59693:398
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 128.
1M. Primrose would prove the exegesis, That by the Sabbath day is meant that seventh day only from the creation, because God actually blessed and sanctified that Sabbath day, because God cannot actually bless a seventh, being an unlimited, indefinite and uncertain indetermined time: The time (saith he) only wherein he rested, he only actually blessed, which was not in a seventh day indetermined, but in that determined seventh day: But all this may be readily acknowledged and yet the truth remain firm; for that particular seventh being secondarily moral, hence as it was expressly commanded, so it was actually and particularly blessed; but as in this seventh a general of a seventh is included, so a seventh is also generally blessed and sanctified. Otherwise how will M. Primrose maintain the morality of a day of worship out of this commandment? for the same objection may be made against a day, which himself acknowledgeth, as against a seventh day which we maintain; for it may be said, that That day is here only moral wherein God actually rested, but he did not rest in a day indefinitely, and therefore a day is not moral; let him unloose this knot, and his answer in defence of the morality of a day will help him to see the morality of a seventh day also: That particular day indeed wherein God actually and particularly rested, he particularly blessed, but there was a seventh day also more general which he generally blessed also; he generally blest the Sabbath day, he particularly blest that Sabbath day, and in blessing of that he did virtually and by Analogy bless our particular Christian Sabbath also, which was to come: As Moses in his actual blessing of the tribe of Levi, Deut. 23.7, 10. he did virtually and by Analogy bless all the Ministers of the Gospel not then in being: And look as when God commanded them to keep holy the Sabbath in ceremonial duties, he did therein virtually command us to keep it holy in Evangelical duties; so when he commanded them to observe that day because it was actually appointed and sanctified and blessed of God, he commanded us virtually and analogically therein to observe our seventh day also if ever he should actually appoint and bless this other.