A59693:404
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 130.
Actions of worship can no more be imagined to be done §130without some time, then a body be without some place, and therefore in the three first Commandments, where Gods worship is enjoined, some time together with it is necessarily commanded; if therefore any time for worship be required in the fourth command (which none can deny) it must not be such a time as is connatural & which is necessarily tied to the ⟨p. 134⟩§128action; but it must be some solemn and special time, which depends upon some special determination, not which nature, but which Counsel determines; Determination therefore by Counsel of that time which is required in this command doth not abolish the morality of it, but rather declares and establisheth it. God therefore who is Lord of time, may justly challenge the determination of this time into his own hand, and not infringe the morality of this command, considering also that he is more able and fit then men or Angels to see, and so cut out the most equal proportion of time between man and himself; God therefore hath sequestered a seventh part of time to be sanctified, rather then a fifth, a fourth, or a ninth, not simply because it was this seventh, or a seventh, but because in his wise determination thereof, he knew it to be the most just and equal division of time between man and himself; and therefore I know no incongruity to affirm, that if God had seen one day in three or four, or nine, to be as equal a proportion of time as one day in seven, that he would then have left it free to man to take and consecrate either the one or the other (the Spirit of God not usually restraining where there is a liberty) and on the other side, if he had seen a third or fifth or ninth or twentieth part of time more equal then a seventh, he would have fixed the bounds of labour and rest out of a seventh; but having now fixed them to a seventh, a seventh day is therefore moral, rather then a fourth or sixth or ninth day, because it is the most equal and fittest proportion of time (all things considered) between God and man; the appointment therefore of a seventh rather then a sixth or fourth is not an act of Gods mere will only (as our adversaries affirm, and therefore they think it not moral) but it was and is an act of his wisdom also according to a moral rule of justice, viz. to give unto God that which is most fit, most just and most equal;