A59693:408
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 132.
There is a double reason of proposing Gods example in the §132fourth Command, as is evident from the Commandment it self: the first was to persuade, the second was to direct. 1. To persuade man so to labour six days together, as to give the seventh, or a seventh appointed for holy rest unto God; for so the example speaks, God laboured six days, and rested the seventh, therefore do you do the like. 2. To direct the people of God to That particular Seventh, which for that time when the Law was given God would have them then to observe, and that was that Seventh which did succeed the six days labour: and therefore for any to make Gods example of rest on That Seventh day, an argument that God commanded the observation of that Seventh day only, is a groundless assertion, for there was something more generally aimed at by setting forth this example, viz. to persuade men hereby to labour six days, and give God the seventh, which he should appoint, as well as to direct to that particular day which for that time (it's granted) it also pointed unto; and therefore let the words in the Commandment be obse• ved, and we shall find mans duty 1. More generally set down, viz. to labour six days, and dedicate the seventh ⟨p. 236⟩unto God, and then follows Gods persuasion hereunto from his own example, who when he had a world to make, and work to do, he did labour six days together, and rested the seventh; and thus a man is bound to do still: but it doth not follow, that he must rest that particular seventh only, on which God then rested; or that that seventh (though we grant it was pointed unto) was only aimed at in this example: the binding power of all examples whatsoever (and therefore of this) being ad speciem actus (as they call it) to that kind of act, and not to the individuum actionis only, or to every particular accidental circumstance therein; If indeed man was to labour six days in memorial only of the six days of creation, and to rest a Seventh day in memorial only of Gods rest and cessation from creation, it might then carry a fair face, as if this example pointed at the observation of that particular seventh only; but look as our six days labour is appointed for other and higher ends, then to remember the six days work of God, it being a moral duty to attend our callings therein;