A59693:424
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 139.
1To imagine that there are but nine moral precepts indeed; and that they are called ten in respect of the greater part according to which things are usually denominated, is an invention of M. Primrose, which contains a pernicious and poysonfull seed of making way for the razing out of the Decalogue more laws then one: for the same answer will serve the turn for cashiering three or four more, the greater part (suppose six) remaining moral, according to which the denomination ariseth: For although it be true that sometime the denomination is according to the greater part, viz. when there is a necessity of mixing divers things together as in a heap of corn with much chaff, or a Butt of wine where there be many lees, yet there was no necessity of such a mixture and jumbling together of morals and ceremonials here: M. Primrose tells us that he doth not read in Scripture, that all the Commandments are without exception called moral, and therefore why may there not (saith he) be one ceremonial among them? But by this reason he may as well exclude all the other nine from being moral also; for I read not in Scripture that any one of them is styled by that name, Moral: And although it be true which he saith, That covenants among men consist sometime together of divers articles, as also that Gods Covenant (taken in some sense) sometimes did so; yet the Covenant of God made with all men (as we shall prove the Decalogue is) ought not to be so mingled, neither could it be so without apparent contradiction, viz. That here should be a covenant which bindeth all men in all things to observe it, and yet some part of it being ceremonial, should not bind all men in all things it commands: nor is there indeed any need of putting in one ceremonial law, considering how easily they are and may be reduced to sundry precepts of the moral law as appendices thereof, without such shuffling as is contended for here.