A59693:512
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 178.
It is affirmed (but unwarily) by some, that the tree of life §178in Paradise was a type of Christ, and thence some would infer, that it was not unsuitable to Adams estate and condition in innocency, to be taught by types, and that the Sabbath might therefore be ceremonial, supposing that it was observed by Adam in his innocent estate: but although the tree of life and sundry other things in Paradise, are made Similitudes to set forth Christ Jesus in his Church by the holy Ghost, Rev. 22. yet it's a gross mistake and most absurd to make every metaphor or similitude and allusion, to be a type: for the husbandman sowing of the seed is a similitude of preaching of the word, Mat. 13. and yet it's no type of it, an affectionate lover and husband is in sundry Scriptures a similitude and resemblance of Christs affection and love to his Church and spouse, the head and members of mans body are similitudes of Christ the head and the Church his members; but will any affirm that these are also types of Christ? and just thus was Paradise and the Tree of life in it, they were similitudes to which the holy Ghost alludes in making mention of Christ and his Church, but they were no types of them: there was typus fictus in them or arbitrarius (which is all one with a similitude) but there was no Typus destinatus therein, being never purposely ordained to shadow out Christ: for the Covenant of works by which Adam was to live, is directly contrary to the Covenant of grace by faith in Christ, Rom. 11.6. ⟨p. 164⟩by which we are to live, Christ is revealed only in the Covenant of grace, and therefore could not be so revealed in the Covenant of works directly contrary thereunto. Adam therefore was not capable of any types then to reveal Christ to him: of whom the first Covenant cannot speak, and of whom Adam stood in no need, no not so much as to confirm him in that estate, for (with leave) I think that look as Adam breaking the first Covenant by sin, he is become immutably evil and miserable in himself, according to the rule of justice in that Covenant; so suppose him to have kept that Covenant, all his posterity had been immutably happy and holy, (not merely by grace) but by the same equity and justice of that first Covenant, and hence it follows that he stood in no need of Christ or any Revelation of him by types, no not to confirm him in that Covenant: