A59693:563
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 197.
If we speak of the Law of nature strictly taken, for that which is immediately and readily known by the common light of nature in all men, then it may be safely affirmed, that although the Sabbath should not be in this sense natural, ⟨p. 175⟩yet it will not follow that it is not therefore moral: for the moral law once writ on mans heart in pure nature is almost blotted out; only some rudera and old rubbish is left of it in a perverse mind and a corrupt heart, Eph. 4.18. we see the wisest of the heathens making those things to be moral virtues (Junius instanceth in the Law of private revenge, and we know they magnified will-worship) which the Scripture condemns as moral vices and sins: God would have common-wealths preserved in all places of the world, from the inundation and deluge of mans wickedness, and therefore he hath generally printed the notions of the second Table upon mens hearts to set bounds (as by sea-banks) unto the overflowings thereof, and hence it is that they are generally known: but he would not have Churches every where, and therefore there is but little known concerning matters of the first Table, and consequently about this Law of the Sabbath, which notwithstanding may be moral although it be not so immediately known.
If we speak of the Law of nature strictly taken, for that which is immediatly and readily known by the common light of nature in all men, then it may be safely affirmed, that although the Sabbath should not be in this sence naturall,