A59693:580
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 205.
To think that the Sabbath was proper to the Jews, because they only were able to keep and exactly observe the time of it, being shut up (as M. Primrose saith) within a little corner of the earth, and that the Gentiles therefore are not bound to it, because they cannot exactly observe the time of it, in several quarters of the earth so far distant, is a very feeble argument: For why might not all nations exactly observe the rising and the setting of the sun according to several climates by which the natural day and so this of a Sabbath is exactly measured? and which God hath appointed (without limitation to any hour) to be the bounds of the Sabbath as it sooner or later rises or sets? were not the mariners of the men of Judah bound to observe the Seventh day in all the several coasts where they made their voyages? did God limit them to the rising or setting sun of Judea only? what colour is there to think thus of them? indeed it's true that in some habitable Northern coasts, the Sun is not out of sight some months together, but yet this is certain, if they know how the year spends into months, they can exactly reckon the weeks of those months, and therefore can exactly tell you the days of which those weeks consist, and therefore they have their exact rules and measures to know East and West, the place of the sun-rising and sun-setting, and consequently to know the Sabbath days; and yet if they should not exactly know it, their will to do it is herein (as in other things) accepted of God.
To think that the Sabbath was proper to the Jews, because they only were able to keep and exactly observe the time of it, being shut up (as M. Primrose saith) within a little corner of the earth, and that the Gentiles therefore are not bound to it, because they cannot exactly observe the time of it, in severall quarters of the earth so far distant, is a very feeble argument: For why might not all nations exactly observe the rising and the setting of the sun according to severall climates by which the naturall day and so this of a Sabbath is exactly measured? and which God hath appointed (without limitation to any hour) to be the bounds of the Sabbath as it sooner or later rises or sets? were not the mariners of the men of Iudah bound to observe the Seventh day in all the severall coasts where they made their voyages? did God limit them to the rising or setting sun of Iudaea only? what colour is there to think thus of them? indeed it's true that in some habitable Northern coasts, the Sun is not out of sight some moneths together, but yet this is certain, if they know how the year spends into moneths, they can exactly reckon the weeks of those moneths, and therefore can exactly tell you the daies of which those weeks consist, and therefore they have their exact rules and measures to know East and West, the place of the sun-rising and sun-setting, and consequently to know the Sabbath daies; and yet if they should not exactly know it, their will to do it is herein (as in other things) accepted of God.