A59693:654
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 28.
That the Churches honoured this Day above any other,§28 shall appear in its place, as also that the Apostles commanded them so to do. Yet Mr. Primrose saith that this latter is doubtful: and Mr. Ironside (not questioning the matter) falls off with another evasion, viz. That they acted herein not as Apostles, but as ordinary Pastors, and consequently as fallible men, 1not only in commanding this Change of the Sabbath, but in all other matters of Church government (among which he reckons this of the Sabbath to be one) which he thinks were imposed according to their private wisdom as most fit for those times, but not by any Apostolical Commission as concerning all times. But to imagine that matters of Church-government in the Apostles days wit coats for the Moon in respect of aftertimes, and that the form of it is mutable (as he would have it) I suppose will be digested by few honest and sober minds in these times, unless they be biassed for a season by politic ends, and therefore herein I will not now contend; only it may be considered whether any private spirit could abolish that Day, which from the beginning of the world God so highly honoured, and then honour and advance another Day above it, and sanctify it too (as shall be proved) for religious services. Could any do this justly but by immediate dispensation from the Lord Christ Jesus? and if the Apostles did thus receive it immediately from Christ, and so teach the observation of it, they could not then teach it as fallible men, and as private Pastors, as he would have ⟨p. 16⟩