A59693:812
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 47.
If God hath set any time to begin the Sabbath, surely 'tis such a time as may be ordinarily and readily known, that so here (as well as in all other Ordinances) the Sabbath may be begun with prayer, and ended with praise: but if it should begin at midnight, what man of a thousand can readily tell the certain time when it begins, that so they may in a holy manner begin the Sabbath with God? all men have not the midnight Clocks and Bells to awaken them, nor can the crowing of Cocks herein give a certain sound; a poor Christian man had need be a good and watchful Mathematician that holds this opinion, or else I see not how he will know when midnight is come; and if he cannot, then its very considerable and to me unquestionable, that that cannot be the beginning of ⟨p. 49⟩holy Time which cannot be begun in a holy manner: there was never any Ordinance of God but it was so ordered as that it might ordinarily be begun and ended with God; which makes me question that the beginning of it at Morning midnight cannot be of God.
Thesis 48.
Others there be who do not begin the Sabbath at Morning §48