A59693:95
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.
There are therefore four rules to guide our judgments §25aright herein, whereby we may know when a law is suitable and agreeable to humane nature, and consequently good in it self; which will be sufficient to clear up the Law of the Sabbath, to be truly moral (whether in a higher or lower degree of morality it makes no matter) and that it is not a law merely temporary and ceremonial.
There are therefore four rules to guide our judgments §25aright herein, whereby we may know when a law is sutable and agreeable to humane nature, and consequently good in it selfe; which will bee sufficient to cleare up the Law of the Sabbath, to be truely morall (whether in a higher or lower degree of morality it makes no matter) and that it is not a law meerly temporary and ceremoniall.
1. Such laws as necessarily flow from natural relation, both between God and man, as well as between man and man; these are good in themselves, because suitable and congruous to humane nature: for there is a decency and sweet comeliness to attend to those rules to which our relations bind us. For from this ground the Prophet Malachi calls for fear and honour of God as moral duties, because they are so comely and seemly for us, in respect of ⟨p. 16⟩the relation between us, If I be your Lord, and Master and Father, where is my fear? where is my honour? Mal. 1.6. Love also between man and wife is pressed as a comely duty by the Apostle, from that near relation between them, being made one flesh, Ephes. 5.28, 29. there are scarce any who question the morality of the duties of the second Table, because they are so evidently comely, suitable and agreeable to humane nature, considered relatively, as man stands in relation to those who are or should be unto him as his own flesh; and therefore he is to honour superiors, and therefore must not kill, nor steal, nor lye, nor covet, nor defile the flesh, &c. but the morality of all the rules of the first Table is not seen so evidently, because the relation between God and man, which makes them comely and suitable to man, is not so well considered: for if there be a God, and this God be our God, according to the first Commandment, then it's very comely and meet for man to honour, love, fear him, delight, trust in him, &c. and if this God must be worshipped of man, in respect of the mutual relation between them, then 'tis comely and meet to worship him with his own worship, according to the second Commandment, and to worship him with all holy reverence according to the third Commandment; and if he must be thus worshipped, and yet at all times (in respect of our necessary worldly employments) cannot be so solemnly honoured and worshipped as is comely and meet for so great a God, then 'tis very fit and comely for all men to have some set and stated time of worship, according to some fit proportion, which the Lord of time only can best make, and therefore a seventh part of time which he doth make, according to the fourth Commandment.