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A59693 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 ... Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649. 1650 (1650) Wing S3145; ESTC R31814 262,948 313

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to see that all others did so also 'T is true civill Magistrates may abuse their power judge amisse and thinke that to be the command of God which is not but we must not therefore take away their power from them because they may pervert it and abuse it we must not deny that power they have for God because they may pervert it and turne the edge of it against God for if upon this ground the Magistrate hath no power over his Subjects in matters of the first Table he may have also all his feathers pul'd from him and all his power taken from him in matters of the second Table for we know that he may work strange changes there and perve●t Justice and Judgement exceedingly we must not deny their power because they may turne it awry and hurt Gods Church and people by it but as the Apostle exhorts 1 Tim● 1.2 to pray for them the more that under them we may live a peaceable life in all Godlinesse and Honesty it s a thousand times better to suffer persecution for Righteousnesse sake and for a good Conscience then to desire and plead for toleration of all Consciences that so by this cowardly device and lukewarme principle our owne may be untoucht it was never heard of untill now of late that any of Gods Prophets Apostles Martyrs faithfull Witnesses c. that they ever pleaded for liberty in errour but onely for the Truth which they preacht and prayd for and suffered for unto the death and their sufferings for the truth with Zeale Patience Faith Constancy have done more good then the way of universall toleration is like to doe which is purposely invented to avoyd trouble Truth hath ever spread by opposition and persecution but errour being a Child of Satan hath fled by a zealous resisting of it Sick and weake men are to be tender'd much but Lunatick and Phranti●● men are in best case when they are well fettered and bound a weake Conscience is to be tendered an humble Conscience tolerated errours of weaknesse not wickednesse are with all gentlenesse to be handled the liberty given in the raign of Episcopacy for Sports and Pastimes and May-games upon the Lords Day was once loathsome to all honest minds bat now to allow a greater Liberty to Buy Sell Plow Cart Thrash Sport upon the Sabbath day to all those who pretend Conscience or rather that they have no Conscience of one day more then another is to build up Iericho and Babel againe and to lay foundations of wrath to the Land for God will certainly revenge the pollutions of his Sabbaths if God be troubled in his Rest no wonder if he disturbes our peace some of the Ancients thinke that the Lord brought the flood of Waters upon the Sabbath day as they gather from Gen. 7.10 because they were growne to be great prophane●s of the Sabbath and we know that Prague was taken upon this day The day of their sinne began all their sorrowes which are continued to this day to the amazement of the World when the time comes that the Lords precious Sabbaths are the dayes of Gods Churches Rest then shall come in the Churches peace Psal. 102.13.14 The free grace of Christ must first begin herein with us that we may finde at last that Rest which this evill World is not yet like to see unlesse it speedily love his Law more and his Sabbaths better I could therefore desire to conclude this doctrine of the Sabbath with teares and I wish it might be matter of bitter lamentation to the mourners in Sion everywhere to behold the universall prophanation of these precious times and seasons of refreshing toward which through the abounding of iniquity the love of many who once seemed zealous for them is now grown cold the Lord might have suffered poore worthlesse sorrowfull man to have worne and wasted out all his daies in this life in wearinesse griefe and labour and to have filled his daies with nothing else but work and minding of his own things and bearing his own necessary cumbers and burdens here and never have allowed him a day of rest untill he came up to heaven at the end of his life and thus to have done would have been infinite mercy and love though he had made him grind the Mill only of his own occasions feele the whip and the lash onely of his daily griefs and labours untill dark night came but such is the overflowing and abundant love of a blessed God that it cannot containe it selfe as it were so long a time from speciall fellowship with his people here in a strange land and in an evill world and therefore will have some speciall times of speciall fellowship and sweetest mutuall embracings and this time must not be a moment an houre a little and then away againe but a whole day that there may be time enough to have their fill of love in each others bosome before they part this day must not be meerly occ●sionall at humane liberty and now and then least it be too seldome and so strangenesse grow between them but the Lord who exceeds and excels poor man in love therefore to make all sure he sets and flxeth the day and appoints the time and how to meet meerly out of love that weary man may enjoy his rest his God his love his Heaven as much and as often as may be here in this life untill he come up to glory to rest with God and that because man cannot here enjoy his daies of glory he might therefore foretaste them in daies of grace and is this the requitall and all the thanks he hath for his heart-breaking love to turne back sweet presence and fellowship and love of God in them to dispute away these daies with scorne and contempt to smoke them away with Prophannesse and madde mirth to Dreame them away with Vanity to Drinke to Sweare to Ryot to Whore to Sport to Play to Card to Dice to put on their best Apparrell that they may dishonour God with greater pompe and bravery to talke of the World to be later up that d●y then any other day of the Weeke when their own Irons are in the fire and yet to sleepe Sermon or scorne the Ministery if it comes home to their Consciences to tell Tales and breake Jests at home or at best to talke of Forraigne or Domesticall newes onely to passe away the time rather then to see God in his Workes and warme their hearts thereby to thinke God hath good measure given him if they attend on him in the Foore●oone although the After-noone be given to the Devill or sleepe or vanity or foolish pastimes to draw neere to God in their bodies when their Thoughts and Hearts and Affections are gone a Hunting or Ravening after the World the Lord knowes where but farre enough off from him do you thus requite the Lord for this great love oh foolish people and unwise do you thus make the daies of your
Minister of the Gospel of Christ to plead for such popish ignorance in a Christian as can see no further then his own buttons and that cannot discern by the Spirit of God the great and wonderfull change from darknesse to light from death to life from Satan to God the visible work of God and graces of the Spirit of God the things which the Apostle cals love are fr●ely given to them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Peters was imperfect blotted and mixed and yet he could say Lord thou knowest I love thee Ioh. 21.17 the poor doubting mourning man in the Gospel had some faith and was able to see it and say certainly Lord I beleeve help my unbeleef Could Paul discern without extraordinary revelation because he speaks as an ordinary Christian an inner man and a Law in his minde delighting in the Law of God yet mixed with a Law in his members leading him captive into the Law of sin and cannot we and yet the Doctor doth cast such stains upon sincerity universall obedience love to the brethren c. and heaps up the same cavils against the truth of them in the souls of the Saints as the Devil himself usually doth by sinfull suspitions and suggestions when God lets him loose for a season to buffet his people that so they may never know if it were possible what great things the Lord hath done for their souls and whoever reades his book shall finde that he makes a Beleever such a creature as cannot tell certainly whether he be a sincere-hearted man or an arrand hypocrite whe●her he be under the power of sin and Satan or not whether one man can be discerned from another to be a Saint or a devill or whether he hath any charity and goes love to them that are Saints from them that are not and so abou● to befool and non-plus and puzzle the people of God as the story relates of the German woman desirous to rid the house of her husband who first making him drunk and casting him into a sleep did so shave him and dresse him and cut and clip him that when he awakened he knew not what to thinke of himselfe or to say who he was for by looking upon and in himself he thought he was the womans husband and yet by his new cut and habit he almost beleeved that he was a Fryar as his wife affirmed Sanctification is an evidence alway in it selfe of a justified estate although it be not alway evident unto us and therefore what though a Christian sees his sanctification and graces to day and cannot see them but is doub●full about them suppose to morrow shall he therefore reject it as a doubtfull evidence which is ever clear enough in it self though not alway to our discerning for I would know what evidence can there be of a justified estate but partly through dimnesse and weaknesse of faith which is but imperfect and therefore mixt with some doubtings all a mans life sometime or other and partly through the wise and adored providences of God to exercise our faith but that some time or other it cannot be discerned is the immediate testimony of Gods Spirit which some would make the only evidence alway evident and the shinings sheddings and actings of it never suspended but that by some means or other they will be at a losse why then should sanctification be excluded as a doubtfull evidence because sometime it is and at other times not discerned I know there are some who perceiving the conceived uncertainty of all such evidences have therefore found out a strange catholicon for these sick times a sure way of evidencing and leding all mens consciences in a way of peace and unshaken assurance of the love of Christ and therefore they make which I name with horrour the sight of corruption and sinfull pollution through the promise of the Gospel the certain and setled evidence of life and salvation which opinion the least I can say of it is that which Calvin said in the like case to be exundantis in mundum suroris Dei slagellum Wo to the dark mountains of Wales and the fat valleys towns and cities in England and sea coasts and Ilands in America if ever this delusion take place and yet this flame begins to catch and this infection to spread and therefore I finde M. Saltmarsh and W. C. to speak out and openly to own that which the Familists in former times have either been ashamed or afraid to acknowledge and that is this viz That the promise of the Gosp●l do belong to a sinner quâ sinner or as a sinner and that the Law speaks good news to a righteous man quatenus a righteous man but the Gospel quite contrary it is to a man quatenus a sinner not as a regenerate man or as an humble man or as a Saint or as a beleever but as a sinner and hence they infer That a Christian will never have any setled peace but be off and on as a bone out of joint in and out in and out a reed tossed with the winde never knit to Christ if they lay hold on Christ and Gods love under any other consideration then as to sinners ● and therefore though they see no good in themselves though they be not humbled broken-hearted sinners as one Preacher tels them nor beleeving sinners as another Preacher tels them yet if they see themselves sinners they must know a sinner is the proper object of the Gospel and therefore this is ground enough to beleeve so that if the devil tell a man that he is no Saint if the soul can say I am a sinner if the devil say thou art an hypocrite I but an hypocrite is but a sinner still though I be not a broken-hearted sinner this will be they say a refuge of peace to retreat unto in all temptations and when men have learnt this lesson their souls will not be in and out any more but have constant peace for though they have no interest in Christ as Saints yet they have reall interest in the promises of Christ as sinners hence also they say that no Minister is to threaten or declare the curse and wrath of God against drunkards and sinners as such untill first Christ be offered in the Gospel and they refuse him and that if any do this they are Ministers of the Old Testament not of the new Sic de●init in piscem mulier formosa let us therefore see what chaff and what corn what truth and what falsehood there is in this n●w divinity It is true 1. That the Gospel reveals the free grace and love of God the death of Christ and salvation by him for sinners and that all those that are or shall be saved are to acknowledge and aggrava●e Gods love toward them in casting his eye upon them when they were sinners notwithstanding all their si●s this the Scripture everywhere holds forth Rom. 5.6 7. 1 Tim. 1.15.2 'T is true also that the
which notwithstanding may be morall although it be not so immediatly known Thesis 198. If we speak of the law of corrupt nature largely taken for that law which when 't is made known by divine determination and declaration is both sutable and congruous to naturall reason and equity we may then say that the Law of the Sabbath is according to the light of nature even of corrupt nature it self for do but suppose that God is to be worshipped and then these three things appear to be most equall 1. That he is not only to have a time but a speciall time and a fit proportion of time for worship 2. That it 's most meet that he should make this proportion 3. The Lord having given man six daies and taken a Seventh to himself mans reason cannot but confesse that it is most just to dedicate that time to God and for my own part I think that in this respect the law of the Sabbath was as fairly writ on mans hea●● in innocency as many other morall laws which none question the morality of at this day but disputes about this are herein perhaps uselesse Thesis 199. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper may be administred meet circumstances concurring every Lords day nay upon the week daies often as they did in the primitive persecutions and hence our Saviour limits no time for it in the first institution thereof as he did for the Passeover of old but only this As oft as you doe it doe it in remembrance of me Hence it will follow that now under the Gospel there is no set Sabbath as M. Primrose would because our Saviour at the first institution of the Lords Supper limits no particular day for the celebration thereof as once he did for the Passeover for though there is an appointed speciall time as shall hereafter appeare for the publique exercise of all holy duties not being limited to those times but enlarged to other times also hence there is no reason why our Saviour should institute a set Sabbath when he instituted the Lords Supper as the proper time of the celebration thereof as it was in case of the Passeover Thesis 200. It is no argument to prove the Sabbath to be ceremoniall because it is reckoned among ceremonials viz. shew-bread and sacrifices as M. Primrose and Wallaeus urge it out of Mat. 12.1 2 3. for 1. upon the same ground fornication and eating of idolothytes are ceremoniall because they are ranked among ceremonials viz. bloud and things strangled Act. 15.29.2 upon this ground the Sabbath hath no morality at all in it no more then shew-bread and sacrifices which were wholly ceremoniall 3. The Sabbath is in the same place reckoned among things which are morall as pulling a sheep out of a pit upon the Sabbath day an act of humanity why may it not then be as well accounted morall 4. One may as well argue that the not keeping company with Publicanes and sinners was a ceremoniall thing because the Lord Jesus useth the same Proverbiall speech I will have mercy not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 upon which he defends the lawfullnesse of pulling the ears of corn upon the Sabbath day in this Mat. 12.15 the scope therefore of this place is not to shew the nature of the Sabbath day whether it be ceremoniall or morall but the lawfullnesse and morality of his act in eating the ears of corn upon this day and thus the arguments of our Saviour are very strong and convicting to prove the morality of such an act but no way to prove the ceremoniality of the Sabbath for that is the scope of our Saviour that mercy to the hungry is to be preferred before the Sacrifice of bodily resting upon the Sabbath M. Primrose indeed replies hereto and tels us that mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice or ceremoniall duties but not before morall duties and therefore Christ preferring it before the rest on the Sabbath the Sabbath could not be morall but we know that mercy in the second table is sometimes to be preferred before morall duties in the first table a man is bound to neglect solemn praier sometime to attend upon the sick it 's a morall duty to sanctifie some day for a Sabbath saith M. Primrose and yet suppose a fire be kindled in a town upon that day or any sick to be helped must not mercy be prefer'd before hearing the word which himself will acknowledge to be then a morall duty Thesis 201. When Christ is said to be Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12.8 the meaning is not as if he was such a Lord as had power to break it but rather such a Lord as had power to appoint it and consequently to order the work of it for his own service M. Primrose thinks That he is said to be Lord of it because he had power to dispense with the keeping of it by whom when he would and that Christ did chuse to do such works upon the Sabbath day which were neither works of mercy or necessity nay which were servile which the Law forbade for Christ saith he as mediatour had no power to dispense with things morall but he might with matters ceremoniall and therefore with the Sabbath How far Christ Jesus might and may dispence with morall laws I dispute not now I think Biell comes nearest the truth in this controversie only this is considerable suppose the Sabbath was ceremoniall yet it 's doubtfull whether Christ Jesus who came in the daies of his flesh to fulfill all righteousnesse could abolish or break the law ceremoniall untill his death was past by which this hand-writing of Ordinances was blotted out Colos. 2.14 and this middle wall of partition was broken down Ephes. 2.14 15 16. But let it be yeelded that Christ had power to break ceremoniall laws then before his death yet in this place there is no such matter for the words contain a clear proof for the right observance of the Sabbath against the over-rigid conceptions of the superstitious and proud Pharisees who as they thought it unlawfull for Christ to heal the sick upon the Sabbath so to rub out and eat a few corn ears upon it although hunger and want and perhaps more then ordinary in the Disciples here should force men hereunto which was no servile work as Mr Primrose would but a work of necessity and mercy in this case and our Saviour proves the morality of it from the example of David eating the Shew-bread and those that were with him preferring that act of mercy before sacrifice and abstinence from Shew-bread and hence our Saviour argues That if they attending upon David might eat the Shew-bread much more his hungry Disciples might eat the corn while they attended upon him that day who was Lord of the Sabbath and that they might be the better strengthened hereby to do him service These things being thus where now is there to be found any reall breach of the Sabbath or doing of any