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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

and weaknesse it made him die unto it and expect no life from it and so live unto God in his sanctification for so the words are I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God Gal. 2.19 the issue therefore is this that if the doctrine be taken strictly pro lege fidei as Chamier cals it or that doctrine which shews the way of mans righteousnesse and justification only there indeed all the works of the law all terrours and threatnings are to be excluded and nothing else but peace pardon grace favour eternall reconciliation to be beleeved and received and therefore it 's no new Testament Ministry to urge the Law or to thunder out any terrour here for in this sence it 's true which is commonly received that in the Law there are terrours but in the Gospel none but if the Gospel be taken largely for all that doctrine which brings glad tidings of Christ already come and shews the love of God in the largest extent of it and the illustrations and confirmations of it from the law then such servants of Jesus Christ who hold forth the law to make way for grace and to illustrate Ch●ists love must either be accounted New Testament Ministers or else as hath been shewne Christ Jesus and his Apostles were none Thesis 115. The second is a professed neglect and casting off the work of repentance and mourning for sin nay of asking pardon of sin for if the Law be no rule to shew man his duty why should any man then trouble himself with sorrow for any sin for if it be no rule to him how should any thing be sin to him and if so why then should any ask pardon of it or mourn under it why should not a man rather harden his heart like an Adamant and make his forehead brasse and iron even unto the death against the feeling of any sin but what doctrine is more cross● to the Spirit of grace in Gospel times then this which is a Spirit of mourning Z●c 12.10 11. what doctrin more crosse to the expresse comand of Christ from heaven then this who writes from heaven to the Church of Ephesus to remember from whence she is fallen and repent Rev. 2.5 what doctrine more crosse to the example of holy men then this who after they were converted then repented and lamented most of all Ier. 31.18.19 2 Cor. 7.9.10 11. what doctrine more crosse to the salvation of souls the mercy of God and forgivenesse of sin for so the promise runs if we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 what doctrine so crosse to the Spirit of the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart that when a mans sins are greatest which is after conversion because now against more love and more nearnesse to Jesus Christ that now a beleevers sorrow should be least monkish and macerating sorrow indeed is loathsome but godly sorrow is sweet and glorious doubtlesse those mens blindenesse is exceeding great who know not how to reconcile joy and sorrow in the same subject who cannot with one eye behold their free justification and therein daily rejoyce and the weaknesse and imperfection of their sanctification with another eye and for that mourn Thesis 116. The third thing is a denying sanctification the honour of a faithfull and true witnesse or cleare evidence of our justification for if a beleever be not bound to look unto the Law as his rule why should he then have any eye to his sanct●fication which is nothing else but our habituall conformity to the Law as inherent corruption is nothing else but habituall disagreement with it although sanctification be no part of our righteousnesse before God and in this sence is no evidence of our justification yet there is scarce any clearer truth in all the Scrip●u●e then this viz. that it is an evidence that a man is in a justified estate and yet this leven which denies the Law to be a Christians rule of life hath sowred some mens spirit● against this way of evidencing It is a doubtfull evidence saith D● Crisp an argument not an evidence it is a carnall and an inferiour evidence the last and the least not the first evidence it is an evidence if justification be first evident say Den and Saltmarsh some men may be led to these opinions from other principles then a plain denyall of the directive use of the Law but this I feare lies undermost however let these two things be examined 1. Whether sanctification be a doubtfull evidence 2. Whether it be a carnall inferiour and may not be a first evidence Thesis 117. If to be under the power and dominion of sin and Originall corruption be a sure and certain evidence of actuall condemnation so that he that saith he knows Christ and hath fellowsh●p with him and yet walks in darknesse and keeps not his Commandments is a lyar 1 Ioh. 1.6 2.4 why may not sanctification then whereby we are set free from the power of sin be a sure and certain evidence of our actuall justification for hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements 1 Joh. 2 3. whereby it is manifest that the Apostle is not of their mindes who think the negative to be true viz. that they that keep not Christs commandments are in a state of perdition but they will not make the affirmative true viz. that they that keep his Commandments may thereby know that they are in a state of salvation If Jesus Christ be sent to blesse his people in turning them from their iniquities Act. 3. ult then they that know they are turned from their iniquities by him may know certainly that they are blessed in him and if they be not thus turned they may know certainly that they are yet accursed If godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 and if the free grace and actuall love of God be revealed clearly to us only by some promise how then is sanctification so near akin to godlinesse excluded from being any evidence is there no inherent grace in a beleever that no inherent sanctification can be a true evidence verily thus some do think but what is this but an open gracelesse profession thrr every beleever is under the power of inherent sin if he hath not the being of any inherent grace or if there be any inherent grace yet it is say some so mixt with corruption and is such a spotted and blurd evidence that no man can discern it I confesse such an answer would well become a blinde Papist who never knew where grace grew for so they dispute against certitudo salutis certitudine fidei when the conclusion of faith ariseth from such a proposition as is the word of God and the assumption the testimony of Gods Spirit to a mans own experience of the work of God in his heart but it ill beseems a

improve the day no better then the beasts that perish Thesis 2. And as the rest of the Day is for the holinesse of it so is all the labour of the Week for this holy rest that as the end of all the labour of our lives is for our rest with Christ in Heaven so also of the six daies of every weeke for the holy Rest of the Sabbath the twilight and dawning of Heaven For the eighth Commandement which would not have us steale commands us therefore to labour for our Families and comforts in all the seasons of labour This fourth command therefore which not onely permits but commands us to labour six daies must have another respect in commanding us to labour and a higher end which cannot be any thing else but with respect to the Sabbath that as we are to watch unto prayer so we are to worke unto the Sabbath or so worke all the Weeke day that we may meet with God and sanctifie the Sabbath day Thesis 3. As therefore the holinesse of the Sabbath is morall because it is the end of the day so is the Rest of the Sabbath the immediate means to that end morall also Looke therefore what ever holy duties the Lord required of the Iewes which were not ceremoniall the same duties he requires of us upon this day so what every Rest he required of them for this end he exacts of all Christians also Thesis 4. Those that make the Sabbath ceremoniall imagine a stricter Rest imposed upon the Iewes then Christians are now bound unto because they place the ceremonialnesse of the Sabbath in the strict Rest of it but we are bound to the same Rest for substance of it and the ground for a stricter rest then we are bound unto will be found too light if well pondered Thesis 5. For though it be sayd that the Iewes might not bake nor seeth meat upon this day Exod. 16.23 no nor make a fire upon it Ex. 35.3 no nor gather sticks upon it without Death Numb 6.15.30 all which things Christians now may lawfully do yet none of these places will evince that for which they are alledged Thesis 6. For first it is not said Exod. 16.23 bake and seeth that to day which may serve you next day but that which remains viz. which is not sod nor baked lay it up untill the Morning and consequently for the morrow of the next day which being thus laid up I doe not finde that they are forbidden to bake or seeth that which remaines upon the next day but rather if they must use it the next day they might then bake it or seeth it that day also as they did that of the sixt day and without which they could not have the comfortable use of it upon the Sabbath day indeed it was as unlawfull to grind and beate the Manna in Mills and Morters mentioned Numb 11 8. upon this day as now to thrash and grind Corne this day the meale therefore which did remaine is not forbidden to be baked or sod upon this day nor would Gods speciall and miraculous providence appeare in preserving it from wormes and stinking if there had been any b●king of it the day before and not rather upon the Sabbath Day Thesis 7. Although also they were forbidden to kindle fire upon this lay Exod. 35.3 in respect of some use yet they are not forbidden so to do in respect of any use whatsoever For there was fire kindled for the Sabbath sacrifices and it would have bin a breach of the rule of mercy not to kindle a fire for the sick and weake in the wildernesse Nehemiah also a man most strict and zealous for the Sabbath yet had such provision made every day as could not be drest nor eaten without some fire upon the Sabbath day Neh. 5.18 and the Sabbath not being a fast but a feast in those times as well as those hence it s not unsutable to the time to have comfortable provisions made ready provided that the dressing of mea● be not an ordinary hindrance to publike or private duties of holinesse upon this day Exod. 12.16 this kindling of the fire here forbidden must therefore be understood in respect of the scope of the place viz. not to kindle a fire for any servile work no not in respect of this particular use of it viz. to further the building of the Sanctuary and Tabernacle made mention of in this Chapter for it s said whosoever shall do any worke therein 1. any servile worke which is more proper for the weeke time shall be put to death verse 2. there is therefore either no dependance of these words in the third verse with those in the second or else we must understand it of kindling fires restrictively for any servile worke which is there forbidden not only the Iewes but us Christians also Thesis 8. The man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath Numb 15.30 was put to death what for gathering of sticks onely why then did not the just God put them to death who were the first offenders and therefore most fit to be made examples who went out to gather Manna upon this day Exod. 1● This gathering of sticks therefore though little in it selfe yet seemes to be aggravated by presumption and that the man did presumptuously breake the Sabbath and therefore it s generally observed that this very example followes the Law of punishing a presumptuous transgressor with death in this very Chapter and though it be said that they found a man gathering sticks as if it were done secretly and not presumptuously yet we know that presumptuous sins may be committed secretly as well as openly though they are not in so high a degree presumptuous as when they are done more openly the feare of the Law against Sabbath breakers might restrain the man from doing that openly which before God was done proudly and presumptuously and though Moses doubted what to do with the man who had that capitall Law given him before against Sabbath breakers yet they might be ignorant for a time of the full and true meaning of it which the Lord here seemes to expound viz. that a Sabbath breaker sinning presumptuously is to be put to death and although it be doubted whether such a Law is not too rigorous in these Times yet we do see that where the Magistrate neglects to restraine from this sinne the Lord takes the Magistrates work into his own hand and many times cuts them off suddenly who prophane his Sabbath presumptuously and t is worth enquiring into whether presumptuous Sabbath breakers are not still to be put to Death which I doubt not but that the Lord will either one day cleare up or else discover some specialty in the application of this judiciall Law to that Polity of the Iewes as most fit for them and not so universally fit for all others in Christian Common-vvealths but this latter I yet see no proofe for nor doe I expect the clearing up of the other while

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