Thomas Shepard (1605-1649)
The "soul-melting" Puritan, Preacher, Writer, Educator, Commentator, Pamphleteer, Diarist, Non-Conformist and Dissenter.
Writings About Thomas Shepard
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THESES
SABBATICAE,
OR
THE DOCTRINE
OF
THE
SABBATH;
WHEREIN ARE CLEARLY DISCUSSED
THE
MORALITY, THE CHANGE,
THE BEGINNING, AND THE
SANCTIFICATION OF THE SABBATH,
DIVERS CASES OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED,
AND THE MORAL, LAW, AS A RULE OF LIFE TO A BELIEVER, OCCASIONALLY AND DISTINCTLY HANDLED
_________________________________________
Neh. 13:17, 18. — "What evil thing is this that ye do, and
profane the Sabbath day? Did not your
fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this
city? yet ye bring more wrath upon
Jer.
THESES SABBATICAE.
I.
OF THE THESES CONCERNING THE MORALITY OF THE
SABBATH.
theses
1-6. God
is the superior Disposer of man's time,
7-9. Man, who is made next to God, and to
return to his rest at the end of the larger circle of his life, is to return to
him at the end of the lesser circle of every week,
10-13. What a moral law is not,
14-15. How a divine law may be said to be moral,
16. What a moral law is, strictly taken,
17-20. A moral law, considered in a strict sense,
is not good merely because commanded, but is therefore commanded because it is
good,
21-23. What is that goodness in a moral law for
which it is commanded,
24-25. By what rules may that goodness be known,
which are four, Divers consectaries flowing from the description of a moral law,
26-28. That divine determination of
something in a law doth not always take away the morality of it,
29-37. That those are not moral laws only, which
are known to all men by the light of corrupt nature,
38. That the whole decalogue, in all the
parts of it, is the moral law of God: Theses
30, where objections are answered to,
39-42. Three sorts of laws which were among the
Jews, moral, ceremonial, judicial,
43. The true state of the question whether
the Sabbath be a moral or ceremonial law,
44-45. The agreement on all hands how far the law
of the Sabbath is moral,
46. Something general is agreed on, and whether it lies under this general, viz., a seventh day,
47. The chief means of resolving this controversy in opening the meaning of the fourth commandment,
48-52. The things
which are moral in the fourth commandment are either primarily or secondarily moral. Those things which
are primarily and generally moral in the fourth commandment are three: 1. A
time of worship. 2. A day. 3. A seventh day determined,
53-55. Not the worship itself, hut only the solemn time of it is required in the fourth commandment,
56-58. How holy duties are for time,
59-62. Instituted worship is not directly required in the fourth, but in the second commandment, wherein the meaning of the second commandment is occasionally cleared against Wallaeus,
63. If the moral worship itself be not required herein, much less is the whole ceremonial worship,
64. Neither the
public worship only, nor Jewish holy days, required in this fourth cmmandment,
65. Not a part of a day, but a whole day, is moral, by the fourth commandment,
66-67. God's wisdom did rather choose a whole day together for special worship than borrow a part of every day,
68. The sin of
Familists and others who allow God no special day, but make all days equal.
69-71. How any day is said to be holy, and that though all places are alike holy, yet all days are not therefore alike holy,
72-78. Answer to such scriptures as seem to make all days alike holy under the New Testament,
79. The chief reason why some abolish the day of the Sabbath in the fourth commandment is because they abandon the whole decalogue itself as any rule of life unto his people,
80. An inward Sabbath may well consist with a Sabbath day,
81-85. The great controversy whether the law be a rule of life to a believer, discussed in sundry theses,
86-90. The Spirit is not the rule of life,
91-92. Not the will
of God's decree, but the will of his command, is the rule of life,
93. The fundamental error of Antinomians,
94. The
rule of the law is kept in Christ as matter of our justification, not sanctification,
95-96. How Christ is our sanctification as well as our justification,
97. Duties of Christian thankfulness to God were not performed by Christ for believers under that notion of thankfulness, but by way of merit,
98- 99. Whether a believer is to act in virtue of a command,
100. The sin of those who affirm that Christian obedience is not to be put forth by virtue of a command,
101. To act by virtue of a commandment, and by virtue of God's Spirit, are subordinate one to another,
102-104. Whether the law is our rule as given by Moses on
105-106. How works
and law duties are sometimes commended and sometimes condemned,
107. The new
creature, how it is under the law,
108-109. How the
children of God under the Old Testament were under the law as a schoolmaster,
and not those of the New,
110. How the gospel requires doing, and how not, and about conditional promises in the gospel,
111. Various
motives to obedience from the law and gospel, from God as a Creator, and from
Christ as a Redeemer, do not vary the rule,
112. Unbelief is
not the only sin,
113. Three evils arising from their doctrine who deny the directive use of the moral law,
114. The sin of such as deny the humbling work of
the law under gospel ministrations,
115-116. Their error who will not have a Christian pray for pardon of sin, or mourn for sin,
117. Whether sanctification be a doubtful evidence, and may not be a just evidence, and whether the gospel and all the promises of it belong to a sinner as a sinner, and whether sight of corruption be (by the gospel) the settled evidence of salvation, as some plead for,
118. Whether
the first evidence be without the being, or only the seeing of grace,
119. The true
grounds of evidencing God's love in Christ cleared,
120-122. Not only a
day, nor only a Sabbath day, but a seventh day determined, is the last thing
generally moral in the fourth commandment,
123-124. That which is particularly moral herein is this or
that particular seventh day,
125. The morality of a Sabbath may be as strongly and easily urged from the commandment of observing that particular seventh day from the creation, as the morality of a day,
126-129. It is not
in man's liberty to take any one of the seven days in a week to be the Christian
Sabbath,
130-131. A determined
time is here required, but not what nature, but what counsel, shall determine,
and consequently this or that seventh day,
132-133. The force of God's example in resting the seventh,
and working six days, how far it extends,
134-136. No reason that God must have a seventh year,
because he will have a seventh day,
137. How a
circumstance of time is capable of morality,
138. The law of
the Sabbath is a homogeneal part of the moral law, and is therefore moral; and
whether it be moral in respect of the letter,
139. Whether
the decalogue is said to be the moral law in respect of the greater part only,
140-150. The law of
the Sabbath hath equal glory with all the other nine morals, and hath therefore
equal morality,
151-161. The Sabbath was given as a moral law to man in innocency,
162-173. The Sabbath
said to be sanctified, (Gen. 2.,) not merely in a way of destination or
anticipation,
174-176. Adam in innocency might need a Sabbath,
177. No types of Christ given to man in innocency,
178-188. The Sabbath was no type in respect of its original institution,
189-193. The heathens, by the light of corrupt nature, had some kind of knowledge of the Sabbath,
194-197. The law of nature diversely taken, and what it is,
198. No argument to prove the Sabbath ceremonial, because Christ appointed no special day for the Lord's supper,
199. No
argument to prove the Sabbath ceremonial, because it is reckoned among the
ceremonials,
200. Christ is
not said to be the Lord of the Sabbath, because it was ceremonial,
201. Though the Sabbath be made for man, yet it is not therefore ceremonial,
202. A fond
distinction of the Sabbath in sensu mystico et literati,
203. Although
we are bound to rest every day from sin, yet we are not therefore to make every
day a Sabbath,
204-205. The Sabbath was not proper to the Jews, because they only were able (as some say) to observe the exact time of it,
206-207. An answer to M. Carpenter's and Heylin's new-invented argument against the morality of the Sabbath,
II. OF THE THESES
CONCERNING THE CHANGE
OF THE
SABBATH.
1. Sufficient
light in Scripture for change of the Sabbath,
2. Apostolical
unwritten traditions no ground for change of it,
3. Neither
church's custom, nor any imperial law, ground of the change of it,
4-6. How the
observation of the Christian Sabbath ariseth from the fourth commandment,
7-9. How the first day in the week may be called the seventh day,
10-12. The will of God the efficient cause, the resurrection of Christ the moral cause, of the change of the Sabbath,
13-15. The ascension no ground of the change of the Sabbath,
16- 17. The rest of God being spoiled in his first creation by the sin of man, hence the day of rest may be well changed,
18-19. Neither the three days' resting of Christ in the
grave, nor the thirty-three years of Christ's labor, the ground of our labor
and rest now,
20. Not only Christ's resurrection, but an affixed type to the first Sabbath, is the ground of the abrogation of it,
21-24. What the affixed type to the Sabbath is,
25. The mere
exercises of holy duties upon a day are not any true ground to make such a day
the Christian Sabbath,
26. How holy duties on a day may evince a Sabbath day,
27-29. The first day of the week honored by the primitive churches from the commandment of the Lord Jesus,
30-33. The apostle's preaching on the Jewish Sabbath doth
not argue it to be the Christian Sabbath,
34. The first day of the week proved to be the Christian Sabbath by divine institution,
35. The first place alleged for the Christian Sabbath (Acts 20:7) cleared by nine considerations,
36. The second
place (from 1 Cor. 16:1, 2) cleared from seven considerations,
37-39. The third scripture (Rev. 1:10) cleared by two
general branches,
40. How the
Christian Sabbath ariseth from the fourth commandment, although it be not
particularly named in it,
41. The error of
those, especially in the eastern churches, who observed two Sabbaths,
42-43. How the work of redemption may be a ground for all
men to observe the Sabbath,
44. How far the judgment of God upon profaners of the Lord's day is of force to evince the holiness of the Sabbath,
III. OF THE THESES CONCERNING
THE BEGINNING OF THE
SABBATH.
1-2. Five several opinions concerning the beginning of the Sabbath,
3-12. The time for beginning of the Sabbath not according to the various customs of divers nations,
13-27. The time of the artificial day not the beginning and end of the Sabbath, as it begins and ends,
28-47. The beginning of the Sabbath not
48-49. The morning doth not begin the Sabbath,
50-57. That place of Matt. 28:1, usually alleged for the beginning
of it in the morning, cleared,
58. The
resurrection of Christ not aimed at by the evangelists to be made the beginning
of the day, although it be of the change of it,
59-63. John 20:10, cleared,
64-67. Paul's preaching till
68. The various
acceptation of the word day and morrow to answer many proofs alleged
for beginning the Sabbath in the morning,
69-71. Some that hold
the beginning of the Sabbath was from even to even until Christ's resurrection,
and then the time was changed, confuted,
72. There is not
the like reason for the Sabbath to begin at the first moment of Christ's entrance
into his rest, as for the first Sabbath at the beginning of the Father's rest,
73-74. The reasons for the change of the day are not the
same for the change of the beginning of the day,
75. The conceived
fitness for the beginning of the Sabbath in the morning rather than in the
evening is a vanity,
76-77. The evening
begins the Christian Sabbath,
78-80. The place Gen.
1:2, cleared,
81-85. The darkness
mentioned Gen. 1:2 was not punctum temporis,
86-89. The separation of light and darkness (Gen. 1:2) cleared,
90-93. Levit. 23:32
proves the beginning of the Sabbath at evening,
94-96. Nehemiah an
exemplary pattern for beginning the Sabbath at evening,
97-99. Those that
prepared for the burial of Christ began their Sabbath in the evening,
100. Christ's lying three days in the grave,
101-102. Those northern countries who have the sun in view divers weeks together in a year yet know when to begin the day,
IV. OF THE THESES CONCERNING THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SABBATH.
1. The word
Sabbath, what it signifies,
2. All weekly
labor for the rest of the Sabbath,
3. The rest of
the Sabbath the means for a higher end,
4-9. As strict a rest now required as was
formerly among the Jews, and those places cleared which seem contrary,
10. What
work forbidden on the Sabbath day,
11-13. Servile work forbidden, and what is a servile work,
14-19. The holiness required upon the Sabbath in five things,
20. A lamentation for profanation of the Sabbath,
PREFACE
OF
THE
AUTHOR TO THE
READER.
_______________________
THAT a
seventh part of time hath been religiously and universally observed both under
the law and under the gospel, is without all controversy; the great doubt and
difficulty which now remains concerning this time is the morality of it,
whether it was thus observed in the Christian churches by unwritten tradition, or by divine commission; whether from
the churches' custom, or Christ's command; whether as a moral duty, or as a human
law: for although some would make the observation of such a portion of time the
sour fruit of the Ebionites' superstitious doctrines, yet all the ancient and
best writers in the purest times do give such honor to it, that whoever doubts
of it must either be utterly ignorant, or willfully blinded in the knowledge of
the histories and doctrines of those times, and must desire a candle to show
them the sun and noonday. Clemens only seems to cast Borne stains on it by
making all days equal, and every day a Sabbath ; but upon narrow search, his
meaning may appear, not to deny the observation of the day, but only to blame
the froth and vanity of sundry Christians, who, if they externally observed the
day, they cared not how they lived every day after: nor is it to be wondered at
if Origen turn this day sometime into an allegory and a continual spiritual
rest day, who miserably transforms (many times) the plainest Scriptures into
such shapes, and turns their substance into such shadows, and beating out the
best of the kernels, feeds his guests with such chaff and husks; and although
many other festivals were observed by those times, which may make the Sabbath
suspected to be born out of the same womb of human custom with the rest, yet we
shall find the seventh day's rest to have another crown of glory set upon the
head of it by the holy men of God in those times than upon those which
superstition so soon hatched and brought forth; so that they that read the
histories of those times, in observing two Sabbaths in some places, Easter,
Whitsunday, yea, divers ethnic and heathenish days, will need no other comment
on those texts of Paul, wherein he condemns the observation of days; which,
beginning to fly abroad in the daylight of the apostles, might well outface the
succeeding ages, and multiply with more authority in darker times; yet so as
that the seventh day's rest (call it what you will) still kept its place and
ancient glory, as in the sequel shall appear.
When,
therefore, the good will of Him who dwelt in the burning bush of the afflicted
primitive churches gave princes and emperors to be their nursing fathers, pious
Constantine, among other Christian edicts, enjoins the observation of the
Lord's day; wherein (if he was bound by his place to be a nourishing father) he
went not beyond his commission, in swaddling and cherishing this truth and
appointment of Christ, and not suffering it to die and perish through the
wickedness of men; the power of princes extending to see Christ's laws
observed, though not to impose any human inventions and church constitutions of
their own. It is true, indeed, that this princely edict was mixed with some
imperfection and corruption, it falling too short in some things, and extending
too far in others; but there is no just cause for any to stumble much at this,
that knows the sick head and heart by the weak and feeble pulse and cross
temper of those clouded though otherwise triumphing times.
The
successors of this man child (born out of the long and weary throes of the poor
travailing church) were enlarged generally in their care and conscience to
preserve the religious honor due to this day, until the time of Charles the
Great, who, in the latter end of his reign, observing how greatly the Sabbath
was profaned, (especially by the continuance and lewdness of church men,) did
therefore call five national councils, (which I need not here mention,) in all
which the Sabbath is advanced to as strict observation to the full as hath been
of late years condemned by some in the Sabbatarian reformers, that it is a
wonder how any man should cast off all shame, and so far forget himself as to
make the Sabbath a device of Fulco, or Peter Bruis, Eustachius, or the Book at
Golgotha, and put the visor of novelty upon the aged face of it, as if it were
scarce known to any of the martyrs in Queen Mary's time, but receiving strength
and growth from Master Perkins, was first hatched and received life from under the
wings of a few late disciplinarian zealots.
And it can
not be denied but that the Sabbath (like many other precious appointments and
truths of God) did shake off her dust, and put on her comely and beautiful
garments, and hath been much honored and magnified, since the times of the
reformation; the doctrine and darkness of Popery (like that of the Pharisees)
not only obscuring the doctrine of faith, but also of the law and obedience of
faith, and so hath obscured this of the Sabbath ; only herein they did excel
their forefathers the scribes and Pharisees, for these added their own
superstitious resting from things needful and lawful to their merely external
observation of the day ; but they (unto their external observation of the name
of the day) added their abominable profanations to it, in May games, and May
poles, in sports and pastimes, in dancing and revelings, and so laid it level,
and made it equal, (in a manner,) to the rest of their holy days ; that as
they came to shuffle out the second commandment almost out of the decalogue, so
in time they came to be blinded with that horror of darkness, as to translate
the words of the commandment into some of their catechisms, remember to keep
the holy festivals; and therefore those worthies of the reformation who
have contended for all that honor which is due to this day are unjustly
aspersed for pleading for a Jewish and superstitious strictness, when the
cause they handle is no other, in truth, than to vindicate the Sabbath, both in
the doctrine and observation of it, from Papists' profaneness; and therefore
all the world may see, that under pretense of opposing in others a kind of
Judaizing upon this day, the adversaries of it do nothing else but maintain a
gross point of practical Popery, who are by law most ignorant and gross
profaners of this day; and therefore when many of Christ's servants are branded
and condemned for placing so much of religion in the observation of this day,
and yet Bishop White and some others of them shall acknowledge as much as they
plead for, if other festivals be taken in with it ordained by the church, (as
that they are the nursery of religion and all virtue, a means of planting faith
and saving knowledge, of heavenly and temporal blessings, and the profanation
of them hateful to God and all good men that fear God, and to be punished in
those which shall offend,) they do hereby plainly hold forth what market they
drive to, and what spirit acts them in setting up man's posts by God's pillars,
and in giving equal honor to other festivals and holy days, which those whom
they oppose do maintain as due to the Sabbath alone, upon better grounds.
The daystar
from on high visiting the first reformers in Germany, enabled them to see many
things, and so to scatter much, yea, most, of the Popish and horrible darkness
which generally overspread the face of all Europe at that day ; but divers of
them did not (as well they might not) see all things with the like clearness,
whereof this of the Sabbath hath seemed to be one: their chief difficulty lay
here; they saw a moral command for a seventh day, and yet withal a change of
that first seventh day, and hence thought that something in it was moral in
respect of the command, and yet something ceremonial, because of the change;
and therefore they issued their thoughts here, that it was partly moral and
partly ceremonial, and hence their observation of the day hath been
(answerable to their judgments) more lax and loose ; whose arguments to prove
the day partly ceremonial have (upon narrow examination) made it wholly ceremonial
; it being the usual unhappiness of such arguments as are produced in defense
of a lesser error to grow big with some man child in them, which in time grows
up, and so serve only to maintain a far greater; and hence by that part of the controversy
they have laid foundations of much looseness upon that day among themselves,
and have unawares laid the corner stones of some gross points of Familism, and
strengthened hereby the hands of Arminians, malignants, and prelates, as to
profane the Sabbath, so to make use of their principles for the introduction
of all human inventions under the name and shadow of the church, which if it
hath power to authorize and establish such a day of worship, let any man living
then name what invention he can, but that it may much more easily be ushered in
upon the same ground; and therefore, though posterity hath cause forever to
admire God's goodness for that abundance of light and life poured out by those
vessels of glory in the first beginnings of reformation, yet in this narrow of
the Sabbath it is no wonder if they stepped a little beside the truth ; and it
is to be charitably hoped and believed, that, had they then foreseen what ill
use some in after ages would make of their principles, they would have been no
otherwise minded than some of their followers and friends, especially in the
churches of Scotland and England, who might well see a little farther (as they
use to speak) when they stood upon such tall men's shoulders.
It is easy
to demonstrate by Scripture and argument, as well as by experience, that
religion is just as the Sabbath is, and decays and grows as the Sabbath is
esteemed: the immediate honor and worship of God, which is brought forth and
swaddled in the three first commandments, is nursed up and suckled in the bosom
of the Sabbath. If Popery will have gross ignorance and blind devotion
continued among its miserable captives, let it then be made (like the other
festivals) a merry and a sporting Sabbath ; if any state would reduce the
people under it to the Romish faith and blind obedience again, let them erect
(for lawful pastimes and sports) a dancing Sabbath ; if the God of this world
would have all professors enjoy a total immunity from the law of God, and all
manner of licentiousness allowed them without check of conscience, let him
then make an every-day Sabbath. If there hath been more of the power of
godliness appearing in that small inclosure of the British nation than in those
vast continents elsewhere, where reformation and more exact church discipline
have taken place, it cannot well be imputed to any outward means more than
their excelling care and conscience of honoring the Sabbath; and although
Master Rogers in his Preface to the 39 Articles, injuriously and wretchedly
makes the strict observation of the Sabbath the last refuge of lies, by which
stratagem the godly ministers in former times, being driven out of all their
other strongholds, did hope in time to drive out the prelacy, and bring in
again their discipline, yet thus much may be gathered from the mouth of such an
accuser, that the worship and government of the kingdom and church of Christ
Jesus is accordingly set forward as the Sabbath is honored. Prelacy, Popery,
profaneness must down, and shall down in time, if the Sabbath be exactly kept.
But why the
Lord Christ should keep his servants in England and Scotland to clear up and
vindicate this point of the Sabbath, and welcome it with more love than some
precious ones in foreign churches, no man can imagine any other cause than
God's own free grace and tender love, whose wind blows where and when it will; Deus
nobis haec otia fecit, and the times are coming wherein God's work will
better declare the reason of this and some other discoveries by the British
nation, which modesty and humility would forbid all sober minds to make mention
of now.
That a
seventh day's rest hath (therefore) been of universal observation, is without
controversy; the morality of it (as hath been said) is now the controversy. In
the primitive times, when the question was propounded, Servasti Dominicum?
(Hast thou kept the Lord's day?) their answer was generally this: Christianus
sum ; intermittere nonpossum, (ie., I am a Christian; I can not neglect
it.) The observation of this day was the badge of their Christianity. This was
their practice; but what their judgment was about the morality of it is not
safe to inquire from the tractates of some of our late writers in this
controversy; for it is no wonder if they that thrust the Sabbath out of paradise,
and banish it out of the world until Moses' time, and then make it a mere
ceremony all his time till Christ's ascension. If since that time they bring it
a peg lower, and make it to be a human constitution of the church, rather than
any divine institution of Christ Jesus, — and herein those that oppose the
morality of it by dint of argument, and out of candor and conscience, propose
their grounds on which they remain unsatisfied, — I do from my heart both
highly and heartily honor, and especially the labors of Master Primrose and
Master Ironside, many of whose arguments and answers to what is usually said in
defence of the morality of the day, whoever ponders them shall find them heavy;
the foundations and sinews of whose discourses I have therefore had a special eye
to in the ensuing theses, with a most free submission of what is here returned
in answer thereto, to the censure of better minds and riper thoughts; being
verily persuaded, that whoever finds no knots or difficulties to humble his
spirit herein, either knows not himself, or not the controversy. But as for
those whose chief arguments are reproaches and revilings of imbittered and
corrupt hearts, rather than solid reasons of modest minds, I wholly decline the
pursuit of such creatures, whose weapons is their swell, and not any strength,
and do leave them to His tribunal who judgeth righteously, for blearing the
eyes of the world, and endeavoring to exasperate princes, and make wise men
believe that this doctrine of the Sabbath is but a late novelty ; a doctrine
tending to a high degree of schism; a fanatic Judaizing, like his at Tewksbury;
Sabbata sancta colo, i.e., a piece of disciplinary policy to advance
Presbytery; a superstitious seething over of the hot or whining simplicity of
an over-rigid, crabbed, precise, crackbrained, Puritanical party. The righteous
God hath his little days of judgment in this Me to clear up and vindicate the
righteous cause of his innocent servants against all gainsayers; and who sees
not (but those that will be blind) that the Lord hath begun to do something
this way by these late broils? The controversy God hath with a land is many
times in defense of the controversies of his faithful witnesses ; the sword
maintains argument, and makes way for that which the word could not; those
plants which (not many years since) most men would not believe not to be of
God's planting, hath the Lord pulled up. The three innocent firebrands so fast
tied to some foxes' tails are now pretty well quenched, and the tails almost
cut off. This cause of the Sabbath, also, the Lord Jesus is now handling; God
hath cast down the crowns of princes, stained the robes of nobles with dirt and
blood, broken the crosiers, and torn the miters in pieces, for the controversy
of his Sabbath. (Jer. 17:27.) He hath already made way for his discipline also,
(which they feared the precise Sabbath would introduce again,) by such a way as
hath made all hearts to ache, just according to the words, never to be
forgotten, of Mr. Tidal, in his Preface to the
“Demonstration of Discipline.” The Council of Matiscon imputed the
irruption of the Goths into the empire to the profanation of the Sabbath.
But while I
am thus musing, methinks no measure of tears are sufficient to lament the
present state of times; that when the Lord Jesus was come forth to vindicate
the cause and controversy of Zion, there should rise up other instruments of
spiritual wickednesses in high places, to blot out the name and sweet
remembrance of this day from off the face of the earth. The enemies of the
Sabbath are now not so much malignant time-servers and aspiring brambles, whom
preferment principally biased to knock at the Sabbath; but those who have eaten
bread with Christ (a generation of professing people) do lift up their heel
against his Sabbath. So that, what could not formerly be done against it by
angels of darkness, the old serpent takes another course to effect it, by
seeming angels of light; who, by a new device, are raised up to build the
sepulchers of those who persecuted the prophets in former times, and to justify
all the books of sports, and the reading of them; yea all the former and
present profanations; yea, scoffs and scorns against the Sabbath day. For as in
former times they have ceremonialized it out of the decalogue, yet by human constitutio
have retained it in the church; so these of later times have spiritualized
it out of the decalogue, yea, out of all the churches in the world. For by
making the Christian Sabbath to be only a spiritual Sabbath in the bosom of God
out of Heb. 4., they hereby abolish a seventh-day Sabbath, and make every day
equally a Sabbath to a Christian man. This I hope will be the last, but it is
the most specious and fairest color and banner that ever was erected to fight
under against the Christian Sabbath ; and is most fit to deceive, not only
some sudden men of loose and wanton wits, but especially men of spiritual, but
too shallow minds. In times of light, (as these are reputed to be,) Satan comes
not abroad usually to deceive with fleshly and gross forgeries and his cloven
foot, (for every one almost would then discern his haltings,) but with more
mystical, yet strong delusions, and invisible chains of darkness, whereby he
binds his captives the faster to the judgment of the great day. And therefore
the watchword given in the bright and shining times of the apostle was, to try
the spirits, and believe not every spirit. And take heed of spirits, who indeed
were only fleshly and corrupt men, yet called spirits, because they pretended
to have much of the Spirit, and their doctrines seemed only to advance the
spirit; the fittest and fairest cobwebs to deceive and entangle the world, in
those discerning times, that possibly could be spun out of the poisonful bowels
of corrupt and ambitious wit.
The times
are now come, wherein, by the refined mystical divinity of the old monks, not
only the Sabbath, but also all the ordinances of Christ in the New Testament,
are allegorized and spiritualized out of the world. And therefore it is no
marvel, when they abolish the outward Sabbath, because of a spiritual Sabbath
in Christ, if (through God's righteous judgment blinding their hearts) they be
also left to reject the outward word, because of an inward word to teach them;
and outward baptism and Lord's supper, because of an inward baptism by the Holy
Ghost, and spiritual bread from heaven, the Lord Christ Jesus; and all outward
ordinances, ministries, churches, because of an inward kingdom and temple. And
the argument will hold strongly, that if because they have an inward Sabbath of
rest in the bosom of Christ, (which I deny not,) that they may therefore cast
away all external Sabbaths, they may then very well reject all outward baptism,
Lord's supper, all churches, all ordinances, because herein there is also the
inward baptism — spiritual feeding upon Christ, and inward kingdom and temple
of God. But thus they wickedly separate and sever what God hath joined and may
well stand together, through the madness of which hellish practice I have long
observed almost all the late and most pernicious errors of these times arise;
and those men who have formerly wept for God's precious Sabbaths and ordinances,
and have prayed for them, and pleaded for them, and have offered their lives in
sacrifice for them, and fought for them, yea, that hath felt perhaps the
comfort, sweetness, and blessing of God's Sabbaths, yea, the redeeming and
saving power of God's ordinances to their own souls, yet through pretenses of
more spiritual enjoyments above, and beyond, and without all these, they can
part with these their old friends without weeping, and reject them as polluted
rags, and fleshly forms, and dark veils and curtains which must be drawn aside,
that so they may not hinder the true light from shining in them.
This,
therefore, is the reason why the love of many at this day is grown cold toward
the external Sabbath, because the internal and spiritual Sabbath is now all in
all. And therefore many men walk either with bold consciences, and will observe
no Sabbath, or else with loose consciences, thinking it lawful to observe it,
(if men will enjoin it,) but not thinking that they are tied and bound
thereunto from any precept of God. That place of Heb. 4. which they so much
stick to, wants not light to demonstrate that the Sabbatism there may well
agree not only with the internal, but the outward Christian Sabbath. But some
of the ensuing theses will serve to clear up these things. This only I fear,
that because of these indignities done thus to God's Sabbaths, even by the
underworkings of some of God's own people, that the time hastens, wherein if
no man should speak, yet the right hand of the sore displeasure of a provoked
God, by plagues and confusion upon the glory of all flesh, will plead for his
own name, and for that in special which is engraven upon the forehead of his
holy Sabbaths.
1. Concerning the morality.
2. The change.
3. The beginning.
4. The sanctification of the Sabbath.
Being fully persuaded that whosoever shall break one of the
least commandments, and teach men so, shall be called least in the
1. Suspending his judgment concerning the truth
and validity of any part or of any particular thesis until he hath read over
the whole ; for they have a dependence one upon another for mutual clearing of
one another; and lest I should bis coctum apponere, and say the same
thing twice, I have therefore purposely left out that in one part, and one
thesis which is to be cleared in another, either for proof of it, or resolution
of objections against it; and although this dependence may not so easily
appear, (because I have not so expressly set down the method,) yet the
wise-hearted, I hope, will easily find it out, or else pick out and accept what
they see to be of God, in such a confused heap; for it was enough to my ends if
I might lay in any broken pieces of timber to forward this building, which
those that are able to wade deeper into this controversy may please to make use
of (if there be any thing in them, or in any of them) in their own better and more
orderly frame; for it hath been, and still is, my earnest desire to heaven,
that God would raise up some or other of his precious servants to clear up
these controversies more fully than yet they have been, that the zeal for God's
Sabbaths may not be fire without light, which perhaps hath hitherto been too
little, through the wickedness of former times, encouraging the books one way,
and suppressing those of most weight and worth for the other.
2. To consider that I do most willingly give way to the publishing of these things, which I could in many respects have much more readily committed to the fire than to the light; when I consider the great abilities of others ; the need such as I am have to sit down and learn; the hazards and knocks men get only by coming but into the field in polemical matters, and the unusefulness of any thing herein for those in remote places, where knowledge abounds, and where to cast any thing of this nature is to cast water into the sea. I confess I am ashamed therefore to be seen in this garment; and therefore that I have thus far yielded, hath been rather to please others than myself, who have many ways compelled me hereunto. The things for substance contained herein were first preached in my ordinary course, upon the Sabbath days, in opening the commandments. The desires of some students in the college, and the need I saw of resolving some doubts arising about these things in the hearts of some ordinary hearers among the people, occasioned a more large discussing of the controversy; to which I was the more inclined, because one among -us (who wanted not abilities) was taken away from us, who had promised the clearing up of all these matters. When therefore these things were more plainly and fully opened and applied to the. consciences of some more popular capacities as well as others, I was then put upon it to reduce the doctrinal part of these, sermons upon the fourth commandment into certain theses, for the use of some students desirous thereof; when being scattered, and coming to the view of some of the elders in the country, I was by some of them desired to take off some obscurity arising from the brevity and littleness of them, by greater enlargements, and a few more explications of them; which promising to do, and then coming to the hearing of many, I was then desired by all the elders in the country, then met together, to commit them to public view; which hitherto my heart hath opposed, and therefore should still have smothered them, but that some have so far compelled me, as that I feared I should resist and fight against God in not listening to them; in which many things are left but, winch perhaps might be more useful to a plain people, which then, in the application of matters of doctrine, were publicly delivered; and some few things are added, especial in that particular, wherein the directive power of the moral law is cleared against the loose wits of these times. We are strangers here (for the most part) to the books and writings which are now in Europe; but it is much feared that the increase and growth of the many tares and errors in England have been by reason of the sleepiness of some of the honest husbandmen; and that those who are best able to pluck them up have not seasonably stood in the gap, and kept them out by a zealous convicting and public bearing witness against them by word and writing; and that, therefore, such as have with too much tenderness and compliance tolerated errors, error will one day grow up to that head that it will not tolerate or suffer them to speak truth. We have a proverb here, that “the devil is not so soon risen but Christ is up before him;” and if any of his precious servants have slept and lain longer abed than their Master hath done, and have not spoken or printed soon enough for Jesus Christ in other matters, yet O that in this matter of the Sabbath God would betimes awaken, and that these weaknesses might stir up their strength; for I much fear and foresee that if it be not done, there is an hour and a nick of temptation in such a juncture of times approaching, wherein the enemy will come in like a flood, and rise up from all quarters against the doctrine of the Sabbath, and then farewell all the good days of the Son of man, if this be lost, which then men shall desire to see, and shall not see them. I have therefore been the more willing to let my own shame and weakness appear to the world, (if so it be found,) if this might be any means of doing the least good for keeping up the price of God's Sabbaths in the hearts of any. I have therefore spent the more time about the morality of the Sabbath, because the clearing up of this gives light to all the rest.
THE
MORALITY OF THE SABBATH.
________________________
Thesis 1.
time is one of the most precious blessings which worthless man in this world
enjoys; a jewel of inestimable worth; a golden stream, dissolving, and, as it
were, continually running down by us, out of one eternity into another, yet
seldom taken notice of until it is quite passed away from us. Man (saith
Solomon) knows not his time. (Eccl. 9:12.) It is, therefore, most just and meet
that He who hath the disposing of all other things less precious and momentous
should also be the supreme Lord and Disposer of all our times.
Thesis 2.
He who is the Disposer of all our times is the sovereign Lord of our persons
also, and is therefore the utmost and last end of both; for if our persons and
all our times be of him, they are then to be improved for him, as he sees most
meet.
Thesis 3.
Now, although all creatures in the world are of God, and for God, so that,
being of him, they receive their being from him as their first efficient, and
being for him, are therefore preserved and governed by him as their utmost end;
yet no other inferior visible creature is set so near to God, and consequently
is not in that manner for God, as man is.
Thesis 4.
For although all inferior creatures are made lastly for God, yet they are made
nextly for man; but man, having nothing better than himself, between him and
God, is therefore made both lastly and nextly for God; and hence it is that no
inferior creature, which comes out and issueth from God, hath such a reflux
and return again back unto God, as man hath; because, in and by this reflux and
return into him, man's immortal being is eternally preserved, like water
running into the sea again, from whence it first came.
Thesis 5.
For whatever is set next, and, as it were, contiguous to eternal, is eternal: Omne
contiguum aeterno spirituali est aeternum, (say some,) and hence it is that
the soul is eternal, because it is made nextly for God, and as it were
contiguous to him. The body also shall be eternal, because contiguous to the
eternal soul. But no other inferior creatures are thus eternal; for although
they be made nextly for man, yet so as that they are firstly for the body,
which is of itself mortal, and not eternal, and therefore, not being contiguous
to that which is spiritually eternal, are not so themselves ; and the reason of
this is, because all inferior creatures, as they come out from God, so their
motion is toward man, for whom they are nextly made, and they go out
straightforward from God, as it were, in a straight line toward man, to the
last end and term of which straight line when they are come, in the service of
man, they then can not proceed any farther, and do therefore perish and cease
to be, without reflecting, or returning back again immediately unto God. But
man, being made immediately and nextly for God, hath therefore his motion so toward
God as that he returns immediately unto him again, and is not led in a
straight line, but led (as it were) about in a circular motion, and hence
returning immediately to him, he is hereby eternally preserved in him, for whom
he is immediately made, and unto whom he is nextly contiguous, as hath been
said.
Thesis 6.
Now, although, in this return of man to God, (supposing it to be internal,
regular, and spiritual,) man's blessed being once lost is hereby recovered and
preserved in God, yet when man is left unto himself, the motions of his soul
out of this circle, in straying from God, are innumerable, and would be endless,
if God, who set him next unto himself, did not some time or other recall,
return, and lead him back again (as it were in a heavenly circle) into himself.
Thesis 7.
Look, therefore, as when man hath run his race, finished his course, and passed
through the bigger and larger circle of his life, he then returns unto his
eternal rest, so it is contrived and ordered by divine wisdom, as that he shall
in a special manner return unto and into his rest once at least within the
lesser and smaller circle of every week, that so his perfect blessedness to
come might be foretasted every Sabbath day, and so be begun here; that look, as
man standing in innocency had cause thus to return from the pleasant labors of
his weekly paradise employments, (as shall be shown in due place,) so man
fallen much more from his toilsome and wearisome labors, to this his rest
again. And therefore, as because all creatures were made for man, man was
therefore made in the last place after them; so man being made for God and his
worship, thence it is that the Sabbath (wherein man was to draw most near unto God)
was appointed after the creation of man, as Peter Martyr* observes, for
although man is not made for the Sabbath merely in respect of the outward rest
of it, as the Pharisees dreamed, yet he is made for the Sabbath in respect of
God in it, and the holiness of it, to both which, then, the soul is to have its
weekly revolution back again, as into that rest which is the end of all our
lives, labor, and in special of all our weekly labor and work.
Thesis 8.
As, therefore, our blessed rest in the fruition of God at the end and period of
our lives is no ceremony, but a glorious privilege and a moral duty, it being
our closing with our utmost end to which we are called, so it can not be that
such a law which calls and commands man in this life to return to the same rest
for substance every Sabbath day, should be a ceremonial, but rather a moral
and perpetual law; unless it should appear that this weekly Sabbath, like the
other annual Sabbath, hath been ordained and instituted principally for some
ceremonious ends, rather than to be a part, and indeed the beginning of our rest
to come; there being little difference between this and that to come, but only
this, that here our rest is but begun, there it is perfected; here it is
interrupted by our weekly labors, there it is continued; here we are led into
our rest by means and ordinances, but there we shall be possessed with it
without our need of any help from them; our God, who is our rest, being then
become unto us immediately all in all.
Thesis 9. Were it not for man's work and labor ordained and appointed for him in this life, he should enjoy a continual Sabbath, a perpetual rest. And therefore we see that when man's life is ended, his sun set, and his work done upon earth, nothing else remains for him but only to enter into his perpetual and eternal rest. All our time should be solemn and sacred to the Lord of time, if there were no common work and labor here, which necessarily occasions common time; why, then, should any think that a weekly Sabbath is ceremonial, when, were it not for this life's labor, a perpetual and continual Sabbath would then be undoubtedly accounted moral. It is hard for any to think a servant's awful attendance of his Lord and Master at certain special times not to be morally due from him, who, but for some more private and personal occasions allowed him to attend unto, should at all times continually be serving of him.
* Tu hic ordinem considera,
alia creantur propter hominem, ideo post ilia conditur homo. Homo vero ad Dei cultum ideo statim post illius
creation em Sabbathi benedictio et
sanctificatio inducitur. — Pet. Mart, in Praec. 4 m.
Thesis 10. The word
is ἀγραφον, and no Scripture
phrase, and therefore not proper fitly and fully to express the question in
controversy, to wit, whether the fourth commandment be a moral precept. The
best friends of this word find it slippery, and can hardly tell what it is, and
what they would have to be understood by it, and hence it is become a bone of
much contention, a fit mist, and swamp for such to fight in, who desire so to
contend with their adversaries as that themselves may not be known, either
where they are or on what ground they stand. Yet it being a word generally
taken up and commonly used, it may not therefore be amiss to follow the market
measure, and to retain the word with just and meet explications thereof.
Thesis 11. They who
describe a moral law to be such a law as is not typically ceremonial, and
therefore not durable, do well and truly express what it is not, but they do
not positively express what it is.
Thesis 12. Some
describe and draw out the proportions of the moral law by the law of nature,
and so make it to be that law which every man is taught by the light of
nature. “That which is morally and
universally just, (say some,) which reason, when it is not misled, and the
inward law of nature dictateth, by common principles of honesty, or ought to dictate
unto all men without any outward usher. It is that (say others) which may be
proved not only just, but necessary, by principles drawn from the light of
nature, which all reasonable men, even in nature corrupted, have still in
their hearts, which either they do acknowledge, or may at least be convinced
of without the Scriptures, by principles still left in the hearts of all men.”
But this description seems too narrow ; for, 1. Although it be true that the law natural is
part of the law moral, yet if the law moral be resolved into the law of nature
only, and the law of nature be shrunk up and drawn into so narrow a compass as
what the principles left in corrupt man only suggest and dictate, then it will
necessarily follow, that many of those holy rules and principles are not the
law of nature, which were the most perfect impressions of the law of nature in
man's first creation and perfection, but now, by man's apostasy, are
obliterated and blotted out; unless any shall think worse than the blind Papists,
either that man's mind is not now corrupted by the fall, in losing any of the
first impressions of innocent nature, or shall maintain, with them, that the
image of God (of which those first impressions were a part) was not natural to
man in that estate. 2. It will then
follow that there is no moral discipline, (as they call it,) that is, nothing
moral by discipline informing, or positively moral, but only by nature dictating,
which is cross not only to the judgments, but solid arguments, of men judicious
and most indifferent. 3. If that only is
to be accounted moral which is so easily known of all men, by the light of nature
corrupted, then the imperfect light of man's corrupt mind must be the principal
judge of that which is moral, rather than the perfect rule of morality
contained in the Scripture, which assertion would not a little advance corrupt
and blind nature, and dethrone the perfection of the Holy Scripture.
Thesis 13. They who
define a moral law to be such a law as is perpetual and universal, binding all
persons in all ages and times, do come somewhat nearer to the mark, and are not
far off from the truth, and such a description is most plain and obvious to
such as are not curious; and in this sense our adversaries in this cause affirm
the Sabbath not to be moral, meaning that it is not a law perpetual and
universal. Others, on the contrary, affirming that it is moral, intend thus
much — that it is perpetual and universal, a law which binds all persons, all
times, and in all ages; and herein lies the chief matter of controversy at this
day. Now in what respect and how far forth the law of the Sabbath is perpetual,
shall be hereafter shown; meanwhile it may not be amiss to inquire more
narrowly into the nature of a moral law. For though a law primarily moral is
perpetual, yet perpetuity seems to be an adjunct rather than of the essence of
a moral law, and the difficulty will still remain untouched, viz., to know when
a law is perpetual, and what is internal and intrinsical to such a law as makes
it perpetual, or moral; whereinto I would not search, lest I should seem to
affect curiosity, but that our critical adversaries put us upon it, with whom
there is nothing lost in case we gain nothing by wrestling a little with them
upon their own grounds, where for a while we shall come up to them.
Thesis 14. A divine
law may be said to be moral two ways. 1.
More largely and generally moral. 2. More strictly and specially moral.
Thesis 15. A law
generally moral is this—that the whole sovereign will of the Lord be done and
submitted unto by every creature; and in this large sense, every law of God,
whether ceremonial, judicial, or for special trial, may be said to be moral,
because the sovereign will of God is in all these laws to be adored. It is a moral
duty that God's will be done; and hence it is that so far forth as the will of
God is in them, so far forth to yield obedience to them is a moral duty; but
the question is not about this morality, nor what things are thus moral.
Thesis 16. A law
more strictly and specially moral, which concerns the manners of all men, and
of which we now speak, may be thus described; viz., it is such a law, which is
therefore commanded, because it is good, and is not therefore good merely
because it is commanded.
Thesis 17. This is
Austin's description of it long since, whom most of the schoolmen follow; which
learned Cameron, with sundry late writers, confirms, and which our adversaries
in this controversy plead hard for, and unto which the evidence of Scripture
and reason seems to incline; for laws merely judicial and ceremonial are good
laws, (Deut. 6:18, 24;) but this was merely because they were commanded, and
therefore it had been simply evil to burn incense, offer sacrifice, or perform
any ceremonial duty in the worship of God, unless they had been commanded. What
is there therefore in moral laws which is not in those laws? Verily, this
inward goodness in them which others have not, and because of which goodness
they are therefore commanded; for to love God, to honor parents, to preserve
the life of man, to be merciful, and bountiful, and just in all our dealings,
etc., are inwardly good, and are therefore commanded, and are therefore moral
laws; and hence we see that when the apostle would set forth the glory and
excellency of the moral law, (for of no other law can he speak, Rom. 7:7,12,)
he gives these titles to it — that it is holy, just, and good; which holiness,
justice, and goodness he opposeth to his own moral (not ceremonial) wickedness.
I am carnal, (saith he,) but the law is holy, just, and good. And look, as it
was evil in itself for to have a nature contrary to the law, so the law which
was contrary to that nature was good in itself, and was therefore commanded;
and therefore in this thing moral laws are in a higher degree good than such as
were only ceremonial, which were therefore good merely because commanded. The
prophet Micah therefore perceiving how forward many were in ceremonial duties
and sacrifices, in opposition hereunto, he tells them, “The Lord hath showed thee, O man, what is
good,” (speaking of moral duties, of showing mercy, and walking humbly with
God, Micah 6:8.) Were not sacrifice and offerings good, as well as mercy and
walking humbly? Yes, verily; but herein lies the difference, (as our most
orthodox generally make it,) sacrifice and offerings were not per se and
in themselves good, but only as commanded for higher ends, and to further moral
obedience, (Jer. 8:22, 23, and 6:19, 20. Is. 1:14, 16. Ps. 1:13-15;) but such
moral obedience as the prophet mentions, viz., to show mercy and to walk
humbly, were good in themselves, and were therefore commanded of God, and here
called by the prophet good. The sum of moral obedience is love to God and man.
(Matt. 22 .) But what love is this? Surely
it is in such things as are in themselves lovely, and consequently in
themselves good; for otherwise ceremonial obedience should be a part of moral
obedience, because in performing such obedience as is merely ceremonial, we
show our love to God also, it being a branch of love to have respect unto all
God's commandments. (Deut. 6:1-3, with 5:6.) Only herein our love toward God
appears in ceremonial duties, because these laws are commanded; our love
appears in the other, because the things commanded are also lovely in
themselves. The image of God is good in itself, as God himself is good in
himself. Now, the moral law is an exact rule of nothing else but God's image,
as is evident, Eph. 4:24, where the image of God is made to consist in holiness
and righteousness, the first table being the rule of the one, the second table
being the rule of the other; and hence it follows undeniably, that moral laws,
respecting only God's image, have respect only to such things as are good in
themselves, and wherein we resemble and are made like unto God. Some things
(saith Cameron) are good in themselves, viz., such things wherein God's image
shines forth, as he is holy, just, and good. (
Thesis 18. God, out
of his absolute sovereignty, could have made laws binding all persons in all
ages, (and in this respect moral,) without having any more goodness in them
than merely his own will; but it is his will and good pleasure to make all laws
that are moral to be first good in themselves for all men, before he will
impose them upon all men. And hence it is a weakness for any to affirm, that a
moral law is not such a law which is therefore commanded because it is good,
because (say they) it is not the goodness of the thing, but the sovereign will
of God, which makes all things good; for it is the sovereign will of God (as is
proved) to make every moral law good, and therefore to command it, rather than
to make it good by a mere commanding of it.
Thesis 19. The will
of God is indeed the rule of all goodness, and consequently of all moral laws;
but we know there is voluntas decreti and voluntas mandati, the
first of which is, viz., the will of God's decree, (as it appears in the
execution of it,) makes a thing to be good, whether it be creature or law; the second
of these, viz., the will of God's command, enjoins the practice of such a duty,
the rule and law to guide which is first made good (if it be a moral law) by
the wisdom and power of the will of God's decree ; so that the will of God
appearing in both these (viz., God's decreeing and commanding will) is the
complete rule of every moral law ; so that as no law is morally good merely
because it is commanded, so neither is it thus good unless also it be
commanded. God's will in all moral laws is first to make them good, and then to
command them, when they are thus far made good; both which together make up a
moral law.
Thesis 20. It is
true that sin is the transgression of God's law. There is nothing, therefore,
sinful but it is the transgression of some law; and hence there is no obedience
good but what is conformable unto some law. But we must know that as transgression
of any law doth not make a thing morally sinful, (for then to break a
ceremonial law would be a moral sin,) so also obedience to every law doth not
make a duty morally lawful and good, (for then obedience to a ceremonial law
must be a moral obedience.) Moral
transgression, therefore, is a breach of such a law which forbids a thing
because it is evil, as moral obedience is our conformity to such a law which
commands a thing because it is good; not that any thing is morally evil in
itself before it be forbidden, for then there should be a moral sin before,
and without any law to forbid it, which is most absurd; but because a thing is
evil in itself, and is therefore forbidden, it is therefore morally evil. God
may and doth make it fundamentally evil before it be forbidden, but it is not
morally
evil until it be forbidden. The
like may be said concerning moral obedience according to any moral law. No man
should therefore think that this description given of a moral law should give
occasion to any to imagine that some things are morally good or evil, before
any law pass upon them, and that therefore there are some duties, and some
sins, which are so without, and before, any law of God. For we see that things
good in themselves must be commanded, else they are not moral duties; yet
withal they are therefore commanded, because they are good in themselves. It
is true that, by the verdict of some of the schoolmen, some duties are morally
good before any law commands them, (as to love and magnify God,) and that some
sins (as to curse and blaspheme God) are morally evil, before any law forbids
them; but (to omit other answers) if such suppositions may be rationally made,
(which some deny,) yet it may be upon good grounds denied that any duty can be
morally good, or any sin morally evil, until some law pass upon them either to
command or forbid the same. It is indeed suitable and meet in nature for man to
love God, and unsuitable and unmeet to blaspheme and hate God; but such
suitableness or unsuitableness, as they make things fundamentally good or
evil, so they can not make any thing morally good or evil, unless we suppose
some law; for it would be, in this case, with man as it is in brute creatures,
who do many things unnatural, (as to eat up and destroy their own young,) which
yet are not morally sinful, because they are not under any moral law; and one
of the most ancient and best of the schoolmen, though he thinks that the
observance of the Sabbath before Moses' time was not secundum rationem praecepti,
or debite fieri, ie., was not actually commanded, yet that it was secundum
rationem honesti, hoc est digne fieri ; ie., it was congruous,
and a thing meet and worthy to be observed, even from the first creation. But
will any of our adversaries hence say, that because it was meet and worthy to
be observed, that therefore it was a moral law from the beginning of the world,
while it had no command (as is by them supposed) to be observed ? For it must
be something meet and congruous, and worthy to be observed of man, which, when
it is commanded, makes it to be a moral law; for then the law commands a thing
that is good, and because it is good it is therefore commanded ; which goodness
we must a little more narrowly now inquire into.
Thesis 21. If it be
demanded therefore, What is that goodness in a moral law for which it is
therefore commanded? the answer is given by Vasques, Suarez, Smisinga, and most
of the schoolmen, and sundry of our own writers, that it is nothing else but
that comely suitableness and meetness in the thing commanded unto human nature
as rational, or unto man as rational, and consequently unto every man. When I
say as rational, I understand as Master Ironside doth, viz., as right reason,
neither blinded nor corrupted, doth require. When I say as suitable to man,
and consequently to every man, I hereby exclude all laws merely judicial and
evangelical from being moral; the first of which are suitable to some men only;
the other are not suitable to some men as men, but to man as corrupt and
fallen, and therefore bind not all men, but only those among whom they are sufficiently
and actually promulgated, as is evident. (Rom.