A59692:13
Subjection to Christ in all his ordinances and appointments the best means to preserve…
Subjection to Christ in all his ordinances and appointments the best means to preserve our liberty : together with a treatise of ineffectual hearing the word ... : with some remarkable passages of His life / by Thomas Shepard ...
London: printed by S.G. for John Rothwell, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
It is a wretched stumbling block to some, that his Sermons are somewhat strict, and (as they term it) legal: some souls can relish none but meal-mouthed Preachers, who come with soft and smooth, and toothless words, byssina verba byssinis viris: But these times need humbling Ministries, and blessed be God that there are any; for where there are no Law-Sermons, there will be few Gospel-lives, and were there more Law-preaching in England by the men of gifts, there would be more Gospel-walking both by themselves and the People. To preach the Law, not in a forced affected manner, but wisely and powerfully, together with the Gospel, as Christ himself was wont to do (Mat. 5. and elsewhere) is the way to carry on all three together, sense of misery, the application of the remedy, and the returns of thankfulness and duty. Nor is any doctrine more comforting than this humbling way of God, if rightly managed.
It is a wretched stumbling block to some, that his Sermons are somewhat strict, and (as they term it) legall: some souls can relish none but meal-mouth'd Preachers, who come with soft and smooth, and toothlesse words, byssina verba byssinis viris: But these times need humbling Ministeries, and blessed be God that there are any; for where there are no Law-Sermons, there will be few Gospel-lives, and were there more Law-preaching in England by the men of gifts, there would be more Gospel-walking both by themselves and the People. To preach the Law, not in a forc'd affected manner, but wisely and powerfully, together with the Gospel, as Christ himself was wont to do (Mat. 5. and elsewhere) is the way to carry on all three together, sense of misery, the application of the remedy, and the returns of thankefulnesse and duty. Nor is any doctrine more comforting than this humbling way of God, if rightly managed.
It is certain the foundations of after-•orrows and ruins to the Church, have ever been laid in the days of her prosperity, and peace, and rest, when she enjoys all her pleasant things. This the watchmen of Israel should foresee, and therefore what should they do but seek to humble and awaken, and search and melt mens hearts, and warn every one night and