A93085:125
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; how we may know whether we have heard the same effectually: and by what means it may be come effectual unto us. With some remarkable passages of his life. By Tho. Shepherd, late pastor of the Church of Christ in Cambridge in New-England. Now published by Mr. Jonathan Michel pastor of the said church in New England.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; how we may know whether we have heard the same effectually: and by what means it may be come effectual unto us. With some remarkable passages of his life. By Tho. Shephard, late pastor of the Church of Christ in Cambridge in New-England. Now published by Mr. Jonathan Michell pastor of the said church in New England.
London: printed for John Rothwell, 1652
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.
I have broken their iron yoke, saith the Lord, and I have burst thy bonds, and I have planted thee a noble Vine; yet hast ⟨p. 57⟩thou degenerated: and this is that which doth make them vassals or slaves. And in truth you never see Churches laid desolate; but when that time comes, men shall see, and shall profess it. When other Nations shall ask; Why hath the Lord dealt thus with his people? The answer shall be clear; They have broken the Covenant of the Lord. When many miseries come upon particular persons, what is the cause of it? then remember the Covenant thou hast broken with the Lord. Isa. 24.5, 6. They have transgressed the Law, speaking of the whole earth; And they have changed their Ordinances, and broken the everlasting Covenant. A people that might have had everlasting mercy, they would not submit to the Lord, they have broken this everlasting Covenant of the Lord: Now what follows? The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; and hence heavy things that are there written, shall befall the whole world; It is a sin that defiles the earth men tread on, and the houses men inhabit in, for it is a sin against most light: They which make Covenants have a great deal of light, and also most will. And that do's aggravate a sin; when the whole heart, as it were, do's give up it self to a lust, and breaks hereby all bonds. And it is a sin that men might avoid, if they would be watchful against: For it is a sinful thing to make a Covenant of impossible ⟨p. 58⟩things, therefore it lies heavy on the conscience of men afterwards; I might have been better, and might have walked better; Nay, it is a sin that do's destroy the Law of the Lord: this sin it do's destroy the very will of Christ. Hadst thou never been bound in Covenant; hadst thou laid by this Covenant, the will of God had been kept whole. As cords not used, are kept whole; but when broke, are utterly spoiled. When a man do's bind himself by a Covenant to the Lord, and then break it; he do's as much as in him lies, to destroy the Lord from being King.
I have broken their iron yoke, saith the Lord, and I have burst thy bonds, and I have planted thee a noble Vine; yet hast ⟨p. 57⟩