A93085:143
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.
Therefore, this is that I would say: Oh, Brethren, let the Saints, let it be the care of all the faithful and people of God; the first thing that ye do, before the come to hear a Sermon, or receive a Sacrament, or to any Christian communion, or other Ordinance of God: Before thou dost come, endeavour it at least co bring thy soul to a God, to Christ, above all Ordinances, and break through the difficulties; heart is dead, and mind is blind, and God is gone; but yet break through difficulties, and wrestle with the Lord in prayer, and then ye will find the blessing of the Lord. The great reason why we enjoy not that mighty presence of the Lord in his Ordinances, it is this; Men come to Ordinances, and would enjoy Ordinances, but they never broke through difficulties, to come to a God: When men shall come to Ordinances only, (and blessed be God we have the temple of the Lord;) truly this will do you no good in the world.
Therefore, this is that I would say: Oh, Brethren, let the Saints, let it be the care of all the faithful and people of God; the first thing that ye do, before ye come to hear a Sermon, or receive a Sacrament, or to any Christian communion, or other Ordinance of God: Before thou do'st come, indeavour it at least co bring thy soul to a God, to Christ, above all Ordinances, and break through the difficulties; heart is dead, and minde is blinde, and God is gone; but yet break through difficulties, and wrestle with the Lord in prayer, and then ye will finde the blessing of the Lord. The great reason why we enjoy not that mighty presence of the Lord in his Ordinances, it is this; Men come to Ordinances, and would enjoy Ordinances, but they never broke through difficulties, to come to a God: When men shall come to Ordinances only, (and blessed be God we have the temple of the Lord;) truely this will do you no good in the world.
The 5th Degree of casting off the supreme ⟨p. 75⟩power of Christ in his Ordinances; many times when the soul cannot come to Christ, the Lord comes to it: Now then the supreme power of Christ is cast off, when the soul is unwilling or careless, to receive the stroke of the Eternal power of the life of Jesus into his heart; but contents himself with some beginnings, some sips and tastes, and doth not lye under the stroke of the eternal Spirit of the life of Christ.