A93085:337
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.
Reas. 1. From that great distance and infinite separation of mens souls from God, that though God calls, Reason 1 yet they can't hear no more then men a 1000 mile off. Eph. 2.1. men are dead in sin. Now what is spiritual death, but separation of the soul from God, & God from it. A dead man cannot hear one word at no one time, he was not dead if he could. Mens minds are far from God, & hearts also, that they are neither stricken with the sight of his glory, nor sense and savour of his goodness, but must be vain, and have worldly hearts in the Church, nay adulterous eyes, or if they listen, God is gone from them, and from his Word also, Hos. 5.6.
Reas. 1. From that great distance and infinite separation of mens soules from God, that though God cals, Reason 1 yet they can't hear no more then men a 1000 mile off. Eph. 2.1. men are dead in sin. Now what is spiritual death, but separation of the soul from God, & God from it. A dead man cannot hear one word at no one time, he was not dead if he could. Mens minds are far from God, & hearts also, that they are neither stricken with the sight of his glory, nor sense and savour of his goodnesse, but must be vaine, and have worldly hearts in the Church, nay adulterous eyes, or if they listen, God is gone from them, and from his Word also, Hos. 5.6.
Reas. 2. From the mighty and wonderful strange power of Satan, Reason 2 which blinds their eyes they cannot see nor hear, 2 Cor. 4.4. never such clear light, never such an effectual Word, as that of the Apostles, yet it was hid; why? The God of this world blinded them, either he will keep such a noise and lumber in their heads, that they cannot hear God speaking for the noise, or else turn himself into an Angel of light, and speak, and by their light will blind them, that the light in them shall be darkness.