A93085:340
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.
Use 1. Use. 1 Hence see the reason, why the Word is so wonderfully ineffectual to the souls of many men, that it never stirs them, that it's a strange thing to them; it's Heb. 12.19. like the law, a voice of words, a sound of words, so they hear men spake, but understand no more then if they speak in a strange language, or if they do, it concerns not them; or if it stirs, 'tis but as ⟨p. 161⟩the blowing of the wind upon a rock, which blusters for a time; but when the wind is down they are still. Truly they hear the word spoken, but they do not hear God speaking. They heard Latimer speak, but not God speaking, they hear a sound, which every one says, and they think is the word, but they hear not God speaking it.
Ʋse 1. Ʋse. 1 Hence see the reason, why the Word is so wonderfully ineffectual to the soules of many men, that it never stirs them, that it's a strange thing to them; it's Heb. 12.19. like the law, a voice of words, a sound of words, so they hear men spake, but understand no more then if they speak in a strange language, or if they do, it concernes not them; or if it stirs, 'tis but as ⟨p. 161⟩the blowing of the winde upon a rock, which blusters for a time; but when the winde is down they are still. Truly they hear the word spoken, but they do not hear God speaking. They heard Latimer speak, but not God speaking, they hear a sound, which every one sayes, and they think is the word, but they hear not God speaking it.
One would wonder that those Jews that heard John and his disciples, Moses and the Prophets, nay Gods voice from heaven, saying, This is my son, that they should not hear this, and receive him with all their hearts, but they did not hear his voice. One would wonder to see, that such things which a gracious heart thinks, this would draw every heart, yet remain not stirred, things which the devils tremble at, and others which Angels wonder at, yet they hear not. Oh they hear not God speak, they are dead in their graves, far from God; and there they are kept by the mighty power of Satan, like one in a deep dark cave, kept by fiery dragons under the ground, and the tombstone is laid upon them. If Christ spake he would make the dead to hear, and the blind to see.