A93085:341
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.
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.
One would wonder that those Jewes that heard John and his disciples, Moses and the Prophets, nay Gods voice from heaven, saying, This is my sonne, 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 remaine not stir'd, 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, farre 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 heare, and the blinde to see.
Use 2. Use 2 Hence see why the Saints find such changes and alterations in themselves when they come to hear; sometimes their hearts are quickened, fed and cherished, ⟨p. 162⟩healed and comforted, relieved and visited; sometime again dead and senseless, heavy and hardened. Mark 8.17, 18, 21. How is it ye do not under stand? Nay which is more, that the same truth which they hear at one time, should affect them, and at another time doth not; the same thing which they have heard a hundred times, and never stirred them, at last should. The reason is, they heard the Word of God spoken at one time, but not God speaking; and they heard the Lord speaking that same Word at another time; the Lord is in his Word at one time, the Word goes alone at another time; as in Eliab, the Lord was not in the whirlwind, but he spake in the still voice, and hence there he was to Elijah,