N04855:154
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings: &c. In a letter to a pious friend in England. / By Thomas Shepard, M.A. Formerly of Emmanuel-College in Cambridge in England: afterward Minister of Cambridge in New-England. ; Corrected by four several editions.
Boston: printed by Rogers and Fowle, 1747
Case 6: CASE VI. Of Unwillingness to and Weariness in solemn Services.
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.
Again to your fourth question, to know whether these changes you have sometimes, and these movings of your Spirit, are not of natural temper, or God's Spirit. It seems I did a little mistake the meaning; because you meant not the main work of grace, but occasional stirrings and movings of the heart; as by reading some pathetical Letter, your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow, which it may be will not be stirred at some other time; as by drinking a cup of wine, the spirit is made more cheerful and lively, &c.
Again to your fourth question, to know whether these changes you have sometimes, and these movings of your Spirit, are not of natural temper, or God's Spirit. It seems I did a little mistake the meaning; because you meant not the main work of grace, but occasional stirrings and movings of the heart; as by reading some pathetical Letter, your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow, which it may be will not be stirred at some other time; as by drinking a cup of wine, the spirit is made more chearful and lively, &c.
Answ. I answer these three things.
1. First, That it is very usual for natural affections to be raised by a natural temper, as by drinking, eating, noveltiness of the Gospel. John's candle-flies were ravished with the Gospel: People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundering Minister, yet never a whit the more grace, &c. And it is a good speech of Doctor Ames: Arminian universal grace (as they describe it) may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes.
1. First, That it is very usual for natural affections to be raised by a natural temper, as by drinking, eating, noveltiness of the Gospel. John's candle-flies were ravished with the Gospel: People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundring Minister, yet never a whit the more grace, &c. And it is a good speech of Doctor Ames: Arminian universal grace (as they describe it) may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes.