N04855:156
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.
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.
2. That though the Being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body, yet the Exercise of grace, and many gifts of grace, together with the feeling of it, doth. And hence a good dinner, and sometimes wine, to a sad melancholy (if gracious) heart, may remove rem prohibentem that may keep grace, as joy and thankfulness, from working; and so take the grace and draw it out, ⟨p. 50⟩not create and diffuse the grace. The Prophet called, you know, for a Minstrel; which some think, and that upon good grounds, was to raise up his heavy heart, and make him cheerful and fit to speak: the body is the instrument, which if it be broken, the best graces will hardly sound; but if whole, then they will.
2. That though the Being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body, yet the Exercise of grace, and many gifts of grace, together with the feeling of it, doth. And hence a good dinner, and sometimes wine, to a sad melancholy (if gracious) heart, may remove rem prohibentem that may keep grace, as joy and thankfulness, from working; and so take the grace and draw it out, ⟨p. 50⟩