N04855:33
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
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.
Yet seeing the Lot is unexpectedly fallen upon my Pen, to give it a Superscription that it may pass current from Hand to Hand; I do heartily in the first Place, dedicate it to thee, thou bleeding-troubled-Spirit, as a choice cordial Friend, and Interpreter, one of a Thousand, that doth not only speak thy Heart, but by the Comforter (whom Christ hath promised to send) to thy Heart.
Yet seeing the Lot is unexpectedly fallen upon my Pen, to give it a Superscription that it may pass current from Hand to Hand; I do heartily in the first Place, dedicate it to thee, thou bleeding-troubled-Spirit, as a choice condial Friend, and Interpreter, one of a Thousand, that doth not only speak thy Heart, but by the Comforter (whom Christ hath promised to send) to thy Heart.
It may be this Paper present is sent on Embassy, from Heaven, on Purpose, to set thy House in Order, to untie thy Bosom-Knots, to bind the strong Man, and cast him out of thy Doors; that thy Heart may be once again set at Liberty, to serve the Lord thy God in thy general and particular Calling, whose Service is thy Freedom. What is here sent by this Ambassador of Christ, (who is now the Voice of one crying in a Wilderness) to a weary and heavy laden Soul in this Island; I had rather it should appear to thy Judgment in the serious Reading, and to thy Conscience in the home Application thereof, than from my Opinion of it: Therefore I shall only add (as the Contents of this Letter) certain select Cases, proposed and resolved in the several Paragraphs thereof, as they lye in Order in the Pages following, viz.
It may be this Paper present is sent on Embassy, from Heaven, on Purpose, to set thy House in Order, to unty thy Bosom-Knots, to bind the strong Man, and cast him out of thy Doors; that thy Heart may be once again set at Liberty, to serve the Lord thy God in thy general and particular Calling, whose Service is thy Freedom. What is here sent by this Ambassador of Christ, (who is now the Voice of one crying in a Wilderness) to a weary and heavy laden Soul in this Island; I had rather it should appear to thy Judgment in the serious Reading, and to thy Conscience in the home Application thereof, than from my Opinion of it: Therefore I shall only add (as the Contents of this Letter) certain select Cases, proposed and resolved in the several Paragraphs thereof, as they lye in Order in the Pages following, viz.