N04855:513
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.
because though the Thing I did was good, yet because I intended not God in it at my last End, and did not set my Rule before me and so set myself to please God; therefore I was unprofitable. O that others from this Example would learn to lay the Stress of Religion here, and labour that whether they live, they might live to the Lord; or whether they die they might die to the Lord.
There is something in these Papers of the Rev. Mr. Shepard's that seems excellently calculated to be of Service to those who are in the Ministry in Particular. His Method of examining his Aims and Ends and the Temper of his Mind, both before and after Preaching, whether he had met with Enlargement, or Straitening, is an excellent Example for others that bear the sacred Character. By this Means they are like to gain a large Acquaintance with their own Hearts, as 'tis evident he had with his.
There is something in these Papers of the Rev. Mr. Shepard's that seems excellently calculated to be of Service to those who are in the Ministry in Particular. His Method of examining his Aims and Ends and the Temper of his Mind, both before and after Preaching, whether he had met with Enlargement, or Straitning, is an excellent Example for others that bear the sacred Character. By this Means they are like to gain a large Acquaintance with their own Hearts, as 'tis evident he had with his.
May the Blessing of Heaven attend the following Pages, that he who has long been dead may yet speak by them to the Instruction, Conviction and saving Benefit of many Souls.