N04855:578
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
MEDITATIONS AND Spiritual Experiences OF Mr. THOMAS SHEPARD.
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.
April 10. I had many Thoughts which came in to press me to give my self to Christ Jesus, which was ⟨p. 16⟩the dear best Thing I had. And I saw, If when I gave my self to Christ, He would give himself to me again, that it would be a wonderful Change: to have the bottomless Fountain of all Good communicated to me. Thus two or three Days I was exercised about this. And at last, (which was the Day before I fell sick on the Sabbath) in my Study, I was put to a double Question. (1) Whether Christ would take me, if I gave my self to him? (2) Whether I might take him again upon it? And I resolved to seek an Answer to both from God, in Meditation. So after Dinner on the Saturday,
April 11. I gave my self up to the Lord thus;
1. I acknowledged, all I had or was, was his own; (as David spake of their Offerings) and so I acknowledged him the Owner.
2. I resigned not only my Goods and Estate, but Child, Wife, Church and Self unto the Lord, out of Love, as being the best and dearest Things which I have.