N04855:595
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 13. I questioned, whether the Lord could Pardon some Sins, or would? And I was made to cast my Eye upon the Gospel. Rom. 3.25. Whom God hath set out, to be a Propitiation, through Faith in his Blood. This Faith I saw to be nothing else, but Receiving God's Kindness, and special Favour with my whole Heart; and so was quite opposite to Doing. And herein, methought, the exceeding Riches of God's Grace appeared, That he should now, after all Wrongs done against him, offer special Love, and require me only to take it, and Possession of it: And so I felt my Heart receive it with my whole Spirit, with all my Heart. Only I questioned, Will the Lord receive me with his Hand again, when I receive it? And I saw, that the Lord had bound himself by Promise so to do, and I prayed that he would do so to me.
April 14. When I was at Prayer (having on my Bed that Morning seen how sweet a Thing it was to be ever near the Lord, and thereby filled with holy, sweet Affections unto God) I saw and I sorrowed a little for my Sins and vile Nature, which was ever carrying and haling me from God, the Fountain of all Goodness and Love; the Blessedness of which, when any see, they cannot but mourn for their Sin.
April. 15. When I looked over the Day I saw how I fell short of God and Christ, and how I had spent one Hour unprofitably. And why? Because, though the Thing I did was good, yet because I intended not God in it, as my last End, and did not set my Rule before me, and so set my self to please God, therefore I was unprofitable: And so I desired to be humbled for it. And so I saw the Nature of Fruitfulness, that it consisted in acting for God with Singleness of Heart.