N04855:656
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.
The Matter of my Peace, or that wherein I have Peace, is Christ's Death. The Means of this my Peace is Faith only. The immediate Evidence of my Peace and Pacification is Faith apprehending Christ's Death. The Evidences being (1) the Word of the Gospel, (2) the Spirit of Adoption discovering the Work of Faith in the Heart. The Evidence of the Truth of Faith, and so of my Peace is Sanctification. This only I question, whether Faith saith, My Peace is made, and Sanctification saith, Thy Faith is good. Only I add, it's possible for some sincere Christians first to see their Sanctification and Holiness, and so their Faith and Peace. But the Question is, Whether they should not first see their Faith and Peace, and so their Sanctification arising from thence? And so as Mr. Culverwell notes, not build their Faith upon their Life but their life upon their Faith, and their Faith upon God's free Grace.
(5) I saw that the Reason why Faith in Christ's Blood, and not simply in Christ did justify and pacify, was because an humbled Sinner ever feels and sees Death before him; and hence the Lord, according to his Need, opens Christ and presents him thus to him. As also, why Paul called Sin a Body of Death. (1) Because he saw he must die for it; the Remnants of Sin were Death. (2) Because they were cross to the ⟨p. 37⟩Life of Christ in him. All this was the Day before the Sacrament July 10. 1641. And I thought now I felt some Growth, which I came for in other Sacraments.
On the Evening of this Day before the Sacrament, I saw it my Duty to sequester my self from all other Things for the Lord the next Day. And (1) I saw, I was to pitch on the right End, (2) on the Means, all Things to lead me to that End. I saw mine own Ends were, to procure Honour, Pleasure, Gain to my self and not the Lord: and I saw how impossible it was for me to attain those Ends I should attain, viz. To seek the Lord for himself, to lay up all my Honour, Pleasure &c. in him. Or if I did, it was for myself, because good unto me. So the Lord helped me thus. To see,