N04855:658
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.
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,
(1) If Honour, Pleasure was good; Oh, how good was he who gave them, and could have cut me short of them? And so my Heart was raised up a little unto God.
(2) I saw my Blessedness did not chiefly lie in receiving Good and Comfort from God, and in God; but in holding forth the Glory of God and his Virtues. For 'tis, I saw, an amazing, glorious Object, to see God in a Creature; GOD speak, GOD act: The Deity not being the Creature, and turned into it, but filling of it, shining through it: To be covered with God, as with a Cloud; or as a Glass Lantern, to have his Beams penetrate through it. Nothing is good but God; and I am no further good, than as I hold forth God. The Devil overcame Eve to damn her Self by telling her, she should be like God. O that's a glorious Thing! And should not I be holy, and so be like him indeed?
(2) I saw my Blessedness did not chiefly lie in receiving Good and Comfort from God, and in God; but in holding forth the Glory of God and his Virtues. For 'tis, I saw, an amazing, glorious Object, to see God in a Creature; GOD speak, GOD act: The Deity not being the Creature, and turned into it, but filling of it, shining thorow it: To be covered with God, as with a Cloud; or as a Glass Lantern, to have his Beams penetrate thorow it. Nothing is good but God; and I am no further good, than as I hold forth God. The Devil overcame Eve to damn her Self by telling her, she should be like God. O that's a glorious Thing! And should not I be holy, and so be like him indeed?