N04855:675
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.
[2] I saw my Heart very ready to neglect Prayer for two Causes; (1) From thinking, that I had prayed enough, when I had prayed earnestly and had no more Arguments to use. But I saw that all Prayer was little enough for that End, to help down Mercy. The Lord would have me get Mercy hardly, though all the Friends I had, prayed for me. (2) Because I thought God would hear and forgive Sin and heal my Soul. But ⟨p. 42⟩I saw if he did it, I must daily mourn under it and so get Strength against it.
August 15. I saw on the Sabbath four Evils that attend me in my Ministry.
1. The Devil either treads me down by Discouragement and Shame: (1) from the Sense of the Meanness of what I have provided in private Meditations; and to this I saw also an Answer, viz. That every Thing sanctified to do Good, it's Glory is not seen in it's self, but in the Lord's sanctifying of it. Or (2) from an Apprehension of the Unsavouriness of Men's Spirits, and their Unreadiness to hear in hot or cold Seasons. But here I saw, I ought not to be as a Reed shaken with the Wind.
1. The Devil either treads me down by Discouragement and Shame: (1) from the Sense of the Meanness of what I have provided in private Meditations; and to this I saw also an Answer, viz. That every Thing sanctified to do Good, it's Glory is not seen in it's self, but in the Lord's sanctifying of it. Or (2) from an Apprehension of the Unsavoriness of Men's Spirits, and their Unreadiness to hear in hot or cold Seasons. But here I saw, I ought not to be as a Reed shaken with the Wind.