N04855:688
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.
Aug. 21. On Saturday at Even I was praying, and the Lord made himself very precious to me, because I might come to him, have Access in Prayer (1) At any Time, (2) might lay open all my Wants with Pleasing to him, (3) with Certainty of speeding. And when I saw that my great Sin did lie in not keeping ⟨p. 44⟩the Savour (at least) of the Lord and his Ways, I did thereupon see, (1) that the Remembrance of this Truth would be one Means to maintain it, as it gave it; (2) I saw there is no Wrath like this to be governed by my own Lusts for my own Ends.
Aug. 24. I saw [1] that the Means of being immovable was Sense of God's Sufficiency and Efficiency by Faith. [2] I saw that I was not made immovable by resting on my Faith, and the Rest of Faith which sometimes I felt; but by resting on God as only able to support my Faith, and me by it. [3] I saw how exceeding short I fell of that Holiness God requires. And hence I saw the Reason why Men seek after no more Holiness, nor are more holy, is (1) because they think, they are holy as God would have them, and as other Christians be: They set up their Pitch: Or (2) because of their Impotency and Weakness, and they could do no more than they did. [4] I saw there is great Matter of Humbling, that I am not so holy as I should be; but am infinitely short; but much more, that I am not so holy as I might be through Christ.
Aug. 24. I saw [1] that the Means of being immoveable was Sense of God's Sufficiency and Efficiency by Faith. [2] I saw that I was not made immoveable by resting on my Faith, and the Rest of Faith which sometimes I felt; but by resting on God as only able to support my Faith, and me by it. [3] I saw how exceeding short I fell of that Holiness God requires. And hence I saw the Reason why Men seek after no more Holiness, nor are more holy, is (1) because they think, they are holy as God would have them, and as other Christians be: They set up their Pitch: Or (2) because of their Impotency and Weakness, and they could do no more than they did. [4] I saw there is great Matter of Humbling, that I am not so holy as I should be; but am infinitely short; but much more, that I am not so holy as I might be through Christ.