N04855:695
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.
Sept. 8. I saw the Reason why I did walk no more humbly and holily was, because I did make the Creature something, and did not make God all Things. God is all; He that possesseth him, possesseth something, yea all Things. So long as the Creature is something, that something will stand betwixt God and me, that I shall not walk only in his Sight. This therefore is magnifying ⟨p. 47⟩of God, to make him All, the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency!
Sept. 8. I saw the Reason why I did walk no more humbly and holily was, because I did make the Creature something, and did not make God all Things. God is all; He that possesseth him, possesseth something, yea all Things. So long as the Creature is something, that something will stand betwixt God and me, that I shall not walk only in his Sight. This therefore is manifying ⟨p. 47⟩of God, to make him All, the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency!
I saw in my Sleep that Night, that a Christian was to act not only from a natural Power of Grace, which doth act with all its Might where it is; but by a Power supernatural, whereby he attempts Things above his own Might, and bears Evils above his Might. So that now I see a Christian should act for Christ with all his Might and beyond his Might, having the supernatural Power of Christ to help him thereunto.
Sept. 9. I saw the Vileness of Neglect of God in Duties, because the Neglect of Duties is the formalis Effectus, the proper Effect of lying in my Falls, in my Sins.