N04855:714
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.
Octob. 29. I was much troubled about the Poverty of the Churches; and I saw it was such a Misery as I could not well discern the Cause of, nor see any Way out: Yet I saw we might find out the Cause of any Evil by the Lord's Stroke. Now he struck us in outward Blessings, and hence 'tis a Sign there was our Evil; (1) In not acknowledging all we have from God, Hos. 2.8. (2) In not serving God in the having of them, (3) In making ourselves secure and hardhearted: For lawful Blessings are the secret Idols, and do most Hurt: And 'tis then a Sign our greatest Hunt lies in Having, and that the greatest Good lies in God's taking them away from us. Whereupon I considering this, did sweetly content my self that the Lord should take all from us, if it might be not in Wrath, but in Love, viz. hereby to glorify himself the more, and to take away the Fuel of our Sin. I saw that if God's People could be joyfully content to part with all to the Lord, prizing the Gain of a little Holiness ⟨p. 57⟩more than enough to overbalance all their Losses, that the Lord then would do us Good.
Octob. 29. I was much troubled about the Poverty of the Churches; and I saw it was such a Misery as I could not well discern the Cause of, nor see any Way out: Yet I saw we might find out the Cause of any Evil by the Lord's Stroke. Now he struck us in outward Blessings, and hence 'tis a Sign there was our Evil; (1) In not acknowledging all we have from God, Hos. 2.8. (2) In not serving God in the having of them, (3) In making ourselves secure and hardhearted: For lawful Blessings are the secret Idols, and do most Hurt: And 'tis then a Sign our greatest Hunt lies in Having, and that the greatest Good lies in God's taking them away from us. Whereupon I considering this, did sweetly content my self that the Lord should take all from us, if it might be not in Wrath, but in Love, viz. hereby to glorify himself the more, and to take away the Fuel of our Sin. I saw that if God's People could be joyfully content to part with all to the Lord, prizing the Gain of a little Holiness ⟨p. 57⟩more than enough to overballance all their Losses, that the Lord then would do us Good.