in all our prayers we are to looke for all good from the Father for his Sonnes sake to be conveyed us by the holy Ghost and hence it is said Iohn 6. 10. No man comâ—s to me but whom the Father draws Why It is the immediate office and worke of the holy Ghost to draw and apply the soul unto Christ why then is it said Vnleâ—se the Father draw The reason is because that which was perfected and consummated by the holy Ghost was intentionally and by way of purpose and decree begun originally by the Father and this is that which Christs words have chiefly reference unto viz the Father through the Son by the holy Ghost draws But I have waded too far in this Divinity the cleer knowledge of which is reserved for us in heaven But thus much to satisfie you yet the word Father in the Lords Prayer I conceive under correction as it doth not exclude any person of the God-head so it s chiefly set downe there not so much to denote the Person of the Father as the affection of God as a Father to us his Sons by Christ which we are to believe in our first approaching to our prayers to be as nay to transcend the affection of any father to his Son when we com to call upon him for those six things which the Petitions set down for those three ends kingdom power and glory which the Prayer concludes withall Your fourth trouble is your aptnesse to go to God immediately especially when his graces are most striving in his ordinances contrary to that of Christ Yee believe in God believe also in me So indeed it is usuall for religious nature often to out-run and get the start of grace as it appeares in many other so in this case you put looke as it is with every man when God awakens him effectually he first seeks to his kitchin physick to save himselfe by his duties praying mourning reâ—orming endeavouring repenting working before he will seeke out to the Physician and to Christ to save him Because it was naturall to Adam to seeke to live by his working it is naturall to every Son and branch of that root to seeke to save himselfe by doing as well as hee can or as God gives him the strength and grace So it is here It was naturall to Adam to depend upon and go to God immediately as a creature to a Creator as a Sonne to go nakedly to God as a Father Christ was not then known nor seen so it is naturall to every man when rectified Nature is stirred up to go immediately to God It is grace in the second Covenant that reveales and drawes to Jesus Christ and to God by Christ Heb. 7. 25. For cure of this distemper ponder but these three things 1. Cleerely convince the soule that the immortall invisible and most holy God that dwelleth in an un-approachable light hath set out himselfe to be seen or made himselfe only visible in Jesus Christ so that he would have no man looke upon him any other waies then as he hath revealed himselfe in his Son In whom though in all other creatures his vestigia and footsteeps are to be seen as he is God the face of God is to be seen which no creature is able to behold but there being the brightnesse of his gloryâ— and the expresse Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. And as hee is man the very heart of God both in respect of affection and will to be seen So that in and through Jesus Christ especially his humane nature the glory of the great God breakes out like the Sun through the clouds most brightly in respect of us and therefore in and through his humane nature we are onely to behold God in whom all that a Christian desires to know is to bee seen which is the face and heart of so deare a friend 2 Cor. 4. 6. Ioh. 14. 9 10. For we know by too lamentable experience how the whole world vanishing in their smoaky thoughts of the glory of God as he is considered in himselfe and not able to conceive or retain the knowledge of him did hence invent and set up I makes as â—it objects for their drunken staggering understanding to fasten upon and to be limited with and hence adored God before these as our Popish Hypocrites doe before the Altar and in these and at these as Papists doe in respect of their Images Hence the Lord to cure this inveterate naturall malady hath in the second Person united himselfe to man Christ Jesus through whom we are both able to our everlasting wonderment to see him and also here bound onely to behold him who as he is a sit handle for our faith so he is a â—it object for our weak mindes to behold the glory of the most high God in Wherefore then do you offer to go unto God without Christ when as you are not so much as to looke upon God but as he appeares in Christ Is not the humane nature of the Lord Jesus more easie to be seen and conceived of then the invisible unlimited eternall God-head 2. Secondly See evidently that there is not any dram or drop of God you have especially in Gods ordinances but it issues from the blood and is purchased by the intercession and delivered unto you by the hand of Jesus Christ Ephâ—s 1. 7. Hâ—br 7. 25. Iohn 5. 22. You should never have heard the sound of the gospel nor never have had day of Patience nor never have heard of Gods Ordinances to finde him in nor never have been comforted quickned enlarged affected by God Ordinances were it not for Jesus Christ the efficacy of whose blood and power of whose glorious intercession doth at the very instant you feele any good in Gods Ordinances prevaile with God the Father for what you feel for the Father loveth the Sonne and hath put all things into his hands Iohn 4. 35. that all men might honour the Son all the three Persons plotting chiefly for the honour of the second so that you may see nay you are bound to believe at the time you feele your heart savingly affected in any ordinance now the Lord Jesus who is at the right hand of God in heaven who is now in his glory now he remembring me a poore worme on earth now I feele the fruite of his death O what a miserable forlorn wretch had I been were it not for Jesus Christ Mercy could never have helped enlightned comforted quickned assured enlarged me and Justice could never have relieved my dead bloudy perisâ—ing lost Soul had it not been for Jesus Christ whose Spirit power grace comfort presence sweetnesse I taste drink and am satisfied abundantly with and now doe enjoy Oh Sir me thinks the sad meditation of this should make you in all Gods ordinances where you are apt to say you go immediately to God to hasten suddenly in your thoughts affections praises to Jesus Christ Nay me thinks you should speedily
CERTAIN 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 BY THOMAS SHEPHARD Sometimes of Emanuel-Colledge in Cambridge Now Preacher of Gods Word in New-England LONDON Printed by W. H. for Iohn Rothwell at the Sun and Fountain in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1650. Imprimatur This Reverend Author hath other practicall peeces Viz. The Treatise of the Sabbath Sincere Convert Sound Beleever Ioseph Caryl To THE CHRISTIAN READER THis holy Letter of that ready Scribe of Christs Kingdom is so full of Grace and Truth that it needs no other Epistle commendatory then it self Yet seeing the Lot is unexpectedly fallen upon my pen to give it a Superscription that it may passe current from hand to hand I do heartily in the first place dedicate it to thee thou bleeding troubled-spirit as a choice cordiall friend an Interpreter one of a thousand that doth not onely speak thy heart but by the Comforter whom Christ hath promised to send to thy heart It may be this paper present is sent on Embassie from Heaven on purpose to set thy house in order to untie thy bosome knots to bind the strong man and cast him out of thy doores that thy heart may be once againe set at liberty to serve the Lord thy God in thy generall and particular Calling whose service is thy freedome What is here sent by this Ambassador of Christ who is now the voice of one crying in the wildernesse to a wearie and heavy laden soule in this Island I had rather it should appeare to thy judgement in the serious reading and to thy conscience in the â—ome application thereof than from my opinion of it Therefore I shall onely adde as the Contents of this letter certain select Cases proposed and resolved in the severall paragraphs thereof as they lie in order in the pages following viz. Page 3. Trouble of mind in civil affaires by the secret injection of religious thoughts Page 4. From what Spirit such suggestions do arise Page 8. How to entertain them when they crowd in Page 12. Concerning the not being humbled for sinnefull distractions that hinder and interrupt the spirituall performance of holy duties Page 16. How a Christian may be said to be under the Covenant of works Page 18. How to conceive aright of that Mystery of Mysteries the blessed Persons in the Trinity Page 22. The souls aptnesâ—e to go to God immediately in holy duties without taking Christ Jesus by the hand Page 26. How to apply absolute promises to thy selfe though they are made indefinitely without condition Page 38. A notable discovery of a secret unwillingnes in the soule to seek God in the strictest solemn services before it entreth into them Weariness of them while they last and a gladnesse when they are ended Page 42. A sound confutation of that Hereticaâ—l Arminian Tenet viz. That the strength of Grace is to be got rather by Argumentation then inward Communication and influence arising from union with Christ Page 44. The experiences of this tried servant of Christ who is the Pen-man hereof how he was cured of Atheisticall thoughts whether they did wear out or whether by the diâ—t of Arguments they were rationally overthrown Page 48. Lastly whether those changes which a child of God hath sometimes and those movings of the spirit are caused by a naturall temper or Gods Spirit All which select Cases and many more that collaterally issue from their sides are judicioâ—sly resolved with much perspicuity and bâ—â—vity in these few sheets by the onely judge of all Câ—ntroversies the two edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God Thus humbly beseeching thee to read over this Epistle of Christ to thee with the same Spirit of love and of a sound mind which indited every line in it I doe desire to leave thee at the Throne of Grace in the armes of Christ with the Father of all Coâ—fort that thou mâ—iâ—st receive the Peace of God which passeth all understanding and be crowned with joy unspeakable and full of Glory I subscribe my selfe Friend Thine in any Spirituall furtherance of thy Faith William Adderley Dated from Charterhouse in London Febr. 1. 1647. Deare Sir I Dare not multiply many words in acknowledging and professing my own unfitnesâ—e and insusficiency to yeeld your loving and most welcom Letter that satisfaction which both your Self desire and it deserves Neither yet will I be so unfaithfull to you seeing your expectation â—uts me to reply neither ought I I think be so unserviceable to Jesus Christ who in you and by you beckens to me to take this call to write to you and not to neglect so faâ—r a seaâ—on seeing especially it may be possible my dyâ—ng Letter to you before I depart from hence and returne to him as not knowing but our â—ast disasters and Sea-straits of which I wrote â—o you may be but preparations for the execuâ—ion of this next approaching voyage Yet our â—eies are to the hils and our desires are your â—rayers and at this time my endeavour shall be in respect of your self to break open that light to you and to prepare it to you with that brevity I may and with what plainenesse I am able beseeching the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who must be when all failes the wonderfull Counsellor to give you the spirit of revelation and that after you have suffered a while by these outward temptations doubts fears desertions distractions which the Letter mentions hee would make you perfect stablish strengthen and settle you And this I verily think will be the unexpected yet happy joyfull and most glorious end of them For since I have observed and seen the lamentable ruines of the soule and seeming graces of many men by being rockt a sleep in a quiet still calme easie performance of duties without such awaking temptations and tumults within which it self complaines of I say since I have observed what a deale of mud is in the bottom of such standing Pools and what a deale of â—ilth is in such Moats which are inwardly at ease and not emptied from vessell to vessell next unto the donation of the Lord Jesus to a man I have accounted such tumultuoâ—s heart-storms and uproars together with the fruitfull strange effects of them the second mercy For I never saw that man kept from secret putrefaction and corruption that was not usually salted with such temptations especially in a Christians first Apprentiship which usually preserve him entire till death And therefore Dear Sir faint not for Jesus Christ will raise a world of blessings out of your present Chaos and confusions But I make hast to answer Before your reply to my first Letter your complaints are many Your first trouble is concerning your disturbances in civill affairs by the secret injection of Religious thoughts so that you know not how to follow the one without hazard of grieving
have your heart elevated and lifted up to Jesus Christ and say I receive this and taste this from Jesus Christ Oh but this is but a taste of the hony-comb with the end of my rod and if this presence of Christs Spirit I feel now be so sweet what is himselfe then 3. Thirdly Labour for increase of love and familiarity with Jesus Christ by taking notice of him by comming often to him by musing daily on his love as on a fresh thing by banishing slavish false feares of his forgetfulnesse of you and want of everlasting love towards you and then you know love will carry you speedito him amor meus pondus meum nay grant that you have been a stranger to Christ yet restore the love of Christ to life againe in your Soul and when you come to his ordinances where he dwells your Soul will make its first enquiry for him neither will it be satisfied till it hath seen him as we do them wee love towards whom wee have been greatest strangers Your fifth trouble is you know not how to apply absolute promises to your selfe as in Heb. 8. because they are made indefinitely without condition Conditional promises you say you can if you can find the qualification that gives you right to the good of the promise within you This usefull fruitfull question how to apply absolute promises to ones particular deserves a larger time and answer then now in the midst of perplexities I am able yet willing to give For when the Lord saith absolutely without condition that hee will take away the stony heart and he will put his feare into his peoples hearts c. and these kind of promises are made to some not to all to those only whom the Lord will and in generall to his people Hereupon the Soulâ—s of many Christians especially such as question Gods love towards them are most in suspence and therefore when they complaine of the vilenesse of their hearts and strength of their lusts let any man tell them that the Lord hath undertaken in the Second Covenant to heal their backslidings and to subdue their iniquities they will hereupon reply it is true hee hath promised indeed to do thus for some absolutely though they have no good in them but I that feele so vile a heart so rebellious a nature will he do this for me or no and thus the Soule floats above water yet feares it shall sink at last notwithstanding all that God hath said I will answer therefore briefly these two things in generall 1. I shall shew you to what end and for what use and purpose God hath made absolute promises not onely to them that be for the present his people but to them that in respect of their estates and condition are not 2. I shall shew you how every Christian is to make use of them and how and when hee ought to apply them For the first of these 1. First I conceive that as in respect of God himselfe there are many ends which I shall not mention as being needlesse so in respect of man there are principally these two ends for which the Lord hath made absolute promises 1. To raise up the Soul of a helplesse sinnefull cursed lost sinner in his owne eyes to some hope at least of mercy and help from the Lord For thus usually every mans Soul is wrought to whom the Lord doth intend grace and merâ—y he first turnes his eyes inward and makes him to see he is stark naught and that he hath not one dram of grace in him who thought himself rich and wanting nothing before and consequently that hee is under the curse and wrath of God for the present and that if the Lord should but stop his breath and cover his face and take him away which he may easily do and is to be feared he will that he is undon for ever Hereupon the Soul is awakened and falls to his kitchin physick as I spake before prayes and hears and amends and strives to grow better and to stop up every hole and to amend it selfe of every sinne but finding it selfe to grow worse and worse and perceiving thereby that he doth but stirre and not clense the puddle and that it is not amending of nature that he must attain to but he must believe and make a long arme to Heaven and apprehend the Lord Jesus which so few know or ever shall enjoy and hereby quench the wrath of God I say finding he cannot do thus no nor no meanes of themselves can help him to this hereupon he is forâ—aken of all his self wisdome and of all his vaine hopes and now sits down like a desolate widdow comfortlesse and sorrowfull and thinks there is â—o way but death and hell and the wrath of a displeased God to be expected And if any come and tell this Soul of Gods mercy and pitty to sinners I saith he its true he is even infinitely mercifull unto them who are rent from their sinnes and that can believe but that I cannot do and am sure shall never be able for to do and therfore what cause have I but to lie downe in my sorrow and to expect my fatall stroke every moment Reply againe upon this Soul and tell him that though hee cannot believe or loosen his heart from sinne yet that the Lord hath promised to do it that he will subdue all his iniquity and he will pardon all his sinne and that he will cause men to walk in his waies c. True saith the Soul againe hee will doe thus for his owne people and for them he hath chosen but I never had dram of grace in my heart and there is no evidence that the Lord is mine owne or that I am his Here againe the Soul lies downe untill the Lord discovers to the Soul that he will doe these things for some that have no grace or never had grace for these promises were made to such Here upon the Soul thinkes thus These promises are made for some that are filthy for why should God poure cleane water upon them for some that be hard-hearted for why should hee promise to take away the stony heart from them c. and if unto some such and I being such a one why may not the Lord possibly intend and include me seeing hee hath not by his promise excluded nor shut me out Indeed I dare not say he will but yet how do I or men or Angells know but yet I may be one Hereupon Hope is raised to life againe seeing God hath undertaken the worke for the vilest it is possible he may doe it for me now when I am vile and can doe nothing for my selfe And thus you may see the first end and use of absolute promises to be as it were twigges to uphold the sinking Spirits of hopelesse helplesse distressed Souls 2. The Second End and Use of them is this To create and draw out faith in Jesus Christ in the promises
feare them nor condemn your selfe for them as damning sinnes For satisfaction of which I hope this reply to your second trouble will give you some satisfaction Againe to your fourth question to know whether these changes you have sometimes and these movings of the Spirit are not of naturall temper or Gods Spirit It seemes I did a little mistake the meaning because you meant not the maine worke of grace but occasional stirrings and movings of heart as by reading some paâ—heticall Letter your Spirit is moved with joy or sorrow which it may be will not be stirred at some other time as by drinking a cup of wine the spirit is made more chearfull and lively c. I answer these three things 1. First That it is very usuall for naturall affections to be raised by a naturall temper as by drinking eating noveltinesse of the Gospel Iohn's candle flies were ravished with the Gospel People are naturally moved sometimes by a thundering Minister yet never a whit the more grace c. and it is a good speech of Doctor Ames Arminian universall grace as they describe it may be the effect of a good dinner sometimes 2. That though the being of grace depends not upon the temper of the body yet the exercise of grace and many gifts of grace together with the feeling of it doth And hence a good dinner and sometimes wine to a sad melancholy if gracious heart may remove rem prohibentem that may keepe grace as joy and thankefullnesse from working and so take the grace and draw it out not create and diffuse the grace The Prophet called you know for a Minstril which some thinke and that upon good grounds was to raise up his heavy heart and make him chearfull and fit to speake the body is the instrument which if it be broken the best grace will hardly sound but if whole then they will 3. If you would know when these things onely draw out grace or make a thing like unâ—o grace in the Soul I answer by these two things chiefly 1. If it be true grace it ever makes you more humble and vile in your owne eyes and say Lord why dost thou give me any desire to thee any cheerfulnesse in serving thee c. 2. It makes you more thankefull and to blesse the Lord that he thus remembers you for this is a standing rule what ever comes from nature and a mans selfe it ever builds up it selfe and returnes to selfe againe what ever grace comes from Christ it drives a man out of himselfe by making him humble and draws him unto Christ that sent him by making him thankfull I thinke all grace and stirrings and movings that have not this double effect in some measure are to be suspected and if they have it is dangerous to doubt whether they are true or no 5. Again Your â—ifth thing about providence you say you cannot see a positive providence although you do see a negative providence in all your occasions and comforts and crosses you meet withall as namely you can thanke God for not taking away your life c. but you cannot see God giving it I answer 1. Consider what I writ to you at first about this question in generall 2. Ponder sadly whether any creature or appurtenance to it hath its being from it selfe or from the will and word of God viz. I will have such a man to be and such a memory to be c. I thinke you will say nothing can make it selfe therefore here is a positive providence in having life liberty c. 3. Consider whether the same will and word that gives it a being together with all the appurtenances to it doth not also give it act and motion That it is so I thus demonstrate it 1. Every creature is made for an end for no wise efficient but workes for some wise end 2. That no creature can lead it selfe to its end if sinnefull or irrationall 3. God must and doth lead it by its severall acts and movings to that end Hence 4. Every act is determined by God And although I grant some creatures move freely some necessarily yet it is from a positive will and providence that they move act and see Therefore you see what cause there is to see a positive providence in every thing Concerning the rest of your letter Oh that I had time and heart to write more yet I hope I have writ enough for this time and the Lord knowes whether evermore or no However I thanke you heartily for improving me this way of writing who have my mouth slopt from speaking I wish I had more such friends to deale thus with me and my selfe more time and a more fruitfull head and heart to improve my selfe this or any other like way for them For who knowes what breathings of Gods Spirit are lost for want of writing especially when there is no season of speaking Truly Sir I meet with few that are much troubled in that manner as your selfe but they goe on in an easie quiet and very dangerous way which troubles I perswade my selfe keep you awaking when other virgins are slumbring and after which I am perswaded the Lord intends to use you for more then common service if you wade well through them however as I said before be not discouraged or too much perplexed in sorrow for them For surely as farre as I can guesse the Lord is preparing you for himselfe by them I shall not forget you though I never saw you and I beseech you if you have any sparke of affection toward me kindled by these few lines remember when you are best able to pray for your selfe to remember to looke after me and mine and all that go with me on the mighty waters and then to looke up and sigh to Heaven for me that the Lord would out of his free grace but bring me to that good land and those glorious Ordinances and that there I may but behold the face of the Lord in his Temple though hee never delight to use me there though I and mine should possibly beg there and that if the Lord should call me to my solemne worke and service for the good of his Church and People and company that goe with me or are gone before me that then the â—ord Jesus would reveale his secrets to me and enable me the little time I have to live to befâ—uitfull to him and to have a larger heart then ever for him As for your selfe I shall desire the Lord to keep you blamelesse and unspotted in an evill world and that as he hath begun so he would perfect and crowne his divine graces and worke in you and that you may be preserved from nationall sins which shortly bring National and most heavy plagues And the presence of the Lord may abide with you and in you untill the Lord call for you Remember my kinde love to your Father whose name I have forgot and by whom I could not send these lines being then hindred by businesse Now the peace of Jesus Christ be with you and keepe you upright and blamelesse till death And if I never see you more till the last and great day then Farewell Farewel Yours in Iesus Christ T. S. Mr. Shepherd of New-England Two things to be considered about motionâ— How to try the motions of Gods Spirit 2 Meanes Quest 2. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Quest 4. Answ. Quest 5. Answ. How to apply absolute promises Object Quest Answ. Quest 1. Answ. Quest 2. Answ. Quest 3. Answ. Object Answ. Answ. 2. Quest 4. Answ. Answ. 1.