between himselfe and himself himselfe as he is in Christ and so to joy and triumph and himselfe as hee is growing on his first root and so to sorrow and loath and condemn himself so that to wiâ—de up all that I have said looke upon your selfe as in Christ you may say these involuntary infirmities do not shall not condemn me But Lord it is grace Grace that it is not so and this is Evangelicall humiliation Look again upon your self as you stand on your own bottom and live in your owne nature and so you may say after the least infirmity I have now broken a most holy and righteous Law and therefore I am already condemned O woe is me I have already undone my selfe by mine iniquity and this is Legall humiliation which serves for mortification as the first for vification I know it is very difficult to bring the heart to acknowledge freely it deserves death after so â—mall an involuntary offence but when the Lord reveales two things First himself in his glory Secondly how the least sinne strikes him I perswade my selfe the vilest heart cannot but be forced to confesse how just God should be in his severest proceedings against him And withall consider the more involuntary any sinne is the more strong and naturall it is and the more naturall the more horrible as to be a naturall Thief is farre worse then to be a deliberat thiefe who sometimes steales and therefore good Sir take heed of looking no deeper nor seeing no further then the bare act and unvoluntarinesse and accidentalnesse and suddennesse of your infirmities for if you do you look through the wrong end of the glasâ—e and they will appear so small that you will find it a very tough work to bring your heart consentively to say if I may say and use your owne phrase It is thy mercy Lord that I am not consumed for them but look upon them as indeed they are in respect of that infinite glory you strike doing the greatest mischiefes to God by them and which makes them the viler as they are so strong you cannot remove them and so horrible as that it is naturall to you to commit them c. And surely you will not through grace finde such thoughts haunt you long not but that they wil be haply rising and tempting but never allway vexing and prevailing Satans ground reaching as far as the minds of Gods people and therefore so farre he may come and there he may walke for the came into the minde of innocent Adam nay Iesus Christ by his suggesting temptations but the heart is Christs peculiar posâ—ession and purchase and if he shall still there offer to come in and vex you and prevail against you and to lodge his suggestions this or any other way with you you have Law and Christ on your side by this little light now given you to cast him out The third thing that troubles you is the disranking of the Persons in the Trinity for though you thinke the holy Ghost is God yet you have not so high a repute of him as of the Father and the Sonne because the Sonne addresseth himselfe to God the Father in all his prayers and acknowledgements in a more immediate manner then unto the holy Ghost and therefore you would know if the word Father as in the Lords Prayer includes not the Unity in Trinity To this briefly consider three things 1. Without all question the same God which lies under that relative property of Father is the same God with the God-head of the Sonne and the God-head of the holy Ghost there being not three Gods and therefore the God-head of the Sonne and Spirit are not excluded but included in the Godhead of the Father when we looke upon the Father as God in the Lords Prayer or anywhere else 2. But secondly the Father as Father is never taken for the same holy Ghost in Scripture nor the Sonne as Sonne is taken for the Father nor the holy Ghost as holy Ghost is at any time taken for the Sonne For it is a rule in Theologie though the res subsâ—rata the thing that lies under the Relative property viz. the God-head of every person be common and communicated yet the same God-head considered as clothed with his Relative property as Father Son and Spirit it is not common but peculiar For the God-head of the Father as Father is not the God-head of the Son as Son c. 3. Hence it followes that when Christ addreâ—seth himselfe to the Father as Father in Scripture it is not because he is either a diverse or greater God then the holy Ghost but it is for two other reasons 1. Because the Father as Father received primarily the wrong that sinne did against his worke of creation For the Father being the first Person in order and creation the first transient act as election and reprobation were the first immanent hence this worke is attributed chiefly to God the Father in respect of our orderly apprehension and hence man sinning then when he was onely made this is chiefly attributed to be against the Father because his worke appeared to be chiefly there and not against the Son for his worke chiefly appeares in redemption hee being the second Person and this the second main and wonderfull work neither against the holy Ghost for his worke chiefly appeares to us in application being the third Person And this the third main act that ever God will do or show forth to the world in this life hence God the Father receiving to our apprehension the wrong in creation by sinne he is the Person that is to be satisfied and not the holy Ghost And hence Jesus Christ in all his prayers hath a most speciall eye to him and not to the holy Ghost as holy Ghost because he came into the world by his death and intercession and strong cries to satisfie God the Father and not God the holy Ghost as a third Person And hence it is said 1 John 2. 1. 2. If any man sinne we have an Advocate with God the Father not God the holy Ghost because he was to our apprehension the Person wronged and hence we are after sins committed chiefly to eye the Father in our prayers and to go to him for pardon with our advocate with us because to whom offence is chiefly offered from â—im chiefly pardon and reconciliation is to be expected 2. Therefore Christ addresseth himselfe chiefly in his prayers to God the Father because hee is the originall and first cause of all good because he is the first Person in order of subsisting and therefore first too in the manner of conveying I know the God-head is the originall of all good but consider the Persons one with another and so the father is ever the first in operation as the holy Ghost is the last in consummation for all good comes from the Father Iames 1. 17. through the Sonne by the holy Ghost And hence
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
the spirit and breaking your peace in not maintaining and nourishing the same time the other and hence being drawn to go two waies at the same time which you cannot wel do your heart is disquieted and your peace much interrupted This of yours puts me in mind of the complaint of an honest yet plain man to an able Minister once who in bewailing his condition to him among other miseries that was not the least viz. that he was exceedingly troubled with good thoughts so that he could not follow his place â—nlesâ—e very oft he did stand still and pray for fear of grieving the Spirit as he thought and lâ—â—ing his season of being heard in Heaven for said Conscience oâ—t unto him how dost thou know but this may be thy accepted time and if thou dost not take it it may be thou shalt never have it again I have forgot the Ministers answer but I am sure in these complaints you go not alone I have lately known one very able wise and godly put upon the Rack in these kind of thoughts by him that envying Gods peoples peace knowes how to change himselfe into an Angell of light For it being his usuall course in the time of his health to make a diary of his hourely life and finding much benefit by it hee was in Conscience prest by the power and delusion of Satan to make and take the same daily survay of his life in the time of his sicknesse by meanes of which he spent his enfeeblâ—d spirits cast on fuell to fire his sicknesse and had not a friend of his convinced him of his erronious coâ—science misâ—eading him at that time he had murdered his body out of conscience to save his soule and to preserve his grace and do you think these were the motions of Gods spirit which like those Locusts Rev. 9. 9 10. had faces like men but had tailes like Scorpions and stings in their tailes Your thoughts I know are not likely to produce the same effects although you have the same efficient and because you say your peace is hereby disturbed by ignorance as not knowing what to doe in the midst of these Civill actions and these religious thoughts I conceive that two thinâ—â— are to be sadly considered of for the cure of them First how to know when such religious pious thoughts come from Gods spirit and when from the devill transforming himself into an Angell of light or from a well-melted stirring conscience yet blind For when you know they come from Gods spirit you are bound to nourish them but when not you are bound not to embrace nor comply with them Secondly learn how your soul is to behave and carry it selfe in Civill employments For when you see how you doe and may honour God in following them your spirit will not be so unquiet if at any time you imbrace not the suggestions of the other 1. For the â—irst briefely all good motions and thoughts are not the spirits motioâ—s as may thus appear There be three things chiefly by which were may discerne the motions suggestions and thoughts which come from Gods spirit all which concurring together in a good action or thought or word not one alone will make discovery whether they are from Gods spirit or not 1. If it be suggested for Gods ends it s from Gods spirit to act so high as for a supernaturall end must arise from a supernaturall principle which only is Gods spirit Pharasaicall actions were for a double selfish end and hence not from Gods spirit but nature and their own spirit 1. To be seen of men 2. If they did any of them abhor this yet it was to purchase and gender in their own minds an opinion of holinesâ—e before God and hence Christ gives them this Item in giving Almes that they should not let the right hand know what their left hand doth for many men will doe good acts lest they should by the neglect of them thinke them hypocrites and so be troubled for them Christ would have us not to take notice of what we do for such an end If they be animated and quickned from Gods command for the higher measure of holinesse for glorious ends without a warrant from the Word is the more â—ordid superstition Christ healed the Lâ—per when he charged him with anger to tell no man he no question for a good end published the miracle the more this was a good motion but it was sinnefull in him being crosse to Christs command when Christ would have washed Peters feet he had many thoughts that came into his head concerning his owne vilenesse and Christs glory and had a good end and meaning in his answers yet his humility crossing Christs command the Lord professeth against it and him for it that he had no part in him if hee should goe on in it Gods Spirit sets a man on worke in due season for let the duty be commanded and rightly directed yet if it be not done in season it is not from Gods Spirit hence Psal. 1. The râ—ghteous bring forth fruit in its season and hence Solomon speakes of words spoken in season arâ—as apples of Gold and hence we read in Ecclesiaâ—tes of a time and season for â—very thing under the Suâ—ne and therefore when there is a season of Gods appointing for civill things or businesse it is not season now to be molested or perplexed in it by the injection and evocation of those thoughts which we thinke to proceed from the Spirit of God I know indeed that the Spirit of God doth enable a man to do whatever good he doth but as Grace makes Nature sometimes to serve so sinnefull Nature brings Grace into captivity which Paul complaines of Rom. 7. and makes Grace to serve it To exhort and reprove another for sinne is from Gods Spirit that it is done but to reprove at an unseasonable time it s from sinnefull corruption abusing Gods grace and makeing sâ—â—â—Sâ—â—â—son to grinde It s from the excellency of a 〈◊〉 to cut well but to cut my singer with it 〈◊〉 â— should be cutting of my meat with it 〈◊〉 not from the end of the knife nor from the intention of him that made it so to thinke of good things it is from the spirit I grant but to think of them in such a season that God sets you a worke to minde and follow other occasions it s from the enemy of Gods spirit and your owne peace for as it is a sinne to nourish worldly thoughts when God sets you a worke in spirituall heavenly imployments so it is in some respects as great a sin to suffer your self to be distracted by spirituall thoughts when God sets you on worke in Civill yet lawfull imployments such thoughts I conceive are but the leven of Monkish holinesse if they divert you from your lawfulfull affaires when the Lord calls you to follow them For the Lord never calls you to two divers imployments at the same time unlesse