Thomas Shepard (6)

— continued —

But what is of more lasting importance are the works which Thomas Shepard left to posterity. As a writer, Thomas Shepard holds a high rank among the most able divines which Puritanism has ever produced. His works are doctrinal and practical. He produced several works which are of permanent value for doctrine and instruction in righteousness for God’s people. One of his scholarly works, which is perhaps not too well known, is his Theses Sabaticae, or “Doctrine of the Sabbath,” an excellent discussion of the morality, the change, the beginning, and the sanctification of the Sabbath. This work was enlarged at the request of Harvard College for the instruction of the ministerial students. It is a very complete work of about 250 pages in length.

About three months before his death, he wrote a letter to a friend upon the subject of infant baptism under the title of “The Church Membership of Children, and Their Right to Baptism, according to that holy and everlasting covenant of God established between Himself and the faithful, and their seed after them.” This is considered by many to be the best work on this subject by any of the New England Puritans.

A well-known work by Shepard is The Parable of the Ten Virgins, which we have already mentioned and which is considered to be one of his best works. Another most excellent work is The Sound Believer, a treatise of evangelical conversion. The contents of this book may be summed up by Shepard himself. He writes: “There is a fourfold act of Christ’s power, whereby He rescues and delivers all His out of their miserable state:

1. The first act or stroke is conviction of sin.

2. The second is compunction for sin (which is a sense of, and sorrow for, sin.)

3. The third is humiliation, or self-abasement.

4. The fourth is faith.”

Another well-known work by Shepard is The Sincere Convert. This work (along with some of his other practical writings) has been termed by some to be severe, legal, and discouraging for God’s people. An English minister by the name of Giles Firmin published a criticism of this work, entitled A Real Christian, to which Shepard wrote a letter of reply in defense of his book. Among other things he writes: “It was a collection of notes in a dark town in England, which one procuring of me published without my will or permission. I scarce know what it contains; nor do I like to see it, considering the many typographical errors, most absurd, and the confession of him that published it, that it comes out mutilated and altered from what was first written.” And this was said by Shepard in October 1647, a year after the English publisher, in his fourth edition, declared that the book had been “corrected and much amended by the author”! Shepard, however, while he almost disowned The Sincere Convert, did not disavow, but vindicated the doctrine called in question. Though it was a “ragged child,” as he sometimes called it, it spoke to the point, at least in the sentiments of its author. The closing words of Shepard’s letter to Firmin are, I think, applicable in our day: “Let my love end in breathing out this desire: Preach humiliation. Labor to possess men with a sense of wrath to come, and misery. The gospel consolations and grace, which some would have dished out as the dainties of the times, and set upon the ministry’s table, may possibly tickle and ravish some, and do some good to them that are humbled and converted already. But if axes and wedges, withal, be not used to hew and break this rough, uneven, bold, yet professing age, I am confident the work and fruit of those men’s ministry will be at best mere hypocrisy; and they shall find it, and see it, if they live a few years more.”

Shepard here touches the root of the matter. A ministry, to be truly fruitful, must show the people their transgressions; and that doctrine that does not humble the sinner and require unconditional submission, while it offers redeeming grace, though it were preached by an angel from heaven, is anathematized by the gospel. Some years later, when Shepard’s works were printed, two excellent ministers wrote a preface to Shepard’s sermons on Ineffectual Hearing of the Word. Among other things they wrote: “Some souls can relish none but mealy-mouthed preachers, who come with soft, and smooth, toothless words, but these times need humbling ministries; and blessed be God that there are any. For where there are no law sermons, there will be few gospel lives; and were there more law preaching by men of gifts, there would be more gospel walking both by themselves and the people. To preach the law, not in a forced, affected manner, but wisely and powerfully, together with the gospel, as Christ Himself was wont to do, is the way to carry on all three together, viz., a sense of misery, the application of the remedy, and the returns of thankfulness and duty. Nor is any doctrine more comforting than this humbling way of God, if rightly managed.” (The ministers who wrote this were G. Greenhill and Samuel Mather.)

Concerning the controversial Sincere Convert, hear how the well-known Wm. Greenhill speaks of that “ragged child,” in the edition of 1692: “The author is one of singular piety, inward acquaintance with God, skilled in the deceits of men’s hearts, able to enlighten the dark corners of the little world, and to give satisfaction to staggering spirits. The work is weighty, quick, and spiritual; and if thine eye be single in perusing it, thou shalt find many precious, soul-searching, soul-quickening, soul-enriching truths in it; yea, and be so warned and awakened, as that thou canst not but bless God for the man and the matter, unless thou be possessed with a dumb devil.”

“Labor to possess men with a sense of wrath to come, and misery. The gospel consolations and grace, which some would have dished out as the dainties of the times, and set upon the ministry’s table, may possibly tickle and ravish some, and do some good to them that are humbled converted already. But if axes and wedges, withal, be not used to hew and break the rough, uneven, bold, yet professing age, I am confident the work and fruit of those mens ministry will be at best mere hypocrisy; and they shall find it, and see it, if they live to see a few more years. ”

— Thomas Shepard

This concludes the series on Thomas Shepard. The material on his life was drawn from the book entitled The Life of Thomas Shepard, written by John Albro, D.D., a pastor in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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