To Thirst For the Living God

"My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" -- King David

"There is in true grace an infinite circle: a man by thirsting receives, and receiving thirsts for more." -- Thomas Shepard

"O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." -- King David

"I thirst for thirstiness; I weep for tears." -- Thomas Gataker

"I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land." -- King David

"The Samaritan woman at the well found the Lord thirsting, and by him thirsting, she was filled. She first found him thirsting in order that he might drink from her faith. And when he was on the cross, he said, "I thirst," although they did not give him that for which he was thirsting. For he was thirsting for them." -- Augustine

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." -- Isaiah

"We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee stil:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill." -- Bernard of Clairvaux

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." -- The Lord Jesus

"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still." -- A.W. Tozer

"But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." -- The Lord Jesus

"With meat and drink indeed I'm blest,
Yet feed on hunger, drink on thirst.
My hunger brings a plenteous store,
My plenty makes me hunger more." -- Ralph Erskine

Zion God's Habitation

Thomas Shepard, Journal (January 2, 1642), in Michael McGiffert, God's Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge, p. 108:

In singing Psalm 132:12, 13, 14, 15 in the public, I was sweetly refreshed by seeing the reason why the Lord's people, if they keep his covenant, he would not leave them [when they are] in church fellowship, because the Lord desired to be with his people; he is loath to depart. In musing on which when I came home I saw a strong motive to have God our God (1) because he makes choice of his people in Sion above all places and persons in the world; (2) because when this is done he desires never to be parted by any sin again; (3) because when this is done he takes full content and is at rest when he enjoys his people; (4) because he promiseth upon this there he will dwell, not because of their good but because he delights in them.

Pelicans in the Wilderness

Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England, pp. 60-63:

Thomas Shepard brought together all these usages of the pilgrim metaphor in one of his most famous sermon series, The Sound Beleever. After elaborating on what saints might look for in the life to come, Shepard assured his auditors that they were approaching the end of the journey. His description of the danger and afflictions, including the common image of the "weary pilgrim," was much like John Bunyan's imaginative vision a little later. We can reappropriate some of the passage's full rhetorical effect -- and therefore its impact for the worshiper -- by resetting Shepard's phrases in poetic form.

This is therefore the great glory
of all those whom God hath called
to the fellowship of his deare Son;

and which is yet more, blessed be God the time is not long,
but that we shall feel what now we doe but heare of,
and see but a little of,
as we use to doe of things afar off:

We are here but strangers, and have no abiding city,
we look for this that hath foundations;

and therefore let sinne presse us downe;
and weary us out with wrastling with it;

let Satan tempt,
and cast his darts at us;

let our drink be our teares day and night,
and our meat gall and wormwood;

let us be shut up in choaking prisons,
and cast out for dead in the streets,
nay upon dung-hils, and none to bury us;

let us live alone as Pelicans in the wildernesse,
and be driven among wild beasts into deserts;

let us be scouraged, and disgraced,
stoned, sawn asunder, and burned;

let us live in sheep-skins, and goat-skins,
destitute, afflicted, tormented
(as who looks not for such days shortly?)

yet oh brethren, the time is not long,
but when we are at the worst,
and death ready to swallow us up;
we shall cry out,
Oh glory, glory,
oh welcome glory.11

The extravagance of this passage, powerful as it is homiletically, seems at first to bear little relationship to the fairly comfortable life New Englanders enjoyed soon after settlement. Shepard's meaning becomes evident, however, when it is understood that these words were no rhetorical flight of his own invention, but a rhapsodic conflation of phrases from the agonized Psalm 102 and the "strangers and pilgrims" passage in Hebrews 11. God's pilgrim people had suffered at the hands of the world in the past; Puritans understood the people of the Bible as ancestors and prototypes. More recently Queen Mary had exiled and executed English reformers. In the days of the Great Migration Archbishop Laud was moving against the Puritans; some were again being "shut up in choaking prisons." If Psalm 102 gave poignant voice to the experience of persecution -- "Mine enemies reproach me all the day...I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping" -- it also expressed hope of divine vindication in the Kingdom, "when the people are gathered together, and kingdoms, to serve the Lord" (vv. 8-9, 22).

Shepard exhorted the saints to continue on the painful journey to the Kingdom. They must not stop, contented, before reaching the goal. Shepard, it seems, almost longed for the day when suffering would once again descend upon the saints. His words ring as a call to asceticism and strife. His repetition of "let," meaning "no matter that," was also an exhortation: "Let our drink be teares day and night...Let us live alone as Pelicans in the wildernesse." Even when conditions were relatively comfortable and stable, as they were in New England, saints must not define their homes in earthly terms.

The terrors Shepard enumerated were not outlandish when applied to events in Europe, and he prophesied that the wars of religion would shortly spread to engulf New England. The conflict, Shepard believed, would ultimately escalate into the complete destruction that was to precede the Second Coming of Christ. He again anticipated Bunyan and echoed Genesis 19 and Revelation 6-9 as he cried:

Away to the mountaines,
and hasten from the towns and cities of your habitation,
where the grace of Christ is published, but universally despised,
you blessed called ones of the Lord Jesus;

for the dayes are coming,
wherein for this sin, the heavens and earth shall shake,
the sunne shall be turned into darknesse,
and the moone into blood,
and mens hearts failing for feare of the horrible plagues
which are comming upon the face of the earth.

Dreame not of faire weather,
expect not better days,
till you heare men say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.12

The Puritan spiritual pilgrimage was the journey from the city of sin through the wilderness of humiliation and mortification to the heavenly city of God's Kingdom.

11. Shepard, Sound Beleever, 316-317.
12. Ibid., 318-319.

French Witness at Cape Cod

In 1647, Thomas Shepard, John Eliot and John Wilson, were sent to Yarmouth on Cape Cod on ecclesiastical business. Eliot took the opportunity to visit Indian settlements in the area, and Shepard wrote about these missionary endeavors in his 1648 work The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking Forth Upon the Indians in New-England, making an interesting reference to an earlier European visitor, p. 9:

...an aged Indian told us openly, "That these very things which Mr. Eliot had taught them as the Commandements of God, and concerning God, and the making of the world by one God, that they had heard some old men who were now dead, to say the same things, since whose death there hath been no remembrance or knowledge of them among the Indians untill now they heare of them againe. Which when I heard solemnly spoken, I could not tell how those old Indians should attaine to such knowledge, unlelesse perhaps by means of the French Preacher cast upon those coasts many years since, by whose ministry they might possibly reape and retaine some knowledge of those things; this also I hear by a godly and able Christian who hath much converse with them; that many of them have this apprehension now stirring among them, viz. "That their forefathers did know God, but that after this, they fell into a great sleep, and when they did awaken they quite forgot him, (for under such metaphoricall language they usually expresse what eminent things they meane:) so that it may seeme to be the day of the Lords gracious visitation of these poore Natives, which is just as it is with all other people, when they are most low, the wheele then turnes, and the Lord remembers to have mercy.

The French had sailed the waters of what would become Provincetown Harbour as early as 1605 under Samuel de la Champlain. Fishermen on their way to or from New France found the area to be a veritable fishing goldmine. A short-lived Jesuit mission was established on Mount Desert Island (Maine) in 1613. The "French Preacher," however, may have been one of the survivors of a 1616 French shipwreck on the shores of Cape Cod that is referred to by William Bradford in Of Plimoth Plantation, p. 119. In that instance, the local Patuxet Indians killed almost all survivors, excepting three or four, whom they tormented and enslaved (some think this was done in reprisal for the 1614 expedition from Virginia under Captain John Smith during which Thomas Hunt kidnapped a number of the Indians, including Squanto, who would later help the Pilgrims). After some time, the French were able to learn enough of the Indian dialect to communicate and the Indians took note of the French interest in a book, the Bible. They spoke about God, and one of the Frenchmen, who had acquired greater fluency than the rest, conveyed to them that God was angry with them for their cruelty, and would destroy them, and give their country to another people. They responded that they were too many for God to kill, but the Frenchman answered that God had many ways to kill them of which they were ignorant. It was soon after this that a plague struck the Indian community from 1617 to 1619, which some suppose to have been smallpox brought by the French. Two of the Frenchmen were ultimately rescued by Captain Thomas Dermer in 1619, who himself had met Squanto after he escaped from Dermer. Squanto, meanwhile, returned home after time in Europe to find his village wiped out by the disease. It was this plague which played such an important role in paying the way for the Pilgrim's arrival and survival, with Squanto's help. And the memory of the French witness to God lingered even after so many of the Indians died out. The prophecy of being removed by another people caused the Patuxet to be wary of the Pilgrims, and these events were brought to remembrance when John Eliot preached to them in 1647. God's providential hand was behind it all.

Noah's Dove

Thomas Shepard, The Sincere Convert (1641) in Works, Vol. 1, pp. 105-106:

Though thy good duties can not save thee, yet thy bad works will damn thee. Thou art, therefore, not to cast off the duties, but the resting in these duties. Thou art not to cast them away, but to cast them down at the feet of Jesus Christ, as they did their crowns, (Rev. iv. 10, 11,) saying, If there be any good or graces in these duties, it is thine, Lord; for it is the prince's favor that exalts a man, not his own gifts: they came from his good pleasure.

But thou wilt say, To what end should I perform duties, if I can not be saved by them?
...
First. To carry thee to the Lord Jesus, the only Saviour (Heb. vii.25.) He only is able to save (not duties) all that come unto God (that is, in the use of means) by him. Hear a sermon to carry thee to Jesus Christ; fast and pray, and get a full tide of affections in them to carry thee to the Lord Jesus Christ: that is, to get more love to him, more acquaintance with him, more union with him; so sorrow for thy sins that thou mayest be more fitted for Christ, that thou mayest prize Christ the more; use thy duties as Noah's dove did her wings, to carry thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ, where only there is rest. If she had never used her wings, she had fallen into the waters; so, if thou shalt use no duties, but cast them off, thou art sure to perish. Or, as it is with a poor man that is to go over a great water for a treasure on the other side, though he can not fetch the boat, he calls for it; and, though there be no treasure in the boat, yet he useth the boat to carry him over to the treasure. So Christ is in heaven, and thou on earth; he doth come to thee, and thou canst not go to him; now call for a boat; though there is no grace, no good, no salvation, in a pithless duty, yet use it to carry thee over to the treasure -- the Lord Jesus Christ. When thou comest to hear, say, Have over Lord by this sermon; when thou comest to pray, say, Have over Lord by this prayer to a Saviour. But this is the misery of people. Like foolish lovers, when they are to woo for the lady, they fall in love with her handmaid that is only to lead them to her; so men fall in love with, and dote upon, their own duties, and rest contented with the naked performance of them, which are only handmaids to lead the soul unto the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thomas Goodwin, Christ Set Forth (1642) in Works, Vol. 4, pp. 13-14:

In the third place, Christ's person, and not barely the promises of forgiveness, is to be the object of faith. There are many poor souls humbled for their sin, and taken off from their bottom, who, like Noah's dove, fly over all the word of God, to spy out what they may set their foot upon, and eying therein many free and gracious promises, holding forth forgiveness of sins, and justification, they immediately close with them, and rest on them alone, not seeking for, or closing with Christ in those promises. Which is a common error among people; and is like as if Noah's dove should have rested upon the outside of the ark, and not come to Noah within the ark; where though she might find rest for a while, yet could she not ride out all storms, but must needs have perished there in the end.

Isaac Ambrose, The Practice of Sanctification (1650) in Prima, Media, & Ultima: the first, middle, and last things, in three treatises as found his Works, p. 84:

That duties may carry us to the Lord Jesus Christ: he alone is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, i.e., in the use of means. Hear a sermon, to carry thee to the Lord Jesus; fast and pray, and get a full tide of affections in them, to carry thee to Jesus Christ, i.e. to get more love of him, more acquaintance with him, more union in him, and communion with him: use thy duties as Noah's dove did her wings, carry thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ where only there is rest: if she had never used her wings, she had fallen into the waters; and if she had not returned to the ark, she had found no rest. So, if thou shalt use no duties, but cast them all off, thou art sure to perish; and if they convey thee not to Christ, thou mayest lie down in sorrow.

Thomas Brooks, An Ark For All God's Noahs (1662) in Works, Vol. 2, p. 35:

A man that hath only the world for his portion, is like to Noah's dove out of the ark, that was in continual motion, but could find no resting place; but a man that hath God for his portion is like the dove, returning and resting in the ark.

Thomas Brooks, The Privy Key of Heaven (1665) in Works, Vol. 2, p. 253:

My fourth advice and counsel is, Take heed of resting upon closet duties, take heed of trusting in closet-duties. Noah's dove made use of her wings, but she did not trust in her wings, but in the ark; so you must make use of closet-duties, but you must not trust in your closet-duties, but in Jesus, of whom the ark was but a type.

Puritan Begats

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. (1 Cor. 3.5-9)

The faithful preaching of the Word of God in the Age of the Puritans resulted, by the powerful and effectual working of the Holy Spirit, in a remarkable "apostolic" succession of conversions, a genealogy of Puritan "who's who's," as it were. It is a striking illustration of how the faithfulness of one man's ministry in God's providence plays a role in the lives of so many others. Or, as Clarence the Angel said in It's a Wonderful Life:

Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?

Darrett Rutman, American Puritanism, p. 7:

The generation of ministers of this sort approaches something of the quality of the opening chapter of Chronicles: "Richard Rogers begat (in a spiritual sense) Paul Baynes, who begat Richard Sibbes, who begat John Cotton, who begat John Preston, who begat Thomas Shepard.

To expand on this, Paul Baynes (1560-1617) was converted under the ministry of William Perkins (1558-1602), himself convicted of his sin after a woman in the street spoke of him as "drunken Perkins," and Richard Rogers (1550?-1618). William Ames (1576-1633) and Richard Blackerby (1574-1648) were likewise converted under the preaching of William Perkins. Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was converted under the preaching of Paul Baynes. John Cotton (1595-1652) was converted under the preaching of Richard Sibbes. John Preston (1587-1628) was converted under the preaching of John Cotton. The preaching of Richard Sibbes and John Preston was influential in the spiritual awakening of Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680). Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) was converted under the preaching of John Preston. Shepard himself was known as "Pastor Evangelicus," who was "as great a converter of souls as has ordinarily been known in our days" (Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol. 1, p. 380), and Jonathan Mitchell (1624-1668) traced his spiritual awakening to the ministry of Thomas Shepard.

We see how souls were converted on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean by means of such a golden chain. The ministries of these men have led to many conversions and influenced many millions more through their literature, even to the present day. Thank the Lord for these men who have planted and watered; to God be the glory for giving the increase.

God's Plot

Thomas Shepard wrote in his Journal of meditations in the night. One such concerned his own end, along with "God's main plot and end of all." This particular Journal entry is recorded in, for example, Thomas Shepard, Meditations and Spiritual Experiences (1847), pp. 98-99; Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-Century New England (1982), p. 231; and in Michael McGiffert, ed., God's Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge (1972, 1994), pp. 99-100:

September 13 [1641]. In my meditations at night I found my heart desirous to live in this world and do good here and not to die. Hence I asked my heart the reason why I should not be desirous to die. And in musing on it I saw that Christ was ascended up to heaven that not here, but there, all his elect might one day behold his glory and love him and glorify him forever. And I saw that this was God's main plot and the end of all, to make Christ very glorious and so beloved in heaven forever, where that which I desired most in this world (viz., that Christ might not only be precious but very dear and precious) should be perfectly accomplished. And hereupon I secretly desired this mercy and desired it for my children and brethren and all the churches, that though we were blind here and knew him not, loved him little, yet that this might be our portion at last. And I did feel my desires stirred up after this out of a secret love to Christ Jesus. It would do me good if he might be at last magnified thus. Then I inquired, What is the great thing I should desire in this world? And I saw that it was the beginning of that which shall be perfected in heaven, viz., (1) to see and know Christ, though obscurely; (2) to take Christ and receive him and possess him; (3) to love him; (4) to bless him in my heart, with my mouth, by my life. And in this last clause I saw that I should study and stand for discipline and all the ways of worship, out of love to Christ, viz., to show my thankfulness.