Thomas Shepard

Life in England was a struggle for Puritans. Their clergy were forced to leave their churches and cease preaching. What was Puritan Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) to do now? He and his wife Margaret decided to join their friends in their quest for religious freedom in New England. They boarded a ship in 1635 that was unfit for the voyage with their infant son Thomas and survived three harrowing months at sea. Margaret died shortly after they arrived in Boston. Thomas later remarried, but his second wife died young also, as did two of their children. Thomas became pastor of the First Church of Cambridge and was instrumental in starting Harvard College and arranging its permanent location in Cambridge. Thomas was serious about prayer. “I saw it as my duty not only to pray from time to time but actually to live by prayer.” A portion of his prayer journal that survives from 1641 gives ample evidence of his prayerfulness. While he didn’t typically record his prayers, he kept close tabs on his fluctuations about prayer. His meditations range from moments of intense joy and spiritual ecstasy to periods of significant doubt and despair. His entry for November 10, 1641, is illustrative of his prayer journal entries. He observed a private fast that day to seek more of God, to gain conquest over pride, and to seek God’s guidance. He sensed in the morning prayer that God was calling him to “Come and seek me with all your heart.” The power of these words had a great impact on him. “I saw this not only as a command but as a promise,” he wrote. He returned to prayer at midday under the conviction that “the lust of the flesh and the pride of life” had occupied his time unprofitably. He lamented his “secret atheism” and pride in his preaching. He concluded the day grateful for a deeper awareness of God’s mercy and renewed his trust in God’s secret purposes. He prayed: