Commendatory Poem 3

3. THOMAS SHEPARD Anagram: More has pass'd.

More from this holy pen has pass'd

The Baptism to defend

Of Infants that Church-members are

(If well you do attend)

Then any Anti-baptists can

with solidness confute.

I wish with all my heart that God

will grant these labors fruit,

As good or better than the pains

by other godly taken.

That thereby all his precious saints

he would please to awaken.

That none may any more oppose,

with zeal preposterous,

The truth which God's most holy word

commends to us:

That who were [illegible] convinced by

this holy Shepard's voice,

Yet in his letter left behind

they may the more rejoice.

He was a shining light indeed,

few other [reconstructed: men] are left,

The Lord grant we be not by

our sins of them bereft.

And pour down of his Spirit more

upon his sons surviving;

That will be more and more to

truth's lovers a reviving.