Thomas Shepard: Labor for more of such a Christ as the word holds forth

Some seek for more of Christ, but it is of an idol Christ, not as manifesting himself in and by a word. For look as any act of obedience is an act,of will-worship and imagery, that we have not a particular demand for, or is not directly deducted from rule in the word; so that act of faith is an act of will-worship, which sees and chooses Christ as his own, when he has not a particular promise for it; it is an imagination of Christ, not Christ; and you have more of your own imagination, not more of the Lord Jesus. 1 Pet. i. 25. Monks had sublime contemplations of God. Luther calls them such as looked upon a Deus et Christibus absolutus, not beholding the beams of his love and glory in the word. O, therefore, labor for more of such a Christ as the word holds forth. 

—Thomas Shepard