N00747:143
Spiritual desertions discovered and remedied. Being the substance of divers sermons preached for the…
Spiritual desertions discovered and remedied. Being the substance of divers sermons preached for the help of dark souls, labouring under divine withdrawings. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Four lines from Isaiah]
printed by B. Green for Michael Perry and Benjamin Eliot, 1699
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. It makes him to […] all the work that was wrought in him. He not only questions it, but passeth a definitive sentence upon it. He concludes that he hath •laid the hypocrite all this while; dissembled with God, and imposed upon men, and deceived his own soul▪ David had some such resentments on him, when he prayed God to Create a clean heart in him, Psal. 51.10. nay, those very things which sometimes were his evidence for his good estate, and in which he could take comfort, are now turned into arguments to disprove it.
1. It makes him to 〈…〉 all the work that was wrought in him. He not only questions it, but passeth a definitive sentence upon it. He concludes that he hath •laid the hypocrite all this while; dissembled with God, and imposed upon men, and deceived his own soul▪ David had some such resentments on him, when he prayed God to Create a clean heart in him, Psal. 51.10. nay, those very things which sometimes were his evidence for his good estate, and in which he could take comfort, are now turned into arguments to disprove it.
2. It creates prejudices against God. He hath, in this condition, to do with the fierce Wrath of God; he apprehends that God hates him, and is his enemy, Job 33.24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and boldest me for thine enemy; and verse 26. thou writest bitter things against me. The very thoughts of God, ⟨p. 67⟩which were wont to be his relief and solace are now his distress,