N00747:169
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.
2. God hath made no promises to us that we shall not be Deserted. He hath indeed promised that He will never forsake his people, but hath not said that he will never withdraw, or hide his face from them. Nay, […] far is it from this, that he hath threatened it in case, and made it one of the chastisements which he inflicts […] them for their follies. Now faith must have a word on which it builds its conclusion, else it is not faith, but presumption; and a Divine faith must rely on the Testimony of God, beyond which it dares not to go.
2. God hath made no promises to us that we shall not be Deserted. He hath indeed promised that He will never forsake his people, but hath not said that he will never withdraw, or hide his face from them. Nay, 〈…〉 far is it from this, that he hath threatned it in case, and made it one of the chastizements which he inflicts 〈…〉 them for their follies. Now faith must have a word on which it builds its conclusion, else it is not faith, but presumption; and a Divine faith must rely on the Testimony of God, beyond which it dares not to go.
3. As long as we live here, we are in hazard of provoking God to desert us. We observed in the Doctrinal part, that the more bold transgressions, or more gross sinful neglects of the people of God are the procurers of this, and that by it he corrects them for such follies: and we are not secure against these. We have a deceitful heart in us, a carnal part that will betray us, if it can: a vigilant Adversary ⟨p. 80⟩that lieth in wait to hurt us, and we walk in the midst of snares, and traps, and pits that are covered, and if we be not the more watchful, we shall be ensnared in them.