N00747:219
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.
3. Upon this they have thought that much assistance and comfort have been afforded them; they have engaged in moral and religious duties, and been carried to and through them with a great deal of pleasure and ease, and it hath greatly satisfied them; and they have reckoned these for influences of grace, and joys of the spirit; by reason whereof they have argued themselves, to a strong persuasion and high confidence that all was well with them, and have said to themselves, as Agag once did, the bitterness of death it over.
3. Upon this they have thought that much assistance and comfort have been afforded them; they have engaged in moral and religious duties, and been carried to and through them with a great deal of pleasure and ease, and it hath greatly satisfied them; and they have reckoned these for influences of grace, and joys of the spirit; by reason whereof they have argued themselves, to a strong perswasion and high confidence that all was well with them, and have said to themselves, as Agag once did, the bitterness of death it over.
4. But now they find all this to fail them, and they are brought into a deep plunge. Now they are made to see that they can do nothing: they are either left to some foul sin, or conscience is awakened to tell them, they have deceived themselves, and that they are in the gall of bitterness; that the Wrath of God is upon them, their whole profession is a mere cheat, & their building is upon the sand; and this puts them into fears, and possibly they take it for a desertion; whereas indeed it is but a discovery. In such a case as this, let me offer two things.
4. But now they find all this to fail them, and they are brought into a deep plunge. Now they are made to see that they can do nothing: they are either left to some foul sin, or conscience is awakned to tell them, they have deceived themselves, and that they are in the gall of bitterness; that the Wrath of God is upon them, their whole profession is a meer cheat, & their building is upon the sand; and this puts them into fears, and possibly they take it for a desertion; whereas indeed it is but a discovery. In such a case as this, let me offer two things.