N00747:222
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. If you have failed here, this is a merciful dispensation to you: Had God left you under these mistakes, you would have gone on securely, and dropped unawares into perdition. God hath not deserted you, but made your false hopes to forsake you, that so you might in time seek a better security. This is the way in which God is wont to bring proud legalists, and carnal Gospellers home to himself. God is not going from you, but coming to you, and these are the methods of the Holy Spirit: this is the best sign that God hath a purpose of everlasting love to you, and is now coming to draw you home to himself: for he will drive that soul out of self, and its own righteousness, which he will have mercy upon and save. But,
2. If you have failed here, this is a merciful dispensation to you: Had God left you under these mistakes, you would have gone on securely, and dropt unawares into perdi•ion. God hath not deserted you, but made your false hopes to forsake you, that so you might in time seek a better security. This is the way in which God is wont to bring proud legalists, and carnal Gospellers home to himself. God is not going from you, but coming to you, and these are the methods of the Holy Spirit: this is the best sign that God hath a purpose of everlasting love to you, and is now coming to draw you home to himself: for he will drive that soul out of self, and its own righteousness, which he will have mercy upon and save. But,
2. Our main business is with those that have indeed the root of the matter in them; have a principle of saving Grace, and belong to Christ, but are under Desertion. And there are two things which I shall apply my self unto in respect to these.
1. To direct them how to carry it under these Desertions.