N00747:269
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.
7. Nay, what is the bitterness it self that you labour of? What makes you so disquiet? why can you not in still and be content? it is not because of his absence? because you cannot see him as you have seen him, is it not the want of his company? and if he should come again, would you not be satisfied? would not that make up all? if it be so, surely you have known what it is to walk in the light of his countenance, and that an unconverted Soul never did.
7. Nay, what is the bitterness it self that you labour of? What makes you so disquiet? why can you not in still and be content? it is not because of his absence? because you cannot see him as you have seen him, is it not the want of his company? and if he should come again, would you not be satisfyed? would not that make up all? if it be so, surely you have known what it is to walk in the light of his countenance, and that anunconverted Soul never did.
8. Are there not, now and then, some beams of light let in, though soon gone again? in darkness, there is some light: sometimes you suddenly cry out, my ⟨p. 141⟩Lord, and my God: Some promise, some encouragement darts in, and lifts up your head above water: but because it is transient, and you are presently s•nk with another wave, you think it a delusion; whereas indeed it is a gracious respite given you, to take a little breath; and so you ought to interpret it.
8. Are there not, now and then, some beams of light let in, though soon gone again? in darkness, there is some light: sometimes you suddenly cry out, my ⟨p. 141⟩Lord, and my God: Some promise, some encouragement darts in, and lifts up your head above water: but because it is transient, and you are presently s•nk with another wave, you think it a delusion; whereas indeed it is a gracious respit given you, to take a little breath; and so you ought to interpret it.