340: ' Ofa providentialtall _ wrefile whh God.in prayer, anent it : and ure this method time after time, until you prevail againfi it. Elfe rhat one thing may ruin you : a:nd you will be condemned for it, not becaufe you could.not help it, but becaufe you would not ufe the means appointed ofGod for reJief in that cafe. Fifthly, When one is under a dead defertion: in. ~hi~h cafe the .fi.ord is departed, the wonted influen– ces from heaven are with-held; but, the wound not fmarting-,. by ~eafon of fpiri,ual de~dnefs, the pa_rty is not much moved therewith. This was the cafe of the jp·ouje; Cant. iii. I. ' By night on ·my bed, I fought him whom my foul loveth : l fought him, but I found him not.' And .for a recovery from it,- , fhe made fome extraordinary . efforts in the way of duty, Ver. 2, 3, 4· The fame ap-pears to be the cafe of many, with wholn ft>n~e time a day it was better than now. God hides· his fate from them : rheit• in.. . comes from h,eaven are · rare and fcanty, in compati– fon· of what they havcJormet:ly been·: they are figh- ·_ ing and going backwar·d· •. Though they go the rom1d' 1 ofordinary relig~6us exerdfes 'fiiH; yet 'tis long·fince tney had a. token from the Beloved, 'actefs to, or communion with God in rhein. 0 faft and -pray for a recovery, as did lfrtfel, .whe"n, after they had been· lonz deferred, and very little affected with it, they' began at ·length to lament after the Lord, 1 Sam. vii._ 2-, 6. It req'uires,much, .in ·the way of ordinary means, t;o go to the grouli'd of fuch a cafe, wherein ' liy mudf · flothfulne·fs ·the buildiug hath· decayed, and through idlene~ of the·hands die houfe· droppeth · through.~ Tlrough true grace can ·never be totally iofi ; yet it 1t1a.y~e brought tb fuch a very low pafs, that,.as fonie . fcholars~ for retrieving t'he lofi fufiainec through long abfence · from the fchool, mufi begin a~new again ; fo fome Chrifiiaas, in order ·to their recovery, muft· be carried through the feveral fieps of ccmvt:;rfion a... gain, as we may learn from our Saviour's words to · Peter,
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