DISPENSATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 65 those spiritual desertions which some of late have laden their beginnings and engagements, and turnwholly un- to sin and folly. From such persons the Holy Ghost utterly departs; all their gifts dry up and wither; their light goeth out, and they have darkness instead of a vision. The case of such is deplorable; t< for it had " been better for them not to have known the way of " righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn "from the holy commandment delivered unto them," 2 Pet. ii. 21. And some of these add despight and contempt of that whole work of the Spirit of God, whereof themselves were made partaker, unto their a- postacy. And the condition of such profligate sinners is, for the most part, irrecoverable, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. chap. x. ver. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. From some he with- draweth and departeth partially only, and that mostly but for a season. And this departure respects thegrace, light, and consolation which he administers unto belie- vers, as to the degrees of them, and the sense of them, in their own souls. Onwhom he is bestowed to work these things in a saving way, from them he never ut- terly or totally departs. This our blessed Saviour plainly promiseth and asserteth; John iv. 14. " Who. " soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, " shallnever thirst; but the water that I shall give him " shall be in him a well of water springing up into ev- " verlasting life." That this well of living water is his sanctifying Spirit, himself declares, John viii. 37, 38. He who bath received him, shall never have a thirst of total want and indigence any more. Besides, he is giv- en unto this end, by virtue of the covenant ofgrace. And the promise is express therein, that he shall never departfrom them to whom he is given, Isa. lix. 21. Jer. xxxi. 31. chap. xxxii. 39, 40. Ezek. xi. 19, 20. But, now, t, to the degrees and sensible effects of these o- perations, he may depart and withdraw from believers for a season. Hence they may be left unto many spiri- tual decays and much weakness, the things ofgrace that remain in them as it were ready to die, Rev.. iii. 2. and theymay apprehend themselves deserted and forsaken of God. So did Sion, Isa. xl. 27. chap. xlix 15. For therein Both Godhide himself, Isa. xliv. 15. or forsake hispeople for a moment, chap. liv. 7. He hideshimself and his wrath, chap. lvii. 17. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complainetb of, and which with so much earnestness he contendeth and wrestleth with God to be delivered from. These are with reproach, contempt, and scorn. All the appre- hensions and complaints of the people of God about them, they would represent as nothing but the idle ima- ginations of distempered brains, or the effects of some disorder in their blood and animal spirits. I could, in- deed, easily allow, that men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the experience of professors at present. Their prejudice against their persons will not allow them to entertain any thoughts of them but what are suited unto folly and hypocrisy. But at this, I ac- knowledge, I stand amazed; that whereas these things are so plainly, so fully, and frequently declared in the scriptures, both as to the actings of God and his Holy Spirit in them, and as to the sense of those concerned about them; whereas the wholeof God's dealings, and believers' application of themselves to him in this matter, are sographically exemplified in sundry ofthe holy saints of old, as Job, David, Heman, and others, and great and plentiful provision is made in the scripture for the di- rection, recovery, healing, and consolation of souls in such a condition; yet men professing themselves to be Christians, and to believe the word of God at least not to be a fable, should dare to cast such opprobrious re- proaches on the ways and works of God. The end of these attempts can be no other but to decry all real in- tercourse between God and the souls of men, leaving only an outside form or shape of religion, not one jot better than Atheism. Neither is it only what concerns spiritual desertions, whose nature, causes, and remedies, are professedly, and at large, handled by all the casuistical divines, even the Roman church, but the whole work of the Spirit of God upon the heartsof men, with all the effects pro- duced in them with respect unto sin and grace, that some men by their odious and scurrilous expressions en- deavour to expose to contempt and scorn; S. P. p. 339, 340, 341, 242. Whatever trouble befalls the minds of men upon the account of the sense of the guilt of sin, whatever darkness and disconsolation they may undergo through the displeasure of God, and his withdrawing of the wonted influences of his grace, love, and favour towards them; whatever peace, comfort, or joy they may bemade partakers of, by a sense of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, it is all ascribed in the most opprobrious language unto melan-
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