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]
Table of contents
- 01 Spiritual Desertions Discovered and Remedied 1,082 words
- 02 Doctrine: When God Hides His Face from His Children 13,513 words
- 03 Use I: For Information 4,770 words
- 04 Use II: For Exhortation and Direction 9,399 words
Front matter (2 sections)
Title Page
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.
Isa. 35:3, 4 Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not.
BOSTON in New-England, Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen, for Michael Perry and Benjamin Eliot. 1699.
To the Reader
Whoever shall take the pains to revolve the following Discourse, be entreated rightly to consider your selves and accordingly apply it to your present condition. Either you are Strangers to Christ & his saving grace; & then it will be well for you to think, if such may be the case of God's dearly beloved, as is after declared, what then may you expect at his hand, who have him for your enemy? And if so, you may be awakened & persuaded to make haste & fly to the Refuge set before you, it will thus turn to your everlasting advantage. Or you are gotten into Christ by a living faith: & then, either you are at present entertained in his Embraces, and comforted with the apprehension of his love; and then, you will here be cautioned, not to be high-minded, but to fear: and accordingly, in expectation of, to be providing for a dark time of Desertion, that when it cometh, it may not be a strange thing, or find you unprepared. Or you are under the apprehension of divine withdrawings, & feel in your selves the very case of such, as is here deciphered: & for your sake more peculiarly was this intended. That God was pleased to make these Sermons profitable to any such souls, in the Delivery, let him have the praise: and if the desires of such to make them more public, may be blessed with a like good success, by God's Blessing: it will crown my highest ambition; which that it may, I shall follow it with my earnest prayers to the God of all grace.
Who am, less than the least of all saints, Saint W.