Spiritual Desertions by Samuel Willard Psalm 30 verse 7 Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Samuel Willard January 31st 1640 to September 12th 1707 was a New England Puritan clergyman born in Concord, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1659. He was a minister at Groton from 1663 to 1676 before being driven out by the Indians during King Philip's War. Willard was pastor at the Third Church of Boston from 1678 until his death. He opposed the Salem witch trials and was acting president of Harvard University from 1701. He published many sermons. A complete body of divinity was published posthumously in 1726. Spiritual Desertions Among all the dispensations of God's providence toward the children of men in this world, there are none more awful and mysterious than the desertion which he sometimes exercises his own with, what deliberate trials they meet with in this world. as long as they can go up and down in the light of God's countenance all is well. But when one's that is lost, nothing can afford them any rest. There are two sorts of professors in the visible church, carnal men who never experience the gracious presence of God with them, and are not therefore sensible of their lack of it. But they can enjoy His common goodness. All pleaseth them, and they seek no further. And if they are in trouble at any time, it is only for lack of these things. And gracious souls who have been made apprehensive of the love of God and felt a preciousness of communion with Him, which, if it be at any time withdrawn, they quickly repented, and it brings them into great distress. And because it is now a time wherein God seems more than ordinary to treat his children with such providences as these, it may not be amiss for the help of these to treat a little on this subject. I find by my observation many of those, if not the most, whom I have a vocation to treat with about their souls' concerns. who are serious to be much in the dark and not a little perplexed about their spiritual state and ready to say of themselves as she in Genesis 25 verse 22. And if it be so, why am I thus? I shall therefore endeavor by God's help to open this malady and prescribe the remedy which he has laid down in his word. We have this case here instance in David, that David was the penman of this psalm appears by the title. The occasion of it is also intimated there at the dedication of his house. But interpreters are at a loss about the proper meaning of it. Some read it a psalm and song of David at the dedication of the or that house, namely the temple, which though he lived not to see it dedicated, Yet, as a prophet, he prepared this song then to be sung. Others read it as our translation and suppose that it intends the dedication of its own house, though some observe that all the Hebrew expositors carry it in this former sense. The word translated dedication properly signifies to initiate or introduce a thing into its use. When it is applied to men, it intends a catechizing or instructing them in that which they should follow. And so it is used in Proverbs 22, verse 6, train up a child. And when used for other things, it intends the appointing them to their first use in the service we design them for. And it seems the Israelites, when they built a house, did solemnly consecrate it to the service of God, engaging that he should be served in it, and it should be kept pure from idolatry and debauchery. But with what ceremonies they did it, or whether with any at all, this scripture is silent. Deuteronomy 20, verse 6. But likely, they did it with prayer in which they obliged themselves to God that if He would continue them in their dwellings, He should be faithfully served therein. To Psalm is to Psalm a praise or thanksgiving. In it, 1. David says himself to bless God for the wonderful deliverance he received of Him. To verse 4. Number two, he calls upon the saints or people of God to join with him in this work. Verse four, and to help them in it. He gives them an account of the whole case, which consists of four particulars, which he introduces with a general observation to be relied on by all that fear God. Verse five, The ill improvement that he had made of his prosperous state, and that was to carnal security, though he still acknowledged God in it. David forgot himself, and carnal confidence is usually followed with temptations which are too hard for us, and we may think that he has a tacit respect to the mentor of Uriah. The sudden change that befell him on this account. Verse 7. What course he took when under such a condition he set himself to prayer. 2 Verse 11. And the blessed event of it. Verses 11 and 12. The words of our text and contain the second of these remarks are the sudden change that befell the psalmist when he least suspected it. He was gotten over his troubles. settled in his kingdom with great tranquility. Now he thought his troubles were at an end, and he should spend the rest of his time in ease, and the rather, because he maintained the worship of God in his house, and acknowledged God to be the author of his settlement. And on a sudden the scene is altered and he is again plunged into as deep distress as ever. In other words, observe two things. Number one, the occasion or that from which this distress proceeded. You hid your face. What is intended by it may be afterwards considered. Number two, the effect of it, or the distress itself, I was troubled. The words in the conjugation in which it is here used signifies a sudden and grievous consternation on the mind, occasioned by some expected very great evil that assaults a man and leaves him without counsel or power to escape it. and so puts them into a panicked fear. And so it very suitably expresses the present case. Hence, doctrine. When God at any time hides his face from his own children, it is very troublesome and terrible to them. There are two propositions contained in this doctrine, which may be taken notice of. One, that God may and sometimes does hide his face from his choice's servants. Number two, that his so hiding from them is very troublesome and terrible to them. Of these distinctly, proposition number one, that God-man sometimes does hide his face from his choice's servants. David is an instance for this, of whom we have an account in the scriptures that he was a man after God's own heart, one whom God had chosen peculiarly to himself, with whom he had made a covenant well ordered in all things and sure. And yet we have him here asserting this. And how frequently is he in the Psalms bemoaning of himself by reason of such a dispensation. Psalm 10 verse 1, Psalm 13 verse 1, and the many like. In prosecution of this proposition, we may inquire 1. When God may be said to hide his face from his own. 2. What is it that procures this hiding of his face from them? 3. For what end or design does he so hide his face? 4. To what degrees this may arrive? 5. How long this may be? In the first place, when God may be said to hide his face from his own, the expression is metaphorical and elusive and ascribed to God after the manner of men. God is a spirit and has no body and consequently no members or parts of a body, when therefore he assumes such in the scriptures he speaks to us in our own language and is to be spiritually understood. Now, the face is the most conspicuous part of the body. and is usually barren, open to view. The showing of the face to any is, therefore, frequently used for kindness, freedom, and familiarity, and the hiding of it is a token of estrangedness and displeasure. 2 Samuel 14 verse 24. Let him not see my face. Hence David prays for God's favor in such words. Psalm 4 verse 6. Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. God's hiding of his face then from his creatures intends his withdrawing from them the sensible or experimental discoveries of his benignity to them. which sometimes they enjoyed, or his withholding from them those manifestations of himself which they longed for, and which he has been ordinarily wont to bestow upon others. For though hiding does properly intend a withdrawing out of sight, Yet it also includes in it a keeping out of sight and not showing oneself. God has sometimes said to hide his face from sensitive creatures, Psalm 104 verse 29, which intends his providential withholding from them the support of their lives. He has also said to hide his face from wicked men, Deuteronomy 32 verse 20, and that may be both on a temporal and spiritual account when he brings trouble upon them and affords them no relief or comfort in it. But when it is spoken of true believers, it then more peculiarly intends those spiritual distortions which they are brought into and left under, or those with drawings of us manifesting themselves to them in a special favor, the enjoyment of which It's their very life in consolation. The end of union unto Christ and conversion is for communion with Him, in which there is a mutual commerce maintained between Him and us, in which He imparts to us of His grace and enables us to return to Him service and praise. Whatsoever therefore either impedes or obscures his communion belongs to the hiding of his face, or the desertion of which we are now considering. And hence, a Christian may be without outward comforts and ordinary helps, and yet not under the hidings of God's face. God can take away from his children the comforts of this life, their health, their strength, the relations, the state, liberty, and make up all this in the light of his countenance. Was it not so with David, when in the valley of the shadow of death, Psalm 23, verse 4, and with the prophet, when the fig tree did not blossom, and so on, Habakkuk 3, verses 17 and 18. Yea, he can take away the ordinances themselves from them, which are the ordinary way of their communion with him, and still be a little sanctuary to them, Ezekiel 11, verse 16. God therefore gives him that gracious encouragement in the lack of all. Isaiah 41, verse 10, Fear not, for I am with thee, and so on. Next, he may enjoy all the outward benefits of the covenant, and yet not enjoy the face of God in them. He may partake in the fullness of these, and yet God be withdrawn from them. It is one thing to enjoy the means of grace, and another thing to have God in them, manifesting Himself to us by His gracious cooperation with them, and these are separable. Out of doubt, David was sensible of this when he put up that request to God. Psalm 51 verses 11 and 12. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. There may be real communion maintained between God and a soul, and yet a child of God be at a loss about it. It may be carried on so secretly is that not only others may be ignorant of it, but the Christian himself may have great doubtings about it. God is never near his people than at some times when they think he is furthest from them. He brings them in a way that they know not, and leads them in paths that they have not known. Isaiah 42 verse 16. He steals His grace into them and draws forth the exercise of it, and carries them heavenward when they are complaining that they cannot see Him, nor find Him. Was it not so with the spouse? Saga Solomon. Never was her grace in more vigorous exercise than at that time when she complains that her beloved had withdrawn himself. All those withdrawings in which God leaves his children in the dark about their spiritual condition and concerns belong to this desertion or hiding of his face. God may be, yea, is at work for them in his greatest retirements, but they lack the apprehension of it. When therefore they complain, as see Lamentation 3 verse 2, he has led and brought me into darkness, but not into light. now they are so far deserted. And this is to be read in the dispensation of himself to them in his providence on a spiritual account. And there are many respects in which he thus does this. Some of the principles whereof we may have here taken notice of. And God not only brings outward troubles on his people, but with them withholds consolation and lets in terrors. However, afflictions indeed are not a rule of our judgment, since they may befall the most dearly beloved of God in a beam of God's love, and the soul will make them well appear light and momentary, as Paul's did for this reason to him, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17. But God has often wanted to use them as expressions of his anger and witnesses of his displeasure, and they are frequently so to his own, rods with which he corrects them. And while they can see a father's hand in them, they can take them well. But when they are made to apprehend him coming as an enemy against them, and his terrors make them afraid, Now they see not any consolation in his countenance, but wrath. Thus it was with Job in that distress of his, on which account he utters that complaint in Job 13, verse 24. Wherefore do you hide your face, and behold me for your enemy? Number two. When God withdraws from his ordinances, and they apprehend not that usual power of his accompanying to give them their efficacy, Time was when they never went to an ordinance, but they met with Christ there and received some token of His presence with them, an acceptance of them. Their hearts were touched. Their affections raised. The Word and Sacrament left impressions on them, and they were quickened, resolved in life, and strengthened and comforted by them. But now it is not so, and on the other hand they go with a great deal of listlessness and attend with deadness and wandering, and come away rather more obdurate and out of order as to what is good. And if God were there, Would it be so? David therefore longs that he may see God as he has seen Him in the sanctuary, Psalm 63 verse 2. And for this it is that he values the ordinances, Psalm 27 verse 4, to behold the beauty of the Lord. The felt lack then of this is a dark dispensation. 3. When they set about duty and find that assistance withheld which they needed, for lack of which they fail in the performance, when they would do good, evil is present, and that not only to withstand, but to captivate them. Romans 7, verses 22 and 23. They would pray earnestly and freely, but their affections are cold, and their hearts are straightened. They would pray believingly but are shaken with doubting and ready to let go of their hold on the promises. They would hear intensely but their hearts are wandering and still away from them into the corners of the earth there they are aware and alike. and other holy duties. And now what miserable work do they make in their best performances. They fill themselves like Samson. When his locks were cut, Judges 16 verse 20. Number four, when they are left to themselves in an hour of temptation, and so were driven away by it into sin. God does not only allow temptation to assault them, for so he had often done, and given them a glorious victory and triumph over it, and so brought them off conquerors, and in this witnessed his admirable presence with them, that they had been tripped up by it and carried down a stream of it, as it was with Hezekiah when God left him to himself. 2 Chronicles 32 verse 31. And Peter, when he cowardly denied his Lord, and many others in Scripture record. And this brings them to a loss in their thoughts. And they are brought to conclude, if the Lord had been with me, it would not have been thus. If he had not been withdrawn, I had not been thus deserted. Number five. more especially when they are left to some more gross and conscious wasting sins, and their consciences hereupon let loose to terrify them. David prays especially to be kept from presumptuous sin, Psalm 19, verse 13, when therefore they are at any time overtaken with such a sin as against the light of nature. and a plain precept of the Word of God, such as David's adultery and murder were, such as that of the incestuous Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1. This looks so much like a spot that is not of God's children, yet it occasions very much darkness in them. And though often for the present such a sin be numbs and stupefies their consciences, and they are insensible of it, yet when God rouses their consciences and makes it to reflect on the sin and sets it home with its aggravations, it becomes very dreadful to them. We may be satisfied how it was with David on this account by many passages in Psalm 51. and they're ready to be swallowed up with the remorse of it, as he in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 7, lest to be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Number six. When their own evidences are so blurred that they cannot read them, The Christian evidences for his good state are within him. They are the special fruits of the Spirit which he produces in none but the regenerate, called the things that accompany salvation. From these he is to argue to his being under the promise, because by this the condition of it is fulfilled in him, but those things are in him. Yet he cannot find the reality of them. He cannot distinguish his faith from presumption, his repentance from that which is legal, his obedience from that which is false and hypocritical. And this makes him afraid that nothing is right in him. that he has only a shadow and not a substance, which makes him to walk in the dark, as they say in Isaiah 50 verse 10, and he calls the truth of everything into question and dares to fix upon nothing. Number seven. When the Spirit of God withholds His testimony from confirming their evidences, though the evidence be in us, yet the confirmation of it must be by His testimony. Romans 8 verse 16. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits. whereas he does not now so witness, but leaves us in suspense. And though we cannot deny, yet we dare not conclude, but are tossed and turmoiled about it, and full of fears, thinking that if all were right, he would surely set his hand and sail to it, and let us discern it. Thus, therefore, David deprecates. or praise against in the four-sided Psalm 51 verse 11. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Number eight. When we lack these joys and exercise which are the privilege and duty of the children of God, the apostle could say, 1 Peter 1 verse 8, you rejoice with joy unspeakable. And the psalmist prays, Psalm 106 verse 5, that I may rejoice with the gladness of thy nation. And we are bidden to be always in the exercise of this. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16. Rejoice evermore. And Philippians 4 verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Whereas, though he has some hope and is not altogether abandoned, Yet he is full of trouble. His heart is heavy. He is a stranger to this joy and goes up and down with a grief spirit and in a bitterness of his soul. Such is a psalmist's moan. Psalm 42 verses three and nine. My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say to me, where is your God? I go, I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy. When in this condition they pray to God and can find no answer to their prayers and tears, it is true. He many times answers them graciously when they do not understand Him. However, they are to their own sense unanswered. They do not find those returns of prayer which they hope for and esteem to be proper for their condition, though they cry incessantly and mourn after God ardently. So the psalmist uttered himself, Psalm 22, verse 2, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you hear me not. And in the night season, and am not silent, may it be to their apprehension that God answers them in anger, and gives them the most discouraging returns as he expostulates Psalm 80 verse 4. How long will you be angry at the prayers of your people? In Job 30 verses 20 and 21, I cry unto you, and you do not hear me. I stand up, and you do not regard me. You have become cruel to me. And he apprehends that God rejects his petitions as Lamentation 3 verse 8. When I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer. When discouragement suppress and almost overbear them, their fears are so great and their hopes run so low that they are ready to give up all for God. and are at the very brink of despair. Thus it was with David in Psalm 31 verse 22, I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes. In the prophet in Jonah 2 verse 4, I said, I am cast out of your sight. In the church in Lamentation 3 verse 18, I said, My hope and my strength is perished from the Lord. The very thoughts of God trouble him. And he is calling in question everything in the covenant, Psalm 77, 3, 7, and 9. And he cries out, as Psalm 38, 10, My heart pants. My strength fails. As for the light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me. And he is afraid that he shall not hold out a moment longer, but be overwhelmed. All these are the fruits and evidences of divine desertions. and such as the scriptures cited under them to make it appear that they may befall the best of men in this life. But what it is that procures this hiding of his face from them? In general, this must be sought for in them. And for a clue to lead us in the search, that we be not mistaken about it, let me offer the following conclusions. One. that if it were not for sin there would be none of these desertions befalling the people of God. When God made man in his integrity, there was an entire friendship and intimacy between them. There was no cloud to hide his face from him, nor shall there be any more of this when we come to the general assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect. This began upon man's apostasy, which made a separation. And though it remains with the children of God through this life, yet it shall continue no longer. And the reason why they experience it now is because they have sin abiding with them. The psalmist hereupon presumes, Psalm 17 verse 15, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. And if you ask why must they meet with such dark dispensations here, the best answer is, because they carry a body of death about with them, and until they put it off, it is like to be so. Secondly, that spiritual desertion of its own nature belongs to the curse of the first covenant. It is in itself a great evil, and of a worse sort being spiritual, it belongs to the death that was denounced and the threatening in Genesis 2 verse 17. And it is the greatest affliction that God's saints meet with in this life, as will after be made manifest. Desertions will be of the sorest plagues that shall befall the damned in hell. It will be the quintessence of their misery that they shall depart from God's presence and never see His face shining on them. The very sentence contained this in it. Matthew 25 41 depart you cursed and we are told second Thessalonians 1 verse 9 they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power and if in his presence there is fullness of joy psalm 16 verse 11 then in a separation from it there must be fullness of sorrows and Every distance from God is a misery. And if so, then to be utterly forsaken of Him is the upshot of all infelicity. Hosea 9 verse 12. Woe unto them when I shall depart from them. Now all misery came into the world by the curse. Thirdly, that the desertions of the children of God are no part of revenging justice as they befall them. They are so indeed to the wicked, because they are under the dispensation of the old covenant. The believers are not under the law, but under grace, Romans 6 verse 14. And in the New Jerusalem there is no curse, Revelation 22 verse 3. God, in infinite wisdom, sees fit to continue many of the evils themselves upon his own which sin introduced into the world. But he has taken away the stink and poison out of them, and as a skillful physician he turns them into medicine, and they belong to all things that shall work together for good to them that love God, and come into the saints' inventory. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 22. All are yours. For it is the truth that all the dispensations of God to them that are in Christ, as all believers are, are to bring about the great design of fitting them for the glory to which they are appointed. Besides, it is certain that whatsoever belongs to the execution of the revenging justice of the first covenant has been borne by Christ himself, on the account of all for whom he has made a sacrifice, and so cannot again be exacted upon them. Fourthly, that God uses much of his sovereignty in these desertions that he exercises his people with. He indeed has holy ends and purposes in all that he does. He never uses his sovereignty separate from his wisdom, though he is arbitrary or at the discretion of his own will in what he does, yet he never forgets to carry on his own glory and his people's salvation in and by it. However, He uses a liberty of which he will not give us an account, and for which we can assign no other reason moving him but because it seemed good to him. Hence, all of his children are not exercised alike in this, neither is to kind, nor as to degree. Some walk in the dark, while others go up and down in the light. Nay, the most watchful and circumspect saints may meet with these. He that fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant may walk in darkness and have no light. Isaiah 50 verse 10. And so there is no room left us to censor others on this account. We ought not to be high-minded, but fear. Number five. God never visits them with these, but when they need them. It is a truth universal concerning the children of God. Verse Peter 1 6. You are in heaviness if need be. which need we are not to measure by our shallow understandings, as if God could not by His absolute power bring them another way to glory. But this is a way which His infinite wisdom has contrived in which to lead them to it. And there are those occasions for these which make them very convenient at such a time, which He knows. Though we are at a loss about them, God therefore so bespeaks His deserted people. Jeremiah 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. And there is a time coming when they shall see and adore as Christ to Him, John 13 verse 7. What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter. Number six. that it is usually some sin of theirs which grieves the Holy Spirit, that procures these desertions. His Spirit is very tender, and he may be grieved. Why else are we so cautioned against it? Ephesians 4 verse 30. And there is nothing but some sin and folly of ours that so does, and such as by which we have put some special affront upon him. For he is pitiful, and knows our frame. Psalm 103 verse 14. Now If we do so grieve him, we must expect that he will show us resentment of it in some way or other, and in what more suitable than in that which shall put us to grief, though so as shall bring us back to him by a kindly repentance, and so make up the breach and remove the strangeness that was procured by our sin. Hence we find David to be once and again under a sense of God's withdrawing, bitterly complaining of his sins, as the occasions of it, Psalm 31 verses 9 to 10 and Psalm 38 verse 1, so that there can be nothing more proper for us when we meet with such things in providence than to call ourselves to a severe account and strictly inquire what we have done. But for what end or design does God so hide His face? In general, we may be assured that God always aims at His own glory and His children's good when He so treats them. That God must design His own glory by it is certain, for that is His last end and all of His works, and it is inconsistent with His holiness that He should do otherwise. and that He is connected with this and inseparable subordination to best good of His people. It's a truth of divine revelation inasmuch as having appointed them to salvation. For the glorifying of its rich grace in them, He conducts them by His mature counsel in the right way to it. So he presumes, Psalm 73 verse 24, you shall guide me by your counsel and afterward receive me to glory, so that there is no one passage in it but what was before contrived and laid out in infinite wisdom. Now, the discovery of wisdom is not only in choosing a worthy end, but also in making a choice of suitable means and rightly applying them for the obtaining of the end. These hidings belong to this conduct, and the design of them is to be discovered by the way in which God makes them to serve thereunto. Hence a child of God may say of every desertion he meets with is Paul in another case, Philippians 1 verse 19. I know that this shall turn to my salvation. And as Job in chapter 23 verse 10, when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And this rule may help us in a particular inquiring into the design of God upon this account, in which we must always have an eye to these five rules that can never fail us. One, that these withdrawings are not from God's hatred, but His love. They are ready to suspect this and say of Psalm 77, verse 79, will the Lord cast off forever? But it is their infirmity, verse 10. They think because He hides Himself He does not love them, but indeed He does therefore so hide because He loves them. Zion thinks that now she is forgotten and forsaken, but God assures her that it is far otherwise. Isaiah 49 verses 14 and 15. And God is grieved that His people should think there is any defect or decay in His love, because He so carries it to them. Number two, that though God loves them, yet he may be angry at them and withdraw in anger. Love and hatred are contraries, but anger is subordinated and may be employed by either of them. There is an anger of love as well as of hatred. A father has a dear love for his child, but he may be very angry at him and manifest it also in severe tokens. God can be provoked so as to withdraw from his own. And so he declares in Isaiah 54 verse 8, In a little wrath I hid my face from you. 3 Yet this anger is managed by love, and shall work accordingly. God's displeasure at his children shall do nothing but what love directs. If any hides away from them in anger, it is because he sees it best for them. It shall not extinguish. No, nor diminish, no, nor so much as intermit the operation of his love toward them, but shall always do love's work. When therefore he afflicts, it is in faithfulness. It's in Psalm 119 verse 75. 4. That God may withdraw from his people when he is not angry, they indeed have cause to be afraid of some provocation given, and accordingly to make diligent search. But God sometimes withdraws from them when there is no special provocation given him. Job had great desertions. This has been observed. And yet God himself testifies of him that there was none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man. Job 1 verse 8. And the church could say in Psalm 44 verse 17, All this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten you, nor have dealt falsely in your covenant. And fifthly, that there is ever something in the condition of its people for which these withdrawings are suitable, they are in such a posture as is best for the glory of God and their everlasting welfare that they met with such a dispensation. So let us take notice what that is, so we may be helped to discover God's special design in this. And this may be reduced to three heads, one. God does it for their chastisement, an amendment. Divine corrections are one part of God's dispensations to his people here. Hebrews 12, verse six. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. And the aim of them is the doing of them good. Let us then observe how he makes these desertions serve to this purpose in a few particulars. God's children are sometimes overtaken with sins that both dishonor him and wound them. If they were not liable to folly, they would not need correction. Nor is their folly restrained to lesser infirmities, but sometimes breaks out into more bold transgressions. God presumes such a thing may be, and for that reason threatens a rod in case. Psalm 89 verse 30. Sometimes God's name is blasphemed by what they do, as it was by David's folly. 2 Samuel 12 verse 14. and her own bones are broken, as he complains in Psalm 51 verse 8. There are some such wounds as these which the most eminent saints on scripture record have gotten to themselves, though more seldom. And they very often grow dull and remiss in the exercise of their spiritual graces. carnal concupiscence that remains in them, and the occasions and temptations they meet with in the world are apt to cool their gracious frames, and bring them into deadness, so that though grace be alive at the root, yet it does not flourish. There is fire on the hearth, but it is covered with embers. They grow drowsy and lukewarm. It was so with the spouse on Solomon 5, verse 3, and with the church of Sardis, Revelation 3, verse 1. And usually their being exposed to the aforementioned sin begins here. It is generally supposed that David was in such a posture when he was surprised on the housetop, 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. The glory of God and their good are concerned in their recovery. It is not consistent with Aether Thieves for them to be left always in such a condition as if they were brought themselves into by such things. God's name suffers not a little by their former, nor is there any way for them to repair the injury done to it but by a soaking repentance, and their work lies by both. And there is no progress made in the business wherein they are to work out their own salvation. For the reparation, therefore, of both of these, it is requisite that they be made to see and lament their folly, and be roused up to their business. And God's covenant faithfulness engages him to do this for them. Many times other means to reclaim them are unsuccessful. God uses other courses, and they remain stupid and senseless. David doubtless lived under the enjoyment of and attendance upon the ordinances of God, and yet he is obdurate, without remorse, until the prophet Nathan comes. It is too awfully observable that godly men, under some imminent spiritual decays, content themselves with formality, and do not feel their malady, until God comes in some more awful way to bring them to this sense. So God exercises them with such desertions for their awakening, humbling, and healing. And when he does so, and touches their consciences, and they perceive them and are brought to themselves, when God hid his face from David, he then cries and confesses and begs for the restoring of his spirit, and he obtains it, Psalm 51. When Christ came to his beloved with sweet allurements, she longed to need, neglected, and rejected them. But when he put in his finger and left a touch behind, and then withdrew, now she is quickened. Her grace begins to store and revive, and she does not rest until she has gotten the sight of him again. Song of Solomon chapter 5 God does it as well for the exercise and trial of the grace, that this is one end of God's dark dispensations to his people, we are told in Deuteronomy 8, verse 16, to prove you, and that we may see the reason of the ground of these things. God has put his graces into his people for exercise, in which he is to be glorified. The creature's last end is the glory of God, and that man may glorify him, he must have graces to do it. And he only glorifies God by the exercise of these graces without which he would receive them in vain. This is the fruitfulness by which Christ tells us that the Father has glorified John 15 verse 8. This exercise of grace is made illustrious when it is put to the trial. Grace is like gold, which is discovered by the trial of it, both as to the reality and excellency of it. And what says he, Job 23 10, when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. By these the truth of grace is made manifest. If there be any activity in it, it will now show itself, and the strength of it will now be proved, whether it be weak or strong. When Peter was upon the waters, he exercised his faith, but so as to show that he had but little. Matthew 14 31 Temptations are suited for this trial, and here by temptations I understand all sorts of afflictions. Prosperity indeed has his temptations in it, but the Spirit of God more peculiarly puts his title upon afflictions, because by this we are brought into difficulty. when it will be truly proved whether God or any other be our object of hope and trust. The apostle therefore tells us that our manifold temptations are for the trial of our faith. 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7. Now we are in the dark, and many will say, where is your God? Besides, there are some graces that are peculiarly suited for this, and the proper occasion for the exercise of them is from an hour of temptation, such as patience, meekness, submission, and so on. Desertions belong to these temptations, and indeed grace is never so put to the proof as when God hides his phrase from us. to believe in a withdrawing God, to be following hard after him when he seems to be going away from us, to hold him the faster when he offers to knock our hands off, to resolve with him, Job 13 verse 15, though he slay me, I will put my trust in him. Isaiah 8 verse 17, I will wait for the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob. requires no small measure of faith. When it is with us, as it was with the psalmist, and to say and do as he did, Psalm 22, verse 1, argues grace to have great vigor in it. God by this lets them know their own weakness to humble them. When God withdraws, a corrupt part stirs. Unbelief is ready to discover itself. Impatience to break forth in unsuitable expressions and carriages. The Christian who before thought what he could do, if a cell, now finds himself to be at a loss, and ready to sink. See how David expresses himself in Psalm 77, as if all were gone, and he is made to confess that it was his infirmity. And then God lets him hear and experience his own fidelity and power, when he gives them a full proof of their own weakness and helps them to cry out to him for help. When with Peter, Matthew 14, verse 30, they find themselves sinking and calling to him for his aid. Now he stretches out a hand to them and upholds them, and by this wonderfully manifests himself to them. They had never known how faithful and able a God he is, had it not been for such an exigency. It was when the psalmist was compassed with the sorrows of death, and he called upon God, Psalm 116, verses 3 and 4, that he celebrates him with that confession, verse 5. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful.