Chapter XII
The cases ordinary wherein God doth leave his in darkness.
2. Now, secondly, we come to the more ordinary cases wherein God dis-
penseth this darkness. Ere I name particulars, I will premiss concerning them this general rule : We shall find that God goes not constantly by the same rule in the dispensation of them, so as no man can say that in such and such cases God will and doth desert men, or that he always doth so, but
is various in his dealings herein. For some men he leaves for a while in
darkness, in and upon and immediately after their conversion ; their sun
riseth in an eclipse, and continueth so till noon, yea, till their night. On
the contrary, towards others sometimes he never shines in more comforts on them than at their first conversion. Again, some he deserts upon a gross sin committed ; to others he never reveals himself more at any time than
after a gross sin humbled for and repented of, thereby to shew the freeness
of his grace. So likewise, some that have less grace and have lived more
l abundant entrance/ with
loosely, he fills their sails at death, and they have
full sail, into the kingdom of Christ. Others that have walked more
strictly with God, and whose ends you would expect should be most glori
ous, he leaves to fears and doubts, and their sun doth set in a cloud.
And the reasons why God is thus various in these his dealings is both
because spiritual comforts tend not simply ad esse, but lene esse; not to the
: and also be
absolute being of a Christian, but his comfortable well-being
cause in respect of their dispensation they are to be reckoned in the rank of
temporal rewards ; and though light and assurance is not an earthly but a
heavenly blessing, yet it is but a temporary blessing. And therefore, as the
promises of other temporal good things are not absolute, no more are the
promises to give assurance to a believer absolute, as those to give him heaven and salvation are. Therefore likewise, on the contrary, darkness and distress
of conscience is but a temporal chastisement, as outward crosses are, differing from them only in the matter of them ; the one being conversant about things of the outward man ; this of the inward, namely, a man s spiritual estate.
Hence, therefore, in the dispensation of both, though God always goes by some rule, as in all other dealings of his, yet so as he varies and deals diffe
rently with his children therein ; as he doth in dispensing outward prosperity and adversity, setting the one against the other, to the end that man should
find nothing after him, as Solomon says, Eccles. vii. 14, that is, gives such
cross and contrary opposite instances in both kinds, that men might not
1 find him out in these ways, or trace him, as the phrase is, Rom. xi. 33, not so as to say certainly and infallibly what he means to do in such and such
cases. Indeed, in the world to come, he makes even with all the world, how
differing soever his dispensations of rewards or punishments have been here ; and what is behindhand to any one, he then pays with respect to what they have received. Thus in matter of spiritual joy and assurance, God may
CHAP. XIL] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DAKKNESS. 293
vouchsafe it to one that hath not feared and obeyed him so much as one that
walks in darkness ; but then if any one hath received more earnest-pennies beforehand, and hath not walked answerably, God considers it as an aggra vation of his sin, as he did in Solomon, whose sin is aggravated by this, 1 Kings xi. 9, 10, that he sinned against God, who had appeared to him
twice. Otherwise, if these comforts make a man, in any proportion to such
cost, more fruitful than others are, I see not but that God, who crowns his own graces, will reward them the more ; this being one means sanctified to some to work more grace, as afflictions are to others. Thus it is in like manner in desertings and distress of mind ; they being a temporal punish ment, God is as various in them. So as one of more grace, or whom God intends more grace unto, shall be afflicted and forsaken, when one of less
reign as king, as it is said of the Corinthians, 1 Cor. iv. 8, in case of
shall
worldly prosperity. So he shall have peace and liberty of mind, triumph over Satan, arid hell, and discomfort ; when apostles in comparison that is, men eminent in grace are, in respect of spiritual conflicts, made spectacles to angels and men.
This rule premised, the ordinary cases follow :
(1.) First, in case of carnal confidence. Thus, Ps. xxx., David had been in
great distress of mind for a while, as appears by what is said, ver. 3, 5, that
though heaviness be over-night, yet joy cometh in the morning; and in this sunshine David looks about him, and sees never a cloud appear in view that
might again eclipse his comfort. Then he grew confident, upon no other
ground but present sense, thinking it would always be so with him, and so
trusted in that comfort he had at present, as if now he could never have been troubled so again, as in such cases good souls are apt to think : Now I shall never be removed, says David. This was carnal confidence, and
God, to confound it, hides himself again, ver. 7. Now, carnal confidence is either
[1.] First, when we trust to false signs shuffled in among true ; which is
incident even to believers that are in the state of grace, and have good evi dences to shew for it; who yet, together with those sound evidences, do
often rake together many other signs that are but probable, yea, and which
are deceitful, and but common to hypocrites. This we are apt to do, to take many things as infallible signs which are not. As many are said in Daniel to
cleave to the better side by flattery ; so in a man s heart, many false signs will come in, and flatter a man, and give their testimony, and speak the same
thing true evidences do. Now God, to discover which are false, and which
are not, leaves a man ; and then he will find all his false signs to leave him, as flatterers use to do ; and to be but as broken teeth among those which
are sound and whole, to fail and disquiet him ; like reeds that break when
any stress is put to them, and so to run into his hand. Or
[2.] Secondly, when we put too much of our confidence upon signs, though true, and trust too much to comforts and former revelations, and
witnesses of God s Spirit, and to our graces, which are all but creatures, acts
of God upon us and in us. When, therefore, we let all the weight of our sup
port to hang on these, God in this case often leaves us, that no flesh should
rejoice in his presence. Or
[3.] Thirdly, when we think graces and comforts are so rooted in our
selves, that we neglect God and Christ, for the upholding, increase, and
exercise of them ; then God withdraws the light of these, that we may have
recourse to the spring and well-head. As too much confidence in the power of inherent grace caused Christ to leave Peter to the power of sin, so the like
294 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
confidence also in the power of grace, causeth God to leave us to the guilt
of, and terrors that come by, sin.
(2.) The second case : for neglecting such precious opportunities of com
forts and refreshings as God hath vouchsafed ; as for the neglect of holy
duties, wherein God did offer to draw nigh to us, the sacraments, prayer, &c. So, Cant. v. 4-7, Christ stood at the door and knocked ; that is, moved
the heart of the church there to pay or perform the like duty in which he useth to come into the heart and visit it ; he offered to assist her, and began to enlarge and prepare her heart, but she made excuses. Upon this, Christ went presently away ; only he left behind him an impression, a scent of himself in her heart, ver. 4-6, enough to stir her up to seek him, in the sense
of the want of him ; as in desertion God useth to do.
(3.) Thirdly, in case of not exercising the graces which a man hath, not
stirring them up, &c. ; when Christians are, as it were, between sleeping and
waking, which was the church s condition in that Cant. v. 2 ; then also Christ
deserts. To perform duties with the inward man half awake, as it were, and
e to use the world as if we used it not ;) thus to do the work of the Lord negli
half asleep ; to pray as if we prayed not, (as, on the contrary, we are
gently, this provoketh God to absent himself; as he did there, Cant. v. 2. And so, 2 Peter i. 9, He that lacketh these things, that is, useth them
not, neglecting to add grace to grace/ (as the former words expound that
phrase ; and it agrees with the like elsewhere used ; as, Matt. xxv. 29, he that useth not his talent, is said not to have it, To him that hath shall be
given, and from him that hath not, &c.,) a blindness soon falls on such a
man, and he forgetteth all that ever he had, as was opened before. And,
indeed, there is no reason that a man should have present comfort of future
grace, when he neglects the use of present grace. Isa. Ixiv. 7, God com
plains that there was none that stirred up himself ; and for this God was wroth. Whereas otherwise, ver. 5,
i God meets with him that worketh
righteousness, and rejoiceth in him that rejoiceth to work righteousness ; God meets such, and rejoiceth with, and draws nigh unto them. But others, that stir not up themselves, God rouseth and stirs them up by terrors : He that walketh according to this rule, peace be on him, Gal. vi. 16; not else. Though comfort is not always the present necessary fruit of righteousness, yet it is never without it.
(4.) Fourthly, in case of some gross sin committed against light, unhumbled
for, or proving scandalous, or of old sins long forgotten. I will give instances of each particular
First, for some gross sin committed against light. An instance for this avid ; who, though he was a man after God s heart, yet we meet with him
E..]
often complaining, as one that was frequently in these desertions. Amongst other times, once in the 119th Psalm, verse 25, 28, where his soul cleaveth unto the dust, and is even at death s door, for he says, quicken me : he means
} which
it in regard of the sense of God s favour, which is better than life ;
also is the meaning of that phrase, that his soul did cleave unto the dust, that is, was brought to the apprehension of death ; therefore, Ps. xxii. 15, Christ upon the cross, of whom the psalm is made, cries out that God had
forsaken him, and brought his soul to the dust of death. And David says here also, that his soul melted, and was dissolved ; even all the powers of
it were loosened and failed within him at the sense of God s wrath, even as wax melts before the fire. Ordinarily we find in Scripture no such eminent
desertion, but we find the cause of it not far off, if we read on ; so here, in the 29th verse, Remove from me, says David, the way of lying. He points
CHAP. XII.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 295
to the sore of his heart, and wherein his grief lay. David, among other cor
ruptions, had a lying spirit. In 1 Sam. xxi. 2, David very roundly telleth two or three lies together, when he fled from Saul and came to Ahimelech, who, fearing to harbour him because of Saul, asked him why he was alone ; it being a suspicious thing that he, so great a man, should have no greater train to attend him ; and did argue that he fled as a proscribed person, and then it would be dangerous to foster him. To this he answers roundly, that the king had commanded him a business, there is one lie ; and that
1 the king had commanded him secresy in it, there is another ; and because my servants should not know it, I have sent them away to several places, there is a third. And again, at the 8th verse, I have not brought my sword, because the king s business required haste, there is a fourth lie. David went on here in a way of lying ; they were all made and deliberate
lies. Other such like speeches of his as that, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8, 10, where he
told Achish, that he went against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Kenites, ver. 10, whenas he went against the Geshurites and the
Amalekites, ver. 8 some excuse, because those nations bordered over
against the south of Judah and the south of the Kenites, and so make out a truth in that his speech; but yet the last verse, that says Achish believed
David, implies that as he understood it, so David indeed meant it, as if he had gone up against his own countrymen ; and then it can no way be excused.
These, therefore, being gross sins, sins against light, as of all sins lyingmust needs be supposed to be, because it is against that truth which riseth up in the mind, and is a sin wherein a man s mind shews art, cunning, and
wit, and a sin which, when the truth is discovered, proves exceeding shame
ful and scandalous ; therefore this sin, especially when it had been some while gone on in by him, which therefore he calls a way of lying, lay heavy on him long after. Therefore he entreats God to take the load of it
off, Kemove from me the way of lying. It was the load hereof which did
lie so heavy on him, as it pressed his soul to the dust of death, as he had
before complained.
[2.] So for the second particular, in case a sin be not thoroughly humbled
for and confessed ; or if when we committed it, we had shifts to keep us from
thinking it to be sin, or not so heinous, or were doubtful whether it were a
sin or no, and so were loath to acknowledge it to be a sin, and to burden
ourselves with it in our confessions ; but our hearts stood out rather to clear
ourselves in it, as it is likely David did in the case of his murder of Uriah. He had done it so cunningly as he thought he could clear himself and wash
his hands of it; or it was but the chance of war, says he, that did cut him
off The sword devoureth one as well as another, and so he excuseth it, 2 Sam. xi. 25. God in this case brings him to the rack, Ps. xxxii. It is
thought that psalm was made, as well as the 51st Psalm, upon that occasion
of this murder ; and indeed it may seem so, they are tuned so near together, as might be shewn in many particulars. These sins being known and be come scandalous, David was to confess publicly ; as in the end he did, when, in making the 51st Psalm, he stood to do penance in a white sheet, that I may so speak. Now David was loath to come to this ; that murder beingdone so cunningly, he could hardly be brought to confess it so much as in
secret, much less publicly. God in this case lays his hand so sorely on him
that his natural moisture was dried up, as that psalm tells us ; for in men
troubled in conscience, their trouble of mind casts their bodies often into as
great heats as men that are in burning fevers. So, Ps. cii. 3, in the like fit, he
says, his bones were burnt like a hearth, and this was without interims-
296 A CHILD OP LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
sion, day and night ; and thus he lay
roaring, (so he expresseth his carriage in his torture,) like a malefactor on the rack ; though haply he cried out for
mercy to God, yet because not with a broken heart, God therefore accounted
it but as roaring, that is, the voice of a beast, as it were, rather than the
voice of a man humbled for his sin. And why was David put to the rack thus ? He would not confess and humble himself for his sin ; I was silent, and yet roared/ ver. 3 ; a still, broken-hearted confession might have saved
all this torment. But when in the end I said I would confess my sin,
ver. 5, and in his heart he resolved once to lay open all that sin of murder and adultery in the circumstances of them, then God pardoned him, as you know he did ; for Nathan coming to him, told him, as soon as but a word of
confession began to fall from him, that his sins were pardoned. And yet after that, as appears in the 51st Psalm, God did not yet restore comfort and the joy of his salvation to him, for there he prays for it in the sense
of the want of it ; not until he had publicly confessed it also, and thoroughly humbled himself ; it having caused the enemies of God to blaspheme, God would have a public satisfaction given.
So when the incestuous person had committed that sin, 1 Cor. v. 1, 9, for
which, as then he was not humbled, (for afterwards, in 2 Cor. ii. 7, when he was humbled indeed, he bids them comfort him,) yet till that his humiliation was apparent, he bids them to deliver such a one to Satan, to the jailer, to the tormentor, to the prince of darkness, to terrify him and afflict his
spirit. Now, the meaning of that delivering him up to Satan was, that he
should be solemnly excommunicated ; which, when it is performed as it ought to be, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and with the power of the Lord
Jesus, then, as the church cuts them off from communion with them, so God from communion with himself, and he withdraws all fellowship with
their spirits, as was before declared, and so leaves them alone in darkness and to desertions. And not only so, but delivereth them up to Satan, not with a commission to carry them on to more sin, for the end propounded by the Apostle was thereby to destroy the flesh, ver. 5, not to nourish it by provoking him to more sin, but to terrify and afflict his conscience, and to
stir up therein the guilt of sin, and terrors for it, which God sanctifies to humble man and to mortify the flesh. And thus when that Corinthian was
excommunicated, and given up to him, did Satan deal with him ; for, 2 Cor.
ii. 7, he was nigh being swallowed up of too much sorrow, and this occa
sioned by Satan, whose devices we are not ignorant of, says the Apostle,
ver. 11. Now, as every ordinance hath a proper peculiar work it is appointed
for, an inward effect to accompany it in a man s spirit, so this ; and that
proper effect and inward working and event of this great ordinance of excom munication is terror, and sorrow, and desertion of spirit, thereby to humble
a man ; even as it is the proper effect of sacraments to convey comfort and
assurance, and to convey the seal of the Spirit. And when this ordinance
is neglected or omitted, when yet gross and scandalous sins require it ; then
a man belonging to God, God himself often works thus, and inflicts this on him without that ordinance. Thus he dealt with David and others after
gross sins. God inwardly excommunicates and casts them out of his pre
sence, and from all comforts in his ordinances, although they are not refused
by men to come to them ; dealing herein as a father that is a public magis
trate, with an unruly child, after some great misdemeanour, though he cast him not off, yet he may send him to the jail, to be for example s sake im
: for the jailer to take him, and to clap irons on him, to have him down into the dungeon, where he sees no light, and into the little-ease, where
prisoned
CHAP. XII.] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 297
he is in so strait a condition as lie can neither sit, nor stand, nor lie, as Elihu
expresseth it, Job xxxvi. 16 ; he calleth it bringing into a strait place, and
binding them in fetters and cords of affliction ; and then he shews them their
transgression, and wherein they have exceeded, ver. 8, 9.
[3.] Yea, and thirdly, this God doth not only presently after the sins were
committed, but sometimes a long while after, and that when they have been
often confessed. Yea, and after that God hath pardoned them also in our
consciences, as well as in heaven, yet the guilt may return again and leave
us in darkness. Thus, Job xiii. 26, for the sins of his youth, which ques tionless he had humbled himself for, and had assurance of the pardon of, yet
God did write bitter things against him for them many years after, and made him possess them, as himself speaks. God gave him over to the
: Thou puttest my feet
jailer, and put him into the little-ease in prison
into the stocks, says he, ver. 27. For as the power of sin and the law of
sin is but in part done away in our members, so in our consciences the guilt of sin is likewise but in part done away, in regard of our apprehensions of
the pardon of it ; and therefore as those lusts we had thought dead, and
that they would never have risen again, do sometimes revive and trouble us
afresh, coming with new assaults, so in like manner may the guilt of those
sins revive which we thought long before had been pardoned ; and after the commission of some new act, or forgetfulriess of the old, and security about
them, God may let them loose upon us afresh, that we shall look upon them, as if they never had been pardoned. Now the reason of all these particulars, both why gross sins, especially if
against light, when not confessed thoroughly, should yet after many years cast us into such fits of desertion, is
Because therein we rebel against God s Spirit ; arid that Spirit, ita nos
tractat, ut a nobis tractotur, doth deal with us as we with him. If you
grieve him, he grieves you ; if you rebel against him, he fights against you as an enemy. So, Isa. Ixiii. 10, They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
ISTow to sin against light is called rebellion ; so Job xxiv. 1 3. When men go about to extinguish and darken the light of direction which God had set up in their hearts to guide their paths by, God puts out the light of comfort, and so leaves them to darkness. But especially then when our hearts are so
full of guile, as we plead that they are no sins, or extenuate them, as David
in all likelihood did, Ps. xxxii. ; in reference to which he says, in ver. 2 of
that psalm, that that man is a blessed man in whom is no guile ; and in
the 51st Psalm, ver. 6, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. David had dealt guilefully and deceitfully in that sin. If man keeps a sin under
his tongue, and will not be convinced of it, nor bring it forth by confession, God in that case brings him to the rack, as they do traitors, to confess ; and
if it be that any of our old sins revive and cause these terrors, it is because we began to look on them as past and gone, and thought we needed not go on to humble ourselves any more for them, making account they are so
buried as that they will never rise again, whenas the remembrance of them
should keep us low and humble us all our days. It is laid to the charge of them in Ezek. xvi. 22, that they remembered not that they lay in their
blood. We are apt to think that time wears out the guilt of sins ; but to God they are as fresh as if they had been committed yesterday, and there
fore nothing wears them out but repentance. Great sins forgiven must not be forgotten.
(o.) Fifthly, in case of a stubborn, stiff spirit, under outward afflictions; wheu
298 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IX DARKNESS. [PART I.
we will not mend nor stoop to God. This may be part of the case mentioned
Isa. Ivii., where God alleging the reason why he contended with a
poor" soul of his, he gives an account of it. Ver. 1 7, you shall see where the quarrel began
: For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth j that is, for some inordinate affection, which we call concupiscence ; he mentioneth not a gross act of sin committed, so much as some lust harboured : for which God began to be angry, and to shew the effects of that his anger in smiting him, haply with some outward cross first, I was wroth and smote him : and when that did no good, God began to be more angry, and to hide himself, I hid my face ; and this he speaks of inward affliction, which he also calleth, ver. 16, 1 contending with the soul, and so far leaving it as that the spirit was
ready to fail. It came to inward affliction in the end, And he further intimates the cause of all this, He went on frowardly in the way of his
heart. When lighter and outward strokes will not take us off, God leaves and deserts our spirits, and wounds them. And the reason is, for in this case what course else should God take ? For either he must give him up to hardness of heart, and leave him to his stubbornness, and so he should have
lost his child ; but that God is resolved he will not do : I will heal him, saith he, ver. 18. When, therefore, the heart remains stubborn under other
strokes, he hath no way left, in his ordinary course and progress in the way of means, but to lay strokes upon his spirit, and wound that. And this yoke is like to break and tame him, if any ; for this he cannot bear. Other out ward afflictions man s natural spirit, stoutness, and stubbornness, may bear, and hath borne, even in heathen men ; they have endured anything rather than be put out of their way The spirit of man will sustain its infirmities; but in this the spirit fails in them, ver. 16. Other afflictions are but par ticular but as taking some stars of comfort out of the firmament, when others are still left to shine to them. But when God s countenance is hid, the sun itself, the fountain of light, is darkened, and so a general darkness
befalls them. And therefore then the heart is driven to God, and broke off from all things else ; and then God delights to restore and to comfort a man
again, I will restore comfort to him, ver. 1 8.
(6.) Sixthly, in case of deserting his truth, and not professing it and ap pearing for it when he calls us to do it. In this case he left many of the
martyrs ; many of whom, especially until those in Queen Mary s days, (when with the gospel s increase, and the light of it, God gave more strength also ;) and some then also did desert the truth for a while, and then God in respect of comfort deserted them ; and then they recovering God s favour again upon repentance, and a new resolution taken to stick to the profession of the truth whatever came of it, that their desertion made them the more bold and reso
lute. And this was in part Jonah s case, who having a commission sealed him to go to Nineveh with a message from God, he withdrew himself, and went another way and God in the midst of his security cast him into a whale s belly
: and when he was there, God withdraws himself from him, as
if he meant never to own him more, insomuch that Jonah says, chap. ii. 4, Then I said, I am cast out of thy presence. And there is this equity in
this dealing of God thus with us : that as when we are ashamed of Christ, the punishment fitted to it is, that Christ will be ashamed of us ; so when we will not witness for God, there is no reason his Spirit should witness to
us. And so, when we seem to evade persecution for the cross of Christ, then
it is meet God should meet with us, and take us in hand himself, which is far worse.
(7.) Seventhly, in case of unthankfulness, and too common an esteem had
CHAP. XII] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 299
of assurance, and light of God s countenance, and of freedom from those
terrors and doubtings which others are in ; which is a sin Christians are apt
to run into. For as the light of the sun, because it is ordinary, is not re
garded, none mind it or look at the sun, but, as he said, when it is in the
eclipse ; so a continual sunshine of God s favour enjoyed occasioneth but a common esteem of it. And in this case God withdraws those comforts and
assurance, because they are the greatest and sweetest comforts of all other ; and which to abuse or not to value, of all other provokes most ; therefore in
this case God takes them away. For, as Hos. ii. 9, in case of being unthank
ful in outward mercies, God took them away, and restored them not again,
till they esteemed them better, and acknowledged whence they had them ;
so also in spiritual assurance, light, and comfort, doth God in like manner
deal.
300 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.