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CASUISTICAL DIVINITY.

WHEN a person is mourning and lamenting under a sense of Divine withdrawings, cold, formal, and remiss in all duties, walking in darkness, and having no light, what means are proper to be adopted, in order to a restoration and repossession of communion with God?

ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING QUERY.

R. W.

THE case here stated, and the question annexed to it, appear to come from one who is not unacquainted with the work of God's Spirit in the heart; and are very interesting to many of the Lord's people. I shall therefore endeavor to be as explicit in my remarks as possible; but before I directly answer the question, I shall attempt to state the case more at large, in hope that it may prove a blessing to those whose feelings are described.

Divine withdrawings make an important part of the plan on which God acts in leading his people to glory. And they are often as thorns and briers to the Christian in his passage through the wilderness. They imply that the person who labors under them is a real disciple of Christ: For spiritual blessings can never be withdrawn from any man but him on whom they have been previously ́ bestowed. Yes, he is a believer; and though now smarting under his Father's rod, yet once it was well with him. He was indulged with such a sight of Calvary, and of the crimson streams of salvation flowing from the heart of Jesus, as he can never totally forget. The cup of his joy was then full and overflowing. He de

lighted in thinking and talking of God and Divine things. He could get near to God in holy duties, and with humble confidence cry, Abba, Father! And he could even have cheerfully sacrificed every thing on earth for the sake of Jesus. But how is the gold become dim! How is the fine gold changed!

Now a sad reverse of things has taken place. He is cold, formal, and remiss in all duties. The love and zeal which once brightened his prospects, and gladdened his heart, have, for a time, lost their vigor. The Spirit of God withholds his reviving influence; and the very spring of joy seems dried up. Secret prayer, once his frequent employment and delight, is too often neglected; and if conscience upbraid, silly excuses are framed to justify the omission. Sometimes, indeed, he bows the knee in private, but his heart is heavy: It cannot rise to God. He utters the solemn words of prayer, but forgets even what he is about. While his thoughts are wandering, he ceases from the duty, and presently again recollecting himself, like a man who has been asleep in a strange place, he rouses, and wonders where At best, prayer is hurried over as a task; much of that important business which a Christian has to transact with God at the throne of grace, is neglected; and supplications for the church, for particular friends, and particular blessings, are forgotten. The word of God is often passed by; or, if read, it is done in a hurry, and without attention. He attends the ministry of the Gospel; but sometimes gives way to drowsiness; and sometimes, instead of hearing or knowing what is said, he suffers a multitude of foolish and vain things to occupy his thoughts. If a preacher, he is, on the people's VOL. III.

he is.

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account, assisted in public duties, but brings no abiding favor of Divine things with him out of the pulpit. He walks in darkness. He does not see the gracious countenance of Jesus smiling on him as formerly. Dark chilling clouds of spiritual adversity intercept the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, and spread a melancholy gloom over his path. He may or may not, for aught he knows, belong to the family of God. Sometimes the question will present itself to his mind, and he then feels a momentary uneasiness; but he is not properly roused: He remains languid and dull as before.

But, blessed be God, the real Christian, even in such a state, discovers some symptoms of spiritual life. Dull and stupid as he may be, there are moments when he cannot help grieving and mourning over his sad declensions, moments when he looks back, and, though he scarcely perceives it himself, sighs out a wish, that it were with him as in months past, as in the days when the Lord preserved him. Yea, now and then he cannot help offering a petition or two, with some degree of earnestness, for a revival of the work of God in his heart. He cannot be really satisfied without the Divine presence. Thou mourner in Zion, let us consider what means are proper to be adopted, in order to thy restoration and repossession of communion with God.

We should, on this and every occasion, remember that the means we use are but means: It is the blessing of God that must render them effectual. I do not wish by this remark to encourage the vain hope of the hypocrite, who, when reproved for his formality in the ways of God, pleads as an excuse, that he is unable to revive or renew his own soul. A man of true piety

dares not act thus. He feels and confesses his inability, but at the same time he is desirous to use those means which are most likely to obtain the Divine blessing. The grand catholicon, or universal remedy for all spiritual diseases, is faith in Christ. He is the Physician of souls; and he can, and does, kindly heal all, however miserable and wretched, who look to him for relief. While the eye of faith is fixed on his glorious person, characters, and offices, we cannot be unhappy. And if, through the power of temptation, or the prevalence of indwelling sin, we experience awful declensions of the power of godliness in our souls, there is no way of obtaining a revival but by looking again to Christ. God is determined to honor his Son Jesus. No sinner can be saved but by him. No Christian can find rest or peace but in him. If therefore we make use of the wisest means to obtain communion with God, without looking through them, and above them, to Christ, they will prove at last only snares and traps, by which we have deceived and ruined our souls. Let us beware of using them in a legal spirit, or making a Savior of them, lest, instead of leading us to God, they should lead down to hell. Jesus must be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all our hopes and enjoyments. Means are only so far useful as they may assist us in looking to him. They can never be useful to us at all, without the special blessing of the Holy Spirit: With that blessing they may do wonders. I speak thus, beeause our earthly hearts are prone to stop short of Christ, and to expect comfort and rest in almost any thing. O beware of harboring in your bosom, even for a moment, any kind or degree of satisfaction, unless it be derived

from Christ, and renders his blessed name more and more precious to your soul. If you are enabled to keep this caution in view, I trust that what I now write, shall not be written in vain.

To you whose case I have attempted to describe, I would, in the first place, say, Examine and inquire into the causes of your present mournful state, in order that you may pray against them. Survey your past conduct towards God. You have in former times enjoyed the comforts and pleasures arising from a sense of the Divine favor; but perhaps you have rested in them as if they were your God, or as if you supposed that nothing further was to be sought after; and God, to convince you of your folly, has cut down the props on which you were leaning. Perhaps your enjoyments made you, through the depravity of your nature, proud, overbearing, and censorious in your carriage towards your Christian brethren; and God has removed them, in or

der to humble you, and that his fear may be before your eyes. You have enjoyed assistance and enlargement in spiritual duties; but probably you were not thankful for these things. They became common, and you esteemed them too lightly; and therefore God is now teaching you by painful experience to be more sensible of their value, that you may give him the honor due to his name. Or while you were thus indulged, perhaps you became too solicitous with God about some worldly good: and he has granted your request, and sent leanness into the soul. It is possible that these and other things may have combined together to introduce the languor of which you complain; but whatever may have robbed you of your felicity, it is necessary that you

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