Fifthly, He is said to deioart from some persons. So it is said of t Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. 14, " The Spirit of the Lord departed from him." i And David prays that God would not " take his Holy Spirit from j him," Ps. Ii. 11. And this is to be understood answerably unto what we have discoursed before about his coming and his being sent. As he is said to come, so is he said to depart; and as he is said to be sent, so is he said to be taken away. His departure from men, there- fore, is his ceasing to work in them and on them as formerly ; and as far as this is penal, he is said to be taken away. So he departed and was taken away from Saul, when he no more helped him with that ability for kingly government which before he had by his assist- ance. And this departure of the Holy Ghost from any is either total or partial only. Some on whom he hath been bestowed, for the work- ing of sundry gifts for the good of others, Avith manifold convictions, by light and general assistance unto the performance of duties, he utterly deserts, and gives them up unto themselves and their own hearts' lusts. Examples hereof are common in the world. Men who have been made partakers of many " gifts of the Holy Ghost," and been in an especial manner enlightened, and, under the power of their
1 20 WAY AND MANNER OF THE DIVINE [BOOK T.
convictions, carried out unto the profession of tlie gospel and the per- formance of many duties of rehgion, yet, being entangled by tempta- tions, and overcome by the power of their lusts, relinquish all their beginnings and engagements, and turn wholly unto 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 ; 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 despite and contempt of that whole work of the Spirit of God, whereof themselves were made partakers, unto their apostasy. And the condition of such pro- fligate sinners is, for the most part, irrecoverable, Heb. vi. 4-6, X. 26-80. From some he withdraw eth and departeth _pa?-^m/^?/ only, and that mostly but for a season; and this departure respects the grace, light, and consolation which he administers unto believers, as to the degrees of them, and the sense of them in their own souls. On whom he is bestowed to work these things in a saving way, from them he never utterly or totally departs. This our blessed Saviour plainly promiseth and asserteth : John iv. 1 4,- " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." That this well of "living water" is his sanctify- ing Spirit himself declares, chap. vii. 37-'S9. He who hath received him shall never have a thirst of total want and indigence any more. Besides, he is given unto this end by virtue of the covenant of grace ; and the promise is express therein that he shall " never depart from them" to whom he is given, Isa. lix. 21 ; Jer. xxxi, 33, xxxii. 39, 40; Ezek. xi. 19, 20. But now, as to the degrees and sensible effects of these operations, he may depart and withdraw from believers for a season. Hence they may be left unto many spiritual decays and much weakness, the things of grace that remain in them being as it were " ready to die," Bev. iii. 2 ; and they may apprehend them- selves deserted and forsaken of God, — so did Zion, Isa. xl. 27, xlix. 14: for therein doth God "hide himself," or "forsake his people for a small moment," chap. liv. 7, 8. He " hideth himself, and is wroth," chap. Ivii. 1 7. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complaineth of, and which with so much earnestness he contendeth and wrestleth with God to be delivered from. These are those spiritual desertions which some of late have laden with re- jDroach, contempt, and scorn. All the apprehensions and complaints of the people of God about them, they would represent as nothing but the idle imaginations of distempered brains, or the effects of some disorder in their blood and animal spirits. I could, indeed, easily
CHAP, v.] DISPENSATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 121
allow that men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the exjjerience 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 acknowledge 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 whole of God's dealings, and believers' ap- ])lication of themselves to him in this matter, are so graphically exemplified in sundry of the holy saints of old, as Job, David, Heman, and others ; and great and plentiful provision is made in the Scrip- ture for the direction, 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 rej)roaches 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.