THE WILDERNESS STATE. JOHN xvi. 22.
_Ye now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you._
1. AFTER God had wrought a great deliverance for _Israel_, by bringing them out of the house of bondage, they did not immediately enter into the land which he had promised to their fathers, but _wandered out of the way in the wilderness_, and were variously tempted and distressed. In like manner after God has delivered them that fear him from the bondage of sin and _Satan_; after they are _justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus_, yet not many of them immediately enter into _the rest_ which _remaineth for the people of_ God. The greater part of them wander, more or less, out of the good way into which he hath brought them. They come as it were into a _waste and howling desert_, where they are variously tempted and tormented. And this some, in allusion to the case of the _Israelites_, have termed _a wilderness-state_.
2. Certain it is, that the condition wherein these are, has a right to the tenderest compassion. They labour under an evil and sore disease; though one that is not commonly understood. And for this very reason it is the more difficult for them to find a remedy. Being in darkness themselves, they cannot be supposed to understand the nature of their own disorder. And few of their brethren, nay perhaps, of their teachers, know either what their sickness is, or how to heal it. So much the more need there is to enquire, _first_, What is the nature of this disease; _secondly_, What is the cause, and _thirdly_, What is the cure of it.
I. And, _first_, What is the nature of this disease, into which so many fall, after they have believed? Wherein does it properly consist? And what are the genuine symptoms of it? It properly consists in the loss of that faith which God once wrought in their heart. They that are _in the wilderness_ have not now that divine _evidence_, that satisfactory _conviction of things not seen_ which they once enjoyed. They have not now that inward demonstration of the Spirit, which before enabled each of them to say, _The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of_ God, _who loved_ me _and gave himself for_ me. The light of heaven does not now _shine in their hearts_, neither do they _see him that is invisible_: but darkness is again on the face of their souls, and blindness on the eyes of their understanding. The Spirit no longer _witnesses with their spirits, that they are the children of_ God; neither does he continue, as the Spirit of adoption, _crying in their hearts, Abba, Father_. They have not now a sure trust in his love, and a liberty of approaching him with holy boldness. _Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him_, is no more the language of their heart: but they are shorn of their strength, and become weak and feeble-minded, even as other men.
2. Hence, _secondly_, proceeds the loss of love, which cannot but rise or fall, at the same time, and in the same proportion, with true, living faith. Accordingly, they that are deprived of their faith, are deprived of the love of God also. They cannot now say, Lord, _thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee_. They are not now happy in God, as every one is, that truly loves him. They do not delight in him as in time past, and _smell the odour of his ointments_. Once, all their _desire was unto_ him, _and to the remembrance of his name_. But now even their desires are cold and dead, if not utterly extinguished. And as their love of God is _waxed cold_, so is also their love of their neighbour. They have not now that zeal for the souls of men, that longing after their welfare, that fervent, restless, active desire of their being reconciled to God. They do not feel those _bowels of mercies_ for the sheep that are lost, that tender _compassion for the ignorant and them that are out of the way_. Once they were _gentle toward all men_, meekly _instructing_ such as _opposed_ the truth, and _if any_ was _overtaken in a fault, restoring such an one in the spirit of meekness_. But after a suspense, perhaps of many days, anger begins to regain its power. Yea, peevishness and impatience thrust sore at them that they may fall. And it is well if they are not sometimes driven, even to _render evil for evil, and railing for railing_.