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 a 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
