Page:The works of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., late fellow of Lincoln-College, Oxford (IA worksofrevjohnwe3wesl).pdf/328

 seeing they are taught to expect it: seeing their guides lead them into this way. Not only the Mystic writers of the Romish church, but many of the most spiritual and experimental in our own, (very few of the last century excepted) lay it down with all assurance, as a plain, unquestionable scripture-doctrine, and cite many texts to prove it.

2. Ignorance also of the work of God in the soul, frequently occasions this darkness. Men imagine (because so they have been taught, particularly by writers of the Romish communion, whose plausible assertions too many Protestants have received without due examination) that they are not always to walk in luminous faith: that this is only a lower dispensation; that as they rise higher, they are to leave those sensible comforts, and live by naked faith: (naked indeed, if it be stript both of love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost!) That a state of light and joy is good; but a state of darkness and dryness is better: that it is by these alone we can be purified from pride, love of the world, and inordinate self-love; and that therefore we ought neither to expect nor desire, to walk in the light always. Hence it is (though other reasons may concur) that the main body of pious men in the Romish church, generally walk in a dark, uncomfortable way, and if ever they receive, soon lose the light of God.