"Accesses and recesses are not proper to him that by his immense presence fills all, and cannot be where he is not,
nor cease to be where he is. True motion is only found in such things which are confined to local
circumscript. Yet in this regard, God is said to come or go, to be present or absent in respect of manifestation,
as the father speaks, he comes when he is manifested, and goes when he is hidden; and in respect of operation.
So God is said to be where he is found working, even as we say the sun comes into a house, where it shines into it.
Time was, when God was with all men, both by gracious manifestation and operation, and this was man’s happiness;
but sin has separated between God and man, and they are departed from each other."
nor cease to be where he is. True motion is only found in such things which are confined to local
circumscript. Yet in this regard, God is said to come or go, to be present or absent in respect of manifestation,
as the father speaks, he comes when he is manifested, and goes when he is hidden; and in respect of operation.
So God is said to be where he is found working, even as we say the sun comes into a house, where it shines into it.
Time was, when God was with all men, both by gracious manifestation and operation, and this was man’s happiness;
but sin has separated between God and man, and they are departed from each other."
"The division began from man, and though divine goodness tenders reconcilement, man will not have it. In
this man has become unhappy; he has lost his God and knows it not. Yea, he counts his loss gain, and his
gain loss. He would be happy, but errs in his choice. He is ever moving, never at rest, “willingly absent from
the greatest good, unwillingly labouring with the greatest evil.” Though other things are quiet in their place,
and rest in their end, yet the place where man is pitched is strange to him, and his end vexes him. All his
life is labour, and his motion is but a vexatious shifting from vanity to vanity, from evil to evil, from bad to
worse. The soul cries out for healing, and that which he thinks to find as lenitive becomes corrosive.
While he thinks to cure the wound, he makes it ever deeper, and is his own tormenter."
this man has become unhappy; he has lost his God and knows it not. Yea, he counts his loss gain, and his
gain loss. He would be happy, but errs in his choice. He is ever moving, never at rest, “willingly absent from
the greatest good, unwillingly labouring with the greatest evil.” Though other things are quiet in their place,
and rest in their end, yet the place where man is pitched is strange to him, and his end vexes him. All his
life is labour, and his motion is but a vexatious shifting from vanity to vanity, from evil to evil, from bad to
worse. The soul cries out for healing, and that which he thinks to find as lenitive becomes corrosive.
While he thinks to cure the wound, he makes it ever deeper, and is his own tormenter."
- the opening graphs of Joseph Symonds' "The Case and Cure of A Deserted Soul"
