Now rare. [f. WITHDRAW v. + -MENT.] = WITHDRAWAL in various senses; formerly spec. the withdrawal of divine illumination.
1640. O. Sedgwick, Christs Counsell, 79. All the wrath of God, and the withdrawments of his love.
1666. G. Alsop, Char. Prov. Mary-Land (1869), 64. I am certainly confident, that England would as soon feel her feebleness by withdrawment of so great an upholder.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol., III. xxiii. 195. An apparent withdrawment from Obedience.
a. 1709. J. Lister, Autobiog. (1842), 52. He would sometimes say to me in the times of God’s withdrawments, ‘O! son, I am not able to bear under God’s absence.’
1754. J. Edwards, Freed. Will, II. iii. 41. The Withdrawment or Absence of the Sun.
1817. Chalmers, in Edin. Rev., March, 4. Wherever a great mass of wealth is directed to the maintenance of the poor, this is done by a great withdrawment of wealth from its former channels of distribution.
1885. Manch. Exam., 16 Sept., 5/2. The immediate withdrawment from an … expensive colonial policy.
