136 A GUIDE TO. PEAS'E&. on the mind. Psal. lxxxi. 19. 0 how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! Psal. cxxxix. 17. How precious are thy thoughts to me, O God, how great is the suns of them! Rom. vii. 24. 0 wretched hzan that I ans ! who shall deliver me ? 2. Interrogations, when the plain sense of any thing we declare unto God is turned into a question, to make it more em- phatical and affecting% Psal. cxxxix. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence ? Ver. 21. Do I not hate them that hate thee? Rom. vii. 14. Who shall deliver me¡rom the,body of this death? 3. Appeals to God, concerningour wants or sorrows, our sincere and deep sense of the things we speak to him. John xxi. 17. Lord thou knowest all things, thou knorcest that I love thee. So David appeals to God; Psalm lxix. 5. My sin's are not hid from thee. Psalm lvi. 8. Thou tellest all our travels, or our wanderings; are not my tears in thy book ? Job x. 7. Thou knowest that I am not ?licked : My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high; Job xvi. 19. 4. Expostulations, which are indeed one particular sort of interrogation, and are fit to express not only deep dejections of the mind, but to enforce any argument that is used in pleading with God, either for mercy for his saints, or the destruction of his enemies. lesi. lxiii. 15, 17. Look down from heaven, be. hold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory, where isthy zeal and thy strength ? The sounding of thy bowels and thy mercies towards me, are they restrained ? O Lord, why hast thou madeus to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear ? Isai. li, 9, 10. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord: Art thou not it that bath cut Raltab, and wounded the dragon ? Art thou not it that hathdried the sea, the waters of the great deep? Psal. lxxvii. 8. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Psal. lxxx. 4. 0 Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry ? Psal. xliv. 21. Wherefore hidest thou thyface, and forgettest our affliction? God invites his people thus to argue with him ; Isa. i. 18. Come now let its reason together saith the Lord. And holy men in humble and reverent expostulations, have with many reasons pleaded their cause before God, and their words are recorded as our patterns. 5: Options, or 'wishes, fit to set forth serious and earnest desires ; Job. vi. 8. 0 that I might have my request; Psalt exix. 5. 0 that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! , 6. Apostrophes, that is, when in the midst of our addresses to God we turn off the speech abruptly toour own souls, being led by the vehemence of some sudden devout thought. So Da- vid in the beginningof the xvith. Psalm, Preserve me, OGod:
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