90 TUE SOUL DRAWING NEAR TO GOD. ESERM. Y.. vance thine honour:" The soul grows weaned from self at such at. a time; it breaks out of the narrow circle of self, when it gets nigh to God. If it thinks of the mi- nistry or of ordinances, " Lord, let that ministry be for the advancement of thy name ! Lord, let these ordi- nanees be for the increase of thy.glory in the world, for the advancement of grace in my .heart, and bring me nearer to heaven ! If it thinks of thekingdom, or the parliament, powers or princes in this world,' it is with this design, that God may be glorified in the courts of princes,. and in parliaments, and honoured in armies and nations known and unknown." Thus the soul always keeps within sight of .God : it still keeps all its designs 'within the circle of God, and aims still at theglories of its Heavenly Father. If it thinks of life or of death, ". I would not ask life, says the saint, but to glorify thee.; nor death, but to glorify thee better, and to enjoy More of thee." Thus when the soul is near-to;:God, it is in a divine light that it sees all things, it is still with a 'design for God; and when it indulges the thoughts toward any creature, it is without turning aside a. moment from its God. Thus carnal things are taken into the mind, and spiritualized by the presence of God, the infinite .Spirit, when the soul approaches so near to his seat. VI. There will then. be a fixedness of heart in duty without wandering, and liveliness without tiring. At other times of common and usual' worship, when the saint is in too formal and too cold a frame, the,'heart roves perpetually, and is soon weary; but when we get near to God, then we have a little emblem of heaven within us, where they worship God day and night, with- out interruption, and without weariness. When we wait upon God at this rate, we are sill mounting up higher and higher, as with eagles' wings ; we walk first without fainting, and then run without wearying, at last, we fly as an eagle, and make haste to the fuller possession of Our God; Is. xl. St. The soul is then detained in the presence of God with overpowering delight, and it can- not be taken away from the object of its dearest satisface tion. This is a joy above all other joys, above all the joys ofsense, above all the joys of the intellectual world that are not divine and holy. There are seme..pleasure4
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