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SEAM.
V.]
THE
SOUL
DRAWING NEAR TO
GOD.
93
gift
of
prayer poured
down
upon
us
by
the
Spirit,
as
-weal
brighter evidences
of
every
praying
grace.
I
must conclude
this
discourse before
I
proceed
to
the
other heads
which were
proposed
;
but
I
would
not
'willingly leave
it
without a caution or
two,
and
one
re-
flection.
The
first
caution
is
this;
Let
not
the humble
mourn-
ing Christian, who walks
carefully
with
God, under
much
darkness and
fear,
charge himself
with
utter
distance and
estrangement
from
the throne
of
grace, because
he
does
not
feel all these
sacred
passions
and
powers
of nature
in lively
exercise, while he
bows his
knees before the
Lord:
for
I
have described
this
blessed privilege
in
the
sublime glory
and beauty
of
it, so
as
it
has been
often
attained
and enjoyed
by
persons
eminent
in
grace
and
religion,
and
especially such
as
have
had
lively affec-
tions,
and
the powers
of
animal
nature
in a good
degree
sanctified, and subservient
to
the devotions
of
the soul.
But
where the
natural
spirits are
low
and
sinking,
and
where
temptations
and darkness
hang
heavy
upon the
mind,
the
Christianmay truly draw near
to God,
so
far
as to
find
a
gracious
acceptance
with him,
and may
fetch
secret divine communications
from
the mercy
-seat
to
maintain
his
spiritual life; though he feels but little
of
these sensations
of
heavenly pleasure, these more vi-
gorous
efforts
of
devotion and joy.
Yet let
him
neither
deny
nor
despise those more elevated enjoyments
of
soul,
those
near and
blessed
approaches
to
the
seat
of
God,
with
which others have been favoured.
The
second
caution
shall
be
addressed to
those, who
feel much
of
rapture
and
transport
in
their
hours
of
se-
cret
piety.
I
intreat, that
they would
not
imagine them-
selves
so
often to
enjoy this
unspeakable
privilege
of
holy
nearness to
God
in worship;
if
they do
not
sensibly find
such
an increase
of
holiness,
as
may
prove
effectually
that
they have
been.
with
God.
If
they have
been
con-
versing
with
their Maker,
like Moses
in
the mount,
there
will be
a shine
of
holiness
upon the
face
of
their
souls.
To pretend
therefore
to
have enjoyed much
of
God
in
the
closet,
and to
come down
amongst
men peevish
and
fretful, or immediately to betray a
carnal
and covetous,
or
a
haughty
and intractable spirit;
these
are
things
of
so
inconsistent
a
nature,
that
the succeeding iniquity