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VI.]
SÍNS AND
SORROW§ SPREAD
BEFORE COD.
97
brought near
to
the mercy-seat; 'converse
with
God
about.
III.
Why
he
chuses to tell
all
his
Circumstances
and
his sorrows
to
God, when
he
is
thus
near
hirn.
IV. How
he
pleads for
relief.
.
T.
We
have
already considered, what
it
is
for a soul
to
get
near
to the
seat
of
God,
and what
are the
usual
attendants of
such
a
privilege. At such
a
season
the
holy soul
will
have
an awful
and adoring
=sense
of the
majesty
of
God, a becoming fear
of
his
terrors,
and
some
sweeter taste
of
his love.
There
will
he
a divine
hatred of
every
sin,
and a sensible
virtue and
influence
proceeding from
a
present
God,
to
resist
every
tempta-
tion
:
there
will
be
a spiritu a and
heavenly"'
temper-
dif
fusing
itself through the
whole
soul;
and
all
the
powers
of
it;
a
fixedness
of heart without
wandering, and
.a
liveliness
without tiring:
no
weariness
is
felt
in
the
spirit
at
such
a
season, even
though the
flesh
may
be
ready
to
faint
under
the
overpowering
sweetness:
then
the soul
with
freedom opens
itself
before the
eye
of
God,
and
melts
and
flows
in
divine
language, whether
it
com-
plain or rejoice.
But
I
have
finished this
head,
and
re-
peat
no
more.
II.
What
are
some
of
the
particular
circumstances,
or
subjects
of
complaint,
that
a
saint
brings
to
God'
when
he
comes
near
him.
In
general, a saint,
when he
is
near
to
God,
has all
the
fulness
of
his
heart
breaking out into
Holy
language;
he pours
out
his whole
self before
his
God and
his
Fa-
ther
!
all
the infinite affairs
that relate
to the
flesh
and
spirit, to this
life,
and
that
which
is
to
come;
all
things
in
heaven,
and
all things in
earth, created or uncreated;
may,
at
one
.
time
or other,
be
the subjects
of
converse
between
God
and a
holy soul.
When the question
is
asked
by
a carnal
man,
what
can
a
christian talk with
God
so
long
and
so
often
about? The christian
in
a
divine frame, answers,
"
he
bath matter enough for
converse with God, to wear
out
time,
and
to
fill
up
eternity."
It
may be
as
well asked on the
other
side,
what
has he
not
to
say?
what
is
there
that
relates to
God,
or to
himself, to
the upper, or the lower
world,
that
he
may
not
at
some time
say
to
his
God
?
But I
must confine myself from wandering
in
so
lame
VOL.
I.
7I