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102
SINS AND SORROWS
SPREAD BEFORE GOD.
[SEAM.
VI.
God
indulges
me the
favour
of
his
ear,
I
would spread
their
wants and sorrows before
him,
together
with
my
own,
and
make supplication for
all
the saints.
I
would
leave
.a
petition at the
mercy
-seat
for
my
native coun-
try,
that
knowledge
and
holiness may
overspread
the
nation
:
that
our
king may be a
nursing father
to
the
church, and our princes
may be blessings to
the land.
And
while
I
send
up
my
request
for the British islands,
I
would
breathe out
many
a
sigh
for Zion,
that
she
may
he the
joy of
the whole
earth.
I
proceed
now to,
III.
The third
head
of
enquiry,
which
is
this;
why
does
a
saint,
when
he
gets
near
to
God, delight
to tell
him
all his
circumstances, and
all his
sorrows?
In
general
I
might
say this,
because it
is
so
seldom,
at
least
in
our
day,
that
a saint
gets very
near
to
God;:
therefore,
when he finds
that
happy minute,
he says
to
his
God
all
that
he
wants to say;
he tells him all his
heart,
he
pours out
all
his
wants before
him; because
these seasons
are
very
few.
It
is
but
here and there an
extraordinary
christian,
who
maintains
constant near-
ness to
God
:
The
best complain
of
too much
distance
and estrangement. But
to descend
to
particulars.
1.
He
is
our chief
friend,
and
it
is
an ease to
the
soul
to
vent itself
in
the bosom
of
a
friend,
when
we
are
in
his company.
More
especially
as
it
was in
the
case of
Job,
when
other
friends failed
him when
he
had begun
to
tell them
some
of
his
sorrows,
and
withal
maintained
his
own
integrity;
they would
not
believe
him,
but
be
-,
came
his
troublers
instead
of
his
comforters: My
friends
scorn
me,
says
Job,
chap.
xvi.
20.
but
mine
eye
pour-
eth out
tears
unto
God.
I
go
to
my
best friend,
my
friend
in
heaven, when
my
friends here
on
earth
neglect
me.
Man
is
a sociable creature, and
our joys
and
our
sor-
rows are made
to
be
communicated,
that
thereby
we
may
double the
one,
and alleviate the other.
There
is
scarce any piece
of
human
nature,
be
it
never
so
stupid,
but
feels some
satisfaction
in
the
pleasure
of
a
friend,
in
communicating
the
troubles and
-the
pleasures
that
it
feels;
but
those
that
have
God
for
their
highest and best
friend,
they
love to be
often exercising such acts
of
friendship
with
him; and
rather
with him
than
with any friend
besides,
rather
with him
than
with all besides him.
This