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v.]
THE
SOUL
DRAWING
NEAR TO GOD.
'85
and
he
was
set forth
as
an example how full
God
is
of
mercy
?"
I
Tim.
i.
16.
I obtained
mercy,
that
in me first
Christ
Jesus
might
spew all
long-suffering,
for
a
pattern
to
believers.
This
is
the temper, this
is
the
voice,
And
this
is
the language
of
a
soul
that
gets
near
to
God,
even
to
his
seat,
considered'
as a
seat
of
majesty,
of
judgment,
and
of
grace.
I
proceed
now
to
the
second
sign
or
attendant of
holy
nearness to
God
in
prayer.
II.
When a soul
comes
near
to
God
in
prayer,
there
will
generally
be
some sweet
taste
of
the
special love
of
God,
and
warm
returns of
love again
to
God
from
the
soul.
The
soul
that
comes
near
to
God
is
not
satisfied
merely with
low
degrees
of
faith and hope, with
some
feeble
dependance,
and some
faint expectations
of
mer-
cy; it
can
hardly
leave
God
till
it
has an
assurance.
Faith
and hope
in the mercy
of
God, are different
from
that joy that
arises from the
immediate sensations
of
di-
vine
love.
The Psalmist
in
the
lxiii.
Psalm,
ver.
1,
2,
&c.
seems to
have a
reference
to both
these
to-
gether,
which
I
have
already mentioned.
My
soul
thirsteth
for
thee, my
flesh
longeth
for
thee
to
see
thy
power
and thy glory,
so
as
I
hare
seen
thee
in
the
sanc-
tuary.
"
I
have seen thee
in
the
sanctuary
as
sitting
upon a throne
of
majesty, on a
seat of
judgment
and
of
grace;
I
have seen thy power and thy glory there, and
I
have
seen
something more than
this,
I
have
tasted
some
special loving- kindness,
and
that
loving
-
kindness
is
bet-
ter
than
life,
therefore
my
lips shall
praise
thee.
I
have
had
a sense
of
the special love
of
God
shed
abroad
in
my soul,
I
have known
his love
is
exercised toward
me;
therefore
my
soul
is
full
of
praise."
God
will
seldom
let a
soul
that
is
got
so
near
him
by
holy
labour and
fer-
vency
of
spirit,
go
away merely with
hope and depend
-
ance, Without some
sacred delight and joy.
A
saint
that
has drawn
near
to
God
in
warship,
will
tell you his own
rich experiences, and
say,
When
I
found
him whom
my
soul loveth,
I
was
constrained to
break forth into
these sweet expressions,
I
am
my be-
loved's,
and
my
beloved
is
mine;
for
I
love him
above
all
things,
and
my
love
is
but the
effect
of
his.
In
that
blessed
hour
I
felt,
and I
was
assured
of
that
mutual
relation
between
God
and me: I found
so
much
of
Luis
G3