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THE
SOUL
DRAWING NEAR
TO
GOD.
rSERM.
V.
image stamped
on
me,
that
I
knew
I
was
the Lord's:
whence
I
rejoice
in
the
full
persuasion
of
his love.
I
know
he
loves me, for
his
sanctifying
Spirit hath
wit-
nessed
with
my
spirit,
that
I
am
one
of
his
children
;
and
I
know
that
I
love
him,
for
my
spirit
witnesseth
also
as
an echo to
his
Spirit,
that
I
have chosen
him
for
my
Father,
my
ruler, and
my
God, and have
surren-
dered
myself
to him on
his
own terms
;
and
I
address
him
as my
Father,
with words
of
the choicest
affection,
and
of
most
endeared sentiments of
soul."
When
a
person, in whom grace
is
wrought, gets
so
near
to
God, and
sees
this God
in
his own loveliness,
and
in
his
kindest
perfections;
there are
some new
di-
vine
passions kindled
in
the
soul towards this
God,
to-
wards
this first beauty,
towards
this original
of
all
per-
fection and
goodness
;
and
God
will
seldom
let
one
come
so
near
him,
without
shewing
him the love
of
his
heart;
and
the name
of
the
devout
worshipper graven,
as
it
were, on the palms
of
his
hands,
or
in
the
book
of
his mercy.
He
speaks
to
the
soul
in his own
divine
lan-
guage,
"
Soh,
or daughter,
be
of
good cheer, thy sins
are
forgiven thee. O man, thou
art
greatly beloved.
I
'am your
God and
you
are
my
people.
I
have
bought
thee
dear,
and thou
art
mine.
I
have
created
thee, O
Jacob
;
I
have
formed thee,
O
Israel
;
I
have
redeemed
thee,
O
believer, and thou
art
for
ever
mine." And
such
discoveries
of
the
love
of God
to
the
soul, draw
out
still
more
love from
the
soul
towards God, and raise
more sacred
exercises
of
divine
love in
one hour, than
a
whole
year
of
common devotions can do
;
and the saint
learns more of this
sacred
sensation of
the
love
of
God,
than
years
of
cold
and
common devotions would teach
him.
III.
When
the soul gets
near
to
God
in
prayer, there
will be
a hatred
of
sin
at
the
very
thoughts of
it,
and
holy
meltings
and mournings
under
the
remembrance of
its
own
sins.
"
How hateful does
sin
appear,
will
the
soul
say,
now
I
am come
so
near
to the
seat of a Holy God
!
Never
did I
see sin in so
dark
and
so
odious colours,
as
this
hour
reveals and discovers
to me
;
never
did I
so
sensibly
behold
the.
abomination
that
is in
all
sin, as now
I
do;
I
never saw it
so
contrary
to
all
that
is
in
God,
to
his holiness, to
his glory,
to
his
justice
and to
his
grace,,