Page:Sins and sorrows spread before God.pdf/5

This page has been validated.
5

Four things I proposed in the prosecution of this doctrine.

I. To consider what it is for a soul to get near to God in prayer.

II. What particular subjects doth a soul, thus brought near to the mercy-seat, converse with God about.

III. Why he cnuses to tell all his circumstances and his sorrows to God, when he is thus near him.

IV. How he pleads for relief.

I. 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 be a divine hatred of every sin, and a sensible virtue and influence proceeding from a present God, to resist every temptation; there will be a spiritual and heavenly temper diffusing 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 flow in divine language,