Page:Sins and sorrows spread before God.pdf/20

Rh which I proposed, is to shew how a saint, near the mercyseat, pleads with God for relief.

Holy Job tells us in this text, that if he was got near to the seat of God, he would fill his mouth with arguments.

Not as though he would inform God of the necessity, or the justice of his cause, beyond what he knew before; no, this is impossible; he that teacheth man all things, shall he not know ? Psal. xciv.9, 10. He who orders all the circumstances of our lives, and every stroke of his own rod, can he be unacquainted with any thing that relates to our sorrows?

Nor can we use arguments with God to awaken his ear, or move his compassion, as though he had neglected us or forgotten our distress; for all things are for ever naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. The shepherd of Israel cannot slumber; nor does his mercy want our awakenings.

But in this sort of expressions, the great God condescends to talk, and to transact affairs with us, and permits us to treat with him in a way suited to our weakness; he would have us plead and argue with him, that we may show how deep a sense we have of our own wants, and how entirely we depend on his mercy. Since we cannot converse with him in a way equal to his own majesty and Godhead he stoops to talk with us