watch for an opportunity to betray your soul, and to inflict on it the most deadly wounds. Yet these enemies, notwithstand- ing their number and power, are quite overlooked by St. Paul, and counted as nothing, in comparison of those mighty adver- saries, the principalities and powers of helld. Their incon- ceivable subtlety, their invisible combination, their pre-eminent strength, their inveterate malignity, together with the easiness of then access to us at all times, render them formidable beyond measure ; insomuch that if you had not an Almighty Friend to espouse your cause, you might well sit down in despair.]
In the prospect of this contest you are apt to indulge desponding thoughts —
[Forty years before, the Israelites had refused to encounter their enemies, from an apprehension that they were invincible : and it is probable that they were not without their fears at this time. And what is it that at the present day deters mul- titudes from engaging in the spiritual warfare ? is it not a fear that they shall not succeed? When we tell them that they must overcome the world, and mortify the flesh, and resist the devil, they reply, that these things are impossible ; and that it is in vain to make such an impracticable attempt e. Even those who have fought well on particular occasions, are apt to faint, when their trials press upon them with more than usual weight : David himself yielded to unbelieving fears f, and ex- claimed in his haste, " All men are liars C Perhaps there is not one amongst us whose " hands have not sometimes hanged down, and his knees been weary, and his heart faint ;" not one who has not needed, like St. Paul himself, some peculiar mani- festations of God for his support11.]
But there is no real cause for discouragement to
any of you —
[It is alleged perhaps, that your enemies are mighty ; but " your Redeemer also is mighty ;" and " if he be for you, who can be against you ? " If it be your own weakness that de- presses you, only view it in a right light, and the most conso- latory considerations will spring from it : for " when you are weak, then are you strong ;" and the more sensible you are of your own insufficiency for any good thing, the more will God magnify his own power towards you, and " perfect his own strength in your weakness." The peculiar appositeness of our text to all such cases is evident from the repeated application of it to persons under discouragement, and the blessed effects pro- duced by it. We have already supposed the discouragement
d Eph. vi. 12. e Jer. xviii. 12. f Ps. lxxvii. 7 — 10.
g Ps. cxvi. 11. with lxxiii. 13. h Acts xxiii. 11.