If it be said, We prayed for these blessings ; and therefore we at least may glory that the blessings do not come to us unso- licited; we would ask, Who inclined or enabled us to pray? We should never have been inclined to pray, if God had not given us a spirit of grace and of supplication ; " nor should we have known what to pray for as we ought, if He by his Spirit had not helped our infirmities." If still it be said, "Yet we prayed;'* Be it so : but how long were you before you prayed at all ? And what have been your prayers since ever you began to pray? Are you not amazed when you review your prayers, and see, how cold, and dead, and formal they have been ? What if a beggar had asked of you in the way that you have but too often asked of God ? Would you have granted his request ? or, if you had granted his request, and not only relieved his present necessities, but conferred upon him one half of your fortune, would you not be surprised, if he, instead of admiring your unequalled genero- sity, were taking credit to himself for asking relief from you ? Know then, that if you are partaking of God's mercy, you are no other than " beggars, who have been taken from the dunghill, and set among the princes." Know, that ye are altogether debtors to the grace of God, and must ascribe to him " the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever."]
' Matt, xxiii, 37.
284 PSALMS, Lxxxv. 9, 10. [393.