therefore all ye who are conscious of your own depravity, and pray to God that " Christ may be made righteousness unto youk;" and that you, both in time and in eternity, may glory in him as " the Lord your righteousness1."]
* 1 Cor. i. 30. > Jer. xxiii. 6.
Isai. lxiv. 7. There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee : for* thou hast hid thy face from us.
MAN is encompassed with dangers from which no human foresight can deliver him. He is oppressed with wants which no creature can supply. It is to God that he must look for the blessings which he needs. But he is naturally so averse to prayer, that he will bear all his own burthens rather than apply to God for relief. On this account it is that so many faint under their afflictions; and this was the ground of God's controversy with his people.
I. The nature of prayer —
Prayer is represented in the Scriptures by a variety of expressions. It is here set forth under the idea of " calling upon God."
[Petitions, either with or without a form, are not worthy the name of prayer, if they be unattended with a devout spirit. Prayer is a work of the heart rather than of the lips : it supposes that we feel our wants, desire to have them sup- plied, and believe that God is able and willing to relieve them.]
It is also described as a " taking hold of God." —
[God has set himself, as it were, before us in the pro- mises. There we may lay hold on him by faith : we may address him as the patriarch of oldb. And this is the means prescribed by God for the attainment of his blessings0.]
It is further called a " stirring up of oneself" to lay hold on God —
[It is no easy thing to gain access to God in prayer. We engage in it for the most part with much reluctance. Our
• It should be translated " therefore." Bishop Lowth. b Gen. xxxii. 26. c Isai. xxvii. 5.