need of before we askg ;" nor needs he to be prevailed upon by the urgency of our requests ; for he is far more ready to give than we are to ask, and he stirs us up to ask, because he had before determined to give1' : but there is a propriety in this divine appoint- ment : it necessitates us not only to feel our wants, but to confess our inability to relieve ourselves : it compels us to acknowledge God as the one source of blessedness to man, and to adore him for every thing we receive at his hands. It cuts off from us all possible occasion of glorying; and obliges us, when most completely armed, to say, " By the grace of God I am what I am1."
Again ; It is by prayer that we must learn how to use this armour aright. Men are disciplined to the use of arms : it is not deemed sufficient to clothe them with armour; they must also be taught how to guard themselves against the assaults of their adversary, and at the same time to inflict on him a deadly wound. Such instruction must the Christian receive from God. If he " lean to his own under- standing," he will as surely be foiled, as if he trust in his own strength, or go unarmed to the field of battle. Many are the devices of the wicked one, of which the uninstructed Christian cannot be aware. He alone, " to whom all things are naked and open," knows his plots, or can put us sufficiently on our guard against them. He alone can tell us when, and where, and how to striked With him alone is that " wisdom that is profitable to direct1." But if we call upon him, " he will guide us by his counsel"1:" he will " give us a spirit of wisdom and understand- ing, a spirit of counsel and of might, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and will make us quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord"." He will inform us of the designs of our enemy0, and shew us how to counteract themp. And though in ourselves we be " unskilful in the word of right-
s Matt. vi. 8. h John iv. 10. > 1 Cor. xv. 10.
k 2 Sam. v. 23—25. 1 Eccl. x. 10. ™ Ps. lxxiii. 24.
n Isai. xi. 2, 3. ° Luke xxii. 31. p Josh. viii. 6 — 8.