326 ERRORS IN PRAYER. notice it at present, he may lay it by for a time when it may be more wanted. In prayer we must take care not to measure our necessities by our desires : the former are few, the latter may be in- satiable. Amurmuring spirit is a proba- ble cause why our petitions are not grant- ed. He who murmurs, distrusts the truth of God ; and from distrust to infidelity the distance is not great. The certain way to prevent our obtaining what we desire, or enjoying what we have, is to feel impatient at what we do not receive, or to make an improper use of what has been granted to our prayers. Or you may perhaps address God with sinister and corrupt views ; as if you had left his omniscience out of his attributes ; as if you thought Him such an one as yourself; as if He might be entrapped with the " secret ambush of a specious prayer." Your design in the application of the boon you solicit may not be for his glory. It may be the prayer of ambition, cloked under the guise of more extensive
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