344 ERRORS IN. PRAYER. complain that they are weak ; a com- plaint they are not forward to urge in worldly matters. They lament that their reluctance to pray arises from being un- able to do what God, in his word, expects them to do. But is not this virtual rebel- lion, only with a smooth face and a soft name ? God is too wise not to know exactly what we can do, and too just to expect from us what we cannot. This pretence of weakness, though it looks like humility, is only a mask for indolence, and a screen for selfishness. We certainly can refuse to indulge ourselves in what pleases us, when we know it displeases God. We can obey his commandments with the aid of the infused strength which He has promised, and which we can ask. It is not He who is unwilling to give, but we who are averse to pray. The temptations to vice are strengthened by our passions, as our motives to virtue are weakened by them. Our great spiritual enemy would not
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