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ILLUSTRATIONS OF

alike to obtain, for who is there that cannot do what he has the ability to do, if he would but exert that ability? And yet how few perhaps will be found hereafter to have done what they could!


16. The eyes of the servant look unto the hand of his master, and the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, (Psalm cxxiii. 2,) to denote that the human understanding should always have respect to use, which is the good of heavenly love and charity.


17. Jesus sitteth in the midst of the doctors, (Luke ii. 46,) to teach us that He is the centre of the origin of all doctrine, or, in other words, that as all genuine doctrine of what is good and true proceeds from Him, so it also points and leads to Him.


18. It should seem as if the Divine Providence could not punish man more effectually, than by fulfilling his selfish desires, according as it is written of the children of Israel, He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul. (Psalm cvi. 15.)


19. A state of trial and temptation appears to be exposed to danger, and therefore to require its peculiar watchfulness, agreeably to what is recorded of the children of Israel, where it is written, that lust came upon them in the wilderness, and they tempted God in the desert. (Psalm cvi. 14.)


20. It should seem as if every evil lust, in such as are regenerate, tends to destroy and consume itself in a