Page:Collection of interesting anecdotes, religious, moral and entertaining, selected from several eminent authors.pdf/9

( 9 ) the ſtone lieth, none of them appear: but take off the ſtone, and ſtir them up but with the point of a ſtraw ; you'll ſee what a ſwarm is there, and how lively they be. Juſt ſuch a fight would thy heart afford thee, did the Lord but withdraw the reſtraint he has laid upon it, and ſuffer Satan to ſtir it up by temptation.

39. Temptation is the fire that brings up the ſcum of the heart.

40. I would rather utter one of thoſe groans the Apoſtle ſpeaks of, Rom. viii. 26. than ſhed Efau's tears, have Balaam's prophetic ſpirit, or the joy of the ſtony-ground hearer.

41. Great was the cry in Egypt, when the firſt-born, in each family, was dead: but are there not many families, where all are dead together?

42. What we term, the courſe of Nature; is the inceſſant adminiſtration of Providence.

43. Every ſin is an imitation of the devil, and creates a kind of hell in the heart.

44. The pages of Scripture, like the productions of Nature, will not only endure the teſt, but improve upon the trial. The application of the microſcope to the one, and a repeated meditation on the other, are ſure to diſplay new beauties, and preſfent us with higher attractives.

45. Nature is ſo corrupted, as not to underſtand its own depravation.

46. Prayer like Jonathan's, bow, returns not empty. Never was faithful prayer loſt at ſea. No merchant trades with ſuch certainty, as the praying ſaint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others; but then return with the richer lading at the laſt.

47. The nettle mounteth on high; while the violet ſhrowds itſelf under its own lcaves, and is chiefly found out by it's