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Rh, remembering the wild beast which passeth by, and treadeth down the thistle.

45. Some at this day assert, with the Syrians of old, (1 Kings xx. 28,) that The Lord is of the hills, but that He is not  of the valleys; that is to say, they allow Him pre-eminence and rule in high things above, but not in things below; in His own kingdom in heaven, but not in their kingdom on earth, to control their passions, and govern them by His Spirit.

46. I,, will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. (Ezek. xiv. 4.) From these words it should appear, that the state of every man’s own heart, with respect to the love of good or the love of evil, determines at all times the manner of the Divine dealings with him, and probably also the apprehension of the man himself in regard to those dealings.

47. Some enter the temple without passing through the portico; some enter the portico without passing through the temple. (See John x. 1–9.)

48. It is a consolation to the sincere Christian, in his state of spiritual combat, to consider, and know that the adversary has no power but over the heel, the very lowest or outermost principles of his life, agreeably to the Divine denunciation, in which God said to the serpent concerning the seed of the woman, He shall tread upon thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen. iii. 15.)

There is a difference between bruising the