flower is to be esteemed an imperfect work, for not having in it all the colours of the Rain-bow.

XII. The sweet smell of flowers is another excellence we are to take notice of: for by a sweet savour is meant any thing acceptable to God, be it a word or a work of righteousness, any thing meritorious through Christ Jesus. And as the sweet scent of flowers is not conveyed to us, unless a brisk air blow it from them; so the sweet and pleasant odours of righteousness, in the people of God, cannot arise but through the power of the Holy Spirit, breathing upon their hearts. Therefore the spouse in this divine song calls upon the spirit to produce this blessed effect-Awake, O north-wind, and come thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices, the sweet aromatic odours, may flow out. Let but the spirit thus bestow his grace upon us, and the church, as Isaac pronounced of Jacob concerning things to come, is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.

But this smell, though it is precious and acceptable with God, and endears the Christian to his brethren, is of little account with the men of this world; it is rather disagreeable and offensive to them. The same is observable

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servable in nature: for naturalists have informed us, there are some dirty crawling insects which will sicken and die at the smell of a rose a case which doth well illustrate the different success of the Holy Apostles, when they preached, through the power of the Holy Spirit upon them, the doctrine of Christ for while they were a Savour of life unto life in those that were saved, They were a Savour of death unto death in them that perished.

XIII. To what hath been said much more might be added on the way of managing flowers for special care should be had that they be kept clear of weeds, which rob them of their nourishment, shading them at the same time from the sun's light and warmth, and infecting the air with a poisonous scent. Times would soon be altered for the better, if this rule were observed by those who are appointed overseers of God's garden, and are commissioned with an authority to plant and to pluck up. The few flowers there are would thrive much better than they do, if they were careful to prevent any ill weeds from continuing amongst them; looking diligently, as the Apostle has directed them, lest

any

any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness, springing up, trouble the church, and thereby many be defiled. The same evil was provided against by the oath and covenant mentioned in the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy-Lest there should be among you man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turneth away from the Lord our God, to go and serve the Gods of these Nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth hemlock and wormwood-The Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the Tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the Covenant written in this book of the Law. Noxious weeds are not to expect any preservation from the power and providence of God; for Christ hath told us, that every plant, which his heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. This practice ought now to be observed; and certainly would be under a regular exertion of ecclesiastical discipline; but the ignorance of the age co-operating with its licentiousness, hath induced such a confirmed misunderstanding of this whole matter, that there is no hope of our seeing this discipline restored. We must wait with patience, till Christ shall take upon

himself the office of separating the flowers from the weeds, and of casting out of his garden all things that offend.

XIV. It will be proper here to stop a while and reflect on what hath been said, before we enter upon the other images not yet explained.

It hath been shewn, that the first work of the christian religion was to prepare the way for all the good effects it afterwards produced, by bringing the light of life and immortality to the Gentiles, and removing the Jews from under the rigor of the law, to be saved by Faith in Christ Jesus. This is expressed in those words-The winter is past, the rain is over and gone.-The regions of mortality are warmed and enlightened by the return of the divine light and truth to them: and they, who lay exposed to condemnation under the law, have nothing more to fear from it: that cloud broke over the head of Christ, and discharged upon him that rain of wrath which otherwise must have fallen upon us.

This change in the spiritual œconomy produced such an effect, as the clearing up of the season doth in the course of nature. For mankind, when visited by the gospel, passed

from

from death unto life; as, at the return of the spring, the flowers appear upon the earth.

XV. But as the virtue of the spring is to be discerned in many other effects beside the regeneration of flowers; so is the power of the gospel in other effects upon the human soul, beside its redemption from a state of spiritual death; more than can be possibly expressed under any single operation of nature. For when For when it raises us from the earth, it opens our mouths and fills them with the praises of God: as the same season, which gives the flowers their birth, inspires the birds of the air with chearfulness to begin afresh their singing, which had been interrupted by the storm and cold of the winter. When Christ is come to give us light and warmth, we spring up from our death of nature; and our next step is to return God thanks and praises for our deliverance: first awaking, as Deborah calls upon herself to do; then uttering the song of thanksgiving, which God puts into

our mouths.

These things are laid down in the same order by the prophet Isaiah. In the beginning of his thirty-fifth chapter he tells us, that the desert should blossom as the rose: then immediately he adds-it shall rejoice