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 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 Na-· tions; 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 hea venly 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 snch 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 awhile 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 rigour 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 economy 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 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 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 thirtyfifth chapter he tells us, that the desert should blossom as the rose: then immediately he adds—it shall rejoice even with joy and singing. This second mark of the spring was to attend upon the first: at the appearance of flowers on the earth, the time of the singing of birds was to come with them; and even the wilderness and solitary place, the haunt of wild beasts and doleful creatures, should become the resort of musical birds singing among the branches. The real meaning of which is no other than what the prophet himself hath expressed for us at the close of the chapter. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion (the holy mountain of Christ's church *) with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

While we lay in our winter of spiritual death, no song was to be heard from us: that was no time for singing; for where death is, its ordinary attendants are sorrow and sighing; which accordingly prevailed over all the world, till the ransom paid for it by Christ Jesus, put them to flight.

Heb. xii. 22.

Whoever heard the nightingale sing in the midst of winter? the stork and the swallow, and the nightingale, and other birds, all know their time, and never cross the seas to visit us, till the spring is advanced, and the quickening beams of the sun have inspired a new life into the animal and vegetable creation. How therefore could the heathen land rejoice, till the flowers appeared on it? Till the spring of Christianity approached it, and the glory of the Lord Jehovah, the holy one of Israel, dwelt in the midst of it? Then every redeemed soul broke out into songs of joy and thanksgiving: From the uttermost part of the earth songs were heard, even glory to the righteous.

The same deliverance which gave them cause to sing, gave them the power to do it. For as man, in his natural state, has no reason to rejoice, so has he no ability, therefore said the Prophet-The tongue of the dumb shall sing. And hence it is, that in our excellent form of common-prayer, we beseech God to open our lips, that our mouths may shew forth his praise."

Thus does the joy of the saints, on the appearance of the gospel, answer to the singing of birds on the arrival of the spring: the time and cause of both are alike; and they celebrate the same subject, the glory of the light. Nor do they less agrce in place: the habitation of the Lord's redeemed being the same with that of the birds: they sit and sing in the tree of the church, which is the mystical body of Christ. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, 'so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. The kingdom of heaven is an expression in

the parables, well known to signify the Gospel-state. The grain of mustard-seed, the least of all seeds, may be emblematic of Christ, who humbled himself to become the least in the kingdom of heaven; and who at his death was sown in the field of this world, but sprang up to power and glory at his resurrection: from the least of all seeds becoming the greatest of all trees, extending its mystical branches to the ends of the earth, and affording an habitation to birds of every sort, which sit and sing among the branches, and are safe under the shadow of it, and in it there is meat for all *. Such is the peace of those who are called to a state of salvation, and such is their chief and best employment. Their winter is past; their rain over and gone; and the time of their singing is come. The sorrow and sighing of men without hope is fled away; and changed into the melody of the heart, breaking out into psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs-for there is no real cause of sorrow left, when once the soul is truly converted to Christ--we are to be of good cheer in the presence of him, who hath overcome the world for us.

"Totius enim mundi judex-qui, in corde terræ in tumulo oc"cultatus, tridui spatio in maximam arborem excrevit, ramos suos ad "extremos terræ fines protendens. Ex illo propullantes duodecim "apostoli, rami illi floridi atque excelsi, gentibus, non secus ac vo"lucribus cæli, tegmen præbuere; quibus ramis omnes obumbrati, tanquam volucres in nidum congregati, ejus, qui ab illis promanabat, lautæ ac cœlestis alimoniæ participes sunt facti." Fragmenta S. Iranei, antepenult. Edit. Grabe.

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There may seem to be an ambiguity, if not an impropriety, in applying the grain of mustard from the gospel-state to the person of Christ; but as the church is no other than the body of Christ, its privileges and benefits cannot be considered independent of his person and thus he himself hath considered them on another occasion -I am the Vine, ye are the branches.