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But that is a bad tenant, that will maintain a fuit at law against his landlord with his own rent; and a bad heart, that will fight against · God with his own mercies. I wish it may be with my heart, as it is reported to be with the waters in the kingdom of Congo, that are never so sweet to the taste, as when the tide is at the highest.

TH

MEDIT. V.

Upon the hunting of a Deer.

HE full-mouthed cry of thefe dogs, which from the morning. have hunted this poor tired deer, which is now no longer able to ftand before them, but is compaffed round with them, who thirst for, and will presently fuck her blood, brings to my thoughts the condition and ftate of Jefus Chrift, in the days of his fefh, who was thus hunted from place to place by blood-thirfty enemies. Upon this very account, the 22d Pfalm, which treats of his death, is infcribed with the title of Ajieleth Shahar, which fignifies the bind of the morning, and fully imports the fame notion which this occafion prefented me with; for look, as the hind or deer, which is intended to be run down that day, is rouzed by the dogs early in the morning, fo was Chrift, in the very morning of his infancy, by bloody Herod, and that cruel pack confederated with him. Thus was he chafed from place to place, till that was fulfilled which was prophetically written of him in ver. 16. of the forecited Pfalm : " For dogs have compaffed me about, the "affembly of the wicked have inclofed me; they pierced my hands " and my feet."

And canst thou expect, O my foul! to fare better than he did, or efcape the rage of bloody men? Surely, if the Spirit of Christ dwell in thee, if his holinefs have favoured thee,, thefe dogs will wind it, and give thee chafe too: they go upon the fcent of holiness still, and would hunt to deftruction every one, in whom there is aliquid Chrifti, any thing of Chrift, if the gracious providence of the Lord did not fometimes rate them off: for it is no lefs a pleafure which fome wicked ones take in hunting the people of God, than what * Claudian the poet obferves men ufe to take in hunting wild beafts.

"Whilft every huntsmen in the night do fleep,

"Their fancies in the woods ftill hunting keep."

Lord! fhould I with the hypocrite decline the profeffion and prac tice of holiness, to efcape the rage of perfecuting enemies, at what time they ceafe, my own confcience would begin to hunt me like a bloodhound; let me rather chufe to be chafed by men than God, to flee VOL. V. No. 41. C c

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before pursuing enemies, than be dogged from day to day with a guilty confcience.

B

MEDITATIONS upon TREES.

MEDIT. I.

Upon the fall of Blossoms, nipt by a frosty morning.

EHOLDING in an early fpring. fruit-trees emboffed with beautiful bloffoms of various colours, which breathed forth their delicious odours into the circumambient air, and adorned the branches on which they grew, like fo many rich jewels, or glittering pendents; and further obferving, how thefe perfumed bloffoms dropt off, being bitten with the froft, and difcoloured all the ground, as if a shower of fnow had fallen; I faid within myfelf, thefe fweet and early bloffoms are not unlike my sweet and early affections to the Lord in the days of my first acquaintance with him. O what fervent love, panting defires, and heavenly delights beautified my foul in thofe days! The odoriferous fcent of the fweeteft bloffoms, the morning breath of the moft fragrant flowers, hath not half that fweetnefs with which thofe my first affections were enriched. O! happy time, thrice pleasant fpring! My foul hath it ftill in remembrance, and is humbled within me; for thefe alfo were but bloffoms which now are nipt and faded, that firft flourish is gone; my heart is like the winter's earth, becaufe thy face, Lord, is to me like a winter fun. " Awake, O north wind! "and come, fouth wind, blow upon my garden, that the fpices thereof may flow out, then let my beloved come into his garden, aud "eat his pleasant fruit !"

I

MEDIT. II.

Upon the knitting, or fetting of Fruit.

HAVE often obferved, that when the bloffoms of a tree fet and knit, though the flourish thereof be gone, and nothing but the bare rudiment of the expected fruit be left; yet then the fruit is much better fecured from the danger of frofts and winds, than whilft it remained in the flower or bloffom; for now it hath paft one of those critical periods, in which fo many trees mifcarry and lofe their fruit. And methought this natural obfervation fairly led me to this theological propofition, That good motions, and holy purposes in the foul, are never fecured, and paft their moft dangerous crifis, till they be turned into fixed refolutions, and anfwerable executions, which is as the knitting and fetting of them.'

Upon this propofition my melting thoughts thus dilated: happy had it been for thee, my foul! had all the bleffed motions of the Spi

rit been thus knit and fixed in thee. Oh, how have mine affections blown and budded under the warm beams of the gofpel! But a chill blaft from the cares, troubles, and delights of the world without, and the vanity and deadness of the heart within, have blafted all; my goodness hath been but as a morning-due, or early cloud, that va nifheth away. And even of divine ordinances, I may fay what is faid of human ordinances, "They have perithed in the ufing." A bloffom is but fructus imperfectus, et ordinabilis, an imperfect thing in itself, and fomething in order to fruit: a good motion and holy pur pofe is but opus imperfectum, et ordinabile, an imperfect work, in order to a complete work of the Spirit; when that primus impetus, thofe first motions were strong upon my heart, had I then pursued them in the force and vigour of them, how many difficulties might I have overcome? Revive thy work, O Lord, and give not to my foul a miscarring womb, or dry breasts.

WH

MEDIT. III.

Upon the fight of a fair Spreading Oak.

HAT a lofty flourishing tree is here? It seems rather to be a little wood, than a fingle tree, every limb thereof having the dimenfions and branches of a tree in it; and yet as great as it is, it was once but a little flip, which one might pull up with two fingers; this vaft body was contained virtually and potentially in a fmall acorn. Well then, I will never defpife the day of fmall things, nor despair of arriving to an eminency of grace, though at prefent it be but as a bruifed reed, and the things that are in me be ready to die. As things in nature, fo the things of the Spirit, grow up to their fulness and perfection by flow and infenfible degrees. The famous and heroical acts of the most renowned believers were fuch as themselves could not once perform; or it may be think they ever fhould. Great things, both in nature and grace, come from fmall and contemptible beginnings.

MEDIT. IV.

Upon the fight of many flicks lodged in the branches of a choice

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Fruit-tree.

TOW is this tree battered with ftones, and loaded with fticks, that have been thrown at it, whilft those that grow about it, being barren, or bearing harfher fruit, efcape untouched! Surely if its fruit had not been fo good, its ufage had not been fo bad. And yet it is affirmed, that fome trees, as the walnut &c. bear the better for being thus bruised and battered.

Even thus it fares in both respects with the best of men; the more holy, the more envied and perfecuted; every one that paffes by will have a fling at them. Methinks I fee how devils and wicked men walk round about the people of God, whom he hath inclofed in his arms of power, like fo many boys about an orchard, whofe lips water to have a fling at them. But God turns all the ftones of reproach into precious ftones to his people; they bear the better for being thus battered. And in them is that ancient *observation verified.

"The palms and crowns of virtue thus increase;
"Thus perfecution's turned into peace."

Let me but be fruitful to God in holiness, and ever abounding in the work of the Lord, and then whilft devils and men are flinging at me, either by hand or tongue perfecutions, I will fing amidst them all with the divine poet;

"What open force, or hidden charm,
"Can blait my fruits, or bring me harm,
"Whilft the inclofure is thine arm?"

Herb. Poem, p. 125,

MEDIT. V.

Upon the gathering of choice fruit from a scrubbed, unpromifing Tree.

OULD any man think to find fuch rare delicious fruit upon

WOULD fuch an unworthy tree to appearance as this is? I fhould

rather have expected the most delicious fruit from the moft handsome and flourishing trees; but I fee I must neither judge the worth of trees or men by their external form and appearance. This is not the first time I have been deceived in judging by that rule; under fair and promifing outfides I have found nothing of worth; and in many deformed, defpicable bodies, I have found precious and richly furnished fouls. The fap and juice of this fcrubbed tree is concocted into rare and excellent fruits, whilst the juice and fap of fome other fair, but barren trees, ferve only to keep them from rotting, which is all the ufe that many fouls which dwell in beautiful bodies ferve for; they have, as one faith, animam pro fale; their fouls are but falt to their bodies. Or thus,

The only ufe to which their fouls do ferve,

Is but like falt, their bodies to preferve.

If God have given me a found foul in a found body, I have a double mercy to blifs him for; but whether my body bę vigorous and

• Crefcunt virtutum palma, crefcuntque coronæ

Mutantur mundi pralia, pace Dei,

beautiful, or not, yet let my foul be fo: for as the efteem of this tree, fo the esteem and true honour of every man, rife rather from his fruitfulness and ufefulness, than from his fhape and form.

S'

MEDIT. VI.

Upon an excellent, but irregular Tree.

EEING a tree grow fomewhat irregular, in a very neat orchard, I told the owner it was pity that tree should stand there; and that if it were mine I would root it up, and thereby reduce the orchard to an exact uniformity. It was replied to this purpose, That he rather regarded the fruit than the form;' and that this flight inconveniency was abundantly preponderated by a more confiderable advantage. This tree, Jaid he, which you would root up, hath yielded me more fruit than many of thofe trees which have nothing else to commend them but their regular fituation. I could' not but yield to the reafon of this anfwer; and could wish it had been spoken fo loud, that all our uniformity-men had heard it, who will not stick to root up many hundred of the best bearers in the Lord's orchard, because they stand not in an exact order with other more conformable, but lefs beneficial trees, who perdunt fubftantiam propter accidentia, deftroy the fruit to preferve the form.

Not much unlike, fuch foolish men are thofe,
That ftrive for fhadows, and the substance lose.

A

MEDITATIONS upon a GARDEN.

MEDIT. I.

Upon the new-modelling of a Garden.

Gentlewoman who had lately feen a neat and curious garden, returns to her own with a greater diflike of it than ever; refolves to new-model the whole plat, and reduce it to a better form. She is now become fo curious and neat, that not a weed or stone is fuffered in it, but all muft lie in exquifite order; and whatever ornament she had obferved in her neighbour's, fhe is now restless till she fees it in her own.

Happy were it, thought I, if in an holy emulation every one would thus endeavour to rectify the diforders of their own converfation, by the excellent graces they behold in the more heavenly and regular lives of others. Some Chriftians there are (I wish their number were greater) whofe actions lie in fuch a comely and beautiful order, that few of their neighbours can look upon their examples without

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