BRINGING FORTH WEEDS.

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affliction, than suffer me to be barren or useless ground. Be thou the husbandman, and my heart will be fruitful and yield her increase; blow upon thy garden, and the spices will send forth a sweet smell; let the Sun of righteousness shine upon it, and the dew of heaven water it, and let it be planted by thy own hand, and fenced about, that the wild boar of the forest may not devour it, and it will be no longer barren. Speak the word, and the work will be done.

God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. vi. 5.

The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, Gen. viii. 21.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, Jer. xvii. 9.

Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, Matt. xv. 19.

The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, Rom. viii. 7.

The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 19-21.

IV. UPON A BUSH OF THORNS.

OBSERVING a bush of thorns springing up in a place where I expected better fruit, I caused them to be taken up and put into a gap, where a fence was wanting for the securing the garden, and the preserving the herbs and flowers from damage and detriment: this occasioned the following meditation. I thought, as these, being fruits of the curse, spring up of their own accord without labour or toil; so do sin and corruption naturally spring up in the soul without any pains and as the earth owns these, so does the heart own sin as its own proper product: God cursed the earth for man's sake, Gen. iii. 17, 18, and thorns and thistles it has ever since brought forth. This made me consider how faithful God is in the execution of his threats as well as of his promises; and of how dangerous a nature sin is, which produces such effects. I considered also, that as some use was made of thorns for the defence of better fruit, so does the wise God make some use of wicked men for the good of his people. Sometimes he uses them to scour off their rust, and make them brighter, whereby they often sully themselves, and when their work is done are turned off: sometimes they are his rod to afflict his saints; "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger," Isa. x. 5; but when the child is

reformed, the rod is burned: and sometimes he has made them a defence for his church; "The earth helped the woman, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth," Rev. xii. 16. An example of this we have in David, when he was in great distress, compassed about by Saul, on this side the mountain and on that side the mountain, in imminent danger, ready, like a trembling partridge, to have fallen into the hands of the greedy falcon; a messenger came to Saul, saying, "The Philistines have invaded the land;" and he withdrew his army and departed, 1 Sam. xxiii. 26-28. These Philistines were but thorns, yet were they a defence to David and his followers, and God at last will deal with wicked men as with thorns, reserve them for the fire; for what good they do to the godly is for ends of their own, and not for their sakes. The Philistines minded not David's good; nor the king of Assyria, God's people's reformation; nor Haman, Mordecai's and the Jews' advancement.

O my soul, can God turn a curse into a blessing, and can he bring good out of evil, and of these thorns make a fence for better fruit? admire his wisdom, and bless his name. Has he done thee good by these thorns, whose nature were to do hurt? bless him for it; he might have made thee the thorn, and for the present have stopped a gap with thee, and reserved thee to everlasting burning: if he has grafted thee into a better stock, and thou bringest forth better fruit, no thanks to thee. And if thou seest any as yet retaining their old natures, despair not of their recovery; God may make better use of them; a persecuting

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UPON A BUSH OF THORNS.

Saul may become a preaching Paul, and a wicked Manasseh a true convert; or he may make them otherwise serviceable to his people. Be not therefore like the disciples who would have rashly called for fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans; it is thy wisdom rather to see thou be not of that number, or otherwise thou wilt be reserved for the same condemnation.

O my God, such as these I was, and such I had been hadst thou not made the difference; and too much of that nature remains in me to this day. Oh that thou wouldst thoroughly change me! plant me into that noble vine, that I may bring forth better fruit; yea, purge me, that I may bring forth more fruit.

Deliver my soul from the wicked,—which are thy hand, Psa. xvii. 13, 14.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, Psa. lxxvi. 10.

The Lord saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him.-For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me, Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 1, 4, 5.

V.-UPON BIRDS PICKING UP THE Seed.

WHEN I had sown my seed in the garden, and perceived that what lay uncovered was made a prey to the fowls of the air, this brought to my mind our Saviour's parable of the sower, Matt. xiii. wherein he discovers the reason why, though so much seed be sown, so little fruit appears. The fault is not in the seed, for that is good, the good word of God, though sometimes the enemy may mix tares with it. Neither is the fault always in the sower, though sometimes it may be; for the most part it lies in the ground, in the heart, where the seed should be entertained; we find here there was but one-fourth part good; and oh, that the one-tenth part of those that hear the word were really such. Some of the ground was highway ground, not fitted and prepared for a crop, never ploughed deep enough; the seed indeed was sown upon it, but never in it; it was never covered or harrowed by meditation, and therefore remained liable to be picked up by the wicked one, who will be one at church whoever is absent. Some we find was sown in stony places, where it had little earth, and less root: and thus many rejoice to hear the word at first, and have some sudden impressions of goodness; but the root of the matter is not in them, and therefore the impressions

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