THE TOPS OF WEEDS.

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and my own deceitful heart will beguile me. Let me not strive in my own strength, nor fail of thine assisting grace. Rather cast me into the furnace, than suffer my corruption and dross to remain in me; and rather plough deeper furrows by affliction, than suffer the roots of the weeds to remain in my heart. Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned; convert me, and I shall be converted; let me not take up with a partial reformation, and let nothing less than the death of sin give me content.

Make the tree good, and his fruit good, Matt. xii. 33.

Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also, Matt. xxiii. 26.

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom, James iii. 11-13.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded, James iv. 8.

VII. UPON THE CARE MEN TAKE OF THEIR

GARDENS.

WHEN I considered how careful many are to keep their gardens in order, and what cost and time are expended to this end; how much labour is employed in walling, fencing, and securing the ground; in digging, manuring, weeding, and much more there must not a rarity be wanting, which labour or money can procure; there must not a weed be seen, nor herb nor flower out of order; what is dead or wanting must be supplied, and what is superfluous must be cast away; the tenderest must be secured from frost and scorching sun, and the whole must be formed after the newest fashion: the alleys and walks must be swept, and trimmed, and levelled; the grass mown and kept under, and all so exactly done that it may appear to be an earthly paradise, a place of pleasure and delights. When I observed, also, that all this while these very persons, so curious and so neat in shadows, yet neglect the substance, and suffer their own souls, and the souls of their children, servants, and near relations, the only gardens God takes delight in, to be sadly out of order; and though they make choice of the most skilful and diligent labourers for the one, will leave things to their course, without regarding who sows tares and poppies,

CARE MEN TAKE OF THEIR GARDENS.

21

thorns and thistles in the other;-I have often wondered that those who are such good husbands for the body, should be such bad husbands for the soul; and those who take so much pains for a little imaginary pleasure here, should altogether neglect the true pleasures and everlasting joys at the right hand of God hereafter. Oh the stupendous folly of men, to prefer pebbles before pearls, and gold before grace, and a handful of flowers before a heartful of holiness, and the shadow before the substance, and earth before heaven, and a garden before paradise. Well, however they act now, the time is coming when they will find their mistake, and change their judgment; when grace will be accounted the choicest flower, and holiness prove the best fashion.

O my soul, art thou not guilty thyself of those sins which thou so sharply chargest upon others? Hast not thou thyself been more prodigal of thy pains, thy time, thy cost, for mere trifles, than ever thou hast been about thy greater concerns? And is any man's folly more conspicuous than thy own? Hast thou not had thine ears open to the bewitching syren songs of pleasure, and been more charmed with earthly sensual delight than with communion with God in his worship and service? When the world has smiled upon thee, how unwilling hast thou been to die and to be with God! and hast laid out thyself, thy strength, thy time, too much for earthly enjoyments, to the neglect of heavenly riches. Pluck, then, the beam out of thine own eye before thou remove the mote of thy brother; get thy affections weaned

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CARE MEN TAKE OF THEIR GARDENS.

from the world, and thy eye fixed upon better riches and more enduring pleasures, lest God give thee these for thy portion; and what then wilt thou do in the latter end?

O my God, what shall I say to thee? how shall I answer thee? my iniquity is found out this day to be hateful. Had I spent but my time for spiritual advantages, which I have prodigally wasted for very trifles, it might have been much better with me; had I planted and sowed in a more fruitful field, I might have had a better crop. Lord, wean me from the love of carnal delights, though it be with the gall and wormwood of afflictions, and suffer me not to surfeit on the world's dainties, nor leave me to my own will, lest I undo myself; feed me with food convenient, and it sufficeth me.

Keep thy heart with all diligence, (margin, above all keeping,) Prov. iv. 23.

Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, Deut. iv. 9.

Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful, Luke x. 41, 42.

Keep yourselves from idols, 1 John v. 21.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, Jude 21. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, Matt. xxvi. 41.

VIII. UPON A NEGLECTED GARDEN.

WHEN I saw by experience how soon a neglected garden loses its form and beauty, and comes to be a rude unsightly heap, grown over with weeds and nettles, and infested with noxious reptiles; the wall broken down, the fence decayed; beasts and swine making a prey of it, the one tearing off the tops, the other digging up the roots of the tender plants; the herbs and flowers dying, withering, or decaying, choked by the weeds, or starved for want of nourishment; nothing flourishing but weeds, and the whole appearing more like a wilderness than a garden: this sight brought to my mind the state of the poor soul, when it is neglected and not heed fully observed. All then runs to ruin, and tends to confusion; corruption and sin get the upper hand, and grace is kept under; the fence is let down, the watch is neglected, and the devil, that wild boar of the forest, destroys the tender vines, roots up every good inclination, spoils every good intention and resolution, and lays all waste. How many have I known, who, when they have been under good masters, good parents, good ministers, have been very hopeful and towardly, and were likely to become good instruments in the church for God's glory, if not pillars in the house of God: while they received encouragement in religious courses,