hear him sometimes in more public duties and discourses, O, thinks he, what an excellent man is this! what a choice and rare fpirit is be of! but follow him home, obferve him in his private converfation and retirements, and then you will judge Plutarch's note as applicable to him as the nightingale. (2.) This bird is obferved to charm most sweetly, and fet her spirits all on work, when the perceives the hath engaged attention; fo doth the hypocrite, who lives and feeds upon the applause and commendation of his admirers, and cares little, for any of those duties wich bring in no returns of praife from men: he is little pleased with a filent melody and private pleasure betwixt God and his own soul. Scire tuum nihil eft nifi te fcire hoc fciat alter. Alas! his knowledge is not worth a pin, If he proclaim not what he hath within. He is more for the theatre than the clofet; and of fuch Chrift faith, "Verily they have their reward." (3.) Naturalifts obferve the nightingale to be an ambitious bird, that cannot endure to be outvied by any: fhe will rather chufe to die than be excelled; a notable inftance whereof we have in the following pleasant poem, tranflated out of Starda, concerning the nigh. tingale and a lutanift. Now the declining fun did downward bend With founding charms; and in a greeny feat She conn'd it to herfelf; and every strain And wildly raging o'er a thousand keys, Or vanquish'd, break my lute without delay. His hand flies on the ftrings; in one he chains. Doubly divides, and clofing up his lays Of his co-rival, nor durft answer on. But the, when practice long her throat had whet, She faints, the dies, falls on his inftrument And even as far are hypocrites driven on by their ambition and pride, which is the fpur that provokes them in their relis gious duties. MEDIT. II. Upon the fight of many small birds chirping about a dead HR hawk. Earing a whole choir of birds chirping and twinkling together, it engaged my curiofity a little to enquire into the occafion of that convocation, which mine eye quickly informed me of; for I perceived a dead hawk in the bush, about which they made fuch a noise, seeming to triumph at the death of their enemy; and I could not blame them to fing his knell, who, like a Canibal, was wont to feed upon their living bodies, tearing them limb from limb, and scaring them with his frightful appearance. This bird, which living was fo formidable, being dead, the pooreft wren or titmoufe fears not to chirp or hop over. This brings to my thoughts the base and ignoble ends of the greatest tyrants, and greedy ingroffers of the world, of whom (whilft living) men were more afraid, than birds of a hawk, but dead, became objects of contempt and fcorn. The death of fuch tyrants is both inglorious and unlamented; "When the wicked perifh, there is fhouting," Prov. xi. 10 Which was exemplified to the life, at the death of Nero, of whom the poet thus fings; Cum mors crudelem rapuiffet fava Neronem, When cruel Néro dy'd, th' hiftorian tells, How Rome did mourn with bonefires, plays, and bells. Remarkable for contempt and shame have the ends of many bloody tyrants been. So Pompey the great, of whom Claudian the poet fings, Nudus pafcit aves, jacet en qui poffidet orbem Birds eat his flesh. Lo, now he cannot have, The like is ftoried of Alexander the Great, who lay unburied thirty days; and William the Conqueror, with many other fuch birds of prey: whilft a beneficial and holy life is ufually closed up in an honourable and much lamented death. For mine own part, I wish I may fo order my converfation in the world, that I may live, when I am dead, in the affections of the best, and leave an honourable teftimony in the confciences of the worst; that I may opprefs none, do good to all, and fay, when I die, as good Ambrofe did, I am neither afhamed to live, nor afraid to die. MEDIT. III. Upon the fight of a blackbird taking sanctuary in a bush from a pursuing hawk. W HEN I faw how hardly the poor bird was put to it to fave herself from her enemy, who hovered juft over the bush in which she was fluttering and squeaking, I could not but haften to relieve her, (pity and fuccour being a due debt to the diftreffed ;) which, when I had done, the bird would not depart from the bush, though her enemy were gone; this act of kindness was abundantly repaid by this meditation, with which I returned to my walk; my foul, like this bird, was once diftreffed, purfued, yea, feized by Satan, who had certainly made a prey of it, had not Jefus Chrift been a fanctuary to it in that hour of danger. How ready did I find him to receive my poor foul into his protection? Then did he make good that sweet promise to my experience, those that come unto me, I will in no wife caft out. It called to mind that pretty and pertinent ftory of the philofopher, who walking in the fields, a bird, purfued by a hawk, flew into his bofom; he took her out, and faid, Poor bird, I will neither wrong thee, nor expofe thee to thine enemy, fince thou cameft to me for refuge. So tender, and more than fo, is the Lord Jefus to diftreffed fouls that come unto him. Bleffed Jefus ! how fhould I love and praise thee, glorify and admire thee, for that great falvation thou haft wrought for me? If this bird had fallen into the claws of her enemy, the had been torn to pieces, indeed, and devoured, but then a few minutes had dispatched her; and ended all her pain and mifery but had my foul fallen into the hand of Satan, there had been no end of its misery. Would not this feared bird be flufhed out of the bush that fecured her, though I had chafed away her enemy? And wilt thou, O my foul, ever be enticed or feared from Chrift thy refuge? O let this for ever engage thee to keep clofe to Chrift, and make me fay, with Ezra, " And now, O Lord, fince thou "haft given me fuch a deliverance as this, should I again break "thy commandments !" MEDIT. IV. Upon the fight of divers goldfinches intermingling with a flock of Sparrows. M Ethinks thefe birds do fitly resemble the gaudy courtiers, and the plain peasants; how spruce and richly adorned with fhining and various coloured feathers (like scarlet, richly laid with gold and filver lace) are thofe? How plainly clad, in a home spun country ruffet are thefe? Fine feathers (faith our proverb) make proud birds; and yet the feathers of the fparrow are as ufeful and beneficial, both for warmth and flight, though not fo gay and ornamental, as the others; and if both were ftript out of their feathers, the fparrow would prove the better bird of the two: by which I fee, that the greatest worth doth not always lie under the finest cloaths: And befides, God can make mean and homely garments as useful and beneficial to poor and defpifed Chriftians, as the ruffling and shining gar ments of wanton gallants are to them: and when God fhall ftrip men out of all external excellencies, these will be found to excel their glittering neighbours in true worth and excellency. Little would a man think fuch rich treasures of grace, wifdom, humility, &c. lay under fome ruffet coats. Saepe fub attrita latitat fapientia vefte. Under be |