Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

1. Her mistake, She supposing him to be the Gardiner; O Mary! hath Christ lived so long, and laboured so much, and shed so many showers of blood, to come to no higher preferment than a Gardiner? this was a very strange mistake; and yet in some sense, and a good sense too, Christ might be said to be a Gardiner; As 1. It is he that gardens all our souls, that plants in them the seeds of righteousness; that waters them with the dew of grace, and makes them fruitful to eternal life. 2. It is he that raised to life his own dead body, and will turn all our graves into a garden-Plot, Thy dead men shall live together, ¹with my dead body shall they arise, awake and sing ye that dwell in dust, for the dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Besides, there is a mystery in her mistake; As Adam in the state of grace and innocency was placed in a garden; and the first office allotted to him, was to be a Gardiner; so Jesus Christ appeared first in a garden, and presents himself in a Gardiner's likeness. And as that first Gardiner was the Parent of sin, the ruin of mankind, and the Author of death; so is this Gardiner the ransom for our sins, the raiser of our ruins, and the restorer of our life. In some sense then, and in a Mystery Christ was a Gardiner: but Mary's mistake was in supposing him the Gardiner of that only place; and not the Gardiner of our souls. Souls in desertion are full of mistakes, though in their mistakes are sometimes many mysteries.

1. Her mistake, She supposing him to be the Gardiner; O Mary! hath Christ lived so long, and laboured so much, and shed so many showers of blood, to come to no higher preferment than a Gardiner? this was a very strange mistake; and yet in some sence, and a good sence too, Christ might be said to be a Gardiner; As 1. It is he that gardens all our souls, that plants in them the seeds of righteousness; that waters them with the dew of grace, and makes them fruitful to eternal life. 2. It is he that raised to life his own dead body, and will turn all our graves into a garden-Plot, Thy dead men shall live together, ¹with my dead body shall they arise, awake and sing ye that dwell in dust, for the dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Besides, there is a mystery in her mistake; As Adam in the state of grace and innocency was placed in a garden; and the first office allotted to him, was to be a Gardiner; so Jesus Christ appeared first in a garden, and presents himself in a Gardiners likeness. And as that first Gardiner was the Parent of sin, the ruine of mankind, and the Author of death; so is this Gardiner the ransome for our sins, the raiser of our ruines, and the restorer of our life. In some sence then, and in a Mystery Christ was a Gardiner: but Maries mistake was in supposing him the Gardiner of that only place; and not the Gardiner of our souls. Souls in desertion are full of mistakes, though in their mistakes are sometimes many mysteries.