OF FOREST-TREES. 



327 



Though, since the devil's intrusion into Paradise, even the most holy BOOK 

 and devoted places were not free from his temptations and ugly strata- ^""'"^ 

 gems, yet we find our blessed Saviour did frequently retire into the wilder- 

 ness, as Elijah and St. John the Baptist did before him, and divers other 

 holy men, particularly the @£03prf]ixo),whom Philo mentions, a certain reli- ^^^^'^^"^ 

 gious sect, who addicting themselves to contemplation, chose the solitary 

 recesses of groves and woods ; as of old the Rechabites, Essenes, primi- 

 tive monks, (and other institutions,) retired amongst the Thebaid deserts ; 

 and perhaps the air of such retired places may be assistant and influential 

 for the inciting of penitential expressions and affections, especially where 

 one may have the additional assistance of solitary grots, murmuring 

 streams, and desolate prospects. I remember that under a tree was the 

 place of that admirable St. Augustin's solemn conversion, after aU his 

 important reluctances. I have often thought of it, and it is a melting 

 passage, as recorded by himself, Con. 1. viii. c. 8 ; and he gives the rea- 

 son ; Solitudo enim mihi ad negoUum fiendi apiior suggerehatur. And 

 that, indeed, such opportunities were successful for recollection, and to 

 the very reformation of some ingenuous spmts, from secular engage- 

 ments to excellent and mortifying purposes, we may find in that won- 

 derful relation of Pontianus's two friends, great courtiers of the time, 

 as the same holy father relates it, previous to his own conversion. And 

 here I cannot omit an observation of the learned Dr. Plot, in his (often- 

 cited) Nat. Hist, of Oxfordshire, taking notice of two eminent religious 

 houses, whose foundations were occasioned by trees ; the fii'st Osney- 

 abbey ; the second, by reason of a certain tree, standing in the mea- 

 dows, (where after was built the abbey,) to which a company of pyes 

 were wont to repair as oft as Editha, the wife of Robert D'Oyly, came 

 to walk that way to solace herself ; for the clamorous birds did so affect 

 her, that, consulting with one Radulphus (canon of St. Fridiswid) what 

 it might signify, the subtle man advised her to build a monas- 

 tery where the tree stood, as if so directed by the pyes in a miraculous 

 manner ; nor was it long ere the lady procured her husband to do it, 

 and to make Radulphus (her confessor) first prior of it. 



Such another foundation was caused by a triple Elm, having three 

 trunks issuing from one root. Near such a tree as this was Sir Thomas 

 White, lord mayor of London, warned by a dream to erect a college for 

 the education of youth, which he did, namely, St. John's in Oxford, 



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