434 
ON THE MUSTARD PLANT 
sacred volume teaches, are not so carefully expressed as if 
they were mathematical axioms ; nor the articles of natural 
history, which it brings forward to illustrate these doctrines, 
ascertained to be correct by a Linnaeus or a Cuvier. 
The strict and literal interpretation of the loose, inaccu- 
rate, and figurative language of Scripture, is one cause of the 
numerous sects into which the Christian church has been 
split for eighteen centuries. The Bible is an oriental compo- 
sition, or a highly poetical and rhetorical work, which is to 
be judged of by the man of good sense, rather than by the 
votary of science ; otherwise it will be made to countenance 
errors in religious and moral doctrine, as well as in natural 
history, and abstract science ; which it will be very diffi- 
cult to believe were dictated by a Divine Spirit. 
Still farther, the mustard plant spoken of by our Lord 
grew in a highly favoured spot. The grain of mustard 
seed which a man took, he sowed in his own field ; that is, 
it was not sown on ground which had received no culture, 
but on ground cultivated with the utmost care. It was 
not pasture, but arable land, not a waste, but a spot turned 
up, cleaned, and manured. 
That this is the right interpretation of the word field, is 
demonstrated by the use of the word garden, in the parallel 
passage of Luke xiii. 19. " The kingdom of God is like a 
grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his 
garden ; and it grew, and waxed a great tree, and the fowls 
of the air lodged in the branches.'" 
Here we see that a man planted a grain of mustard seed 
in his garden, a place enclosed by hedges or walls, which 
was receiving accessions of earth and manure every season ; 
and upon which the spade and the rake were employed, 
whenever it was necessary. 
In any climate, the difference of soil and situation causes 
a prodigious difference in the growth and size of plants. 
