"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
"The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
"And many a flower is born to blush unseen,
"And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

And is there not many a bright genius obfcured by a low fituation in life, which, if otherwise cultivated by a liberal education, and introduced by friends or fortune into public view, might do honour to the state, or be highly useful in the church; and add as much, if not more benefit to society, as this wild flower might contribute to the ornament of a flower-bed in fome nobleman's garden?

Was I just now admiring those lines in Mr Gray, which are at once delightful and ftriking? And fhall I not much more those of the man according to God's own heart, the sweet finger of Ifrael, which are transcendantly more beautiful and ftriking, while they are truly applicable to all? "As for

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man, his days are as grafs: as a flower of "the field, fo he flourisheth; for the wind paffeth over it, and it is gone; and the "place thereof fhall know it no more," Pfal. ciii. 15, 16.

Man was once indeed as a flower in a garden; but ever fince he was caft out of paradife, he hath been as a flower in a field, exposed to numberlefs accidents, dangers, diseases and deaths; the winds of adverfity continually pafling over him, and from one generation to another, that of mortality; fo that he is gone away, or carried away as with a flood, Pfal. xc. 5. and the place which once knew him, knoweth him again no "Man that is born of a woman is "of few days and full of trouble; he com"eth forth like a flower, and is cut down; "he fleeth alfo as a fhadow, and continu"eth not," Job xiv. 2.

more:

Man in infancy flourisheth like a flower, fpringeth up in childhood, bloffoms and buddeth in youth, withers and dies in old age. But is the flower always permitted to stand till it wither and decay? No; it is often, nay, very often cropt in the bud, in the bloffom, and when flourishing in all the gaiety of foliage, when its charms most attract the gazer's eye: And fo is man in infancy, childhood, and youth: "Verily, every man at his beft ftate, is altogether vanity," Pfal. xxxix. 5.

How folemn was that cry

which the pro

phet Ifaiah was called upon to utter, and how little regarded! "All flesh is grafs, and "all the goodliness thereof is as the flower "of the field," Ifa. xl. 6. O that men would confider this aright! it would keep them humble in profperity, and what follows in the fame beautiful passage would fupport them in adverfity, namely, that "the word of our God fhall ftand for ever," ver. 8. Though men change, fade away, and die like the grafs of the field, fo that no truft is to be put even in the greatest of them, Pfal. cxlvi. 3, 4. God is unchangeable, and of his years there is no end; his promises are faithfulness and truth: He will not change the thing that is gone out of his lips; his word abideth for ever, Mal. iii. 6. Pfal. cii. 24. 27. lxxxix. 33, 34. Ifa. xxv. I. I Pet. i. 23. 25.

These oxen which are grazing, are not at all charmed with the fragrancy or beauties of this delightful flower: they feed carelefsly around it without paying any refpect to it; to them it flourishes unregarded. And what is the reafon? it is because their natures are incapable of receiving any

pleasant sensation from it. Yet these oxen ferve to reprove many of us for our ingra titude to God our benefactor; for the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, Ifa. i. 3. and are there not, alas ! too many in the world who pay (how fhall I utter it!) as little refpect and regard to the flower which fprang from the roots of Jesse, that plant of renown, Ezek. xxxiv. 29. as those beasts do to this flower of the earth? to fuch men Christ is as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; they fee no beauty in him that they should defire him, Ifa. liii. 2,

And what is the cause of all this aftonishing infenfibility? it is owing to fallen nature; for "the natural man receiveth not "the things of the Spirit of God; for they "are foolishness unto him, neither can he "know them, because they are fpiritu"ally difcerned," 1 Cor. ii. 14. till once the Spirit enlighten their minds then it is only that with the spouse they see Christ to be white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, Cant, V. 10, 16.

But where is now the delightful plant that charmed me fo much but a little ago? I cannot obferve it. Surprising! what can be come of it? Ah! I now perceive it laid low; its ftem broken, variegated cup all fhattered, and partly funk in the mould.

What can have produced fuch a fudden change! The field is deprived of its comely form, beauty and fragrance, all in a moGentle flower! thy gaiety is past, no doubt the foot of one of these clumsy cattle has trodden thee down.

ment.

From thy fate I learn that of many mortals; and, for ought I know, may foon be my own. How many flourishing in all the gaiety of life, health of body, and vigour of youth; long ere ever the wintry blast of age foil beauty on the cheek, or begin to wither the features, are cut down like a flower, Job xiv. 2. by fome fatal disease or unfeen accident, and all their earthly glory laid low in the clay.

The fight of thee, O hapless flower! in a short time will rather create disgust than pleasure. But far, nay, very far more fo