"unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy “laden, and I will give you rest.” Matth. xi. 28." And him that cometh to me, I will 166 in no wise cast out. John vi. 57. "The

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Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let "him that heareth, say, Come: And let him "that is athirst come: And whosoever will, "let him take of the water of life freely.” Rev. xxii. 17.

Transported at the all-joyful tidings, they embrace the thrice welcome news, with the keenness of a condemned man receiving a reprieve from death: thus they are caught in the gospel net and saved.

all.

But ministers, though fishers of men, are only men themselves, and, like the seven disciples of old, they may toil all night, nay, all the nights and days of their lives, and take nothing, unless the Lord by his Spirit cause success: it is then only, with the disciples, they cast the net on the right side of the ship, and catch a draught (John xxi. 2---6) of elect sinners. "Paul may plant, and

Apollos water, but God alone giveth the "increase." 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.

My part is now to examine, whether I have been taken captive by Satan at his will, eagerly grasping at his hooks, and swallowing down his baits; and, alas! my conscience accuseth me of having done so in too many instances: But have I too seen my lost and undone state by nature, and been endeavouring to find a refuge from divine wrath under any or all of those coverts I was noticing, and have been driven out of them by the terrors of the law; the Holy Spirit convincing me of my dangerous situation, and the total insufficiency of such refuges to screen me from the wrath of the Almighty? And have I been led to see that there is no safety any where else, but under the covert of Christ's blood and righteousness, and to my sweet experience been taken with the gospel net, and closed with Christ alone for my Saviour, believing that he is both able and willing to save poor, wretched, sinful me, taking him for my all in all ?

If this hath not been the

case, O
O my

soul!

stay not in all the plain, or state of nature,

but haste, escape for thy life, and close with

Christ, lest thou be overthrown with a shower of wrath and eternal vengeance: Look not Gen. xix. 17.

behind thee.
"Lot's wife!"

Luke, xvii. 32.

"Remember

PASSING by a flowery garden, and looking over the wall, I beheld among the flowers some of the footsteps of the renowned, pious, and justly celebrated Mr. James Hervey.

Therefore, lest I should rather draw a veil over the beauties he had exhibited than unfold any more of their charms, I did not dare to enter: but shall now content myself with contemplating this flower of the field, which here grows in all the simplicity of nature, displaying an elegance of taste, and beauty

of form, far surpassing the touch of the most skilful pencil on earth! All the works of nature which we behold, whether in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, show to the eye of penetration, what they proclaim aloud in the ear of reason, namely, the hand that made them is divine: "For "the invisible things of him from the crea❝tion of the world, are clearly seen, being "understood by the things that are made,

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even his eternal power and godhead." Rom. i. 20.

This every one may read in the page of nature, and I at present see it manifested in the texture, growth, and foliage, of this charm of the field.

How exquisitely beautiful and various are its colours! Could mortal man have tinged it so, or distributed them in such just proportion? Where are now the painters of Greece, and those well skilled in eastern dyes? This flower looks them all out of When compared with its

countenance.