POETRY. VERSES ON THE GOSPEL FEAST. Come ye saints of every nation, Come to Zion's holy hill; Hear the Saviour's invitation, "Come and feast whoever will: "Wine and fatlings, "I provide on Zion's bill." "In my church below all glorious, "Where I often shew my face, "Where my gospel reigns victorious, "And my people sing my praise, "There of fatlings "And of wine I make a feast." VERSES ON HEARING A O Israel, saved by the Lord, How happy is thy case; The people of Jehovah's choice, Mark'd out by special grace. "There my saints hold sweet communion, "With king Jesus at his board; "There they prove their vital union "To their crucified Lord : "This is feasting, "Earthly riches can't procure. Sweet Remembrancer of Jesus, Let us now thine influence prove; On his flesh and blood now feast us: Fill our spirits with his love. Lead and guide us, Till we join the feast above. S. N. S. DISCOURSE FROM Deut. xxxiii. 25. Jehovah's oath and promise is, Defended by the great Three-One, From every evil kept secure, Though daugers round thee fly, No powers of hell, no mighty foes, Can ever thee destroy. Secured from every foe art thou, By everlasting love; He'll bring thee safe above. Where far from all malignant foes, Sin, satan, death, and hell, Secure within our Conq'rors arms, For ever we shall dwell. Ye sons and daughters of the Lord, Then dry your tears, ye mourning souls, Ye chosen, royal race; A few more storms and trials here, And we shall see his face. J. L. M. MEDITATIONS IN VERSE UPON PSALM XCIII. Let every heart be tuned In loudest, sweetest strains, To sound Immanuel's praise, And sing how high he reigns: High on a throne of dazzling light, Behold the Sovereign Conqueror sit. Yet doth he deign to hear Our sighs and broken prayers, With sympathy and love Regards our groans and tears; A broken heart's dear in his sight, A contrite spirit his delight. God over all he reigns, For ever, ever blest, And bring his saints to rest; To join at last the blood-bought throng, And crown Immanuel in their song. Then farewell anxious care But all is purity and peace, And we shall see his face ; The promise he'll fulfil, And take thee from this barren land, With him to reign at God's right J. L. M. hand. THE Spiritual Magazine ; OR, SAINT'S TREASURY. John v. 7. "There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these Three are ONE." "Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." Jude 3. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) THE LOVE OF GOD WITHOUT BEGINNING, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, AND WITHOUT END. "Thon hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."- John xvii. 23, 24. Mr. Editor, IT has been supposed by some, that God begins to love his people when he converts them, whereas our Lord in his address to his divine Father in the foregoing words, plainly states that his love for them. was before the foundation of the world, and what is still more wonderful, that it was equal to the love he bears to his own dear Son, so deserving of his love. It is needless to ask whether the love of God to his people is the same before their conversion as after, for there were as great, if not greater gifts of love bestowed on Him before as after. There was the gift of God himself, in the everlasting covenant; the gift of his Son to die for them when in their sins; and the gift of the Spirit to them, in order to regenerate, quicken and convert them. Surely eternal life is not a greater proof of God's love than these; and yet they are gifts before conversion. St. Paul says, "God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. So you see the love of God breaks forth towards his people, and breaks in upon them while they are yet in their sins, before they are converted, and of course before they are capable of performing good works. God speaks to his church or people by his prophet, saying, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. xxxi. 3. Here again we have clear proof that God's love to his people does not commence at the time of their conversion, and that it never had a beginning,—that it was not only of old, or a good while ago, but from all eternity. VOL. II.-No. 19. Y It is as if he had said, "I who am the great God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, have loved thee, my people, or church, not only of old, or a good while ago, but from all eternity, with the same love I now do, and with a love equal to that which I bear to my own dear Son. Thee personally, (Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.) Thee nakedly, and not for any thing done by thee. Thee separately and distinctly, and not others. Thee, a creature vile and sinful, a transgressor from the womb, and known to be so beforehand. Thee openly at the time of thy conversion, through the evidence of my Spirit. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, which does not commence in time, with faith, repentance, and true obedience, for these are all fruits and effects of my love. And having loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee out of a state of nature; out of satan's hands; "out of the pit wherein there is no water;" out of the mire and clay of nature; out of the filth and rubbish of Adam's fall, unto Christ: to his person, blood, righteousness and fulness, by faith to lay hold upon them: drawn thee unto his church, to a participation of the ordinances and privivileges of it; and at last will draw thee to eternal glory." Again there are others, who though they acknowledge that the love of God to his people was from everlasting, yet, that it must have experienced some interruption; for, say they, if there was need of a Mediator to make reconciliation, (for reconciliation supposes a former state of friendship, and a breach of it) then the love of God to his people must have had some interruption, for that it has not been invariably the same. I would answer this objection by a case between man and man. David loved his son Absalom with as strong a love as can well be imagined; but Absalom committed a great sin, for he murdered his brother Ammon, David's first born, and heir to the crown, and then fled from justice and his father's wrath. Then a mediator became necessary, and Joab became that mediator, first in a secret way by a woman of Tekoah, for he perceived that the king's heart was towards Absalom; and then he became mediator in his own person, and he so far prevailed, that the king said to him, "go and bring the young man Absalom again," 2 Sam. xiv. 21. and though it was not till after two years that David would admit his son into his presence, yet all this while the heart of David was towards his son; for though he had committed a great sin, still he loved him, and devised means that his banished one might not be expelled from him. So the love of God to his people is from everlasting to everlasting, invariably the same, and he has devised means in the covenant of his grace made with Christ, that his banished ones, his elect, put at a distance from him by their sins, should not be expelled from him. There never were any stops, or lets, or impediments to this love; not the fall of Adam, or all the sad effects of it; nor the actual sins and transgressions of his people while in a state of nature; nor all their backslidings after they are called by grace; for he says by his prophet, "I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely." Hos. xiv. 4. There is no such thing as change in God: no such thing as change from love to hatred, or from hatred to love, “He is of one mind, and none can turn him;" and he says of himself, "I am the Lord, I change not." But it was not the design of Christ's mediation to procure the love and favour of God to his elect, for his mediation was the fruit and effect of God's love to them. It was because God loved them, though he foreknew that they would fall in Adam, that he set up and sent forth his Son to be a propitiation for their sins. It was owing to the good will and free favour of God that a mediator was admitted for sinful men; and the reconciliation made by the blood, sufferings, and death of Christ, is not to the love and affection of God, from which his elect people were never separated, but to the justice of God offended by their sins. Again there are some who though they acknowledge that the love of God is from eternity, and has been without interruption, yet that he may cease to love his people, and forsake them; and then they appeal to that portion of God's word, where it is written, "if ye forsake him, he will forsake you." 2 Chron. xv. 2. But there is a sense in which God never does forsake his people. He promised Joshua, saying, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ;" and that promise appears to be made, not only to Joshua, but to every believer, for St. Paul quotes it in Heb. xiii. 6. as a general promise belonging to all the saints. There is therefore a sense in which God will never forsake his people. The Psalmist says, "thou, Lord, hast never forsaken them that seek thee;" and when in distress, and they make application to him, he will regard them; for he says, "when the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst; I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." "The Lord will not forsake the work of his hands, but will perfect that which concerneth them." He will "fulfil the pleasure of his goodness in them, and the work of faith with power upon them :" He will carry on the work with power until the day of Christ. He will not forsake his own people, and the reason is, because they are his inheritance; and as a man does not choose to forsake his own inheritance, so neither does God. The Psalmist says, "The Lord forsaketh not his saints, they are preserved for ever." Ps. xxxvii. 28. God hath said, "they shall be my people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Jer. xxxii. 38. If then God will not turn away from his people, and will not suffer them to depart from him, how can they perish? It is true, indeed, the people of God may sometimes think that he has forsaken them-they may say with the church, "the Lord hath forsaken me;" but what answer does the Lord give? "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee!" Isa. xlix. 14. God may forsake his people so far as to hide his face from them, that is, withdraw his gracious presence, and this he did to his own dear Son, which made him exclaim, " My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" and what befel the head may befal the members; and no doubt God does in this sense sometimes forsake his people; "for a small moment have I forsaken thee, says he ; but with great mercies will I gather thee;" Isa. liv. 7. And when does God thus withdraw his gracious presence from his people? when they forsake him and his laws. "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, then will I visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes; nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." Ps. lxxxix. So you see, God's forsaking his people upon their forsaking him, is consistent with the continuance of his love to them, and their continuance in his covenant. This forsaking therefore respects sensible communion with him, which he is pleased to except them from, by way of rebuke for their iniquities for their iniquities separate between them and their God, and cause him to hide his face from them. : Believe me, dear Sir, In the best of all bonds, faithfully your's, July 23, 1825. ELAH. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) COMMUNION OF SAINTS. "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus."-Gal. iii. 28. NOT only do the scriptures express the important doctrine of the perfect and inseparable union between Christ and his people, under figures the most apt and sublime; but the same method is employed to describe, as strictly dependent upon this union, the communion of saints, partially enjoyed in the present imperfect state, and fully to be realized hereafter in the perfection of glory. For as the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ: and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Interesting thought! one bond cements together all the several members of Christ; however distinguished among men by manners or customs; however separated by time or place; every regenerate member of the invisible church is allied to one glorious head, and derives all his supplies from one and the same divine source, The same boundless love, directed equally |