the Lord Jesus Christ, from the word, and by the Spirit, to call upon Him. He is familiar to our faith, and it seems to us, as we are taught by the Spirit, that we can be familiar with him, because he is our Head, our Saviour, our Father, our Shepherd, our Brother, our Husband, our Friend. We think we can make free with him, because he is a partaker of our nature; he is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. We have good reason from the scriptures of truth thus to believe; for he hath been in our world. He knows all we are the subjects of. He has been in all points tempted like unto us. He was in all things like unto us, sin only excepted. Therefore when we draw near our dissolution, we are led, as under the teachings of the blessed Spirit, to look simply to Him-to call upon Him, to trust simply in Him, to expect Him to be unto us all we then need.

We have in this saint before us, a most blessed example for this. He is going out of the world, he is going to leave his body, he is just entering on eternity; Jesus is his all, and his ali is in Jesus: he therefore commits his soul unto him; he is just going to be stoned; he knows his soul must soon leave his body; he calls on Jesus therefore-his last act is prayer. This is exercised on Jesus. He begins, and he goes on, for so the word calling implies a progression: and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God. He called upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he heard him. Believers, it would be well for us to be more acquainted with Jesus: neither death, nor the state which will follow thereon, will make any alteration in our Lord Jesus Christ, nor in any one article of the everlasting gospel. We are not going to glory without Christ; we shall need him in and to our latest moments. All we need in death is such views of him, in a way of believing and spiritual apprehension, as may carry us above ourselves, to a fixation on Him alone. I will most readily grant, none of us, at present, know what dying is; nor do we know what it is to be separated from our bodies. It may be, some of us know as much of the apprehensions of being in a dying state as we possibly can, without the act of dying. Well, if so, how were we then at such seasons sustained? Was it not from real scriptural and spiritual apprehensions that our everlasting all depended wholly and alone upon our being in Christ. Were we not then led to see if we were in Christ it must be by eternal election? That this was the fruit of divine sovereignty: that it was wholly the act of Jehovah's will towards us. Were we not from hence led to see, that Christ and salvation, the Spirit, his graces and consolation, perseverance, comfort in the very article of death, admission into heaven, eternal life and communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the state of glory, is all the fruit of the good pleasure of God's will? Then what did this produce in rest? did it not take us off all creature dependence, and lead us to rest and centre in the Lord alone! we see it exemplified here before us. This saint had no dependence on himself, although he had seen the heavens opened, and the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, yet he cannot

enter without he drops his body; so neither can we. Our Lord cannot excuse you and me from the act of dying: he can be with us, and make death very easy to us; he can fill our minds with joy unspeakable and full of glory; but the decree for your death and mine is past, and he will not reverse it. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.

(To be concluded in our next.)

A Word to the Correspondent, who sends his " GLEANINGS of a SABBATH DAY," to the Spiritual Magazine.

IN perusing August Number, I met with an abstract of a sermon, in which is a paragraph that is both mystical and exceptionable: it reads thus "Faith never looks for perfection in itself; it never expects to find any change for the better in the old nature, but rather to grow worse but it takes up its sanctity in Christ the Head, where the fulness abides, and from him diffuses itself through all his members. God looks to Christ for the sanctification of the sinner, and faith shall only look for it too; never expecting to find in itself, what is to be found in Christ." p. 76. The middle member of this paragraph is scriptural, and stands opposed to the rest "Faith takes up its sanctity in Christ the Head, where the fulness abides, and from him diffuses itself through all his members."

The most exceptionable sentence is-" Faith never expects to find any change for the better in the old nature, but rather to grow worse." By the term "old nature," I understand, human nature the Adamnature, that is, the component parts of man. Man is a compound being, consisting of body and soul: the soul and its faculties, are the principal properties of nature; and if nature do not experience a "change for the better," it follows, that the elect remain dead in sin, and the whole church must perish everlastingly; for "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and man cannot be distinguished from nature. But the scripture account is,the soul, the natural faculties are regenerated, and the body is sanctified, that is, set apart from the practice of vice to the service of God. Eph. ii. 1. Rom. vi. 12, 13.

I hope the Correspondent alluded to, will inform us (in a few words, and without introducing irrelevant matter) what, in his view, is sanctified and converted to God, and what it is, that is made habitually and practically righteous, and of consequence "changed for the better." Not grace, this sanctifies, and needs not sanctifying; not sin, this undergoes no change, except the destruction of its reigning power; therefore, if nature be not morally and spiritually changed, I must wait patiently for information on the subject.

Other parts of the paragraph cited, are ambiguous; but whether the ambiguity belong to the preacher, or to the gleaner, I pretend not

to say.

SHELAMIEL.

ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

XIII.

ON DUTY.

It

NOTWITHSTANDING man's lapsed condition, the terms of the Adamic covenant stand recorded, and are presented in their full force to all the unregenerate. The divine edict pronounced by the Lord God in the garden of Eden, so long as the wheel of time revolves, rolls its mighty thunder over the devoted head of the sinner; and though man be deaf to the sound, the sovereign speaker withholds not the fearful proclamation, nor ceases to demand obedience. could not be possible that because man lost his primitive purity, with the power to obey, God should relax his requirements: neither, because God continues to demand obedience, is it contrary to his infinite perfections to refuse to afford the means by which man might obey his will. The whole human race, in the person of their federal head, broke covenant with God; but the claims of the divine party, to that covenant, do to the present hour and will eternally remain open and unanswered, on the part of those who are and continue unregenerate.

The distinction which the Holy Ghost and his inspired servants has made, through the whole course of scripture, between the seed of Christ and the seed of satan, should ever be adopted by the advocate of gospel truth, and specially direct his view when employed in describing the privileges and duties of the believer. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend

you.

In the procurement and security of her privileges it will readily be granted, that the church is wholly dependent on divine grace and favour; but it is a point not so generally, nor so freely allowed, that to realize and participate in these privileges is the result also of sovereign displays of grace. For the ancient charge," they say, let us do evil that good may come," is to the present day levied against the pleader for sovereign acts of grace, even if he excel to a high degree in the purity of his life, conduct, and conversation.

In keeping the path of duty prescribed to the believer there is (saith David) great reward; but professors of the gospel strive to persuade men that this reward is for works done, and not of faith bestowed: thus the beautiful order of divine truth is inverted, and effects are made to have priority of the cause. In things temporal, by judicious management and persevering application, a lawful VOL. II.-No. 19.

2 A

enterprize commonly terminates with proportionate success; and thus the exertions and toil of the adventurer meet their anticipated reward. In things spiritual, the Person, and the free, full, and finished salvation of Christ, are by substitution accepted for the person and acts of the believer; and consequently the duty required of him, cannot be to secure what is already provided, (neither salvation, nor its enjoyment,) but to prove its possession, or to exemplify its effects.

Our adored Lord, when illustrating the duties of those who are disciples indeed,' by allusion to a servant's faithful observance of the commands of his superior, observes, doth he, (the master) thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? Itrow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done ALL those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. And would our Lord issue his injunction, say, we are unprofitable servants, if there were any, the least, worth or worthiness in the acts of obedience rendered? if the disciple have done only that which was his duty to do, doth our Lord and master THANK that servant? every soul instructed into a spiritual knowledge of his Lord's will, must with cheerful confidence respond in his Lord's terms, I trow not.

And

Then, with the full and scriptural understanding that the fulfilment of those things which are commanded, results only from proof of the possession of divine grace, or in illustration of its never-failing effects, it will be proper to turn to some of the manifold duties of the believer.

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, saith our beloved Lord; and his own apostle was directed to tell the church, love is the fulfilling of the law. Now the glorious truth of the perfect accomplishment of all things, contained both in the letter and in the spirit of the law, by the great law-fulfiller, need not be enlarged on; it only remains to be enquired, in what sense, then, does each individual member of the body of Christ for himself fulfil the law? The record of truth answers, by the obedience and righteousness of his Almighty Head and Surety, imputed to him, and placed to his account. And yet our Lord commands, that ye love one another ; and his apostle reiterates, love is the fulfilling of the law.

But this is one of the choice secrets of the eternal covenant, made with Christ in behalf of his church, which the wayfarying man, though a fool in his own and others esteem, shall not remain in ignorance of. When, by faith, the imputed righteousness is revealed, and the imputed obedience realized, LOVE, and joy, and peace, and every grace of the Holy Ghost, is brought out into open manifestation ;-but, of all the goodly train, LOVE predominates. Love is the fulfilling of the law. As love causally hath fulfilled every penal requirement for the believer; so love evidentially is the fulfilling thereof in the believer: but (mark

it) in no other sense whatever, than, as either the proof of grace possest, or the token of its operation. Yes, glory be unto thee, O Lord most high! though faith be weak, though joy do not abound, though hope languish, and though peace decline; yet LOVE, shed abroad in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, is ever predominant. We love him because he first loved us.

It is not requisite here to go into the proof of the means by which love holds the ascendancy; but it will be needful to shew how, as a duty required of the believer, its performance is exemplified. It is his blessedness to know, that, contrary to the state of the unregenerate, (before treated of) he is commanded to do nothing for which strength and wisdom are not furnished him. One has well expressed the idea, "the Lord's biddings are enablings.' As when in the days of his flesh the Lord commanded the dead to arise-the lame to walk-had not virtue gone out of him with the word, the effects produced would not have been witnessed by those around him; so, now, Christ's command that ye love one another, being given to his disciples, to those who are possessed of his grace,-with the word his sovereign power goes forth, and accomplishes in and for them that which they could no more exercise, without the renewals of his grace, than they could at first have originated, when dead in trespasses and sins.

The

Moreover, the love of the Lord's people to each other, being the love of the mystical family of which Christ is the elder brother; it transcends the moral impulse of the most benevolent and the most kindly human feeling. It is the substance of which natural emotions are the shadow it is a reality-human friendship is a name. exercise of the duty of love, as respects the act itself, is the spontaneous effort of the spiritual principle; it needs no inducement beyond what its own inherent qualities supply. As it is not elicited by human agency or means, so neither can it be excited by the subtlety of philosophical reasoning. It is the love of the brethren, and, therefore, as necessarily displays itself, as the relationship of its possessor exists; and its operations are universal as the brotherhood to whom it belongs.

Innumerable are the minor duties of the believer, which the New Testament abounds in the relation of; but love, as it is the mastergrace, preponderates over and governs in its requirements, all the

"This is the grace that lives and sings,
When faith and hope shall cease;

"Tis this shall strike our joyful strings
In the sweet realms of bliss."

And, finally, without this, however well to human appearance any other, or all the other duties may be performed, there can be no decisive or favourable evidence of the possession of divine grace. Covet earnestly therefore the best gifts, saith the apostle, when directing the church to a contemplation of the grace of love; and yet (he adds) shew I unto you a more excellent way.