to it, with an inspired apostle we say, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." The prospect opening before us in the gospel allures us from the things of time, and we are knitted into the frame of things bottomed in the person of the Son of God. Every child of God is a link in the chain of things connected together in the head of all, and the opening events of time are disclosing the secrets of eternity. Purposes and prayers are connected. Purpose is God's deciding what shall be, and how he will effect it. Prayer is the request of the upright man, laying hold of the word and hanging upon God by it, humbly intreating him to accomplish all his will, and complete his design of mercy in the final salvation of all his family. The influence that Christ has in heaven is employed by him to effect the end for which, he died on the cross. Numerous agents are at work, and they are all employed by him, though his hand is often overlooked by many who profess to be acting in concert with him. But his kingdom is coming among men, his interest is prevailing, the power of darkness is defeated, saints are multiplied, and the travail of his soul appears, according to the arrangement of eternal wisdom. At most, the time cannot be far distant, when the scheme of sovereignty will be completed, and the church in glory will fully possess the Father's grace in election, the Son's love in redemption, and the Holy Spirit's grace in sanctification. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) A BROTHERLY ADDRESS TO THE REGENERATED CHURCH OF GOD. Dearly beloved in the Lord, the great King Immanuel, IT is for your comfort, strength, and encouragement to know and believe, that amidst the rise and fall of nations, or the wreck of kingdoms and empires, and through all the changing scenes of this life, which ever may convulse or hurl the wicked inhabitants of this earth through time into an awful eternity-it is of vast importance for every member of Christ's mystical body to know, believe, and daily to enjoy in the life, walk, and obedience of faith, the sweet smiles and lifegiving presence of the great King Immanuel, by the witness, power, and love of the Spirit, testifying their interest in the covenant love of Aleh, the everlasting Father, their election to eternal blessedness, complete redemption, and everlasting salvation by Jeh, the Son, who is our incarnate Jehovah, the Almighty rock, fortress, and defence of his people; yes, here the writer and reader, with all Jehovah's hidden ones, loved with an everlasting love, may take refuge amidst all the storms and tempests that the Lord may for reasons unknown to us, permit Satan, the world, and the propensities of our own corrupt nature to rise up as a host against us. Blessed be God, the writer of these lines having been now in the school of Jesus more than five-and-thirty years, can testify to his honour, that in Him, by Him, through Him, and of Him, in every trial, storm, and tempest, he has found him a hiding-place, a covert, and oft a refreshing river to satiate his poor thirsty soul, a delightful shadow, a great rock in this weary land: yes, and he still finds him to be a promise-keeping God; for he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous," Ps. cxii. 4. This, under the precious unction of the loving Comforter Ruach, the Holy Ghost, it is, that we hold on our way, in hope of enjoying the eternal fruition of that soul-cheering and mind-ennobling promise, Dan. vii. 18. "But the saints of the Most High, (or high ones, that is, things or places, all new covenant blessings, as I take it to mean) shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." Such is the unequalled love of God our Saviour, to all those who have fled to him for refuge. Oh believer, take comfort; for however tempted, distressed, oppressed, and afflicted thou mayest be through the whole of thy earthly pilgrimage, still cheer up, and look to your Almighty Rock, your dwelling-place, and your eternal portion. In our precious Jesus are depths of bliss treasured up by our Father for us, which no human line can fathom, no heart conceive, nor all the angels of God explore; as one beautifully observes, what an amazing assemblage of wisdom, glory, love, peace, and grace is that which meet in splendid profusion in him! All the bright regions are gilded with his smiles; he is the grand centre of love, light, peace, comfort, rest, and everlasting happiness. Cherubims, and seraphims, and angelic legions have beheld his perfections, and veiled their faces in silent adoration, but cannot form adequate conceptions of him or of his incalculable worth to his chosen blood-redeemed Israel. The grand point, the important question with every poor, sin-sick, sinburthened soul is, am I, sinful sorrowful I, one of that happy number? Such poor souls are daily breathing out their heaven-born desires, like the man of Uz, when in the furnace, and under the hidings of his Father's face, who exclaimed, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, (a covenant God and propitious Father in Christ Jesus), that I might come even to his seat," (Job xxiii. 3.) a throne of grace and mercy in a blessed Surety, here to receive and enjoy the sweet, heart-melting manifestations of his electing, pardoning love. Well, dear reader, again thy kind Redeemer, bids thee "be of good cheer," John xvi. 33. for if this is thy case thou art a blessed character; the King of glory hath pronounced thee so, (Matt. v. verse 3 to 12). Eternally beloved of Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, God saith of all such praying, longing souls, that by them "the kingdom of heaven suffereth (holy) violence, and the violent take it by force." This is the life, energy, power, spirit, VOL. VIII.-No. 94.] 2 N and grace of Christ in us, as the great and blessed apostle Paul writes, Rom. viii. 26. helping our infirmities, to pray with groanings that cannot be uttered, or reduced to words; and which is a common feeling with the Lord's children: yet our ever-blessed God understands a sigh or a groan, and saith "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now (now in the time of their affliction and sore trouble) will I arise (for their hope, help, and defence) saith the Lord, (Jehovah) and I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him;" that is, any soul that calls on, trusts in, and cleaves to the King Immanuel, as the Lord his righteousness and strength. Thus shall the saints of the Most High take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom of gospel grace here, and the kingdom of eternal glory hereafter, even for ever and ever; then all that now causes the saints of God to sigh and mourn, will be done away for ever, even for ever and ever. Amen. Birmingham, Sept. 1831. W. W. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) REMARKS ON J. M. D.'s THOUGHTS ON LOVE. J. M. D. states, " Mercy is not an attribute essential to the nature of our God, but one which he is pleased to display; thereby giving a large illustration of his sovereignty." Now, I conceive it will be readily admitted, that if mercy be an attribute of Jehovah, it is either his by eternal and absolute necessity, or by sovereign choice. If the former, there is nevertheless an opportunity of largely illustrating his sovereignty in a determination to extend that mercy to lost and ruined sinners, and in the sovereign election of the persons to whom it shall be extended. If the latter, (though such an expression be a perfect solecism), I cannot help saying, there appears to me no sovereignty in it at all! For determination is an act of the will; an act of the will presupposes a motive in the understanding, or disposition, influencing and determining its choice. But, the determination of God to be a merciful God, is a merciful determination, and the motive influencing that determination must be a merciful motive. Yet such a motive or disposition must be elicited by the will; otherwise, how could it be sovereignly possessed? and that election must be governed by some motive; otherwise, how could its propriety be ascertained? and so on, ad infinitum, which makes me imagine, that, in seeking out the origin of mercy elsewhere than in the nature and being of God, we are seeking out the cause of a first cause, and mistaking that for the consequence of the divine will, which is, in fact, the predisposing cause of its elections. Again. If mercy be an attribute of the Godhead, it is either eternal, or it is not. If it be eternal, its possession cannot be a matter either of choice or decree; for though all the decrees of God are eternal, yet the existence of the things decreed cannot be eternal, otherwise, where is the use of decreeing their existence ? But if it be not eternal, it is either a perfection or an imperfection; if the former, God has acquired an excellency he never before possessed, and which were he again deprived, surely it might be called a change for the worse. Besides, if God be by necessity of nature possessed of all possible perfection, and the attribute of mercy be a perfection, he is by necessity of nature possessed of his attribute of mercy; or in plain words, mercy is an attribute essential to the nature of our God." Again. If mercy be an attribute of Jehovah, it is either infinite, or finite. If it be an infinite attribute or property, it must be inseparately connected with the infinite essence of which it is a property; neither can it more than any other property exist apart from the substance or essence to which it belongs; but if it be inseparably connected with the essence of God, it is only another way of saying that it is essential to his nature. And though it should be objected, that love is so glorious an attribute of Jehovah's nature, that it is of necessity displayed in every labour of his hands, whereas with his mercy it is not so-I would ask, whether the same might not be said of his justice, and his grace? for, in the creation of the angelic world though his love was abundantly evidenced in the glory and happiness of those holy and intelligent beings, yet neither his justice nor his grace were largely illustrated till the fall of those who " kept not their first estate;" but after that, the sovereign confirmation of the elect angels in their standing, (which was then at last made manifest) and the outpouring of the vengeance on those who rebelled against his authority, evidenced these attributes in a most glorious degree.. The fact, then, when admitted, that mercy is not of necessity manifested in all the works of God will not prove that it is not an attribute essential to his nature, seeing the like may be said of others which every one knows are so necessary that he could not be God without them. Neither can it be advanced as an objection of any force, that God cannot be by nature a merciful God, because he is only a God of mercy in Christ Jesus; for the election of a medium in and through which alone to display his attribute of mercy, will never prove that he is not essentially possessed of such an attribute, but rather the contrary; seeing his eternal determination to shew mercy, and his eternal election of the persons to whom it shall be shewn, would lead us to imagine, that he must have been from all eternity, and by necessity of nature, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth." 66 C. T. R. REVIEW. Christ Alone Exalted: in the Perfection and Encouragement of the Saints, notwithstanding Sins and Trials; being the Complete Works of Tobias Crisp, D. D. in Fifty-two Sermons, with Notes and Life. By John Gill, D. D. A New Edition, to be completed in Twelve Parts. Part I, Evo. pp. 64. London, J. Bennett. We regard this new edition of the writings of Crisp with much pleasure, imasmuch as it makes attainable what has been for some time past a very scarce book; and also, because it is published in a form convenient even for the poor of the flock to purchase it. Crisp, the champion of a free grace gospel-almost one of the first for whom the term antinomian was invented, as an epithet of reproach, flamed amid the galaxy of worthies, which in his day studded the hemisphere of England's Church, with a brightness as superior to them all as was theirs compared to the dimness and the dreariness which surrounds it in ours. Alas! that he should have been called hence ere he had emitted more rays for the consolation of posterity, equally invigorating and encouraging with his Christ Alone Exalted.' They are indeed precious, for they borrow all their radiance from the Sun of Righteousness, and they reflect it back again with filial gratitude to the same source. Here, doubting and afflicted saint, in the dark hour of temptation, when the enemy would persuade you to write bitter things against yourself, here you will find gospel comfort just adapted for your case but man of carnal mind, get thee hence; Crisp did not write for you; your polluted mind may not taste of the sweet rills of consolation there, for they will be to thee who art yet in the bonds of iniquity, more bitter than the gall of bitterness. But we must close. We are always fluent when we speak in Crisp's praise. Well indeed might the excellent Thomas Cole say, "Had I but £100 in the world, and Dr. Crisp's Sermons could not be had without giving £50 for them, I would give it rather than be without them." A Second Letter to his Grace the Archbishop of York, on the present Corrupt State of the Church of England. By R. M. Beverley, Esq. Beverley, Johnson; London, Hamilton, &c. MR. BEVERLEY continues his warfare, we hope we may say, against the corruptions of England's national church, not against the establishment itself. Far be it from us to smile upon one who would argue, that because time hath encrusted many deformities thereon, therefore should the building be destroyed: no, no, no; improve it, and beautify it, and make it honourable; banish from her ministrations the wolves in sheep's clothing, who assume their holy office only to enrich themselves with her wealth, and seek in the Lord's strength every means to make it more conducive to the Lord's glory but take not away from England her best bulwark! undermine |
