turn away from them; and when he leaves, he takes his train with him-conscience is silenced and seared-the silver piece of pardon is lost a sense of adoption not felt-the door of faith and access to God, shut-visits from Jesus withheld-communication with heaven cut off-and an absent God mourned. "O turn unto me," is a petition suited to such a case; and proves, and is an evidence, that the God of grace and compassion has set the root of the matter in that soul that thus prays. It 2. "And have mercy upon me." Here is another longing desire expressed after that which only can relieve. A variety of miseries are strewn in the path of those who are walking in the ways of wisdomand such need mercy to be manifested to them in various ways. is the lot of many that love the Lord, to be severely tried with poverty; losses bend them down, afflictions crush them-the friend, the hand that has often helped them, has become a dry brook. But providential mercy forsakes them not, although it comes late, and often at the eleventh hour; and the Lord that loves them, proves that he has not forgotten them, and will not forsake them. But spiritual mercies are sought after with much avidity, when misery is felt arising from the guilt of sin-nothing can satisfy now, but a Saviour, with all his soul-saving merits; and we see in Jesus, Jehovah's master-piece of mercy-" through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us." And all the mercy that God will ever give is given in and with Christ. In him alone we have peace, pardon, salvation, justification, and life everlasting; and all needful supplies, while our tents are pitched in the valley of this world. 3. "Give thy strength unto thy servant." Here he pleads a distinct connection, "thy servant;" willing to work for a master so good, but cannot at present claim the relation of son. But it is an high honour to be employed for God-a star held in his hand, to reflect a little light upon the path of the King's pilgrims-a trumpeter to alarm those who are asleep in sin-and to arouse saints who are in a lethargy— a scribe to explain heavenly mysteries-to draw forth the desires of those who are looking to Jesus for mercy and redemption—to set forth the only remedy provided for the disease of sin, even the precious blood and righteousness of Zion's Lord and Head; and to describe the passing and perplexing thoughts of new-born babes in grace, and show how they coincide with the workings of the Holy Spirit, in the breasts of all the heirs of heaven. The Lord's ministers are like postmen that carry letters, containing a variety of contents; these heavenly messengers often are the means of bringing the glad information of there being unsearchable riches in Christ, for poor and needy bankrupts-of shewing the suitability of the fulness of Jesus to the empty vessels of mercy, and strength they want for their work-war is proclaimed against them, by a scoffing world, by base backsliding professors, and by the real saints in a state of spiritual declension. There are but few in whom the Holy Ghost has breathed, but are the subjects of sad eruptions of sin. Jonah, a prophet of God, sent with a message of mercy to Nineveh, gave vent to that within, that proved him to be a rebellious son; and Peter, an apostle, made it manifest (by his bold and flat denial of him, who came into the world to save him,) that he needed keeping by the power of God. A fourth petition is put up in this inimitable text-" and save the son of thine handmaid." Salvation is a subject sweet to those who feel their lost estate. The wonderful contrivement of salvation, in the vast and eternal inind of God, is a delightful theme to meditate upon, as an ancient father expresses it: O unsearchable work, or curious operation. O blessed benevolence, exceeding all expectation, that the sins of many should be charged to a righteous person; all the filth of the church transferred to Christ, and his spotless purity transferred to his chosen.' This, reader, is the substance of salvation; and for the enjoyment and manifestation of salvation, the Holy Spirit alone can impart; and this he does to the hungry and thirsty pilgrim. This is a blessing often sought after by all the heirs of salvation. Out of the endless ocean of everlasting love an Almighty Saviour rises, and shines upon the dark benighted sons of Adam; and those in whom a sense of sin is felt, the wrath of God anticipated, the curse of a righteous broken law pressing down; such will seek for salvation, breathe after those blessings a Saviour bought with blood invaluably precious, and continually pray for the pardon of those sins that Jesus has atoned for, and put away by his sacrifice and death. It is the divine Comforter alone, who infuses spiritual breath into the soul, and every holy blessing revealed in the gospel are longed for. When the church is in difficulties, salvation is needed; when sinners are awakened and cry for mercy, this gift of God is sought for; and the redeemed of the Lord, often want to be saved from the power of sin, from a complaining spirit, from the influence of unbelief, from the spiteful suggestions of Satan, from sinking under the pressure of poverty, from fainting when their heavenly Father frowns upon them, from shrinking when ghastly death appears in view, and from a cold careless frame of heart. Hampstead. JAMES. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) THOUGHTS ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, CONSIDERED When the Lord Jesus is proposed to us in the character of the second man, we are to view him as the new head and stock of the family of God. From him was to spring their new or spiritual being; and by him they were to be spiritually sustained, reared, and trained up, and governed. Adam the first, stood for a season as a figure of 66 him that was to come;" a model, in respect to some great outlines, of his predicted successor and supplanter-the very Jacob, who was to obtain the birth-right and the blessing for himself and all his progeny, although posterior, in relation to his actual assumption of manhood, to him, of whose one blood all nations were to be made. Because all the branches of the heavenly family were all destined to derive their natural being from the earthy man, prior to their reception of the new creation from the heavenly man. They were to be of the Esau, or mothworm, first, who is said to have been red, that is to say, as it stands in the Hebrew, Adam; and whose descendants were therefore called Edom. I say, they were to be in a mere mothworm state first, and then afterwards to become, as Jacob, perfect; for that is the meaning of the word translated plain. Thus the first man was to be the forerunner, to open the way for the introduction of the second, who had been everlastingly constituted the man of God's right hand, whom he had made strong for himself. According to a similar arrangement, John the Baptist came first to prepare for the approach of his Master, as well as to announce it; but saying, "He that cometh after me, is preferred before me, for he was before me." We have the same fact declared by the Lord himself, in the instance of another type of his, as the Father of his people; your father, Abraham," said Christ to the Jews, "earnestly desired to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." Then said the Jews, thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? "Verily, verily, I say unto you," answered Christ, "Before Abraham was, I Nor may we omit that magnificent description of this arm of the Lord, who succeeded to the arm of flesh which was smitten and had withered that description of him by Paul in his Colossian Epistle. "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born, or heir and Lord of the whole creation; for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." am. 66 But he is the last Adam. Of him we may well say, "Behold the man!" He is, and there is none else; there is none besides him. Before the day was, he had his goings forth; and as before him there was no God-Saviour, no Jehovah-Jesus, formed or constituted, so neither shall there be any after him. He is the one that was to come, and we are not now to look for another. He is the father of the everlasting age, the author and perfecter of the eternal dispensation. He is Zion's maker and builder; and "her Maker is her husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name," a husband that never dies; and death hath no more dominion over him. The bridegroom is himself come, and has superseded all his proxies and representatives, that we might now instantly be married to him in his own person. And being joined to the Lord, we are said to be "one Spirit" with him, incorporated into him, and enlivened and animated by his vital energy. And we are no less " of his flesh and of his bones ;" and no wonder then, that we want to be nourished by his blood. “They two,” said the original Eden law of marriage," shall be one flesh.” “This is a great mystery," says Paul. But he proceeds to shed no little light on it by adding, "but I speak concerning Christ and the church. He took the substance of manhood, that he might legally, as our Goel or near kinsman, become our Redeemer ; not only to redeem the lost inheritance, and avenge our wrongs on the great adversary, but to purchase the church also for a wife. "Christ loved the church," proposed it to himself as an object for his heart's affections, before he redeemed it; and then, because he loved the church, he therefore" gave himself for it." He is the husband that sanctifieth the wife; else the children would be legally unclean, whereas, now they are holy to God. For the children are born into the state of the mother. Hagar, herself a bondslave, brings forth her children unto the same bondage; for such was the custom among the patriarchs, as well as the law afterwards under Moses. It booted nothing, that Abraham was Ishmael's father, seeing his mother was not Abraham's spouse, but his slave. But Isaac, he was free-born, as Paul said that he was, because Sarah his mother was not his father's slave, but a free woman, and his lawful spouse. And this is the reason why the apostle is so urgent in enforcing the true nature of the new covenant, in his Epistle to the Galatians, because it is the law of liberty, or that which releases the church, and in virtue of which she is the Jerusalem which is free, and is, as such, the mother of us all. Nor is she only free, but the Jerusalem that is above; she is the virgin Miriam, or Mary, which means exalted. And may we not in very deed say, that this virgin daughter of Zion becomes the fruitful mother of unnumbered myriads purely by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost? Well, then, if we be children of the free woman, we are so also of the exalted, and do participate at once in her freedom and in her exaltation. But if we be exalted, let us be glad to exalt his name together, who has raised us up out of the dust, and lifted us from the dunghill, and set us among princes, and made us inherit the throne of glory. "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord," sung Hannah; 66 my horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation." And Miriam the prophetess, she took a timbrel in her hand, and said, “ Sing ye to the Lord; for he hath triumphed gloriously." And Mary said, " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." The above is taken from the Rev. Mr. CARNE's Sermons on "The Two Covenants, or Law and Gospel," page 250, 253; which we have taken this opportunity of recommending to the notice of our readers, as evincing the writer to possess much originality of thought, and a deep acquaintance with the holy scriptures, in their spiritual import.-EDITORS. ORIGINAL ESSAYS. LXXI. THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER DELINEATED UPON EVANGELICAL PRINCIPLES. TWELFTH ESSAY. It is well for us when we keep in sight the end of our being, and hold every thing earthly with a loose hand, for we know not how soon we may be summoned by God to surrender our present possessions. Our best inheritance lies beyond the boundary of time, and the duration of it is like to the author of it, endless. We have but a partial knowledge of what is intended by immortality of life. To be appointed by God to live for ever in the heavenly world, is an astonishing display of his grace; his grace alone can sanctify us to think upon, so as to be profited by our contemplation of it. Here is no room for sallies of wit, and the lofty flight of a disordered imagination. Reverence becomes the christian at all times, but there are periods in his life when his employments are more than ordinarily solemn. Man is by the will of God constituted an immortal creature, and he must for ever exist. The character that we have attempted to delineate, is formed by God; it is preserved by him, and those who are distinguished to wear it, will for ever reflect his glory in the world of eternal perfection. Our present and everlasting well-being is founded upon a distinct principle than that was upon which the happiness of Adam was at first established. Adam was to enjoy the purity and perfection of that state of being on the ground of his own perfect and perpetual obedience, but the inheritance of the church is settled upon her by the will of God in the person of Christ Jesus, her Head and Saviour; and it is now possessed by faith. There is no ground for human boasting on this foundation. Jehovah has redeemed to himself, by the work of Christ, the election of grace from the lapse of nature, to inherit the heavenly sanctity, to the honour of grace and justice. Who but God could devise such a scheme of things? and no one but God incarnate, has affected the redemption of the church. In this world we often taste the love of God through the meritorious work of the cross, and we are favoured with foretastes of the glory which is in reversion for us above the skies. There is no way of entering upon the inheritance provided for us, but as we are comprehended in the person of the Lord, in whom we are sovereignly constituted heirs of it, and by whom we are justly ransomed to possess it. Human nature can never elevate herself to apprehend this fact; but there is in her a passive capacity to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and to be enlightened to discern the nature |