(For the Spiritual Magazine.).

ON THE NATURE OF REGENERATION.

It lies in a change of the whole man. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; whatever sin has defaced in man, grace restores. The salve goes full as far every way as the sore. Is the understanding darkness? God who caused the light to shine out of darkness, shines into the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Is the will stubborn and averse, even to enmity itself against the law of God? thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, Ps. cx. 3. The cords of love are as sweet, as they are strong. Are the affections disorderly, impure, sensual, devilish? the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, Eph. v. 9. A new heart and a new disposition, always go together. A new spirit will I put within you. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Grace also sanctifies the memory, and purges the conscience, making even the members of our bodies, those servants of sin, instruments of righteousness unto holiness. Rom. vi. 13. When God renews the man, he, as it were, new-makes him. Behold I create all things new. Rev. xxi. 5. Spirit, soul, and body partake of the change. He is born again; raised from the dead; metamorphosed, as the word signifies, Rom. xii. 2. or, as we render it, transformed by the renewing of the mind. Though the same faculties of understanding, willing, judging, &c. continue, there are new qualities put into them, they are put into another mould, put into a new frame, whereby they have sustained so great a change as justly denominates the man on whom this change passes, a new creature. Even as our bodies will be raised the same bodies they were sown, bone will come to its bone, dust will find its dust, yet the qualities will be so altered, as the bodies shall be no more earthly, corruptible, or mortal bodies, but be raised spiritual, immortal, and such as shall no more return to corruption. 1 Cor. xv. 44. This new creature lies in a change of the whole man.

2. It is a change which is inward in the heart: That which is born, of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit, John iii. 6. It lies in the inward disposition of the mind; not merely in the outward act of the life. Hence it is called, The hidden man of the heart, 1 Peter iii. 4. and the inward man, 2 Cor. iv. 16. And God is said in creating it, to take away the stone out of our flesh, and to give an heart of Hesh, i. e. a tender, sensible, melting, obedient, heart; apt to receive whatever impressions God is pleased to make upon it, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. It is a new nature, not a new name; a new principle, not a new notion. Our Lord compares it to a well of water in the soul, which springeth up unto everlasting life, John iv. 14. They sadly mistake it, who suppose that it consists in any thing external. Here lies our great business in looking inward. Create (says David) in me a clean heart, O God! Ps. li. 10. Clean hands, or mere outward reformations, avail nothing without this. The new creature is a change that is inward in the heart.

3. It is a change which is after the image of God. In this, man

was created at first, and after it he is renewed. Eph. iv. 24. That ye put on the new man, which after (or according to) God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. The new creature is a partaker of the divine nature. 2 Pet. i. 4. The beauty of the Lord our God is upon it, himself being the glorious pattern, according to which the draught is taken, and the gracious principle of sanctification in the heart is delineated. Hence Christ is said to be formed in the soul, Gal. iv. 19. because every renewed man bears a similitude and resemblance of his person; being righteous, as he is righteous, and pure, as he is pure, 1 John iii. 3-7. The same mind, the same disposition and spirit, which was in Christ, is in him. Phil. ii. 5. Wherever there is really the Spirit of God, there must be the life of God. The new creature is acted by the same principle, and with the same views God himself is; because it is shaped after his image. In regeneration, God does not only shine unto the soul, but he shines into it; communicating himself not merely by way of outward discovery, as the sun communicates light to the world, but by way of impression. Holiness unto the Lord is written within. This makes a man not only differ from others in the world, but from himself: though he has sin in him, he has also Christ in him; a new, as well as an old man, according to which all his thoughts, words, designs, actions are framed; notwithstanding he may sometimes miss his aim, and see very little of the divine likeness, either in himself or them. But some stamp of the form into which he is delivered he will bear, though it be hard at times to make it out. The change in the heart of a man, is after the image of God.

4. It is a change which is fundamental to all spiritual actions. Hence it is compared to seed, which being cast into the heart, is productive of life and motion in the whole course of outward obedience. This seed remaineth in him. 1 John iii. 9. It is compared to a root, from whence all the fruits of righteousness spring. Thus of the stony ground hearer it is said, that he had no root in himself, and therefore endured but a while. Finally, it is compared to a well of water, which springeth up unto everlasting life. It is ever sending forth fresh streams, and springing up towards God, from whom it derived its being, and from whom is its continuance and supply. All these expressions suppose the new creature to consist in a vital principle implanted in the soul, from whence all living actions flow, such as faith, repentance, and all the graces of the Spirit.

Hampton Wick, Dec. 21, 1826.

JOHN.

A PRAYER FOR THE DIVINE GUIDANCE.
Dear Lord, amid the darksome night,
Be thou our guard and guide;
Conduct us to the realms of light,
Whatever may betide.

Lord, put us right when we are wrong,

We are poor wand'rers on the earth,
Are apt to go astray;
And often find the greatest dearth,
When out of the right way.

For we are prone to err;
And grant that we may see ere long,

The "bright and morning star."
Ne'er leave us to ourselves we pray,
But thy bright shine afford;
And we'll march on to endless day,
To dwell with Christ our Lord.

DEATH OF THE REV. ROBERT HAWKER, D. D.

Vicar of Charles, Plymouth.

WE have to record the painful intelligence of the decease of this venerable and most excellent divine, who entered his eternal rest on Friday, April 6th, 1827, between the hours of six and seven in the evening, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Dr. Hawker was a clear expounder of the doctrines of the gospel, and a consistent follower of its precepts: it has been well said of him, as of the patriarchs of old, "that he walked before the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and his whole life was devoted to the practice of every christian virtue!"

The numerous charitable institutions, of which he was the founder and patron, testify for him before the world; and his voluminous writings, abundantly honoured as they are with the divine blessing, will perpetuate his name in the church. Both the church and the world have sustained an irretrievable loss; while the glorified saint has gained the inheritance after which he long aspired, and which is ensured to all them that love the Lord's appearing!

We subjoin a copy of Dr. Hawker's last letter, written to his Curate, just before his departure for Totnes, on the final visit to his daughter; the original was read in the parish church of Charles, on Lord's day, April 1st.

Letter from the late Rev. DR. HAWKER, Vicar of Charles, Plymouth, to his Curate, the Rev. SEPTIMUS COURTENEY. Plymouth, Thursday Morning, March 29, 1827.

Dear Sir and Brother in the Lord,

I greet you in Him, in whom we have one-ness and access by faith, and are one with to all eternity!

I request you to be the medium of conveying to that part of the Lord's spiritual church in our most glorious Lord, who meet in christian fellowship and communion in Charles, my warmest, best, largest, and never-ceasing regard.

Tell them on my departure that I love them in the Lord; and that my earliest and latest prayers are, and will be, for their spiritual knowledge of and communion with the Holy and Almighty Recorders, who bear witness in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; until faith is swallowed up in open vision; and, until we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man,-to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

And say for me this further: that while I bear them in my arms before the throne, in daily humblings of soul for their spiritual life; they will not fail to remember me, when going in before the King!

For yourself, dear Sir, and your ministry, I have often, and shall continually, leave prayers at the mercy seat, that great blessings may go before and follow your labours of love.

What the event of my departure will be, is with HIM who cannot err; and with whom I cheerfully leave it.

And so commending and committing you to the Lord, I remain in the dust before God, in the consciousness of my nothingness, and the Lord's all-sufficiency,

Your's in the Lord,

ROBERT HAWKER.

[A Memoir of DR. HAWKER will be given in our next Number.]

POETRY.

LINES OCCASIONED BY THE DEPARTURE OF THAT EMINENT SERVANT OF GOD, THE REV. R. HAWKER, D.D.

HARK! O my soul! the solemn voice of death

Is heard in Zion; calling home to bliss

A faithful steward, deeply taught, and bold
In dealing out the mysteries of God.
Mighty in scripture, valiant for the truth,
Contending earnestly for ancient faith,
He stood unmov'd by flattery or by frown,
A long and glorious day!

In labours more abundant-honor'd more
Than most who occupy the gospel field,

He fed the church of God with wholesome food,
And gathered in the lost and straying sheep,
From the wide wilderness to Zion's fold.
His Lord employ'd his tongue and pen, to tell
The cov'nant love of Israel's triune God
To Israel's fallen race-exalting Christ,
And preaching full salvation in his name.
His work is done!-And more than realiz'd
Are all his hopes in his adored Lord.
For him to live was Christ, to die was gain :
A bright and shining light while here below,
And now, a brilliant star in Jesu's crown,
Refulgent in the firmament of bliss.

Bereav'd indeed is Zion-mourn she must,-
As when Elijah cast his mantle down,
Elisha cried, "Alas, my Father!" Israel's loss
Excites alarm throughout her chariot train.
Where is there an Elisha now, to take
The mantle, and the spirit HAWKER wore?
Ambassadors call'd home presages war:
God hath a controversy with our land!
His honour is insulted-truth despis❜d-
And traitorous formalists infest his courts.
"Shall I not visit, saith the Lord, for this?
"Shall I not be aveng'd on stubborn foes?

My fan is in my hand; I'll purge my floor,
"And separate the precious from the vile!"
Precursor of that trying day, pale death
Calls home the watchmen-takes away
The righteous from the evil yet to come.

Such is the view I take of HAWKER'S death,
And such my thoughts of Zion's present state.
Oh! may her God appear, and plead her cause-
Unfurl her tarnish'd banners-build her walls-
And set up faithful watchmen, to proclaim
The everlasting honours of her KING.

J. IRONS.

LINES IN MEMORY OF THE REV. DR. HAWKER.

SAY whence that darkness in yon western sky?
Why stand the heavens* in mourning? speak; Ah why? \

* A scripture metaphor, descriptive of the spiritual church.

What star has sunk to rest? what meteor bright,
Its lustre spent, no more emits its light?
Ah me! a mournful sound salutes my ears,
Wakes Judah's plaintive harp-strings, as it bears
Tidings funereal of the sainted rest

Of JOHN's successor to the Saviour's breast.

A name once dear to thousands who, like him,
Their race have closed; in memory dear to them
Who living mourn his loss; to unborn thousands dear,
That ransom'd from the Adam-fall shall hear
His voice, who dead yet speaketh-HAWKER 'tis,
Whose tongue and fruitful pen lie motionless.

Christ's glory all his passions lighted up,
Dwelt on his heart, and straight employ'd his lip.
Salvation cent'ring in him, issuing forth

In streams o'er Judah's land from south to north!
In Him the church secured-In Him, I say,'
When fall'n in Adam, and in sin she lay.
All-all of Christ, from first to last his theme

The torch of truth, bright with celestial flame.

Shall works bear witness of him? let them speak :

Rise up ye poor, oppressed, hungry, weak.

Behold the eyes of all with tears o'erflow,

And seem t'invite him back to earth! Yet, no!
His race was fully run, his summer past,
His master's work accomplish'd, and the last
Great end of all existence-God's decree,
Called up his soul-quit of mortality.

G**

STANZAS, ON THE DEATH OF DR. HAWKER, WHO DIED APRIL, 1827.

RISE Muse! and view yon lifeless lump of earth;
Then tune thy voice to mourn departed worth,
In plaintive chords, that best accord with grief:
With Israel mourn, for Israel's lost a chief.

He who so dauntless preach'd Jehovah's word,
And wielded skilfully the Spirit's sword,
His work well done, resigns his vital breath,—
Lies down serenely in the arms of death.

He lives to Memory! she hears his voice
Defend God's sov'reign and eternal choice;
Hears him describe the blessings of his love,
And all the doctrines of the gospel prove.

Mem'ry recalls this champion for the Lord,
Feebly attempts his virtues to record;

And mourns, and tho' she mourns that HAWKER dies,
Still sees his image through her weeping eyes.

Oh! what has Zion lost? a friend, whose heart,
Was never known from duty's post to start :
When foes engaged, swift to the contest flew,
Opposed false doctrines, but upheld the true.