THE

Spiritual Magazine;

OR,

SAINTS' TREASURY.

"There are Three that bear record in heaven; the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."

Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

MAY, 1832.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

1 John v. 7.

Jude 3.

ZION'S BLESSEDNESS CONNECTED IN MOVING ON IN CONCERT WITH THE WILL OF HER LORD.

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life. and may enter in through the gates into the city."-Rev. xxii. 14.

THE blessedness of the church of God in its extent and fulness is indescribable. The line of its demarkation is far beyond a creature's grasp : the utmost stretch of the most felicitous imagination dies away in its inconceivable greatness. All we can do is, to stand on the verge of the abyss, and exclaim, O the depths of the love and the grace, the bliss and the blessedness of which we are heirs! To be blessed of the infinite God, is to be blessed for ever: time can never detail the favour, nor eternity give full expression to it. The lapse of the church in time, with all the direful consequences of the ruinous fall, could not dam up its irresistible flowings; yea, the very breach made, is overruled as an occasion for its bursting forth to enrich all its destined receivers in these low lands of misery and wretchedness.

The blessedness of the church of God springs from that great ocean of eternal wonders, the everlasting love of his heart! His determination to bless in an outlet of immeasurable goodness, was the one eternal thought of our God. The felicity of countless millions in the unfoldings of his own character, and the communications of his infinite blessedness, was the munificent purpose of his infinite mind. The people loved lay folded in his bosom from everlasting: their fruition filled his decretive mind in all the purposes of his sovereign will their eternal blessedness secured in a union relation to VOL. VIII.—No. 97.] 2 Y

his bosom Son in whom they are chosen, and by joint heirship enriched for ever, given to Christ in conjugal relation, and married to him for ever. This was Jehovah's manner of blessing his church in a wholesale way; for that interest involves our felicity for ever. All spiritual blessings were given us in Christ; all the fulness of God, the treasures of everlasting love, all that his heart could think of, his power produce, or his goodness bestow. He blessed us in all the great acts of his will, in everlasting settlements of grace, in inexpressible intentions of favour, in the constitution of the God-Man person of our celestial Husband, in the exaltation of his immutable person as the glorious head of the church, the Lord of all worlds, the Caretaker of Zion, and the terminating end of all his designs. Blessed in a covenant ordered in all things and sure, in which everlasting provision was made for all the underfall movements of Zion. Blessed in the openings of the loving heart of God the Father, in the stupendous undertakings of our elder Brother, and the official engagements of the Lord the Comforter, in wrapping up the whole church in the perfection of that immutable contract, wherein the honours of the eternal Three are involved on oath, and everlastingly pledged to bring up the whole family loved, from the ruin and degradation of sin and transgression, to the blessedness they were from everlasting predestined to inherit. Blessed with Christ for their everlasting portion, who is made theirs in one eternal gift, in all the greatness of his person, in all the dignity of his character, in all his official greatness, in all his fulness of glory, to which he was an ciently exalted; in all the wealth of his substitution, in all the love of his heart, in all the immensity of his ability, in all the glory of his righteousness, in all the perfection of his sacrifice, the mediatorial fulness of his accomplishments, and the everlasting triumphs of his throne. Being thus blessed before time, and blessed in time, the Holy Ghost blesses us by shewing us our blessedness, and enriching us with the blessing from the fulness of our blessed Lord. Thus we are blessed independent of a thought or word; yea, before we spiritually breathed in the new creation of our God, he blessed us sovereignly, freely, abundantly, unconditionally, and everlastingly. It was beneath the divine throne to bless for any consideration out of himself. His own love was the moving impulse of his going forth to bless his people.

The keepers of the commandments are the illuminated spiritual people of our God, honoured in infinite condescension by the indwelling Majesty of the Holy Ghost, and blessed to walk under his sanctifying influence and gracious operation. They are drawn out in filial fear under the attractions of everlasting love, and the noble incitements of the cross. They are formed to shew forth his praise; all the powers of the man are renovated; the current of his thought turned into a new channel; he now climbs instead of descends; breathes in a new atmosphere; bends his course towards the summit of bliss; and glorifies God in body, soul, and spirit; so that as sin hath abounded, in all his thoughts, pursuits, and ends, grace doth

much more abound in bringing these into captivity, and leading him forth under the consecrating influence of divine indwelling to the praise of his glory. The soul blessed with a sense of pardoning love reads out his remission in the cancelling blood of the cross; is honoured to banquet on the endless provisions of mercy; rejoices in the harmony of divine perfection, opened in the bleeding mirror of Calvary; beholds the grace of the Three flowing out in streams of everlasting graciousness; the love of heaven embracing his person in the Son of the Father's bosom; and the condescension of Jesus in stooping to rescue him from the jaws of eternal misery; has a realizing apprehension of his justifying righteousness imputed, with all the glory of a standing in union relation to his person;-is constrained-is dignified in the discoveries to walk out the grace of Jesus. Affliction is ever on the water to serve, and embraces every opportunity of manifesting itself to his praise. The people honoured to walk with God, to hold communion with him, to live upon the realities of the gospel, will live down the world, and in simplicity and sincerity stand aloof from the vileness and follies of it. The soul blessed to live near to God, is desirous to walk as in his presence; is elevated above simply going in and out before men, and honouring God in Zion. He is panting after familiarity with his God, and aspiring after enlarged communion and fellowship with Him, that he may walk in conscious nearness, and catch the rays of his Father's countenance, knowing in all his descents to commune with men there will be a reflection of the glory. It is the consecrating visits of Jesus embalming the mind, and making tender the conscience, that devotes all the powers of the man to his service. Every sacred opening of truth in the unction and energy of the Holy Ghost, has a sanctifying tendency on the mind, and influences the whole man in his deportment in the world. Every inlet to communion makes insipid the world's conversation, and distances the Lord from the evils of it. He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure.

Every banqueting on divine love; every blissful apprehension of the glory, excellency, and beauty of Immanuel; every fresh discovery of the intrinsic value and atoning efficacy of his blood, with the consummate glory of his righteousness, is a renewed stimulation to walk worthy of the high vocation wherewith we are called, and manifests in the conversation being becoming the gospel. The glorious riches of free and sovereign grace, independent of creature doings, triumphing over the guilt of the vilest, may be called dangerous, but they are only so to the kingdom of Satan, the power of sin, the vitiosity of the human heart, and the corruption of the world. Why does the devil raise all this clamour against them? Because they are so fatal to his kingdom. Why do professors raise a hue and cry against them? Because they rase the sandy foundation which they are building, and attribute the whole of salvation to God. Why does the world despise them? Because they elevate the professor above its vanity and trifles, and flash conviction on the conscience that their pursuits are wrong, and their

prospects miserable. When the Holy Ghost makes the tree good, the fruit will be good, though there is a perpetual conflict in the mind between the two principles; a mortal life wars between grace and sin, yet the predominant power of the Holy Ghost sways the governing right over the man; and under the consideration of his indwelling, all the lovely features of evidential godliness shine forth to the glory of the indweller.

The man of God does not walk in the paths of holiness because he should, he ought, or from fear of consequences; or that he may possess the smiles and approbation of God; or that the scriptures commands him to do it; yea, he is exalted above all that it is his delight, his joy, his element; congenial with all his new-born powers; grows out of his dignified relation to the Son of God, his privileged standing in the liberty of the gospel, the emancipating principles of everlasting favour, and the apprehension of his completeness in the unsullied righteousness of the perfecting Head of the people. He moves on under the overwhelming love of heaven, the surprizing grace of his loving Lord, and is drawn out under the constant ministry of the Holy Ghost to live above the evil that is in the world, and honours the Lord in a life of conformity to him.

But to pass on from this outline of the manifestly blessed people that do his commandments, to the commands and the blessedness connected in doing them, our Lord in the verse preceding, says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last." The Holy Ghost then takes up the people characteristically, and speaks of their blessedness; "Blessed are they that do his commandments." "His commandments are not grievous-his yoke is easy, and his burden light." He commands us to love the brethren; "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." Our love is to flow out to them on a new principle, not simply to love them as neighbours, but as the family of God, and fellow heirs of the grace of life. They are blessed in loving the saints as drawn out by the image of Christ, and because they belong to him. Every service they do to them, as part of his mystic body, yields a satisfaction indescribable. They are blessed in doing his commandments. His commands is all his will expressed in the gospels and epistles; and the saints' happiness is involved in doing all his will and pleasure. His command to the apostles to 66 go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," is a command in which his children are blessed in yielding obedience thereto; but a simply being immersed in water is only the threshold of the subject; it is a fellowship ordinance, in which is set forth his overwhelming sorrows when plunged in all the wrath of a sin-avenging God, his burial, resurrection, and ascension, as the head of the people, in which they behold the great mystery of substitution unfolded. "Blessed are they that do his commandments." The supper also is a command of Jesus: "This do in remembrance of me." We set forth his death, and celebrate

his dying love; while we rejoice in its ten thousand consequences, our blessedness is connected in doing it. How oft does the King sit at the table, and in the revelations of his bleeding mercy draw out the spikenard of our faith and love, and mightily refresh us. There is no moving on in his commands but happiness is involved." He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him." Another command is, "Be ye not unequally yoked." They are at liberty to be married, only in the Lord. There is a great blessedness connected with moving in this command; yet some of the sons and daughters of Zion violate this precept of our loving Lord, and reap a life-time harvest of misery as the consequence, (and, alas! even the churches of our God pass over this offence, who are united to maintain the honour of our glorious King) though not blessed in keeping his commandments, yet, "in keeping them there is great reward." So in every act of disobedience, the path is strewed with wretchedness and misery. It is the high way of holiness that Jesus walks with and converses with his people; it is there the beams of his countenance fall on the travellers, and the promises of his grace are cheering draughts to regale them on the road. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." They that are honoured to live on Jesus, and walk in his fear, have a conscience right to all the blessings of his redemption: they have free access to all the benefits of his cross. They that walk contrary to his commands, are putting stones in the way, which only his blood can dissolve; but blessed are they that know him under the influence of his own grace; for they have right, they have privilege, they have freedom in their access to all the fulness of his person, and the provisions of his dying love; they enter in through the gates; there is nothing to bar them out of the privileges of Zion, the city of our God; or they have a right to the tree of life that grows in the paradise of our God, that is on either side of the river, and enter in through the gates of death into all the felicity, bliss, and blessedness of the upper city of the great King.

Blessed is that man or woman that walks in peace with God, whose iniquities are forgiven, and is constrained under the influence of the grace of his Lord to live to his praise, and lay himself out in his service. Poverty may overtake him-temptation may assail him- his own heart ensnare him-the world may hate him-indwelling sin may plague him-affliction perish all his outward comforts-and death seize upon his breathing frame, yet, thrice happy soul, he is harboured in the heart of everlasting love, secured in the ark of Immanuel's person: all the perfections and engagements of the eternal Three are employed for his welfare; all the grace of the heart of Jesus-the power of his arm, his wisdom, love, and faithfulness, is incessantly engaged for his security; the unceasing ministry of the Holy Ghost, angels, ministers, providence, bible, ordinances, with all