POETRY. STANZAS ON SOLOMON'S SONG, BY AN OLD AUTHOR. I. "Thy king is held in the galleries.". CHAP. VII. 5. AWAKE, O Sion, rise and shine, Put thy best garment on : Though all the world 'gainst thee combine, Thy king comes marching on. Lift up thine eyes, behold those clouds, Those lofty galleries : There he erects his trone, and makes There shalt thou look on him, whose heart And thou shalt mourn to see those wounds, And yet rejoice therein. There never was so great a day; Sion, thy King doth come, Oh, rend the heavens, Lord, and come And make thy people once again The great hosanna sing; And 'spirit every sort of men, To worship Sion's king. There never was a day, So welcome to the saints, As when he comes away, To make up all their wants. Oh, rend the skies; Oh, come away; Make no delay, Poor Sion cries. Hosanna then we 'll sing, And hallelujahs too; We'll worship Sion's King, We 'll praise him all anew : In heaven, so Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, In earth below. II. I went down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded."-CHAP. vɩ. 11. Rouse thee, O Israel, Child of the valley, where, Put from the presence of the mate, Oh, thou hast been to me, Garden of nuts; so hard, So dry, such husky shells; from thee All comforts were debarred. There was a kernel, but There was no coming at it; By unbelief thou wert, as if For thy destruction fatted. At last I heard in thee, A rattling of the bones, I will go down and see Whether the vines are good, And grapes abound, and give us hopes, And the pomegranates bud. If so, the work is done, Thy foes are put to flight; To rocks and mountains they shall run, For shelter, if they might. SAVED BY GRACE. WHAT discords here on earth assail, And though they each the Bible take, The faith that will this truth reject, Our fleshly deeds must prove in vain, If I this gracious gift receive, This glorious truth to feel and know, J. JENKINS. CHRIST'S PRESENCE OUR CHIEF JOY. SWEET Saviour, come, display Thy bright, transcending charms : To draw me to thy arms! I languish, sigh and mourn, I soon am filled with heavenly joys, No excellence so great, No charms transport me so, And from his count'nance flow: Delusive world, adieu, Thy toys no longer shine; Of beauties all divine: Earth's vain delights soon disappear, Celestial spirits, tell What wonders you behold; Convinced of this, to thee I fly, Uphold my sinking spirit, Lord, Oh, mighty Jesus, let me be When pain, disease, and death appear, Then shall I leave this world with joy, There will I raise my humble song E. S. -1 THE SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE, AND ZION'S CASKET. "For there are Three that bear record in heaven the FATHER, the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST: and these Three are One."-1 John v. 7. "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.--Jude 3. 'Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."-1 Tim. iii, 6. ་་ FEBRUARY, 1845. THE LEADINGS OF THE SPIRIT. A Sermon, Preached at Providence Chapel, Eden Street, Hampstead Road, London, on Lord's-day Evening, Nov. 17, 1844. BY MR. WILLIAM COWPER. "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."-Gal. v. 18. I READ these words to you who were here this morning, and made a few observations upon the general contents of the epistle. In the next place, the apostle's meaning by falling from grace, and of Christ becoming of no effect to such who had s so fallen. When we observed, Paul had preached to them Christ in his mediatorial person. 1. As the Son of the Father in truth and love, whose, in common with the Father of eternity, and the Eternal Spirit, are all the essential attributes and perfections in Jehovah : therefore "the true God and eternal life." 2. As made of a woman, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, taking the whole of our human nature into a personal oneness with his divine person, and thus found in fashion as a man, God manifest in the flesh, the essential Word being made flesh and dwelt amongst us. under the law, as we poor fallen creacumcision, thus entering upon his tures are, but made under it by cir mediatorial work. 3. The perfection of his work; that the law has had all its demands of him, and that the church was complete in him, he being made to her, " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Paul had told the Corinthians, Christ could not be divided, 1 Cor. i. 13. The Galatians had been taught by lying legalists, who went out from Jerusalem, and pretended to have had their commission from the church at Jerusalem, Acts xv. 24, to divide Christ. Now, says Paul, Christ is become of no effect to you, who have cordially received this preaching, and are looking to yourselves for righteousness. Ye are fallen from grace, ye are fallen to works. 5. The man who can turn from a profession of grace to works, never was a partaker of grace. His turning away making manifest his mere profession; and so the profession of grace may be, where the grace of life never was. And fearing this was the case with many of them, Paul honestly told them he stood in doubt of them, until he saw more done for 3. Made under the law; not born them, by Christ being formed in them. February, 1845.] E The preacher who had so seduce them, Paul wishes accursed as trou blers of the churches. And if it be asked, Why this bitterness? we reply, The truth had been attacked, by a forgery upon the gospel of God our Saviour, and Moses' yoke, though too heavy for oxen, put upon the necks of the babes in grace, Acts xv. 10; Gal. iv. 19. Those transformed ministers, had transformed the gospel of God into another gospel, and they had transformed the Christ of God into another Jesus, whom Paul had not preached: hence his anathama. 6. In the last place, we told you how the church of God had been infested by the dividers of Christ, and the transformers of truth, up to the present day. The Arians divide the divinity of the Father from the divinity of the Son, until they gradually transform themselves into Socinians. The Socinians divide his humanity from his divinity, and so transform him into a mere man. The preexisterians divide between the Son of God, and God the Son, and many of them have transformed themselves into Unitarians. The Arminians divide the priesthood of Christ from his justifying righteousness, holding the former, and rejecting the latter; teaching the possibility of corrupt nature being transformed into holiness, and the possibility of man justifying himself before God. Thus in these, and ten thousand other instances, error hath waged war with truth, and divine revelation has been the butt of fallen man's enmity, and free will and human reason the carnal weapons of his warfare; nor can any man lay them down, until a mightier than he come upon him, and spoils him of his armour wherein he trusteth. But, whilst men of corrupt minds have daringly fought against. God and his word, not a doctrine hath been overturned, nor a vessel of mercy destroyed, from the days of righteous Abel to the days of inspired Paul, who declares, The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded," Rom. xi. 7. Having briefly reminded you of our introduction to the words of our text, we then made a few observations upon the law. 1. Upon its holy nature. 2. Upon its spiritual extent. And, 3. Upon its awful sentence. And, 1. The holiness of the law is opposed to all the unholiness and unrighteousness of men, and pours its curse, in effects or in sentence, upon every thing where sin is. life 2. The extensiveness of the law, reacheth to every thought and intention of the heart, watcheth every motion of the affections, every desire of the flesh and of the mind. Every vain thought it curseth; the very of the soul, from the first moment of its existence, until it is breathed into the world of spirits, and followeth it there with a curse, for every transgression and disobedience it hath been the author of in thought, word, or deed, and will curse it from the Judge's mouth, and pursue it to everlasting misery, even each and every individual of Adam's race, living and dying under it. It knows no abate. ment. It extends to eternity. It cannot alter, because of its righteous. ness, and will remain in full power whilst its Author continues just. Lastly, it extends to devils, and chains them to the judgment of the great day of the wrath of God Almighty. Zeph. i. 14: Rev. xiv. 10. Again, we shewed to you it was spiritual. But man in his carnal state is igno. rant of its spirituality, yet each and every elect soul is brought to know something of its awful breadth and solemn extent in the conscience, sooner or later. And in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. 1 John iii. 10. The natural man beholds his natural face with complacency; the quickened soul feels the evils of his heart, and wonders what has befallen him. The natural man, if at all alarmed by the dictates of conscience, doubles his duties, comforts himself with the thought that he has not done worse than others, nor half so bad as very many; lulls his conscience by bookprayer laudanam. tells God to have mercy upon him, and incline his heart to keep the law. Whilst the convicted sinner is brought to feel the law to be spiritual, himself carnal, sold under sin, the desert of destruction is felt and feared, all unrighteousness appears sin, and sin exceeding sinful. Carnal affections running out to forbidden objects, distress his soul; the evils of his past life dash his legal hopes to shivers. As the law is opened up further to the conscience, the before hidden evils of his heart now appear. Self-righteousness is struck dumb; prayer book formality gives place to the groanings of a sorrowful soul: fear of eternal banishment fills the soul with deep distress, the cords of his sins hold him fast, and a dreadful sound is in his ears. Job xv. 21. If it be asked, how long the quickened sinner must be kept under the law, and how low he must sink before deliverance is granted? we reply, the holy and blessed Spirit, who first makes known the spirituality of the law, and opens its demands in the conscience, manifests his own most rightful sovereignty in all the dispensations of his grace, as the effects of his work plainly declare. For we see one called in youth, another in midlife, and another in old age. One sinks deep into the unfathomable abyss of sin-corrupted nature; another has his heart opened to the love of the truth, and its messengers for truth's sake. One soon favoured with a lively hope; another, all his life-time subject to bondage. One allured, and then a wilderness journey, and at last spoke comfortably to. Therefore it is indeed little short of presumption: to attempt to limit the Holy One of Israel. or to instruct him his way, but let it be remembered, that however versified the work and operations of the Holy Spirit are, the genuineness of them will produce a manifest alteration, nor can it be hid. Mr. Hart well and wisely says, "No reckoning can we rightly keep, For who the sums can know ; And some five hundred owe.' But whilst the blessed Glorifier of Jesus is gathering in the purchase of the Saviour's blood, he does and most certainly will bring each and every one to that knowledge of the law he brought Paul to, and give him to feel as he felt, when he said, The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin," and will most certainly convince every one, that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in God's sight; yea, moreover, he will strip the soul of all creature righteousness, and turn natural supposed comeliness into corruption, wisdom into foolishness, and spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels in every vessel of mercy, and the sorrows of the heart will be enlarged, until he is brought to cry, Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses. Nor will he bring the soul from under tbe law, until it is brought to feel its need of being picked up as a beggar from nature's dunghill, and by an act of free grace, placed amongst the princes of his people. And now, my hearers, before we proceed to the next part of our subject, can you lay your hands upon your hearts, before a heart-searching God, and say with Paul, I through the law am dead to the law?" If you can, I tell you God hath not appointed you to wrath, but he hath appointed you to obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus the Lord with eternal glory. We come in the next place, to consider the leadings of the Spirit, which are not to the law, but from the law: If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law." Now every soul taught of the Spirit is brought to know the vast differ |