Not

ruptible to incorruptible, and from mortal to immortal. The musing upon this scene is almost heaven itself. Who now shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? even he, who is the accuser of the brethren, can now allege one single article of condemnation against any one of their number. Will he say, Manasseh that had sold himself to do evil; that Paul was a blasphemer, and Magdalene an eminent sinner? Will he say, that these Galatians were idolaters; or that the Corinthians were guilty of almost every crime that could be named; and there is not so much as one, on whom there might not once be found some foul imputation or other. It is all granted, to the praise and glory of redeeming love, that they were great sinners; but they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God. And now there remaineth no condemnation for them; and nothing shall ever separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Blessed are the people whose God is Jehovah. Even while tabernacling here in a body of clay, their sins are forgiven, and their souls are as secure as those in bliss. Lift up your head, believer, your warfare will soon be finished; then no temper, no sin, no sorrow, shall ever trouble you; for in the new Jerusalem, there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, any thing that offendeth. You shall be made pillars in the temple of your God, from which you shall no more go out. You shall see God face to face; the light of his countenance shall no more be eclipsed, but will eternally shine on you. To the heaven of heavens where you are approaching, there will be no darkness, either within you or without you, for there shall be no night there. Praise, praise without measure, without ceasing, and without end be to God, who hath prepared such felicity

for us, and who hath prepared as for it.

Tow'ring above the clouds I see:
"The golden palace of my God
Beyond the cherub's bright abode
Higher than angels' thoughts can be.
I cannot in those courts appear,
Without a wedding garment on;
Conduct me, thou life-giver, there
Conduct me to thy glorious throne!
And clothe me with thy robes of light,
And lead me through sin's darksome night,
My Saviour and my God."

To be continued.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AN ANSWER TO A QURRY.

AN Anxious Inquirer begs to return thanks to an Old Watchman, for his encouraging answer to the second query; and may the Lord grant, if it be but his will, that your first and last sentence may be verified in my experience. I have derived much consolation and encouragement from the whole, and feel it is my duty to acknowledge the same, because it is written, Let him that is taught in the word, communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. My bonds are loosed, but not broken. The following words of the Lord Jesus to Peter, have rested much on my mind, and they are become very precious to me, What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter. I beg your prayers for me, that I may indeed be set at liberty.

AN OLD WATCHMAN'S INTERPRETATION OF THE QUERY PROPOUNDED LAST MONTH.

Beloved christian brother, your peculiar request, and mode of drawing, by your query, spiritual interpretations out of the Spiritual Magazine and Zion's Casket, which is one of God's spiritual pools, filled by his blessed rains, through His spiritual correspondents, see Psalm lxxxiv. 6,

&c., is a full proof of your loving and honouring God, his truth, his cause, and his people. And, moreover, it is evident, by your Query propounded, you desire to draw out public blessings, and disperse them abroad in the earth, through God-directed scriptural Magazine ministrations, his filled flowing pools in our Baca. 2 Cor. ix. 9.

Therefore with delight, in the divine blessing, an Old Watchman, in union with all the blessed correspondents of the "Casket," in self-denial, the blessing of our day, and in filial reverence before God, in my watch tower, directed by the still small voice of the divine oracles, the Old and New Testaments, I am to give you a proper interpretation of your Query, which is as follows: "For I say unto you, among those that are born of a woman, there is not a greater prophet than John Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Luke vii. 28.

First, We find the Lord God most highly honours John Baptist, as prophet, even as he had very greatly blessed him; for the said John, when a babe, being, as all others, begotten naturally in iniquity, and conceived in sin, spiritually begat, sanctified, renewed him, infusing grace, for all humbling blessings, with faith, hope, love, spiritual knowledge, so that in the "sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth,” the blessed babe, John, worshipped the Father, in and through the Son, by and in the Spirit of sanctification and truth, as truly as his mother Elizabeth before his natural birth.

might be a prophet ministering, so that many of the children of Israel should be turned to the Lord their God, that is, to repentance toward the Father in God, the Lord, and also, by faith, toward the Son in God, the Messiah, Jesus Christ the righteous. So John Baptist was qualified to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, The blessed John was sent to go before Jesus, God, our blessed Saviour, in the spirit and the power of Elias," to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." And we find that after the appearance and public ministry of God the Son, our adorable Saviour, he declared John Baptist was "a burning and shining light." John v. 35. Thus we find, that after John Baptist had gathered thousands of households by his voice crying in the wilderness, and after he had truly baptized them with water, and

also the Messiah.

ever had

Secondly, The babe John, who was eternally fore-ordained the Baptist, to be in time the sent messenger, to go before the Messiah, God incarnate, our blessed Saviour, to prepare the way before him; was filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And that was in order that John, by and in the Holy Ghost,

29.

Oh, my christian brother, our Querist, and all ye Casket readers, look to Jesus; may the Holy Ghost enable you, as John Baptist directed, behold the Lamb of God, that wonderful personage; see that, as the

blessed Baptist said, God Jesus, the Christ, bearing the iniquity of all the election by imputation,even they in the world in glory, they in all the world in John's days, and we the elect in the world of this day, and all the elect that shall be in the world, unto the world's end. Thus John's disciples, all, old and young, being baptized with water, confessing their sins, and longing by grace, through faith in hope and love, for greater promised covenant blessing, in and through the blessed Messiah, their iniquity-bearing God, manifest in the flesh. As John pointed to him, and As John pointed to him, and preached him, the renewed peoples

were assured that it was for his, and his righteousness sake, that they and all the election from Adam, Eve, and Abel, that they had decretively, eternally, and in time, justification unto life; and by its infusion, by the Father, in and through the Son, in the sanctification of the Spirit, they had godly sorrow for their sins, with faith, hope and love, longing for forgiveness of sins." See Acts v. 31; Rom. v. 18. So the Holy Ghost by John Baptist's ministry, prepared multitudes of the elect to believe in and follow the adorable Saviour, Jehovah Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb of God, assured that he had by imputation upon himself the iniquity of them all, Isaiah liii. 6; and that by and in his approaching death, after all his meritorious bleeding, in his meritorious sufferings, and law-fulfilling, he would die in his holy flesh voluntary, by pouring out his human soul unto death, be buried, and rise again the third day, their resurrection and life, their justification-and that his imputed righteousness, as John declared, should be brought nigh, and put on them and all the election, and that all should have the efficacy of his precious blood applied, and be assured before, or at temporal death, as John Baptist was, that they were washed, sanctified, justified, in and

through him by the Father and his own will, in the will and working of the Holy Ghost. Isaiah liii. 11, 12, and xlvi. 13. So John was the prophet of the highest, going before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins. Luke i. 76, 77. So far John Baptist's received disciples believed in the blessed Jesus, and were mystically fastened on him their rock, and so lived on him, as all the renewed did, from Adam to Soloman, Cant. viii. 5, to Malachi iii., iv., and to John Baptist, as if they had really seen, as Isaiah did, God

the Saviour die for the sins of the

election, and redeem us from the curse, and arise from the grave in into heaven to be glorified in huwhich he was buried, and arise up into heaven to be glorified in humanity. Isaiah liii. 11, 12; and as we find Daniel vii. 13, 14. Such was the faith of the Old Testament

saints, and of John Baptist and his disciples, before the Lord's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension unto glory; and so were the visions of the Old Testament saints. John Baptist and his disciples had

But

a more blessed view of the adorable of their body! In those views, and Saviour, by their eyes, the very eyes rejoicing in being so prepared, the Baptist and his disciples were assured that whilst the Saviour was upon the earth, and after his ascension into glory, on the Father's right hand, the propitiation for our sins, the meritorious Saviour, Mediator, intercessor, advocate, and all, as Malachi foretold, chap. iii. 2, that he was, and would be, like refiner's fire and fuller's soap, refining and purifying his churches, the ministry, as the peoples, purging them as gold and silver, that by and in the sanctification of his power, by and in his Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, they might, in and by and through him Jesus, offer unto the

Lord the Father an offering in righteousness. Malachi iii. 2, 3. Thus John's disciples were by his ministry brought to understand, that at the set time, after Christ Jesus' ascension into glory, He would do as their prophet John Baptist had declared, namely, "Baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire." See Matt. iii. 11. This was the height of John Baptist's prophecy, and blessed ministry of preparing a people for the Lord God, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

Fourthly, We find John Baptist was assured by and in the Holy Ghost, that his ministry of prophecyings, and baptizing with water in the name of God the Father, who sent him so to baptize with water. John i. 33; Acts i. 5; was nearly at an end; therefore the blessed Baptist, by and in the Holy Ghost,

said of his Lord God Jesus the

Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease." John iii. 30. And soon after the blessed Baptist was martyred by the wicked Herod. Matt. xiv. 8. Then, as John was, so must be the increase of Christ, and his ministry, and kingdom. And thus the Lord Christ said, in honour to John Baptist, and in exceeding honour to the Holy Ghost and the Father, who with himself was one God, "I say unto you, among those that are born of a woman, there is not a greater prophet than John Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God, is greater than he." Luke vii. 28.

28, especially on the day of Pentecost. Acts ii. 2, 3, 4. Oh the exceeding, excelling glory of the Messiah's kingdom and ministry, who was the substance of all the types in the old dispensation, from Adam, to the day of Pentecost; then was fulfilled John's prophecy, and the promise of Christ, that is, John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Acts i. 5.

Therefore know ye, my beloved brother querist, that you have drawn out the truth from my heart and soul, which for many years, in the unction and anointing of the Holy one, 1 John ii. 20, 27, I have enjoyed, and that has, in measure for many years been circulated, in and through the Spiritual Magazine, or Zion's Casket. Thus we find every minister and pastor in the kingdom of God in this day and, unto the last day, when Christ shall come in clouds, in the glory of his Father, and in glorified humanity. Mat. xxv. 31, 34; will be, in the ministration of the preaching of the glorious gospel of God, and ordinances of water baptism, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Mat. xxviii. 19, 20; and ministering the Lord's Supper, bread and wine, Matt. xxvi. 26, 27, greater then John Baptist. Luke vii. 28.

This is the interpretation by and in the Scripture teaching of the Holy Ghost, of our christian brother's Query. And upon duly considering the same, and weighing the interpretation and the interpreter in "The balances of the sanctuary," that is the Old and New Testament. Rev. iii. 10, 11, notice, I pray you, brother, that the Holy Ghost moved the multitudes with one consent, and as it were with one voice, to prove the littleness of John Baptist and his ministry, in comparison with the ministry of Christ and his apostles, saying, 66 John did no miracle: but all things that John, spake of this

man, (that is Christ Jesus,) were true." John x. 41.

Now there are in these days some of God's renewed elect, tempted to go back, if it were possible, to the old dispensation, the law, shadows, ceremonies and ways especially, as in John Baptist's days; but the voice of the Godhead under the whole heavens, and through the earth is, "He that is least in the kingdom of God, is greater than John the Baptist." Luke vii. 28. By the power and blessing of that divine voice, and by the spiritual gifts of grace, faith, hope and spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ in glory, in all his meritorious powers, and especially his Great High Priesthood, that, "He bears the iniquity of the holy things," even of all ministers and pastors, or errors in judgement in the midst of all their holy gifts," Exo. xxviii. 38, and coming forth to bless us, in the glories of imputed, Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemtion," 1 Cor. vii. 30, all errors and bigotry, shall be consumed, 2 Thess. ii. 8, when "The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will be sevenfold exceeding our days." See ye the glory of the last days in, Isa. XXX. 26.

66

May the Lord, the Lord God, render the interpretation a general blessing in Zion, amen, prays,

AN OLD WATCHMAN.

THE FATHER'S CHOICE, THE BELIEVER'S SECURITY.

"All that the Father giveth unto me, shall come unto me, and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."

THESE are the words of Jesus Christ, and without great violence, they cannot be misunderstood, why God giveth one part of mankind to Jesus Christ, and leaveth the other part to good in their wickedness and rebellion against him, until they drop into hell, he has not told us; this is one of the secrets that belong to him;

but this we may be sure of, that he will do that which is perfectly right and just. This secret for many ages has caused amongst learned men arguments and contentions; but they seem just where they were, just as much in the dark as ever: and so it must be, until the Lord is pleased to reveal it to them. All he says to us on this point, is, that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will, he hardeneth. What can we say to God's preserving some of the angels and to suffer others to fall? What can we say to his choosing Abel and leaving Cain? What can we say to his choosing Abraham and his family to know his will, and leaving all the other nations of the world in darkness? What can we say to his choosing Israel, and leaving Esau? And what can we say to his taking one thief from the cross and leaving the other?

These few instances, with many more as might be produced, are quite out of the reach of man to account for. This should teach us, with humility too, that it must be right because God would have it so. It is now, in these our days, just the same, why God giveth some to Jesus to save, and leaves others to go on and fill up the measure of iniquity, is quite a mystery to us; but God's word plainly tells us, That all that the Father giveth to Jesus, shall come to him, and he that cometh to him, shall in no wise, that is certainly, he shall not be cast out.

Now, my friends, let me advise you to look at these words as they stand before us, do not look at them with prejudiced minds, but look at them as the plain word of God, and compare them with other scriptures, but let the opinions of men have no rule with you, only attend to God's word in this as well as in all matters of doctrine.

As men differ in their opinions, I know it by experience, you can get no comfort there.