But no, my soul shall tell In Zion's courts above, A sinner sav'd from hell Through everlasting love. The sacred Three-in-One, And will love evermore : 'Tis Jesus will appear For all his saints above, And He will bring them there Through everlasting love. Dear saints, rejoice in him Whence all your mercies flow; Your lamps with oil he'll trim, To light you as you go: His church is blessed still, Who loved her so dear, She shall his wonders prove, In spite of sin and hell, Through everlasting love. Thou art the Fountain of all grace, Thou art the precious Gift of love, The Holy One of God art thou,— Image of God! the great I AM! Thou art our Leader, Life, and Light, Our Mediator, spotless Man, Who wrought out great salvation's plan; The sanctified, pure Nazarene- Hail! Prince of life, Plant of renown, Redeemer, Refuge, Righteousness, Our Sanctuary, and our Shield The Tree of Life, whereon doth grow Lord, thou art worthy to receive 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. 9. NOVEMBER, 1838. OF WHAT THE LORD JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION. "I am the Resurrection and the Life."John xi. 25. It would exceed the limits of my present paper, to enter upon the whole of the subject comprised in these few words; but I have thought it might be profitable to supply a scriptural answer to the question which may naturally arise, as to what the Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrection of. 1. Christ is the resurrection of the declarative glory of God in this lower world. God's essential glory cannot be marred by men or devils, but his declarative glory was marred by man's transgression: when man sinned, he threw off God as his sovereign; it was saying, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him." He swore allegiance unto hell, in opposition to God, to the glory of his justice and holiness, and all his perfections, particularly his truth. All these perfections of God were sullied and stained, there was a blot cast upon them as far as man was able, Well, Christ came to wipe away the dust that was cast upon them by man, and accordingly he raises them to greater splendour than if man had not sinned; hence he is called "the brightness of November. 1838.] 2. Christ is the resurrection of the holy law of God, which was violated, broken, and trampled under foot by man, when he had broken God's bands, and cast his cords from him : the authority of God's law was despised and disregarded, but God will not let his law lie trampled under the foot of man. Well, Christ comes and repairs the honour of the law, more than if it had never been broken. He magnified the law and made it honourable. Thus he is the resurrection of the holy law; he vindicated the honour of it, and put a greater lustre and beauty upon it, than if man had continued in his primitive integrity; yea, greater honour than if all the angels in heaven had died: for though all the angels in heaven had obeyed its precepts, and endured its penalty in our room, they could never have done so much honour to it as Christ did, because he was the great Lawgiver and in no way a debtor to it. 66 When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Here is a wonder, a wonder that will be matter of astonish-` ment to all eternity, that he who gave the law was made under the law, to I I 66 redeem us that were under it: so he is the resurrection of the law, What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." 3. Christ is the resurrection of the primitive integrity, purity, and beauty of the human nature. The nature of man was marred, the beauty of it was sullied by the fall; but Christ, by uniting our nature to himself, raises it to a higher degree of honour than when it stood in the first Adam; yea, the nature of man is advanced to a greater honour by being united to the Son of God, than ever was put upon the angelic nature. Angels are near the throne, and are happy in the enjoyment of God, but none of them are united to any of the persons of the Trinity. The nature of man is so closely united to the person of the Son, that it becomes one person with him. Oh, come and see what God hath wrought, "for to which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." Christ is called the glory of his people Israel, and all his people are called to glory in him; and well they may, for he is the ornament of the family. The crown fell from our heads when we sinned in Adam, but by the incarnation of the Son of God the crown is set upon the head of the human nature; and whenever we look at Christ, we should call him our crown, our ornament, our honour, our beauty. When people have a great man for a relation, they are very ready to tell of it: such a great man is my kinsman. But let not your boasting be in human things, let your boasting be that your very nature is joined to the person of God's eternal Son. I wish I could be instrumental to bring people to right notions of the person of Christ. Ignorance of Christ's person is the loss of all. What is Christ, but God wearing man's nature, coming and dying, and rising again, and ascending up into heaven, and bearing our nature for ever as a pledge of his love to us! God in our nature is a God to be believed in, to be trusted in, and rejoiced in. Is not this God an object of the highest delight, triumph, and obedience? So then, I say, he is the resurrection of the purity of the human nature. 4. Christ is the resurrection of our knowledge of God, and of our acquaintance with God. Immediately upon the fall, man fell out of acquaintance with God, and lost all saving views of God. It was man's happiness, before the fall, to see God's glory in the whole creation around him; he never looked upon a creature in it, but he saw the glory of God sparkling in that creature; but when we fell, Satan did with us as the Philistines did with Samson, he put out our eyes. Man by nature is now born blind, but Christ is the recoverer of sight; he came to bring light and sight together to us. Christ is called ،، the Sun of Righteousness, the bright and morning star:" why? because he brings the knowledge of God back to the fallen tribe of Adam. He came to discover the glory of his Father; "No man hath seen God at any time; the only hegotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." It is just the beginning of everlasting life in the soul, when he begins to know a God in Christ, and takes up that discovery of God in the word : And this is life eternal, that they might know. thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." He is the resurrection of our knowledge of God that we lost in Adam. 66 5. Christ is the resurrection of our righteousness, and of our justification and acceptance before God. Adam at the fall lost his original righteousness, and all the human family in him: “ there is none righteous, no not one." But Christ is the resurrection of it, as it is said in Daniel xi.; "He brings in an everlasting righteousness" observe the expression he brings it in; it was out of Adam's family, and Christ brings it in by his obedience unto death. Hence that blessed name he bears," the Lord our Righteousness: "Surely shall one say, "in the Lord have I righteousness : notice it is in the Lord, it is not in ourselves. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believes : and again, 2 Cor. 5, last verse, He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him " Does not that imply, that he is the resurrection and the life of our righteousness and acceptance before that infinite Lord, who had passed the sentence of condemnation upon us for our unrighteousness. 6. Christ is the resurrection of our holiness. That was another part of God's image we lost; for you know it consists in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness immediately after man's sin he fell amongst the pots, and became black like an Ethiopian, and spotted like a leopard. Well, Christ comes and begins his work of holiness here, and perfects it at death; hence we are told he is made of God unto us sanctification." I know nothing of holiness without Christ: some pretend to make themselves holy by their own power, they put heathenish morality in the room of gospel holiness; but that is not the holiness I would aspire after, for says Christ "without me, ye can do nothing." ye cannot be holy, ye cannot bring forth the fruits of holiness, unless ye be joined unto the Lord. It is the beauty of the Lord upon his people that makes them holy : therefore, Christ is the resurrection of our holiness, if ever we are made holy. 7. Christ is the resurrection of our peace with God. By the entry of sin, our peace with God was broken, and man became an enemy to God, and ever since is filled with enmity against God. Well, Christ came to recover the ancient friendship between God and man, and by him it is effectually done, for he makes peace by the blood of his cross, by the satisfaction of justice, and abolishing the penalty of the law and the peace he makes is a · lasting peace, because it stands in a lasting foundation. There are some that make a mighty cry for peace, peace, Oh! let us have peace at any rate, though it should be at the expence of truth: but it is folly for any to think that real peace can exist, without it stands upon righteousness and truth. The peace that Christ hath made, stands upon the solid bottom of a law-magnifying righteousness He is the resurrection of our peace. Well 8. Christ is the resurrection of our fellowship and communion with God. When man sinned, he was banished by God out of paradise, and cherubims were placed to guard the way to the tree of life: There was no access for man to God; for what correspondence can there be between heaven and hell, guiltiness, and righteousness. Christ recovers this, for he himself is the way to it, as he tells us "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me : and in John x. 9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture : that is to say, they shall all have free access to God, and his soul shall be filled with the fatness of the house of mercy. By and Spirit, begets it in you: grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.' He is the resurrection of our love. Have ye any spark of love to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Why, that spark of celestial fire comes from the heart of Christ; the Spirit takes the things of Christ, and shows them unto us; he takes a coal of love from the heart of Christ, and casts it into our hearts, and kindles it, and when he hath kindled it, he preserves it by his continual breathings upon it. He is the resurrection of our hope: He died and rose again, that our faith and hope might be in God." Peter speaking of the resurrection of our hope, says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Immediately upon the fall of Adam, he lost his hope therefore it was he fled into the thickets of paradise, for God was a terror to him. If a sinner out of Christ, saw his own case, he would be a magormissabib, a terror to himself, and all about him but whenever a sinner is begotten again, he is begotten to a lively hope he complies with that command, "Let Israel hope in the Lord." He is the resurrection of our repentance and remission of sins: Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins." He is also the resurrection of our obedience. He brings man back again, he writes his law upon the heart, and causes him to walk in his statutes, and to do them." Christ is the commander of our obedience; the law is delivered unto us in the hand of a mediator, we are "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. Because the law is in the hand of Christ: therefore the law is called his law, and his commandment: it was he that was in the midst of the angels, when the law was delivered. Then he is not only the commander of our obedience, but the pattern of it; he not only gives the law, but cast a copy of new obedience to us; he fulfils it to bring in everlasting righteousness for our justification; Learn of me for I am meek and lowly, take my yoke upon you. 10, Christ is the resurrection of the soul and body. He redeemed them with a great ransom; "not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ:" and he is not only the resurrection of the soul, by paying a price for it, but by application of that price in a day of power. And he will raise up the body from the grave, he will let down his dew, and they shall spring up as flowers in the spring; "for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead." The dew of the Spirit will fall upon them, like a sweet shower, and then they will spring up like corn after a warm rain, saying, Lo this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." 66 E. E. THE PASTORAL CARE OF ISRAEL'S SHEPHERD. (Concinded from page 222.) We have blessings respecting eternity in the 6th verse, I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." When the believer is passing through the black Jordan of death, he knows of a house before him, where he may take up his lodgings. Many people, when they go from one country to another, know not of a house where to lay their heads, or rest their wearied limbs; but it is not so with the believer, he is sure of a house where he will repose himself through eternal ages; the God who was kind to him all his days, and made mercy and goodness follow him, even, when |