The Administration of Wholesome Reproof, in a Letter to Mr. Joseph Irons. By J. A. Jones, Pastor of the Baptist Church, Mitchell Street, London. 12mo. pp. 16. Brentford: W. Jones. London: E. Palmer.

Ir would appear from this pamphlet that at the opening of Mr. Luckin's new chapel, in Woodbridge Street, Clerkenwell, Mr. Irons, (who was one of the preachers), after reading and prayer, and before sermon, baptized the infant child of Mr. Luckin, making observations during the time which fell uncomfortably on the ears of Mr. Jones and others of the Baptist denomination who were present. Without entering at all into the baptismal controversy, we are free to say, that we think it might have been as well to have deferred it to some other sabbath. It may certainly be construed unkindly, and this we feel assured was not meant.

The honesty, faithfulness and christian spirit manifested in this letter are beyond all praise, the more so, because in these days such writing is too unusual. We regret, however, that it had not continued a private letter. Mr. Irons should have replied to it; we trust he will yet do so; our pages are open to him, and we should consider them well occupied by anything which shall tend to the fulfilment of the apostolic charge "let brotherly love continue."

POETRY.

AN EASTER HYMN.

What a loud burst of rapturous praise
Shook the high vault of heaven,
When pass'd the three appointed days
The sepulchre was riven.
Wonder'd the bands of every name

Which people yonder sky,
When to our earth Immanuel came,
But when they saw him die:-
Then reigned on each seraphic face

Astonishment supreme,

The scheme to save a fallen race
Was mystery to them.

They saw their apostate fellows hurl'd
To horrid gulphs of woe,
And angels thought a guilty world
Would equal ruin know.

Justice upraised her vengeful sword,
When, from the middle throne,
Steps a new victim; speaks the Lord,
My sufferings shall atone.

He left the glittering realms of light,
In flesh his glory veil'd,
Hell ponder'd 'neath th' amazing sight
And ask'd, hath Eden fail'd?

He walk'd a man 'mong men on earth,
Refused, despised by them,
The casket they thought little worth,
Enclosed how bright a gem.
He died by them he came to save,

By them his blood was spilt;
Lo, Calvary tastes a purple wave,
Ordain'd to cleanse from guilt.
He sojourn'd, grave, thy bounds within,
Who knows his doings there?
He conquer'd Satan, Death and Sin,
Then burst to upper air.

He rose; the glorious work is done,
Heaven shouts a welcome home,
And speaks the Father to the Son,
For man there now is room!

A HYMN.

REZENEB.

Could I obtain a Pisgah sight

Of the celestial fields,
And taste the unalloy'd delight
The golden city yields;
Could I on eagle's pinions soar

Yon distant cloud above,
And gaze within the pearly door
Which hides the land of love;

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."

1 John v. 7.

Jude 3,

state.

MAY, 1833.

(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

ON JUSTIFICATION.

THERE is a wide difference between man's pristine and fallen He came out of his Maker's hands a piece of pure workmanship, bearing his sacred image. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Our first parents were holy; their will lay straight with the will of heaven; the presence of God was their joy-his service their delight; while daily communion with him heightened the joys of paradise, and gave rise to those unmingled pleasures, which nothing short of sin could have deprived them of. But they did not long continue in that happy state. Satan, through divine permission, assumed the form of a serpent-entered the garden-presented his temptation-gained the ascendancy over the will-forced open the doors-entered and took possession of the house. First, he drew away the beloved partner of Adam's bosom, through whose instrumentality he seduced her husband too. They ate the forbidden fruit-fell from their created purity, and all their posterity in them, and became polluted with their sin. Thus the image of God was defaced, and the image of the devil stamped on all the human race; fallen as they are from their paradisaical purity, into a state of awful rebellion against God. Well may we say, "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!" Solomon, after all his searches and researches after wisdom, arrived at this conclusion, "Lo, this only have I found, God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions," Eccles. vii. 29. VOL. IX.-No. 109.]

S

Soon after the fall, Jehovah gave his law on mount Sinai, as a righteous transcript of his holiness. As a cogent proof of the fallen state of man, this was quickly violated by Israel. We too have broken it, and are become guilty before God, Rom. iii. 19. The law condemns us as transgressors: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law." Our condemnation state under the law, renders justification absolutely necessary, in order to the possession of eternal life. We cannot be justified by the law as a covenant of works. The law was not given to give life; if it had, righteousness would have been by the law." Wherefore was it added? that the offence might abound,” Gal. iii. 21. Rom. v. 20. The law, however, was not given that men might go on in sin, but that "sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful," or appear to be so, see Rom. vii. 13. The best works that men, as creatures, can perform, fall infinitely short of the requirements of God's law. Therefore, by the law men are condemned as sinners; not only the most profane, but the most selfrighteous pharisee. "For we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under it, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God; therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified," Rom. iii. 19, 20.

Dear reader, art thou a stranger to the spirituality of the law, and to thy state as a sinner before God? remember, you must either be saved and justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, or be for ever (awful thought!) beneath the curse of a sin-avenging God!

"If works will take the field, then works must be
For ever perfect in the last degree:

Will God dispense with less? Nay, sure, he won't

With ragged toll his holy law affront.

Can rags, that Sinai's flame will soon dispatch,
E'er prove the fiery law's adequate match?
Vain man must be divorc'd, and choose to take
Another Husband, or a burning lake!"

Justify, or justification, is a law term, and must always be understood in a forensic sense; not as producing an internal change, or making a person righteous, but as acquitting him from guilt, and declaring him righteous. In this sense the following scriptures are understood, Deut. xxv. 1. 2 Sam. xv. 4. Job xxvii. 5. xiii. 18. 1 Kings viii. 31, 32. Matt. xi. 19. xii. 37. Luke vii. 29. x. 29. Rom. ii. 4. In those portions of holy writ, the word is used in a forensic sense, and doth not denote a physical operation, transfusion, or transmutation, but a declaration of righteousness. Justification is therefore a sovereign and gracious act, whereby Jehovah acquits his people from guilt, exonerates them from every charge which can possibly be brought against them, and before angels, men, and devils, declares them righteous in his sight. "Who," says Paul, “shall

lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth,” &c. Rom. viii. 33, 34.

Justification is not only a sovereign and gracious, but an eternal act. It is coeval with election; "For whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, then he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," Rom. viii. 30. Eternal election-the church's union with Christ-his headshipcovenant and suretyship engagements-together with the immutability of the divine will are irrefutable proofs of eternal justification. I do therefore unhestitatingly aver, that justification is either eternal, or it is not at all. But that it is so is obvious from the fixation of the church in Christ before time began. How, I ask, could the church be united to Christ-fixed on him as the Rock of Agesand be blest in him with all spiritual blessings before the foundation of the world, and not be eternally justified? Sovereign purpose and immutable love by the grand act of eternal election gave the bride a sure and everlasting standing in the person of her glorious Bridegroom. Though she fell in Adam, she stood in Christ; and there her standing was preserved, together with every spiritual blessing, far, very far beyond the reach of the dreadful catastrophe. Jehovah always viewed his church in Christ all fair and comely; being considered in divine and dateless purpose, and viewed in the eye of the divine mind, as wrapt in the mantle of eternal love, and clad in robes of righteousness and salvation. The rich, invaluable, and never-failing blessing subsequent upon this is, that he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel," Num. xxiii. 21. Let those who feel disposed to reject the doctrine of eternal justification, consider its intrinsic worth; for I do assure them, that it is a blessing of inestimable value to the church of God. It is one of the richest jewels in the cabinet of theology, a star of the first magnitude in the evangelical firmament, one of the choicest fruits of the tree of life, a stream from the fountain of eternal love, a grand link in the chain of salvation's well-ordered scheme, and a focus where all the beams of divine grace meet and unite to charm the ear, feast the eye, ravish the heart, and satisfy the immortal desires of every spiritually hungry and thirsty soul.

Known unto Jehovah were all things from the beginning; consequently, he knew from eternity that sin would enter into our world, and from his topless throne beheld the world involved in wretchedness and woe. As an act of his own good pleasure, he provided a remedy in the person of his only begotten Son, whom he chose and set up from everlasting, as the Head, Representative, and Saviour of his chosen seed, Prov. viii. 23. According to covenant transactions the Father gave his Son-the Son gave himself, and freely came into this world-veiled his Godhead in human clay-placed himself under the law in the room and stead of his people-wrought out a righteousness for their justification-died a painful death on the summit of Mount Calvary, where he put away sin by the sacrifice