We are grieved in having to inform our readers, of the death of the Rev. THOMAS HARDY, of Liecester. He had left that place two or three weeks, and was with a friend at Melton Mowbray. He expounded there on Monday, the 6th of May, went to Stamford in the evening, was immediately seized with apoplexy, and died at Six o'clock on Tuesday morning, May 7. We shall with pleasure insert particulars of the life and ministry of the deceased if they reach us. The Fifth Edition of the Rev, W. ROMAINE'S FULL CHRIST FOR EMPTY SINNERS will be ready for sale on the 5th June; and shortly afterwards, CHRIST IS ALL, by WILCOX; and ESSAY ON THE VARIOUS FEARS TO WHICH GOD'S PEOPLE ARE LIABLE, by TOPLADY. This last article will complete Vol. III. of PALMER'S SELECT POCKET DIVINITY, of which entire Setts in Numbers or Volumes may then be had. 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. JULY, 1833. REFLECTIONS ON PROVERBS XXVII. 7. "The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." THE word of life is a conservatory, stored with precious fruits to gratify the taste of the family of God. The Father of mercies has been pleased to spread a rich table in the banqueting-house of the beloved of Zion, on which is served up the greatest abundance and variety of heavenly dainties. There is strong meat for those of full age, and milk and honey for the babes of the family. Yea, honey in its perfection; honey in the honeycomb. Much is said of this sweet food in the word of God. The Lord has been pleased to compare many new covenant blessings to it; though he strictly forbad the use of it in the sacrifices of the children of Israel, Lev. ii. 11. Does the reader inquire why the Lord should compare gospel blessings to honey, and yet not accept it in his own sacrifices? Probably because it was a symbol of carnal pleasure, which must never be mingled with his spiritual worship. A further reason might be, that the heathen used it in their idolatrous sacrifices. By the honeycomb, in the portion of scripture under our present consideration, I conceive the wise man to have designed to symbolize that which is spiritually and eternally good. This point being conceded, I notice the following things, intended to be expressed in the proverb before us.~ 1. Who is the character first introduced? The full soul.-2. What does he loathe? The honeycomb.-3. What character is next introduced? The hungry soul.-4. What is said of him? He esteems every bitter thing as sweet. VOL. IX.-No. 111.] 2 C 1. The full soul loathes the honeycomb. Now this man is a picture drawn to the life. Loathing is an internal abhorrence, the effect of a sated or vitiated appetite. The soul that has not been emptied by divine grace, loathes the richest provisions of covenant mercy. Alas, my soul, this was once thy case. How didst thou turn from the gospel honeycomb, as Israel from the manna in the wilderness, counting it light food. In the full soul, I see a three-fold character. First. The self-justiciary, who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, which is by faith in Christ Jesus, goes about to establish a righteousness of his own. Like the spider, he wearies himself to weave a web out of his own bowels as a covering for himself: as says the prophet Isaiah," they hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider's web." This man dislikes the eternal and spiritual righteousness which Jehovah Jesus has wrought out. And why? He is full of his own works, to the loathing of God's grace. Secondly. The worldling is a full soul. “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?" is the prominent and all-engrossing concern of his soul. The name of Jesus-the appearance of vital godliness-the image of God in his saints-gospel ordinances are loathsome. His heart is overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. The gilded toys and painted dreams of carnal pleasure have filled his mind to the entire disrelish of the precious honeycomb of spiritual delight. But, Thirdly. The professor, destitute of the root of the matter, is a full soul. Though he has all the outward forms of godliness, yet cut him home with the Spirit's sword; insist on the electing love and sovereign grace of God in Christ, as the only source of salvation-insist on the necessity of the new birth-declare that nothing but the blood of Christ revealed in the conscience can take away the love and guilt of sin— that none know the Son save the Father, and that none know the Father but by the Son through the power of the Holy Ghost, making a revelation of him in his saving mercy to the soul. Now, his lamp of profession, having not the oil of the Spirit's infused grace, nor the wick of prayer, he loathes such declarations of truth, is full of anger at such statements, and unless sovereign grace interpose, will perish in his own deceivings. Reader, try thyself by the touch-stone of truth, weigh thyself in the balances of the sanctuary. This is the pitiable professor that said, " peace, peace," where there is no peace. But the word of God shews us another class of professors, namely, the daring and presumptuous. These, like the former, are full, and loathe the honeycomb. These are they who once ran well, but not being in union with the true vine, like the severed branch, soon withered away. Like him who received the seed upon the rock, they had no depth of earth. The good seed was never sown by the Spirit in the heart, neither did such ever sow to the Spirit, in selfloathing, holy wrestling, deep confession, and holy panting after the honeycomb. No; this man's religion was on the surface. It is true, his mind was swept and garnished, but Christ had never entered: it was still the devil's strong hold. The marginal reading of the proverb under our notice is very expressive: it reads thus, "the full soul treadeth under foot the honeycomb." Oh my soul, how rich that grace that made thee to differ; that by the fear of God, union by faith to Jesus, a daily cross, and much furnace work, keeps and shall keep thee from a deceitful heart and seared conscience. The apostle of the Gentiles has drawn an awful picture of such a full soul, Heb. x. 28, 29. The man he describes was a full soul, full of carnal enmity, of malice; yea, like Elymas the sorcerer, full of all subtilty and mischief. But I pass on to consider, 2. What does the full soul loathe ? Says the wise man," the honey comb." Now, whatever is sweet, healing, pleasant, and medicinal to the soul in spiritual things, may be compared to the honeycomb. First, The word of God, Ps. cxix. 103.— xix. 10. "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" " Thy judgments are sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Oh my soul, how delicately sweet is the word of life! delightfully sickening my heart, and rendering even Marah's afflicting waters, when mingled with the promises, sweet to my taste! With what amazing skill, infinite wisdom, and indefatigable labour has it been stored, that hungry souls may by faith extract its sweetness for their refreshment. Secondly, If the word is a honeycomb, as David declares it to be, is not Immanuel, our Jesus Jehovah, the honey of the honeycomb ? As the comb is that which contains the honey, so the word is that which contains a full account of Christ as suited to the hungry soul. In the eastern countries, the bees deposit their rich stores in rocks and hollow trees. Just so, all the believer's honey is in the Rock of Ages, and the Tree of Life. Thus Moses sings, Deut. xxxii. 13." He made them suck honey out of the rock." A wrecked mariner may escape drowning by reaching some friendly rock; but if that rock be barren he must perish for want of supply. Not so with our Rock; he is a shelter from the storm, but none perish for want of supply; for he is stored with the honey of all-sufficient grace. In 1 Sam. xiv. 27. we read that Jonathan when he was hungry and faint, put forth the staff or rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put it to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. So the hungry soul finds faith like Jonathan's rod, which when dipped in the honeycomb of the word, receives Jesus, the honey of life; and as the soul eats, so the eyes of the understanding are enlightened. The spouse in the Canticles, hears the bridegroom's voice, saying, " Eat, Oh friends; and drink abundantly, Oh beloved:" she responds with the poet, "Sweet Jesus, what delicious fare! We may observe, before we leave this part of our subject, that the prayers, praises, and spiritual conversation of the saints are to Immanuel as the honeycomb, Solomon's Song iv. 11. Here, Christ, as the Bridegroom of the church, is represented as surveying his bride, listening to her deep sobs, her holy groans, her lofty strains of praise to her dying, living head, her edifying talk, and those gospel truths that fall from the lips of her ministers, and exclaiming, "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon." The ear of faith in the saints listens to the voice of the blood of sprinkling; and the ear of Jesus to their voice of prayer and praise. Thus he says, Songs v. 1. "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey." 3. What character is next introduced?" The hungry soul." If the things of which we have been speaking resemble the honeycomb, the soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the Lord's spiritual bee. Such a soul is under the promise, yea, under the blessing, Matt. v. 6. And though he has not now in this state full enjoyment, yet his hunger is a fruit and proof of spiritual life, and shall be satisfied with spiritual food. To the appetite of such a soul, every bitter thing is sweet, and proves salutary in the end. The rod, the furnace, gall or wormwood, the bread of adversity, and waters of affliction, are sweet and wholesome when sanctified. Any thing is better than carnal ease and dead formality. In the midst of all he can say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." I think we shall find on investigation, that there is some resemblance between the hungry soul and the bee. 1. The hungry soul resembles the bee, because he is in a second state of existence. The bee is originally a worn, (bees are bred from worms) so the christian is first the worm Jacob, before he becomes prevailing Israel.-2. The hungry soul is like the bee, because unclean in the eye of the law, Lev. xi. 20-23. We are here informed what winged creeping things might be eaten, as the locust, the beetle, and the grasshopper; but all others were unclean in the eye of the law. Now the bee is excluded, and consequently unclean. So is the family of God by nature as they stand related to Adam, before their conversion, and after their conversion, in their fleshy nature: and this, every heaven-born soul knows and groans under.-3. The hungry soul is like the bee, because it has got a poisonous hurtful sting, (not the sting of death, which was done away in the body of Christ) but the vile poisonous sting of sin, called a body of sin and death. The most favoured saint will carry this obnoxious sting till he drops mortality in the tomb. But this sting, like the bee's, is not in the head (Christ); no, the head has no sting; but in the body (the church.)-4. The christian resembles the bee, because they both follow their leader. There is in the hive a leader, whose hum the bees all follow. So Christ is the christian's leader, and he says, John x. 27. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." And he leads them unto green pastures, and flowery fields.-5. The bee and the hungry soul are |