Isle of Thanet. Let mortals thirst for fame, When mingling with the dust, A mere unconscious clod, They leave upon their marble bust, Let youth, delight in health Let beauty, flatt'ry love; Let the low miser's sordid wealth, His pleasure prove: But health and beauty fade, And gold's to dust allied, And God who hath their projects weigh'd, Their thoughts deride. But happy-truly blest! Yea, blest beyond compare! Whate'er his troubles here, They cannot vex him long, His God's engag'd to fight, So vict'ry is secure; Clad in his armour-in his might, His triumph's sure. And when he quits this earth, On wings divine he'll soar, To join in pure seraphic mirth Halsted. LIBERTY ANTICIPATED BY A CAPTIVE. A Captive in a house of clay, My spirit longs to fly To regions of eternal day, In yonder cloudless sky. There shall my free unfetter'd soul, Her ev'ry pow'r employ As angels do, who know no toil- No heart of stone to chill their lays- They sing, unwearied, hymns of praise, How cold the accents of my song, But when I have an angel's tongue, J. ** B. 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." MARCH, 1831. (For the Spiritual Magazine.) 1 John v. 7. Jude 3. A CIRCULAR LETTER OF THE SUFFOLK AND NORFOLK NEW ASSOCIATION OF BAPTIST CHURCHES ON CHRISTIAN UNITY. Beloved in the Lord, WE now for the first time address you under the character of a new association, and would rely upon the ministry and teachings of the Holy Spirit for direction and spirituality in what we write. You have been taught by him, to know that every means which may be employed for the edification of the church in faith and love, will prove ineffective and unavailing without the light and energy of his influences. All spiritual life and wisdom are from him; and under the consciousness of our dependence on him, we approach his divine and adorable Majesty, as a person coequal with the Father and the Son; beseeching him, in the name of Jesus, to pour out his illuminating unction upon our minds, to direct our judgment, to counsel us by his word, and to draw us into fellowship with you in our glorified Head, that we may be blessed together, and strengthen each other's hands in the Lord. The circumstances which have made it necessary for us to withdraw from those with whom we were formerly associated, will, we trust, tend to the furtherance of the gospel. Some of those circumstances have been painful; but our consciences bear us witness in the sight of God, that we have not been actuated by a dividing spirit, nor a want of brotherly kindness and charity; but by a singleness of mind, and a supreme desire to maintain the purity, and promote the glory, of the kingdom of Christ by means of the truth. If our brethren impute other motives to us, they do us wrong; and if in VOL. VII.-No. 83. 2 P any With the instance we have offended against the law of love, and through the corruption or infirmity of our fallen nature, have been betrayed into a temper or an expression which may have wounded any of the members of our Lord's mystical body, we would confess the fault with humility and sorrow, and request that it may not be remembered. Justice, however, requires that a distinction should be made between the earnestness of zeal for the cause of God and truth, and the heat and bitterness of unsanctified passion. As we have been allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, we have a serious and momentous responsibility; and the welfare of the church, within the circle of labour assigned to us, subordinately depends upon our being found faithful. A dereliction of our trust would incur the highest guilt. Should not the weight of this responsibility affect us, and give a bias and determination to our conduct? integrity of stewards, should we not jealously guard the treasure which is committed to us, and use it as those who must give an account? We have been influenced by this consideration. Some of the associated ministers appeared to us to err in embracing or countenancing sentiments contrary to the principles upon which our union was professedly founded, and to the doctrines of sovereign and discriminating grace; sentiments false in theory and baneful in their tendency, and against which we feel ourselves bound most earnestly to protest; and as we are sensible that we have no right to affect the control of any man's judgment, we proposed that the several churches should be requested to consider whether it would not be advisable to come to an amicable division of the association. The motion being objected to, it was withdrawn, lest by urging it we should provoke an unavailing contention and as co-operation for the most important objects could not be consistently continued without unity of judgment, no other course was open to us but that which we have taken. Reviewing our steps, we thank God, and take courage; and with a view to further the design of our present association, and to promote the harmony and peace of the churches, we have resolved to address to you a few reflections upon the interesting subject of CHRISTIAN UNITY. By the terms " CHRISTIAN UNITY," we wish to be understood as meaning the unity of the saints in one body and by one spirit in Christ Jesus; and as that unity is a lovely effect of reigning grace, and of great practical utility and importance, it is requisite that we should have a definite conception of its nature. It is necessary that we should distinguish between unions which may subsist between nominal or real christians, and the unity of the saints. An oversight of this essential distinction has been the source of mistakes in judgment and practice; and in many instances, has subjected upright men to the imputation of having violated christian unity, when they have only refrained from unions which they could not conscientiously enter into or continue, and have declined to act with those with whom they could not, on scriptural grounds, co-operate. The distinction is easy and obvious. A body consisting of various parts, members, vessels, and organs, animated by one vital principle, affords an example of unity. A faggot bound together by an exterior band, is an instance of union without unity: the several sticks that compose the bundle are indeed put together, but they are not incorporated into each other.-If we remove one from the rest, we break no unity, because there was no common principle to make them one body. If these illustrations are not the most perfect or appropriate, they are at least sufficient for the purpose of showing that we consider the unity of the saints, to be essentially superior to those external unions, which have been formed for various purposes, between the professors of the common faith, and which have been unhappily held up to view as examples of christian unity. Before we enter into the practical consideration of the subject, it may be useful to advert to the causes which give birth to the unity of the saints. These will appear to be purely evangelical, spiritual, and divine, and if they be well understood, and realized in the heart by faith and love, they will suggest the sweetest motives to the believer to cultivate the most cordial unity with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. In thus adverting to its causes, christian unity will be traced up to an eternal and ever-living root, from which it shall grow up unto perfection, and be for ever verdant and fruitful in the fair world to which we go. The unity of the saints has its origin in divine love. They are one in the grace of the infinite mind, and from everlasting were brought forth and embosomed in the decree of election as the offspring of Jehovah's love. What they will be in the ultimate beauty and blessedness of their perfect unity, in the morning of the resurrection, when the whole church shall be arrayed in the splendid robes of her glorified immortality, as a bride adorned for her husband, that they ever were in the affection and foreviews of uncreated intelligence. The three self-subsisting Persons in the infinite essence embraced the church, with all her numerous members, as the one object of their ineffable complacency and delight.-Through every period of time, and in all her diversified states, they have the same intuitive view of her perfect unity. My dove, my undefiled, is one : she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her," Sol. Song vi. 9. She is thus perfected in love objectively, in the mind of the great and blessed God, as the ground and pattern of that perfection which the elect shall subjectively attain and enjoy. Upon the footing of his eternal purpose, they have one being in grace, and are ordained to one eternal life, in purity and happiness. 66 How is this consideration calculated to excite them to love one another with a pure heart fervently! What a motive does it afford to mutual affection, sympathy, and good-will! If this unity be felt in the Spirit's sacred power, it will check and restrain our resentments, prejudices, and unhallowed suspicions towards any of the Lord's dear family, and will produce a conduct marked with tenderness, gentleness, benevolence, and esteem. Each heart that feels The vital beams of everlasting love, And shines with love to God and love to man. Divine truth is to be prized for its practical efficacy. In all its parts it is the standard by which every principle of true holiness is to be ascertained; the medium by which believers are sanctified. Nothing is evangelically right in motive or action which is not founded in the belief, and regulated by the doctrines and testimony, of revelation. Nor does the scripture present a truth to our consideration of a merely abstract and speculative kind. Every doctrine is a ground of holy practice. The doctrine of election is not less valuable for its sacred tendency in the heart and conduct of a believer, than it is essential to be believed as an article of the faith once delivered to the saints. Besides other practical uses to which it may be applied, it is referred to by the apostle as a motive for the unity of the saints, and for the exercise of their affection and kindness one to another. "Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness," Col. iii. 12-14. In a further view of the unity of the saints, it will appear that they are all one in Christ Jesus. The mystery of the will of God consists in his having chosen, adopted, saved, and blessed them in him. The gospel unfolds this mystery, and reveals it as a fundamental and cardinal truth in the economy of grace. The doctrines of redemption, pardon, justification, and eternal life, meet in it as a common centre. It is the sun in the evangelical firmament that illuminates the system; the medium, in the building of mercy, by which the superstructure is permanently fixed upon the foundation, and the whole church enjoys salvation in the person and work of the Mediator by faith. Believers being constituted one in Christ, and one with him by an eternal act of the divine will, as the body with its parts and members is one with the head, and as the branches, foliage, and fruit of a tree, are originally one in the root; a preparation was thus made in the early reign of grace for his being their federal head and representative. Accordingly he rose up in the morning of the divine counsels, arrayed in his mediatorial attire, and was anointed and inaugurated into his offices as Prophet, Priest, and King, that he might redeem and bless them: and by the stipulation of the everlasting covenant, their sins were passed over to his account, and they were covered with the robe of his righteousness. Their responsibility, as transgressors of the law, devolved upon him their |