church are to overcome. And this they do when they strictly attend unto what Christ commands. When they renounce themselves, and live upon Christ for direction, counsel, light, strength and victory; then they are sweetly led on in the good way which Jesus has marked out for them to walk in, and then they are truly in safety, when they are living wholly in him, to him, and for his glory. They are to overcome their coldness, lukewarmness, and remissness; their abatement of their first love and affection towards the Lord Jesus is to be repented of, and they are to be diligent in the use of the means for the recovery of it; and to be contending mightily with God for more victory over their spiritual enemies, and for more fervent love, zeal, and affection for the Lord, and for his people, cause and interest. To such the following promise is made, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

And here, in the Third place, I would consider the promise itself. And I may say of it that it contains unsearchable grace. The Lord Jesus Christ here promises the overcomer, the enjoyment of himself, and that perfectly in the heaven of heavens. Now if we inquire what this Tree of Life is? the answer will be, Christ is this Tree of Life; called so in allusion to the tree of life in the garden of Eden. And Christ may be so called because he is the author of life natural, spiritual, and eternal. He is compared to a tree, to show how deeply rooted he is in self-existence, absolute independence, and immutability in his divine nature. All life is originally in him, and all life comes from him. He is the true and living God, in whom we live, move, and have our being.", And it is in him all his people have their spiritual being, and from him it is they receive it. He gave them in himself a representative being from everlasting;

so that in the everlasting covenant he represented their persons, undertook their cause, became their Surety, and received the grant and gift of eternal life for them.

And he gave himself with all his blessings and benefits to his people, and has given himself to be the light of the spiritual world. Christ is the life of his people; and he is the tree of life to continue, maintain, and draw forth the life he has given unto his people into act and exercise. The tree of life in the garden of Eden,— which is generally supposed to be to Adam a symbol of his dependence on God, that, he received his life from him, and that it was preserved by his blessing and providence, and would be continued to him, provided he transgressed not the divine law; and might, perhaps, further serve to be a pledge to Adam, if he continued in his innocent state, of his immortality, -was after the fall a symbol of Christ the Tree of Life, of which whosoever eateth shall live for ever. And therefore Adam having sinned and lost his earthly paradise, he is barred from touching the tree of life in the midst of that garden; to teach him that his life, and the lives of all his posterity being forfeited, there could be no access for him or them upon the footing of the covenant of works. And the Lord was pleased to place" at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life." Which, according to an excellent commentator, contained in it the following meaning.

The cherubim and flaming sword placed at the east of the garden of Eden, to keep the way of the tree of life, were not for terror but for comfort; and were an hieroglyphic, showing that God m succeeding ages would raise up a set of prophets under the old testament, who would hold forth the word of life and light that word which is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,

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and that has both light and heat in it: and who would show to men the way of salvation, and observe unto them the true Tree of Life, and the way to it, even Christ, the way, the truth, and the life."

Christ is not only the true Tree of Life, but he has all the blessed fruits of spiritual life to impart unto his people. They feed by faith upon him. In him they live; by him they are quickened; through him they grow, and bring forth fruit unto eternal life. His fruit is sweet to their taste: it comforts their souls, cheers their spirits, and strengthens their inward man. The fruit is righteousness, pardon, peace, victory over all their enemies, and eternal redemption. This Tree of Life is said to be in the midst of the paradise of God, as the tree of life was in the midst of the garden of Eden. The situation of it points out how Christ is in the midst of his garden, the church; stands open, and in sight of, and is accessible unto all his people, who may come to him, and partake of the fruits and blessings of his grace, which are many, great, and durable: for with him are "durable riches and righteousness;" and his fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold. He is to his people a Saviour full of grace; and he is free to impart unto them such supplies of it as shall be for their good and for his glory. The church of Christ upon earth may be called a paradise, because here Christ affords his presence, here he breathes upon the hearts of his people; and by means of it the odour of their graces yields a divine perfume: and here it is the Lord Jesus delights to dwell and make his abode.

Jesus come off more than conquerors, he here promises them the full enjoyment of himself in the kingdom of his Father, where they shall find him to be unto them the 'Tree of Life indeed; who will continue them in the perfect enjoyment of eternal bliss, and will feed them with the blessings of his love for ever and ever. In the paradise above the saints will have a free access to Christ the Tree of Life. There they will see him as he is. They will there behold him face to face, and he will for ever be in the midst of them. By him they shall be led to the fountains of living waters; in him they shall enjoy everlasting pleasure; in communion with him they will be led to enjoy all the communicable blessings of the Godhead.

God in Christ will be to his people their everlasting portion, and their all in all. What a blessing will this be, to be admitted into paradise: the gates of this celestial city opening to admit us, upon the account of the obedience and blood-shedding of our Almighty Saviour. And we admitted thither to see Christ, the Tree of Life, in the midst of the paradise of God. And we to be there partaking and enjoying for ever the fruits of his incarnation, obedience, toil and pain. Believers, what a blessed state will this be! How should the promise of it animate you to walk worthy of your high calling and dignity! When we truly believe our interest in Christ and our title to glory, all things below, then appear little and inconsiderable in our eyes: we long to have done with mortal things, and to fly to the arms of our beloved Jesus, to be for ever with him, and to live for ever in the enjoyment of him. How should the hope of being ever with the Lord engage our hearts and affections, and fix them upon our great and glorified Head; and stir us up to the practice of every holy duty; and encourage us, and fill us with holy courage to fight faithfully under Christ's banner against sin, resisting the devil,

and press us on in the face of all dangers and difficulties, making us bold for God and his truth. Oh that we may be daily led to feed and feast our souls with the blessed fruit which grows upon Christ, the Tree of Life; and may we daily be led to consider that our life is hid with Christ in God, and that when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. O pleasing thought! O glorious prospect! To see Christ and to enjoy him—his love—his person-his glory in the paradise of God! May the Holy Ghost give us a real sense of it. Amen.

THE PLEA OF ZION'S CHILdren, and THEIR FELLOWSHIP WITH THE KING OF SAINTS.

“For this shall every one that is godly, pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.”Psalm xxxii. 6.

THE book of Psalms contains a variety of spiritual subjects, and each teems with its author's praise, namely, a triune God. When we commence reading the first psalms it appears like entering into a small avenue; but as we proceed, under the lifegiving influence of God the Eternal Spirit, we soon find that it becomes a vast expanse. In the first psalm the Holy Ghost has pointed out the contrast between the objects of God's peculiar choice and those that are living under satanic influence. The second psalm gives us an authentic account relative to the adversaries of our Lord rising up in hostility against, not only the children of the Most High, but their great Representative, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ: as it is written, "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed: saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord

shall have them in derision." But we do not range this luxuriant field far, before we find the inspired penman contemplating upon the wisdom and power of Jehovah, which shines so conspicuously in the formation of the starry heavens: but the brilliancy of these constellation lights, which move in such precision under the supreme control of the great God, did not produce such astonishment in his soul, as the thought that this wonderworking God should have compassion upon falling man. Surely we err not when we affirm that his heart must be pregnant with wonder, love and praise to the Eternal Three for the contrivance of such an amazing plan, wherein all the perfections of Deity harmonize in saving the church from the lowest hell, when he uttered the following language: “Lord (said he) what is man that thou art mindful of him?" Psalm viii. 4.

Lord, what is man? he well might say,
That in him thou shouldst take delight;
Though from thyself he 's gone astray,
Yet still he 's precious in thy sight.

I hinted, at the commencement, that the book before us was pregnant with subjects that bring a revenue of honours to the great searcher of hearts; and we may further add, that it is most assuredly calculated to regale the spirits of the living in Zion, as the ever-blessed Spirit unfolds its secrets to the mind. We have in the words at the head of this paper the very experience of the members of Christ's mystical body. And in looking up to the God of all my mercies for divine aid I purpose, First, to notice the characters in the text. 1. They are said to be godly: this appellation belongs to none but those who are turned by the mighty power of God from darkness to spiritual light. 2. It implies that they have a correct knowledge of God in his trinity of persons. 3, That they are in possession of God's Spirit, and that everblessed Agent has taken up his resi

dence in their hearts. 4. It is a conclusive evidence also that they have a scriptural view of their helpless condition as fallen sinners, and feelingly adhere to what the Lord says in his word concerning the perilous state of Adam's posterity, that they never can obtain salvation on the ground of their own obedience. 5. As the Holy Ghost is become their Teacher, and has given them a correct knowledge of the inflexibility of the justice of God, we may fairly infer and know, from our very soul's experience, that it is a truth that he gave these godly persons cited above a most blessed faith's view of the covenant of grace, and of Jesus as the one thing needful for their poor souls.

And whilst temptation's billows roll,

From sin they gladly flee;
How sweet when Jesus says, 'Poor soul
Come hither unto me.'

Their hearts are drawn to their dear Lord,
They gladly seek his face;
And plead the merits of his blood,

For worms so vile and base.

The Second thing that presents itself to our notice, in the words under consideration, is the prayers of those godly persons. And surely their prayers do not consist in a dry form of empty notions, which gratify so many thousands in the present day of awful departure from God: they are not written on scraps of paper, but on the fleshly tables of the heart by the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. iii. 3). They are taught to know that Jehovah can show mercy to poor perishing sinners, without the least infringement upon his infinite justice; and the divine Guide of spiritual Israel, namely, the good Spirit of our God, creates in their poor hearts a hungering and thirsting after the immense riches our spiritual Joseph has in reserve to bestow upon them: and they never can rest satisfied until they are brought sensibly into his endearing embraces. I have told you before that it is the need they feel of his July, 1840.]

helping hand that induces them to call upon his ever-blessed name; such souls can enter into the feelings of the Psalmist, when he said, "I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord," &c. Psalm cxlii. 4, 5. I know it is so from my own experience: but I will not affirm that all the Lord's called children have such awful discoveries of their lapsed condition as I had; neither do I deem it right to say that each subject of grace labours under such sore temptations as have fallen to my lot; nor will I testify that all Zion's family continue under law terrors so long as the writer did: but I make no reserve in declaring that I do firmly believe that each object of special favour, that is awakened from the sleep of spiritual death, has in a measure to taste of the above-named bitters; yea, they have enough of them to wean them from every thing that is dishonouring to God, and to make them cry mightily to his sacred Majesty for mercy. We find, by referring to the scriptures of truth, that the language of the old testament saints was in unison with what I have laid before the reader. "O that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and keep me from evil," &c. 1 Chron. iv. 10; "Make haste, O God, to deliver me: make haste to help me, O Lord," Ps. lxx. 1: "O Lord I am oppressed, undertake for me," Isa. xxxviii. 14. The language of another was thus, "I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord," Jonah ii. 2.

Thus we see, beloved friends, as I before said, the good Lord makes his people feel the need of what he has in reserve for them, and then inspires their hearts to plead for the same. The verse preceding our text will serve to illustrate the subject in hand: "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou

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forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Yea, I repeat it again, that

The Spirit makes the soul to pray,
And teaches likewise what to say,
Whilst on the bended knee;
Have mercy, is its earnest cry,
O Lord, my every need supply,
Thyself reveal to me.

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This leads me to notice the third particular in the words before us, which is the time that these godly persons are admitted by faith into the presence of the King of saints. It is at a time (said the psalmist) when thou mayest be found :" that is, the set time to favour Zion, according to the eternal purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own sovereign will. Again, the term "mayest be found "has its literal as well as its spiritual meaning. It shows that there are obstructions in the way, which the Lord and only him can remove, before the poor coming sinner can with propriety say with the church, My Beloved is mine and I am his :" which is a truth. And again, it is a term often used amongst men, sometimes when one man wants to solicit a favour of another: the inquiry is, Can I have an interview with Mr.? and the answer is, No, there are certain obstacles in the way, when these are removed thou mayest, &c. And thus it is with the Lord's people, though they are loved with an everlasting love, and Jehovah always looked with complacency upon them as he viewed them in their constituted Head and Husband, namely, the Lord Jesus; yet they cannot have access to his holy Majesty, until the following obstructions are removed out of the way, which we all are wedded to as born into this world. And, first, we cleave to a doing covenant: this is as natural to us as the air we breathe: we vainly think that the great Searcher of hearts will be pleased with what our puny hand can perform. Secondly, we make choice of our own righteousness, which is but filthy rags, in preference

to the imputed righteousness of Christ. Thirdly, we embrace the pleasures of this vain world as that which suits us well. This is a decisive truth. What power but the Lord's can bring a sinner to renounce the above evils. If I may so speak,

He speaks a word within the sinner's heart,
His cobweb garments doth before it fly;
And on his bended knees for mercy cry.
He then with idol gods doth gladly part,

The world with all its pleasures pass away,
And though his soul is filled with sore dismay,
Nor sin, nor Satan then can hold him fast;
The Lord declares such shall be saved at last.

Thus the Lord wounds and then heals: he kills and makes alive (Deut. xxxii. 39); he maketh poor and maketh rich; he bringeth low and lifteth up (1 Sam. ii. 6, 7). He brings the poor sinner to his banqueting house, and his banner over him is love (Song ii. 4). The language of the psalmist is familiar with the feelings of such a soul, "I love the Lord (said the man of God) because he hath heard my voice and my supplications; because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling [into eternal perdition]. I will walk [by faith] before the Lord, in the land of the living [or amongst the living sons and daughters of Zion]," Psalm exvi. 1, &c.

This leads me, in the last place, to make a few remarks relative to the floods of great waters; and inquire what we are to understand by their not being suffered so much as to come nigh those godly persons: but inust be brief. Waters in scripture sometimes have a reference to multitudes of people (see Rev. xvii. 15). Water also is a striking emblem of the sweet effusions of the Holy Spirit. which the Lord has promised should distil upon the plants of his right