Obituary. DIED on Sunday June 18, 1826, at her residence in Warterloo Road, Lambeth, Miss. Rebecca Bowles, in the 24th year of her age. The sudden and unexpected departure of this young female was improved by the delivery of a funeral discourse at the New Jerusalem Temple, Waterloo Road, on Sunday evening, June 25. The preacher took for his text these words of the Lord, "Watch and pray for ye know not when the time is." He strongly pressed upon the minds of his hearers, the importance of a truly religious life, and how necessary it was to make timely preparation for an eternal state of existence. POETRY. PLEASURES OF AN ACTIVE MIND. -The man who consecrates his hours By vigorous effort and an honest aim, At once draws out the sting of life and death, To lash the ling'ring moments into speed, GUILT AND GOODNESS. GUILT is the source of Sorrow! 'tis the fiend, Th' avenging fiend that follows them behind With whips and stings. The blest know none of this, But rest in everlasting peace of mind, And find the height of all their heaven is GoODNESS. GOOD NATURE. Good sense and learning may esteem obtain ; THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, AND Theological Enspector. AUGUST, 1826. ANSWERS TO "QUESTIONS TO TRINITARIANS." We have received a printed paper from the Rev. J. Mossop, entitled "Questions to Trinitarians," copies of which he says has been freely distributed in the neighbourhood of Deeping, Lincolnshire, where he resides. In the hope that these Questions with the Answers to them will prove beneficial to the Church, and acceptable to our readers, by exhibiting the follies of Unitarianism, we have been induced to give them a place in our Work. The printed paper contains 35 Questions, and is entitled :-"Questions proposed for the consideration of those who maintain the Doctrine that our Lord Jesus Christ himself is truly God." As the New Jerusalem Church teacheth" that our Lord Jesus Christ himself is truly God," and as these questions deny this important fact, we feel it an imperative duty which we owe to the cause of Truth to answer them. We must, however, candidly acknowledge that we cannot answer them upon Trinitarian principles; for we firmly believe that the doctrine which teacheth a plurality of distinct Persons in the Godhead, teaches at the same time plurality of Gods. We shall answer them upon the principles of the New Jerusalem, which teach that God is One in Essence and in Person, and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that God. ANSWERS. 3 Yes; what is true of the Father is true of the Christ or anointed; "for what things soever He (the Father) doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in Himself." John v. 20, 26. ; con 4. This is one of those quibbling questions, which are stantly put by those who are "boasters of liberty fast bound in chains!" No man in his right mind would ever suppose that two distinct names are given without having two distinct ideas attached to them. And when it is asked, "Did Christ anoint himself, being at once both the anointer and the anointed?" the answer is No! Christ is the anointed, not the anointer, and yet the Father and Christ are one and the same being. God, or the Father, when mentioned in connection with Christ or the anointed, is a term expressive of the Eternal God, with regard to his Divine Love, which is the Esse of Deity, and the spring of all creation, and Christ, anointed, or Son, are terms used to express the same Divine Being with regard to his Divine Wisdom or Truth, thus the LOVE flows into the WISDOM and gives it all its energy and strength, just as all the energies of the human will flow into and are contained in the Understanding, and as the thought is in speech, and affection in the sound of the voice. Thus God anointeth Christ,-the Father is in the Son, and "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," and further, as the human will and understanding are not two men, but one man; ᏚᏫ God and Christ are not two Divine Beings but One Infinite and Eternal Lord. 5. A due consideration of the above, will answer the present question, and indeed almost the whole of the subsequent ones. It does not follow that because God and Christ are one and the same Being, that he is both begotten and unbegotten. Observe the distinction between the two terms and there will be no mystery. The Father is the Divine Love, the Son the Divine Wisdom λoyos or QUESTIONS. 6. If Christ, and the being styled in scripture the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, be one and the same Being, then does it not follow that Christ is the God and father of himself? 7. If the Father and the Son be the same individual Being, does it not follow that Christ is both the Father and the son of himself? that that he sent himself? ascended to himself when he ascended to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God, John xx. 17? and now sitteth at the right hand of himself? that he prayed to himself, when he prayed to his Father, whom he calls the only true God, John xvii. 3? and submitted his own will to the will of himself, when he prayed to the Father, Luke xxii. 42, "Not my will but thine be done?" and forsook himself, when he prayed to the Father, Matt. xxvii. 46, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" 66 ANSWERS. Word, and o λoyos, (the Word) was God; this o hoyos (or Word) which was God, was made flesh, or was manifested in the flesh, and we beheld the glory of IT. The term begotten is a phrase used to express, that material form or body in which the Lord manifested himself and visited his people, and by which the important work of redemption was accomplished. This material form or body is no part of the infinite and eternal God. We may further illustrate this subject by saying that the human body is in nature the first and only begotten of the Soul, but this begotten forms no part of the true spiritual immortal man. We may observe still further, that the Divine Wisdom is the out-birth of, and as it were proceeds from the Divine Love, the Son proceeds from the Father, and in this sense Christ is the onlybegotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 6. This is the same sort of question, only couched in different terms. If the distinction be observed between Christ, and the Being styled God and Father of Christ, the intelligent reader will discover at a glance, that it does not follow that Christ is the God and Father of Himself!!! The object of Unitarians is to put all questions relative to the Deity of Christ, in as ridiculous a light as they can well be put but an intelligent man will not fail to detect this sophistry. 7. The first part of this question is the same as the foregoing. But the objection is, that if God and Christ be one and the same individual Being, it follows that Christ sent himself, ascended to himself, prayed to himself. and forsook himself. A little attention to these terms, will at once dismiss this supposed mighty objection. I must beg of the reader not to lose sight of the distinction above alluded to; The Father is the Divine Love, the Son the Divine Wisdom, the latter proceeds from the former. God, as divine Truth, assumed the human form for the purposes of Redemption. This Divine Truth in its regular descent to man is the sent of God, and this Divine Truth when received by man, works a mighty change in the soul and life, and returns with its QUESTIONS. 8. If Christ be God Almighty, possessed of all power, with what truth could he declare, that of his own self he could do nothing, John v. 19, 30; and that to sit on his right hand, and on his left, was not his to give. Matt. xx. 23 ? 9. Was God Almighty the infinite, eternal and unchangeable Jehovah, once a helpless infant, indebted to the care of one of his own creatures for protection from injury, and for the supplies of animal life, and carried from place to place at the will of his nurse in her supporting arms? ANSWERS. happy possessor into life and bliss. 8. Christ the Anointed, is the Divine Truth, which alone and of itself can do nothing. All things are ef fected from the Divine Love, the Father and God, my means of the Divine Truth, the Son, or Christ. 9. No! But the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Jehovah, put on, for the purposes of Redemption, an infirm humanity, which in the first state, was a form of helplessness; this form, however, from its great power within, grew mightily, and was perfected in this natural degree |