QUERIES ANSWERED.

I. Anfwered by D. Darlington."

BY the word Hell, in this place, we are not to underft and the place of torment for the wicked; but only the fate of the dead. For the word tranflated grave in our bibles, in the Greek is bades; the very word that ftands for Hell in the creed. Therefore it is easy to reconcile the feeming contradiction; for tho' the body of our Saviour was confined in the grave three days, yet his human foul was in paradife, or a ftate of separate spirits, which is the place where the: fouls of the righteous remain from death till the refurrection. Any place of confinement may be called hell. Jonab, ii. 2.

The fame anfwered by Mr. JACKSON, Hutton Rudby, DURING the time of fuch confternation, which must naturally have affected the minds of all our Saviour's followers at the time of his crucifixion, it is hard to fay, whether they accurately observed every expreffion he uttered, with that precifion, which was really. neceffary at that time; for it has been the opinion of many learned men, that the point, or flop, in the original, is here wrong placed, being put after foi, instead of feemeron, by which it reads, “ verily I fay unto thee, to-day thou shalt be with me in Paradife ;" inflead, as they fuppofe, of, verily I fay unto thee to-day, thou shalt be with me in Paradife. However, be that as it may, we have no scripture authority for faying in our creed, that "he defcended into hell,'* for the body only defcended into the grave, whereas the fpiritual part was, without doubt, in a blessed state, or to use our Saviour's own words, in Paradise, along with the departed fpirit of the thief upon the crofs.-That our Saviour's spirit returned to the body on the third day, as he foretold, it is evident from its reanimation; but that it should have been in hell, during that time, is an hypothefis, which none but the promoters of that abfurd doctrine of a Purgatory, can believe. On the other hand, it is far more agreeable to his fcriptural office, to fuppofe that his sufferings had an end, when he departed this life, and that he then began (agreeably to his own words) to partake of his heavenly father's kingdom in Paradise, though perhaps not fully and compleatly till after his refurrection from the dead, and afcension into Heaven.

The fame answered by OEDIPUS, Stockton,

IT may be needless to examine into the particular period when this article of Christ's descent into hell was firft introduced into the

G 3

chriftian

6 isdeal You christian creed. If ie can be proved to rest upon fcriptural authority, nothing more can be neceffary to entitle, it to our belief, and what appears to me to place this beyond the reach of every reafonable doubt is the text of David, as applied by St. Peter, Asii. 27. indeed this renders it fo clearly evident, that with St. Auguftine we may exclaim, Quis nifi infidelis negaverit? To give a particular definition of what this bell was, would take up more room than it might be convenient to affin it. Sufficient therefore to fay; tho' it would be in vain to deny that the ancient Greeks and many of the Jews underfood, by the word Hades, that place in which the fouls of men, good or bad, are confined after death; yet is equally certain t that in the new Teftament neither Inferi nor Hades are ever taken in a good fenfe. To give but one inftance out of many: in the ftory of Lazarus, the rich man is faid to be tormented in Hell, but the place into which the Angels carried the poor man's foal has quite a different name given it; and moreover betwixt the two is a vast gulph fixed, By this and other arguments it might abundantly be proved that Hades, in fcripture, fignifies the place appropriated to the danaed. But I haften, to the best of my ability to reconcile the contradiction fuppofed in the Query. Chrift, as man, was compofed of foul and body like ourselves; but uniting his divinity to his manhood became pe fet God and perfect man. In his prophecies, miracles, and more particularly that ever glorious one of his own refurrection, we fee hie Godheal muft em neatly confpicuous; at other times, if be allowed the expreffion, it flood, as it were aloof, and we f may the man Christ Jelus-a man of the like paffions and subject to the fam: infirmities as ourfelves. But tho' we unite the two natures, we we must be cautious not to confound them- Becaufe Chrift died, his body was buried, and his foul defcended into hell, we arenot thenae to infer that the divine part of him, which admits of neither afcent nor descent but is at all times in all places, was no where elfe. Ubiquity is one of its most glorious attributes, Tho'in hell, still was it en earth, tho' on earth, yet was it in Paradife. Whither, faid the holy Pfalmift, fhall I go from thy fpirit? or whither hall flee from thy prefence? if I afcend up to Heaven, thou art there if I make my bed in Hell, behold thou art there alfu. Hence we may draw this fair and juft conclufion; as if Christ bad addreffed the penirent thief to the following purport. Tho' when I am dead and my body is laid in

*

fee

the

* A proper attention to these few particuars will, in my opinion, threw a very fatisfactory light upon the 5th query.

foul fhall defcend into the lower parts of the earth,

The undergo the condition of fuch as die in their fins, to fatisfie

there to

the law of death," fully to anfwer for the fins of men which I have taken upon myself and to divet every good man of his fears that satan fhall ever exercife dominion over his departed foul; yet, with that divine part of myself which fills all space with its prefence but is more gloriously manifested in that place of blifs where the fouls of good men made perfect remain there, I fay, fhalt thou be made partaker of their unspeakable happiness and with them await my cheering welcome" Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the World."

II Anfwered by ARISTÆUS.

EXODUS xxxiii, 11." And the Lord fpake unto Mofes face-to face, as a man fpeaketh unto his friend;" is nearly confonant with Gen. xviii. and xxxii, 30. Num. xii, 8. Deut. xxxiv, 10, &c. all which expreffions are contradicted in the other paffages, Exodus xxxiii. 20. St. John's Gospel i. 18. and many other places.Now fome have been of opinion that the fpirit of our Saviour, on great and important occafions, hath appeared in human form, from the beginning; and if fo, it would confirm these former accounts; and that the effence of God the Father, being invisible, would confirm the latter;-but how far this may account for these feeming contradictions, I will not fay.It appears to human reasoning, that God has never been seen and talked with, but through the eye and expreffion of Faith, in any **other form, than with his Son Jefus Chrift, and unless we allow this, we can only call the finger of God,"-" face to face,"-" mouth to mouth," his anger, hate, repentance, refreshing," &c. with other human affections and passions, only figurative expreffions, to bring them upon a level with man's carnal capacity, and for his better inftruction and information, fince it is known, or believed at leaf, that God is a pure spirit, without form or parts, that we know of, and confequently invifible to us, while we live, [Revelations i. 17.] but being dead [1. Corinthians xiii. 12.] we shall fee him, fa e to face, and know, even as alfo we are known.

The fame anfwered by D. Darlington.

We are fure no man ever faw, or can see God (whilft in the body) and live Exodus xxxiii. 20. God is a fpirit; there fore beyond the fight of corporeal eyes: hence we may infer, that Mofes beheld him in a vifion, perhaps under the fimilitude of an angel. See Numbers xii. 6. 8. which proves the affertion.

III. Anfwayed

III. Anfwered by D. Darlington.

I AM almoft at a loss how to give a philofophical reafon, why, &e. but we are fure of this, that when God brought the inhabitants of the earth and air to Adam, they were fill in their proper element; whereas the fish being inhabitants of the water, they could not confiftently be brought together, or form a part of the affembly, but were left to receive their names from future generations. We read the name of various birda in fcripture, but not once the name of a fifth except the leviathan, Job xli.

The fame anfwered by ARISTÆUS,

GOD in his unerring wisdom, knowing that the watry tribe could not live in the fame element with man, while he might give them all names, was probably the reafon why they were not, at that time, brought, along with the inhabitants of the earth and air, to Adam; nor did it appear very necessary, fince he knew that Adam or his pofterity would give names to each, as they should afterwards fall into his or their hands, for food, &c. in the fame manner as things only found out at this time, receive names from us.

PHILAGATHUS, the propofer, is of the fame opinion.

IV. Answered by IGNORAMUS. THE term Jacobite, as a political or party distinction, was first given in England to the partizans of James II. after he had abdicated the throne of thefe kingdoms; the term Jacobin had its fecular origin from a club of anti-royalifts, who met in the hall of the Dominican or Jacobin Friars in the rue St. Jacques at Paris, and, from them, was applied to all of the fame party through France. It is ufed with us as a word of opprobrium for those who differ from the ru ling party, respecting the propriety or neceffity of the prefent war. The political meanings of the words are as different as light and darknefs; because Jacobite, as first used, implied a believer in the hereditary, divine right of kings, whereas Jacobin fignifies one poffeffed of an opinion that kings are useless and often hurtful: but in the prefent state of parties in England, they are confounded by the ignorant, mifufed by the prejudiced, and despised by the impartial inspector into men and things-who is convinced from experience, that the fame object will prefent different furfaces to the obferver, according to his diffance from it, and the strength of his mental and corporeal facuttics.

The

1795.

69

The famed answared by "ARISTÆUS, qulla m JACOBINS Bus were, monks and nuns of the order of St. Dominic, and JACOBITES were a set of heretics set up by one Jacob a'Syrian, who acknowledged knowledged but one will, nature, and operation in Chrift, a ufed circumcifion in both fexes, figned their children with the fign of the cross, imprinted with a burning iron, and affirmed that angels s confifted of two of two natures, fire and light. Thefe opinions, fo contrary to the fundamental points of religion about to be established by the protestants in the days of James II. made them give the name of yo cobites to the

principles andzans of this king, and the abettors of his religious on

ain in at abfolute power; and for much the fame reafon, he I apprehen, the Jacobine in France have derived their title; tho I Juod think, al levellers, fupplanters, and equality-men well deferve the von name of Jacobite or Jacobin, from Jacob, who first took away high-s brother's birthright, and afterwards his bleffing.

V. Answered by Mr. JACKSON, Hutton-Rudby.

IT appears by the holy fcriptures that the precife time of the day of judgement is kept by God as a secret to himself; we are therefore not to know the hour, nor is it to be communicated to us, either by T angel or by the son of God himfelf, to the intent that we may be on xɔyy our watch every hour; but this does not militate against the omniul) 947 fcience of Christ, as God, but only as man, feeing that he was not his to communicate it to man; for while our bleffed Saviour was upon the earth, though God, he still had like paffions with man, fuffered (12 as a man, and in this cafe knew no more than another man, and say. ing this of him is no blafphemy; but to fay that this militated againft his omniscience, as God, would be a blafphemy against the Holy Ghof, never to be forgiven. (Vide Matthew xii. 31, 32.) The fame anfwered by D. Darlington.

BY no no means 4 the Son, as God, knew it, but, as man, he knew it not; neither was it needful that he should, because no way neceffary to the falvation of our fouls. All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." John xv. 15.

VI. Anfwered by Mf. JACKSON. DITHYRAMBUS, bis vitæ portas tranfiens, quia natus ex Semele deinde è Jovis femore.

The