call it Jehovah, and they not only ascribe the name, but the worship of God to him. Our Saviour speaks of himself, as ascending into heaven, as coming down from heaven, and as being in heaven, at one and the same time (John iii, 13); yet he says to Mary, after the resurrection of his body, "touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” (i. e. God's)?" Jesus here unveiled this word is meant a person: they that mystery in the presence of all the Jews, maintaining that he was the Son of God, in whose, house he was at the time: it was a solemn feast of the Jews, where the whole nation was assembled, and in the midst of an assembly of their doctors he declared the temple to be the house of his Father. He was at this time only twelve years of age, and his mother, instead of "keeping all He says "that all men should these sayings in her heart," might honour the Son, even as they honour well deem him guilty of undutiful the Father ;" John v, 23. That he rudeness, if he were merely the son gives unto his followers eternal life, of Joseph. Again, at the marriage and that no one is able to pluck them of Cana, why should his mother hint out of his Father's hand, nor out of to him, that wine was wanting ?- his own hand, because he and the Did she expect the son of this poor Father are one. That he will come carpenter to purchase it? No, the with his Father, and make his abode sequel shews that she required a mir-||with the righteous man; that whereacle from him. Jesus, not approving ever two or three are gathered tothat she should take the libertyto dic-gether, he is in the midst of them : tate to him, makes use of this extraor- now certainly ubiquity is a proof of dinary expression to his own mother: Godhead. He says, that all things "Woman, what hast thou to do with that the Father hath are his, and me? Or what have I to do with therefore that the Holy Ghost shall thee?" Thou hast performed the receive or take of his, and shall shew decrees of heaven in giving me birth, it to his disciples. Before Abram was, but must not interfere with my di-says Christ, I am could he have vine nature. He gives a yet further existed before he came into the world, degree of light into this matter, when as an Angel? certainly not; for St. his mother seeking to come to him, Paul says, " let all the Angels of God he says, "who is my mother, and worship him ;" and Angels could my brethren (i. e. my kinsmen) ?"never be commanded to worship one It is probable Joseph was dead be- another. St. Peter tells us, that the fore our Saviour entered on his min- Holy Ghost (who inspired the proistry at all events, his making no phets of old) was the spirit of Christ. mention of his reputed father, shews How could these prophets be inspirhow careful he was to avoid any led by the spirit of a person not in exthing that might obscure his miracu-istence, or how could they be inspirlous birth. The objectors have nexted by any other Spirit than the Spirasserted, that St. John borrowed his it of God? Our Saviour himself term of Logos, or Word, (which he proves that the Holy Ghost is his asserts was God from the beginning, and was incarnate, or made flesh) from the schools of the Greek philosophers whereas, the very same term, with the same signification, is to be found in the old Jewish writings, the Jerusalem Targum, the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the Targum of Onkelos; they shew that by Spirit, by breathing on his Apostles to confer this Holy Ghost upon them. In Isaiah xlviii, 16, the Messiah says, "And now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me and his Spirit :" here are clearly three distinct, separate persons, one sending and two sent.St. Thomas's calling our Saviour his Lord and his God, was no exclama SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1831. The Christian Sabbath.-The Sabbath was originally instituted in commemoration of the work of the creation. "In six days the Lord tion, such were neither common in Lutheran Magazine. the times or in the language of the Jews: if he were wrong, our Saviour might have said, "I am indeed thy Lord and Master, but not thy God." The objectors profess a high opinion for St. Paul; it is a pity they do not observe his plain declarations of our Saviour's Godhead. He says, that the man Christ Jesus is the Lord from Heaven-1 Cor. xv, 47. That he was over all God blessed for ever. That he was in the form of God, and equal with God, though he was ed it." Another reason for the obfound in fashion as a man. That he is the image of his Father the invis-servance of the Sabbath, is given by ible God. That he is before all Moses, in his repetition of the law things, that all things were created to the Israelites :-" Remember that by him, and by him all things con- thou wast a servant in the land of sist. That in him dwelleth all the ful made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallow ness of the Godhead bodily-Col. ii, Egypt, and that the Lord thy God 9. Can all the art and ingenuity of brought thee out thence, through a man explain away this expression? mighty hand, and by an out-stretchChrist declares he had a glory with ed arm; therefore, the Lord thy God God before the world was: John commanded thee to keep the Sabxvii, 5. "God, who at sundry times bath." This declaration was addreshad spoken to our fathers by the prophets now speaks by his son," says sed to the Jews, who were commandSt. Paul. In the parable it is par-ed to observe and sanctify the seventh ticularly said, "Having therefore one day of the week, as the the Sabbath Son," St. Paul calls him "God man-of the Lord, in commemoration of ifest in the flesh." St. John, epis But after the introduction of the tle 1, calls him the true God, and the creation of the world, and their twice the Eternal Life which was deliverance from Egyptian bondage: with the Father, and was manifest And this is usually termed the Jewto us. He invokes mercy from God ish Sabbath. the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father: why should this be so particularly speci-Gospel dispensation, and the estabfied, if he were only man, the great-lishment of the Christian Church, est of all the prophets? The jews the Sabbath was changed from the understood Christ clearly, that by seventh to the first day of the week: calling himself the Son of God, he meant that he was of God; and for And this is termed the Christian this very blasphemy (as they pro- Sabbath, or Lord's-day. This change fanely called it) they persuaded Pi- was observed by the first Christians, late to crucify him, and afterwards because Jesus Christ, by his resurreviled him on the cross. How can rection from the dead, on the first any man profess to believe the resurrection of our Saviour, yet deny his incarnation and Godhead, when the one is as clearly demonstrated from scripture as the other? day of the week, consecrated that day as the Christian Sabbath. By this and several other important events, which occurred soon after wards, on the first day of the week,||of all his worshippers, in the differour Lord clearly intimated his in-ent ages of the world and successive tention, that the first, instead of the dispensations of his church. It was seventh day of the week, should be made for man:-And altho' Chrisobserved by his followers, as the tians are not bound to keep the same Lord's day. day with the Jews, they are under equal, if not greater obligations, to observe a day of religious rest, This change was instituted on good authority. Jesus Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, had an unquestionable for the worship of God, and indulgright to make it. And the authority ing in serious reflections and devout which he exercised in changing the meditations. Sabbath, renders it also obligatory on To us, therefore, it appears very his followers. This change, there- strange, that there should be Chrisfore, did not abolish the Sabbath. tians who consider themselves under It cannot exonerate us from the mo- no obligations to keep the Sabbath. ral obligation of remembering the God himself instituted the Sabbath Sabbath day and keeping it holy.- -he hath blessed and hallowed itJesus Christ merely altered a cere- it is the Lord's day, which he has monial institution-he interfered with consecrated by his resurrection from no moral obligations. We have no- the dead and entrance into his restthing to do with the ceremonial in- It is a day distinguished by the outstitution of the Jews; and, therefore, pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the we are not bound to keep the par-Apostles, and the establishment of ticular day, which was prescribed to the Christian Church-it is a holy them. But the moral law requiring day, set apart for the service of God, us to keep one day out of seven, as a and the duties of the sanctuary-it Sabbath unto the Lord, is binding is the Sabbath of the Lord, which upon us as well as upon them.- he has instituted for his own glory, This law has never been repealed-and the salvation of our souls-and it was sanctioned by our Saviour-such a day surely, we should supit is still in force, and its obligations pose, that Christians were under obare perpetual. ligations to keep. - It is admitted, that we are exempt These views we have thought profrom many duties which were requi- per to express, that we might not red of the Jews, under the legal dis- be misrepresented on this important pensation. We live under the gos- subject, and we hope, that we shall pel of Jesus Christ, and are no lon- be correctly and fully understood by ger subject to the law of Moses-but our readers. We cannot agree with we are not exempt from the moral those, who regard the Sabbath as a obligation of keeping the Lord's mere ceremonial institution, which day. We are commanded to wor-was limited to the Jewish economy, ship God, and study our religious and abolished by the Christian disimprovement. For this purpose the pensation. We consider it a divine Sabbath was instituted. God bless-institution, which God blessed and ed and hallowed it, for the benefit sanctified from the creation of the world, for the benefit of his wor-||tament cannot ever be discovered, shippers, under the various dispensations of the Church. We view it as part of the moral law, which was sanctioned by our blessed Saviour, and is consequently obligatory on his followers. And although the New Testament contains no express command to keep the Sabbath, we believe, that Christians are bound to observe and sanctify it, as much as to obey any other commandment of the decalogue. much less supported, without the help of the old Testament. Hence, our Saviour exhorted the unbelieving Jews, who were ignorant of the truths of his gospel, to "search the Scriptures." In this exhortation, he referred to the Old Testament, which were the only scriptures, the Jews then possessed. He accused them of many errors, and he told them, that these errors proceeded from their ignorance of the Scriptures."Ye do always err, not knowing the The Old Testament.-There are Scriptures." The Bereans were comsome professing Christians, who pay||mended, because when they heard St. but little regard to the scriptures of Paul preach the gospel, and explain to the Old Testament. They say, that them the religion of the New Testhe religious institutions which ex-tament, "they searched the Scripisted under the former dispensation, tures daily"; and when they were are abolished-that Jesus Christ in-convinced, from a daily examination troduced a new dispensation-that of the Scriptures of the Old Testathe religion which he instituted rests ment," that these things were so," altogether on the authority of the many of them believed. They reNew Testament-and that, conse-ceived the truths of the gospel, bequently, the Old Testament is no cause they agreed with the testimolonger necessary to support it. ny, and were established by the authority of the Old Testament. Paul reasoned with his hearers out of the Scriptures. It was considered an eminent qualification in Timothy, as a religious teacher under the New Testament, that "from a child he This is rather a singular way to get rid of the Old Testament and by whatever motives this reasoning may be influenced, we consider it a direct attack on the authority of the Holy Scriptures. So necessary and inseparable is the connexion be- knew the Scriptures." tween the Old and New Testament, What then shall we think of those that the authority of the former can-ministers of the gospel, who tell not be subverted, without destroying their hearers, that they have nothing the foundation of the latter. He to do with the Old Testament-that who denies the Old Testament can- they must confine their attention alnot consistently believe in the New, together to the New Testamentbecause the New Testament is foun- that it contains all that is necessary ded on the Old. We consider the for them to know, and that, conseOld Testament necessary to estab-quently, they need no longer read lish the New; and we believe that the Old Testament. We say it is a many of the truths of the New Tes-dangerous and wicked attempt to sap Γ the foundation of the Holy Scriptures. And it must indeed be a bad cause, which drives men, under the sacred profession of Christianity, to such desperate attempts against the authority of God's word; & when men go to such extremes, nothing more is necessary to convince us, that they are under the influence of a spirit of delusion. they should be united in sentiment, in order to have christian fellowship with each other. And if they can only agree so far as to disagree, they can be unequally yoked together. Hartwick Synod.-It gives us pleasure to lay before our readers, the following notice of this synod, taken from the "Evan. Magazine of the Evan. Luth. Church in the United States ;" published by a committee of the west Pennsylvania Synod, and edited by Rev. Professors Schmucker and Hazelius of the Theological Seminary at Gettysburgh. Conversation between a Unitarian and a Trinitarian.-The article which we have published under this head, gives a fair representation of some of the views and sentiments of Unitarians. They are a liberal sort We feel grateful to our brethren of Christians, who can accommodate for the interest they have expressed themselves to the feelings and wishes in the establishment of our Synod, of all with whom they meet. Their and their wishes for its success and religion consists in a feeling of char-prosperity. We desire to have our ity, which never crosses the disposi-labors approved by all who feel an tion of sinners, and suffers them to interest in our cause; and such exdo just as they please. They have pressions of interest, and assurances no regular organization, as a church, of approbation, are always very gratin this country, and are to be found ifying to our feelings. in almost every denomination. But, "From the 7th number, of the in whatever form they may be dis- 4th Vol. of the Lutheran Magazine, guised, they can always be known which we have lately received, we by their love of free enquiry, and perceive, that a Convention of ten inveterate hatred of orthodoxy.-Ministers and licensed Candidates, and 12 Delegates from as many Conthe State of New-York, was held at gregations, in the Western parts of Schoharie, on the 26th and 27th of October 1830; in which it was pro There is only one article in their religion, which they regard as essential; and that is, sincerity. If a man only is sincere, no matter what he believes, or disbelieves, he must be acknowl-posed and determined, to form a new edged as a good christian. Unitarian Ministers are very strongly opposed to all religious tests. They think it is wrong, that they should be required to make any specific declarations of faith. They are unwilling to come under any other obligations, than to preach the Gospel; neither do they consider it necessary, that Rev. Synod in said state, under the title |