On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    religion of the good citizens of Geneva are so obsequiously dependent on the ipsi diwerunt of their pastors , that , if they were once to learn that the doctrines generally received by the present Church of Geneva were the very antipodes of those held by

    that Church in the sixteenth century , and that there existed any difference of opinion among * the present members of the Venerable Company , the astounding intelligence would shock " their faith and piety ; " that , were this tremendous secret to be disclosed , the inference which would of course

    be drawn , would be , —not what we , plodding Englishmen , are accustomed to deduce from the same premises , namely , that men are fallible , that teachers may be mistaken , that truth is the common property and should be the sincere pursuit of all , that no

    human authority is to be implicitly confided in , and that we must search the Scriptures independentl y and for ourselves , —but that * the Holy Scripture is self-contradictory I" — What a state of mind , in both pastors and people , is here unveiled 1 The

    one desiring , and the other submitting to , a condition of implicit credence , worthy of the darkest regions of Popery ; a blind faith , which the slightest reflection shews to be no faith at all , but a mere compound of ignorance , indifference and disbelief ! And is

    such a mental and moral bondage the condition of the Genevese population , all ranks of whom are so celebrated for their habits of reading and thinking *? Or , are we to suppose that religion , the loftiest science and the first interest of men , is the only subject upon winch they are content to be " willingly ignorant "?

    I cannot , however , but fear that the melancholy picture , thus unwittingly drawn , is but too correct . It is a wellknown fact that , among this interesting but unhappy people , indifference

    and contempt of all serious religion , bold infidelity and open flagitiousness , have been fearfully increasing , in proportion to the departure from the ancient doctrines . The substitute for

    despised Calvinism has proved its insufficiency to stem the torrent of moral corruption . Vain were the admirable writings of Alphonsus Turrettin and James Vernet , on the Evidences and the Claims of Revelation : vain

    Untitled Article

    the various erudition , the powerful arguments and the winning eloquence , with which they pleaded for " The Truth of the Christian Religion . ' * Alas ! They had drawn off the heart ' sblood of Christianity ; and they

    dreamed of sustaining her life by fine disquisitions on the strength and symmetry of her skeleton ! Infidelity spread tremendously and rapidly among all ranks , and dissolute manners kept pace with it : while the clergy , with very few exceptions , held on their

    blind career , more and more consign * ing the gospel of Christ to oblivion , preaching paltry philosophy and empty morality with a vapid and ostentatious eloquence , as bad in point of taste as it was barren of good effect , servilely

    learning their sermons and performing them in the pulpit as an actor on the stage , and exhibiting the miserable experiment of building houses on the sand , and with sand for all the materials .

    But perhaps another reason existed for this horror at the republication of the Helvetic Confession , When subscription to the Confession of Faith was abolished , one of the requirements then enacted was . that candidates for

    the ministry should promise to teach nothing that is " contrary to the Consensus Helveticus , or the Confession of the Gallican Church . " ( See Mon , Repos . p . 409 of this volume . ) The

    clergy might well feel alarmed at the conviction going abroad that , while they were fettering minds , dictating how men should preach , and silencing and persecuting such as maintained the doctrines of those formularies ,

    they themselves had entered upon their ministry under a solemn pledge not to oppose those very declarations , a pledge which they were conscious that they were habitually and flagrantly violating 1 It is not for them to say that the promise was an improper one . Be it so . The alternative of

    honest men was , either not to have made the promise , or , if afterwards they discovered its impropriety , to renounce the places and emoluments which they held upon the faith of this

    pledge . Doubtless , it would be no welcome thing to these gentlemen , to have the . ir inconsistency and bad faith held forth to the public . VI . M . Ami Host , the author of Gendve Religieuse . Of this gentle-

    Untitled Article

    472 Dr . J . Pye Smith in Reply to Professor Ckenevi&re ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 472, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/24/