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

    as serious proofs of the depraved state of morals qf the members of the Genevese Church j they are no more proofs of it than the drunken ribaldry of a few soldiers in an ale-house at

    Homerton , would be proof of the general depravity of Dr . Smith ' s congregation . With respect to the republication of Dr . Smith ' s calumnies , I will ask him , what he would think of the conduct of a minister who should

    charge a person with gross immorality and open flagitiousness , because he had left his congregation , and when this minister was repeatedly and earnestly called upon to prove that the person accused was in any respect more immoral than himself or the

    members of his congregation , he not only declined offering his proofs , but republished his charges in another form to spread the calumny wider ? Would not such a minister be deemed

    by him guilty of heinous iinmoralit ) ' ? Nor do I think the immorality less heinous , because it is directed against a whole people in a distant country . Dr . Smith asserts , that " the morality of Calvinistic writers is the most

    serious and high-toned of all religious authors ; " but if his own attempt to rob the Genevese of their fair fame and character , be an example of this high-toned Calvinistic morality , I care not how high or how loud its tone may be ; it is no better than that of

    * sounding 6 ? 'ass or the tinkling cymbal , " for it is without charity and without veracity . Dr . Smith has now preferred a bill of indictment against the Genevese and their pastors before the tribunal of the public at large ,

    and lie is bound , if he have any regard for his own character , either to substantiate his charges or to acknowledge their falsity . The republication of these calumnies could not be

    necessary to vindicate the party he styles * ' the revivers of scriptural religion in Geneva . " Nor will the inhabitants at large of that city be converted to Calvinism by accusations of gross immorality and open profaneness , which they must know and feel to be untrue .

    Men are not , and will not be converted to any mode of faith by loading them with unmerited abuse ; of this Dr . J . P . Smith must be fully aware , and therefore I am confirmed in my former opinion , that it is not against the Genevese but the English Unita-

    Untitled Article

    rians , that the attack is directed . There appears to be a systematic plan of warfare arranged by Dr . S . and some of his friends , to vilify the moral

    character of Unitarians , by the boldest and most unfounded calumnies . In the Eclectic Review of this month , June , art . Fuller ' s Works , those who embrace Unitarianism are described

    as exhibiting- in their conduct proofs of a lamentable declension in piety and morality : " The . Unitarian doctrines are most readily taken up by the defiled and unbelievers ^ to whom nothing is pure ; even their mind and consciences are defiled" !

    Allow me to tell this writer and Dr . J . P . Smith , ( if they be not the same , ) that the person who abandons the cruel doctrines of Calvin and adopts more just opinions of the Divine Government , will part with that gloom and despondency which

    characterize many of the sect he has left ; he will part with all pharisaical leaven and grimace ; he will banish from his style in speaking and writing the O s J and the Yea ' s ! which pass with the ignorant for unction ;* he will assume a more cheerful aspect and a more

    natural and manly character ; but I deny that from these indications any human being has a right to say , that such a man is less religious than formerly . The spirit of true religion , if I have read aright the discourses of Christ , consists not in modes of faith and

    outward observances and austerities , but in preserving an habitual sense of our dependence on Divine Power , and an habitual desire to confirm our conduct to the Divine Will , and the first practical lesson which true religion teaches , is to €€ love our

    neighbours as ourselves ; " and he who is under the influence of this religion , will not endeavour to rob his neighbours oi \ their fair character , by publishing and republishing unfounded calumnies against them , which he is utterly unable to prove .

    Dr . Smith has intimated that the morality of the Genevese is not Christian morality , but this also I defy him to prove . It is true that my friend , a member of the Church of England , who had resided several years in

    Ge-* See a specimen of this style quot ed by Dr . Smith , Vol . XIX . pp . 677 , 678 , of the Monthly Repository .

    Untitled Article

    332 Remarks on the Republication of Dr , Smith ' * Letters respecting Geneva .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 332, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/12/