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    ment failed ; and amidst these conflicts it is not' surprising that some doubted and others disbelieved : or * that men who haye not patience nor leisure to examine into the historical evidences of the primitive opinions ? and critically

    to analyze the evangelical arid apostolic writings , should remain bewildered or incredulous . This apostacy was clearly foreseen and pointed out by Paul : and Jesus himself emphatically foretold the divisions of religious

    sentiment which should arise even m one family : a most remarkable and striking prophecy I But it is equally foretold that the truth will ultimately make itself manifest ? and that doubt will be at an end . CORNELIUS *

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    the licentious doctrines of their fellow citizen : qotwitbsjtaiuling an incorporation of several years with revolutionary France , they are still distinguished

    by the simplicity $ ncl purity * of their manners—a distinction which it is to be hoped they will retain In spite of the crpwd $ of idle Englishmen who have taken up their abode amongst them . ? and the efforts of orthodox missionaries to alienate the niind $ of the people from their moral $ nd religious instructors . But what decidedly proves that the heresy of the Genevans has no connexion with

    French infidelity , is , that the same charge of abandoning Calvinism was made and to the same extent ^ in the middle of tjie last century , and before French infidelity had disclosed itself , Perhaps many of your readers n ^ ay not foe aware of the circumstances ta which I allude , —the insertion of aa article in the celebrated Encyclopfer

    die , charging the ministers of Geneva with Socinianism , and the steps which

    they took to vindicate themselves I have therefore subjoined a , translation of that part of the article Geneve which relates to the faith of the clerg y ^ and also their solemn protest against the imputation cast on them : th ^ former is to be found in the 7 th Volume of the folio edition of the

    Encyclopedic , the latter in the Melanges de d'Aiembierfr > Vol . III . p . 465 , The present state of Geneva in

    respect to religious opinion is certain ^ ly very singular , and the Unitarians of this country cannot but be deeply interested in what is now going forward tfyere . For upwards of a

    ceotury , probabl y * great body of the clergy have gradually been renouncing the peculiarities of Calvinism , and confining their preaching an < 4 catechetical instruction to the Being and Perfections of God , the duty and expectations of men as made know a in Revelation and confirmed by the , promise of a future state . Yet it does

    not appear that they have eve ? gone , beyond a negative Anti-Triaitariani&m and Anti-Calvinism , and the result of the present attempts of ouy evangelical

    countrymen to bring the people back to the doctrine of the Institutions , is peculiarly interesting , as it way afford a test of the efficacy of that mode of opposing error ^ which many excellent persons think mpre sadfe and effectual

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    %% . Wmt ® rian& $ m % t Geneva **

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    TJnitftrianism at Geneva * piii , December 17 * 1817 ° WRITER in the last number of A the Christian Observer * [ p . 712 , ] anim&clvertiiig upon the defection of

    the pastors and professors of Geneva irpxm the doctrines of their patriarch Calving has thought proper to ascribe the change to the influence of Rousseau , and his irreligious writings . I ai » not surprised that Calvinists should be 4 e § irou $ thus to confound a renunciation of Calvinism with the

    rejection , of Christianity , because the fact tji ^ t a body of men , eminent for their talents and exemplary in their lives , pursuing scriptural truth by the inv ^ stigatioii of the Bible , remote from t ^ e influence of the passions which cqntrpversy awakens , and if biassed < nt alU ^ turally disposed to lean to the doctrines handed down to them from

    their ancestors * should with one consent have renounced orthodoxy , is a testimony to the scriptural evidence of Anti-Calvmistic opinions not easy to be got o , ver . Had the writer ia the Christian Observer known any

    tiding of the history of the church of Geneva , desirous as lie is to represent i n fidelity i ^ s the root of its heres y , he would at least have made his charge iippre plausibly than by connecting it with the name ' of Rousseau , who has

    had . p . o more to do with it than Thomas Paine with the A nanism of Mr- Peii ; ce and his fellow-sufferers fr «?> m the Western Inquisition . J ^ oth tU ® principles and the maviuera of the people of Geneva shew how unfoiuidr ^ d . is ti ^ c charge of having erufbr ^ ed

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/22/