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clergy of Geneva are men of exemplary morals , they live in great mutual harmony , ' not disputing fiercely like those of other countries Bipon unintelligible dogmas , persecuting one another and calling in the aid of the civil magistrate ; yet they are far from
being unanimous respecting those articles which are elsewhere deemed most essential in religion * Many of them bo longer believe in the divinity of Jesus Christy of which Calvin , their leader , was so zealous a defender , and for denying which he brought Servetus to the stake . When this
punishment , so little to the honour of their patriarch ' s charity and moderation , is mentioned to them , they do not undertake to justify it ; they acknowledge that Calvin was in the
wrong , and , if they are conversing with a Catholic * they oppose to it the abominable massacre of St . Bartholomew , which every good Frenchman would wish to efface from our annals with
his blood y and the execution of John Huss , in which humanity and good faith were equally outraged , and by which the memory of the emperor Sigismund must be covered with everlasting infamy .
i € Hell 9 which is one of the principal articles of our creed , has ceased to be so in that of many of the ministers of Geneva . According to them , it would be unjust to the Deity , so full of goodness and mercy , to suppose that he is capable of punishing ? our
sins by an eternity of torment . They explain , with as little awkwardness as they -may , the positive declarations of Scripture which are opposed to their doctrine , alleging that nothing should be taken literally which is at variance with humanity and reason . They believe in the existence of future
punishments , but of limited duration . So that purgatory , one of the principal causes of the separation of the Protestants from the Romish Church , is now the only state of suffering after death , which many of them admit—a curious fact to be added to the history of the contradictions of mankind .
s < In short , many of the Pastors of Geneva have no other religion than complete Socinianism , rejecting every thing which is called a . mystery , and believing that the fundamental principle o f true religion is to propose
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nothing for our belief wf | icli is repugnant to reason . When they are pressed on the subject of the necessity of revelation , an essential doctrine of Christianity , many of them substitute the milder term of utility ^ in which they shew their consistency at least , if not their orthodoxy ..
S 6 A body of clergy entertaining such sentiments as these , may be expected to be tolerant , and , in fact 9 those of Geneva are so to such a degree , as to be regarded with an evil
eye by the ministers of other Reformed Churches . It may further be said 9 without intending to approve in other points the religion of Geneva , that there are few countries in which the
theologians and ecclesiastics are more hostile to superstition . On the other hasid , as intolerance and superstition serve only to multiply unbelievers © fewer complaints are heard at Geneva than elsewhere of the increase
of infidelity . This isf not surprising : religion is reduced among them to little more than the worship of one God , except among the vulgar ^ respect for Jesus Christ and for the Scriptures are almost the only things which distinguish the Christianity of Geneva from pure Deism . "
The rest of the article relates to the worship and discipline of the Church of Geneva , and has no immediate connexion with our subject . To the passage which 1 have translated , the following note is * added in the 8 vo , edition of the Encyclopedie 9 Lausanne and Berne , 1782 .
" The imputation which M . d'Alemfoert has thrown out against Geneva is not new . As early as 1690 , some English ministers had complained on this subject to a synod convoked at Amsterdam . That religious toleration , which is a natural consequence of the
principles of the Reformation , may have occasioned Sodinianism to spring up in its bosom : but on the 10 th of February 1 * 758 , the Church of Geneva , by a solemn act , protested against the doctrine which is imputed to it in this article j and by thus putting upon record its abhorrence of all Sociniari
doctrines , we must suppose , that it will repel for the future all suspicion of the soundness of its faith . " If any reader of the Repository can point out any account of the traasac-
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^ 4 Unitarianism at Geneva *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1818, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2472/page/24/
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