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trine which constitutes the solid basis of a sinner ' s hope . " Pp . 9 , 10 . It is quite unnecessary to point out to your readers the unfairness ( to use no stronger term ) of some of the
charges contained in the above sweeping clause of the ^ Eclectic Reviewer ; it is , however , well calculated to deter timid persons , who pay implicit deference to the assertions of the writers
in that work , from an impartial and candid examination of the disputed subjects ; though I presume not to say that such was the intention of the writer of the above article . The displeasure of the Reviewer is further excited against " the venerable company of the pastors of the Church
of Geneva , " that , in order to carry into effect " the extirpation of the Christian doctrine / 1 the confession of faith formerly in use has disappeared ; and " the Liturgy , as well as the venerable translation of the Holy Scriptures , has undergone correspondent improvements . " It is also stated , that , ** out of a hundred and ninety-seven
printed sermons , preached by the pastors of the Genevese Church during the last fifty years , not a single , one is to be found , which contains a confession of belief ill the divinity of Christ . " The last quotation which I shall give from this article , is the passage in which the writer bewails the prostrate state of the Church of Geneva . " With
solemn , with deeply solemn feelings does it become us to contemplate this melancholy crisis of a church once esteemed as the mother church of the Reformation , to which the other
reformed churches did not scruple to give the title of Protestant Rome , now the very hold of infidelity . To these feelings , if suffered to take their natural direction , how beautifully appropriate
were the language of invocation employed by Milton : * Thou , therefore , that sittest in light and glory unapproachable , Parent of angels aud men Next thee , I implore ,, omnipotent King , Redeemer of that lost remnant whose
nature thou didst assume , ineffable and everlasting love I An < J thou , the third subsistence of Divine infinitude , illumining Spirit , the joy $ nd solace of created things ! One Tripersonal Godhead ! look upon this thy poor and almost expiring church , and leave her not $ hm a prey . '" Pp . 11 , 12 . It may appear stramro to yaur reftcfors * after
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perusing the above , to be informed that in the review of another article , at p . 5 9 of this same number of the Eclectic Review , an attack is made on the devotions of Socinians , in which it is stated to be manifest and flagrant , " that these persons find it impossible to express their views , aud their
feelings , in the terms which sufficed to *—whkh were selected as the most significant from the stores of a very copious language , by the first teachers of Christianity . " I fear not contradiction in avowing my firm conviction that the very reverse of the above charge is the fact . The phrase , One Tripersonal Godhead ! and the
usual doxologies of Trinitarians , are expressions , " which not only do not occur in scripture , but are manifestly of a different stamp from any thing we there meet with : not only the words are not the same ; the style is not the same ; the direct impression produced by them , is of a different kind . ' * It is the excellence , to me it
is a proof of the truth , of Uiiitsrianism , that not only its devotional exercises , but its doctrines , may be clearly expressed in the very words of scripture , and that no other form of composition can add to the clearness and force with
which they are therein contained ; while , on the other hand , the popular creeds of the present day , the productions of synods , councils and assemblies , are full of terms , such as
Tri-unity , Essence and Substance , Consubstantiality , Hypostatic Union , &c . which are entirely unknown to the sacred Scriptures . I take the liberty , further , to insert the following extract from a letter of the late
venerable Bishop of LatftdafF , to the Rev . C . Buchanan , on " the expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India , contained in the posthuaious Memoirs recently published , as it forms a striking comment on the article to which I have here called your attention . ......
" Whether it be a Christian duty to attempt , by lenient me . U ) ods » to propagate the Christian religion amoi » g Pagans and Mahometans , can be doubted I think by few ; but whether
any attempt will be attended with much success till Christianity is purified from its corruptions * and the lives of Clirbti ^ us are rendered correspondent to their Christian profession , m ^ y
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On the Eclectic Reviewer ' s Account of Unitarianism at Geneva . I 79
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1818, page 179, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2474/page/27/
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