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Untitled Article
The writer divides his work into six parts , id which he proposes to answer the following questions : 1 . Is the reproach well-founded which is brought against " the Venerable Company of the Pastors" at Geneva , that of no longer believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ ? 2 . Is this doctrine
agreeable to the spirit of the holy Scriptures ? 3 . What was the belief of the Genevan Church on this subject , at the commencement of the eighteenth century ? 4 . At the sera of the Reformation , were not all Christian communions agreed on this point ? 5 . Is it indifferent , whether we
embrace the affirmative or the negative on this question ? 6 . What steps ought the students to take , to unite in the establishment of sound doctrine in their church ? Of these parts the two first only concern us , and we
shall dismiss the second , by observing that the argument is conducted entirely after the manner of Jones ; that is to say , an attribute or title which is assumed to be incommunicable , is ascribed in the Old Testament to
Jehovah : the same attribute or title is ascribed to Jesus Christ in the New Testament ; ergo , Jesus Christ is Jehovah ; an ergo * which equally proves the deity of several other persons , and by thus proving too much , proves nothing .
. Under the first head the author is more conclusive , because he give us facts instead of reasonings . "It is painful to me ( says he ) to be unable to answer this question , in a manner which would vindicate the honour and the
faith of a clergy so estimable in many other respects , and so distinguished by its luminous and extensive acquaintance * with science and letters $ but here facts oppose themselves to the wishes of my heart , and
would accuse me of incorrectness and par . tiality , were I to attribute a doctrine to our pastors , which the greater part of them no longer profess , and which we snail not find in any of the depositaries of religious public instruction .
u Jit order to know the doctrine of any church , it is necessary to consul ? its catechism , its liturgy f the treatises of its theological professors , the version of the Bible which it adopts , the . sermon 8 of its pastors , mud the theses publicly maintained by the candidates for the sacred ministry , under the direction of their tutors .
4 < Now , if we examine these divers monumeBtf of religious belief , we shall acqtthe tlMr aifljctiiijj certainty , tbat th *
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Company of our Pastors no longer pro fe **« the doctrine of the divinity of Jestts Christ * We sha ^ l ftnd in th ese monumeatg , either an absolute silence upon this truth , or opinions which are formally opposed . "
The writer then proceeds to " examine in order , 1 . The Catechism ; which , as many of our readers ki ^ ow , guards an absolute silence * The pastors have discontinued since 1780 , " the
ancient and praise-worthy custom " of teaching the Catechism of Calvin . 2 . The private courses of religious instruction , which the pastors are in the habit of giving , in which they either maintain an absolute silence or what is worse , " they expose , as
objects of free opinion , the sentiments of Trinitarians aud Arians , leaving to their pupils the choice of one or the other / ' 3 . The Liturgy , where again the author finds an absolute silence * and charges the pastors with theapos *
tolical crime of * ' only pointing out . Jesus Christ by the titles of Soij of God , Saviour , Redeemer / Master , King , Legislator . " As an addition to their guilt they . have suppressed , in their edition of the Bible of 1805 , an orthodox Confession , of Faith , which
had formerly been printed with , the Scriptures . 4 . Absolute silence is farther maintained in the instructions given by the theological professors to the students . 5 . Silence almost abso * lute in the sermons of the pastors .
Two of the pastors l * nve preached each a single discourse in support of the doctrine . Bui , *• with the exception of these two ra \ 8 of light , in one hundred and ninety-seven sermons , preached ( and published ) bv our pastors in the course of more than half a
century , there is not one in which can be found a profession of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ /' But this is not all . The pastors have not been content with absolute
silence , but have dared at times to teach a doctrine formally opposed to that of the deity of Christ . 1 . "Their Catechism represents the Saviour simply as the sent of God , the first-born of all creature , to whom we owe
sentiments , not of adoration , but of respect . f 2 . "In their new transl ation of the Bible , published in 1805 , many of the passages , relative tothe divinity of Christ , have J > e £ « Jtltfred , and present a se « se altogether different from that which is found in tho
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Review *— -Considerations sur la DiviniU de Jesus-Christ . ' 9 Q 5
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/51/
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