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€ Some weeks since , M . Malati was suspended for the second time from all ecclesiastical functions , in consequence of a sermon upon the following- text : ' Know , O vain man , that faith without works is tkad . * This sermon I have read , and defy anyone to point out a single passage which can justify the above charge . Only one
pastor heard it , though nearly four thousand people were present in the church . On the following' day , M . Malan was suspended without the preliminary step of examining the sermon : he begged the Company of Pastors to peruse it , and point out the error alleged to be contained in it ; they refused to do so . Some days afterwards , M . Gaussin , a very able pastor of a
neighbouring parish , presented a petition signed by the whole of his parishioners , praying * that M . Malan might be restored . Both M . Gaussin personally , and the petition , and M . Moujinie , another clergyman who supported it , were treated with such indecency , that M- Gaussin declared that as Mm Malan was his very dearest friend , he should publish to the world the way in which he had been treated . He is now on
the point of . being deprived of his place as one of the Masters of the College , because he refuses to teach to the children there the Socinian Catechism , which the pastors of Geneva have substituted in the place of the one framed at the Reformation , and which they have withdrawn . To give some faint idea of what sort of Catechism
this is that M . Malan Is required to teach , the following Question and Answer is submitted : " Q . What do we owe him ? ( i . e . Jesus Christ . ) a * A . We owe him much respect !!! ( Nous lui devons beancoup de respect . )'
" Being- just such an answer as the Mahometans would make , who never name him without adding , * upon whom and upon all prophets be blessing . ' This will not surprise you , Sir , when you are informed that the following- speech issued
from the chair of the Professor of Theology in the University of Geneva , addressed to the students for the ministry : 6 Make of Jesus Christ what you will , but do not make a God of him . Faites de Jesus-Christ tout ce que vous \ oulez , ma is ne r en faites pas Dieu .
u At no period since the Reformation lxas 6 the truth as it is in Jesus , ' been so fully and ably and boldly preached as it is at this tinie in Geneva , by M . Malan and M . Gaussin in the national church .
end by M . Gonthier , Guers and D ' j Eiiipeytoy , in the new Independent Church ; and as it is in Berne , by Messrs . Gallaw , ochaffter , and the Baron Beat de Lerber . " To this information Dr . J . P * Smith Hi&kes some addition in a letter in the same magazine ; he eays ,
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" The gentleman referred to is Mans . Cesar Malan , a young minister in the church of Geneva . I saw him at S 6 dberon , near that city , in August 1816 , in company with a senior pastor , whoy as well as himself , is decidedly attached to the cause of evangelical truth and holiness . M . Malan was not a pastor , but one of th £
class of licentiates or younger ministers , who * are occasionally called to preach , and are advanced to the pastorship as vacancies occui . In a long * conversation , he said , among" other things , that he had serious apprehensions of his preferment being
intercepted , and of his being- even deprived of a school to which he had been appointed , by the dislike and opposition which the majority of the pastors shewed to the genuine doctrines of Christianity and of the Reformation , the doctrines in which the Genevan Church once gloried .
" Of the goodness of M . Malan ' s character I cannot reasonably entertain a doubt ; from his Introduction by the venerable and highly-respected pastor with whom J saw him , and from the information which I have since received in different ways . " Nearly two years ago , M . Mai an preached and published a sermon on Salvation by Jesus Christ alone ; which I have read with much satisfaction . It is
an epitome of the leading truths of the gospel , not so much in the form of argumentative discussion , as of a lively and pathetic address to the heart and conscience . This sermon was , I believe , a prift > cipal occasion of the arbitrary regulation issued by ' the Venerable Company' of the Oenevese Pastors , in May 1817 , that candidates for the ministry should enter into the following engagement :
u * We promise that , so long as we reside and preach in the Churches of the Canton of Geneva , we will refrain from advancing our opinion , either by a whole discourse expressly treating * the topic , ox by any part of a discourse , on the following points : u * 1 . The manner in which the Divine
nature was united to the person of Jesus Christ . " 2 . Original si A . u c 3 . The manner in which grace operates , or effectual grace . " 4 . Predestination .
46 c We also promise not to controvert , in public discourses , the opinion of an ^ of the pastors upon these subjects . Finally , we engage , that , if we should be led to express our own sentiments on any o £ these topics , we will do it [ sans aibonder
clans notre sens ] without being positive in our own notions , avoiding opinions which are not found in the Holy Scriptures , and using , as much as possible , scriptural expressions . ^ u Such is this curious engagement ! It
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Ijilelligence . ^ Cttlviriism Heresy at Geneva . 779
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1818, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2483/page/51/
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