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    division , -to - < &dd fuel to the ifee ) € > f discord , to malign the characters of the Geaevaii pastors , whom they ^ knew only through the suspicious medium of accounts given by declared advetf * saiies ; arid all this was for the glory of God , and the triumph of tfcgir

    favourite opinions * The clergy ' wefre In an extraordinary situation : attacked froni without by foreigners ; from within by some of their iown members ; partisans of the new sect ; they found their conduct and senti ^ ments misrepresented and caricatured .

    Assailed ori every side by the unrestrained enmity of their opponents , they were themselves morally fettered , condemned to silence by magistrates who , although their friends , were ( to say the truth , without violating the respect we are anxious to shew them ) Tinder the influence of unwarrantable

    timidity . What was the result i Charges repeated again and again were listened to and beiieyed , whilst the silence of tlie accused passed for a confession of guilt with men who were either unthinking or malevolent , with those who had not the means or

    the desire of obtaining information on the subject . A Scotchman , Mr . Haldane , a rigid Calvinist , whose theological principles are to be found in print ,

    especially in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans , in which those who have the courage to undertake the task may judge of his doctrines ;—Mr . Haldade invited to his house

    some students ? md ministers , occupied their minds with the mysterious points of the Christian religion , and inoculated them with his own exclusive and intolerant spirit . He insisted so strongly on the contempt with which reason , proud reason , ought to be

    regarded , that one of his hearers in going out of his house once cried out , * Yed , I see plainly that in the affairs of religion , reason ought to be trodden under foot I" Mr . Haldane waged wait so indiscreetly against good works ,

    that they were spoken of with disdain Ih the discourses of his adherents , and in the pamphlets circulated to perpetuate This influence after his departure . In so licentious a manner was

    itcbmmon to treat this subject , that a young ecclesiastic did not blush to translate into French and to publish * Pke Befuge ; in which we read in so

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    many words , that the man moet deeply stained with crimes and the man who has performed the greatest number of good storks are perfectly equal in the sight of God ! " Scarcely had this chaitopion ceased his warfare when he w&s succeeded

    by another , of less sfeill but greater impetuosity—Mr . Henry Drummondi The latter kept no terms ; he openly urged those who united with him to secede from the Genevan Church 5 he collected assemblies in which he

    distributed both instruction and money ? he even addressed the pastors dk rectly in a most audafcious letter , in which , after giving his opinions in the most dogmatical \ vay and uttering the most dogmatical way and uttering

    his decrees like a pope , this banker taunted the clergy as impious bias * phemers . He was called before the Syndics / and reprehended by th 6 m for his conduct . He quitted Geneva , and his discourses and articles which

    he published in the journals did much in exciting prejudice against the city * The impetus was given 3 every week new pamphlets came out in which the clergy were itisulted , in which common sense , virtue and religion

    were so far violated , that in one of them it was asserted , that of all illu ~ sions remorse was the most dangerous * because it betrayed mistrust in the efficacy of redemption . Thus was disunion occasioned by foreigners in a city which had shewed them hospitality and welcomed them with joy .

    RegulytiQn of the 3 rd of Mat / , 1817-The necessity had been felt of having recourse to some regulation to restrain the imprudence of youngs preachers , when from the pulpit had been taught not the insufficiency of good wdrks for procuring salvation , an evangelical doctrine professed by all Christian ministers , but the

    absolute inutihty of good works , a doc * trine which , if stated without precaution , tends to produce discouragement and to disorganize society . In the Christmas holy-days of 1816 , an aged pastor , a man deservedly honoured

    and till then pointed out as a model of wisdom and moderation , went into the pulpit , and , to the amazement of his heavers , openly attacked those who did not hold the opinions he esteemed orthodox : he treated as a fatal system the ideas of those instructors and

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    4 Proffer ( ffoneviereh * Siimnmry dfi&e late

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/4/