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on the late Theological Controversies at Geneva . 525
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Company issued their order to forbid him . the usq of any pulpit . It is impossible for me to give any information upon the character of these sermons . If I might judge of them by the analogy of those discourses of M .
Malan which I have read , I should say that they were luminous , tender , awakening , discriminating , evangelical and practical , in a high degree : but to say that his sermons ( so far as I have read or heard any of them ) contain arrogant denunciations ,
discussions on the subject of Predestination , or assertions of " the inutility of good works , " would be grossly untrue . But this is not the ground which I take . I must repeat the position laid down in my first letter , that M . Malan had
the same right to preach his religious sentiments that his opponents had to preach theirs . I may even go farther , and assert that , upon their principles as a Church-Establishment , he had a much greater right ; for his doctrines are no other than those of their own
original Confessions , which , if the regulation of J . A . Turrettin , of 1706 , be still in-force , ( see p . 409 of this vol ., ) they have engaged not to oppose . But , even if that regulation has been abolished , surely M . Malan might , with good reason , have pleaded , that the doctrines of all the Reformers , the doctrines on which the Church of
Geneva was founded , and which were its solemn profession till a comparatively recent period , should not be the only ones proscribed ; while , in all other respects , the most free-thinking excursions are encouraged .
1 he next step of these indefatigable persecutors was to eject M . Malan from his situation as one of the Tutors in the College , which was affected in November 1818 . M . C . passes this over in a few lines , full of inequitable representation . ( P . 65 of this vol . ) He makes two accusations .
I . That M . M . " had given disturbance to the Inspectors of the College , by the nature of his religious instructions , and on that account they had withdrawn from hi in the confidence he no longer merited . " —The complaints against M . M . were the following :
1 . That he had published a small volume of Latin Poetry , for the use of his pupils , without Academical authority . M . ML replied that he had
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submitted the manuscript to the Prin ~ cipal , j jwho kept it three weeks , and then gave express permission that it might be printed . 2 . That he had introduced the
Bible into the religious instruction of his class . He replied that he had not done this without what he believed to be sufficient permission from a superior in the College ; that he adapted the use of the Scriptures to the standing and capacity of his pupils ; and that he had received various
testimonies of satisfaction with his plan . 3 . That he made chaages in the Catechism . He answered that the allegation was untrue , that he taught the Catechism wholly and without alteration , but that he felt it an indispensable duty to supply its defects
and fill up its generalities , in his lectures , by more ample developenaents of religious truths and duties from the Scriptures ; and that , in all this , he acted according to the rules of the College , and the practice of the other Regents .
4 . That he introduced into his lectures the most abstruse , difficult and controvertible points in theology , altogether above jthe capacities of his pupils . This he positively denied . He affirmed that he never endeavoured to make his scholars disputants , to load their minds with scholastic sub
tilties , or to harass their consciences with superstitious scruples and vain terrors ; but , in the midst of their intellectual labours , never to neglect the one thing needful , the education of their souls , their eternal salvation . He said that he had taught his pupils ,
to the best of his judgment , nothing unsuitable to their capacities anil attainments ; that he had laid before them , in scriptural simplicity , the ruin of man by sin , salvation by the
grace of God through Jesus Christ , and the indispensable necessity of gratitude and universal obedience ; and that , with respect to the particular accusation of introducing the doctrine of Predestination , he had
carefully avoided it , conceiving it to be a doctrine proper to be delivered only to persons who had made considerable progress in the knowledge of Christianity , and in a devout submission to the authority and grace of God . This is a bare outline of M , Malan '
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 525, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/13/
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