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520 Dr . J . Bye Smith in Reply to Professor Ghenevtere ,
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Dm . J * . P y * Smith m Reply to Professor Chen € vUr € 9 dn the late Theological Controversies at Geneva .
( Concluded frofti p . 474 . ) Homerton , Sir , # 3 ^ . 10 , 1824 . TO trespass a fourth time on your indulgence and the patience of your readers > is an unwelcome task . That I may not exceed proper limits , I fear that I must use more of
assertion , and introduce less of evidence , than will be agreeable to me : but necessity is laid upon me ; and , if any of your correspondents should require the proofs of any part of my statements not already so fortified , I shall be happy to answer the call .
VII . M . Curtat e one of the clergy of Lausanne , M . Chenevifere styles him Dean ( Doyen ) , art academical title , as I believe , and not ecclesiastical . From M . C . ' s declamatory paragraph it appears that this gentleman
plumes himself upon something which lie calls orthodoxy , and that he has , in some way , denounced or protested against his Genevese neighbours . — What he has done I know not , nor am I concerned to vindicate him or
his measures . I have been informed that he , and his associates hold the Deity of XJhrist , while , in other respects , they are at different degrees on the scale of doctrinal Pelagianism and practical formalism : but we cannot forget that truth is despoiled of its excellency , if it be " held in unrighteousness /* if it be degraded to be the badge of a party , if it be maintained in the spirit of rivalship and hostility . A century ago , M . de Crousaz ( who died in 1748 , a man
certainly of great literary merit ) did that for lowering the standard of religion in , the . Pays de Vaud , which . Ostervald did in the west of Switzerland , Werenfels in the north , and Alphonsus Turrettin at Geneva . Mr ; Gibbon says of him , " His divinity had been formed in the school of
Limborch and Leclerc ; in a long and laborious life , several generations of pupils were taught to think , and , even to write ; his lessors rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic prejudices . " ( Miscellaneous Works , published by Lord Sheffield ; I . 58 , 4 to cd . ) Mr . Gibbon knew well how
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to appreciate such serviced . Qf one of the ministers of the following generation , M . Allatnand , Pastor © F Bex , he writes * "He is one of the finest geniuses that I know . —Philosophy is the subject which he has the most deeply studied .- —Unknown to
fame , and discontented with mankind . —He is a countryrparson , who gulls the clowns . — -He had some measures to keep : and I much suspect that he never shewed me the true
colours of his secret scepticism . " ( II . 266 , and I . 71 . ) This language cannot be mistaken . We know what was the historian ' s philosophy ; how he had learned to keep measures ; and
what example he set , m his own works ,-of literary integrity . The tendency of such a state of things as here met his encomiums , is easily perceived : nor is it difficult to calculate what must have been the effect ,
in sixty or eighty years , upon the religion of the Chureh and the Academy . Of late , however , piety has begun to revive in the Pays de Vaud . A respectable number of the suffragan ministers , ( who hold a rank resembling that of curates in the Church of
England , ) some of the parochial clergy , and not a few of pious and intelligent people in different parts of the Canton , have manifested a zeal and attention to religion similar to that at Geneva : and this has been accompanied with
a return to the old theology- M . Curtat and a powerful majority of the clergy have first vilified these good people , by gross misrepresentation of their doctrines and attacks upon their
character ; and then have prevailed with the Government of their Republic to commence against them a per- * - secution which , if I had space to detail the particulars , your enlightened readers would say was worthy of Madrid or Lisbon . Here the Council of State
of Geneva appears in a very honourable contrast with that of Lausanne . The former , after having proceeded with apparently extreme jealousy , caution and reserve , has ended by nobly protecting- the Dissenters under its jurisdiction . The latter has meanly lent itself to . the mad intolerance of
the ruling party of Pastors and Professors . On Jan . 15 th last , it published a decree prohibiting , under the penalty of severe fines and imprison-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 520, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/8/
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