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696 , Mr . Bttkewell on the iStjsije qf MaraU and Religion in Gengya 9
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flatter them with the persuasion that th £ y are so . I ojiefe entered a CaMn-Istie meeting at Heekmoadwicke , in Yorkshire , when the preacher was labouring to convince the congregation that , though they thought ; themselves
tlie Lord ' s people , and talked much about rellgioh , they had not more real righteousness than their neighbours : "You have much of religion upon your lips , much religion in your heads ,
but of what use is it to you ? It never sinks lower * I inay tfuly say of inany of you who now hear me , that if your heads wei * e cut off , you would have no religion left at all ; it has ue ^ er sunk so low as the heart . " This
was coarse but cutting * eloquence , and its meaning was very intelligible . Per * haps Dr . Smith . may say it proves nothing , as the preacher was well assured that the experiment would not be made , for though the heads of his hearers were stuffed with a very indifferent sort of religion , in other
respects they served them well enougk for the common purposes of life , and , therefor ^ , they had no disposition to try the truth of the assertion . It would be extremely painful $ nd invidious to draw the comparison in detail between the English Calvinists and the members of the Genevese
Church , particularly were we , like Dr . Smith , to look only on the dark side of the scene . Nothing would be more easy , but , at the same time , more dis-, graceful , than to select instances of depravity from a large community , m 4 then to charge the whole body with
the crimes of the few . Now , unless Dr . Smith have done this with the Genevese , I am at a Joss to understand what he means by-the . terms and epithets fee applies , in tke serious charges of prafaneness , blasphemy , gross immorality , impiety , irreligion , open
fiagtiiousness and dissolute manners . To support these charges * he must , with t&e aid of his friends , rake long and d eep ly in the mire of Geneva $ but let him not rake up the crimes of the Trinitarian part of the population , Qaow very larg-e , ) and throw them at thfc Genevese Church- Even with all
his raking , I defy him to make good his charge , for Geneva "is unquestionably the most moral city in Europe . ' Instances of individual depravity will not serve hia purpose , unless he can prove that Geneva generally is
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more morally corrupt than ^ those lar # e cities where -Calvinism is the prevailing religion—Edinburgh , Rotterdam , Amsterdam , &c . Dr * fSifcuth , when pressed for hfe . proofs , will
perhaps say , that by blasphemy , impiety a * id irreligibii ^ he meant only Arianism and Socinianism ; and by open flagitiousness and dissolute manners , he meant oaly to say that the Genevese passed their Sundays like other Protestants and Catholics on the
Continent . But unless he can make a better defence than thi ^ he must re tire from the field with the word calumny em blazoned on his banner . He may be armed with much scholastic learning- aad logical subtlety , and he will
doubtless despise the opposition of a layman , but learning and subtlety will not avail against : plain facts . Goliath of Gath came forth to taunt and * c ! efy the worshij > er £ of the one God , and " fifa armour was bm ^ s , " but he fell before a simple shepherd boy »
We have examined " tte sins of commission ; " "thesins of omissiQft , " which he charges against the Genevese , remain to be noticed : the principal one shewp Dr * Smith's ignorance of the subject , or the obliquity of his moral vision , when those he deems heretics are coacerned . After accu- >
sing the Geaevese pastors and jpeople of remaining in a state of deadly in ^ difference and infidelity for three generations , he proceeds tauntingly to ask , " What have these children of improvement ever done for the
religious benefit of the dark and miserable districts which lie at their gates ; for Savoy , Piedmont and le Vailois , the last of which , though an indepejii * dent Republic ^ is scarcely above the level of Spain and Portugal ? J >
Now , every one acquainted with the government of Savoy , of Piedmont , and of tlje Vallois , naust know that the Getievese could not interfere with the religion of either of these
countries , without endangering their own safety as a state . Though the Vallois is an independent Republic , its religion is so exclusively Gatholic , that I believe no Protestant would bo
suffered to reside in the country , at least he dare not have public wophip in his own house . The Catholic religion is guaranteed to the people by the Helvetic league , and ; any attempt to interfere with it would nearly
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 596, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/20/
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