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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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in Replyvb the Letters of Br « J . P $ e Smith . Lett - Ik tey .
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amoiitit lo . % ¦ declaration of war . lii no part of Europe have the Jesuits and prints tnore influence , and - 'time Geaev&se have neither thepowefcnor the fright to oppose them . The same
may be said of Savoy : individuals not connected with the government may , at their own risque , secretly distribute books , btit they would be imprisoned , or sent away under a guard if discovered , as happened to M ¦• Csfcsar Malan *
Now daring th& lapse of the three generations , * when the Genevese are accused *> f neglecting to cotivert the Savoyards and Vallasiens , which it was impossible for them to do ,---what were the sons of orthodoxy , the regular Scotch and English Calvini ^ ts ,
doing to improve the Irish Catholics , subjects of Jhe same government as themselves , but incalculably more ignorant and degraded than the Cathor lies of Savoy or the Vallois I What were these sons of orthodoxy doing for the conversion of the many thqu ~
sand gypsies m their own land , a race below \; he Hottentots in religious knowledge ? What were they doing for the cotiversion of the half savages in the more unfrequented parts of England and Wales I I believe the answer will be- * -absolutfcly nothing . For until the Methodists , whom the
regular sons of Calvin at first affected to despise , I say until the Methodists had , much to their credit , begun to preach to the greatly-neglected part of our population in Cornwall and elsewhere , it does not appear that the Kirk of Scotland , or the regular
Calvinistic Dissenters in England , ever bestowed a thought upon the subject . The latter , at least , were content with dreaming over their own righteousness or with talking of the Lord , whilst they were dosing * over their pipes : their congregations , in the mean time , were diminishing in almost every part of England 5 f of which the number
* From 1700 to the French Revolution ,. -f 1 speak of what I observed in the country when I was young . And here I may state , tliat I have no prejudices against the Caivinists : it is Dr . S . who 1 ms called forth the comparison between them ainl the Genevese , which I had no desk-e tft make * My own ancestors were for , many generations zealous and consistent Caivinists .
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Of empty , or nearly empty , Calviniatie Meeting-houses that were to be seen in various country places , thirty ok forty years since , is a proof . Nowv if this be true , and I think Dr . Smith will not deny . it * he surely would have done well to have directed Ms accusa- ^
tioiis 0 $ deadly fediffierenc ^ &&L , to persons nearer home . It is a jr ^ niark more to be com ^ mended for its truth than its novelty , as it has been made by erery moralist since the dsm of ^ Esop ^ 'f Mea kave
a magnifying vision iii | ien looking at the faults of others , bat are v £ ry shortsighted when looking at their own : i > r thosei of their own party / ' Now ^ however common or obvious this
remark may be , it seems entirely to have escaped tk £ persp icacity & £ I > r * Smit ^ ,: if lie will allow me to use his own expression ; nor does the Doctor appear to bl acquaintM wit& the welU known passage , ¦ * , Kfcst cast the beain out of thine own eye , and then shalt
thou see more clearly to take out the mote that is i » thy brother ' s eye . This ignorance is easily accounted for ^ the passage occurs in a sermon of Christ ' s , which is entirely moral , . and as Dr * Smith has expressed his utter contempt for moral sermons ^ hec&ulcl
scarcely think the simple practical advice here given , was deserving the attention of a divine so deeply read in all the mysteries of the Calviaistic faitk tW
If Dr . J . Pye Smith be really desirous of knowing what the Genoese have done for the Savoyards and Vallasiens , if he will lay aside his anger and prejudice for a while , and let us have a little sweet communing toge ~ ther , I will tell him , and I will tell
him truly . They have not , it is true , gone forth to preach in the towns or villages of Savoy ; neither did their ancestors , the orthodox Genevese , do so , or if they did , it was always with the sword in one hand , and the Bible in the
other . In conjunction with the Bernese , they sometimes entered Savoy to plunder and despoil the inhabitants , to deface their churches , and afterwards to preach to them the ' gospel
of peace ; but the religion of Calvin , though watered with Mood , did not flourish either in Savoy " or the ValJois . Fifty-eight years after the conquest and conversion of Chablafe ( a province
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1824, page 597, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2529/page/21/
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