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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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662 i Mr . BakeweWs Defen ^ fif the Genevese Pastors * &c . *
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servances of fast-days and 8 ab ™|^ l , were far , veiy fer ^ irom beingpffie ' righteous people Dr ; Smith would represent them . ; 2 ndly , That so far from the Geneveseof the present day having become corrupt , irreligious and dissolute ,
since their departure from : the faith of Calvin , they are particularly distinguished among theanhatutants o £ other cities , of Europe , for the correctness of their moral conduct , and for the care they bestow on tjie r $ l | -
less irreligion or blasphemy , than in Geneva ; and to aid him in the comparison , I have directed his attention to Edinburgh , and to the Calvinists in England and elsewhere .
gious education of the youth of both sexes . : ' , 3 rdly , I have challenged , and still challenge Dr . Smith to name any populous city , where Calvinism is the dominant or prevailing religion , and where there is less vice and profligacy ,
The whole of Dr * Smith ' s charges are founded on the assumption that the Genevese are more morally corrupt than the Calvinistic inhabitants of other large cities . He says to them , almost in direct words , "Stand off ye pastors and people of Geneva , for WE ARE HOLIER THAN YE :
thank God we have not , like you , abandoned the faith of Calvin , and are not like you , dissolute , profligate , irreligious and blasphemous . " I trust I have shewn , to the satisfaction of your readers , that this assumption resembles very closely the vain-glorious boasting of the Pharisee * Justice now
imperiously demands that some notice should be taken of the outrageous attack made by Dr . Smith on the moral character of M . Cheneviere , a minister of the gospel , most highly and deservedly esteemed by his fellowcitizens . The attack has been
admitted into the pages of the Repository ; admission cannot l > e refused to an Exposure of its grossness and injustice ; the character of an unprotected foreigner ought not to be defamed with impunity . M . Cheneviere , in his " Summary of the Religious
Controversies in Geneva , ' had occasion to refer to the translation of an English work , called " The Refuge , " and has given a concise account of part of its contents ; this has drawn upon him the most slanderous and virulent
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abuse that was perhaps e ? # r pc ^ sd forth by a Christian minister oi * the head of a brother ; The mentis of the parties . will be clearly spen by placing the passage from the Refuge anct M * Chenevifere ' s explanation in italic ^ and Dr . Smith ' s comments below :
M . Chenevidre . - ** Mr . Haldane waged war so indiscreetly against good works , that they we ^ e spbken of ^ foiih disdain in the discourses of his adherents , and in the pamphlets circulated to perpetuate Ms influence , after his departure . In so licentious a manner was it common
to treat this subject , that m young ecclesiastic did not blush to translate into French and to publish Tije Refuoe , in which we read in so many
words , that the man most deeply stained with crimes , and the man who has performed the greatest number of good worKs , are perfectly equal 'in the sight of God . "
Extract from " The Refuge . " See Mon . Repos . 469 , quoted by Dr . J . P . Smith . \ " Suppose a character among the
apostate sons of Adam , in whom re * sides all the moral excellency that ever dignified human nature since the fall ; and , on the other hand , one in whom concentres all the moral evil
committed since that fatal period ; and it will be found on examination , that in point of justification before God , they stand on a perfect level . The accumulated virtue of the
former , if pleaded as that which might render him acceptable to his Judge , would avail nothing ; nor would the enormous guilt of the latter , simply considered , be an obstacle to the bestowment of grace and glory . "
Such are the words in the Refuge , and such the meaning which M . Chenevifere attaches to them , and such would , I fully believe , be the explanation given of the passage , by four-fifths of those who understand
the English language , were they required to explain it . Now ptease to mark Dr . Smith , he says , " / take my stand on the insulated passage ( frorn the Refyge ) itself , ana affirm that M . Cheneviere could not have
written what he has done , without deliberate fraud ! He must have know ® that while he was writing so and so , ' we read in so manu words , ' he ums
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1824, page 662, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2530/page/22/
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