On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
in Reply to the Charges of Dr . J ± Pye Smith . Lett . III . 663 of
Untitled Article
adducing' what \ was not found there * in clauses , or wordsy or sentiments . I am at a loss for words to express my seme of the baseness of any one who could read the Refuge and then
represent it as he has dome ; his heart must be hardened beyond even a very high degree of moral callousness . To such a heart falsehoo d must be food and the most outrageous calumnies a congenial delight" III
I recommend to your readers to re-peruse the pages of the Monthly Repository , pp . 468 , 469 , which contain the passage from the Refuge more at length , with further abuse of M . Chenevfere ; I will leave them to determine whether such language as Dr . Smith employs , is what a
Christian _ minister , a scholar , or a gentleman ought : to use . Would Dr . Smith have addressed a . respectable English minister in the same terms , had he given the satne account of the passage
in Tfie Refug-e ? . But M- Chenevi&re is a foreign heretic , and Dr . Snntfi thinks he may with impunjty vilify him in the most disgusting and opprobrious terms ; and though he must know he is degrading himself by so doing , he may consider it praise-wor ^
thy to disregard his own reputation , when he is attacking those whom he numbers among the enemies of heaven . Many persecuting bigots have done the same , and while they were indulging * their own angry and vindictive feelings , have supposed that they were only animated with holy zeal for the honour of God ; but heaven
requires not the malignant passions to be called forth in its defence * We must not fight the cause of divine truth with such weapons as malice and all uncharitableness . Much better would it be to adopt the maxim of Tiberius , when called upon to resent some affront to the Roman
deities— " Leave to the gods the care of their oxen wrongs" I say , much better would this be , thau to make ourselves parties in their cause , and invoke the powers of darkness to our aid . The honest enthusiast , George Fox , used to aav . " " That people too lox , used to aay That people too
, often raised tjie devil in their own minds , to oppose what they thought wrong in others . " If Dr . Smith have done so , I would earnestly exhort him * ° l ° se no time in layoff the evil spirit , and , like our first parent , in
Untitled Article
thei ^ cool the day /* when the fervour of passion has subsided , let him hearken to the still , small voice of
conscience ; . then , will he feel deeply ashamed that the naked groasness of his abuse is not concealed by the anonymous leaves of a Review ; then will he be sensible that he has exlri-.
bited to the world , in his own name and person , a melancholy specimen , of the gentle spirit and Christian charity of a Calvinist divine . Will the
Unitarians of England , or the heretics in Geneva , be deeply affected by his example , and persuaded to embrace a faitli which produces such overflowings of brotherly love 2 ¦ . :
When Dr . Smith tells a highly-respectable Christian minister , " tKat ; he is guilty of deliberate fraud an 4 falsehood , that his heart is hardened beyond a very high degree of moral callousness , that falsehood is its food , and the most outrageous calumnies a congenial delight , " he pught , at least , to have some foundation for the
charge , which , I hold , he has not . I hope , however , that these hints and admonitions will not be thought by Dr . Smith either ill-timed or unfriendly , for he is our real friend who warns us when we have wandered into a dangerous path . I feel assured that he will abstain from the use of such
disgraceful language in future . Wheqi he again addresses a brother minister of tlie gospel , if he be even an erring brother , he will greet him with some more gentle and endearing appellation than " deliberate liar , " a " calloushearted devourer of outrageous calumnies . "
With respect to the insulated passage from " The Refuge , " I confess myself unable to attach any other meaning to it , than what M . Chenevihvq has given . To me it appears to contain the most demoralizing doctrine that was ever published ; it confounds all moral distinctions , and
strikes at the very foundation of religion and civil society , "by representing a Nero and an Antoninus , a Thurtell and a Howard , " to stand in point of justification on a perfect level before God . " A doctrine more fatal to the
peace of mankind was never promulgated > but though such are niy most serious and earnest feelings respecting it , I would not revile Dr . Smith for believing that this doctrine may be
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1824, page 663, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2530/page/23/
-