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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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736 Dr . J . Pye Smith ' s Rejoinder to Mr . B&ketoeWs Remarks
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religion , so rauih as to their domestic education , and to the circumstance of evtry one beiiig personally known to bis fellow-citiaens . " This , them , is the morality of self-love , calculations pf worldly interest , fashion , aad mere
yespect to man ; it is the porality which has often skooe brilliantly in Heathens and Deists : but I must Renounce the Bible before I qaa accept it as Christian m orality . The former ^ ises ftom niotives only selfish , and will follow the coarse of custom and
convenience : the latter is a stream from the , divine fountain of holiness ; its principle is liOyj ; to Ood , venera * tion for his authority , and sinews delight in his liAyv 5 ialld ifcis obiect is stn
e « tire conformity , first of $ he thoughts and aflfeotions , and then of the out ward cli&raster , to his pure and righteous vribij . Upon all other morality , the awful question will produce withering
confusion . " Did ye it at all unto MB ., even unto me ? " [ En in a consid Oration , et & cause de inoi ? JLecSne * * FlerflionQ " Did ye not it unto your- * selvesV Zech . viu 5 ,
Mjc .. B . dilates upon the impossibility of the Genevese making any attempt * .. for the spiritual benefit of their benighted neighbours , on account f the severe intolerance of the Popish
governments around them , and the political ganger of provoking those governments ; but : he entirely over- * looks the essential point of the argument , and which I Jbad explicitly laid down . This was , that such attempts were not made at the time when those
difficulties either di ( J not exist ; or wejre easily superable ; namely , the pjeriotl of sixteen or eighteen years , In which Savoy was united to France-It u > as during this period that the evangelical churches and societies of Great Britain , Holland and North
America were labouring to extend the best of blessings in ignorant districts at home , in Ireland , and among the Heathen to the ends of the earth Happy should I be to be contradicted ijn what I advanced in my first letter *
3 , nd to be assured , on good grounds , that the Genevese did improve the golden opportunity , and labour to introduce the Scriptures and scri p * tural instruction among that €€ honest and simple-hearted people / ' as Mr-B , calls them . Mr . B , says , " I believe the main
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object of Dt . Smith ' s accusations of the Genevese is , through them , to attack the BagHsb Unitarians , by representing fcheit doctrines to be prodjifctive of gross imrnotality and injbeg leave to lthat
piety . " I repy , I have no Qoyert designs * My motives and objebfes ar 6 no other tliim wtmt are openly avowed . The imputation here laid upon me tenet triie * Bi * t I shrink from no fair consequence of my pfinciptes , believing bath the .
principles and their coosequences to rest upon the eternal basis of scriptural authority * Those Unitarians with whopi I have opportunities of intercourse would , I am assured , readily bear witness to the disposition and conduct whieh I habitually shew towards them . I lionott ^ tlieni for tteit
many personal and socini ^ xeellencies , tod am never backward to avow m $ respect . But , if I am asked iviieiher I regard their religious system m , reconciieable with thq gospel of > Christ * as a safe ground of trust for , a sioful creature * or as a Ibunffa ^ oa ou whk h
that structure t ) f Holiness ^ can built which the New Testanaent represents as essential to the Christian character ; pay honest comictioua , forced upon me by wh ^ t seems to me the Uroad light of divine evidence , convictions which I cannot re ^ st or conceal or
compromise , oblige me , in faithfulness to God and man ^ to say , Na .. ¦ It is very unwelcome to write so much about one ' s self : but Mr . B . has compelled me . . This gentleman daes me also gr ^ at 4
wrong , when he says that I have < expressed my utter contempt for moral sermons . " In no part of my letters can he find such a sentiment , either
expressed or implied . No one could so understand me ; except by pervert * ing what I trust I have with sufficient explicitness declared , that marality , not founded * oa GhristiajU principles , is not the religion of Jesus .
He charges me with ** indulging in a violence of abuse—altogether janrestrained by candour or couttesy , — extreme bitterness ,.---teninity to M . Chenevifere and tha Genevese Paators ,
--r-hating them with ^ perfect hatred /' *—and using language which reminds us of a mixture of coarse abuse and cant . n Upou these accusations I must agaia appeal to the seriousness and candour of your readers , I will vindi-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/32/
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