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made upon me as a passing stranger . I inquired in the streets for the best preacher , and was told that the most
celebrated did tipt preach yesterday , but if I went to the Madelaine I should hear a minister of acknowledged talent . To the Madelaine I went- JVL M > a man about 33 years of age ,
was in the pulpit . The subject was beneficence , charity and alms-giving' : under these heads , so fertile in appeals to the . feelings , he iaaade am eloquent , powerful , impressive sermon . In many parts his eloquence was quite dramatic , and he drew pictures of dis ? tress > which dissolved his audience in convulsive tears ! But there was not
a word from beginning to end to remind his hearers that they were sinners , hot a word on the necessity of repentance , nor a syllable on the subject of faith in the great atonement . He concluded by assuring the people that they had only to go on with
increasing energy , to multiply as much as possible their acts of beneficence , . and they would assuredly receive tKeir just reward of eternal life ! This may , I suppose , be considered a tolerably fair specijnen of the present state of pulpit instruction in this celebrated
city . < c A Peruvian , who has been for the last day or two tny travelling companion , was with me at church ,, and observed , shrewdly enough , that the sermon might have been preached to any religious sect in any part of the world , so little did it contain of that
which is peculiar to Christianity * " The religious services of the city , which began at nine in the morning , were all over by three o ' clock , and at six the theatre was open , and an actor from Paris was announced to take his leave in a tragedy by Voltaire !—<"
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establishing the justness of nay arguments . But , as I fear that imch an equitable comparison will not be made by all , I am induced to ask ye > ur indulgence for a few sentences . Every
topic in Mr . B . ' a last letter , except one , I am content to leave to the good sense and judgment of your readers ; but that one is too important to be passed by . It refers , not to my opinions or feelings merely , but to the
most vital doctrine of Christianity . Mr . B . ( pp . 662 , 663 , ) has selected and combined what were , in my letter , passages separated by important parts of the connexion ; and thus he aims to produce , upon those readers who
may not be aware of the contrivance , an impression which would be far from correct . Let me , then , in treat them to look at my third letter , ( Mon . Repos . pp , 468 , 4 ti 9 , ) where they will find that ray censiire of M . Chenev&re was founded upon his
representing as licentious and inimical to the practice of good works , a book which he must have read , partially at least , and which , therefore , he could not but know to be of a perfectly opposite spirit and tendency . My language is , indeed , strong : but , if it bo taken ( as Mr . B . has been careful not to take
it ) in its connexions and with its accompanying evidence , it still appears to me not too strong for the justice of the case . I expressed those feelings which extreme misrepresentation could scarcely fail to excite : but I wish that I had repressed them , not because I consider them as not
merited , but because they are harsh and irritating , and I fear that they violate the precept to f < instruct in meekness those who . Oppose themselves" to the truth .
Yet I solemnly remonstrate with Mr . B . for representing my statements as if they had referred to personal holiness , and the unchangeable obligations ofuniversal ' virtue , when they are in the plainest manner restrictetl
to the single point of the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God . If he is so unacquainted with the doctrines of religion as not to be aware of this broad distinction , if none of the books of his excellent ancestors have
descended to him , which might have i ^ iven him the information , and if he choose not to take the trouble of a little research ; he must excuse my
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73 d Dr . J * Pye Smith * s Rejoinder to Mi * . B&kewelVs Remarks *
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Homerton , Sir , December 16 , 1824 . SOM E peculiar hindrances have prevented my seeing the last number x > f the Monthly Repository , till to-day .
I had thought that it would not have been necessary for me to trouble you further upon the Genevese Controversy ; and I still think that , to any pne who will compare , fairly and at length , the passages in my former letters , on which Mr . Bake well has remarked , with his animadversions , nothiiig Xuoris would bu needful for
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 738, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/34/
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