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    as serious proofs of the depraved state of morals qf the members of the Genevese Church j they are no more proofs of it than the drunken ribaldry of a few soldiers in an ale-house at

    Homerton , would be proof of the general depravity of Dr . Smith ' s congregation . With respect to the republication of Dr . Smith ' s calumnies , I will ask him , what he would think of the conduct of a minister who should

    charge a person with gross immorality and open flagitiousness , because he had left his congregation , and when this minister was repeatedly and earnestly called upon to prove that the person accused was in any respect more immoral than himself or the

    members of his congregation , he not only declined offering his proofs , but republished his charges in another form to spread the calumny wider ? Would not such a minister be deemed

    by him guilty of heinous iinmoralit ) ' ? Nor do I think the immorality less heinous , because it is directed against a whole people in a distant country . Dr . Smith asserts , that " the morality of Calvinistic writers is the most

    serious and high-toned of all religious authors ; " but if his own attempt to rob the Genevese of their fair fame and character , be an example of this high-toned Calvinistic morality , I care not how high or how loud its tone may be ; it is no better than that of

    * sounding 6 ? 'ass or the tinkling cymbal , " for it is without charity and without veracity . Dr . Smith has now preferred a bill of indictment against the Genevese and their pastors before the tribunal of the public at large ,

    and lie is bound , if he have any regard for his own character , either to substantiate his charges or to acknowledge their falsity . The republication of these calumnies could not be

    necessary to vindicate the party he styles * ' the revivers of scriptural religion in Geneva . " Nor will the inhabitants at large of that city be converted to Calvinism by accusations of gross immorality and open profaneness , which they must know and feel to be untrue .

    Men are not , and will not be converted to any mode of faith by loading them with unmerited abuse ; of this Dr . J . P . Smith must be fully aware , and therefore I am confirmed in my former opinion , that it is not against the Genevese but the English Unita-

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    rians , that the attack is directed . There appears to be a systematic plan of warfare arranged by Dr . S . and some of his friends , to vilify the moral

    character of Unitarians , by the boldest and most unfounded calumnies . In the Eclectic Review of this month , June , art . Fuller ' s Works , those who embrace Unitarianism are described

    as exhibiting- in their conduct proofs of a lamentable declension in piety and morality : " The . Unitarian doctrines are most readily taken up by the defiled and unbelievers ^ to whom nothing is pure ; even their mind and consciences are defiled" !

    Allow me to tell this writer and Dr . J . P . Smith , ( if they be not the same , ) that the person who abandons the cruel doctrines of Calvin and adopts more just opinions of the Divine Government , will part with that gloom and despondency which

    characterize many of the sect he has left ; he will part with all pharisaical leaven and grimace ; he will banish from his style in speaking and writing the O s J and the Yea ' s ! which pass with the ignorant for unction ;* he will assume a more cheerful aspect and a more

    natural and manly character ; but I deny that from these indications any human being has a right to say , that such a man is less religious than formerly . The spirit of true religion , if I have read aright the discourses of Christ , consists not in modes of faith and

    outward observances and austerities , but in preserving an habitual sense of our dependence on Divine Power , and an habitual desire to confirm our conduct to the Divine Will , and the first practical lesson which true religion teaches , is to €€ love our

    neighbours as ourselves ; " and he who is under the influence of this religion , will not endeavour to rob his neighbours oi \ their fair character , by publishing and republishing unfounded calumnies against them , which he is utterly unable to prove .

    Dr . Smith has intimated that the morality of the Genevese is not Christian morality , but this also I defy him to prove . It is true that my friend , a member of the Church of England , who had resided several years in

    Ge-* See a specimen of this style quot ed by Dr . Smith , Vol . XIX . pp . 677 , 678 , of the Monthly Repository .

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    332 Remarks on the Republication of Dr , Smith ' * Letters respecting Geneva .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 332, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/12/