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Untitled Article
are Arians ; not , indeed , that they would profess themselves such , if asked what their opinions are , but , if questioned more closely , they would be found to be so in point of fact . The French know little or nothing of doctrinal distinctions . Ask a man . in this country what he is in religion , he will tell you , that he is a Christian , or a Christian of the Reformed Church , or even that he is a Calvinist , though , after a little cross-questioning , you soon discover that there is not one of the dogmas peculiar to the Genevese Reformer which enters into his creed . It is not therefore the less true , that the majority are Arians , though they may not even know it themselves . With respect to ihe Atonement , I have been assured by a very sensible man , that
they are , to use his expression , " Arminians in a large sense . " Those of the pastors who entertain these sentiments , are a very numerous and an increasing body , comprising nearly all the younger clergy . They make no secret of their opinions , and are even frank in the profession of them in private , but they seldom , if ever , introduce doctrine into their sermons , being 'decidedly opposed , on principle , to this kind of preaching ; thinking it infinitely more profitable to instruct their flocks in the great duties prescribed in
the gospel , and to open to them its rich treasures of consolation , than to exercise their acumen on points of doubtful disputation , which have been a subject of much discussion for 1800 years . This part of the clergy are , as might be expected , exceedingly liberal towards those who are of other com-. munions ; they are not disposed to look with coldness on a professed Unitarian , but ready to hold out the right hand of Christian fellowship to every one who admits in any sense the divinity of Christ . It is their object to keep together , and , if possible , to unite more firmly the body to which
¦ they belong , endeavouring to prevent those from splitting into parties who all receive the same gospei , and recognize the same great principles of Protestant dissent . The organ of this party is the Revue Protestante , a periodical which appears at Paris on the fifteenth of every month . It is well written , and is filled with the most interesting matter ; but it is to be regretted , that forty-eight rather widely printed pages are the whole extent of . each number . Of the minority , the greater number may be described as Orthodox , i . e . Trinitarians , without being Calvinists . Those of the clergy
who belong to this class are , for the most part , the senior pastors , men who received their education some fifty or sixty years ago , before Griesbach had enlightened the biblical world by his researches , or Michaelis and Kuinoel had left but little for future critics to accomplish . These are fast dying off , and are daily replaced by others who have profited by the progress of the age in all that is interesting and important . The rest are Calvinists , or as they are here often , but improperly , called , Methodists . These are an active , perhaps an increasing , body . They have been fostered and suppoited by
the Wesleyan Methodists and the Continental Society of England , and , like their patrons , they insist perpetually on the corruption of man ' s nature , ancj the necessity of an atonement , and would exclude from the name of Christian all those who cannot admit the same doctrines which they do . It is not to be expected that they can be very well content to act with the more libe- * oral part of their brethren ; but I have only heard of one place where they
have as yet established a separate worship . The English evangelical party , by which this is supported , is looked upon wjth no good will by the majority of the French Protestants , the latter affirming , that they have introduced dissensions and uncomfortable feelings into their congregations , and that J ; he divisions which they have occasioned are operating as no inconsiderable bar to the conversion-of the Catholics , who say , when they see \ bp Proles- ?
Untitled Article
86 Journal of a Tour in the South of * France .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/14/
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