ment, and of course, on their assumption no such thing exists, because unnecessary. Secondly, Jesus Christ, being only a "peccable" man could make no atonement, and consequently there was none. Thus wherever they begin the work of retrenchment, the same conclusion is obtained in one mode as another. Z. Y.

PERSECUTION AT GENEVA.

ATTENTIVE observers have often remarked, that the only reason why modern Unitarians have not persecuted the church of Christ, is that they have lacked the power. It is not supposed, however, that all Unitarians would proceed to the greatest extremities; nor that all would manifest the same active hostility. It is probable, that nearly the whole body would prefer silencing the orthodox by ridicule, by confident assertions, or even by praise and flattery, to the alternative of more violent measures, which would subject the party to the charge of glaring inconsistency. There has been abundant evidence, that, amidst the most obtrusive and ostentatious professions of liberality, the Unitarians of this country have, in several instances, resorted to extravagant measures, subversive of the clearest rights of Christian churches and Christian ministers, and have shown a disposition to bear down their opponents by every engine which they can wield. Happily their power is very disproportionate to their wishes and their zeal. Were it possible,that they could arm themselves with the civil law, and bring the physical force of the community to bear upon an obnoxious individual, we may well judge from their proceedings in Dorchester, Princeton, and Dedham, what would be the issue. In these cases, a persecuting temper and persecuting conduct,limited only by the ability of the actors, were undeniable.

But let us turn from the consideration of what Unitarians would do here, if they had the power, to what they are actually doing where they possess it. Geneva, a place illustrious in the annals of the Reformation, and greatly favored by God in succeeding times, at length fell a sacrifice to the undermining influence of latitudinarianism. How long it has been under this influence we are not able to say; but the attention and the sympathy of Christendom have lately been attracted to this interesting spot, by the revival of true religion, and by the violent opposition which pure religious doctrine has to encounter.

The following paragraphs are taken from the London Evangelical Magazine of December last, and will be read with uncommon interest.

"The malignant spirit of persecution was perhaps never more bitterly expressed than in the following paragraph, contained in a letter from Geneva, dated Oct. 27, and which appeared in a Paris newspaper:

"The Puritans assume in England an attitude not very consolatory to the friends of peace. They do not as yet form a political party, at least sensibly so; but with their number, which increases daily, crimes multiply in an alarming proportion. It is the consequence of the doctrine of absolute predestination. We have a professor, named Malan, who (paid, as it is said, by the English puritans) is the echo of that sect. He frankly teaches, that the human race are invincibly predestinated to lie, steal, violate, &c. The authorities have suppressed the school where he instilled into youth these fine maxims, instead of instructing them in Latin; and this man swears he is persecuted! Happily, this dangerous fanaticism finds no partisans in any class of society. The people deride it, and are not desirous of following the doctrine of wretches, whom they reasonably regard as evil-minded people.'

"We need not offer any thing in the shape of refutation of this statement. Its mere perusal is a sufficient answer to all its calumny. It states that the Puritans are dangerous in England, and wicked and despicable at Geneva. We need observe only that there is an equal degree of truth in the two statements. We have the happiness of being acquainted with Mr. Malan, and know him to be an able, upright, and honorable man; a zealous and faithful advocate of the truth as it is in Jesus, and, what might thence be expected, a consistent and worthy Christian. We are happy to learn, that one of our countrymen resident at Geneva, has given the sermons which are the alleged cause of offence, an English dress; and their appearance may soon be expected by the British public. Our readers may then judge for themselves. They will find, that, after the example of his Divine Master, M. Malan has only testified of the world, that the works thereof are evil; and like Him, has, on this account, been hated. That faithful doctrine should to many be a stumbling-block, is neither new nor wonderful.

"The following paragraph, which contains a great deal of truth, appeared in the Times, (a London paper,) Nov. 16.—

"According to an article from Geneva, a schoolmaster there has been laid under an interdict by the magistrates, for inculcating the doctrine of absolute predestination; and the writer, in reprobating the conduct of the teacher, ascribes the increase of crimes in this country, to the daily augmenting numbers of the Puritans, who believe in that doctrine. Without entering into the truth of the dogma itself, we may be permitted to observe, that the inference thus deduced, limps false behind.' We apprehend, that the moral character of the Genevans at a period when all of them were rigid Predestinarians, would not suffer in comparison with that of their descendants. With regard to this country, it is precisely those parts of it where the popular creed is strictly puritanic, that are the least contaminated with vice; and in vindicating a numerous body of our countrymen from the calumny of a foreigner, it ought not to be forgotten that the army, praised by a Bishop of the Established Church, as the most order and moral ever known in England, was an army of Puritans.'

SIR,

"To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine.

HAVING an intimate personal acquaintance with M. Malan, and many of his friends in Geneva, Lausanne, and Berne; and having now on the table before me many letters from several of them, and from himself, I do not hesitate to declare my firm conviction, that the paragraph which lately appeared in the Times, (from a Paris newspaper,) concerning him, is an infamous falsehood.

"Some weeks since, M. Malan was suspended for the second time from all ecclesiastical functions, in consequence of a sermon upon the following text: "Know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.' This sermon I have read, and defy any one to point out a single passage which can justify the above charge. Only one pastor heard it, though nearly 4000 people were present in the church. On the following day, M. Malan was suspended without the preliminary step of examining the sermon: he begged the Company of Pastors to peruse it, and point out the error alleged to be contained in it: they refused to do

80.

Some days afterwards, M. Gaussin, a very able pastor of a neighboring parish, presented a petition signed by the whole of his parishioners, praying that M. Malan might be restored. Both M. Gaussin personally, and the petition, and M. Moulinie, another clergyman who supported it, were treated with such indecency, that M. Gaussin declared that as M. Malan was his very dearest friend, he should publish to the world the way in which he had been treated. He is now on the point of being deprived of his place as one of the Masters of the College, because he refuses to teach to the children there the Socinian Catechism, which the pastors of Geneva have substituted in the place of the one framed at the Reformation, and which they have withdrawn. To give some faint idea of what sort of Catechism this is that M. Malan is required to teach, the following Question and answer is submitted:

"Q. What do we owe him? (i. e. Jesus Christ.)

A. We owe him much respect!!! (Nous lui devons beaucoup de respect.)" "Being just such an answer as the Mahometans would make, who never name him without adding, upon whom and upon all prophets be blessing.' This will not surprise you, Sir, when you are informed that the following speech issued from the chair of the professor of Theology in the University of Geneva,

addressed to the students for the ministry: 'Make of Jesus Christ what you will, but do not make God of him.' Faites de Jesus Christ tout ce que vous voulez, mais ne l'en faites pas Dieu.

"At no period since the Reformation has the truth as it is in Jesus' been so fully and ably, and boldly preached as it is at this time in Geneva by M. Malan and M. Gaussin in the national church, and by M. Gonthier, Guers, and D'Empeytoy, in the new Independent Church: and as it is in Berne, by Messrs. Gallaw, Schaffter, and the Baron Beat de Lerber. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that the Prince of this world, finding his kingdom shaken, should make a desperate effort, and assail, by calumny and falsehood, the souls which he is not permitted to destroy."

London, Nov. 16, 1818.

Further Observations, in a Letter from the Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith. ""To any well-informed person it could scarcely be requisite to say, that these statements carry on their front such an air of malignity as almost amounts to their own refutation. They are a repetition of the calumnies which have been, in all ages, advanced by the enemies of the doctrines of grace, in shameless defiance of all evidence, both of reasoning and of fact: and they bear a close analogy to the misrepresentations which, we learn from ecclesiastical history, were audaciously advanced in their respective periods of time, against the primitive Christians, the Waldenses, and the Puritans of our own country.

"The gentleman referred to is Mons. Cesar Malan, a young minister in the church of Geneva. I saw him at Secheron, near that city, in August 1816, in company with a senior pastor, who, as well as himself, is decidedly attached to the cause of evangelical truth and holiness. M. Malan was not a pastor, but one of the class of licentiates or young ministers, who are occasionally called to preach, and are advanced to the pastorship as vacancies occur. In a long conversation, he said, among other things, that be had serious apprehensions of his preferment being intercepted, and of his being even deprived of a school to which he had been appointed, by the dislike and opposition which the majority of the pastors shewed to the genuine doctrines of Christianity and of the Reformation, the doctrines in which the Genevan church once gloried.

"Of the goodness of M. Malan's character, I cannot reasonably entertain a doubt; from his introduction by the venerable and highly respected pastor with whom I saw him, and from the infornration which I have since received in different ways.

"Nearly two years ago, M. Malan preached and published a sermon on Salvation by Jesus Christ alone; which I have read with much satisfaction. It is an epitome of the leading truths of the Gospel, not so much in the form of argumentative discussion, as of a lively and pathetic address to the heart and conscience. This sermon was, I believe, a principle occasion of the arbitrary regulation issued by the Venerable Company' of the Genevese Pastors in May 1817; that candidates for the ministry should enter into the following engage

ment:

"We promise that so long as we reside and preach in the Churches of the Canton of Geneva, we will refrain from advancing our opinion, either by a whole discourse expressly treating the topic, or by any part of a discourse on the following points:'

"1. The manner in which the Divine nature was united to the person of Jesus Christ.' "2. Original sin.'

"3. The manner in which grace operates, or effectual grace.'

"4. Predestination.'

"We also promise not to controvert, in public discourses, the opinion of any of the pastors upon these subjects. Finally, we engage, that, if we should be led to express our own sentiments on any of these topics, we will do it [sans abonder dans notre seus] without being positive in our own notions avoiding opinions which are not founded in the Holy Scriptures, and using, as much as possible, scriptural expressions.

"Such is this curious engagement! It is not easy to say whether we should most wonder at its extreme absurdity and inconsistency with itself, or detest its domineering and papistical spirit.

"About the time when these measures were adopted, M. Malan was deprived of his school, and virtually, if not directly, excluded from the pulpits of the

city and canton. My information does not enable me to say whether he joined the worshiping assemblies of the small Church which was formed in 1817, at Geneva, on congregational principles. But I have learned from a respectable friend, (who is just returned from a long sojourn in France, occasioned by the afflictive state of his health,) that M. Malan has signed the Regulation, putting in at the same time a kind of protest or declaration of the sense in which he makes the engagement, and that he is, in consequence, restored to the exercise of his ministry in the Established Church.

"However we may lament the want of fortitude in this young minister, and the submission to which he has been driven, I make no doubt, by incessant persuasions, and by the pressure of personal and domestic distress; one thing is very fairly to be inferred from the fact of his resteration, namely, the total falsehood of the assertions published in the newspapers with regard to his doctrine, or his moral character, or his being supported by any ‘English Puritans.'

"It will afford pleasure to your readers to learn, that after the shameful outrages which the newly formed Church at Geneva suffered in July last, and of which an account has been given in the Evangelical Magazine, they have been enabled to resume their religious meetings in another place, which, though not so large or commodious as they wish, is more so than that which they before occupied. I am, dear Sir, Yours affectionately, J. PYE SMITH." Homerton, Nov. 16, 1818.

On the facts detailed in the preceding extracts we make the following observations.

1. The misrepresentations of Christian doctrine, and the abuse of those who teach it fearlessly, have been in all ages the same. It could hardly be otherwise; for these misrepresentations and this abuse have originated in the enmity of the human heart against God, and its opposition to the Gospel. Whenever faithful and pungent preachers of the truth have appeared, in an age of declining piety and of indifference to religion, they have been stigmatized by some opprobrious epithet, and represented as immoral by their influence, if not in their conduct, and as contemptible in their whole character. Though they teach the doctrines, which relate to the divine government, in a manner perfectly accordant with the plain language of Scripture, and with the clearest apprehensions of reason; and though the general tendency of these doctrines, taught in this manner, is to purify the lives of men, as well as to affect their hearts; yet it is continually repeated, without the slightest evidence, that the tendency and the actual effect of such preaching are to make the mass of hearers flagitiously immoral. So uniform and so gross are the misrepresentations on this head, that a well informed Christian will ordinarily judge a minister to be faithful and his preaching to be powerful, when the world say, that he teaches predestination in such a manner as to encourage theft robbery, and murder. And it is not a little remarkable, that the only preaching, which ever produced a reformation of morals, is that which is continually vilified as of a most immoral tendency; and that an opposite kind of preaching, which is eulogized as moral by way of eminence, acts as an opiate to the conscience, and induces a deathlike stupidity in reference to all the most interesting concerns of man as an immortal being.

In the Paris article, furnished by a correspondent at Geneva, we are informed, that crimes multiply as Puritanism increases; that this is the consequence of the doctrine of absolute predestination; that professor Malan 'is paid by the English puritans' for his pernicious labors,

that 'his school has been suppressed by the government;' that this ❝dangerous fanaticism finds no partisans;' and that the people deride it,' and regard the wretches who teach it as evil minded persons.' Now it would require no conjurer to divine the real state of things from this account alone. But we would call the attention of our readers,

2. To the real character of Mr. Malan, and the true effect of his labors. On these points we have the most direct and respectable testimony. The reputation of Dr. J. P. Smith is deservedly high in this country; and the other correspondent of the Evangelical Magazine appears to be a man of intelligence, and was doubtless known to the Editor of that work to be deserving of full credit. From these witnesses we learn, that Mr. Malan is a man of unblemished character, and a faithful preacher of the Gospel; that, far from being contemptible, he had nearly 4,000 hearers at one time; that he was suspended for preaching a sermon, which his judges did not hear and would not read; that the most respectable petitioners in his behalf were treated with indecency; and that he was restored, in consequence of a qualified submission, which he was induced to make. strongly suspect, that on examination it would be found, that the Genevese pastors, who are so much afraid of having the doctrines of their own church preached, have experienced the mortification of seeing their congregations sadly diminished by their cold and heartless ministrations; and that the fact of being heard by 4,000 persons did not operate in Mr. Malan's favor. Certain it is, that they proceeded with uncommon celerity, and silenced a regularly licensed preacher, the very day after his alleged offence, without a trial and without deigning to specify his fault. This we call persecution.

We

3. It is worthy of notice, that Socinians can make catechisms, although they are so much in the habit of inveighing against them. This we had known, from what has taken place in Boston and the neighborhood within a few years past. Perhaps there has not been a more fruitful topic of discussion, in the pulpits of the liberal party, than the enormous mischiefs of teaching children catechisms, and the frightful sin and egregious folly of making a catechism. While the attack upon catechisms was carried on, in a most fierce and violent manner, several of the clergy, who had been foremost in the attack, actually made new catechisms, and published them with their names; some for their particular congregations, and others for the world at large. To reconcile their professions with their conduct would be a task, which we are not required to perform. It is manifest, however, that the preaching and the conduct proceeded from the same hostility to the principal catechisms in circulation. If these could not be driven from circulation entirely, it was hoped that they might be supplanted to some extent by little manuals of a different tendency; and it was easy to see, that the objection was not so much to catechisms themselves, as to the kind of catechisms in which the public had confidence. We suppose that not fewer than a dozen of these rivals to the Assembly's Catechism, and to the catechisms of Dr. Watts, have made their appearance within a few years. The greater part we believe have gone down into the gulf of oblivion, and the rest are fast hastening after them.