remark, that "the Greek term and its conjugates, are in the New Testament very often applied to reproaches not aimed against God;" and he refers to more than twenty texts of Scripture in which that is the case; he also notices, that in one passage of Scripture, a reproachful charge brought even against the devil, is called xpios Bonas, so that it seems the devil may be blasphemed! and the Doctor adds, that "the word comprehends all verbal abuse, against whomsoever uttered, God, angel, man, or devil." Is it meant, then, that the magistrate should take cognizance of all these things, and inflict punishments accordingly? but if not, what is it that J. I. is disputing about? Until he explain himself distinctly on this point, and fix the line of demarcation between such acts of blasphemy as he considers to be "cognizable by the civil magistrate;" and such as are not, he is evidently fighting with his own shadow. It was this vague use of the term that led Milton to ask and answer, "What shall then be done to blasphemy? Them I would first exhort not thus to terrify and pose the people with a Greek word; but to teach them better what it is, being a most usual and common word in that language, to signify any slander, any malicious or evil speaking, whether against God or man, or any thing to good belonging."

But, perhaps, I shall be told that the meaning of J. I. is obvious enough; the blasphemy which he would have punishable by the civil magistrate is that which immediately relates to God; it consists in denying his providence, and venting contumelious reproaches against him; and that this is manifest from the quotations he has made from the writings of Locke, Watts, and Gill. These are certainly great authorities, and their names deserve respect; but when they are adduced to prove that "the authority of the civil magistrate is exercised legitimately in discountenancing and suppressing impiety and irreligion,"

Plea for Christianity in India. "I have observed with pain, Sir, of late years, a notion of toleration entertained even by some who would be thought its firmest advocates, which tends not only to abridge, but to subvert it. They have no objection to Christians of any denomination enjoying their own opinions, and, it may be, their own worship; but they must not

what consequences are likely to result from this principle were I to admit it? The civil magistrate, it seems, is to be the sole arbiter as to what speech or writing comes under the denomination of "impiety and irreligion ;" and in him is vested the power of suppressing and punishing the authors and venders of such things. Some light may be thrown on this question by considering, that the religion of this country was once Paganism-it is now Christianity—it may, in another century, be Mahometanism. Shall a Pagan magistrate have the same power vested in him that we allow to one who professes Christianity? If so, it will become his duty to suppress the circulation of the Bible, and put down all societies that are formed for the spread of Christianity, and for a very obvious reason the Bible blasphemes the Pagan deities-it even affirms that "they are no gods which are made with hands,"-that "all the gods of the nations are vanity," &c. &c. See, then, to what we are reduced by allowing the civil magistrate the right of exercising his authority for the discountenancing and suppression of impiety and irreligion; since these latter terms will be found to shift sides according to the creed of the magistrate, and that which is an act of piety in one, will become an act of impiety in another.

Indeed this disputed point has been placed in so luminous a point of view by the late Mr. Fuller, in his "Apology for Christian Missions," that it surprises me that Mr. Ivimey should have overlooked it, or seeing it, that he should persist in reasoning against it. To make the argument apparent even to Mr. Ivimey's capacity, I shall place in parallel columns Mr. Fuller's Plea for the Propagation of Christianity in India, and then mutatis mutandis, by substituting the word Deist for Christian, and Deism for Christianity, it will be seen how the very same plea may be urged by a Deist in England; thus leaving Mr. Ivimey on the horns of a dilemma!

Plea for Deism in England.

"I have observed with pain, Sir, of late years, a notion of toleration entertained even by some who would be thought its firmest advocates, which tends not only to abridge, but to subvert it. They have no objection to Deists or Freethinkers of any description enjoying their own opinions, and, it may be, their own worship; but they must

GENEVA CONTROVERSY.

that have a relation to this subject.

Chenevière, &c.

(Concluded from page 221.)

It is now high time that we resumed our account of Mr. Haldane's interesting volume, and brought the article to a close.

In the extract which we made from it on a former occasion, we gave our readers a specimen of his manly defence of his principles and conduct while at Geneva, where his labours have been eminently successful in planting anew the standard of the cross, and sowing that seed which has already produced a field that is ripening unto harvest. The sentiments formerly maintained, and so ably advocated in that city by the illustrious Calvin, are once more spreading among its citizens, and a Christian Church is formed, not on the Presbyterian, but Congregational plan of government. By letters which we have lately received from the Continent, we are informed that this church is rapidly on the increase: its number of members, we believe, now exceeds one hundred, and the attention of many among them has been lately called to the subject of baptism, on which point a spirited controversy is going on there. All these things shew that a spirit of enquiry is set on foot in Geneva,-that the attention of men is awakened to the Scriptures, from which the happiest results may be expected.

Another circumstance which augurs favourably for the progress of truth in that quarter of the Continent, is the translation of Scott's Commentary into the French language. This important undertaking has lately been set on foot by Mr. Daniel Wilson, late minister of St.John's chapel, Bedford Row, London, but now Vicar of St. Mary's, Islington. In the summer of 1823, this gentleman made a tour through the Netherlands, France, &c. to Geneva, and has since favoured the public with some interesting particulars concerning his journey, in two volumes of "Letters,' addressed to his own family; from which we shall now select a few passages

"Our kind fellow-traveller and my eldest son are going with me, in a car, to Geneva (thirty miles), that I may lose not a moment in seeing after the translation of Scott. You know that I have been sometime engaged in assisting to have his admirable practical comment on the Scriptures translated into French. The whole

body of French Protestant Theology affords no one plain, spiritual, solid exposition of the Holy Scriptures. With immense difficulty, I have found a transto literary occupation, master of a good lator well skilled in English, accustomed style, and of the same sentiments with my author. He has nearly translated the Gospel of St. Matthew. The warm approbation of the design from all quarters exceedingly encourages me to go on; and the tendency to error and excess amongst some pious persons here, makes it more and more important. Still I feel a great doubt whether so large a work will succeed in the present state of things on the Continent. May God order, direct, and bless! I approach Geneva with feelings of peculiar veneration. The name of Calvin stands high amongst the Reformers, Divines, and Scholars of the sixteenth century. There is no man to whom I owe so much as a commentator. The reproaches cast so liberally on what is called Calvinism in England are, for the most part, either the effect of pure ignorance, or of dislike to spiritual religion-as moderate The excesses and daring spirits of too many men of all parties now agree in allowing. modern religionists have no warrant in the writings of Calvin. A more sober, practical, holy writer, generally speaking, does not exist. There was, undoubtedly, something harsh in his character; he carried his acuteness too far in his system of divinity, so as to overstep, in my judgment, that exact moderation of the Sacred Writings; and in his scheme of church government, he followed not the Episcopalian, but the Presbyterian model. But, after all these deductions, he was amongst the very first men of his own, or any other age; and the objections raised against his writings in modern times might be as well raised against what the Scriptures state of the fall of man, of salvation by grace, of justification by faith, of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and

of holy obedience as the fruit of love. In fact, true religion is ever opposed by the pride and sensuality of fallen man; and this opposition sometimes assumes one disguise and sometimes another."

It may not be unacceptable to our readers, to be told that the person whom Mr. Wilson has employed to translate Scott, is one of the pastors of the Church, to which we have above alluded, a man personally known to the Editor of this Magazine, and very competent to the task he has engaged in. Speaking of him, on another occasion, Mr. Wilson thus writes:

"I have been three or four hours with my chief translator. He is evidently an amiable, pious, sensible, scholar-like young man; but dejected, feeble in health, and of a tender, and perhaps something scrupulous mind. St. Matthew is translated in the rough, and part of it is copied." Again,

"I spent the evening, yesterday, with my translator at Geneva; saw what he had done in the translation, and fixed a meeting with some friends on the same business for next week. I met in the course of the evening several persons of much piety and tenderness of spirit."

But the following extract, which we make from towards the close of the volume, will be peculiarly interesting to many of our readers. It is under date of October 2nd.

"Eight o'clock.-I have had a meeting with the translators of Scott, and have been delighted. All is going on well. The chief translator has a secretary to copy the manuscript-every thing promises that St. Matthew will be ready for the press in a few months. I was introduced to a French minister of Hamburgh, of rare talents, and as rare piety, who will, I trust, help me. I shall, however, have enough to do, both here and at Paris, to arrange details. As I went to the meeting, I called on one of the professors of the University. I was grieved at the spirit of prejudice and bigotry which he showed against all sorts of evangelical truth-a harsh, violent, unpracticable man a Socinian, apparently, in principle. He really frightened me by his fierce attack on spiritual religion. O what a blessing to have been educated in sounder views of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and to have some hope that we know and love that Saviour in sincerity of heart! I forgot to say, that my friend,

the Professor of Lausanne, told me that he had distributed near eight thousand Bibles in his Canton, and finds that six thousand more will be wanted, in order to supply the whole deficiency; he has also nearly raised a fund, the interest of which will supply the poor of the Canton de Vaud with Bibles in perpetuity. How much solid good may one man do, and a man who, in some respects, may be deemed too fearful; and what a blessing is the Bible Society, to present a suitable object to such a man!

66

Friday Evening, half-past nine, Oct. 3. This morning, at nine, I accompanied some pious friends to Satigny, about six miles from Geneva. The morning was wet, but the ride was through a fine country. Satigny contains about one thousand two hundred souls; towards whom the minister I went to visit is a true shepherd. We had a committee of four hours on the affair of Scott's Bible. My friend from Hamburgh has agreed to undertake the translation of Milner's Church History, and thus relieve my chief translator of a work for which he was engaged, and leave him at liberty for devoting himself to Scott. We returned from Satigny about four; and as soon as I had dined, I went to hear a minister preach, who was some time since removed from his office in the college at Geneva on account of his evangelical sentiments. I was pleased. His manner was so pathetic, so calm, so persuasive, and his matter, upon the whole, so edifying, that I have scarcely heard any thing like it since I left London. He is an excellent man, a deeply pious, spiritually-minded Christian, and preacher of first-rate powers: there is an inexpressible unction in all he delivers. Still his doctrine is a little too high, in my opinion, to be quite scriptural or safe in the long run; he does not sufficiently unite the preceptive and cautionary parts of Holy Writ with what are considered the consolatory and elevating-a fault not important in a single discourse, but infinitely momentous as extending over the whole system of a Minister's instructions and more especially if he stand almost alone, or be watched and suspected by his superiors in the church, or attract particular observation on account of the difficulties of his situation. I am sure the Reformers well understood this. Still the sermon did me good. I passed over what I thought less scriptural; and was edified, animated, cheered by the general tenor of the address."

a

;

As the translation of Scott's Commentary is certainly a very desirable thing, one is naturally anxious to know what progress was made in it during