TURRETIN. THE name of TURRETIN was long conspicuous in the theological school of Geneva. Three persons of this name, Benedict Turretin, Francis Turretin, and John Alphonsus Turretin, father, son, and grandson, were successively professors of theology in that place. The last of the three was the most distinguished, and was the author of the Discourse or. Fundamentals in Religion, with which the present work commences. He was born at Geneva, 1671, and after making, with close application and under the best teachers, extraordinary proficiency in his studies at home, he went to Leyden, where he attended the lectures of Spanheim, and completed his education. In this place he wrote a treatise, pointing out the great varieties of opinion in the Church of Rome, which was intended to counteract the influence of Bossuet's work on the Variations in the Protestant Churches. From Leyden he went to England, where he became acquainted with Tillotson, Burnet, and Wake, and is said to have done much towards correcting the erroneous impressions under which the English clergy laboured respecting the Genevan Church. He next visited Paris, and held public disputations with the doctors of the Sorbonne. On his return to Geneva, he engaged in the ministry, and so much was he esteemed by his countrymen, that the magistrates, to testify their sense of his merits, created for him a professorship of ecclesiastical history. He was afterwards appointed rector of the Academy of Geneva, and then professor of theology, which latter office he held till his death in 1737. He filled several other public stations, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity and credit. His theological writings are numerous, and equally remarkable for their learning and their moderation. It was a favourite project with him to unite all the Protestant Churches in one communion. He deprecated the differences, which churches and individuals were fond of thrusting forward as causes of separation, and laboured to show, that the violent controversies about metaphysical and abstruse points in theology, which prevailed in his time, had no alliance with the true spirit of christianity. He endeavoured to inculcate moderation and rational inquiry, and to convince the contending parties, that the religion of Jesus was designed to be a bond of peace and union. In the prosecution of this purpose he wrote his treatise on Fundamentals in Religion. |