Christian church explicitly founded it; viz. that infants, dying unbaptized, are actually excluded from all hope of heavenly happiness;-a belief which few Christians in the present age, will be found to avow.

On the whole, therefore, in the case of adult baptism, although I feel no difficulty in believing it to be the appointed form for that public "confession" of the faith of Christ, which "is made unto salvation;" or which, when made with deliberate sincerity, places the person in a state of assured safety, as long as the rest of his Christian life shall be conformable to this its public beginning;-although I believe it to be the only certain entrance into that assured state, according to its divine appointment; although I can readily consider it as the prelude to more plentiful communications of spiritual grace, and proportionate advancement in the spiritual life ;– yet I am utterly at a loss to conceive, how it can be co-existent with the beginning of that life, whose pre existence, in however imperfect a state, it seems of necessity, and in all cases, to presuppose.

So also, in the case of infant baptism, although I can cheerfully and entirely assent to it, as the public admission into the church of Christ of a person, to whom all necessary grace is ensured by the equal justice inherent in the very nature of God, and by his universal mercy, confirmed, (besides other declarations of it,) by him who "died for all;"—a person, also, to whom the co-operating privileges of a Christian education are, in some measure, ensured;-although I can, with equal readiness, assent to it, as the solemn and official pledge of a minister of Christ, given, in his name, and by his authority, to each individual child baptized, and to those concerned for its welfare, that this child does actually participate in the justification universally purchased by Christ, and that the spiritual influ

ence, necessary to its sanctification, will be assuredly communicated to it in due season; and although I can, in this sense, most heartily adopt the consolatory declaration of our church, that " children, that are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved;"-yet I feel myself quite unable to conceive, how the baptism of an infant can be combined with a spiritual improvement, which, as it would seem to be universally acknowledged, never gives any distinguishing signs of its existence; or how the happiness and misery of an immortal being can be made to depend on the performance of a ceremony to which itself neither is, nor can be, a party.

CLEMENS,

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IT is a melancholy circumstance connected with the revolutions of ages and empires, that many countries, on which the light of the true religion once shone, are now covered again with their original darkness, or with a feeble twilight that is scarcely better. The tendency to deterioration in every thing human is so well known and acknowledged, that the Christian world, especially, ought ever to be on their guard against the very first innovations, either in purity and sobriety of doctrine or correctness of discipline and conduct. The case of modern Geneva relapsing into a cold heterodox creed, furnishes an awful and conspicuous warning on the subject. The following facts have been just communicated to the public, and may be relied upon as authentic.

The Church of Geneva, as every person knows, was almost the cradle of the Reformation; and whatever may be thought of the peculiar and exclusive parts, either of the doctrines or the discipline of its illustrious Founder, was certainly long distinguished for its orthodoxy on all the great subjects in which

pious Protestants a. agreed. How mournful a reverse has now begun to take place, may be inferred from the following circumstances.

The ancient catechism of Geneva taught expressly the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. This catechism was withdrawn from the church some years ago; and its place has recently been supplied by another catechism, which maintains a guarded silence with respect to that important and essential doctrine.

In 1805, the company of pastors introduced into the churches of Geneva, a new version of the Bible; in the publication of which, they not only omitted the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of France and Geneva, which had been prefixed to all their former Bibles, but made also many very important alterations in the translation itself; particularly in parts relating to the Divinity of Christ, to Original Sin, and to the person ality and offices of the Holy Ghost. This version is still used in their churches.

These acts were followed by a rule passed so recently as May 3, 1817; by which all candidates for holy orders are required solemnly to promise, that they will abstain from preaching, in the churches of the canton of Geneva, on the following subjects:-On the manner in which the Divine Nature is united to the Person of Jesus Christ; on Original Sin; on the manner in which Grace operates, or on efficacious Grace; on Predestination.

This rule has been already twice acted upon:-a candidate has been refused ordination, and a minister prohibited from preaching, for objecting to subscribe to it.

Now though the mere circumstance of a limitation on the public, and perhaps intemperate, discussion of some of the points just alluded to, might have been conceived to have sprung from other causes than systematic heterodoxy in the majority of the company of CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 191.

pastors; yet the whole of the circumstances taken together can leave no doubt on the mind, that the Church of Geneva has essentially departed from the orthodoxy of its predecessors. Indeed, in point of fact, it is credibly stated, that of the twenty-five persons who constitute the " Company of Pastors," only five hold the orthodox faith; while all the remainder unite in opposing it. The im portant consequences likely to arise from this circumstance may be inferred from the consideration, that Geneva is a university in which young men from various parts of Europe, and particularly from the Reformed Church of France, are educated in theology; and that the professors are chiefly, if not exclusively, selected from the company of pastors. Far the greater part of the students have imbibed the doctrines of their instructors; and by them the evil, it is to be feared, will be extensively diffused.

The origin of this unhappy revolution of opinion may be traced to Rousseau; whose mischievous writings, while they excited in no ordinary degree the alternate praises and execrations of Europe at large, could scarcely fail to produce a powerful effect on his immediate fellow-citizens. Independently of other causes, a sort of perverted patriotic pride would naturally conduce to this result; though as Calvin was a great man also, his authoritative name and celebrity would doubtless tend to check the progress of the infidel opinions, or of those more plausible heterodoxies which are the half-way house to them. The consequence is, that the Genevese clergy are halting between Calvin and Rousseau; and, by the inconsistency of their real with their professed creed, have exposed themselves to the attacks of several writers, who have been lately engaged in a controversy which has arisen in consequence of the ordinance already mentioned. The attack on the pastors is said to

5 A

have been commenced by a young Genevese Minister who had attended some of Madame Krudener's religious meetings. His letter gave rise to the ordinance prohibiting the discussion of the topics just enumerated. Among other persons, a Scotch gentleman, who happened to be at Geneva, took up the cause of the young minister, and published several tracts explanatory of the Calvinistic opinions. Another Scotch gentleman has since addressed a letter to the pastors accusing them of having deviated from the laws of their own church on account of which communication they endeavoured, but as yet in vain, to procure his expulsion from the territory. This gentleman is now happily employed in superintending a faithful edition of the Scriptures in opposition to that of the pastors which has been already mentioned as mutilated and incorrect in many leading passages.

In hopes that the publication of these statements may not be useless, either to the parties immediately concerned or to the Christian world at large, they are tendered for insertion. The spectacle of a once

pure and spiritual church denying some of the leading doctrines on which the salvation of mankind depends is at once a painful and a monitory spectacle. It is not yet too late for many of the leading individuals concerned in so unhappy a change to "repent and do their first works," and return " "to the Lord that bought them." May this be their happy lot! At all events, their sad example will not be lost upon the members of our own scriptural Establishment if it more forcibly remind us to guard against the first recurrence of worldly temptation and philosophical pride; if it shew us how fatally easy it is to blend a highly spiritual and orthodox creed with an unrenewed heart, ready to swerve at the first evil suggestion; if it make us individually walk more humbly with our God; if it excite us to new activity and perseverance in our efforts for instructing the ignorant, confirming the wavering, and sending to all parts of the Christian as well as heathen world, that blessed volume which is the surest guide to a rising church, and the best preservative for a falling one.

A CONSTANT READER.

Letters addressed to a serious and humble Inquirer after Divine Truth, with a peculiar Aspect to the Circumstances of the present Times. By the Rev. EDWARD COOPER, Rector of HamstallRedware, and of Yoxall, in the County of Stafford, and late Fellow of All-Souls College, Oxford. London: Cadell and Davies. 1817. 8vo. pp. 233.

WE not long since met with a recent publication, bearing this singular title, "The Duty of Controversy." Now whatever obligation we may be under to any gentleman who shall,

in this busy and turbulent age, find out, and lay with conviction upon our consciences a new duty, and such a duty, to perform; we feel no difficulty in pronouncing the obligation of the Christian world to be deep and large to any other writer, who should point out the true spirit in which controversy, if necessary at all to the followers of the lowly and pacific Jesus, ought to be conducted by them. And if, to precept on this important subject, such a writer should add the force of his own example, we should doubtless attribute a proportionable increase of weight to all he

should advance. And if he should perform the still additional service of laying a foundation for the abolition of all controversy, and if not of identifying all sentiments, yet at least of " uniting all hearts ;" how much more indebted ought we yet to acknowledge ourselves to him for the exercise of so much charity and so much judgment. That Mr. Cooper is the writer to whom our acknowledgments, on the three several accounts mentioned above, are most justly due, is doubtless a sentence anticipated by our readers; and we are convinced that no candid or impartial reader of the "Letters to an Inquirer after Divine Truth," written by that well known and highly respected individual, will hesitate for a moment as to the justice of our verdict. Indeed, so strongly and favourably are we impressed with the admirable, and, we are ashamed to add, almost novel, spirit displayed throughout these letters on the several controverted points current in the present day, that we can scarcely forbear, by a small variation from the quaint title alluded to in our opening, to inscribe on our copy of Mr. Cooper's little volume, "The Spirit of Christian Controversy."

We are not aware of saying any thing that is unreasonable, though perhaps we may run counter to the judgment of many a youthful and conceited practitioner in that way, when we maintain, that controversy, particularly that respecting Divine truths, ought to be one of the last and most matured efforts of the advanced Christian divine. This, which to some appears the easiest, to us appears the hardest and most hazardous of all duties. So many and great dangers seem to us to environ the controversialist on every side; so many aberrations is he liable to both in temper and judg. ment; so likely is he to be misled by false lights and false guides; so much is he in danger of mistaking his first views of a subject for his best views of it, his illustrations

for sound arguments, his prejudices for demonstration, his poverty of information for clearness of concep tion-to which we might add a multitude of other mistakes, as the sober reader must be well aware— that we are convinced the blindness of many writers, and consequently their total unfitness for the office they undertake, can alone occasion their entering upon it. To judge by the productions of some persons, we should almost suspect this very blindness at once to the dangers and the duties of the controversialist to be amongst their most cherished qualities in order to fit them for the fearless exercise of their hazardous functions. We should suspect that not a few, warm in youthful zeal or something else bearing that name, dare not let the moment of action, as they deem it (and perhaps rightly according to their views), slip by, and consign them over to the frost of age and the test of an impartial judgment, and consequently to the delay or defeat of their most promising schemes. Thus the weapon is wrenched out of the only hands which are duly qualified to wield it; the wary and experienced retire disgusted from the scene; and "fools rush in, where angels fear to tread."

The character and qualifications of the true religious controversialist-and here we cannot help it, if we are suspected of placing Mr. Cooper before us as the original of the portrait--are of a very different complexion. We should require such a person to be possessed of long and deep experience not only in the particular truths which it is his task to elucidate, but also in the whole range of Christian doctrine; and that too as bearing upon all the characteristic traits and essential properties, all the various modes and relations of that particular being, man, for whom these truths are intended. His studies we should desire to have been as much conversant with men as with books. Truth would of course be his ob