ministers of Christ is the real subject of contention : were that restored to its true owners, the parties who are now struggling for it would speedily be at peace; and the fears now not unjustly entertained on the one hand for religious freedom, on the other for civil order and the maintenance of an establishment, so far as they are connected with this subject, would be effectually allayed.

SECTION V.-GENERAL VIEW.

167-70. Three conditions of the general efficacy of Christianity 171-5. How realised in the Church. 176-83. Church of England, how situated relatively to other bodies, as a centre of union. 184-6, Growing sentiment for union, which must be Ecclesiastical. 187–93. Approach towards a crisis; preparation for it; the relations between the laws of truth and of love. 194, 195. Pursuit of Divine Truth. 196. Anticipations for the Church of England.

167. And now having, as I trust, disposed of the three positive charges which are brought against Church principles in the mass, let me conclude with a general view of their positive advantages as satisfying all the conditions most desirable, whether for truth or for peace. It should seem that, in order to the most effectual promotion of the purposes for which the Christian religion has been established upon earth, we ought chiefly to desire such provisions, in matters pertaining to religion, as afford the best security for the joint attainment of these three objects :Firstly, the permanence of the Faith, or that body of revealed truth upon which there is reason firmly to

believe that salvation depends; secondly, unity of Christian communion, or the comprehension of the greatest possible numbers within such institutions as are marked by the possession of all the conditions requisite for the maintenance and propagation of the faith; thirdly, that extended liberty of thought, which demands that differences even upon matters of faith shall only be removed by the persuasive means adapted to the nature of conscientious belief; and, further, that differences not upon matter of faith, shall be left, morally as well as physically, free to the private conscience, and shall not be liable to be visited, through individual or sectarian bigotry, with that kind of censure and condemnation which is due only to opinions endangering the Catholic and fundamental doctrines of Christianity.

168. Such, I believe, would be the probable judg ment of any one who should bring to the consideration of the theological controversies and religious phenomena of this age the happy combination of a free unbiassed judgment, and an adequate acquaintance with the laws, the history, and the ends of Christianity. For security against the restless spirit of scepticism, which finds shelter and advantage among the weaknesses and corruptions of our nature, it would be obviously urgent to draw clear lines about that body of propositions in which the sum of the whole matter is contained; in a word, to separate, by the clearest possible demarcation, matters of faith from matters of opinion. The effect of this would be to compel the

enemy to come to definite and formal issue upon its genuine merits, and to prevent his undermining the guards of our souls by partial attack and oblique depreciation, as when he argues that this or that doctrine is far-fetched, remote from practice, immaterial; by pretexts of charity, as when he would persuade us with subtler venom that some article of faith is contrary to love, and so cannot be faith; and by his speculating upon our love of ease, upon that fictitious good nature which has much of its root in indolent selfishness, upon our fear of opinion, upon our natural sympathy and desire of concord, and availing himself of such opportunities as these might afford him either to destroy piecemeal the structure of Christian truth, or to sap its foundations, with a view to its entire and sudden overthrow. And this division greatly facilitates the task of the simple-minded Christian, when he is called on to give a reason of his hope; for in showing him where he may, without breach of duty, avoid all strenuous conflict, it also shows him for what objects he must husband his vigilance and zeal.

169. Having then fixed, as the first object of anxiety, adequate securities for the integrity of that faith which alone affords the positive means of salvation to the world, and which never can be permanently effective except in its integrity, would not the liberal and impartial mind next desire that the faith thus preserved in completeness and efficacy should be carried onwards, and applied to its purposes on the largest scale-should be brought home to as many individuals as could possi

bly be placed within the range of its salutary influences? It would indeed be worse than vain, it would be an act destructive of its own intention, to purchase any such numerical increase in the force of the adherents of religion by surrendering portions of its essence, inasmuch as both the adherence itself must thereby in the first instance be rendered proportionably steril and unavailing, and in its final issue no fixed centre, no immovable anchorage in revealed truth, will remain; yet, subject to the condition of studying above all things to maintain the faith in its integrity, we not only may, but must, in consistency with the Christian principle of love, desire to find the pervading organisation of that body in which the faith unchangeably resides to be such as, with the least possible amount of offence and hindrance to weaker consciences, will harmoniously include the greatest possible number of conscientious professors or seekers of the truth.

170. Discord, however, in the body is an evil, never indeed wholly to be separated from the conditions of our human state, yet in its mischievous consequences only second to actual departure from the body; and it is obvious that the endeavour (which has been just now determined to be laudable) to include within the pale of Church communion the greatest number of persons, and therefore the utmost latitude of opinions compatible with the secure integrity of the faith, would seem as though it might entail the mischievous results of internal dissension in proportion to the liberty of thought which it contemplated and allowed. Now this

danger requires to be met by the third of those provisions which have been indicated above. Differences of judgment do not always impair moral and religious harmony. It is when the conflicting propositions are each held as matters of Divine authority and of essential importance, that the passions of men are apt to become inflamed under the fair self-justifying pretext of a zeal for God. Now we should sacrifice the primary to the secondary, the greater to the less, if we were to arrive at the conclusion that, in order to avoid such discord, nothing should be held as of Divine authority and essential importance, or as what is termed by theologians, in a solemn and peculiar sense, matter of faith. But, on the other hand, it is most desirable for the sake of Christian brotherhood and peace, that nothing should be so held except what, according to such evidence as our human condition requires, really is so: because every one of the mere opinions which heat, rashness, or ignorance would add to the canon of faith, becomes a new cause of needless wrath, and needless wrath is not pain only, but also sin. Since, therefore, such fatal evils result from confounding the province of proper belief with that of opinion, from the encroachment of the second on the first shipwreck of the faith, and from the encroachment of the first on the second breach of charity, how can we exaggerate the moral value in this point of view, of a system which should afford us an adequate criterion to distinguish the one from the other?

171. The broad and firm basis for

religious action