Page:The Conscience Clause (Oakley, 1866).djvu/69

57 and especially in those who, on the basis of the Apostles' Creed, approach so nearly as the Wesleyan Communion do, in doctrine, to the Church of England."

2. Next, what is the "position" in which the Church is not to "lose faith?" What is the "trust" which she is not to "compromise?" Archdeacon Denison says it is the "position" of bringing children not yet of her faith to be of her own faith; the trust of "steadily inculcating dogma" at whatever cost of division and separation. I venture to maintain, on the other hand, that the only position calculated to inspire unshakeable faith is that which holds that the truth will find its way, whether one Church force it on the children of another Church or not, and all the more if she does not so force it; and that the most sacred, and, indeed, the paramount trust of the Church, which she may never compromise, is that of so inculcating doctrine that her children may "hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life."

3. Religious liberty and its correlative, religious toleration, are not expedients, but principles —principles of the first mag-