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

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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."^[1]

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^[2]—principles of the first mag-

↑ This extract is actually relied upon by Archdeacon Denison, to prove that in 1847 the Lords of the Council bound themselves to maintain their present form of relation with the Church of England schools! Of all documents to which finality was ever imputed, this is surely the one which has least internal evidence of intending it. It breathes throughout a tone of dissatisfaction with the existing system; and while it avows that hitherto my lords have felt themselves precluded" from pressing the stipulation on the Church, it expresses "the hope that much may be expected" (in other words, that continued acquiescence in the existing state of things was the last thing thought of), and actually ends with the hint of a compromise for which the Conscience Clause is the shape eventually devised.
↑ Mr. Lefevre, in the Fortnightly Review (December 1, 1865), has remarked justly that few persons are aware of the extent to which the principles of religious equality and toleration are involved in the

[1] This extract is actually relied upon by Archdeacon Denison, to prove that in 1847 the Lords of the Council bound themselves to maintain their present form of relation with the Church of England schools! Of all documents to which finality was ever imputed, this is surely the one which has least internal evidence of intending it. It breathes throughout a tone of dissatisfaction with the existing system; and while it avows that hitherto my lords have felt themselves precluded" from pressing the stipulation on the Church, it expresses "the hope that much may be expected" (in other words, that continued acquiescence in the existing state of things was the last thing thought of), and actually ends with the hint of a compromise for which the Conscience Clause is the shape eventually devised.

[p57-2] Mr. Lefevre, in the Fortnightly Review (December 1, 1865), has remarked justly that few persons are aware of the extent to which the principles of religious equality and toleration are involved in the

[1]

[2]