Every Christian must wish that such animosities, always ill-becoming the
servants and children of the God of love, should cease for ever. Truth
indeed must never be sacrificed to secure peace; nor must we be tempted
by the seductiveness of a liberality, falsely so called, to soften down
and make light of those differences which keep the Churches of England
and Rome asunder. But surely the points at issue may be examined without
exasperation and rancour; and the results of inquiries carried on with a
singleness of mind, in search only for the truth, may be offered on the
one side without insult or offence, and should be received and examined
without contempt and scorn on the other.
The writer of this address is not one in whom early associations would
foster sentiments of evil will against members of the Church of Rome; or
encourage any feeling, incompatible with regard and kindness, towards
the conscientious defenders of her creed. From his boyhood he has lived
on terms of friendly intercourse and intimacy with individuals among her
laity and of her priesthood. In his theological pursuits, he has often
studied her ritual, consulted her commentators, and perused the homilies
of her divines; and, withal, he has mourned over her errors and
misdoings, as he would have sighed over the faults of a friend, who,
with many good qualities still to endear him, had unhappily swerved from
the straight path of rectitude and integrity.
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