In both these cases, I can say for myself that I have acted
upon my own principles, and to the very utmost of my faculties have
scrutinized the foundations {10} of my faith, and from each of those
inquiries and researches I have risen with a satisfaction increased far
beyond my first anticipations. What I had taken up in my youth on
authority, I have been long assured of by a moral demonstration, which
nothing can shake; and I cling to it with an affection, which, guarded
by God's good providence, nothing in this world can dissolve or weaken.
It is to engage in a similar investigation that I now most earnestly but
affectionately invite the members of the Church of Rome, in order to
ascertain for themselves the ground of their faith and practice in a
matter of vast moment, and which, with other points, involves the
principle of separation between the Roman and Anglican branches of the
universal Church. Were the subjects of minor importance, or what the
ancient writers were wont to call "things indifferent," reason and
charity would prescribe that we should bear with each other, allowing a
free and large discretion in any body of Christians, and not severing
ourselves from them because we deemed our views preferable to theirs. In
such a case we might well walk in the house of God as friends, without
any interruption of the harmony which should exist between those who
worship the true God with one heart and one mind, ever striving to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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