PREFACE. ་ EVERY true Churchman, whose heart is kindled with the love of God, must earnestly desire to see more outward and visible unity between the Church of this country and those who have separated from her. The pervading spirit which should animate all who long for this unity is the spirit of mutual forbearance and Christian love. S. Augustine said long ago, "They have not the love of God who do not value the unity of the Church," and what that Father said then has been amply verified since, in the fact that schisms and divisions, wherever they abound, cause bitter rivalries and jealousies, instead of quietness and peace. There is a grand rule, which Churchpeople may well adopt in these most important matters; and it is this, "in things necessary, unity; in things doubtful, liberty; in all, charity; at the same time remaining very firm in their allegiance to the "Faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints"-in fact acting on the advice of a good Bishop of the English Church, "No good ever yet came from the sacrifice of truth to peace." In the following "Sketches " I have endeavoured to carry out this great principle —remembering that all the distinctive beliefs supposed to be the cause of the existence of so many religious bodies, can easily be found (in a less exaggerated form) in the mother Church, together with other quite as important truths, which Nonconformists either are ignorant of, or affect to despise. |