ON MR. NOEL'S TRACT ON "THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH."

The writer of these pages has no personal knowledge of the author of
the tract, of whom he has only heard by report, that he is a zealous
minister and popular preacher. His writings indicate natural suavity
of temper. Having therefore no feeling of personal disrespect, he
deems no apology to be necessary for the freedom of his strictures
on a work which challenges attention and defies contradiction.

Mr. Noel has openly and dogmatically set forth a theory of the
visible Church and her fellowship, not only hostile to the Church of
England and fraught with absurdity, but propounded under the
alluring guise of Christian charity; a charity which has won for him
the applause of the professors of modern _liberalism_, because, on a
cursory glance, it appears to embrace all sects and denominations of
Christians. It is proper, therefore, to set the matter in a true
light, by showing that this liberality of sentiment is more specious
than real; that Mr. Noel is throwing out false colours, and that
while, in no measured terms, he condemns the supposed want of
brotherly-kindness in the members of the Church of England, his own
apparent liberality is resolvable into nothing else than
_Calvinistic exclusiveness and intolerance_.

Liberality is the order, the fashion, the idol of the day. In many
it takes the form of infidel indifference, regarding as equally
true, or equally false, every creed that is called Christian.

The charity of our holy and Apostolical Church is not thus lax and
indiscriminate. It rests not upon scepticism, but upon sound and
definable principles. It does not proceed on the assumption that all
creeds are equally good, but that men of all creeds have a political
right to follow the dictates of conscience, whether enlightened or
erroneous, in matters purely spiritual, and that they are
responsible only to God for their religious faith and worship;
indulging, at the same time, a charitable persuasion of the
sincerity and Christian goodness of multitudes who are believed to
be labouring under mistaken views of truth. This is true _Christian_
charity, which tolerates error, hopes well of misinformed but
sincere piety, breathes no malignant feelings, indulges in no
haughtiness of conscious superiority; but, after all, holds firmly
to its own persuasion of what is true and right, without the
smallest approach to a compromise of principles even with honest and
w