I REN I C MOVEMENTS HQ 



dicated boldly the right of the Noncon- 

 formist churches to exist, and yet in an 

 irenical spirit, and as one sincerely desir- 

 ing the union of all Christians in Eng- 

 land. Thus in his vindication of the 

 Nonconformists from the charge of schism, 

 an answer to a sermon by Stillingneet 

 (1680), he deprecates religious controversy 

 in the interest of Protestant union, and 

 says that in the presence of the common 

 danger of the Roman Church the sharp 

 words of Stillingneet are unseasonable. 1 

 But he had no faith in artificial schemes 

 of union. He says : " I should be very 

 sorry that any man living should outgo 

 me in desires that all who fear God 

 throughout the world, especially in these 

 nations, were of one way as well as of one 

 heart. I know that I desire it sincerely. 

 But I verily believe that when God shall 

 accomplish it, it will be the effect of love, 

 and not the cause of love. There is not 

 a greater vanity in the world than to drive 

 men into a particular profession, and then 

 suppose that love will be the necessary 

 consequence of it; to think that if, by 

 sharp rebukes, by cutting, bitter expres- 



1 Works, Ed. Russell, xix. 571. 



