120 cnuRcn unity 



sions, they can drive men into such and 

 such practices, love will certainly ensue." 

 These are golden words, as true now as 

 in Owen's troublous day. 



Owen had his own scheme of compre- 

 hension. In his Tract on Union anions: 

 Protestants (1680) he outlines a plan of a 

 Larger Church of England by law estab- 

 lished, which would include all dissenters, 

 but exclude all Romanists. As a doc- 

 trinal basis he would have the articles of 

 the Church of England as explained in 

 the public authorized writings of the 

 Church in the days of Elizabeth and 

 James, " before the inroad of novel opin- 

 ions among us," to be subscribed, however, 

 only by ministers. All spiritual affairs 

 were to be left with the churches, and 

 " outward rites and observances " which 

 were not inconsistent with the supremacy 

 of Protestantism were also to be left to 

 the free determination of the churches. 1 

 But for such a lar^e scheme as this Engf- 

 land was not then ready. Owen antici- 

 pated the broad statesmanship of Arnold 

 of Rugby. 



Richard Baxter, the great English Prot- 



1 Works, Ed. Russell, xvii. G03, 604. 



