Nonconformists regarded the Revolution with thankfulness. William was, in their eyes, a Heavensent deliverer, and at weekly and monthly fasts they joined in prayer, that God’s blessing might rest on his forces,[208] which they regarded as being at war with Babylon. It is said that had the London Dissenters been requested to raise a monument to his memory, they would have provided a statue of gold;[209] and Calamy paints in bright colours their payment of taxes, and hearty intercession for both King and Queen. He also alludes to their public ordinations, their loving carriage amongst themselves, and their friendly behaviour towards the Established Church. There is truth in what he says, and we can conceive how, with memories of ancestral troubles, he would rise to enthusiastic delight whilst recording the blessings of the Revolution; but truth throws strong shadows amidst these brilliant hues, and, indeed, he himself, in subsequent portions of his narrative, makes an abatement in his demands on our admiration. [Sidenote: NONCONFORMISTS.] Mutual charity would have been exemplified if Howe’s advice had prevailed, for he urged Conformists and Nonconformists not to magnify diversities of opinion, but to promote the interests of a common Christianity. “If our rulers,” he adds, “shall judge such intercourses conducing to so desirable an end, they may perhaps in due time think it reasonable to put things into that state, that ministers of both sorts may be capable of inviting one another occasionally to the brotherly offices of mutual assistance in each other’s congregations. For which, and all things that tend to make us a happy people, we must wait upon Him in whose hands their hearts are.”[210] But on many people these sentiments fell as idle words; and if by others they were heard for one moment, the very next they were drowned by the din of old controversies, or the outburst of new passions. Beautiful and blessed ideals of union to most were as destitute of all charm for their affections as of power to work themselves out into facts. Catholic-minded men on opposite sides, if unencumbered by partizanship, would have surmounted difficulties, and reached, if not unity of fellowship, yet freedom of intercourse; but then, as always, prejudices in the many defeated endeavours on the part of a few, and reopened breaches when they seemed on the point of being healed. Death removed some most distinguished Nonconformist Ministers at the era of the Revolution. [Sidenote: 1691.]