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to take an interest in the affairs of the religious body to which he belonged.
He soon began to take an active part in the controversy between the
Church and the Dissenters, and in 1701 published a pamphlet, but without his name, entitled, ‘The Interest of
England, in respect to Protestants dissenting from the established Church.’
In this pamphlet he dwelt on the rights of the Dissenters, to a full toleration; and argued the question on those enlarged and general principles which recommended him to the notice of
Mr. Locke, with whose friendship, during the short remainder of that great man's life, he continued to be honoured.
It is not improbable that to his intercourse with
Mr. Locke we may in part ascribe the diligent attention to theological pursuits, scarcely met with in laymen, for which he afterwards became remarkable, and by the result of which he is now chiefly remembered.
It is also reasonable to conclude, that the early disciple of Locke was even at this period not averse to his theological views; a circumstance which when we consider how well known those views were, and in what light they were regarded by the orthodox—and that Mr. Shute was nevertheless, and continued to be, a man of great influence among the English Presbyterians, may afford us no unplausible ground for the belief that, so early as the very beginning of the last century, the most distinguished men of this denomination had already deviated materially from the standards of their forefathers.
He is shortly after this time described by Swift, in a letter to Archbishop King, as ‘the shrewdest head in England,’ a leader of the Presbyterians, and the person in
