Transcribed from the William Edward Painter edition by DavidPrice,
THE
CHURCH RATE
A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN A CHURCHMAN AND ADISSENTER.
[Reprinted from“The Village Churchman.”]
“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man forthe
lord’s sake.”—1Pet. ii. 13.
LONDON:
WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, 342, STRAND;
AND ALLOTHER BOOKSELLERS.
Price One Penny, or SevenShillings per Hundred.
p.3PREFACE.
The object of the followingDialogue is to expose, in familiar language, the absurd argumentsby which political Dissenters attempt to justify their deeds ofhatred against the Established Church, and their union withPapists and Infidels—with every wild boar out of the forestof irreligion and error—in attempting to root up a vine,under the shadow of which they have long reposed in security andpeace.
Several persons having expressed their approval of this Tract,the writer has been led to print this second and enlarged editionof it for general circulation, omitting those local allusionswhich were introduced to make the work more interesting in hisown neighbourhood, and which succeeded in rendering itscirculation extensive among those for whose information it wasfirst printed.
He trusts that the plain arguments here brought forward, maytend, in some small degree, to remove unfounded and ignorantprejudices against the Established Church, believing it, as hedoes, to be the bulwark of our national Christianity, and thefortress of our civil and religious liberties.
p. 5THECHURCH RATE.
Mr. Churchman.—Neighbour Spinwell, what in theworld are you doing?
Mr. Spinwell.—I am beating up for recruits toattend the Vestry Meeting in defence of Dissenting principles,and conscientious scruples; and to make a stand against Churchoppression.
Mr. C.—I respect conscientious scruples; but if Dissentsignifies Religion with you, it does not withme.
Mr. S.—What! Do you mean to say that Dissentershave no religion?
Mr. C.—No. But I say, that what Dissenters have oflate years gained by their noisy and political strife, they havemore than lost in real piety, and in the esteem of the wise andgood.
Mr. S.—But how many great and good men have beenDissenters?
Mr. C.—Yes,—men who would not own you. Doyou think that Watts, and Doddridge, and Matthew Henry would havejoined with the noisy, factious Dissenters of our day? Would they have given “the right hand of fellowship”to men, who, in railing against the Church and the State, exposetheir own folly and irreligion?
Mr. S.—Be that as it may, I say, that I ought not tosupport a Church to which I do not belong.
Mr. C.—And does your saying it make it either law orgospel?
Mr. S.—I say, that oppressio